Censorship by organized religion is a form of censorship where freedom of expression is controlled or limited using religious authority or on the basis of the teachings of the organized religion. This form of censorship has a long history and is practised in many societies and by many religions. Examples include the censorship of the Heliocentric theory proposed by Galileo by the Vatican and of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses by the Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Censorship is the control of speech and other forms of human expression, often by government intervention. ... Freedom of speech is the right to freely say what one pleases, as well as the related right to hear what others have stated. ... Churchianity is a negative description of organized religion that characterizes it as emphasizing the institutional forms of Christianity (traditions, rituals, committees, and programs) and omitting the actual gospel teachings of Jesus Christ that forms the basis of Christianity. ... In astronomy, heliocentrism is the theory that the Sun is at the center of the Universe and/or the Solar System. ... Galileo can refer to: Galileo Galilei, astronomer, philosopher, and physicist (1564 - 1642) the Galileo spacecraft, a NASA space probe that visited Jupiter and its moons the Galileo positioning system Life of Galileo, a play by Bertolt Brecht Galileo (1975) - screen adaptation of the play Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht... Salman Rushdie Salman Rushdie (born Ahmed Salman Rushdie Arabic: أحمد سلمان رشدی on June 19, 1947, in Bombay, India) is an Indian-born British essayist and author of fiction, most of which is set on the Indian subcontinent. ... The Satanic Verses cover The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdies fourth novel, first published in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. ... Ayatollah Khomeini founded the first modern Islamic republic Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini (آیت‌الله روح‌الله خمینی in Persian) (May 17, 1900 – June 3, 1989) was an Iranian Shia cleric and the political and spiritual leader of the 1979 revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the then Shah of Iran. ...

Religious censorship is usually performed on the grounds of blasphemy, heresy, sacrilege, impiety - the censored work was obscene or violated religious taboo. Defending against these charges is often difficult as many religions permit only the religious authorities (clergy) to interpret doctrine and the interpretation is usually dogmatic. Look up Blasphemy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Blasphemy is the defamation of the name of God. ... Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the ‘catholic’ or orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. ... Sacrilege is in general the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object. ... Impiety is a lack of proper concern for the obligations owed to cult in its proper sense. ... Obscenity has several connotations. ... A taboo is a strong social prohibition (or ban) relating to any area of human activity or social custom declared as sacred and forbidden; breaking of the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society. ... Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. ... Doctrine, from Latin doctrina, (compare doctor), means a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. ... This article is on dogma in religion. ...

Examples

• Depiction of the human form in art (Islam)
• Fig-leaf campaign to cover nudity in art (Roman Catholic Church)
• Scientific theories
  • Heliocentric theory (Roman Catholic Christianity)
  • Darwinian evolution (Christianity)
• Literature
  • Satanic Verses (Islam)
  • Works by Taslima Nasrin (Islam)
• The Inquisition
• Censorship of Pornography is supported and advocated by conservative religious leaders and organsiations (see Anti-pornography movement).
• Puritan belief