Scotland is increasingly being left behind other European nations who have scrapped blasphemy laws. These laws were scrapped in England and Wales in 2008, Iceland and Norway in 2015, Malta in 2016 and Denmark in 2017.
While not used in Scotland in modern times, having such laws makes it more difficult to call on other countries to scrap their blasphemy laws where people are punished by death for speaking out. I support the international Humanist movement in ending all blasphemy laws around the world
Blasphemy laws have no place in a modern society and the Scottish Parliament should show the same progressive leadership as has been shown in other European nations in recent years.
I didn’t realise that we still had this law in Scotland, which I usually consider to be much more progressive than some other countries. For those who don’t know much about the UK...Scotland has always had a separate legal system from England, stemming from before the Act of Union in 1603, when we had the Union of the Crowns. Scotland and England were two separate countries until then and had different legal and education systems. I think they should repeal this archaic law immediately, but have to point out that there hasn’t been a prosecution since 1843.
One of the issues I have liked to follow are the humanist weddings going on in Scotland. More than 5,300 just last year.
[scotsman.com]
@AtheistNews Nice to know that this is the trend.