Thinks people are ‘comforted if they think the person leading them has some sense of spiritual values.’… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Documentary Celebrates UDHR 60th Anniversary
Dec 12th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShows 8 people who have fought to exercise their right to free speech; the last is David Irving.… Read the rest
David Irving, Free Speech Defender
Dec 12th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSo the libel suit was just a joke?… Read the rest
Bush Admin Blamed for Abuse of Detainees
Dec 12th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBipartisan Senate report says coercive interrogation practices damaged the government’s moral authority.… Read the rest
Routine Violence in UK Madrassas
Dec 11th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘We are hiding behind the defence of cultural sensitivities and our children are not being protected.’… Read the rest
Religion and Compassion in the UK
Dec 11th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMadrassa ‘teacher’ whipped children for forgetting verses or mispronouncing Arabic words.… Read the rest
Jesus Repaired Mo’s Irony Meter
Dec 11th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBut Mo just will not be careful.… Read the rest
Padraig Reidy on Article 19
Dec 11th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMost pernicious is the notion that ideas, like people, should be afforded protection. … Read the rest
What the UDHR Drafters Wanted
Dec 11th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThat everyone should belong somewhere, but not be imprisoned by that belonging.… Read the rest
The UDHR at 60
Dec 11th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonGrayling, Tutu, Robinson, Chakrabarti, Reidy, others comment.… Read the rest
Try opening both eyes
Dec 11th, 2008 11:41 am | By Ophelia BensonTom Clark discusses David Sloan Wilson and Jonathan Haidt and the Beyond Belief 2 conference.
Both Wilson and Jonathan Haidt argued at the conference that a predisposition for religion likely played an adaptive role (perhaps via between-group selection) in allowing humans to achieve our current level of ultra-sociality, in which more or less stable societies of unrelated individuals have replaced nomadic tribes. This is an empirical claim under investigation. It’s therefore striking that both accept the normative claim that religion, or more broadly a departure from evidence-based beliefs, might be a force for good in promoting social cohesion in a way that allegiance to strict empiricism…perhaps cannot.
Let’s look at a little of Jonathan Haidt.
… Read the restMy first few weeks
On teasing
Dec 10th, 2008 1:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonA psychologist tries to convince us that teasing is a good thing.
The reason teasing is viewed as inherently damaging is that it is too often confused with bullying. But bullying is something different; it’s aggression, pure and simple. Bullies steal, punch, kick, harass and humiliate. Sexual harassers grope, leer and make crude, often threatening passes. They’re pretty ineffectual flirts. By contrast, teasing is a mode of play, no doubt with a sharp edge, in which we provoke to negotiate life’s ambiguities and conflicts.
Well that makes things simple, but it makes them too simple. Bullying isn’t something entirely and clearly and unmistakably different – there’s a lot of overlap between the two. There’s also a lot of deliberate … Read the rest
US Arms Sales Undermine Global Human Rights
Dec 10th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUS sells arms to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Colombia among other rights violators.… Read the rest
Turi Omollo on Rwanda and Human Rights
Dec 10th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat can we in Rwanda and the rest of Africa celebrate on this day? … Read the rest
Abuses Persist as UDHR Turns 60
Dec 10th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn Zimbabwe, lawyers marched on Parliament and the Supreme Court to protest human rights abuses.… Read the rest
Universal Human Rights Day
Dec 10th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMary Robinson is thinking of two women today: Eleanor Roosevelt and Jestina Mukoko.… Read the rest
Psychologist Defends Teasing
Dec 10th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSays teasing is seen as damaging because it is confused with bullying; almost admits that it sometimes is bullying.… Read the rest
The return of the cardinal
Dec 9th, 2008 12:26 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo then to round out the festival of silliness there’s darling Cardinal Buttercup I mean Murphy-O’Connor again. (Nice of the major UK newspapers to give him so much oxygen of publicity, isn’t it? Wouldn’t do for them just to ignore his absurd woolgathering, would it.)
It’s just the same old stuff – word for word, some of it. Once again ‘atheism has become more vocal and aggressive.’ There’s something intriguing about the way clerics and apologists like to get up and say harsh things about secularists and atheists all the time and then squeal like pigs when secularists and atheists have the gall to say anything in return. It’s kind of like a playground bully complaining about a kid who … Read the rest
SUVs at Altar, Detroit Church Prays for Bailout
Dec 9th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLocal car dealers donated three giant cars to display during the service, one from each of the ‘Big Three.’… Read the rest
Whither the Junior Dictionary?
Dec 9th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWords like ‘saint’ and ‘buttercup’ have gone – what can it all mean?… Read the rest