Islam is such a beautiful religion when you get down to it, sure it has alot of gruesome things in it, but pretty much every religion does, and it really isn't that much of an "evil" religion, but then again, no religion really is at heart. But over the years it has been twisted by the hands of man. No religion teaches hate, death, or torture; but people do, and that's a sad thing. I love religion for the morality and teachings it brought upon humanity, but its outlived its welcome, and like drugs, too much of it, and your mind becomes mush. This is the 21st century for crying out loud, I'm tired of all this religion crap, and people are so blindly ignorant as to just shove it off to the side like it was nothing. Really, what did that Aussie say that could offend the government so much that they had to throw him in jail and give him 500 lashes? Jail is punishment enough.

Why can't we criticize the gruesome aspects of a religion though? If we accept that there is something inherently wrong with misogynistic, hateful, and backwards beliefs, and believing in something without evidence, then why do we accept them when it's presented in the form of religion? That we gravitate more towards the positive and tolerant parts of a religion is not a testament to some inner goodness that we've been missing for hundreds of years, but to the self-contradiction so commonly found in religious texts and to the evolution of our societal morality. Blasphemy is an invention in order to preserve these beliefs in the face of critical thought, and it actually disgusts me that you would suggest jail would be any better, as if punishment was deserved at all for speaking one's mind.