By her husband, because she opposed an arranged marriage for their daughter. Meanwhile the brother beat his sister with a stick.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Supreme Court: Christian schools lose appeal
Oct 13th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJason Rosenhouse on new accommodationism
Oct 13th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAtheist spirituality, such as it is, has almost nothing in common with traditional religion.… Read the rest
16th miner on the way up
Oct 13th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDaniel Herrera, the truck driver.… Read the rest
Signs
Oct 12th, 2010 3:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonA few more telling items from Science and Religion (Ferngren ed). Chapter 10, “Causation,” p 136 [“occasionalism” is the idea that god intervenes to keep the universe going from minute to minute as opposed to starting it and then leaving it alone]:
The fullest system of occasionalism was developed by Nicholas de Malebranche (1638-1715), who was driven by his own religious commitments to push Cartesianism in a theocentric direction.
Er…right. This is what we mean. This is the kind of thing. This is why there is an epistemic conflict. Those commitments that drive people to push things in a particular direction? That’s a problem.
A similar item on the next page. Al the great and Aquinas
… Read the restundertook to interpret the
Leprechauns
Oct 12th, 2010 10:29 am | By Ophelia BensonI’m offended. I’m offended by the sheer stupidity, the voluntary stupidity – the non-thought, the hostility to thought, the chosen crudity. It’s from a reporter called Cathy Lynn Grossman, who is responsible for the “Faith and Reason” blog at USA Today. She is also a Templeton Fellow 2010, which makes her a classmate of Chris Mooney’s. was also a Templeton fellow in 2005 – the inaugural class.
She was of course reacting to Jerry Coyne’s piece declaring that science and religion are not friends. “Reacting” is all she did.
Move over Richard Dawkins. Yet another scientist is weighing in on science vs. religion and wheeling out his most outrageous language for his point
She tells Dawkins to move over … Read the rest
Hemant Mehta: no need for accommodation
Oct 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe friendly atheist no longer feels a need to give religion a pass; cites Myers and Coyne.… Read the rest
Albert Mohler on Jerry Coyne’s article
Oct 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary says “any true science will be perfectly compatible with the truths we know by God’s revelation.”… Read the rest
Framing
Oct 11th, 2010 5:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m listening to the PZ-Mooney Point of Inquiry. I expect to be highly irritated, since everyone says Jennifer Michael Hecht forgot to be the interviewer and instead acted as a third party to the debate, and took Mooney’s side.
Update: Uh, yeah. Ten minutes in and she just starts arguing away as if she’s a participant and not the interviwer. A few minutes later she just plain interrupts PZ to say what she wants to say – the interviewer! She reminds me of Alex Tsakiris.… Read the rest
PZ v Mooney and Hecht on Point of Inquiry
Oct 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonYes, that’s one v two. Hecht was supposed to be the interviewer, but…… Read the rest
Strenuous efforts
Oct 11th, 2010 12:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonFrom Science and Religion: a historical introduction Gary B Fergren ed.
Chapter 1, “The Conflict of Science and Religion” by Colin Russell, which is an overview of the “conflict thesis” and how it has been displaced by the “complexity thesis.” Page 8:
…the conflict thesis ignores the many documented examples of science and religion operating in close alliance…[He lists examples from 17th century.] Since then, a continuous history of noted individuals making strenuous efforts to integrate their science and religion has testified to the poverty of a conflict model.
Wait. The mask slipped a bit there.
If it took strenuous efforts to integrate their science and religion, then it wasn’t easy, right? It wasn’t just a natural combination. So maybe … Read the rest
Sukhdev Sandhu talks to Salman Rushdie
Oct 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDo you tweet? “I think it really is without any redeeming qualities.”… Read the rest
Jerry Coyne is totally Helping
Oct 11th, 2010 11:13 am | By Ophelia BensonHe’s Helping by having a frankly and unapologetically atheist article in the mainstreamyest of mainstream newspapers in the US, USA Today. He’s Helping by writing a lively, interesting, readable piece. He’s Helping by writing a piece that is one of the five most popular on the site today – an atheist piece! He’s Helping by getting a lot of favorable comments there.
One of the more irritating aspects of the “but how is this Helping?” brigade is their assumption that As things are now, So shall they ever be. Here’s a newsflash about the world and people and stuff: change happens. Change happens a lot, and it often happens quite fast. Sure, it’s naïve to think that Progress is … Read the rest
Sweden: Christianity gets top billing in schools
Oct 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNational Agency for Education wants all major world religions to be treated equally; the government is steamrolling the agency, education minister told Svenska Dagbladet.… Read the rest
Ahmadinejad to Ratzinger: let’s fight secularism
Oct 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOne theocrat calls on another for cooperation by “divine religions” against secularism.… Read the rest
Mandela letters published
Oct 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“One issue that deeply worried me in prison was the false image I unwittingly projected to the outside world; of being regarded as a saint.”… Read the rest
Saqlain Imam on secularism in Pakistan
Oct 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCurrently seculars are supporting democratic forces, while the religious forces are bent upon undermining the democratic disposition of the state.… Read the rest
Salman Rushdie and his son Milan discuss Luka
Oct 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd magic realism, gaming, Islamism, the fading of the fatwa, Bombay, and the movies, with Andrew Marr.… Read the rest
Jerry Coyne says science and religion aren’t friends
Oct 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe says it in USA Today! The walls are crumbling…… Read the rest
LA Times on “new” atheists v warm fuzzies
Oct 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAbout 300 nonbelievers from across the US and Canada gathered for three days of lively and, at times, gleefully blasphemous debate.… Read the rest