Clueless ancien-régime conservatives were feebly clinging to their last levers of power.… Read the rest
The file keeps expanding
Jul 18th, 2009 5:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnother entry (they’re coming in thick and fast these days) in the “Random hostile assertions about ‘New’ atheists” file. This one, I’m sorry to say, is from HE Baber, with whom I have had friendly exchanges, and whose blog I like, and who has a way of seeing things from an unexpected angle. But ‘New’ atheists are not among the things she sees from an unexpected angle.
… Read the restMost people I know are atheists. But they’re atheists of the old kind who have no particular interest in proselytising because they do not believe that anything of importance hangs on whether or not people believe in God and because they recognise that theological claims are controversial. Unlike the New Atheists they don’t
Kenan Malik Reviews Christopher Caldwell
Jul 18th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonReflections on the Revolution in Europe is robustly argued. It is also fundamentally wrong.… Read the rest
Laurie Taylor Talks to Terry Eagleton
Jul 18th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘I don’t want to deny that there are a lot of simplistic ways of thinking in religion.’ Oh yes you do!… Read the rest
Martin Amis on Pathological Fantasies
Jul 18th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe mullahs now know that they are afloat on an ocean of illegitimacy. … Read the rest
Jerusalem Court Orders Mother’s Release
Jul 18th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThousands of Haredi residents rioted over the arrest of a woman accused of starving her child.… Read the rest
Judith Shklar and Materialist Mercy
Jul 18th, 2009 | By Joshua F. LeachReligious people, and Christians in particular, are generally
supposed to be outstandingly merciful is all things, as is
their God. True, there is a range of behavior which falls
within the definition of mercy. For Saint Augustine, writing
after the sack of Rome, the greatest act of mercy he could
think of was that the Christian tribes who torched the city
spared people seeking sanctuary in Churches. As for the fate
of the non-Christians in Rome who were either slaughtered or
raped, Augustine was entirely unconcerned. What did bother
him was that a few Christians were subjected to the same fate.
Still, he reassured himself by recalling that many of those
Christians were too attached to worldly goods and possessions… Read the rest
It wasn’t all there was
Jul 18th, 2009 11:08 am | By Ophelia BensonSometimes the jaw simply drops, the incredulous oath simply forces its way out past the teeth. This is one of those times – Terry Eagleton explaining the merits of a Catholic schooling to Laurie Taylor.
… Read the rest“I valued the way it taught me to think analytically, to not be afraid of analytic thought, however nonsensical some of the content surely was. There was an opportunity to argue.”
But how could he square that relatively sanguine memory with the requirement at Catholic schools to memorise and recite the absurd one-line strictures contained in the standard catechism?
“I agree that the catechism was a way of short-circuiting thought. But it wasn’t all there was. I also remember a religious teacher in the
What we need
Jul 17th, 2009 5:55 pm | By Ophelia BensonComment is Free’s ‘Belief’ asks whether we should believe in belief and makes a highly debatable assertion on the way.
[S]ocieties do need myths, as indeed do individuals. Take away their organising beliefs about their purpose in the world and both individuals and societies disintegrate: the belief that societies can function without myths, or rather that they should and will in the enlightened future, is itself a myth, and not a very helpful one.
Organizing beliefs are one thing, and myths are another. It is perfectly possible to have organizing beliefs about one’s purpose in the world without believing in myths. It gets rather exasperating sometimes noticing how sloppy and casual and offhanded people can be about mixing up their … Read the rest
1 in 4 Britons Think Moon Landing Was a Hoax
Jul 17th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia Benson11 of 1009 think Buzz Lightyear was the first person on the moon.… Read the rest
Walter Cronkite
Jul 17th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSo long and thanks for all the news.… Read the rest
Science, Science Literacy and Religion
Jul 17th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMichael Rosch is not persuaded by Unscientific America.… Read the rest
Paul Vallely on Eagleton and Armstrong
Jul 17th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHard to find words for how stupid this is.… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo Question the Barmaid
Jul 17th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBut it’s like talking to a brick wall.… Read the rest
People Praying at Tree Stump Are Like Dawkins
Jul 17th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey’re nuts and he’s nuts. No. They’re fanatics and he’s a fanatic. No. He’s a fanatic and they’re not. Yes!… Read the rest
No Bible Distribution In Public School
Jul 17th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFederal Court ruled unanimously: district may not allow distribution of Bibles to children in elementary school.… Read the rest
Closeted Atheists
Jul 17th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonChristians are encouraged to trumpet their beliefs, atheists are encouraged to do the other thing.… Read the rest
Quest for ‘Spiritual Cleansing’ Goes Wrong
Jul 17th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLave Tet ‘improves the ability for possession, clears the mind, clarifies abilities for seeing…’… Read the rest
Is it something in the water?
Jul 17th, 2009 11:45 am | By Ophelia BensonThis is the stupidest thing I’ve read since…well since the last eruption from the twins. There’s so much stupid in it that it’s hard to single it all out.
Saying that science has made religion redundant is rather like saying that thanks to the electric toaster we can forget about Chekhov, says Terry Eagleton in this gloriously rumbustious counter-blast to Dawkinsite atheism…paradoxes sparkle throughout this coruscatingly brilliant polemic…
Brilliant my ass. It’s tricksy, it’s decorated, but it’s not brilliant.
Eagleton is not anti-science or reason. He merely points out that science has produced Hiroshima as well as penicillin.
Because nobody would know that if he hadn’t merely pointed it out, and besides it’s stupid to say that … Read the rest
Fragility
Jul 16th, 2009 6:13 pm | By Ophelia BensonDaniel Dennett gives the believers just the tiniest of prods.
Today one of the most insistent forces arrayed in opposition to us vocal atheists is the “I’m an atheist but” crowd, who publicly deplore our “hostility”, our “rudeness” (which is actually just candour), while privately admitting that we’re right. They don’t themselves believe in God, but they certainly do believe in belief in God.
Yes, but that is because belief in God is a very peculiar and special kind of belief that goes all spiky and painful if outsiders explain why they don’t share it. It doesn’t work the other way, of course – non-believers don’t double up in pain if believers explain why they don’t share the … Read the rest