Flashback

Fashionable nonsense has been with us since the time that prehistoric man first transcribed Of Grammatology on to the walls of the Lascaux caves. Here we cast an eye back at some historical highlights.


Martha Nussbaum on the fragility of goodness *

Dec 26th, 2010 | Filed by

Talking to Bill Moyers around…1988?



Rosenhouse on Dixon on Religion and Science *

Dec 17th, 2010 | Filed by

Conflicts over who is authorized to produce and disseminate knowledge are conflicts between science and religion.



Martin Gardner on Oprah and woo *

Dec 17th, 2010 | Filed by

She promotes, as frequent guests, people who preach views that are medically worthless and in a few cases can even lead to death.



Abandoning FGM in the Afar Region of Ethiopia *

Dec 12th, 2010 | Filed by

The strategy is to gain the support of a core group, which decides to abandon the practice then helps mobilize enough people to facilitate a tipping point.



Jerry Coyne on Michael Behe in Boston Review *

Dec 12th, 2010 | Filed by

Behe likens himself to Newton, Einstein, and Pasteur, but claims that a defensive band of evolutionists blocks his ascendancy to the pantheon. Such declarations of unrecognized genius are a diagnostic feature of crank science.



Roy Sablosky on the myth of Christian charity *

Dec 11th, 2010 | Filed by

The statistical studies that supposedly demonstrate that religion has a positive influence in charitable giving do not hold up when examined carefully.



Council of Europe resolution on the dangers of creationism in education *

Nov 29th, 2010 | Filed by

The aim is to warn against certain tendencies to pass off a belief as science.



Waleed Al-Husseini on why he left Islam *

Nov 28th, 2010 | Filed by

Renouncing Islam is a choice offered to everyone and anyone has the right to do so.



Why CCR sued to represent Awlaki *

Nov 20th, 2010 | Filed by

CCR Legal Director explains, but his characterization of Awlaki is incomplete.



Richard Owen reviews Origin in Edinburgh Review *

Nov 17th, 2010 | Filed by

Set the cat among the pigeons.



Huxley’s review of Origin in Westminster Review *

Nov 17th, 2010 | Filed by

A classic.



Why smart people do stupid things *

Oct 26th, 2010 | Filed by

People buy high and sell low. They believe their horoscope. They supersize their fries and order diet Coke. They text while driving.



The cut-and-paste theology of Alister McGrath *

Oct 20th, 2010 | Filed by

Dan Bye finds that McGrath frequently recycles his own writing.



Ajita Kamal argues for gender equality in freethought *

Sep 29th, 2010 | Filed by

Any organization that challenges superstition and religion in India must make an effort to break established patterns of gender inequality.



Ajita Kamal on the uses of outspoken atheism *

Sep 29th, 2010 | Filed by

Ideas die in a culture when it becomes embarrassing to hold on to them.



Tom Clark reviews Gary Drescher on demystifying paradoxes *

Sep 4th, 2010 | Filed by

Problems that arise when common sense conflicts with the science-based view that we inhabit a purely physical, mechanistic, deterministic universe.



Peter Medawar reviews Teilhard de Chardin *

Aug 27th, 2010 | Filed by

“In expounding this thesis, Teilhard becomes more and more confused and excited and finally almost hysterical.” Mind 1961.



Reserve’s last rhino butchered for her horn *

Aug 16th, 2010 | Filed by

Rhino horn has been used for centuries in “Traditional Chinese Medicine,” though it has no magic properties and is like a fingernail.



Garry Wills on Plato and the Sophists *

Aug 9th, 2010 | Filed by

The Sophists were unique in their time for questioning the superiority of Greeks to barbarians, men to women, free-born to slaves.



The church of the savvy *

Aug 8th, 2010 | Filed by

Since it differs from liberal and conservative ideology and from political thought itself, savviness often eludes recognition as a set of beliefs.