Outspoken: Confessions of a Devout Atheist

11. The Right to Religion has Limits

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." – Seneca the Younger

     This is an interesting issue that I am going to hit head on. Where does your right to religion begin and more importantly, where does it end? That answer would likely vary depending on who you ask. Some might say that someone's right to religion should never end, but that is complete bullshit. It does end at some point. There are things that religions call for that is outlawed by civilized societies. For example you cannot sacrifice children to your God for a better crop because murder is against the law. So someone's right to religion ends because it is overridden by someone else's right to exist under the law.

     Another good example would be child abuse. Religions all have their examples of calling their people to not 'spare the rod' when it comes to disciplining their children, but beating children with any kind of rod literally is against the law. Here in Canada for example, hitting a child with any kind of weapon or any contact with a child that is not on their hand or their buttocks is considered abuse under the criminal code. So someone's right to religion ends because it's overruled by our criminal code to protect children from being beaten by their overzealous parents.

     So regardless of what someone says; religion isn't a right in every case. There are limits to what society will allow religion to get away with and lately people have been trying to push their luck, with little success. Children are not allowed to bring religious knives to school because that puts children in danger. If my religion said it was alright for me to carry a bazooka around at work, I wouldn't be allowed to walk around in public with it because it's against the law. So this isn't picking on one religion specifically, it blankets them all.

     In modern society, there is supposed to be a separation of church and state. Religion isn't supposed to influence the decisions of our branches of government. That doesn't stop people from trying to do just that, but there are countless cases being heard in supreme courts in many modern nations because religion has been pushed into people's lives and rather than just accept it, people are fighting back to what in many cases is clearly an abuse of power by those trying to make themselves more special because of their religion.

     A few weeks ago, the Canadian Supreme Court of Canada heard such a case where two rights are clashing against one another. In one corner of this epic fight is the right to religion and in the other corner is the right to a fair trail. I don't know about you but this is a real clash of the titans as far as constitutional rights are concerned. Our highest judges are being asked to decide which one is more important and regardless of what decision our Supremes make, one side is going to celebrate and the other is going to flip out.

     Here's the case in a nutshell: the Supreme Court of Canada heard arguments from a Muslim woman who is accusing her uncle of sexual assault. The problem is the victim (also the accuser) wants to wear Niqab during the trial, even when testifying on the stand. The accuser is claiming that not wearing the full face covering garb on the stand or during trail is an assault on her right to religion. Yet on the other side of the coin, our constitution says that anyone who is charged with a crime has a right to face their accuser. How can you face your accuser when that person is wearing a garb that covers their face?

     Regardless of which way this decision goes, it's going to create a lot of problems for the Canadian legal system. According to the women's Legal Education and Action Fund, they fear that a decision to force women to remove their Niqab when going to trail will result in many women not reporting future assaults, which could result in Muslim women being raped with impunity if you are confident they will not take it to court.