The last person to serve time in prison for blasphemy in the United States was Abner Kneeland.
He was found guilty of blasphemy by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1838 for saying the following blasphemous statements in violation of state law:
1. Universalists believe in a god which I do not; but believe that their god, with all his moral attributes (aside from nature itself) is nothing more than a mere chimera of their own imagination.Abner Kneeland was an ordained Universalist minister whose religious doubts and evolving theology challenged his ministerial colleagues.
2. Universalists believe in Christ, which I do not; but believe that the whole story concerning him is as much a fable and a fiction as that of the god Prometheus, the tragedy of whose death is said to have been acted on the stage in the theatre at Athens, five hundred years before the Christian era.
3. Universalists believe in miracles, which I do not; but believe that every pretension to them can be accounted for on natural principles, or else is to be attributed to mere trick and imposture.
4. Universalists believe in the resurrection of the dead, in immortality and eternal life, which I do not; but believe that all life is mortal, that death is an eternal extinction of life to the individual who possesses it, and that no individual life is, ever was, or ever will be eternal.
And his pursuit of a free and responsible search for truth places his ideas firmly within the Unitarian Universalism as we know it today.
3 comments:
I do not see much evidence of a "free and responsible search for truth" in Abner Kneeland's words. I see more evidence of a rather closed mind that not only expresses personal disbelief in God but suggests that God is nothing but a "a mere chimera" of the imagination of believers aka a delusion. . . Abner seems to be quite the fundamentalist atheist of the Richard Dawkins variety but I am willing to bet that Richard Dakwins would be prepared to responsibly acknowledge that, "Christ" or not Jesus of Nazareth was a historical figure whereas Abner pretends that Jesus is only "a fable and a fiction" on par with Prometheus. It seems to me that a genuinely *responsible* search for truth and meaning would have led Abner to conclude that Jesus was a real human being and not a purely mythiological figure. . .
Believe it or not the WVC is - addam
Robin wrote:
"Abner seems to be quite the fundamentalist atheist of the Richard Dawkins variety but I am willing to bet that Richard Dakwins would be prepared to responsibly acknowledge that, "Christ" or not Jesus of Nazareth was a historical figure whereas Abner pretends that Jesus is only "a fable and a fiction" on par with Prometheus."
Robin,
"Christ" (or "messiah" or "annointed one") is a theological claim and not a historical one.
There are plenty of religious folks who believe that Jesus existed historically but don't consider him "Christ" (e.g. the traditional Islamic view of Jesus is that he is a prophet of the Abrahamic god who did live as a historical figure).
Abner never said "Jesus was a mythical figure" -- he was talking about the Christ of faith and not the man of history based on the quotes provided.
Given his background as a Universalist minister, I'm pretty sure that he was making a distinction between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith.
I thought it would be fun to point out yet another Unitarian Universalist historical connection with this celebration of blasphemy. . .
The most recent person to be accused of the crime of blasphemous libel in Soviet Canuckistan aka Canada is none other than your's Truly. . . and it is the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations that is the outrageously hypocritical religious institution responsible for making that spurious accusation. . .
Yes, Steve, on International Blasphemy Day 2012 I am basking in the glory of having been (falsely) accused of the criminal act of blasphemous libel by Unitarian Universalist hypocrites at 25 Beacon Street in Bean Town for allegedly making "unfounded and vicious allegations to the effect that ministers of the Association engage in such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape."
Who would have thought that Unitarian Universalists aka U*Us would ever have the unmitigated gall aka utterly shameful Big Fat U*U Hubris to accuse *anyone* of the crime of blasphemous libel, especially on such highly questionable if not outright spurious grounds?
The hubris, the hubris. . .
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