Austin Dacey Talk on Blasphemy Best-attended SHIFT Event so Far

by Jason Cooperrider

On February 27, 2010, SHIFT (Secular Humanism, Inquiry and Freethought), the secular student group at the University of Utah, welcomed Dr. Austin Dacey and his colleague, Dr. Angie McQuaig for a two-fold event: a presentation by Dacey about blasphemy and a discussion about religion with a local church leader to follow. The event was made possible by donations from the Secular Student Alliance, the Humanists of Utah, and Christ Presbyterian Church.

After picking up Dacey and McQuaig at the airport, Elaine Ball, vice-president and co-founder of SHIFT, and I took them on a brief tour of downtown Salt Lake City, where we drove by such landmarks as the Mormon Temple (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and the Mormon Church's headquarters, which remains the tallest building in the state by mandate.

SHIFT president Jason Cooperrider addressing the audience.

At the event, I introduced Dacey, informing the audience that he is a former representative from the Center for Inquiry's mission to the United Nations and author of the book The Secular Conscience. Dacey then gave a talk entitled Blasphemy: Hate Speech or Human Right? The presentation focused on Dacey's insider knowledge of the nonbinding defamation of religion resolution repeatedly passed by the U.N. Human Rights Council and as recently as March 2009. He stressed that religion is not above criticism and that anyone should be free to express his or her opinion of religion without fear of punishment, so long as he or she does so without the intent of inciting violence and without attacking an individual or group personally, thus portraying that individual or group as inherently less than others. Dacey talked about how blasphemy laws, in places such as Ireland, are just a means of controlling certain populations and groups and taking away their personal liberties in order to maintain power over them.

Austin Dacey delivering his presentation.

After Dacey's talk, I introduced Dr. Mark Hausam, an adjunct philosophy professor at Salt Lake Community College and Utah Valley University, and an elder at Christ Presbyterian Church. To begin the discussion portion of the event, Hausam gave opening remarks that centered on the notion that objective morality is not possible without the existence of God because the universe is an impartial observer and does not have morals that would govern all its inhabitants, whereas God does have such morals, thus making objective morality possible. Dacey rebutted with his argument that people can be motivated to be ethical and behave ethically without belief in a god and even without the existence of a god. Later, the discussion focused on the morally repulsive acts and commands of God as described in the Bible. The discussion was very civil and enlightening.

The event was the best-attended event organized by SHIFT thus far with about 120 people attending Dacey's presentation and at least 100 people staying for the discussion. The audience included a group of students who drove 90 miles from Utah State University in Logan to attend the event. SHIFT hopes to host other events such as this one in the future.

Jason Cooperrider is the president and co-founder of SHIFT (Secular Humanism, Inquiry and Freethought) at the University of Utah, where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in neuroscience.