The hand of God?
Tag Archive: blasphemy
VIRIDIANA directed by Luis Buñuel (Mexico/Spain, 1961)
Perhaps I should temporarily rename this blog ‘Buñuel My Soul’ as I’m currently immersed in the movie back catalogue of the great Spanish director.
Some of these I am watching for a second time but Viridiana is a new discovery.
As with many of his movies it has been widely branded as obscene and sacrilegious; accusations which Buñuel would have regarded as compliments.
When it was first shown in Milan, the public prosecutor closed the cinema, impounded the reels and Buñuel was sentenced in absentia to one year in jail if he ever set foot in Italy.
Buñuel claimed disingenuously that he didn’t know what the fuss was about; wryly conceding that the Pope probably knew more about blasphemy than he did. Continue reading
Part of an irregular series of bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl. (Search ‘Backtracking’ to collect the set!)
CRASS – Reality Asylum / Shaved Women” (CRASS1, 7″, 1979)
“There are no words for my contempt” is a very ironic line in the context of Eve Libertine’s venomous rant entitled Reality Asylum.
She hardly comes across as a woman lost for words. The track is an uncompromising tirade of venom which she justifies in the sleeve note dated 28/5/79: ” I need to exorcise myself of these things which have bound me in that powerful stranglehold of reverence for so long …… Can I really believe in this God of Masculinity, first in a long line of hideous male structures, (the church, the crown, the state, the family), and where do I stand in this order of power?”
Against a white noise backing, she accuses Jesus of (among other things) arrogance, violence, rape, self-righteousness, cowardice , warmongering and genocide.
It has to be said that she brings plenty of her own baggage to this topic. Dumping ALL the blame on Jesus strikes me as a bit harsh as he isn’t the misogynistic monster she portrays him as. She makes the mistake of branding him as guilty because so much oppression and so many atrocities have been carried out in his name. Her target is really religious (and all other) institutions but she seems to take on JC on the basis that the buck must stop somewhere. In the end she borrows a line from Patti Smith’s Gloria: “Jesus died for his own sins not mine”. Continue reading
In the name of reason and justice, Atheist Ireland’s campaign against a proposed new law to make a new crime of blasphemy deserves all the support it can muster. To challenge the proposed legislation they have published a list of 25 quotations on their website any one of which could make them liable to a fine of up to 25,000 euros (£22,000; $35,000) if this ridiculous law is passed.
This is my personal favourite by comedian George Carlin :
“Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!”
