Theistic belief, Hume contended, inculcates the "monkish virtues of mortification, penance, humility, and passive suffering, as the only qualities which are acceptable…" But not only does theistic belief harm individual morality, according to Hume, it also harms public morality.
But the tougher penalties have been defeated twice in the lower house of parliament, where deputies argue that they would promote adultery and harm public morality.
Before the decision in R. v. Butler Canada had banned obscene material for basically the same reason that the U.S. does, which is that obscenity harms public morality.
In April, the Ministry of Culture said it was investigating live-streaming sites for broadcasting content that "harms social morality".
Last year the Ministry of Culture released a list of 120 songs that it had banned because they supposedly trumpeted "obscenity, violence, crime, or harmed social morality".
A bit more clarity was offered last August when the ministry released another list of banned songs, this time 120 tracks long, all "containing content that promotes sex, violence or crime, or harms public morality".
Today marks six months since Egyptian novelist Ahmed Naji was sentenced to two years in prison on the charge of "harming public morality" for publishing an excerpt that contained explicit content from his novel Istikhdam al-Hayat (The Use of Life) in the Egyptian magazine Akhbar al-Adab.
This means that much of the criminal law both prevents harm and enforces morality.
It instead issued the maximum possible sentence to him under the unconstitutionally vague and legally imprecise Article 178 of the Penal Code which criminalizes harm to public morality.
Some of the prohibitions were broad, barring violations of the fundamental principles of the Constitution and the harming of social morality.
