What's the difference between blasphemy and cursing?
Blasphemy
Definition:
(n.) An indignity offered to God in words, writing, or signs; impiously irreverent words or signs addressed to, or used in reference to, God; speaking evil of God; also, the act of claiming the attributes or prerogatives of deity.
(n.) Figuratively, of things held in high honor: Calumny; abuse; vilification.
Example Sentences:
(1) Fears over violence in Jakarta as hardline Islamists protest governor’s ‘blasphemy’ Read more The governorship of the capital is a powerful position and was a stepping stone for Joko Widodo to the presidency two years ago.
(2) His controversial 1988 book The Satanic Verses, which provoked a religious opinion or fatwa, from the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini calling for the author's killing as punishment for blasphemy, is still banned in India.
(3) But this was, after all, the late 20th century and the rather antiquated British blasphemy laws were something of an irrelevance.
(4) To people who have faith that the world can heal itself through the unfettered interaction of economically rational individuals, and that, if capitalism were allowed to operate freely, there would be no more slumps and bubbles because the invisible hand of the market would guide everything to its rightful price, the seasonal rush must seem like an orgy of blasphemy.
(5) Chanting “God is greatest”, many in Friday’s protest waved placards calling for Purnama, popularly known as Ahok, to be jailed for blasphemy.
(6) During the original trial, much emphasis was placed on the blasphemy of the women doing their dance right in front of the altar.
(7) The government also blocked about a dozen websites and blogs to stem the furore over blasphemy, as well as stepping up security for the bloggers.
(8) They have pandered to fundamentalism over the blasphemy law rather than facing it down.
(9) I have lost two brothers in this war, I swear by the great honour of the southern revolution.” “That’s blasphemy – you should only swear by God,” said the jihadi.
(10) At the same time, Christian lobbyists, spotting broadcasters' ring-fencing of the prophet, have increased their own blasphemy-policing.
(11) Paris was the place to be, the political atmosphere suited a cartoonist’s work – cartoons fitted with the slogans and graffiti of the time, its poetry.” Willem joined Hara Kiri , Charlie Hebdo ’s precursor, setting himself immediately to work on blasphemy, vicious political satire and “things some people might regard as pornographic”.
(12) And in 2013, a lecturer called Junaid Hafeez was jailed after students accused him of committing blasphemy on his Facebook page in an affair which also led to his lawyer being shot dead.
(13) As a former Christian and theology graduate, I felt reasonably well qualified to argue my point about blasphemy, but sex is a whole other area – what is acceptable here is a rather more nebulous concept, of course, and there is little objective legislation to help us in matters of taste.
(14) Acquittals in blasphemy cases in the Indonesian courts are rare, but Ahok has vowed to continue his campaign and to contest the election.
(15) Not even the Spanish Inquisition entailed such delicate, hair-trigger recriminations for blasphemy as the one that set off this MSNBC host yesterday on his little patriotism enforcement crusade.
(16) Hundreds camped out until around four in the morning beside the parliament building, demanding Purnama be charged with blasphemy.
(17) There is some frankly rather inappropriate cheering at this shout-out to our most potent secular blasphemy, but not, I note, from the two serious young black men sitting next to me.
(18) Blasphemy might be an extremely serious offence in the receiving state; other states do not even criminalise it.
(19) Today's statement by foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu denounced Liu as a criminal and said his award was a "blasphemy to the peace prize".
(20) That was until July 1977, when Mary Whitehouse, self-appointed guardian of national morals, won a blasphemy libel case against Gay News for publishing a poem about a Roman centurion's homoerotic leanings towards the crucified Christ.
Cursing
Definition:
(p. pr. & vb. n.) of Curse
Example Sentences:
(1) But it was also a portrait of an England charged with secrets - and, as Michael Billington put it, the work of an accomplished playwright who understood the English curse of 'emotional evasion.'
(2) A new, terrible curse that comes on top of the bleaching, the battering, the poisoning and the pollution.
(3) She comes from the "cursed" political dynasty in Pakistan : her grandfather, the former president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed in 1979, three years before Fatima was born; her father, the radical politician Murtaza Bhutto, was shot dead by police in 1996; and her aunt, the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a bombing in 2007.
(4) It has somehow managed to escape the curse of Murdoch, who partly owns it.
(5) But it accused South Park of having mocked the prophet, and cited Islamic scholars who ruled that "whoever curses the messenger of Allah must be killed".
(6) Now they await the results of the American League Championship Series to see whether this year's World Series will be a rematch of 2004, when the Cardinals were swept by the curse-reversing Boston Red Sox, or 2006, when the Cardinals defeated the Detroit Tigers and became one of the worst teams to win the World Series in MLB history .
(7) Several survivors and family members of the victims who were flown to the US testified this week , and one cursed Bales for attacking villagers as some slept and others screamed for mercy.
(8) The bakers can freeze each layer as it goes on, tensely waiting by the ice box, cursing under their breath.
(9) Still alive, he was then surrounded by people who cursed and spat at him, kicked him in the head and tried to hit him with a chair.
(10) How they got here You'll be forgiven if you thought they were still cursed, if you had been following recent baseball history.
(11) Not a Lynyrd Skynyrd "doom will plague you at every turn" sort of curse, it must be said; more a sequence of mildly irritating events.
(12) In 1 infant diagnosed with Ondine's curse, examination showed diffuse neuronal loss and gliosis in the medullary tegmentum.
(13) Since then, the cursing and sobbing have been plentiful.
(14) Maguwu said: "To me it's very clear the diamonds have been a curse to this country.
(15) As Taylor cursed, McClaren embarked on a tactical rejig.
(16) The curse of playing Ari Gold is that Jeremy Piven may have to spend the rest of his life trying to convince the world he is not a rage-fuelled blustering asshole.
(17) They managed to catch two people, aged no more than 30, and were beating them up badly, swearing at them all the time and cursing the Shia clerics, saying: "Where is al-Khomeini now?
(18) It would swirl around that child's head in the manner of a bad fairy from a storybook bringing along a cursed gift to a christening.
(19) Infantile delivery also frequently serves to take the curse off self-publicity; sleight of hand for those who find "my programme is on BBC2 tonight" too presumptuous and exposing, and prefer to cower behind the low-status imbecility of "I done rote a fingy for da tellybox!"
(20) This discovered gothic quality within everyday life found one of its finest expressions in the American work of French-born director Jacques Tourneur , especially the brilliant Cat People (1943), Curse of the Cat People (1944) and Night of the Demon (1957).