Englishman Calling Religion a ‘Fairy Tale for Adults’ Could Be Arrested, Say Police

Based on what I’ve read and what friends have told me about their experiences, England’s “free speech” is in even worse state than America’s, really. And some parts of mainland Europe can be worse yet.

Pressure is growing to reform this law, which has been used among other things to arrest someone for saying Woof to a dog.

http://reformsection5.org.uk/

On the plus side it’s getting religious people more frequently than atheists, but it still needs to go.

I’m game for putting such a sign up. I’m also pretty sure that if something like this ended up in court it would be demolished very quickly.

@0xabad1dea We don’t have a freedom of speech enshrined in our law as such, in fact not many countries in Europe do as far as I know. It’s a generally understood principle that we do have the freedom so say what we want (with similar limits to what you have in the USA), and GB is also a signatory to the UN Declaration of Human Rights which also grants the FoS. But it’s all a bit of a mess really, and there any many laws on the books that infringe on FoS.

 I beg to differ, the real problem is our libel laws, and the misused Section 5 of the Public Order Act, otherwise free speech is alive and well in the Untied Kingdom.

 Oh yeah, I forgot the Twitter joke trial (#twitterjoketrial).

As with most laws, it is the interpretation, or misinterpretation, of the laws that is the real problem, but we have the Human Rights Act as a safety net for free speech.

Incitement to hatred is probably one of the better laws, although in the case of Mr Richards it is strained to breaking point, and whilst the police can threaten arrest they have to put a cast iron case to the Crown Prosecution Service who have to decide if it is in the public interest to pursue the case, or indeed if there is a case to answer.

The reality is that Mr Richards is unlikely to be prosecuted, as someone has pointed out, if he can be prosecuted then so can every christian who threatens eternal damnation.

Please read the rest of the story:

“LincolnshirePolice have not advised Mr
Richards that he faces arrest for the specific posters he is displaying
and he is not committing any offences by doing so.”

http://www.lincs.police.uk/News-Centre/News-Releases-2012/Atheist%20Poster%20Story,%20Boston%20-%20The%20Facts.html

Hey guys, this is England – nobody will be arrested for this –

http://www.lincs.police.uk/News-Centre/News-Releases-2012/Atheist%20Poster%20Story,%20Boston%20-%20The%20Facts.html 

Displaying a small sign like this is illegal but huge church marquees with ignorant and bigoted “messages” on them aren’t?  Displaying gruesome images of crucifixion in religious shop windows where kids can see them isn’t?  My bet is that one  pious asshole happened to notice this guy’s little sign and the police, charged with enforcing the Public Order, thought it would be easier to intimidate one man rather than try to prosecute a church or company or other large, wealthy enterprises.

I’d say the problem is not so much with the interpretation of the law as much as the number of laws passed with the assurance that common sense will be used in applying them. Hint: It never is.

 The law has hit Christians far more often than atheists, so your comment is of profoundly no relevance whatsoever.

In the long run it would lose, as would the complaint against the man in this article. At most they could expect a night in the cells and a lot of stress until it got thrown out of court, which is what the reform campaign seeks to end.

All it takes is one radical Muslim to threaten to kill him and they will force him to remove the sign. The UK is probably the most backward country in the West when it comes to “blasphemy.”

All religion is mental illness and should be treated as such.

Unfortunately religion is a delusion and there is no treatment for delusion. We have drugs for psychotics, but nothing for delusional people.

According to the police (like you can take their word for anything, but still…): “the key point is that the offence is committed if it is deemed that a reasonable person would find the content insulting.”

Religious people are, by definition, not reasonable.

I find signs promoting religion to be insulting and quite often threatening with promises of eternal damnation so how come no one is being arrested??

That is exactly why we kicked King George’s all-powerful, Empiral Red Coats out of the United States.
 
Religious freedom would be hard, we essentially he is calling the Queen a liar, since Henry VIII acquired Defender of the Faith, Head of the English Church for the Royals.
 
But can be expected from a little island nation which gives so much money to a “royal’ family which has no real function in government.  (Essentially  in parades, opening up Parliament, Royals are no different from the horses in a parade, they look pretty all dressed up, but someone still needs a shovel to pick up their #2s)

Are you sure?

I’m getting a bumper sticker for my car from eBay

I truly don’t find this sign offensive at all.  As a matter of fact, I truly support Mr. Richards.  Makes me want to put up a sign on my front door.

I support the guy 100%, I’m even printing my own sign to put up 🙂

What a guy!

I thought it was a free country where one can express their beliefs! Religions must be very fragile if such a tiny attack on their faith causes so much panic…. Are they that worried that their followers are going to start thinking for themselves!

if one person preaches his own religion  he is deemed to have mental health issues, add a few more then its a weird cult, multiply that by millions then you have a religion corporate business control of the masses. I am an athiest living in Galway Ireland i recently saw a guy in a supermarket wearing a t shirt displaying the wording ”  To stupid to understand science, Try Religion ” i had to laugh

Sorry are you all mental!? This story is complete bollocks!

http://www.lincs.police.uk/News-Centre/News-Releases-2012/Atheist%20Poster%20Story,%20Boston%20-%20The%20Facts.html 

As Peranny says the wingnut count is low in the UK but they’re like wire coathangers – leave them in the dark and they multiply.  I’ve been around long enough to see the harmless eccentric turn into the vicious wingnut  more times than I care to remember.
Americans have to realise that UK law is much older than theirs and individual freedom is not the primary aim – individual protection is.
The legislation quoted here is part of a growing body of equality legislation.  It’s a trade off between the freedom to express genuine opinions and the freedom not to be harassed and insulted.  It’s the same kind of thinking that barred Westboro Baptist Church from coming here.
Like any trade off it’s a balancing act and one that can be misused.
One thing it’s not is a charter for rogue cops – there has to be a complaint before the police can take action.  On the other hand once a complaint has been made the police are pretty much constrained to do something.
In most police forces the answer has been to visit and deliver a warning message but not to prosecute or record a formal caution.
This is the first time to my knowledge that the “offender” has not been a religious body or individual.  The most publicised cases have been street preachers subject to complaints from LGBT people and a couple of cases Muslims vs Christians.
For Christians this is evidence of organised persecution sanctioned by the state.
For the rest of us it’s just evidence that we’re trying to break out of the stranglehold of religion on morality and ethics.
In the end it’s my right to live my life without suffering your insults against your right to say what you like.
The law says that both rights are modified – does that mean we both win or that we both lose? 

If you’re talking about normal murders, then that may be true, since there have been more Christians than atheists throughout history. But if you’re talking about mass murderers – well, atheists win the championship on that one. Almost a millennium of Spanish Inquisition, witch hunts, Crusades and “religious wars” only managed to kill under 1 million people. Whereas atheists Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, and others have been responsible for 90 million deaths. Sorry dude, you’re just wrong.

In the last 5 years or so there have been many signs saying similar things put up by atheist groups, and this is the first time it has caused the police to notice.

“Further, this sign is harmless. Whereas the signs by Christians have been excessively extreme.”
That’s a ridiculous and laughable claim. What objective evidence can you marshal in support of it?

Your point is artificial, as there are more far more Christians than atheists……………………..Hunter where are your stats to affirm this?By my reckoning since most churches/places of worship other than Catholic are poorly attended and forced to close I don’t see how you can say there are more Christians than atheists 

I thought atheists were “rational” and knew that 90 million is almost two orders of magnitude greater than 1 million.

“Mao was educated by a missionary” – LOL! The question is of course not whether he was educated by the missionary, but whether the missionary was the one who imputed ideas into him such as to be willing to sacrifice millions of your own people in order to pursue your deluded goals. And also whether the missionary’s ideas came from his Christianity. If you actually have any HARD evidence that this occurred, then show it – I am genuinely interested.  The same goes for Stalin’s and Hitler’s religious connections. Otherwise you’re just talking out of your ass.

My numbers aren’t unreasonable – for example, the Inquisition only managed to execute about 2,500 people.

This is a topic that requires a bit of subtlety of thought, in my opinion.  Is it possible that the elderly gentleman is lonely and seeking a bit of human social interaction with the hope that perhaps he may even encounter others such as himself with whom to engage in intellectual conversation?  The problem we atheists confront is our real, or perceived,  isolation within a vast herd of vulgar minds.  We are swimmers  in an ocean of theistic evangelism.  Some among us perhaps despair and permit ourselves to be reduced to an anti-theism evangelism.  I am personally quite comfortable with simply demolishing the theories of individual believers who foist their uninvited nonsense on me.  I have no expectation of converting anyone lacking the intelligence to mature beyond anthropological, superstitious deisms and simply enjoy demonstrating to them they have no hope of converting me.  Most take it well enough to amiably assure me that they will be praying for me once they resign themselves to their inability to overcome the logic of my arguments.