Religion and the law

PZ Myers looks at some of the various spots that the two are bumping heads.

Religion is colliding with the law all over the place.

• A Malaysian woman was jailed for worshipping a teapot. It was a very large teapot, two stories high; does that help? There's also a wonderful Catch-22 in the story — Malaysia allows freedom of worship, but under Sharia law, apostasy is a criminal offense, so she can be arrested for violating Muslim law.
  
• In a sensible contrast, Britain has voted to take blasphemy off the law books. Good news, you English — blaspheme all you want! I expect a chorus of "goddamns" in the comments now.
  
• The US isn't quite so rational, since we've got loons pushing a religious agenda everywhere. Look in Idaho, where a public school is teaching creationism because atheism is immoral (nice chain of non sequiturs in that), or Mississippi, which offers public school assemblies to indoctrinate kids in Christianity. That's two places where I think the law needs to step in.
  
• Texas is contemplating the theological necessity of goats. Can we please get to the point where everyone realizes that theological necessity is no necessity at all? Oh, and Santeria is just as wacky as Christianity.