A time honoured tactic to incite the faithful to murder those who dare to criticise Islam.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Irish Religious Orders Promised to Help Pay
Mar 18th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCompensation for abuse in industrial schools, but the sums are not adding up.… Read the rest
Of the earth earthy
Mar 17th, 2007 12:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’ve been thinking (on and off) about something slightly puzzling. The people who rebuke militant atheists or Enlightenment fundamentalists or secular dogmatists or deaf scientistic positivists or some other combination of those and similar terms, often murmur something about the importance of religion for art and literature and music. After bumping into one of those murmurs a few days ago, I suddenly noticed a puzzle. It’s this: the one about literature isn’t true. That’s very odd, isn’t it; why isn’t it true?
Of course, there are exceptions; there are some bits of literature that are very goddy; I’m not ignoring Dante and Milton. But – most literature actually isn’t all that goddy – even literature written at times when atheism … Read the rest
Ben Goldacre Looks at a Smartness Pill
Mar 17th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe imaging data feel all sciencey, but conjurers would cite misdirection.… Read the rest
Oxford Students Petition to Oust Don
Mar 17th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProfessor of demography helped found MigrationWatch in 2001.… Read the rest
Thugs Slaughter Busload of People in Thailand
Mar 17th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNine killed; four women, two girls; teachers, students, traders, farmers; all Buddhists except driver.… Read the rest
Academic says Debate on Islam is Stifled in UK
Mar 17th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLecture on Islamic anti-Semitism was cancelled after complaints from Muslim students.… Read the rest
Three Little Carrots? Ipods? Spoons? Frogs?
Mar 17th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOrganisers of children’s performance racked brains to find inoffensive substitute for shocking ‘pigs.’… Read the rest
Peter Tatchell on Their Multiculturalism and Ours
Mar 16th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMisogyny and homophobia tolerated in the name of ‘maintaining harmonious community relations.’ … Read the rest
Culture Blocks Women’s Participation in Politics
Mar 16th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHalf the world’s population remains excluded from decision-making along gender lines.… Read the rest
Ignoring the UN Meeting on the Status of Women
Mar 16th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMost of the people there represent NGOs that work for women’s empowerment around the world. … Read the rest
Theorising the International After the Subject
Mar 16th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHow does a post-human condition alter the relationship between self and other, inside and outside?… Read the rest
George Felis Invites Atheists to Come Out
Mar 16th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonInvisibility has its benefits, perhaps, but the costs are far greater.… Read the rest
David Thompson on Fallibility and Open Discussion
Mar 15th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAs if the solution to stupidity is to inhibit public discourse.… Read the rest
Three Women’s Rights Defenders Still Locked Up
Mar 15th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShadi Sadr, Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh, and Jila Baniyaghoub are still in ward 209 of Evin Prison.… Read the rest
University of Leeds Denies Censorship Charge
Mar 15th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUniversity said it cancelled a lecture on ‘Islamic anti-semitism’ on security grounds.… Read the rest
Secularization is Linked to Safety and Prosperity
Mar 15th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonGrowing up in societies in which survival is uncertain is conducive to a strong emphasis on religion.… Read the rest
Goldhagen on the Humiliation Myth
Mar 15th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy does humiliation lead to such disproportional will to violence and slaughter?… Read the rest
Eternal recurrence
Mar 15th, 2007 11:25 am | By Ophelia BensonAh, look, an old friend returns. At that post of Stephen Law’s on Anselm’s proof we talked about the other day. Old friend returns in characteristic form – posting thirty or forty thousand words in each comment, talking about hermeneutics and Gadamer and Hermamer and gadaneutics until the wallpaper starts to peel spontaneously off the walls in very sympathy. He’s also got some new tricks though – mentioning ‘G_d’ a lot, overusing scare quotes or irony quotes beyond all reason, lots of quiet boasting. I wonder if you’ve guessed which friend I mean yet – I wonder if your memories are keen this morning. He used to deposit his book-length comments here often, often; he did it for … Read the rest
If the source is polluted
Mar 14th, 2007 2:49 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnthony Grayling on sin and pollution – always very interesting ideas.
… Read the restMuch of the traditional idea of sin persists in our contemporary attitudes to moral failure. We somehow export the idea of a stain, an enduring flaw of character, to the case of people who do not live up to ideals, especially those they themselves proclaim…[I]n a sin culture even the suspicion of hypocrisy in the messenger is enough to harm the message: if the source of the claim is polluted, the claim itself must be questionable…Throughout history earnest moralisers have stood in the way of the good by accepting nothing less than the utmost. Human beings are a mixed alloy: the same person is capable of being good and