Under a new bill, women and girls would have to appear before a panel which could decide to send them home or charge them with “adultery.”… Read the rest
Johann Hari: get bishops out of lawmaking
Feb 18th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhich two nations still reserve places in their parliaments for unelected religious clerics? Iran…and Britain.… Read the rest
Religious discrimination in “faith” schools
Feb 18th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe new Education Bill would allow a Muslim or Catholic school, for instance, to recruit entirely on religious grounds.… Read the rest
Ahmadinejad on true, Islamic feminism
Feb 18th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s not Zionist.… Read the rest
Free Church minister resigns over music in services
Feb 18th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMusic is Satan’s fishing rod.… Read the rest
Blatant discrimination against a Christian
Feb 17th, 2011 6:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhen is it ok to decline to hire a particular person for a scientific job and hire someone else instead? James Hannam says not when the particular person in question is a creationist. For why? For because that is a religious belief, and it is the particular person’s right to have a religious belief and that right is trampled on when someone else is given the job as director of the student observatory at the University of Kentucky. Martin Gaskell was the best guy for the job as any fule kno and so it was no fair to give that job to someone else.
… Read the rest[T]he mere fact he was sympathetic towards creationists and kept an open mind about evolution appears
Religion is no excuse for promoting scientific ignorance
Feb 17th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTeachers of science need to understand and convey concepts that are in accord with our understanding of nature.… Read the rest
When is it ok to “discriminate” against creationists?
Feb 17th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBy hiring someone else for a science job. James Hannam says never.… Read the rest
S Dakota shelves you can kill abortionists bill
Feb 17th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSeveral people convicted of killing abortion providers have tried unsuccessfully to use the justifiable homicide argument.… Read the rest
PZ on atheism and women
Feb 17th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonImagine a panel with 5 Christians and 1 atheist. Think about it.… Read the rest
Of pears and atmospheres
Feb 16th, 2011 12:33 pm | By Ophelia BensonJen at Blag Hag is attempting to clarify a few points about sexism and also hoping the drama will die now. I haven’t read all the relevant documents, but the gist of it is that there was a panel at a regional atheist meeting at which a woman objected to a bit of debatably sexist vocabulary and then all hell broke loose.
There’s a video of the relevant part of the panel, and I broke down and watched it this morning.
Here’s the thing. I can see that it’s not a slam-dunk that the word “female” is necessarily sexist…but by god that panel was sexist. It was sexist from the beginning (the beginning of that video, at least). It … Read the rest
Dahlia Lithwick on Clarence Thomas
Feb 16th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThis combination of public silence, private advocacy, and contempt for transparency is the real problem Thomas has created, not the silence itself.… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo and Moses ponder multiculturalism
Feb 16th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAll are welcome, all shall have prizes, right? Yes. No.… Read the rest
Dr Mehmet Oz completes journey to the dark side
Feb 16th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDiet and exercise are part of science-based medicine, yet CAMsters appropriate them as “alternative,” the better to bring in the real woo along with them.… Read the rest
Two “Witch children” Rescued from Traffickers
Feb 15th, 2011 | By Leo IgweOn February 11, 2011 I led a team of child rights activists and a police officer who rescued two children – Freedom Peter Okoro-Oko (8) and Anietie Mfon Ime Etuk (10) – following a tip off from our local contacts in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The kids were living in a shanty buiding with an old man, Asuquo Akpan Ukpong, whose family members – according to local sources – trafficked children.
Freedom and Anietie were accused of witchcraft and then abandoned by their families. They were living in the local market square before they were ‘picked up’ by Mr Asuquo who used them as child labourers. (Asuquo, we were told, used to send children to work for him on his … Read the rest
A whole new field known as quantum biology
Feb 15th, 2011 1:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonDeepak Chopra is upset because atheists make too much noise.
For most people, science deserves its reputation for being opposed to religion.
I’m not thinking of the rather noisy campaign by a handful of die-hard atheists to demote and ridicule faith…
Despite the noisy atheists, two trends in spirituality and science have started to converge.
Are the noisy atheists any more noisy than Deepak Chopra himself? He’s not particularly shy and retiring, now is he. It’s my understanding that he makes quite a lot of money by writing quite a lot of books that talk raving nonsense – like about “spirituality” and science starting to converge.
… Read the restIt is becoming legitimate to talk of invisible forces that shape creation – not
Paula Kirby on religion as the ultimate tyranny
Feb 15th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf you value freedom, you should flee from religion as the antelope flees the lion.… Read the rest
On Sans and islamophobia
Feb 15th, 2011 | By Sara Larsson and Christer SturmarkHelle Klein has instinctively labeled Sans magazine as islamophobic, solely on the grounds that its cover portrays a woman in a burqa. If that is the case, most articles and news stories from Afghanistan should be labeled islamophobic in the delusional world of Helle Klein, write Sara Larsson and Christer Sturmark, editor and editor in chief of Sans magazine.
The new cultural magazine Sans has recently been launched. Its theme is the religious oppression of women and in the issue’s main article, American feminist and author Ophelia Benson is interviewed. In her book “Does God Hate Women?”, Benson examines how women’s human rights are violated in the name of conservative religious traditions all over the world.
On Sans’ cover, which … Read the rest
Go ahead, call me soppy
Feb 15th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJames Croft has done an inspirational Humanist video. So I’m inspired, so sue me.… Read the rest
S Dakota Moves To Legalize Killing Abortion Providers
Feb 15th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA bill under consideration in South Dakota would make murder to prevent an abortion a “justifiable homicide” in many cases.… Read the rest