What constitutes blashpemy?

[karrie]

An article I read today about the church crying 'blasphemy' due to a zombie parade which utilized Christian symbols in it, struck me on a bad note.

Blasphemy.

It's a heavy word. It's a meaningful word. But what do we truly mean by it? In my lifetime I've heard it thrown at a lot of seemingly minor things. Where do we draw the line with it? What makes something truly blasphemous? Is the use of a religious symbol by someone who doesn't put any faith in it blasphemous? Or is it only blasphemy for the believer? Is there a degree attached to blasphemy? Would throwing a tiny cross into a pile of pig manure be noticed by anyone? What about planting a 5 ft high cross in that same puddle of manure?

I'm sure I'll come up with more examples, but, I'm curious to hear people's thoughts.

 

[lone wolf]

I think it's a Church word for terrorist....

Woof!

 

[karrie]

Terrorist hey? The infliction of injury through disrespect of an object one holds symbolic? Terrifying, truly.

 

[eh1eh]

'blasphemy'

It has no meaning to me me what so ever.

The prerequisite being the beleif in the said religion that would consider whatever act to be blasphemous.

Context note:

Just imagine I'm pulling those 'quote fingers' above my head when I say those italics word above. Yep, that last one in the last sentence too.

 

[lone wolf]

Terrorist hey? The infliction of injury through disrespect of an object one holds symbolic? Terrifying, truly.

Tell someone who's really touchy about things like that that God's damned him and I suppose it really could do harm.... My grandmother spat the word with enough venom to terrify the worst of hooligans (me mostly;-))

 

[Outta here]

Tell someone who's really touchy about things like that that God's damned him and I suppose it really could do harm.... My grandmother spat the word with enough venom to terrify the worst of hooligans (me mostly;-))

lol - that just reminded me of the time my brother's mother-in-law called him a Godless Heathen. Yep - I'm sure it was capitalized when she said it. I nearly cried I laughed so hard, mainly 'cause she's right ...but the way she 'spat' that phrase out at him was priceless.