Dec 3, 2012
Here in the U.S., there are places where being openly atheist can
cost you your job or bring on harassment by your neighbors. If you
speak against the dominant religion, someone might go to the
newspapers or even on television to shake a heavy finger of
disapproval in your direction. In extreme cases, you may face
violence from individuals, or government representatives may abuse
their power to make your life difficult. You may have to push the
government to give you all the protections it promises. That's
here, where we have the First Amendment to back us up. Things are
different elsewhere in the world. Being an infidel or blasphemer,
words we use laughingly here, can see people fined or imprisoned or
killed. These problems aren't limited to countries we complacently
dismiss as "backward" either. There has been considerable pressure
on the UN for more than a decade to recognize a "right" for
religions to be free from "defamation". Michael De Dora, Director
of the Center for Inquiry's Office of Public Policy and their UN
Representative, is fighting hard against laws like these, as well
as to bring science and secularism to U.S. policy and law-making.
This Sunday, he will join us to talk about why all this matters to
us and what we can do to make a difference.