Choice of Rick Warren is seen as a signal to religious conservatives that Obama will listen to their views.… Read the rest
Earnings Were a Mirage But Bonuses Remain 
Dec 18th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Banks plan to pay bonuses despite needing billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to survive.… Read the rest
The Epistemology of the DSM-V
Dec 18th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘In psychiatry no one knows the causes of anything, so classification can be driven by all sorts of factors.’… Read the rest
Belief and responsibility
Dec 17th, 2008 5:47 pm | By Ophelia BensonPeter Singer points out the consquences of ignoring science.
… Read the restThroughout his tenure as South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki rejected the scientific consensus that Aids is caused by a virus, HIV, and that anti-retroviral drugs can save the lives of people who test positive for it. Instead, he embraced the views of a small group of dissident scientists who suggested other causes for Aids. Mbeki stubbornly continued to embrace this position even as the evidence against it became overwhelming. When anyone – even Nelson Mandela…- publicly questioned Mbeki’s views, Mbeki’s supporters viciously denounced them. While Botswana and Namibia, South Africa’s neighbours, provided anti-retrovirals to the majority of its citizens infected by HIV, South Africa under Mbeki failed to do so.
HRW Urges Action on Reforms for Migrant Women
Dec 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Governments in the Middle East should act quickly to fulfill promises to protect migrant women’s rights.… Read the rest
HRW on the Kiwanja Massacre
Dec 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Survivors could only run to the UN base half a mile away and cluster outside the fence for protection.… Read the rest
Jesus, Mo and Barmaid on Science and Theology
Dec 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Science is limited by its refusal to make stuff up.… Read the rest
The Cost of Mbeki’s ‘Beliefs’ About HIV
Dec 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Had South Africa’s government provided the appropriate drugs, it would have prevented 365,000 premature deaths.… Read the rest
Cheney Says Waterboarding is Okay
Dec 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
ABC asked him if in hindsight he thought the tactics went too far. ‘I don’t,’ Cheney said cheerfully.… Read the rest
Free Speech Rapporteurs on ‘Defamation’
Dec 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Restrictions on freedom of expression should never be used to protect institutions, abstract notions, or beliefs.… Read the rest
Kenan Malik on Internalising the Fatwa
Dec 16th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The avoidance of ‘cultural pain’ is seen as more important than an ‘abstract’ right to freedom of expression. … Read the rest
Nirmukta Offers a Plea for Rationality
Dec 16th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The one thing we can all agree on: we cannot give up our secularism and limited freedoms in fear or in anger.… Read the rest
Another Blasphemy Bust in Indonesia
Dec 16th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Indonesian police booked cult leader Lia Aminuddin for ‘insulting’ Islam.… Read the rest
Indonesia: Teacher Accused of ‘Blasphemy’
Dec 16th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Accusation that a teacher ‘blasphemed’ Islam set off the torching of two churches, a health clinic, 67 homes.… Read the rest
Muslim Think Tank Finds Sharia Unfair to Women
Dec 16th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘I told them I had been forced and this was not Islamic, but they disagreed.’… Read the rest
Call for End to Sharia Courts
Dec 16th, 2008 | By Maryam NamazieA new report showing that Muslim women are discriminated against and
encounter gross bias when they subject themselves to Sharia adjudications
was welcomed today by The One Law for
All Campaign, which is supported by a variety of organisations and
individuals.
The campaign’s spokesperson Maryam Namazie said: ‘This research reinforces
our own findings that Sharia Councils and Muslim Arbitration Tribunals are
discriminatory and unfair. However, the solution to the miscarriages of
justice is not the vetting of Imams coming to the UK as the report has
recommended but an end to the use and implementation of Sharia law and
religious-based tribunals.’ She added: ‘At present these Sharia-based bodies
are growing and appear to have some sort of official backing. But … Read the rest
As if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on
Dec 16th, 2008 11:40 am | By Ophelia BensonKenan Malik on the fatwa twenty years on.
It has now become widely accepted that we live in a multicultural world, and that in such a world it is important not to cause offence to other peoples and cultures. As the sociologist Tariq Modood has put it: ‘If people are to occupy the same political space without conflict, they mutually have to limit the extent to which they subject each others’ fundamental beliefs to criticism.’…Today, we have come to accept that books do indeed cause riots and that therefore we must be careful what books we write – or what cartoons we draw, or jokes we tell, or art we create.
Which creates an interesting and alarming closed circle … Read the rest
The Professionalization of Literature
Dec 15th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Instead of reading literature, now we study ‘texts.’ We’ve developed a discipline, with its jargon and its methodology.… Read the rest
Religion and Science: Not a Clean-cut Division
Dec 15th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
EPA administrator has BA from bible college, is beholden to a corporate lobbyist. Amen.… Read the rest
‘Proof That Faith and Science Can Co-exist’
Dec 15th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Of course they can co-exist; that doesn’t mean they both make sense.… Read the rest
