Religious offense

Religious offense is any action which offends religious sensibilities and arouses serious negative emotions in people with strong belief. Different religions are sensitive to different things in different measure, particularly such topics as sexuality, infancy, society, and warfare. Religious offense can be caused deliberately or by religious intolerance, especially between specific religious beliefs regarding "sacred truth". However every religion is essentially a set of beliefs conveyed from generation to generation which are, by religious definition, held to be immutable truths by that religion's believers or followers. Anything that tends to weaken or break that chain of authoritative continuity is likely to be offensive and in some jurisdictions severely punishable. The secular belief that freedom of speech and the absence of censorship should allow religious practices or beliefs to be criticized is also a cause of conflict. The use or misuse of religious paraphernalia, particularly scripture may also cause offense. Traditionally there are three uniquely religious offenses (acts which cause religious offense): Heresy (wrong choice) means questioning or doubting dogmatic established beliefs Blasphemy (evil-speaking) is the act of insulting or showing contempt for a religious deity. Apostasy (revolt or renunciation) implies or abandoning of a prescribed religious duty, especially disloyalty, sedition and defection Any challenge to divine authority may be homologous to treason and attract similar serious punishment, typically the death penalty. There is a fine line between secular ideas of fair comment and religious offence caused by questioning the veracity of divine revelation. LittleBigPlanet, a game which included two short scriptural phrases, was considered offensive by Muslims. More recently the term is used in modern laws which aim to promote religious tolerance by forbidding hate crime such as the British Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006.