‘Faith’ is at its most dangerous not when it is insincere and hypocritical and corrupt but when it is genuine.… Read the rest
The Arranged Marriage of Bhutto and Musharraf 
Dec 31st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The experience of her father’s trial and death radicalised and politicised his daughter. … Read the rest
Jemima Khan on Benazir Bhutto
Dec 31st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The first democratically elected female leader of a Muslim country never even tried to repeal the Hudood Ordinances.… Read the rest
Tariq Ali on the Bhutto Assassination
Dec 31st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What has happened is a tragedy for a country on a road to more disasters. … Read the rest
Tariq Ali Deplores a Feudal Charade
Dec 31st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The PPP is being treated as a family heirloom, a property to be disposed of at the will of its leader.… Read the rest
Lessons of Atheist Dictatorships
Dec 31st, 2007 | By Christopher OrletOne of my favorite moments in the current series of atheist versus Christian debates occurs when the defender of the faith – confronted with contradictions and crimes in Holy Writ – drops the Christian identity and begins championing a vague form of Deism (much like the Rev. Al Sharpton in the Sharpton-Christopher Hitchens Debate). Suddenly all talk of the resurrection and the miraculous vanishes, supplanted by faith in a celestial watchmaker who created this complicated but cockeyed timepiece of a universe, wound it up and then went about His business for the next 13 billion years.
Less amusing is the part where the Christian proponent attempts to blame the worst 20th century atrocities on atheism, which, to my mind, shows … Read the rest
‘Box to Box’: Vote and You’re Dead
Dec 30th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Islamist opposition to democracy is based on the claim that allowing humans to legislate is a form of sherk.… Read the rest
Hitchens on Why Bhutto’s Murder is a Disaster
Dec 30th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
She was pro-Taliban and pro-nukes as PM, but had changed her mind about the Taliban.… Read the rest
So Much For Higher Education
Dec 30th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Texas higher ed panel recommends letting Institute for Creation Research offer degrees in science education.… Read the rest
Aziz Huq Says Bhutto Was No Mandela, But
Dec 30th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Without democracy, there is scant chance the religious leaders who have backed the Taliban can be won over. … Read the rest
Moni Mohsin on Pakistan Without Benazir
Dec 30th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Alone among the leadership of Pakistan, she understood the grave threat from religious extremists. … Read the rest
Political Violence is the Bane of South Asia
Dec 30th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Militants and fanatics of all dogmas and grievances have assassinated leaders since independence.… Read the rest
Block that play
Dec 30th, 2007 11:01 am | By Ophelia BensonSpeaking of the combination of bullshit and bullying – consider the way the word ‘faith’ is everywhere used as a tool of that combination. It’s a bully-word precisely because it’s about bullshit; it gets to bully people on the grounds that it is about unwarranted belief. What an odd arrangement.
Look at Deborah Solomon talking to Ian McEwan for instance.
… Read the restIt seems to me that the impulse to atone is a religious one, and yet you are a self-declared atheist. Yes, I am an atheist, and probably Briony is, too. Atheists have as much conscience, possibly more, than people with deep religious conviction, and they still have the same problem of how they reconcile themselves to a bad deed in
Secular democracy is a Sin
Dec 30th, 2007 10:15 am | By Ophelia BensonSome ideas are dangerous any way you look at them. This is one.
Over the past decade, thousands of people, from top politicians to ordinary voters, have been murdered by Islamists in Muslim countries that have held reasonably free elections (Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia). Islamist opposition to democracy is based on the claim that allowing men to legislate would be a form of sherk, that is to say associating Man with God, who is the “sole and ultimate legislator”. Man-made law cannot rival God-made Shariah.
Humans can’t and mustn’t (especially mustn’t, because in fact of course they can, so they have to be stopped) correct or review or displace or act for or … Read the rest
George Felis on Consensus and Skepticism
Dec 29th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Once a conclusion is determined in advance by faith, subsequent ‘argument’ is mere rationalization.… Read the rest
The Islamist War on Muslim Women
Dec 29th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It took a worldwide outcry to spare ‘Qatif girl’ and others. We have to keep squawking.… Read the rest
The Most Potent Voice for Liberalism and Change
Dec 29th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Bhutto’s assassination a defining act of the politics of murder – a phenomenon that we see from Lebanon to Iraq to Pakistan.… Read the rest
Grand Opening of London Center for Inquiry
Dec 29th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Paul Kurtz, Joseph Hoffmann, Julian Baggini, Stephen Law, Nigel Warburton, Polly Toynbee, Ibn Warraq, etc.… Read the rest
McGinn Did Not Like Honderich’s Book
Dec 29th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
But was his tone wrong? Philosophers and others discuss.… Read the rest
Where Did the Laws of Nature Come From?
Dec 29th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Cosmology meets philosophy.… Read the rest
