No community, no culture, no religion ought to be immune from respecting universality of human rights.… Read the rest
Knowledge in the Dock in Kansas
May 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLike handing control of a blood bank over to a cabal of vampires.… Read the rest
Contradictions in Kansas
May 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonID is science not religion, but evolution is for atheists and ‘secular humanists.’… Read the rest
Kansas Heads Backward
May 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWell into 21st century Kansas earnestly discussing whether schools should teach science.… Read the rest
Scientists Boycott Kansas Evolution ‘Hearings’
May 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBoycott of ridiculous carnival led by AAAS and Kansas Citizens for Science.… Read the rest
Wisdom
May 8th, 2005 6:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonLet’s pay a nice visit to the pope again. We haven’t dropped in on him in awhile, and he always repays attention. Let’s see what he’s been up to, the dear man. Dylan Evans tells us that religion is beautiful, and a metaphor, so let’s take a look at some beautiful metaphors.
… Read the restA pope “must constantly bind himself and the Church to the obedience of the word of God in the face of all the attempts to adapt it or water it down,” Pope Benedict told a packed congregation. “That’s what Father John Paul II did when faced by all such attempts which were seemingly benevolent towards man. When faced with erroneous interpretations of freedom, he unequivocally underlined the inviolability
Necessary to Overcome Hostility to Science
May 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBecause greater public involvement doesn’t always produce greater public sophistication.… Read the rest
WMD in the Uterus!
May 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe right’s campaign against contraception.… Read the rest
Fairy Tales May Teach Girls to be Submissive
May 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCinderella and Rapunzel may not be best characters to identify with.… Read the rest
Pope Talks Nonsense
May 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAbout ‘natural death.’ Natural death in hospital with feeding tubes, that is.… Read the rest
New Labour, Education, and Educationalists
May 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOn black under-achievement in school, special needs, the continuing inequities of the state/private divide.… Read the rest
Southall Case and Difficulties With Evidence
May 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHow does one evaluate evidence, expertise, experience, probability, and the like?… Read the rest
John Bayley is not a Cute Old Dodderer
May 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe’s one of the sharpest, shrewdest, funniest critics around, and he has claws.… Read the rest
‘New Scientist’ Reads Fashionable Dictionary
May 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSarcastic? Us? Never!… Read the rest
Galloway Defeats King
May 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRespect candidate accused government of being part of ‘war on Muslims.’… Read the rest
Labour to Win With Reduced Majority
May 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHistoric third term.… Read the rest
Further Ruseana
May 6th, 2005 2:14 am | By Ophelia BensonMore Michael Ruse, I promised you. Very well then. I never forget a promise. There is
this review of Dawkins’ A Devil’s Chaplain from December 2003. I remember being rude about it at the time, though I can’t find the N&C I was rude in. I remember because my colleague was tiresome enough to disagree with something I said, and to say that Ruse had a point in one of the places I disagreed with him. Well I ask you – that can’t be right. Anyway, Ruse does say some odd things in this review.
… Read the restBut how then does Dawkins respond to the obvious retort of the religious, who have always stressed mystery? Some of the fundamental problems of philosophy
Evans and Wolpert Chat About Atheism
May 5th, 2005 8:46 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo did you listen to Dylan Evans and Lewis Wolpert argue on ‘Today’ this morning? It was quite entertaining at first, but then they got off onto a not very rewarding tangent about religious art, and ran out of time, so the more interesting issues were left unexplored. Pity.
But there were some interesting things said before the tangent.
… Read the restDE: I think many atheists behave in a rather adolescent manner, and I think that while emancipating themselves from the older religious culture that surrounds them, they insist on rather sort of showy gestures of aggression towards religion; I think it’s just time the atheists moved on and gave a more balanced view of the older religious culture that surrounds
Petition for Referendum on Iran’s Constitution
May 5th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson35,000 people have signed despite regime’s efforts to silence them.… Read the rest