Emmanuel Dongala says solidarity can prevent people from speaking out.… Read the rest
Academics Hinder Fight Against Terror
Apr 7th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAttitudes formed in the 1960s have resulted in an anti-Americanism.… Read the rest
Local Elections in Iraq
Apr 7th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSecular candidates have done better than Islamists.… Read the rest
So You Think You’re Logical
Apr 6th, 2004 10:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonIn case anyone wants to find out about the Wason test along with PM, here it is in one easy click.
[Note by Jerry S (Sorry OB, I’m invading your entry!)]: I programmed this four years ago; I’d do it slightly differently if I was programming it today – there are a couple of problems with it. However, it is a pretty rigorous experimental design (on the analysis page, there’s a link with technical details about the ‘between-subjects’ and ‘within-subjects’ aspects of the design). And the results, right at the end, are interesting.… Read the rest
Awe, Shux
Apr 6th, 2004 10:16 pm | By Ophelia BensonHere is what one might consider another installment of an on-going discussion we’re having here about religion and the way its defenders and supporters and promoters and fans re-define it for purposes of persuasion or coercion. One example is from an article by Paul Davies in an old Atlantic (September 2003) I happened to read the other day: ‘E.T. and God.’ It’s basically about what the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe would mean for human religion, but along the way he makes this strange (yet very familiar) comment, after calling the dismissal of religion by the director of the SETI Institute’s Center for SETI Research ‘rather naive’:
… Read the restThough many religious movements have come and gone throughout history, some
Linguistic Relativity and Colour
Apr 6th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSapir-Whorf or Berlin-Kay?… Read the rest
Leon Wieseltier on God in the Pledge
Apr 6th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Say “under God” even if you don’t mean under God.’… Read the rest
Is This Parody?
Apr 6th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProbably not. It certainly is funny though!… Read the rest
Anne Fadiman and American Scholar
Apr 6th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEditor is fired over budget issues; Todd Gitlin and others protest.… Read the rest
Examine That Life
Apr 6th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCarlin Romano considers two collections of brief memoirs by philsophers.… Read the rest
On Suffering and Waste
Apr 5th, 2004 9:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonWe were talking about Darwinism and morality, among other things. Here is George C. Williams in Plan and Purpose in Nature as quoted by Richard Dawkins in the title essay of A Devil’s Chaplain:
With what other than condemnation is a person with any moral sense supposed to respond to a system in which the ultimate purpose in life is to be better than your neighbour at getting genes into future generations,…in which that message is always ‘exploit your environment, including your friends and relatives, so as to maximise your genes’ success…?
Dawkins then quotes George Bernard Shaw doubting evolution because he didn’t like its cruelty, H.G. Wells rejoicing in the cruelty, and Julian Huxley trying to derive some … Read the rest
Jooglebomb
Apr 5th, 2004 5:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonAh. I see via Normblog and Twisty Sticks that I’ve been neglecting a duty. That’s what I get for reading hastily and selectively because I’m catching up because I’m so far behind because I’ve been working 28 hours a day on this dictionary thing because my colleague kept saying We have to finish in a month no two weeks no a week no three days no an hour no right now, so like Miss Clavell I ran fast and faster, and had such a backlog of reading and posting you would not believe. So, anyway. Jew.
In case there are any of you even more behind than I am, that’s a counter-googlebomb, a googlebomb to counteract an anti-semitic googlebomb. … Read the rest
Truth, Truths, ‘Truth’ and ‘Truths’
Apr 5th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSusan Haack on the ‘Passes-for Fallacy’ and more.… Read the rest
A Gathering of Straw People
Apr 4th, 2004 8:36 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere are a couple of discussions of Evolutionary Psychology at Twisty Sticks: one here and the other here. They’re interesting because of what appears to be a fairly unshakable assumption that all evolutionary psychologists have a right-wing agenda and that the agenda determines their conclusions. That’s probably true of some evolutionary psychologists – I think I’ve read one or two of those – but it’s not true of all of them. It’s a bit puzzling. It’s not easy to figure out why people are convinced that thinking natural selection might have played a part in making human nature what it is requires being a free marketeer. I’m not a free marketeer, and I think natural selection played a part … Read the rest
Another Angle on the Hijab
Apr 4th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat is France’s insistence on secularism about?… Read the rest
That’s Dr Arendt and Dr Heidegger to You!
Apr 4th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Hannah and Martin’ indeed – what next?! Dave and Mannie and Fritz?… Read the rest
Girly Jesus Out, Sadist Killer Jesus In
Apr 4th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe guy can boil your blood just by talking. Repent!… Read the rest
The Grand Old Pledge
Apr 4th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHow can a nation pursue ‘justice for all’ but exclude nontheists and polytheists?… Read the rest
The Contract of Mutual Indifference
Apr 4th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy did the rest of the world not stop the Rwanda genocide?… Read the rest
The Tortoise and the Hare
Apr 4th, 2004 12:16 am | By Ophelia BensonNot too bad, thanks. The agony is somewhat abated, as Macaulay said. (Was it Macaulay? I think so. At the age of two, or a week, or something, when a kind evangelical woman spilled some coffee on him.) I’m tottering around, pale and trembling, but recovering. A little weak, a tad mentally unstable, but on the mend. Kind of you to ask. The flowers are lovely. I don’t suppose you brought any chocolates – ? No no, of course not, silly question.
I wrote the Comment yesterday in such a way that it sounds as if I think I wrote the dictionary all by myself. I noticed that after I’d done it, but having done it, didn’t want to correct … Read the rest