What is blasphemy

Apr 7th, 2008 3:54 pm | By

From David Littman’s article.

In an 18 February 1994 letter addressed to all delegates at the Commission on Human Rights, the Sudanese ambassador requested an immediate withdrawal of any reference – from the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Sudan – in which certain inconsistences were indicated between the international human rights conventions and the provisions of Sudan’s Criminal Act of 1991. The ambassador alleged that the report “contained abusive, inconsiderate, blasphemous and offensive remarks about the Islamic faith.” A further Sudanese circular, entitled, “Attack on Islam,” claimed that portions of the report “represent a vicious attack on the religion of Islam and contain a call for the abolition of its Islamic Penal Legislation.”

The Rapporteur’s report indicated tensions … Read the rest



Human Rights and Free Speech Rights *

Apr 7th, 2008 | Filed by

A group of students filed a complaint against Maclean’s for a piece they feel violated their human rights.… Read the rest



Convenient Untruths *

Apr 7th, 2008 | Filed by

Humans have a remarkable ability to tune out facts that don’t support pre-existing beliefs. … Read the rest



Mass Rescue at Fundamentalist Compound *

Apr 7th, 2008 | Filed by

Authorities remove more than 220 women and children from polygamous Mormon ranch in Texas.… Read the rest



Hitchens on Belief in Belief *

Apr 7th, 2008 | Filed by

Is it not possible that the missionaries of ‘faith’ regard the objects of their charity as mere raw material?… Read the rest



Standing Idly By While Rights Are Undermined *

Apr 7th, 2008 | Filed by

By seeking to criminalize free speech, the resolution stands in breach of the UDHR.… Read the rest



Short answers

Apr 6th, 2008 4:17 pm | By

I mentioned that believers can resort to a quick and easy way with difficult questions that secular thinkers and atheists can’t, and that this lack is perhaps one reason students are always moral relativists. We can offer reasons for thinking X is better than Y, or for thinking Z is entirely unacceptable in any moral universe we can think of (executing gays for being gay, genocide, murdering women for talking to an unrelated man), but we can’t hand out anything as brisk and simple and conversation-stopping as ‘God said so.’ Believers* have a short cut which unbelievers don’t have. Believers have an answer that is both quick and easy, while unbelievers have to spend time and effort if … Read the rest



Two Men Get Months in Prison for Killing Woman *

Apr 6th, 2008 | Filed by

Tribunal reduced the murder charge to a misdemeanour: defendant was defending ‘family honour.’… Read the rest



Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Report *

Apr 6th, 2008 | Filed by

2007 proved to be one of the worst years for human rights in Pakistan’s history… Read the rest



Grayling on ‘Explaining Religion’ *

Apr 6th, 2008 | Filed by

The concept of religiosity will need clarification before a computational model of its dynamics is possible.… Read the rest



‘Psychics’ Fight New Consumer Laws *

Apr 6th, 2008 | Filed by

Promises to raise the dead, secure good fortune or heal via laying on of hands all at risk of legal action.… Read the rest



Matthew Parris Corrects Blair’s Homework *

Apr 6th, 2008 | Filed by

Define your terms. What’s your evidence for this? How do you square this with para 2? What does this mean?… Read the rest



The truth about Islam…and where to find it

Apr 6th, 2008 | By Adrian Reddy

It is a matter of increasing importance that non-Muslims should be able to get a clear idea of Islam’s true attitude towards them. The questions are simple enough: Does Islam teach violence, or peace? Does it wish to coexist with other religions, or to dominate them? Do the jihadis represent Islam, or are they just a lunatic fringe? It should be a simple matter to get definitive, authoritative answers to such questions but, in fact, it is far from simple.

For those in politics and the media, the solution appears to be obvious: ask a Muslim theologian. This has been the approach taken, for example, by Ken Livingstone, the present Mayor of London, in his meetings with Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi: … Read the rest



It’s all so unfair

Apr 6th, 2008 10:42 am | By

Oh dear, the poor psychics are worried.

[N]ow psychics must add a few riders before they invoke the voices of the dead, thanks to new consumer laws due to come into force…Promises to raise the dead, secure good fortune or heal through the laying on of hands are all at risk of legal action from disgruntled customers. Spiritualists say they will be forced to issue disclaimers, such as ‘this is a scientific experiment, the results of which cannot be guaranteed’. They claim the new regulations will leave them open to malicious civil action by sceptics.

Uh…yeah; and? If you promise to raise the dead or secure good fortune or heal via magic, why shouldn’t you be at risk of … Read the rest



The secular conscience

Apr 5th, 2008 4:01 pm | By

I went to a talk by Austin Dacey yesterday to the Secular Students’ Union at the University of Washington. He’s a philosopher, he has a new book out, The Secular Conscience, and he’s a United Nations representative for the Center for Inquiry. It seems quite a good thing that CFI should have a UN representative, especially now. I’m looking forward to reading The Secular Conscience. Austin mentioned during his talk how reliably predictable it was that new students would be moral relativists, and the secular students lived up to the advance billing: all their questions were about how to ground morality. After about the fifth or sixth such question Austin wondered why people expect the answers to such … Read the rest



That which is special about religion

Apr 5th, 2008 12:38 pm | By

What’s Blair talking about?

“For religion to be a force for good, it must be rescued not simply from extremism, faith as a means of exclusion; but also from irrelevance, an interesting part of our history but not of our future.” Too many people saw religious faith as stark dogmatism and empty ritual, he added. “Faith is reduced to a system of strange convictions and actions that, to some, can appear far removed from the necessities and anxieties of ordinary life,” Blair said. “It is this face that gives militant secularism an easy target.”

Militant secularism yourself. We’re not the ones who resort to violence when people don’t agree with us, so don’t be so free with your adjectives, not … Read the rest



Unprecedented April 1 Victory for Rationalism *

Apr 5th, 2008 | Filed by

Catholic priests in Gateshead will be required to read out a disclaimer prior to Communion. … Read the rest



Steinbeck’s Reputation *

Apr 5th, 2008 | Filed by

Required reading in US schools, ignored everywhere else.… Read the rest



Zadie Smith the Dream, Naipaul the Nightmare *

Apr 5th, 2008 | Filed by

For a successful immigrant writer to take the positions he did was seen as a special kind of treason.… Read the rest



Blair Says How Useful Religion Is *

Apr 5th, 2008 | Filed by

‘Faith is reduced to a system of strange convictions.’ But without strange convictions, what is ‘faith’?… Read the rest