Vicars express shock-horror.… Read the rest
A tedious impasse
Oct 16th, 2011 4:47 pm | By Ophelia BensonI see Julian has a new series at Comment is Free, Heathen’s Progress. (I saw it the other day via a post of Eric’s.) It’s about telling believers, atheists and agnostics how they’re all doing it wrong, and how to do it right.
In a debate that has been full of controversy and rancour, there is one assertion that surely most can agree with without dispute: the God wars have reached a tedious impasse, with all sides resorting to repetition of the same old arguments, which are met with familiar, unsatisfactory responses. This is a stalemate, with the emphasis firmly on “stale”.
Oh dear, I’m so bloody-minded. The first sentence of a long series, and one which says … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Public Philosophy and Our Spiritual Predicament
Oct 16th, 2011 | By Andrew J TaggartWhen I was 16, I was confirmed Lutheran. By the time I got to college, I’d been won over to atheism. Seemed like a no brainer at the time. Sometime after that, though, I lost my way and gained some insight.
(This, I assure you, is not a story about being dipped in water or writhing on the floor.)
I’ve since noticed a certain post-Kantian convergence emerge in our fragile secular age. As Kant showed in the First Critique, all rational proofs for God’s existence, the immortality of the soul, and the ex nihilo creation of the universe have failed, and yet from these results we have no grounds for concluding that a God can’t exist, that the self can’t … Read the rest
Men couldn’t hear the girl’s screams
Oct 16th, 2011 12:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonOne small bit of good news, for a change.
The movement to end genital cutting is spreading in Senegal at a quickening pace through the very ties of family and ethnicity that used to entrench it. And a practice once seen as an immutable part of a girl’s life in many ethnic groups and African nations is ebbing, though rarely at the pace or with the organized drive found in Senegal.
But good news of that kind is of course always too late for some…for many.
… Read the restBassi Boiro, the elderly woman who was Sare Harouna’s so-called cutter, said she always performed the rite before dawn under the spreading arms of a sacred tree, away from the settlement.
“Men couldn’t
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Senegal moves to end FGM 
Oct 16th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The movement to end genital cutting is spreading in Senegal at a quickening pace through the very ties of family and ethnicity that used to entrench it.… Read the rest
Playing chicken with people’s lives
Oct 16th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The county prosecutor, who initially offloaded these cases onto the city government, has said his office will continue to handle these cases, though with less staff.… Read the rest
Topeka decriminalizes domestic violence to save money
Oct 16th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
18 people have been arrested on domestic violence charges since September and released without charges because no agency is accepting new cases.… Read the rest
NSS challenges free parking for church goers
Oct 16th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Worshippers at three churches do not pay to use two public car parks on a Sunday
morning, while shoppers do.… Read the rest
International
Oct 15th, 2011 4:16 pm | By Ophelia BensonI got a package in the mail today and it turned out to be two copies of Does God Hate Women translated into Polish. Yip!
Dlaczego Bóg nienawidzi kobiet?
This feminist and human rights activist likes it.
Greetings, Poland.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The good of the faith community takes priority
Oct 15th, 2011 3:46 pm | By Ophelia BensonValerie Tarico interviewed Janet Heimlich last May, on the subject of Heimlich’s new book on religious child maltreatment.
Tarico: Some people would say that religion prevents child abuse – that a supportive spiritual community or a personal relationship with a higher power, or a strong moral core is the antidote to maltreatment.
Heimlich: As I state in the book, families generally benefit from participating in religious activities. Still, we are only beginning to understand how children are harmed in certain religious communities. In my research, I found that, in these problematic cultures, the good of the faith community as a whole takes priority over members’ individual needs, and this is particularly true with how those communities view children.
And … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Therefore
Oct 15th, 2011 12:51 pm | By Ophelia BensonJesus and Mo are too deep for the barmaid.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
When in doubt, threaten
Oct 15th, 2011 12:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonDefinitely; the thing to do when you disagree with a woman or girl is to threaten violence. Absolutely. It’s only weak feeble worthless people – like women and girls - who hesitate to do that.
A high school girl objects to a prayer on a wall of her school; Fox News reports; the threats come in.
… Read the restI say just take her out to the parking lot, put on some gloves so as not to leave any marks, and just b e a t her selfish little a s s for her. If she tells on you, b e a t her a s s again. What have you got to lose? I can guarantee that throwing bibles at
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Why do televangelists ask for money?
Oct 15th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why don’t they just pray for it, instead?… Read the rest
YouGov–Cambridge survey of British attitudes
Oct 15th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
79% agreed and 11% disagreed that religion is a cause of much misery and conflict in the world today.… Read the rest
Duct tape and baling wire
Oct 14th, 2011 3:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonAn interview with Valerie Tarico.
How and why she left evangelicalism:
I would say that from adolescence on I struggled to fend off moral and rational contradictions in my faith, evolving more and more idiosyncratic ways of holding the pieces together. In particular, I couldn’t understand how I was going to be blissfully, perfectly happy - indifferent to the fact that other people were experiencing eternal anguish.
Bingo. That’s something that always troubles me (to put it as mildly as possible) about non-questioning evangelicals - that indifference to the fact that other people are experiencing eternal anguish. It’s a horrible, unspeakable thought, yet some people are apparently perfectly fine with it.
… Read the restThe final straw came while I was completing
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Meanwhile, in Calabar
Oct 14th, 2011 1:52 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Nigerian columnist and public intellectual Edwin Madunagu has written a piece about Leo Igwe and the Nigerian Humanist Movement.
… Read the restI first met Leo Igwe a couple of years ago when he came to the free library I oversee in Calabar to do some research. From the type of books he consulted in the library and the books and papers he had with him, I guessed he was interested in philosophy, sociology and human rights. Later, I learnt from him that he was working for a higher degree or diploma at the University of Calabar. I also learnt that, simultaneously, he was active in a human rights organization called the Nigerian Humanist Movement…
…when Leo Igwe sought audience with
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Edwin Madunagu on Humanism and its enemies
Oct 14th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Our interest in Leo Igwe’s seminars was strong on account of its specific subject: rescuing, and defending the rights of, children accused of “witchcraft”.… Read the rest
Did a wolf howl?
Oct 14th, 2011 1:20 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhat’s going on, has ERV blown a new whistle or what? Suddenly Teh Menz are popping up on an old thread to display their vocabularies.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Eric MacDonald on Julian Baggini on religion and science
Oct 14th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Religion can’t give up on the hows of the universe, since, from the religious point of view, the hows just are answered in terms of whys.… Read the rest
Further detail on “Obedient Wives” story
Oct 14th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘In a 115-page book titled “Islamic Sex, Fighting Jews to Return Islamic Sex to the World,” the group calls on Muslim husbands to have sex with all their wives simultaneously.’… Read the rest
