All entries by this author

And besides atheism is ugly and stupid and old and fat

Jun 6th, 2007 5:51 pm | By

What was that I was murmuring about cherished beliefs and their not so healthy effect on people’s ability to think and argue? Hardly were the words out of my mouth, it seems, when Theo Hobson was inspired to give a truly showy demonstration of that very thing.

First, by way of warming up, he threw himself down on the floor and gave a really good loud scream. ‘Atheism is pretentious and cowardly,’ he howled, spit flying, ‘and I hate it really really hard!’ Then he got up and took up the serious business of making his case.

How odd that there seems to be an endless appetite for militant atheism. How odd that anyone over 17 admires these angry ageing

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Pascal Bruckner on Sarkozy and Kouchner *

Jun 6th, 2007 | Filed by

The battle of the preferable against the detestable is preferable to a crusade of Good against Evil.… Read the rest



Sami Zubaida on Many Faces of Multiculturalism *

Jun 6th, 2007 | Filed by

Diverse Muslims are totalised into a ‘Muslim community’ as if religion were the essence of identity.… Read the rest



RSF Shocked at Murder of Zakia Zaki *

Jun 6th, 2007 | Filed by

Zaki ran Peace Radio and was head of a local school; received death threats after criticizing Taliban.… Read the rest



Woman TV Journalist Murdered in Afghanistan *

Jun 6th, 2007 | Filed by

Shakiba Sanga Amaj, associated with the private Shamshad TV channel, was killed at home in Kabul.… Read the rest



Afghan Woman Radio Journalist Murdered *

Jun 6th, 2007 | Filed by

Another woman silenced, another journalist silenced, another triumph for men with guns.… Read the rest



Catholic MPs Under Pressure *

Jun 5th, 2007 | Filed by

To vote to restrict abortion, raising fears over the encroachment of religion on women’s rights. … Read the rest



Clerics Make a Mistake in Pressuring Legislators *

Jun 5th, 2007 | Filed by

Legislators don’t vote on behalf of the Pope, archbishop, imam or rabbi.… Read the rest



Atheism is a Faith, Chapter 4785 *

Jun 5th, 2007 | Filed by

Faith is a world view, therefore atheism is a faith, and an extreme fundamentalist faith at that.… Read the rest



Katha Pollitt on Internationalist Feminism *

Jun 5th, 2007 | Filed by

The only Americans who do the heavy lifting on issues of Muslim women’s rights are feminists.… Read the rest



Postmodernismen raserar vårt kunskapsarv *

Jun 5th, 2007 | Filed by

It sounds better in Swedish.… Read the rest



Islam’s Voltaire: A Life of Aayan Hirsi Ali

Jun 5th, 2007 | By Max Dunbar

One midnight in July 1992, a twenty-two year old Somalian Muslim known as Ayaan Hirsi Magan arrived in Holland fleeing an arranged marriage. Fourteen years later, Hirsi Ali was known as an outspoken Dutch MP and writer with strong views on religion and the role of women under Islamic law. With the director Theo Van Gogh she made a film, Submission, which took the form of a series of dialogues between Allah and female Muslims.

There is the woman who is flogged for committing adultery; another who is given in marriage to a man she loathes; another who is beaten by her husband on a regular basis; and another who is shunned by her father when he learns that

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Faith is hutchputch therefore so is atheism

Jun 5th, 2007 10:13 am | By

It can be interesting to see the effect that a need to protect cherished beliefs can have on the health of a person’s thought processes. That need has a tendency to warp and distort the ability to 1) think clearly and 2) talk or write in a straightforward way.

Hitchens distances himself from the idea that he is a form of believer, claiming that his views are not beliefs like those of religious people but are based on reason. Thereby he privileges atheism and calls the result secular neutrality.

Note the sly implication that Hitchens is doing something illegitimate and probably elitist by ‘privileging’ non-theism. Note the faint implication of paranoia if not cowardice – Hitchens ‘distances himself’ from the … Read the rest



Not Bob Jones University but Oxford *

Jun 4th, 2007 | Filed by

College head thinks 95% of us will burn in hell; deputy believes it’s wrong for women to teach men.… Read the rest



Female Newsreaders Protest Threat *

Jun 4th, 2007 | Filed by

Shameless women claim ability to dress themselves without help.… Read the rest



Islamist Group Offers to Behead Women *

Jun 4th, 2007 | Filed by

Swords of Truth ‘will cut throats, from vein to vein, if needed to protect the spirit and morals of this nation.’… Read the rest



You Can See Why Atheists Snigger *

Jun 4th, 2007 | Filed by

The first taste of their own rhetorical medicine reduces the godly to frothing rage.… Read the rest



Lee Smolin on the Other Einstein *

Jun 4th, 2007 | Filed by

Not the one in Isaacson’s cozy patronizing mythology.… Read the rest



Another Bishop Backs Controls on Women *

Jun 4th, 2007 | Filed by

New bill will call for mandatory counselling and a seven day wait before any abortion.… Read the rest



Cardinals, Back Off *

Jun 4th, 2007 | Filed by

The ferocity of the clerics’ language is important.… Read the rest