Deliberately killing humanitarian workers is an outrage which we don’t denounce enough.… Read the rest
UN Engineer Killed in Somalia 
Oct 21st, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Intelligence sources say the assassination of aid workers by trained killers has become the norm.… Read the rest
Charity Worker Killed in Afghanistan
Oct 21st, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told AFP that they killed Gayle Williams.… Read the rest
Kambaksh Death Sentence Commuted
Oct 21st, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
To 20 years in prison for downloading material from the internet on women’s rights in Islam.… Read the rest
Choosing to Know
Oct 21st, 2008 | By Ronald AronsonThe fact that nearly half of all Americans reject evolution is depressing enough, but the opinions of college graduates may cause despair. One in three holders of bachelor’s and postgraduate degrees deny that “Darwin’s theory of evolution [is] proved by fossil evidence.” Even more dismal, only about one-third of U.S. college graduates and postgraduates admit to a “belief in evolution”—while about sixty percent accept Creationism or its Trojan Horse, Intelligent Design.[1] In over thirty countries, including every other advanced society, a higher percentage of the general population accepts evolution: in pious Ireland, for example, the number accepting evolution is sixty percent higher than in the U.S.! Americans are just as likely to choose to believe in ghosts and UFOs as … Read the rest
The right to be offended
Oct 20th, 2008 4:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonShelina Zahra Janmohamed has read The Jewel of Medina.
Muslims hold Muhammad, Aisha and other religious figures very close to their hearts, dearer to them than their own parents, and just as much to be respected, protected and defended.
What other religious figures? And how many of them? And in any case how very peculiar to hold long-dead people dearer than one’s parents, and also to consider them to need to be respected, protected and defended. They’re dead – they don’t need to be respected, protected and defended, and furthermore, as ‘religious figures,’ they shouldn’t be respected, protected and defended as a matter of right and duty; they should be closely watched, questioned, doubted, and if necessary disobeyed. This … Read the rest
Atheist Supports Sharia in Scotland
Oct 20th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Domestic violence would not be crime in sharia courts, so that would be good for Muslim men.… Read the rest
The Guardian Sneers at Libraries
Oct 20th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Libraries could hardly not be about books,’ but they can damn well give it their best shot.… Read the rest
Fleischacker on the Israel-Palestine Conflict 7
Oct 20th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Nationalists are frequently contemptuous of the individual rights beloved of liberals.… Read the rest
Jane Mayer on the Choice of Sarah Palin
Oct 20th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Palin has positioned herself as an insurgent but has routinely turned to Washington’s Old Guard for help.… Read the rest
Ronald Aronson on Undercounting Secularists
Oct 20th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
When will they demand that the spirit of multiculturalism be extended to those who do not pray?… Read the rest
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed on Jewel of Medina
Oct 20th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Outdated Orientalist reading; marriage for girls in early teens normal; offended; hurt; empathy; respect.… Read the rest
Just Fancy: the Soul is the Brain
Oct 19th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Your mental life is a product of your brain. If you want to call that a soul…whatever.… Read the rest
Religious Grievances on the Increase
Oct 19th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Muslims want prayer breaks, non-Muslims don’t want to do their work; impasse.… Read the rest
Girl, 11, Set on Fire for Wearing Lipstick
Oct 19th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Her great-uncle, a conservative Muslim, told police he was enraged at the girl for being ‘scantily dressed.’… Read the rest
Hindus to Christians: Convert or We Will Kill You
Oct 19th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘If you go on being Christians, we will burn your houses and your children in front of you.’… Read the rest
Chet Raymo on Miracles
Oct 19th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Once we let some miracles in the door, there is no consistent way to exclude others.… Read the rest
The miracle of prayer
Oct 19th, 2008 9:39 am | By Ophelia BensonChet Raymo quotes Kenneth Miller on prayer:
Finally, any traditional believer must agree that God is able to influence the thoughts and actions of individual human beings. We pray for strength, we pray for patience, and we pray for understanding. Prayer is an element of faith, and bound within it is the conviction that God can affect us and those we pray for in positive ways.
Wait. If we pray for strength, patience and understanding and find (or believe we find) that we have more strength, patience and understanding, that could simply be because praying is a way we get ourselves to have more strength, patience and understanding. It’s true that in that sense ‘faith’ may well work – … Read the rest
Escape? Of course you can’t escape!
Oct 18th, 2008 1:29 pm | By Ophelia BensonI was flicking through tv stations the other evening and happened on Martin Sheen looking earnest, so I paused to hear what he had to say – expecting pleasant murmurs about Obama or urbane skepticism about McCain, I suppose. But no – what I got was some irritating Catholic boilerplate about Washington state’s Initiative 1000, which allows doctors, under certain very limited careful circumstances, to give terminal patients drugs with which to end the misery. Martin Sheen’s against it. This makes me angry. It makes me angry because it shouldn’t be anyone else’s business. No one is offering to force assisted suicide on anyone. The point of the initiative is to make it available (with level upon level of … Read the rest
States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal
Oct 18th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
For every voter added in the past two months in some states, election officials have removed two.… Read the rest
