Three hundred seventeen years ago, a few months shy of this
21st birthday, Thomas Aikenhead was put to death in Edinburgh,
Scotland. He was the last man to be executed for blasphemy in Britain.
Aikenhead, a student at Edinburgh University, had an
inquiring mind and it was his wont to read. His crime? Reading books by “Descartes,
Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes and other so-called atheists” and having the temerity to
discuss them with his classmates. One of them informed on him.
At that time the power of the church was absolute. After his
conviction, and asked to intercede on Aikenhood’s behalf, the Church of
Scotland’s General Assembly demurred, urging “vigorous execution to curb the
abounding of impiety and profanity in this land.” So was Aikenhead’s fate
sealed, and he was hanged on January 8, 1697.
But great upheaval was at hand as Europe entered the Age of Enlightenment,
a humanist movement that was powered by philosophers, the printing press, and
the increasing literacy of the citizenry. Over a two hundred year period beginning in the 1650s,
the absolute power of the church was shattered.
Voltaire, Kant, Bacon, Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, (Isaac)
Newton, and Hume are just a few of the thinkers to whom we owe our physical and
intellectual freedoms. Dorinda Outram, a
Professor of History at the University of Rochester, describes the Enlightenment
as composed of "many different paths, varying in time and geography, to
the common goals of progress, of tolerance, and the removal of abuses in Church
and state.”
And the church was ultimately, rightfully, put in its place
as subordinate to the civil state.
As a result, unshackled thought and unbounded creativity,
free from religious dogma and constraint, led to an explosion of invention and
discovery known as the Scientific Revolution.
So was born our Western civilization, with our deeply held
values. The twin goals of liberty and progress in harmony and balance. Religion
as choice, not as coercion or forced submission.
Where you are free to take the name of the Lord God in vain.
Where you can create “art,” publicly funded, depicting a crucifix submerged in
the artist’s urine. Where you can eat pork or publish satirical images of
religious icons. Or burn a bible in public. Or worship any god you like, in any
way you want. Where you may open mindedly support equal rights for all, men,
women, straight, gay, of any race or persuasion. All without fear of reprisal.
So it was with great shock, regret, and deep disappointment
in the lack of human progress to witness the execution of twelve Charlie Hebdo
staffers. They were killed by two Islamic Wahhabi fanatics for the crime of blasphemy
on January 7, 2015, nearly 317 years to the day that Thomas Aikenwood was
hanged.
It should be immediately obvious, the central issue. The
Charlie Hedbo staffers were not Muslim, yet were executed for blaspheming the
Islamic prophet, Muhammad.
Imagine a sect of fundamental Episcopalians situated on the
shores of Lake Huron. They believe fervently that tennis balls are blessed by
God and are not to be struck. Tennis balls are placed on altars and worshiped
as holy icons. Tennis courts and matches are banned in their communities, as
striking the balls is blasphemous. But, not satisfied only to follow these
strictures themselves, they demand that we all do so as well. They mount horrific
attacks on tennis courts all over the nation, wreaking carnage and demanding
that tennis be banned everywhere.
This would be absolutely crazy and we would not stand for it
for a moment.
But that’s precisely what these Islamic fanatics are
demanding. Not satisfied to practice their own religion, obey their own
prohibitions, they demand that the world submit as well.
This cannot stand. We cannot submit. This is a battle of civilizations,
and cultural or religious relativism has no standing. We are moral in this. We
are right. And we must fight.
Giving up our rights in the face of evil is cowardly.
Refusing to allow the voices of debate to be heard is worse. It is time to
stiffen our spines and defend our free society, gained with so much blood,
torment, and travail over hundreds of years. To retrench is unthinkable.
Thomas Aikenhead would agree.
