This is unreal. Ireland criminalizes blasphemy. From TFA:

Aside from a €25,000 fine (reduced from the €100,000 originally sought by the government), the new Defamation Act gives the authorities the power to stage raids on publishers: the courts may now issue a warrant authorising the police to enter, using ‘reasonable force’, premises where they have grounds for believing there are copies of ‘blasphemous statements’.

I’ll state it for the millionth time, I think censorship does far more harm than good. I don’t believe that hiding the truth, and lying about the way we think, will help us rid ourselves of any problem in the world.

Take videos of beheadings, or hypothetically, someone skinning a cat alive. I am against censoring such a video because I think it’s important to see that there are some people who actually do these kinds of things, that it’s important to know what some people are actually capable of. Ignorance of the fact will only lead us away from treating the problem – it’s hard to do if you don’t know about why/how people do these things. It is my view that those who cannot handle truth do not deserve to reap the benefits of a progressive and accountable society.

An argument that supports censorship is based on the power of words; “The pen is mightier than the sword”. A well-timed insult to the right person has the capacity to trigger a war that will kill millions, neh? Against that, I argue that is is not the fault of the one who utters their thought, rather it is the one who freaks out, insulted, and who actually does the killing.

I’ll debate any person on this topic at any time.