Anti-Semitism, to pass under the radar, must draw from anti-Zionism, Holocaust denial, and victim competition.… Read the rest
Alan Sokal on Taking Evidence Seriously
Feb 29th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe implications of taking seriously an evidence-based worldview are far more radical than most people realise. … Read the rest
Ideas are all the Rage
Feb 29th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe success of idea books has signified to cultural commissars a thirst for good ideas clearly expressed.… Read the rest
Rude women
Feb 29th, 2008 10:50 am | By Ophelia BensonSpeaking of Katha Pollitt – she made an interesting comment on the Women’s Studies list yesterday, one which is partly relevant to all this stuff about respect and worry.
Actually I think powerful women make many women quite uncomfortable.
Just look at what women say about Hillary Clinton — she’s
‘ambitious,’ “cold,” “I just don’t like her,’ etc. I’m not saying a
feminist has to vote for Hillary, but the kinds of things so many
women hold against her are quite revealing of their own discomfort
with a woman who steps out of the nice-nice nurturing deferential role.
That comment inspired me to reply, in a way also relevant to all this stuff.
… Read the restAin’t it the truth. Which is why
How to be respectful
Feb 29th, 2008 10:13 am | By Ophelia BensonThe discussion of my hostile and flippant comment on the Secretary General’s advice to ‘respect all religious beliefs’ last week got diverted into irrelevance right at the beginning with talk of laughing at people who pray before dinner, which had nothing at all to do with the subject under discussion; and it went on the way it began, irrelevance piled on irrelevance. Commenters insisted that the Secretary General didn’t really mean what he had said, he meant something else; I kept replying that I was talking about what he had in fact said, only to get more assertions about what he really meant. Commenters insisted that the only alternative to ‘respect’ was laughing at people, ignoring the vast middle ground … Read the rest
Iran’s parliament gets down to work
Feb 28th, 2008 12:24 pm | By Ophelia BensonMore exciting news from Iran.
The Iranian parliament is discussing a new penal code, under which citizens who convert [to] another religion will face execution…Besides apostates, the code also [include?]s the death penalty for a[n]yone who ‘insults the Prophet’.
Ah. Well…perhaps this idea that people should be allowed to leave a religion without having their heads separated from their shoulders is just some old hegemonic notion of western Orientalists, or something.
… Read the restDr Nazila Ghanea, lecturer in human rights law at Oxford university and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Religion and Human Rights, said: ‘The laws will give the Iranian government legal grounds to resort to taking the lives of any of its citizens who choose to adopt a religion
Section Five: Apostasy, Heresy, and Witchcraft
Feb 28th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonArticle 225-7: Punishment for an Innate Apostate is death. Article 225-8: Punishment for a Parental Apostate is death.… Read the rest
Iranian Parliament Working on New Penal Code
Feb 28th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLaws will give the Iranian government legal grounds to kill any citizens who choose a religion other than Islam. … Read the rest
Pics from Southall Black Sisters Protest
Feb 28th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSunny Hundal went along to show support, and he took his camera.… Read the rest
John Patrick Diggins Reviews Charles Taylor
Feb 28th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTaylor seeks to prove that God is still very much present in the world, if only we look at the right places.… Read the rest
‘Undercover Mosque’ Makers to Sue Police for Libel
Feb 28th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPolice said the programme misrepresented the mosques and might ‘undermine community cohesion.’… Read the rest
Seyla Benhabib on Turkey’s Hijab Legislation
Feb 27th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUnfortunate that reform of Article 301 (on ‘insulting Turkishness’) was dropped.… Read the rest
Biologists Join Philosophers in Moral Thinking
Feb 27th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMarc Hauser, David Sloan Wilson, Samuel Bowles look at trolleyology, altruism, and moral behavior.… Read the rest
Cultural Sensitivity Puts Rights at Risk
Feb 27th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPrevents police, teachers, social services from protecting basic human rights for fear of upsetting ‘communities.’… Read the rest
Tom Flynn: Why the A Word Won’t Go Away
Feb 27th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMainstreamers have powerfully negative, largely noncognitive responses to atheism. … Read the rest
Paul Gross on Florida’s New Science Standards
Feb 27th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe compromise is a sop to voters who think some other way of knowing is equal or superior to science.… Read the rest
Open Letter from American Feminists
Feb 26th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonKatha Pollitt notes: ‘Women’s rights are human rights’ was not a slogan dreamed up by David Horowitz.… Read the rest
Multi-secularism: The New Agenda
Feb 26th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMulti-secularism seems to be the best strategy: adapting secular values to the societies in which they arise. … Read the rest
Steve Jones Disses Creationism
Feb 26th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Creationism is boring and empty, and I usually ignore it, but this week at UCL it’s hard to do so.’… Read the rest
The War Against Women Never Ends
Feb 26th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn West Africa, as in so many places where rape was used as a weapon of war, it has become a habit.… Read the rest