‘History shows that the Muslims have in no era accepted their sanctities being defiled.’… Read the rest
Competing for Title of ‘Most Sensitive’ 
Feb 14th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Tendency to assume loudest religious groups represent everyone in their communities.… Read the rest
Brenda Maddox on Women and Science
Feb 14th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Shock-horror: she doesn’t care whether women go into science or not.… Read the rest
Rationalist International Bulletin # 140
Feb 14th, 2005 | By Rationalist InternationalVatican: The Kidnap Program
After the end of the Second World War, the Vatican issued a secret order to the French church authorities, directing them to keep all baptized children from Jewish families in their custody, who had been accommodated in Catholic homes and convents during the Nazi occupation of France. The Vatican had decided that these children should not be returned to their surviving Jewish parents, but handed over to Christian institutions to ensure their Christian education. This secret Vatican order, a document in French language dated October 23, 1946, has recently been digged up by Italian church historians and was published in January in translation in the respected Italian daily Corriere della Siera. It triggered yet another controversy … Read the rest
Conversation With John Searle
Feb 13th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
To do philosophy well you have to know everything, and no one does.… Read the rest
President of NAAS Contradicts Michael Behe
Feb 13th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Because “intelligent design” theories are based on supernatural explanations, they can have nothing to do with science.’… Read the rest
A Certain Storman ‘Norman’ Geras on Radio
Feb 13th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Famous obscure Marxist talks about blogs and Iraq war.… Read the rest
US Government Scientists Told to Alter Findings
Feb 12th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Commercial interests applied political pressure to reverse conclusions thought harmful to business.… Read the rest
Science Teachers Refuse to Read ID Statement
Feb 12th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The struggle between ‘Godly America’ and ‘Worldly America’ continues.… Read the rest
Happy Darwin Day
Feb 12th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Science is our most reliable knowledge system, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity.… Read the rest
High Tension
Feb 11th, 2005 8:50 pm | By Ophelia BensonA couple of further thoughts on the Taboo question. There is a lot of tension in all this – because there are some rational, non-ostrich-like, non-fingers-in-ears, non-You Can’t Say That reasons for worry about, for instance, saying that a particular identifiable set of people may have, in however small a statistical sense, less of a given ability than another set or sets. One such reason is the self-fulfilling prophesy. The worry is that if you tell people – especially and all the more so if you tell them officially academically scientifically studies have shownically – that they are, or they belong to a group or subset of the population that is, statistically, however slightly and tail end effectly, innately less … Read the rest
More Republican Fans Than He Wants
Feb 11th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Hitchens was getting bored with politics and politicians.… Read the rest
Death of a Playwright
Feb 11th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Michael Billington: ‘He had to create a tradition rather than inheriting one.’… Read the rest
Arthur Miller
Feb 11th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Writing plays was for him like breathing.… Read the rest
Marxist Storm Eats Toast With Neocons
Feb 11th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Sunday Times meets Norm Geras.… Read the rest
Norman Geras on the Reductions of the Left
Feb 11th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
When imperialism is the only thing and everything else is epiphenomenal.… Read the rest
Samantha Power on Bush Admin and ICC
Feb 10th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Admin has denounced genocide in Darfur, good, but blocked ICC, bad.… Read the rest
US Opposes Criminal Court Action on Darfur
Feb 10th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Bush administration doesn’t want to ‘legitimize’ the International Criminal Court.… Read the rest
No, US Was not Founded on ‘Christian Principles’
Feb 10th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The founders were deists and atheists, not godbotherers.… Read the rest
Michael Ruse’s Eulogy for Ernst Mayr
Feb 10th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Long, detailed, indispensable.… Read the rest
