Fancy that.… Read the rest
The Da Vinci Code and Nonsense
Sep 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The story of the Priory of Sion is an elaborate hoax that first materialised in the 1950s.’… Read the rest
FEMA List Ignores Secular Agencies
Sep 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHas Pat Robertson’s ‘Operation Blessing’ in top three.… Read the rest
Opinion Poll on Iraqi Constitution
Sep 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson84% of sample support women’s rights.… Read the rest
Collagen Using Skin of Executed Prisoners
Sep 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘I was very shocked that western countries can make such a big fuss about this.’… Read the rest
Academic Ethics, Accuracy, Retribution
Sep 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA scholar points out numerous mistakes in Kierkegaard biography, and is censured. Why?… Read the rest
Cognitive Science and Moral Reasoning
Sep 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCognitive science can describe how people reason, but not say how they ought to. … Read the rest
That Infinite Regress Again
Sep 13th, 2005 10:54 pm | By Ophelia BensonJohn Sutherland interviewed Michael Behe in the Guardian yesterday. (P Z comments on the interview at Pharyngula). He didn’t ask some questions that it seems to me he might have.
… Read the restJS: It’s no secret that you are a Catholic. But, as I understand it, your scientific theory does not predicate God in any form whatsoever. You’ve suggested that the designer could even be some kind of evil alien. Is that right?
MB: That’s exactly correct. All that the evidence from biochemistry points to is some very intelligent agent. Although I find it congenial to think that it’s God, others might prefer to think it’s an alien – or who knows? An angel, or some satanic force, some new age
Step Into the Light
Sep 13th, 2005 7:55 pm | By Ophelia BensonSalman Rushdie has a few suggestions. Let’s hope his meet up with Irshad Manji’s and those of other reformers and start to displace the putative ‘leadership’ and ‘representativeness’ of the MCB. Let’s hope the whole project thrives.
… Read the restReformed Islam would reject conservative dogmatism and accept that, among other things, women are fully equal to men; that people of other religions, and of no religion, are not inferior to Muslims; that differences in sexual orientation are not to be condemned, but accepted as aspects of human nature; that anti-Semitism is not OK; and that the repression of free speech by the thin-skinned ideology of easily-taken “offence” must be replaced by genuine, robust, anything-goes debate in which there are no forbidden
The Third
Sep 13th, 2005 7:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m shocked – I went and forgot B&W’s birthday. It was days ago – September 10th. How could I forget?! Well I didn’t exactly forget; I thought it was later – late September or maybe October. But I forgot to check until today, so it comes to the same thing. How could I forget? I never have before. I suppose it’s because one of its progenitors doesn’t like it any more, poor little thing, so perhaps it seems tactless to fuss about birthdays. But anyway, another year older it is. It’s three. Last year it was two. The year before that it was one. The year before that it began. Happy Birthday, B&W.… Read the rest
Legal Implications of JAMA Study on Fetal Pain
Sep 13th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProviding misinformation to patients is medical malpractice.… Read the rest
Meera Nanda on Pseudoscience in India
Sep 13th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRadical disconnect between science superpower and superstitions pervading all levels of society. … Read the rest
The Perfectibility of Bunting
Sep 12th, 2005 11:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonMadeleine Bunting. What does she mean by it.
Why is it that a significant section of liberal and left-leaning opinion has signed up with such relish to the “clash of civilisations” argument? Its champions in the media may not phrase it as such, but you can hear the creak of the drawbridge being pulled up: they believe they are surrounded by enemies – Muslims and their dastardly non-Muslim apologists – and must defend to the last man the checklist of universal Enlightenment values that sustain their mission.
That’s quite a high proportion of rhetoric to argument or straightforward factual claim. That bit about not phrasing it as such – what that means is that the argument she’s talking about … Read the rest
Zingers
Sep 12th, 2005 8:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonSimon Schama comes up with a great many zingers on the devout slacker of the free world.
… Read the restGeorge W Bush has decreed that…there is to be a further day of solemnities on which the nation will pray for the unnumbered victims of Hurricane Katrina. Prayers (like vacations) are the default mode for this president who knows how to chuckle and bow the head in the midst of disaster but not, when it counts, how to govern or to command. If you feel the prickly heat of politics, summon a hymn to make it go away; make accountability seem a blasphemy. Thus has George Bush become the Archbishop of Washington even as his aura as lord protector slides into the putrid
Sociologists Question Extent of Looting in N.O.
Sep 12th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘There was no evidence for a lot of what was being reported.’… Read the rest
Compassionate Conservatism in Utero
Sep 12th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJAMA article on fetal pain awareness irritates anti-abortionists.… Read the rest
Academics With Asperger’s
Sep 12th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhen does eccentricity become mental illness?… Read the rest
The Academic Novel and its Addressivity
Sep 12th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIts wot? English teachers writing about each other, that’s what.… Read the rest
Rushdie: Let the Enlightenment Begin
Sep 12th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNine thoughts on reform.… Read the rest
Simon Schama: Bush as Archbishop of Washington
Sep 12th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonComparisons with 9/11 only reinforce differences between what the two calamities said about America.… Read the rest