‘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 Ophelia BensonPolice 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 Ophelia BensonSubodh 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 Ophelia BensonAccommodationists 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 Ophelia BensonGender 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 Ophelia BensonOh 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 Ophelia BensonThe 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?.
… Read the restA 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
The candle flickers
Aug 18th, 2009 3:37 pm | By Ophelia BensonWould 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 Ophelia BensonRead more.… Read the rest
Guatemala’s Femicide Crisis
Aug 18th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe 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 Ophelia BensonWhat distinguishes science from pseudoscience is social.… Read the rest
Rod Dreher on ‘Fundamentalist Atheism’
Aug 18th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘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 Ophelia BensonNow 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 Ophelia BensonThe 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 Ophelia BensonCalls 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 Ophelia BensonJust 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 Ophelia BensonResearchers 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 Ophelia BensonThe 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 Ophelia BensonPolling 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 Ophelia BensonOn 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