Floribert Chebeya, head of the human rights group Voix des Sans Voix, was found dead on Wednesday.… Read the rest
Australia: doctors oppose FGM 
Jun 5th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
That includes ‘ritual nicking.’… Read the rest
Always look on the bright side of FGM
Jun 5th, 2010 12:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonNicholas Kristof tells off Ayaan Hirsi Ali because of course he knows far more about Islam than she does.
To those of us who have lived and traveled widely in Africa and Asia, descriptions of Islam often seem true but incomplete.
Including, apparently, descriptions by people who grew up immersed in Islam, genitally mutilated under Islam, beaten up by their teachers of Islam, issued death threats from adherents of Islam. The descriptions are true – but Kristof wants more. He wants to hear about the pretty calligraphy.
… Read the restThe repression of women, the persecution complexes, the lack of democracy, the volatility, the anti-Semitism, the difficulties modernizing, the disproportionate role in terrorism — those are all real. But if those were the
More tinkling cymbal
Jun 5th, 2010 11:42 am | By Ophelia BensonBut that’s not all, of course. Odone has more to say than that. Odone has a lot to say.
First of all she complains that Channel 4 chose, to present a show on paedophile priests, a guy who is “an avowed atheist” and who has “no knowledge of the contemporary Catholic Church,” as if both are obvious disqualifications for presenting a show on paedophile priests. Her thinking seems to be that you have to believe in god and be an expert on the Catholic church in order to present a tv show on a concentration of child rapists in a particular profession. In other words her thinking seems to be that only someone who starts out with some sympathy … Read the rest
A duel at sunrise
Jun 5th, 2010 10:58 am | By Ophelia BensonSeriously. Cristina Odone must feel very sure that Richard Dawkins won’t sue her for libel, or she wouldn’t say “Richard Dawkins is responsible for peddling a lot of lies about faith” in her blog at The Telegraph, and the Telegraph wouldn’t let her, either. She wouldn’t just casually risk a money-devouring and time-devouring lawsuit just for the hell of it, or for the tiny fun of accusing Dawkins of peddling lies in a Telegraph blog. She writes for the national press in the UK, so she can’t possibly be unaware of the UK’s insane libel laws and how they are used. She can’t possibly be unaware of Simon Singh and the BCA and the word “bogus” – so it’s … Read the rest
Cristina Odone demonstrates Catholic liberality
Jun 5th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Says Dawkins “peddles lies.” Clearly she knows he won’t sue for libel, so she feels free to libel him.… Read the rest
Kristof’s strident review
Jun 5th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Hirsi Ali denounces Islam with a ferocity that I find strident, potentially feeding religious bigotry.’… Read the rest
Andrew Roberts on Nicholas Kristof on Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Jun 5th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
For true stridency one should read Kristof’s almost unhinged response to Hirsi Ali’s book.… Read the rest
My owner knows what’s best for me
Jun 4th, 2010 4:32 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere’s Rowdha Yousef, who is worried about this alarming trend for Saudi women to start making a few faint gestures toward acting like human beings. She is outraged.
With 15 other women, she started a campaign, “My Guardian Knows What’s Best for Me.” Within two months, they had collected more than 5,400 signatures on a petition “rejecting the ignorant requests of those inciting liberty” and demanding “punishments for those who call for equality between men and women, mingling between men and women in mixed environments, and other unacceptable behaviors.”
Her guardian knows what’s best for her, therefore she wants to help see to it that all women will continue to be required to have guardians whether they want them or … Read the rest
But is there a common ground to be found?
Jun 4th, 2010 4:08 pm | By Ophelia BensonEli Horowitz of Rust Belt Philosophy finds the Templeton Foundation and its everlasting questions irksome. The World Science Festival has its Science ‘N’ Faith panel, as we know, which asks rilly deep questions:
For all their historical tensions, scientists and religious scholars from a wide variety of faiths ponder many similar questions—how did the universe begin? How might it end? What is the origin of matter, energy, and life?
Ooh yeah, how, how? Eli adds a few more deep questions.
… Read the restHow many years can some people exist before they’re allowed to be free? Who put the “bop” in the “bop-shoo-bop-shoo-bop”? Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways? What’s eating Gilbert Grape? Who framed Roger Rabbit?
More irregular verbs
Jun 4th, 2010 11:29 am | By Ophelia BensonJason Rosenhouse has an excellent post on the science ‘n’ faith panel at the World Science Festival.
He notes that Chad Orzel says, “The simple fact is that people with fixed and absolute views do not make for an interesting conversation,” and comments
… Read the restRight, because it’s only New Atheists that have fixed and absolute viewpoints. When someone like Francisco Ayala writes,
I contend that both — scientists denying religion and believers rejecting science — are wrong. Science and religious beliefs need not be in contradiction. If they are properly understood, they cannot be in contradiction because science and religion concern different matters.
there is nothing fixed or absolute in his views? To declare bluntly that any conception of
Peter Tatchell to do C4 documentary on pope
Jun 4th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Widdecombe, Odone, Jack Valero of Opus Dei pitch fits.… Read the rest
Vatican wants to engage with atheists
Jun 4th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
But only with the ‘noble’ ones, not the polemical kind – no Onfray or Dawkins or Hitchens thanks.… Read the rest
The Nation looks at Templeton
Jun 4th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Scholars aren’t quite sure what the “science of Godly Love” means, exactly.’… Read the rest
The modes of inquiry are, to be sure, very different
Jun 3rd, 2010 12:29 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe World Science Festival is offering a “Faith and Science” panel, funded by the Templeton Foundation, of course. Chad Orzel disagrees with Jerry Coyne and Sean Carroll on the wrong-headedness of this. Sean points out
there is a somewhat obvious omission of a certain viewpoint: those of us who think that science and religion are not compatible. And there are a lot of us! Also, we’re right. A panel like this does a true disservice to people who are curious about these questions and could benefit from a rigorous airing of the issues, rather than a whitewash where everyone mumbles pleasantly about how we should all just get along.
To which Orzel responds
… Read the restI’m not convinced you need
Look out! Another slippery slope!
Jun 3rd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Privacy and health concerns, moral or religious convictions, sensitivity training, indoctrinate, myths of the homosexual movement.… Read the rest
Saudi woman bravely resists reform
Jun 3rd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Started campaign “My Guardian Knows What’s Best for Me.”… Read the rest
Slippery slope! Watch out!
Jun 3rd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Disability campaigner wants to impose her unreasonable fears on everyone.… Read the rest
ASA rules against church miracle cure claims
Jun 3rd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
We noted that the ad stated “… I have seen the dead raised and I have witnessed nearly all types of healing miracles.”… Read the rest
An extended chat with Hitchens
Jun 2nd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘There are all kinds of stupid people that annoy me but what annoys me most is a lazy argument.’… Read the rest
