Just a little more Harding – because the previous visits with her are on the August page, which no one will ever look at again, and because at least one reader thinks I may be giving her the straw man treatment. But in fact I’m making her sound better than she is rather than worse, because as I mentioned it simply is impossible to convey how feeble her arguments are via brief quotations. Brief quotations don’t, for instance, and can’t of their nature, make clear how absent any evidence is. They also can’t convey the cumulative effect of her writing, which is genuinely credulity-strainingly childish. Brief quotation for instance misses out how often she repeats the identical inane phrases, but … Read the rest
Another List of Ten Books
Sep 3rd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThis one by writers with a score to settle.… Read the rest
Extract From Dawkins’ New Book
Sep 3rd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEcholocation has evolved at least four times, eyes more than forty times.… Read the rest
Deeply Though Subtly Subversive
Sep 3rd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe aim was to replace unexamined religious belief with empirical knowledge and reason.… Read the rest
The Nuisance Value of an Entrenched Vocabulary
Sep 3rd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf you can ignore it, it’s not a nuisance.… Read the rest
Manifesto of Freedoms
Sep 2nd, 2004 11:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd then as soon as I posted that, I found this rather inspiring Manifesto at Jonathan Derbyshire’s blog. And the thing is…it seems to me that people in the US and the UK who side with the pro-hijab side against the ban don’t quite realize the extent to which they’re siding against people like those who wrote that Manifesto. Against people like Azam Kamguian and Maryam Namazie and Ibn Warraq. People who are not arrogant Westerners, not Eurocentric, not colonialists, not Orientalists, not hegemonists keen to trample on the Other, but people who want to get rid of the regressive, punitive, subordinating aspects of their own cultures, just as we all want to get rid of those aspects in … Read the rest
Not That Again
Sep 2nd, 2004 10:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonDamn – it’s one of those days. Horrible sectarian fights breeding violence everywhere you look. What a disgusting world. Schoolchildren and teachers held hostage by Chechen rebels, mosques burned and people injured in Nepal after a group of Nepalese workers are murdered by Islamic militants, two French journalists held hostage by more Islamic militants and threatened with death because of a French law against wearing conspicuous religious symbols in schools. It’s hard not to think that a good deal more secularism would be a helpful vitamin for a lot of people.
It pains me to say it but I don’t agree with Normblog on this issue. At least, not with the way he states it. I think it’s reasonable … Read the rest
A Manifesto by People of Muslim Culture
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFor sexual equality and secularism; against homophobia, the hijab and anti-semitism.… Read the rest
India Court Rejects Gay Petition
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHomosexuality remains illegal in India.… Read the rest
The Hijab Again
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHeureusement, they are willing to wear a beret instead.… Read the rest
A ‘Knowledge Day’ to Remember
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonChechen rebels seize schoolchildren and teachers as hostages.… Read the rest
Mob Burns Mosques in Nepal
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonViolence erupted after slaughter of 12 Nepalese hostages in Iraq by Islamic militant group.… Read the rest
Stupidest Article You’ll Ever See in the CHE
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDammit, education is for jobs, not just to learn stuff!… Read the rest
Panda’s Thumb Critiques Creationist Paper
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn great detail.… Read the rest
Paper by Creationist in Real Science Journal
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSomeone from the Discovery Institute got one past the editors.… Read the rest
Ode to September
Sep 1st, 2004 10:59 pm | By Ophelia BensonHave you noticed? It’s September. I love September, and always look forward to its arrival. Because I don’t like summer much, and I do love autumn, and then I don’t have to go back to school, so what do I care.
And since it is September – next month is October. (Seven, eight – that’s how to remember.) And at the end of October, the Dictionary comes out, and you can all rush off to the nearest Waterstones’ and buy armfuls. Yes, armfuls, I tell you – you can give them as Christmas presents. Every single person you give one to will be your friend for life – except for academic pseuds, who will be your enemy for life, so … Read the rest