Anyone who denies history should be legally liable for promoting ignorance. Case and point:
A British Bishop, Richard Williamson, was fined € 10,000 [~13,500 USD] in a German court for denying history! To be specific, Williamson has been charged for denying that the Nazi holocaust ever took place. The case went ahead in a German court without Williamson, whose Catholic fraternity told him not to testify.
What I find extremely remarkable is that there are actually laws in place that say: “If you deny history, you will be fined or even possibly imprisoned” [to deny the holocaust is to deny history, they’re one and the same].
My argument is simple: Let’s fine and/or imprison anyone who denies history [in much the same way as Mr. Williamson was fined]. The perfect place to start is with the Abrahamic religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
None are guiltier of denying historical events more than these organized religions. They deny the basic fields of science such as Geology, Astronomy, Evolution, Paleontology, Archeology, etc. They deny that the earth is billions of years old, deny that human beings have been around for millions of years, and even go as far as to make up historical events such as Israelite slaves in Egypt and contend that their messianic figures were actually real people… they deny the entirety of ancient history!
Back to the laws… Section 130 of the German Penal Code prohibits denial or playing down of the genocide committed under the National Socialist regime (§ 130.3), including through dissemination of publications (§ 130.4). This includes public denial or gross trivialization of international crimes, especially genocide/the Holocaust.
In 1985, Holocaust [history] denial was outlawed as an ‘insult’ to personal honor (i.e. an ‘insult’ to every Jew in Germany) and a penalty was set under the 1985 law of up to one year in prison or a fine.
In 1994, Holocaust denial became a criminal offense under a general anti-incitement law. [1]
I, and many others, find organized religion to be an insult to humanity in much the same way the law above describes. Let’s quit the hypocrisy, enforce the law where it matters most, and preserve our integrity as intelligent human beings.
We’ve made an example of Mr. Williamson, now let’s get the rest of them.
Thanks for reading,
Notes:
- Holocaust Denial Laws and Other Legislation Criminalizing Promotion of Nazism; Prof. Michael J. Bazyler, von Oppenheim Research Fellow, Professor of Law, Whittier Law School, California, USA http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/insights/pdf/bazyler.pdf
- Holocaust-denying bishop fined by German court: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8625543.stm