Does anybody have that image of a freight train going off the rails into a cow pasture?
On topic: I'm not sure if it is possible to overstate the importance of freedom of speech. It is the only way to ensure competing ideas are brought out, challenged, and their merits debated and weighed. It is critical to so many things which are fundamental to our free way of life: science, social policy, political participation, art, and religion.
Or should I say, religions.
Laws which target the ability to criticize something as flexible as the concept of God or religion will inevitably result in stripping people of the ability to speak out against those in authority - those with the ability to define "God," "blasphemy," and what is or is not "religion," and those with the power to enforce those laws. I would characterize such laws as a return to the dark ages. There is nothing anti-blasphemy laws can accomplish that cannot be accomplished through the human rights model. Canada has it exactly right.
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