Why can’t you be humble like me you bastard?!

Sep 8th, 2007 1:38 pm | By

Mark Vernon is annoying. Again.

But if you speak to people who believe literally in the six days of Genesis, they do so in part because they fear the moral nihilism they see as implicit in a Dawkins-style Darwinism. Dawkins’ approach is pretty nihilistic because he insists on the meaning-lite doctrine of ‘science as salvation’, as Mary Midgley put it. He will never win the Creationists over. Rather, he is likely to confirm them in their belief.

Notice the complete absence of substantiation for that silly accusation. Notice the failure even to say what it’s supposed to mean – notice the obnoxious combination of the emphatic verb ‘insists’ with the labeling via someone else’s unexplained epithet. Does Dawkins ‘insist’ … Read the rest



Bible Study More Important Than Doing the Job *

Sep 8th, 2007 | Filed by

Says head of U.S. government agency that pays benefits to disabled veterans.… Read the rest



Iraq Freezes Funds of Women’s Rights Group *

Sep 8th, 2007 | Filed by

The Organisation for Women’s Freedom in Iraq shelters women who are threatened by honor killing.… Read the rest



Ben Goldacre on Conflict of Interest *

Sep 8th, 2007 | Filed by

It is extremely common for journalists to take money from pharmaceutical companies.… Read the rest



Scott McLemee on The Last Intellectuals *

Sep 8th, 2007 | Filed by

The zeitgeist overlooked features of Russell Jacoby’s argument that did not fit into a simplified history.… Read the rest



Celibate Priest Urges More Breeding *

Sep 8th, 2007 | Filed by

Pope warns Europe not to ’embrace’ abortion, urges it to embrace Xianity.… Read the rest



Man Jailed for Taking Woman to Hospital *

Sep 7th, 2007 | Filed by

His neighbor was ill, he helped her, so he was accused by religious police of immoral behaviour.… Read the rest



Primates Expect Others to Act Rationally *

Sep 7th, 2007 | Filed by

A new study shows that non-human primates infer others’ intentions in a sophisticated way.… Read the rest



Excerpt from Grayling’s Towards the Light *

Sep 7th, 2007 | Filed by

A Western citizen is a possessor of rights and opportunities that only an aristocrat could hope for in the past.… Read the rest



More Kack from Madeleine Bunting *

Sep 7th, 2007 | Filed by

Dawkins doesn’t understand myth, he’s arrogant, Cornwell’s book is a powerful riposte.… Read the rest



Secular Group Sues Round Rock School District *

Sep 7th, 2007 | Filed by

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: allowing a majority vote on prayer violates federal law.… Read the rest



Two Women Beheaded in Pakistan *

Sep 7th, 2007 | Filed by

A note found on the bodies said ‘We have started doing this to end obscenity in the area.’… Read the rest



Letter to a Friend: On Islamic Fundamentalism

Sep 7th, 2007 | By Daphne Patai

September 11, 2006 8 p.m.

Today is September 11th and I suppose every single person in this country knows what they were doing on this date five years ago. I recall the feeling of unreality I had as I watched a small TV screen here at home repeatedly play tiny images of two towers collapsing. And then, in the immediate aftermath, do you remember how many in this country – especially among intellectuals and academics – wanted to discuss what “we” had done to “deserve” this? Those were hard days, and in many respects the years since then have been harder still, for although I had by then already spent decades in the strange ideological climate of American academic life, … Read the rest



“John Cornwell”

Sep 6th, 2007 5:44 pm | By

Richard Dawkins takes an exasperated look at John Cornwell’s throughgoing misrepresentation of his book. In one example, Cornwell takes part of a general discussion of consolation, which includes this passage –

We can also get consolation through discovering a new way of thinking about a situation. A philosopher points out that there is nothing special about the moment when an old man dies. The child that he once was “died’ long ago, not by suddenly ceasing to live but by growing up. Each of the seven ages of man “dies’ by slowly morphing into the next. From this point of view, the moment when the old man finally expires is no different from the slow “deaths’ throughout his life.

and … Read the rest



Simon Blackburn on Moral Relativism *

Sep 6th, 2007 | Filed by

Should we just tolerate other ways of living? Can philosophers be experts in morality? … Read the rest



On Consequentialism *

Sep 6th, 2007 | Filed by

Brad Hooker, a consequentialist himself, outlines and defends his position in this interview with Nigel Warburton.… Read the rest



Charlie Savage on the Imperial President [audio] *

Sep 6th, 2007 | Filed by

Boston Globe reporter’s book describes how the Bush-Cheney admin has expanded executive power.… Read the rest



Hillary Clinton and Jesus *

Sep 6th, 2007 | Filed by

For 15 years, HC has been part of a secretive religious group that seeks to bring Jesus back to Capitol Hill.… Read the rest



Dawkins Reads John Cornwell *

Sep 6th, 2007 | Filed by

Cornwell does some annoyingly creative reading of Dawkins.… Read the rest



Dawkins Meets (and Reviews) Hitchens *

Sep 6th, 2007 | Filed by

America is far from the know-nothing theocracy that two terms of Bush had led us to fear. … Read the rest