“The day my article came out, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia said that marriage for ten-year-old girls is permitted.”… Read the rest
Donohue to citizens: stfu
Apr 28th, 2012 11:51 am | By Ophelia BensonI promised to pay more attention to Bill Donohue, so here goes. (It’s going to be irritating, doing this; the fingernails on a blackboard kind of irritating. The fact that he’s the only one who talks but he still finds it necessary to quote himself as if he were another person – that’s going to be very irritating.) He says Catholics can do whatever they want to so shut up.
… Read the restCatholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the right of Catholic institutions to determine their own prerogatives:
If a racist Catholic were disinvited from speaking at the commencement exercises of a Catholic college, the only relevant issue would be why the invitation was extended in the first place.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Mine is better!!
Apr 28th, 2012 11:17 am | By Ophelia BensonCristina Odone was very annoyed a couple of weeks ago that religions she takes to be inferior in some unspecified way are sometimes counted as Big Serious Grown-up religions like Catholicism.
Saint Morwenna, who in the 6th century built a church on a cliff with her bare hands, must be turning in her grave. Her beloved Cornwall, the last redoubt of Celtic Christians, is to teach witchcraft and Druidry as part of RE. The county council regards her religion (and that of other Cornish saints such as Piran and Petroc) as no better than paganism.
And? So what? If that’s true (which I doubt), what of it? Why shouldn’t Religious Education simply teach about all religions (or as many as … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The golden tree of bullshit
Apr 28th, 2012 10:34 am | By Ophelia BensonMark Vernon, always eager to plow new ground and alert us to new insights and ways of looking at the world, asks
Is it just me or has the dialogue between science and religion become a bit stale?
Ok I was joking. That question is staler than last year’s bread. The very idea that there is such a thing as “the dialogue between science and religion” is not only stale but also blatant propaganda by pro-religion types who are desperate to convince everyone that religion’s claims to discover truths about the world are every bit as reasonable as those of science. It’s unpardonably naïve to talk about “the dialogue between science and religion” as if it were an obvious, sensible, … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Bruce on Day Five – Monday: Night of the Wankers…
Apr 27th, 2012 5:08 pm | By Ophelia BensonA guest post by Bruce Everett
I’m sure you Americans in the readership have the same phenomena where you are, albeit with different tourists, most probably the English; ‘FAWCET-FAWCET-FAWCET-WELL-HOWDY-PARDNER-BATHROOM-FAWCET-MCDONALDS!’
Do you ever get sick of visitors to your country overusing your words, and using them wrong? Technically wrong; wrong connotations; wrong situation; mismatched nuance and misjudged tone?
‘G’DAY-MATE-MATE-MATE-THROWASHRIMPONTHABARBIE-BRUCE-BRUCE-BRUCE-CRIKEY-ESKY- DINGO-DRONGO-WANKER!!!’
This is what you look like when you overuse the lingo. It’s not a good look, mate.
I tried preventing this before it even had a chance to happen with CFI’s Debbie Goddard, by confounding her with complete nonsense, and I think it worked. If you ever get the chance to meet her, ask ‘why can’t Fred ride … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Evolution sceptics disguise their cause as free inquiry
Apr 27th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Tennessee bill required the state’s education system to encourage students to “respond appropriately and respectfully to differences of opinion about scientific subjects.”… Read the rest
The Catholic League and suppression of the press
Apr 27th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDonohue justifies the League’s aggressive behavior by claiming that it is culturally unacceptable for nonCatholics to criticize the Catholic Church.… Read the rest
The cruel return of gods
Apr 27th, 2012 12:54 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’ve just read a very interesting and useful book by Ezat Mossallanejad, Religions and the Cruel Return of Gods.
Mossallanejad is a survivor of torture in Iran – torture under the shah, not the ayatollah. He escaped to Canada in 1985 and is a Counsellor and Policy Analyst with the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture. The book is a scorching and thorough examination of religious cruelty and bullying around the world. It’s an immensely useful reference source because it goes region by region and country by country, covering most of them.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Day Five – Monday: Night of the Wankers…
Apr 27th, 2012 | By Bruce EverettI’m sure you Americans in the readership have the same phenomena where you are, albeit with different tourists, most probably the English; ‘FAWCET-FAWCET-FAWCET-WELL-HOWDY-PARDNER-BATHROOM-FAWCET-MCDONALDS!’
Do you ever get sick of visitors to your country overusing your words, and using them wrong? Technically wrong; wrong connotations; wrong situation; mismatched nuance and misjudged tone?
‘G’DAY-MATE-MATE-MATE-THROWASHRIMPONTHABARBIE-BRUCE-BRUCE-BRUCE-CRIKEY-ESKY- DINGO-DRONGO-WANKER!!!’
This is what you look like when you overuse the lingo. It’s not a good look, mate.
I tried preventing this before it even had a chance to happen with CFI’s Debbie Goddard, by confounding her with complete nonsense, and I think it worked. If you ever get the chance to meet her, ask ‘why can’t Fred ride a bike?’
(Don’t ever ask me, … Read the rest
MP hosts Summit to end violent witchcraft abuse
Apr 27th, 2012 | By Press releaseLondon: MP Chuka Umunna, the most senior UK politician of Black African heritage, has hosted the first ever House of Commons Summit designed to end child abuse resulting from witchcraft-branding. Former Home Office Minister Meg Hillier said that the Home Secretary should consider using her power to refuse to allow faith leaders who have branded children as witches to enter the UK.
Chuka Umunna’s position as Shadow Business Secretary and the only black member of the Shadow Cabinet means that he is the most senior politician in the UK who is of African origin. The London MP hosted the Summit in conjunction with AFRUCA, Africans Unite Against Child Abuse, to bring together policymakers, charities, faith leaders and community representatives in … Read the rest
Her lunch with George
Apr 27th, 2012 10:32 am | By Ophelia BensonSo Jemima Khan interviewed George Galloway for the Staggers over lunch (halal and alcohol-free) in Bradford. A coupla converts sitting aroung talking.
Jemima’s mother started life with the handle Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart, daughter of Viscount Castlereagh, later the 8th Marquess of Londonderry. Jemima of course married the cricket fella who is now a politics fella. She was besties with Diana and all that kind of thing. Just the ticket for the Associate Editor of the New Statesman. George’s history is rather different, as is his performance of self.
Anyway, the point is, she said forthright things to him about his conversion to Islam, which he apparently prefers to keep shtum.
… Read the restInterviewer Jemima Khan also exclusively reveals the background to
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Galloway denies the part about the ceremony
Apr 27th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOr is it the part about Kilburn?… Read the rest
New Statesman on Galloway’s conversion to Islam
Apr 27th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonInterviewer Jemima Khan reports he converted a decade ago in a ceremony attended by members of the Muslim Association of Great Britain.… Read the rest
Read Lauryn Oates
Apr 26th, 2012 5:32 pm | By Ophelia BensonDo be sure to read Lauryn Oates’s new article at ur-B&W.
Here’s how it begins:
Foreign Policy has a superb series out now called The Sex Issue. In their own words, here is what it’s about:
… Read the restWhen U.S. magazines devote special issues to sex, they are usually of the celebratory variety (see: Esquire, April 2012 edition; Cosmopolitan, every month). Suffice it to say that is not what we had in mind with Foreign Policy’s first-ever Sex Issue, which is dedicated instead to the consideration of how and why sex — in all the various meanings of the word — matters in shaping the world’s politics. Why? In Foreign Policy, the magazine and the subject, sex is too often
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The air is full of feathers
Apr 26th, 2012 4:34 pm | By Ophelia BensonI can never catch up. You know how that goes.
And I can even less catch up right now because I read one post and then I have to read posts linked in trackbacks and before you know it the afternoon is gone. This will not do! I could have built a cathedral in the time.
I read this self-confessed rant about Carrier on Ehrman (and, somewhat mystifyingly, also on PZ on Carrier on Ehrman). I read Ehrman on Carrier on Ehrman. I’m going to read Vridar on all three and our friend Eric on all three.
I’ll tell you the truth: I’m not reading them to get a better understanding of the scholarship on Jesus. I’m reading … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Boko Haram bombs newspaper office in Abuja
Apr 26th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAt least nine people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in the attacks on This Day newspaper, for which Boko Haram claimed responsibility.… Read the rest
The Excuse-making of Cultural Relativism
Apr 26th, 2012 | By Lauryn OatesForeign Policy has a superb series out now called The Sex Issue. In their own words, here is what it’s about:
… Read the restWhen U.S. magazines devote special issues to sex, they are usually of the celebratory variety (see: Esquire, April 2012 edition; Cosmopolitan, every month). Suffice it to say that is not what we had in mind with Foreign Policy’s first-ever Sex Issue, which is dedicated instead to the consideration of how and why sex — in all the various meanings of the word — matters in shaping the world’s politics. Why? In Foreign Policy, the magazine and the subject, sex is too often the missing part of the equation — the part that the policymakers and journalists talk about
Catholic church tells state-funded schools what to do
Apr 26th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Catholic church has written to every state-funded Catholic secondary school in England and Wales asking them to encourage pupils to sign a petition against gay marriage.… Read the rest