Zimbabwe re-elected to UN Human Rights Commission.… Read the rest
Mythic History and WWII 
May 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The effort to create some new myths fell foul of the shocking reality.… Read the rest
The Other 1905 Revolution – Einstein’s
May 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why part molasses part sand, part soup part pile of shot?… Read the rest
Women in the Middle East
May 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
There are a lot of books on the subject, and people are reading them.… Read the rest
Apostasy, Human Rights, Religion and Belief
May 2nd, 2005 | By Ibn WarraqThe very notion of apostasy has vanished from the West where one would talk of being a lapsed Catholic or non-practising Christian rather than an apostate. There are certainly no penal sanctions for converting from Christianity to any other religion. In Islamic countries, on the other hand, the issue is far from dead.
The Arabic word for apostate is murtadd, the one who turns back from Islam, and apostasy is denoted by irtidad and ridda. Ridda seems to have been used for apostasy from Islam into unbelief ( in Arabic, kufr ), and irtidad from Islam to some other religion.(1) A person born of Muslim parents who later rejects Islam is called a Murtadd Fitri – fitri meaning natural, it … Read the rest
A Subtle Ruse, But It Won’t Do
May 1st, 2005 9:43 pm | By Ophelia BensonMichael Ruse. [shakes head] I don’t know, I just don’t know. I simply can’t agree. I think he’s wrong. I think it’s bad (or at least dubious) tactics and I think it’s even worse morality and epistemology.
But those are two different things. I know, I know. Is and ought; facts and values. But lying about the one takes you into questions about the other. Which is a roundabout way of saying that even if it were good tactics I don’t think it’s morally respectable to tell lies about what you take to be the truth for tactical reasons. At least not on the whole; not in general; not as a rule. In life and death situations (a murderer … Read the rest
Michael Ruse Scolds Biologists for Being Atheists
May 1st, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Because it pisses off creationists.… Read the rest
Nick Cohen on a Culture of Sickly Revelation
May 1st, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Privacy? Wozzat?… Read the rest
I Once Was Lost, But Now I’m Found
May 1st, 2005 2:07 am | By Ophelia BensonWow. If you can read this story without getting choked or moved or stirred or some other way shaken, you’re a stronger man than I am, Gunga Din. But then I’m a sucker for resurrection stories.
… Read the restThe spectacular ivory-billed woodpecker, which was declared extinct in 1920, has been found alive in North America, Science magazine reports. The news has stunned ornithologists worldwide, with some comparing the discovery to finding the dodo…The find has ignited hope that other “extinct” birds may be clinging on to survival in isolated places. “This find is so significant that it is really difficult to describe,” Alistair Gammell, of the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), told BBC News. “We sadly won’t rediscover
