She wants to be a politician. The neighbors call her venomous names.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Mona Eltahawy on Saudi Arabia and women
Nov 14th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOnce again, women are the cheapest bargaining chips, thrown on the table to silence and appease allies and “major donors.”… Read the rest
Ten paces in each direction
Nov 13th, 2010 6:55 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhat’s Karl Giberson talking about?
He’s saying gnu atheists are wrong to say that religious believers are stuck in the past and unable to change. Then he says there are some religious believers like that, but there are some clueless non-religious people, too. Then he says that some of the religious believers who refuse to accept scientific findings that they don’t like are educated but just don’t want to accept scientific findings for religious reasons.
Oh. So…how is that not what gnu atheists say? How does what Giberson says show that gnu atheists are wrong to say that? Here’s how he explains believers’ reasons for saying no thanks to parts of science:
… Read the restMohler is educated and does not hold
The devil is the latest thing
Nov 13th, 2010 12:12 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe US Catholic church is giving the gnu atheists support for their claim that science and religion are not epistemically compatible. Very obliging and civil of them, I must say.
… Read the restThere are only a handful of priests in the country trained as exorcists, but they say they are overwhelmed with requests from people who fear they are possessed by the Devil.
Now, American bishops are holding a conference on Friday and Saturday to prepare more priests and bishops to respond to the demand. The purpose is not necessarily to revive the practice, the organizers say, but to help Catholic clergy members learn how to distinguish who really needs an exorcism from who really needs a psychiatrist, or perhaps some pastoral
Exorcism revival for US Catholics
Nov 13th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBishops are holding a conference to help priests learn to distinguish who really needs an exorcism from who really needs a psychiatrist.… Read the rest
Aung San Suu Kyi released from house arrest
Nov 13th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHer release comes six days after the political party supported by the military won Burma’s first election in 20 years.… Read the rest
Blogger Walid Husayin arrested for “heresy”
Nov 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe is suspected of posting “atheistic rants” on English and Arabic blogs and creating three Facebook groups where he spoofed the Koran.… Read the rest
Walid Husayin could get life in prison for atheism
Nov 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe lives in the West Bank, and he said rude things about Islam on Facebook…until the authorities found him.… Read the rest
Woman topples Orthodox law disinheriting her
Nov 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHer parents left her their house, but her brother – the first-born son of an Orthodox rabbi – claimed the religious right to lock her out.… Read the rest
Gentlemen: declare your agenda
Nov 12th, 2010 1:41 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere are a couple of indignant people replying to my and others’ comments on Charles Freeman’s reply to James Hannam at the New Humanist. They are indignant about my claims about the Templeton connections and possible agenda of some of the historians who write about Science ‘n’ Religion. One uses the pseudonym “Thiudareiks,” which is Theodoric in Saxon or Old German or something, so I don’t know anything about that one. But the other is one Humphrey Clarke, who…
has a long admiring review of the very book at issue at a blog called Quodlibeta, or Bede’s Journal. Who else blogs there? Why…
James Hannam, that’s who. So far Humphrey Clarke hasn’t bothered mentioning that fact. Ho hum.… Read the rest
Offensive to or deviations from
Nov 12th, 2010 1:24 pm | By Ophelia BensonIs Indonesia a beacon of free speech and open discussion? Not exactly.
…just seven months ago, Indonesia’s highest court issued a landmark ruling widely considered to be a major setback to speech and religious rights. The Constitutional Court upheld the constitutionality of Indonesia’s Blasphemy Act, which criminalizes speech or acts considered offensive to government-approved religions as well as “deviations from teachings of religion considered fundamental by scholars of the relevant religion.”
So if someone should say that Mohammed was actually a very liberal feminist kind of guy who never said that women should be beaten for disobedience…that would be a crime in Indonesia? Interesting.
… Read the restThe Blasphemy Act provides for both civil and criminal penalties for those who insult approved religions
Thoughts of an atheist teaching in “faith” schools
Nov 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEven finding the best parking space at the local casino apparently depends on how many in the car can chorus the ‘Hail Mary’ in unison.… Read the rest
Obama overstates Indonesia’s tolerance
Nov 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJust last April Constitutional Court upheld the constitutionality of Indonesia’s Blasphemy Act.… Read the rest
Religious doctors’ rights don’t trump women’s rights
Nov 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDeploying conscience claims as a means to deny women’s access to lawful services lacks all moral legitimacy.… Read the rest
The biblical-womanhood-industrial complex
Nov 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn a biblical home and church, the man is the head and the woman must submit.… Read the rest
A “truth” was now defined and enforced by law
Nov 11th, 2010 5:58 pm | By Ophelia BensonCharles Freeman on a crucial moment in history (from The Closing of the Western Mind):
… Read the restIn January 381 Theodosius issued an imperial decree declaring the doctrine of the Trinity orthodox and expelling Homoeans and Arians from their churches…
This council, together with the imperial edicts which accompanied it, was the moment when the Nicene formula became part of the official state religion (if only for the moment in the Eastern empire). All those Christians who differed from it – Homoeans, Homoiousians, Arians and a host of other minor groups – were declared to be heretics facing not only the vengeance of God but also that of the state. The decision of Constantine to privilege one Christian community over another
Jesus and Mo discuss God and the miners
Nov 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOr do they.… Read the rest
What questions are unanswerable by science?
Nov 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAre there any? Will “is Hamlet better than Macbeth?” do? How about “why is this flower pretty?” Or “how shall we then live?”… Read the rest
Where bad science comes from
Nov 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIs it lax editing? Or is it something wrong with peer review, or the Royal Society, or the organization of symposia?… Read the rest
Ireland: male staff rate looks of female staff
Nov 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPhotographs featuring various young female financial staff were circulated among the men and each woman was judged on her looks and desirability.… Read the rest