Women require a male guardian’s permission to do most things.… Read the rest
Islamist Puts Out Hit on Cartoonist and Editor
Sep 16th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAbu Omar al-Baghdadi offered $100 k for murder of Swedish cartoonist and $50 k for editor. … Read the rest
Bishop: Muslim ‘Apostates’ Risk Being Killed
Sep 16th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA poll found that 36% of Muslims age 16 to 24 believe those who convert should be punished by death.… Read the rest
Who cares?
Sep 15th, 2007 4:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonA week or two ago I was reading another book about emotions and thinking, The Political Brain by Drew Westen (I read it after reading this article in the NY Review of Books). I was struck by this observation on page 15:
Republicans understand what…David Hume recognized three centuries ago: that reason is a slave to emotion, not the other way around…Democratic strategists for the last three decades have instead clung tenaciously to the dispassionate view of the mind…They do so, I believe, because of an irrational emotional commitment to rationality – one that renders them, ironically, impervious to…scientific evidence on how the political mind and brain work. [italics his]
Hmmmm, I thought – do I have that? So … Read the rest
Grayling on Gray
Sep 15th, 2007 12:59 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnthony Grayling finds John Gray not altogether persuasive.
… Read the restIn a nutshell the book consists in the repeated assertion that modern secularist thinking is utopian in aspiration, has inherited this aspiration from Christianity, has failed because its belief in progress is false and has in fact been violently regressive…[H]e is against the progressivist ambitions of the secular Enlightenment, and he hopes to annoy its proponents by giving it Christianity for a father and – that weary old canard – Nazism and Stalinism for offspring…In order to establish that secular Whiggish Enlightenment-derived aspirations are the child of Christianity, Gray begins by calling any view or outlook a “religion”. Everything is a religion: Torquemada’s Catholicism, the pluralism and empiricism of 18th-century philosophers,
How to Use Religion to Exploit Women
Sep 15th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTell them they ‘forfeit their chance at the afterlife’ if they disobey.… Read the rest
Ben Goldacre Chats With Homeopath
Sep 15th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe hoped for insights into philosophical aspects of the meaning of evidence in homeopathy.… Read the rest
Placebo Good, Bad Advice not so Good
Sep 15th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHomeopaths would be fine, if they could just shut up about serious stuff, like Aids, malaria, and MMR.… Read the rest
A C Grayling Reviews John Gray
Sep 15th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEverything is a religion: Torquemada’s Catholicism, empiricism, liberalism, Stalinism.… Read the rest
Padraig Reidy on the True Cost of Libel Law
Sep 15th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCUP said it would pulp all unsold copies of the book, and wanted to pulp all library copies.… Read the rest
A poll
Sep 14th, 2007 4:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonSpeaking of morality – Jean has an interesting Ethics Poll: The Talent Show. She wants more takers, so why not amble over and take it (it’s just one question).… Read the rest
Ultimately enhancing human flourishing
Sep 14th, 2007 4:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonMore thoughts on morality, Haidt, emotion, confabulation, intuition, reasoning, cultural relativism, disgust, purity, and so on.
Haidt at Edge again:
We all care about morality so passionately that it’s hard to look straight at it. We all look at the world through some kind of moral lens, and because most of the academic community uses the same lens, we validate each other’s visions and distortions. I think this problem is particularly acute in some of the new scientific writing about religion.
I’m not sure that is a problem. I can see that it’s a potential problem, and I can believe it’s sometimes a problem, but I’m not sure it is a problem overall – because I think the moral lens … Read the rest
Pretending to know what we don’t and can’t know
Sep 14th, 2007 12:28 pm | By Ophelia BensonThought for the day. Sam Harris replying to Jonathan Haidt at Edge.
The point is that religion remains the only mode of discourse that encourages grown men and women to pretend to know things they manifestly do not (and cannot) know. If ever there were an attitude at odds with science, this is it. And the faithful are encouraged to keep shouldering this unwieldy burden of falsehood and self-deception by everyone they meet – by their coreligionists, of course, and by people of differing faith, and now, with startling frequency, by scientists who claim to have no faith.
Just so. Often we’re not just encouraged to pretent to know what we don’t and can’t know, we’re more or … Read the rest
Young people are not as naïve as some adults think
Sep 14th, 2007 12:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonA new course on ‘Islamophobia’…
There are clear parallels in the prejudices, stereotypes and misconceptions of Islamophobia and sectarianism, says Mr Gray. But there are also important differences…“One thing I try to get across to young people is that terrorists are not truly Islamic,” he says. “The word ‘Islam’ means ‘peace’, and if you read the Qur’an it has a message of peace on almost every page. The idea of murder is utterly against its teachings. Any text is open to interpretation, but the fundamental truth of the Qur’an is submission to the will of God, who demands that Muslims are seen to be peaceful people.”
The word ‘Islam’ means ‘submission,’ and if you read the Qur’an it has … Read the rest
Evidence-based Report on ‘Ram’ Withdrawn
Sep 14th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonGovernment and Archaeological Survey said there was no scientific evidence that Ram was real.… Read the rest
Schools Course on ‘Islamophobia’
Sep 14th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“‘Islam’ means ‘peace’, and if you read the Qur’an it has a message of peace on almost every page.”… Read the rest
More Boilerplate on the ‘New Atheism’
Sep 14th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonReligion simply isn’t about facts, so shut up.… Read the rest
Sam Harris Responds to Jonathan Haidt
Sep 14th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonReligion is the only discourse that encourages adults to pretend to know things they do not know.… Read the rest
Questioning the faith of the million
Sep 14th, 2007 11:59 am | By Ophelia BensonIf a scientific investigation says one thing and an ancient epic says another, who ya gonna believe? Well duh – the epic, obviously.
There was a proposed shipping canal project, but
… Read the restHindu hardliners say the project will destroy what they say is a bridge built by Ram and his army of monkeys. Scientists and archaeologists say the Ram Setu (Lord Ram’s bridge)…is a natural formation of sand and stones. In their report submitted to the court, the government and the Archaeological Survey of India questioned the belief, saying it was solely based on the Hindu mythological epic Ramayana. They said there was no scientific evidence to prove that the events described in Ramayana ever took place or that the
Normblog on Why Truth Matters
Sep 13th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf there is no truth, there is no crime. There are only different stories.… Read the rest