One woman told CNN that men armed with clubs emerged from a mosque and beat people savagely.… Read the rest
Iran: Authorities Torment Family of Neda Soltan
Jun 25th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey were forced to move, the police kept her body, her funeral was cancelled, mourning was forbidden.… Read the rest
New Atheist Says Religion Can’t Be Replaced
Jun 25th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCommenters say how dare you, Andrew Brown has a good laugh; all very amusing.… Read the rest
Fool’s Gold: Reflections on the Great Crunch
Jun 25th, 2009 | By Max DunbarIn What a Carve-Up!, his State of England novel set just before the recession of the early nineties, Jonathan Coe introduced us to the criminal aristocrats of the Winshaw family, whose avaricious interests exert disproportionate influence on economics, foreign policy, healthcare, agriculture and art. Coe’s voyeuristic banker, Thomas Winshaw, describes banking as ‘the most spiritual of all professions’:
… Read the restHe would quote his favourite statistic: one thousand billion dollars of trading took place on the world’s financial markets every day. Since every transaction involved a two-way deal, this meant that five hundred billion dollars would be changing hands. Did the interviewer know how much of that money derived from real, tangible trade in goods and services? A fraction: ten per
Let me count the ways
Jun 25th, 2009 11:00 am | By Ophelia BensonWhat’s the problem with J J Ramsey’s last comment on Un-der-stan-ding met-a-phor?
I am trying to find a way to say this in a way that avoids sounding too accusatory, but for now I can’t: Don’t even try to use the murder of a little girl to shield your own ideas from scrutiny. I’m sorry to put it so harshly.
That is, why does it seem not just wrong, and obnoxious in the usual routine internetty way, and beside the point, and belligerent? Why does it seem even more than that?
Let’s see…Partly it’s the absurdity of saying he is trying to find a better way of saying it, but can’t. Of course he can. He said it the … Read the rest
Once upon a time Jesus was resurrected
Jun 25th, 2009 8:28 am | By Ophelia BensonChris Mooney takes issue with Sean Carroll.
[I]s a claim like “Jesus died and was resurrected” really falsifiable by science in the same way that a claim like “The Earth is 10,000 years old” is falsifiable? I’d submit that at least as held by some sophisticated believers, it isn’t.
The fact that it isn’t falsifiable is actually a reason not to believe it rather than a reason to believe it. Freudian psychoanalysis isn’t falsifiable either, and that’s what makes its claims so dubious. But Mooney isn’t really talking about falsifiability, he’s challenging Carroll’s ‘The reason why science and religion are actually incompatible is that, in the real world, they reach incompatible conclusions. It’s worth noting that this incompatibility is … Read the rest
Iranian Government Says It’s a Foreign Plot
Jun 24th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s the BBC, Voice of America, Zionists and non-Zionists, the UN, the G-8, foreign powers, terrorists…… Read the rest
Iranians Killed or Detained Since 12 June
Jun 24th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran gives an annotated list.… Read the rest
Massoumeh Torfeh: How Iran Betrayed its Young
Jun 24th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTheir aim in killing a young girl is clear: to frighten other girls away from coming to the streets. … Read the rest
The Prince’s Thinking is Depressingly Woolly
Jun 24th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonReith lecture a muddle of scientific reasoning, appeals to “instinctive, heart-felt awareness”, and bunkum about God’s will.… Read the rest
Iran: Myths and Realities
Jun 24th, 2009 | By Azar MajediIran is at the top of international news. What led to the mass protests? How did the situation change so dramatically over a week? What do people want? What will be the outcome of this protest movement? These are the questions discussed repeatedly on TV channels and in the press. Different political analysts and members of Iranian-American/European academia, all with different degrees of allegiance to the so-called state reformist camp, are invited to throw light on the situation. All these different commentators make one common assumption: “The people in Iran do not want a revolution.” By this, they mean that the people do not want to overthrow the Islamic regime. They claim that the people want an evolution, a gradual … Read the rest
Butter no parsnips, whatever you do
Jun 24th, 2009 11:50 am | By Ophelia BensonJerry Coyne did a post on the Templeton Foundation a couple of days ago, and Templeton’s ‘Chief External Affairs Officer,’ Gary Rosen, offered a reply. I call your attention to one thought in particular:
[W]e do like to include philosophers and theologians in many of our projects. Excellent science is crucial to what we do, but it is not all that we do. We are a “Big Questions” foundation, not a science foundation, and we believe that the world’s philosophical and religious traditions have much to contribute to understanding human experience and our place in the universe.
I asked Gary Rosen
… Read the restWhat exactly do you ‘believe’ that the world’s religious traditions have to contribute to understanding human experience and our
Legless
Jun 23rd, 2009 2:54 pm | By Ophelia BensonRussell Blackford asked an important question on Jerry Coyne’s post on Andrew Brown and Michael Ruse:
It’s true that science teachers in public schools should not draw inferences, when talking to their students, about whether some scientific findings cast doubt on some religious positions. But is Brown really going to say that NO ONE should draw such inferences in public debate? That would go a long way towards putting philosophers of religion out of business. Does he really think that the whole question is one that should not be debated honestly in the public sphere?
Yes. Here is how he puts it:
… Read the restSuppose we concede that the new atheists are right, and no true, honest scientist could be anything
Science and Religion are Not Compatible
Jun 23rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey reach incompatible conclusions. This incompatibility is evident to any fair-minded person who looks.… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo Are Running Out of Space
Jun 23rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere may soon be no more room for God in the universe. What to do?… Read the rest
A Problem of Liberty and Women’s Dignity
Jun 23rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCritics warned that the government risks stigmatising Muslims over a minor and marginal issue.… Read the rest
Sarkozy on Religious Misogyny
Jun 23rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience,” he told lawmakers.… Read the rest
Maryam Namazie on Neda Agha-Soltan
Jun 23rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShe wanted freedom for everyone.… Read the rest
Segregation Lives on in Rural Georgia
Jun 23rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn a handful of Southern towns, parents still insist on whites-only proms which blacks are not allowed to attend.… Read the rest
The Movement Improves in Iran
Jun 23rd, 2009 | By Jahanshah RashidianAfter Iran’s disputed presidential election, we have three different categories of people who now challenge the regime by taking to the streets:
- The first category belongs to a Muslim population who voted for Mousavi or Kahroubi by conviction; they still capitalise their hope in reforms within the Islamic Republic of Iran.
- The second one is those who voted for one of the “reformists” as a “catalyst” to ease the way for a secular and democratic regime. They voted for them as the lesser evils, hoping to have one of them pave the way toward freedom and secularism in the future.
- And the third category belongs to the Iranians who boycotted the election and want an immediate democratic and secular regime