Natasha Fatah on arranged marriages
Nov 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPiercing the skin
Nov 30th, 2010 5:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonOne interesting item in the Banks chapter of The Age of Wonder is Banks’s account of witnessing a girl get a tattoo. Happily, his journal is online; it was July 5 1969 1769.
… Read the restThis morn I saw the operation of Tattowing the buttocks performd upon a girl of about 12 years old, it provd as I have always suspected a most painfull one. It was done with a large instrument about 2 inches long containing about 30 teeth, every stroke of this hundreds of which were made in a minute drew blood. The patient bore this for about ¼ of an hour with most stoical resolution; by that time however the pain began to operate too stron[g]ly to be peacably
Hitchens on mockery and Helping
Nov 30th, 2010 1:55 pm | By Ophelia BensonHitchens explained various things to Jeremy Paxman for Newsnight. The best part was where he talked about the virtues of division. He’s been saying this for years, and I’ve been squawking my approval and agreement for years. If you say you’re a uniter not a divider, he noted dryly, you expect and get approval. “I’m a divider.”
Division is inseparable from politics, he went on. If everyone agrees, there is no politics, there’s nothing to say. “Without division there is no progress.”
The alternative is dictatorship, and this is relevant to religion and the rebellion against it. “The first rebellion against mental slavery comes from saying this is man-made, it’s not divine.”
“To be clear,” Paxman said in prissy … Read the rest
The notion of wonder
Nov 30th, 2010 1:41 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m reading Richard Holmes’s The Age of Wonder. I read the first chapter, on Joseph Banks in Tahiti, this morning – it’s enthralling, and rather inspiring.
I was struck by something Holmes said in the prologue.
Romanticism as a cultural force is generally regarded as intensely hostile to science, its ideal of subjectivity eternally opposed to that of scientific objectivity. But I do not believe this was always the case, or that the terms are so mutually exclusive. The notion of wonder seems to be something that once united them, and can still do so. In effect there is Romantic science in the same sense there is Romantic poetry, and often for the same enduring reasons.
Yes exactly – and … Read the rest
Tom Clark on Sam Harris on free will
Nov 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn The Moral Landscape, Harris debunks contra-causal free will and draws out the progressive implications for our beliefs and social practices.… Read the rest
Hitchens talks to Jeremy Paxman
Nov 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“Mellower? There’s something about that word I don’t like.”… Read the rest
Shahla Jahed’s message to the world from Evin
Nov 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShahla didn’t call to just say goodbye. Shahla’s last message is indeed a call to us, to do whatever in our power to save her life. Mina Ahadi.… Read the rest
Act Now! Shahla Jahed to be executed tomorrow
Nov 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWe are asking everyone to immediately voice your protest by calling, faxing and emailing your protests.… Read the rest
Paul Sims reports on Behe-Reiss debate
Nov 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonReiss argued that in the UK we should address religious questions around origins in RE classes, leaving science teachers to deal with science.… Read the rest
Multiple choice for men, no choice for women
Nov 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPolygamy perpetuates women’s already lower social and economic status by forcing women to share already scarce resources.… Read the rest
Theocracy in Scotland
Nov 29th, 2010 10:47 am | By Ophelia BensonJeezis, these people are scary. They’re getting their way.
Peter Kearney, the director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office, made his comments after the sacking of SFA referees’ chief Hugh Dallas over allegations he sent an offensive e-mail about the Pope during his recent visit to Scotland.
Mr Kearney warned: “Let no-one be in any doubt, with this shameful episode, Catholics in Scotland have drawn a line in the sand.
Yes, they have! They’ve drawn a line that says “you may not send an ‘offensive’ email about the pope, and if you do, we will get you pushed out of your job.”
That’s quite a line. Hugh Dallas didn’t work for the church, or even for a “faith” … Read the rest
Catholic spokesman says what must be cast out
Nov 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“Let no-one be in any doubt, with this shameful episode, Catholics in Scotland have drawn a line in the sand.”… Read the rest
Bishop suspended for dissing royal wedding
Nov 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe apologized, he groveled, he said he knew it was “deeply offensive,” but it was no use.… Read the rest
Promise-breakers
Nov 29th, 2010 9:48 am | By Ophelia BensonReally.
The people who do the New International Version (translation) of the bible have taken out the pesky “too liberal” gender-neutral language they wickedly and liberally stuck into the 2005 edition, because the knuckle-draggers were pissed off at them.
They’ve retained some of the language of the 2005 edition. But they also made changes — like going back to using words like “mankind” and “man” instead of “human beings” and “people” — in order to appease critics.
And the critics were pissed off by that because…what? Because they want everyone to think that human beings and people are in fact men and that women don’t count because they’re some kind of weird abberration? Or what? What other possible reason is … Read the rest
Council of Europe resolution on the dangers of creationism in education
Nov 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe aim is to warn against certain tendencies to pass off a belief as science.… Read the rest
Updated NIV bible reverts to male-centered translation
Nov 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWent back to using words like “mankind” and “man” instead of “human beings” and “people” in order to appease critics.… Read the rest
Saudi women sue male “guardians”
Nov 28th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJudges throw the women in jail.… Read the rest
Waleed Al-Husseini on why he left Islam
Nov 28th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRenouncing Islam is a choice offered to everyone and anyone has the right to do so.… Read the rest
Catholic church gets football referee fired
Nov 28th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBecause he allegedly forwarded an e-mail during the Pope’s visit that referred to the child abuse scandal.… Read the rest
The Marquess of Queensbury
Nov 28th, 2010 11:40 am | By Ophelia BensonThe Guardian apparently disapproves of Hitchens’s still-unapologetic atheism; at least it allows its reporter to misrepresent what he said.
If it had been a boxing match Hitchens would have been described as landing blow after blow, many of them decidedly low – especially those about circumcision or women’s rights. He described the aid work done by religious missions as “conscience money” to make up for the harm they have done. After all, why bother treating HIV-infected people in Africa while working against the use of condoms?
That’s not what he said, to put it mildly. This is what he said:
… Read the restFurthermore, if you are going to grant this to Catholic charities, I would say, which I hope are