Critics say AI has diluted its defence of universal human rights by allying with a group that rejects that principle.… Read the rest
Gita Sahgal Has Left Amnesty International
Apr 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSaid her years of working for women’s rights had been a waste of time because of AI’s work with Begg and Cageprisoners.… Read the rest
Hitchens on the Pope and the Law
Apr 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRatzinger and diocese were concerned only with one question: Can this hurt Holy Mother Church? … Read the rest
Connecticut Bishops Fight Sex Abuse Bill
Apr 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe proposed change to the law would put ‘all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk.’… Read the rest
Bishop Blames Jews for Church’s Difficulties
Apr 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers.’… Read the rest
Rust Belt Philosophy on Hume and Harris
Apr 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt would be nice if obeying metaphysical rules always led to social goods for the majority of people, but…… Read the rest
Nicholas Kristof on Another Dead Child Bride
Apr 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShe was tied down and raped by her husband, according to her mother, police, and medical reports.… Read the rest
Girl Bleeds to Death After Forced Marriage
Apr 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn Yemen, where more than a quarter of girls are married before the age of 15. … Read the rest
Massimo Pigliucci Disputes Sam Harris
Apr 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn what sense can science answer (as opposed to inform) ethical questions?… Read the rest
Points for accuracy
Apr 11th, 2010 5:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhat is it with Massimo Pigliucci and the dreaded Dawkins-Coyne Phalanx or whatever it is? Why does he keep…pinging at them? And saying things that are exaggerated at best?
…my problem with Dawkins and Coyne is different, but stems from the same root: their position on morality is indeed distinct from Harris’ (at least Dawkins’, I don’t recall having read anything by Coyne on morality), but they insist in applying science to the supernatural, which is simply another form of the same malady that strikes Harris: scientism, the idea that science can do everything and provides us with all the answers that are worth having.
Dawkins and Coyne don’t think or say or write that science can do everything … Read the rest
Journalistic ethics
Apr 11th, 2010 4:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Times is shameless. (Wait – why do I even bother to say that? It’s a Murdoch paper. Murdoch is the genius behind Fox “News” – for which the word “shameless” would be gross flattery.) Its headline is untrue, yet it won’t even post a letter from the subject saying so.
The Times ran the headline: Richard Dawkins: I will arrest Pope Benedict XVI. It went on to say he was planning a legal ambush, he’d asked lawyers to do things, and so on. He says that’s not how it went. He posted a comment on the Times (and his own site) saying how it went.
… Read the restNeedless to say, I did NOT say “I will arrest Pope Benedict
Meera Nanda on God and Globalization Gospel
Apr 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIndia is not the only country where markets are supposed to be exorcising the demons of religious fanaticism.… Read the rest
Nicholas Lezard Reviews Baggini on Spin
Apr 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe book that started life here as ‘Bad Moves’ column.… Read the rest
Official Body Tries to Hide Scientific Ignorance
Apr 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNational Science Board Survey removed survey sections on evolution and cosmology.… Read the rest
Even Ruse is Disgusted by the Vatican
Apr 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere is no concern whatsoever for the victims. Simply fear of the story getting out and advice for how to prevent it happening.… Read the rest
Vatican Can No Longer Ignore International Law
Apr 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhich now counts the widespread or systematic sexual abuse of children as a crime against humanity.… Read the rest
Steiner racism and state funding
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAt Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship ‘special pre-election seminar’ … Read the rest
Alaina Podmorow in action, age 11.
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCanadian government matches funds raised by Little Women For Little Women in Afghanistan.… Read the rest
The Skeptic’s dictionary on alien abductions
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJohn Mack claimed that he could think of no better explanation for his patient’s abduction stories than that they were true.… Read the rest
NOVA Talks to John Mack
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn case after case after case, I’ve been impressed with the sincerity with which people tell their stories, the power of feelings connected with this.… Read the rest