Says Moazzam Begg is the right sort of fella to build bridges and make links to young Muslims.… Read the rest
Richard Owen reviews Origin in Edinburgh Review
Nov 17th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSet the cat among the pigeons.… Read the rest
Huxley’s review of Origin in Westminster Review
Nov 17th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA classic.… Read the rest
Tortured maid in stable condition in Saudi hospital
Nov 17th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe latest in a string of physical abuse cases involving Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.… Read the rest
Indonesian maid tortured by Saudi employers
Nov 17th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHer injuries include gashes to her face and cuts to her lips, allegedly inflicted by her employers using scissors. She was also burned with an iron.… Read the rest
Indonesia: man on trial for “blasphemy”
Nov 16th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCharges will be dropped if he builds a new musholla. Hmm.… Read the rest
Pakistan: outcry against blasphemy death penalty
Nov 16th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe campaign to confront the country’s blasphemy laws is hampered by the danger of being accused of undermining Islam.… Read the rest
Anti-semitism video
Nov 16th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“The Koran itself says it.”… Read the rest
Even Galileo was free to believe what he wanted
Nov 15th, 2010 12:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonMyth 7 in Galileo Goes to Jail is that Giordano Bruno was a martyr for science; the author, Jole Shackelford, corrects this by pointing out that Bruno was burned alive for heresy, not science. Oh; that’s all right then.
He sets the stage by quoting from…guess…The Warfare of Science (1876), by Andrew Dickson White. The White-Draper thesis is the great bugbear of the revisionists on this subject, and after awhile one starts to wonder why it is so urgent to correct the mistakes of a history (however influential) dated 1876.
Whatever. White made the mistake of implying that Bruno was killed for being a Copernican when in fact he was killed for being a heretic. All right – … Read the rest
This is your brain on metaphors
Nov 15th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRobert Sapolsky on how the brain links the literal and the metaphorical.… Read the rest
Aung San Suu Kyi aims for peaceful revolution
Nov 15th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShe told the BBC she hopes for a non-violent end to military rule.… Read the rest
Cathy Grossman compares atheists to Fred Phelps
Nov 15th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAtheists note hateful passages in the bible, therefore, atheists are comparable to Westboro Baptists.… Read the rest
Tony Blair says religion must have a place in politics
Nov 15th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTalking to Hitchens
Nov 14th, 2010 5:46 pm | By Ophelia BensonSome great stuff in Andrew Anthony’s long interview with Hitchens.
… Read the restIn America it’s been suggested by some religious types that his condition could prompt a revision of his atheism. It’s not a hypothesis to which he grants much respect.
“So now I know that there’s another life in my body that can’t outlive me but can kill me, it’s the perfect moment to gratefully acknowledge that I’m a product of a cosmic design? Who thinks up these arguments? Actually it’s an insulting question: ‘I hear you’re dying. Well wouldn’t it be a good time to get rid of your beliefs?’ Try it on them and see how they would like it. ‘Christian, right? Cancer of the tits?’ ‘Well, yes,
Jesus and Mo tease the barmaid
Nov 14th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFaithy-waithy faith-head, na na na na na.… Read the rest
Hearing from Tiresias
Nov 14th, 2010 1:17 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe old Tiresias trick comes in handy sometimes. The neurobiologist Ben Barres started out as Barbara, and he reports on what it’s like to be an intelligent woman.
… Read the restThe top science and math student in her New Jersey high school, she was advised by her guidance counselor to go to a local college rather than apply to MIT. She applied anyway and was admitted.As an MIT undergraduate, Barbara was one of the only women in a large math class, and the only student to solve a particularly tough problem. The professor “told me my boyfriend must have solved it for me,” recalls Prof. Barres…
Although Barbara Barres was a top student at MIT, “nearly every lab head I asked
Former woman on women in science
Nov 14th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProf. Barres’s experience suggests that if women are less competitive, it is because that trait has been beaten out of them.… Read the rest
Andrew Anthony talks to Christopher Hitchens
Nov 14th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe’s said before that his life is his writing, but perhaps it would be more accurate to say that his life is an argument in which writing takes the lead role.… Read the rest
Afghanistan: a girl dares to go to school
Nov 14th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShe wants to be a politician. The neighbors call her venomous names.… Read the rest
Mona Eltahawy on Saudi Arabia and women
Nov 14th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOnce again, women are the cheapest bargaining chips, thrown on the table to silence and appease allies and “major donors.”… Read the rest