All entries by this author

Mullah Krekar Tells Oslo Newspaper What’s What *

Mar 31st, 2006 | Filed by

‘We’re the ones who will change you.’… Read the rest



Free Will and Identity

Mar 31st, 2006 3:21 am | By

That Sen interview in the Bangladeshi paper.

Sen remains a strong exponent of free will as expressed in terms of freedom of choice, even if influenced by circumstances and constrained by what’s permissible and what one is capable of. By way of identity, for instance, he chooses to assert the identity of an economist or a philosopher (among other things) depending on what is relevant for that particular discussion. “These are choices, among others, open to me, as are similarly relevant choices for anyone else.” As are the positions he takes on issues of politics, parties, ideologies and so on. “When choices exist, and not to recognise they exist is an epistemic mistake and also a root of irresponsibility –

Read the rest


India Looks into Extraconstitutional Sharia Courts *

Mar 30th, 2006 | Filed by

The Constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of caste or religion.… Read the rest



First Chapter of The Seduction of Unreason *

Mar 30th, 2006 | Filed by

Reason as an analytical solvent to dogma, superstition, and unwarranted social authority. … Read the rest



Johann Hari: We Need Mill More Today Than Ever *

Mar 30th, 2006 | Filed by

Mill is our contemporary and our guide in a way that is true of very few philosophers.… Read the rest



Jonathan Wolff on Animal Testing *

Mar 30th, 2006 | Filed by

Experimenters should be schooled not only in the scientific issues, but the moral issues too.… Read the rest



Sen on Why Religious Identity Isn’t Destiny *

Mar 30th, 2006 | Filed by

‘A person belongs to many different groups, of which a religious affiliation is only one.’… Read the rest



Stephen Eric Bronner on the Enlightenment *

Mar 30th, 2006 | Filed by

Tradition, religious faith, social hierarchy, unearned privilege, arbitrary authority were its targets.… Read the rest



Andrew Anthony Replies to Madeleine Bunting *

Mar 30th, 2006 | Filed by

The reason we still hold to an understanding of rationality that is over 200 years old is that it works.… Read the rest



Review of Breaking the Spell *

Mar 30th, 2006 | Filed by

Dennett says scientific study of religion includes possibility that religious beliefs are true.… Read the rest



Little Atoms at March for Free Expression [mp3] *

Mar 29th, 2006 | Filed by

Hear Maryam Namazie, Peter Tatchell, Labi Siffre, Johann Hari, Keith Porteous Wood.… Read the rest



Islam and Religious Freedom *

Mar 29th, 2006 | Filed by

There is disagreement among Muslim scholars as to the limits of religious freedom. … Read the rest



Abdul Rahman Arrives in Italy *

Mar 29th, 2006 | Filed by

Italy has granted him asylum; politicians in Afghanistan are outraged.… Read the rest



India Sex Selection Doctor Busted *

Mar 29th, 2006 | Filed by

Estimated that 10m female foetuses may have been terminated in India in the past 20 years. … Read the rest



More on Reza Moradi

Mar 29th, 2006 12:11 am | By

Harry’s Place reports that Reza Moradi is being (will be, I think) prosecuted for holding a Motoon poster. I don’t know if that’s based on what Maryam said in a bracket in her speech or whether it’s new information, but ‘Pangloss’ from the New Humanist says in the second comment, “Funny, have just been speaking to Maryam about this. Yes, he has been charged. As regards the bloke who complained – I haven’t a clue who he is, but the WPI have their suspicions.” He has been charged – with what? With carrying a cartoon with a poster on it. Commenters at Harry’s figure he’ll be charged with something under the public order act. I remember my shock when I … Read the rest



That Pesky Enlightenment Thing

Mar 28th, 2006 11:42 pm | By

And then there’s more Bunting (more Bunting? more Bunting?!) on the – well, on some ridiculous brainworm she has that she thinks is called ‘the Enlightenment’.

I need some help. I’ve been getting increasingly disturbed at the way in which the Enlightenment gets invoked by the self styled ‘hard liberals’ as if it amounts to their tablets of stone. Something didn’t seem to be adding up to me when they waxed lyrical about the Enlightenment legacy of rationality, secularism, belief in progress, the rule of law and the basis of all we know and love in western democracy and individual human rights.

Invoked? Self-styled? Hard liberals? Tablets? Of stone? Waxed lyrical? Belief in progress? All we know and love? Do … Read the rest



Turncoat?

Mar 28th, 2006 8:36 pm | By

And then there’s Faisal Bodi.

Nobody likes a turncoat. Whether it’s a scab crossing a picket line, or a footballer joining his club’s arch rivals, the consequences of defection will usually haunt them for life. It’s a cross that Abdul Rahman, the Afghan convert to Christianity, is currently having to bear. Charged with apostasy for abandoning Islam, a crime that carries the death penalty in Afghanistan, he was handed a reprieve at the weekend while judges examine the validity of the case against him.

That’s an interesting way to put it – ‘nobody likes a turncoat.’ That is in fact a very tendentious way of putting it. It’s also not true even in Bodi’s terms, since at least some … Read the rest



Ruse and Bunting Talk Sinister Nonsense

Mar 28th, 2006 8:09 pm | By

Time to talk about people saying silly things. I know, I know – what an odd activity. What a futile way to spend time. What a bizarre allocation of these golden hours of early 21st century calm and prosperity. I know. One might as well try to give names to all the leaves on the trees (that’s Evelyn, that one’s Marcia, that’s Eric, that’s Deirdre). One might as well try to cook a meal by breathing on it. One might as well dust the living room when it will only get dusty again. I know. But – I can’t explain it somehow, but it seems to call to me – this peculiar avocation of holding public sages up to ridicule … Read the rest



One in Nine Campaign *

Mar 28th, 2006 | Filed by

‘Sexual violence has been described as endemic to South Africa.’… Read the rest



Jacob Zuma Rape Trial Worries Women *

Mar 28th, 2006 | Filed by

‘This case has sent out the message that if you report rape you will have to be a virginal 19-year-old.’… Read the rest