Kerkar Going Ahead With Exhibition *

Aug 19th, 2009 | Filed by

‘Radical groups do not have the power of attorney over Lord Ganesh,’ Kerkar told reporters.… Read the rest



Police Bow to Pressure, Tell Kerkar to Stop *

Aug 19th, 2009 | Filed by

Police told Goan artist Subodh Kerkar to desist ‘activities which may insult religious feelings or religious beliefs.’… Read the rest



Indian Artist Receives Threats Over Hindu Images *

Aug 19th, 2009 | Filed by

Subodh Kerkar says threats started when Sanatan Sanstha told Hindus to call him and ‘express their anguish.’… Read the rest



Atheism Helping or Hurting Science Literacy? *

Aug 19th, 2009 | Filed by

Accommodationists create conflict because they realize their ideal world can’t co-exist with dissenting views.… Read the rest



Joan Smith on Shameful Gender Segregation *

Aug 19th, 2009 | Filed by

Gender segregation is rooted in religious ideas about purity and the need to curb sexual expression.… Read the rest



Gubbar, Gud och kvinnor

Aug 18th, 2009 3:54 pm | By

Oh look, people are reading Does God Hate Women? in the rest of Europe. Someone in Sweden and someone in the Netherlands – in Trouw no less.

I can kind of tell that Elma Drayer in Trouw likes it – she calls it a hilarious pamphlet, which in my book means she likes it. If I’m not mistaken she likes the point we make about the Vatican’s justification for saying all clergy have to be male, which is that all Jesus’s disciples were male; we point out that they all spoke Aramaic, too, but that’s not a requirement for being a priest, and it’s not obvious why maleness should be either, apart of course from the fact that clerical males … Read the rest



Threats that hadn’t even been made yet

Aug 18th, 2009 3:40 pm | By

Sound familiar?

The capitulation of Yale University Press to threats that hadn’t even been made yet is the latest and perhaps the worst episode in the steady surrender to religious extremism—particularly Muslim religious extremism—that is spreading across our culture.

Oh yes the capitulation to threats that haven’t even been made yet – that’s what happened with The Jewel of Medina, and it’s what seemed to be about to happen (but, happily, and to the credit of our publisher, didn’t) with Does God Hate Women?.

A book called The Cartoons That Shook the World, by Danish-born Jytte Klausen, who is a professor of politics at Brandeis University, tells the story of the lurid and preplanned campaign of

Read the rest


The candle flickers

Aug 18th, 2009 3:37 pm | By

Would anyone be interested in volunteering to do a little webmastering for B&W? The reward would be B&W’s continued existence. Drop me a line if so.… Read the rest



Violence Against Women in Guatemala *

Aug 18th, 2009 | Filed by

Read more.… Read the rest



Guatemala’s Femicide Crisis *

Aug 18th, 2009 | Filed by

The pattern of violence includes sexual assault and physical torture before the women are killed.… Read the rest



The Aquatic Ape and Pseudoscience *

Aug 18th, 2009 | Filed by

What distinguishes science from pseudoscience is social.… Read the rest



Rod Dreher on ‘Fundamentalist Atheism’ *

Aug 18th, 2009 | Filed by

‘The True Unbelievers prove that you don’t have to be religious to be a fundamentalist.’… Read the rest



Hitchens on Yale UP and the Motoons *

Aug 18th, 2009 | Filed by

Now we have to say that the mayhem we fear is also our fault, if not indeed our direct responsibility. … Read the rest



Focus on Human Rights in Afghanistan *

Aug 18th, 2009 | Filed by

The importance of human rights to the international effort in Afghanistan has been lost.… Read the rest



Lord Patel Demands Apology from Fitzpatrick *

Aug 18th, 2009 | Filed by

Calls him ‘cowardly’ for saying sex segregation is ‘intolerant.’ Fitzpatrick says nothing cowardly about it.… Read the rest



In the new order there will be Unity

Aug 17th, 2009 5:45 pm | By

Just for the sake of keeping track of the twins’ escalating malice and finger-pointing and vindictiveness, let’s have a look at something they teasingly call ‘A Call for Peace in the Science/Faith Battle’ (hahahaha that’s a good one when you see how they go about it). They wrote it in late July, touchingly, for a column at Beliefnet called ‘Science and the Sacred’ which is normally reserved for the boffins at BioLogos.

They start off by saying ‘the supposed “conflict” between science and religion’ is so unnecessary, but they don’t waste much time on saying that because they’d so much rather get down to saying how awful the “New” atheists are yet again. The latest ‘incarnation’ of the … Read the rest



Not Chicken Soup for the Soul *

Aug 17th, 2009 | Filed by

Researchers in positive psychology fight its image as a New Agey self-help movement.… Read the rest



The Future of Iranian Feminism *

Aug 17th, 2009 | Filed by

The women’s movement has built an independent structure that the regime has not been able to crack.… Read the rest



Women Blocked From Voting in Afghanistan *

Aug 17th, 2009 | Filed by

Polling stations are sex-segregated and there aren’t enough women to staff them, so tough luck.… Read the rest



Grayling on Opposing Mindsets *

Aug 17th, 2009 | Filed by

On one side are those who inquire; on
the other are those who espouse a belief system which pre-packages all the answers.… Read the rest