The greatest exponent of alternative medicine is the future monarch. A little royal patronage can be powerful.… Read the rest
Chiropractors Told to Take Down Their Websites
Jun 16th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBecause of a ‘witch hunt against chiropractors…if you have a website, take it down NOW.’… Read the rest
It’s Not Religion, I Tell You!
Jun 16th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJust because people say it’s religion when they kill you, that doesn’t make it so!… Read the rest
Bunting on the Woman Who Hates God
Jun 16th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The kind of strident atheism which Benson epitomises intrigues me. It’s driven by a curious intensity…’… Read the rest
The Real ‘Islamophobia’
Jun 15th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe explosion rocked the complex, which includes a mosque, library, classrooms, offices and student accommodation.… Read the rest
Nick Cohen on the Holocaust Museum Killer
Jun 15th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe hated Bill O’Reilly of Fox News and neocons as much as the New York Times and Obama.… Read the rest
Homeopathy Awareness: Gloria Thomas
Jun 15th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJudge ruled most of the pictures cannot be made public, because they are too horrible.… Read the rest
Homeopathy Awareness Week
Jun 15th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHomeopaths have been promoting homeopathic sugar pills to treat or prevent malaria and HIV in Africa.… Read the rest
Stephen Jay Gould and the Politics of Evolution
Jun 15th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPZ Myers reviews a new book on the subject.… Read the rest
Say anything
Jun 15th, 2009 11:17 am | By Ophelia BensonJames Hannam re-states his case in a comment on It’s not a majority vote issue.
[L]ooking back, a clear lesson seems to be that the accommodationists got things done. So even if Coyne and Myers are right (and of course, I don’t think they are) about the incompatibility of religion and evolution, prior experience suggests that they should nonetheless respect differences and even hold their noses for the good of science. No one would expect them to hide their views. But at the moment, they give the impression that they are partisans for atheism rather than for evolution.
The first question is: what things did accommodationists get done, and what connection did the accommodationism have with the getting things … Read the rest
It’s not a majority vote issue
Jun 14th, 2009 12:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonJames Hannam is confused about accommodationism.
As the battle between creationism and evolution heats up, some atheists, like Jerry Coyne, have been insisting that it is really a battle between religion and science. Coyne resists any accommodation between religious and non-religious scientists…In order for his position to make sense, he needs to show that there is some sort of existential conflict between religion and science. So it is unfortunate for him that the historical record clearly shows that accommodation and even cooperation have been the default positions in the relationship.
No, that’s not right. It would perfectly possible for the historical record to show that and for the accommodation still to be philosophically incoherent. Coyne’s claim is not that … Read the rest
Catholic thinking is rather different…
Jun 14th, 2009 12:10 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is what I’m saying.
Tony Blair made much of becoming a Roman Catholic six months after he left 10 Downing Street, but senior figures in the Church appear reluctant to sign up to his fan club…Blair used an interview with Attitude, a magazine for homosexuals, to criticise the approach of the Pope towards gay rights. He argued that religious leaders must start “rethinking” the issue, but the new Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, said Catholic thinking was “rather different” from the kind promoted by Blair.
Precisely. Of course it is. So what does Madeleine Bunting mean by claiming she doesn’t understand when people point out that laws handed down by an unavailable unaccountable god … Read the rest
Who Goes to a Creationist Museum?
Jun 14th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNo prizes for the answer.… Read the rest
All Serious Historians Line Up
Jun 14th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTo agree with James Hallam on science and religion.… Read the rest
Russell Blackford on NOMA
Jun 14th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNeither science nor religion can decide what the ultimate point of morality should be.… Read the rest
Does Religion Have Special Epistemic Authority?
Jun 14th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAre there questions that science can’t answer while religion can? Well, what do you mean by ‘answer’?… Read the rest
Cardinal Uninspired by Blair Faith Foundation
Jun 14th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBlair thinks religious ‘leaders’ should rethink gay rights, but Catholic thinking is ‘rather different.’ Yes.… Read the rest
Another Uppity Woman on God v Women
Jun 14th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShe never understood why her kick-ass grandmother accepted Greek Orthodox dogma about women being second class humans.… Read the rest
Madeleine Bunting please note
Jun 13th, 2009 5:24 pm | By Ophelia BensonHa – eat your heart out, Maddy – here’s someone who understands what we mean by asking if God hates women. She understands it perfectly, and has been there.
… Read the restAn article from the UK’s Guardian, God is merciful, but only if you’re a man, reminded me of the subservient role women played in the fundamentalist Christian churches I came to know as a believer…[T]he church would make me shed bitter tears for my inability to be sweet, submissive, and sheeplike. Religious circles just aren’t friendly to a woman who thinks herself an equal. The Guardian’s article brought back the awful church memories. In those days and during my earlier de-conversion phase, I was just angry and couldn’t understand
Ex-fundamentalist: God Does Hate Women
Jun 13th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonReligious circles just aren’t friendly to a woman who thinks herself an equal.… Read the rest