Oppose U.N.'s Resolution Against Religious Defamation
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Whereas individuals, by virtue of being human, have the universal right to free speech and to dissent;
Whereas individuals, by virtue of being human, have the universal right to choose their own beliefs about religion, or to reject religion and voice their objections peacefully;
Whereas oppressive governments have used and still use religion as a weapon against political dissidents;
Whereas throughout history, religious criticism and dissent have been necessary to curb the excesses of religious authority;
Whereas the Catholic Church might still be selling indulgences if Martin Luther had been preventing from nailing his protest to the church door;
Whereas the abolition of slavery in most of the world was aided by outspoken critics of religion such as Thomas Paine and the marquis de Concorcet;
Whereas historically, many early supporters of human rights, such as Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, William Penn and Roger Williams were vocal critics of religion;
Whereas advances in science would have been impossible without religious defamers such as Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei and Frances Bacon;
Whereas people born in Muslim countries have the same universal human right to apostasy as everyone else;
Whereas Muslims have the same universal human rights to improve upon their religion as anyone else;
Whereas the Armenians have the human right to speak out against the genocide of their ancestors at the hands of Muslim Turks; and sympathetic Muslims have the right to express their support;
Whereas religious minorities, (including Christians, atheists, Muslim apostates and others), are denied these rights and unfairly subjected to censorship, prison, torture or death;
We, the undersigned, oppose the U.N. resolution entitled Combating Defamation of Religion as being both bad for religion and bad for human beings.
(Background: The UN resolution being opposed is here (see esp. point 10): http://www.eyeontheun.org/assets/attachments/documents/HRC_4th_session_defamation_of_religion_3-23-07_draft_res.DOC)
Whereas individuals, by virtue of being human, have the universal right to choose their own beliefs about religion, or to reject religion and voice their objections peacefully;
Whereas oppressive governments have used and still use religion as a weapon against political dissidents;
Whereas throughout history, religious criticism and dissent have been necessary to curb the excesses of religious authority;
Whereas the Catholic Church might still be selling indulgences if Martin Luther had been preventing from nailing his protest to the church door;
Whereas the abolition of slavery in most of the world was aided by outspoken critics of religion such as Thomas Paine and the marquis de Concorcet;
Whereas historically, many early supporters of human rights, such as Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, William Penn and Roger Williams were vocal critics of religion;
Whereas advances in science would have been impossible without religious defamers such as Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei and Frances Bacon;
Whereas people born in Muslim countries have the same universal human right to apostasy as everyone else;
Whereas Muslims have the same universal human rights to improve upon their religion as anyone else;
Whereas the Armenians have the human right to speak out against the genocide of their ancestors at the hands of Muslim Turks; and sympathetic Muslims have the right to express their support;
Whereas religious minorities, (including Christians, atheists, Muslim apostates and others), are denied these rights and unfairly subjected to censorship, prison, torture or death;
We, the undersigned, oppose the U.N. resolution entitled Combating Defamation of Religion as being both bad for religion and bad for human beings.
(Background: The UN resolution being opposed is here (see esp. point 10): http://www.eyeontheun.org/assets/attachments/documents/HRC_4th_session_defamation_of_religion_3-23-07_draft_res.DOC)
222 Signatures
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Iggy Dybal
- Comments
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- City, state or province, Country
- Overland Park, KS USA
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Jill DeWitt
- City, state or province, Country
- Kansas City, Missouri, USA
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Philip Malaby
- Comments
- В
- City, state or province, Country
- KS
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Crystal Zubeck
- City, state or province, Country
- Blue Springs MO
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Lynne H. Schultz
- Comments
- В
- City, state or province, Country
- Overland Park, KS, USA
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Bill Schultz
- Comments
- This UN action takes us right back to the 16th century!
- City, state or province, Country
- Overland Park, KS, USA
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Judith M. Greer
- Comments
- Give children all the facts about all religions and they will judge for themselves
- City, state or province, Country
- USA
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Richard G. Dawson
- City, state or province, Country
- Kansas City, MO, USA
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EARTHWARD
- Comments
- http://www.earthward.org; pr@earthward.org
- City, state or province, Country
- international
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Glynis Smith
- City, state or province, Country
- Gauteng, South Africa
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Nick Gotts
- City, state or province, Country
- Aberdeen, Scotland
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Richard V Harris
- Comments
- All religions deserve to be defamed., for being irrational nonsense.
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Chris Anderson
- City, state or province, Country
- Massachusetts
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Doug Jensen
- Comments
- Truth and honesty should be respected, religion isn't honesty and it certainly isn't truth.
- City, state or province, Country
- Oregon, USA
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Eric Atkinson
- City, state or province, Country
- Kenly, NC. USA
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Stephen Barrett
- City, state or province, Country
- Canada
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Doug Greer
- Comments
- В
- City, state or province, Country
- Lee's Summit, Missouri
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Carl T. Smith
- Comments
- This resolution is counter productive.
- City, state or province, Country
- USA
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Laura Behnke
- City, state or province, Country
- Fall City, WA, USA
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John Phillips
- Comments
- I thought we were living in the 21st. Century, If the ideas, religious or otherwise, have merit then they need no defence. Only the insecure and/or the tyrannical demand respect and prohibit the questioning of ideas.
- City, state or province, Country
- Bristol, UK
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John B. Sandlin
- City, state or province, Country
- San Antonio, TX, USA
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Erica Ehrhardt
- City, state or province, Country
- Oswego, New York, USA
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J.M.Brainovich
- Comments
- I think this resolution is a very bad idea.
- City, state or province, Country
- USA
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Katherine Jones
- Comments
- В
- City, state or province, Country
- Australia
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D. Miller
- Comments
- Public scrutiny is the best means by which to deter religious intolerance and violence; this resolution undermines that scrutiny.
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Giovanni Navarrete
- Comments
- Only recently has the taboo against criticism of religion begun to subside. Some UN members apparently find that trend alarming, and have proposed a resolution to reinforce that taboo. The res- olution is purportedly intended to stem religious intolerance, but it fails to differentiate between intolerance of individuals because of their religious inclinations and affiliations, and intolerance of religion itself. In my view, the distinction is profound. The former is antisocial, whereas the latter is pro-social (in that the object of intolerance, itself, is antisocial). This resolution would serve to further perpetuate religion- based intolerance of individuals, by protecting the perpetrators from criticism and therefore public scrutiny.
- City, state or province, Country
- San Francisco, CA
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Victoria Ply
- City, state or province, Country
- New Jersey, USA
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Jon Goldberger
- Comments
- The rights of people supercede the rights of religion. If a religion, noatably Islam, has, at it's core, ideologies that violate the human rights of half the world's population, i.e. women, then that religion needs to be criticized harshly until such core tenet's are dropped and that the religion recognizes the inalienable human rights of all of it's adherents regardless of gender. Said religino must also recognize the human rights of those who choose apostasy.
- City, state or province, Country
- Hawaii, USA
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Michael A. Scheurich
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David Loewenstern
- City, state or province, Country
- New York, USA
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MJ Kelleher
- City, state or province, Country
- New York, USA
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Karen Templeman
- City, state or province, Country
- Knoxville, TN, USA
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Marilyn LaCourt
- City, state or province, Country
- Wisconsin, USA
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Mick Reichle
- City, state or province, Country
- Cedarburg , WI 53012 USA
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Rachel Hite
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Ken Mason
- City, state or province, Country
- Kansas
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RT Sechrest
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mel crain
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Christina F. Jones
- City, state or province, Country
- Independence, MO, USA
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Stan Yoder
- Comments
- Freedom from religion is as important as freedom of religion.
- City, state or province, Country
- United States
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Naomi Eaton
- City, state or province, Country
- Canada
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Peter Neeley
- Comments
- This U.N. resolution is a step backward for freedom of speech.
- City, state or province, Country
- Visalia, CA
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Adam Politsch
- Comments
- People have rights not religions. Do not give Islam or any pther religion protect that undermines the rights of people.
- City, state or province, Country
- United States
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Naomi N Nemes
- Comments
- This petition is perfectly worded and has my full support.
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John Strickler
- City, state or province, Country
- USA
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Shane J. Dyer
- City, state or province, Country
- Tucson, AZ 85712
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Brian Roemer
- City, state or province, Country
- USA
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Jose Angel de Figueroa
- Comments
- Such a resolution is an abomination which would destroy free speach and freedom of religion.
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Mark Pereira
- City, state or province, Country
- New Jersey, USA
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David Rose
- City, state or province, Country
- London, UK
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222
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