Officials blamed Taleban for burning down newly-built schools which serve 1,000 boys and girls. … Read the rest
Kofi Annan Condemns Holocaust Denial
Jan 28th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUN Secretary General says world must challenge those who deny the Holocaust happened.… Read the rest
Saul Kripke: Not ‘What Am I?’ but ‘What Is I?’
Jan 28th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNaming and Necessity is among the most influential philosophy books of the last 50 years.… Read the rest
Michael Bérubé on Academic Freedom
Jan 28th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDecisions about academic affairs should be conducted by means of peer review rather than by plebescite.… Read the rest
Undoing Roe v Wade Bit by Bit
Jan 28th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNo need to overturn it outright if you can just make it unavailable.… Read the rest
The How Dare You Move
Jan 27th, 2006 8:38 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m interested in this habit of theists and – what to call them – fellow-travelers of theists. People who aren’t theists themselves, but get all riled up at ‘materialist’ positivist etc etc etc arguments, and pitch fits about them. (Not Norm, of course! This is a different subject entirely.) The habit they have is to resort to a certain kind of moral outrage, and while doing that, to distort quite thoroughly what the posito-materialists say.
The certain kind of moral outrage in question is to say (in one way or another) ‘Are you calling me stupid?’
The thought seems to go like this (I say seems because they always leave out a lot of steps, so trying to figure out … Read the rest
In Which I Make at Least One Concession
Jan 27th, 2006 5:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonNow to ponder Norm’s answer, or parts of it.
… Read the restBut I fear that she’s lost sight of what this discussion is about. It’s not about whether we accept religion, nor even about whether we give it an all-round good report, in which the positive aspects outweigh the negative ones…The issue was about seeing only the bad in religion as opposed to taking a more balanced view. To justify the former approach Ophelia needs the ‘Hegelian’, contaminating move – and I suggest that that is why you find it in her original post, even though it wasn’t her intention. For if you stick with what she intended, then all you’ve got is that for her the bad in religion is more
Under Half of Britons Accept Evolution
Jan 27th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOver 40% of those questioned think creationism or ID should be taught in science lessons. … Read the rest
Carlin Romano Reviews Cosmopolitanism
Jan 27th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn Cosmopolitanism, Appiah expands the thinking of his previous book, The Ethics of Identity.… Read the rest
Do Law Schools Need Ideological Diversity?
Jan 27th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBrian Leiter and Peter Schuck debate the issue.… Read the rest
Dennett on Religion
Jan 27th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Can just any religion give lives meaning, in a way that we should honor and respect?’… Read the rest
Eastern Philosophy
Jan 27th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘What then is Indian and Chinese philosophy, and what reason is there for studying it?’… Read the rest
Women in India Told to Shut Up and Cover Up
Jan 27th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSoft porn is everywhere, but women must be kept in line with fatwas, cops, death threats.… Read the rest
The What Newspaper in the World?
Jan 26th, 2006 8:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonI want to answer Norm’s answer – but later. I have – all these things to do, and more keep coming in. Meanwhile I’ve been wanting to say a few acid words about that ridiculous Deborah Solomon interview with Daniel Dennett.
She starts the stupidity with the very first question. (And that’s the kind of thing that always makes me marvel at the way the Times [NY version] is always calmly informing us that it is the best newspaper in the world – that dopy mediocrity. Why have someone interview Dennett who will ask such silly, ill-informed questions? What is the point of it? Why not do better? Because it would be ‘elitist’ to get someone with a clue … Read the rest
Why We Should Remember Darwin the Geologist
Jan 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSandra Herbert examines the ways Darwin understood changes in time and space.… Read the rest
Darwin the Geologist
Jan 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt was a geological underpinning that led to much of what was most original in his work.… Read the rest
Culturally Relative Science in Australian Schools
Jan 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOne curriculum describes Western science as ‘only one form among the sciences of the world.’… Read the rest
Review of Debating Design
Jan 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCambridge University Press gives Dembski and ID more academic cred than they should have.… Read the rest
Religious Groups Shape History Textbooks
Jan 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHistorical accuracy can conflict with ‘enhancing the pride and self-esteem of believers.’… Read the rest
A Mingled Yarn
Jan 25th, 2006 7:43 pm | By Ophelia BensonNorm has commented on my comment on his comment on why not mention the good of religion as well as the bad. So I want to see what I think about what he thinks.
First the more minor, contingent issue – my claim that because there is a lot of unmixed criticism of atheism (and rationality, science, secularism) around, people like me don’t always feel like giving mixed criticism back.
I see no reason why opposition to religion, forthright, outspoken opposition to it, cannot, as with anything else, recognize the virtues in what it opposes if there are any.
No, nor do I. It can. But I’m not convinced that it always ought to. I can see plenty of reasons … Read the rest