Problems that arise when common sense conflicts with the science-based view that we inhabit a purely physical, mechanistic, deterministic universe.… Read the rest
Sharia is just misunderstood
Sep 4th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s just like the US Constitution, only older, so that makes it even better.… Read the rest
Danish producers regret making ad for Sweden Democrats
Sep 3rd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSwedish broadcasters declined to show the film, and no Swedish production company was willing to produce it.… Read the rest
Sweden: tv station rejects ad as hate speech
Sep 3rd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“The difference between freedom of speech and incitement to hatred against an ethnic group must be understood,” said Mona Sahlin of Social Democrats.… Read the rest
Religious minorities suffering worst in Pakistan floods
Sep 3rd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNecla Kelek defends Sarrazin (with reservations)
Sep 3rd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe put some claims badly and should apologize, but he’s right about many of them, and the discussion is necessary.… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo and Mo say Hawking is wrong
Sep 3rd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonScience can say how but only religion can say why so yaboosucks.… Read the rest
Sarah Palin – not as nice as you thought
Sep 2nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShe manages to be at once a closed book and a constant noisemaker.… Read the rest
La la la la la
Sep 2nd, 2010 1:20 pm | By Ophelia BensonIf you haven’t seen the merengue dog…well it’s a life-altering thing.
Don’t miss it.
Really.… Read the rest
Three cheers for “the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death”
Sep 2nd, 2010 12:58 pm | By Ophelia BensonJoan Smith is very happy to live in the “geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death” that is contemporary London. Of course she damn well is. She’s allowed to go out in public with without a chaperone there; she won’t be stoned to death there; she won’t be whipped for not wearing hijab there. She can ignore the pope there.
… Read the restFrankly, I’m tired of hearing religious bigots running down this country….Britain is still one of the most civilised places in the world to live. It’s not Iran, where prisoners are subjected to rape and mock executions; it isn’t Saudi Arabia either…The Catholic Church has picked up this habit of dissing secular culture from hardline Muslims, who dislike pretty much the
Nicholas Humphrey replies to Mary Midgley
Sep 2nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBy pointing out how she distorted what he had said in order to make her point. Bad philosopher, no cookie.… Read the rest
God debate via Hawking on God and universe
Sep 2nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHawking says God played no role in creating the Universe. Dawkins, Gledhill and readers discuss.… Read the rest
Joan Smith rejoices in Britain’s “culture of death”
Sep 2nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAs a “senior Catholic” called it, but the real cultures of death are in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Christianity itself.… Read the rest
Hitchens on paradoxes of prayer
Sep 2nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe god who would reward cowardice and dishonesty and punish irreconcilable doubt is among the many gods in which I do not believe.… Read the rest
Pankaj Mishra
Sep 1st, 2010 11:33 am | By Ophelia BensonUgly stuff from Pankaj Mishra.
Bestselling authors like Ayaan Hirsi Ali may be the “new heroes”, as the writer Peter Beinart puts it, of the Republican party’s crusade against Muslims. But “professional” former Muslims have long provided respectable cover for the bigotry and, more often, plain ignorance of mainstream western commentators on Islam…Most of these ex-Muslim “dissidents” lucratively raging against Islam in the west wouldn’t be able to flourish without the imprimatur of influential institutions and individuals in the US and Europe.
Most of what “professional” ex-Muslim “dissidents” lucratively raging against Islam? It’s not lucrative for all ex-Muslim dissidents, after all – in fact it’s not lucrative for any of them except possibly Hirsi Ali, and she has heavy … Read the rest
Secular Nepal – Challenges Ahead
Sep 1st, 2010 | By Ravi DhungelNepal is the youngest secular country in the world. With the interim constitution moving farther away from the nitty-gritty of constitution making, the so-called secular Nepal lingers farther away on the horizon. The politicians are busy manifesting the new but failed doctrine in the name of national consensus to make the national government, merely for the sake of power. Paradoxically, the pro-Hindu faction keeps on demonstrating and chanting against the abolition of the Hindu kingdom, the religious icon of Nepal. There are hundreds of ethnic groups based on particular religions. Ethnic diversity prevails along with the geographic diversity of Nepal. The society is inevitably polarizing in terms of caste, region and religion. Is this the notion of the new secular … Read the rest
A nasty rant by Pankaj Mishra
Sep 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAt Ayaan Hirsi Ali for daring to disagree with Tariq Ramadan.… Read the rest
Evan Harris on religious instruction and science
Sep 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“It is no good teaching about evolution in a science lesson at 9am then at 10am, in a religious education lesson, instructing pupils not to believe it.”… Read the rest
More reactionary hectoring from “senior Catholic”
Sep 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“Our laws and lawmakers for over 50 years have been the most permissively anti-life and progressively anti-family and marriage.”… Read the rest
Gay Christians criticize “unhelpful” pope protests
Sep 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonInstead, the Christian body has said it will hold a prayer vigil instead of a protest. That’ll show him!… Read the rest