Chaplain was ‘insulted, deeply offended, alarmed, concerned.’ Oh well then, there’s no more to say!… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Academic Challenges Priest’s Homophbic Rant
Mar 6th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘To justify its persecution of homosexual people the Catholic Church draws on just three brief texts.’… Read the rest
Hitchens on the Ten Commandments
Mar 6th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhen you hear people demanding that the Ten Commandments be displayed, always ask which set.… Read the rest
Catholic School Expels Toddler: Parents are Gay
Mar 6th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDenver Archdiocese posted a statement: the parents are ‘living in open discord with Catholic teaching.’… Read the rest
Russell Blackford on Gary Bouma on Secularists
Mar 6th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonContrary to Bouma, attempts to use political power to impose religious views are highly divisive.… Read the rest
Pesky pointy-headed pencil-neck geeks
Mar 5th, 2010 6:03 pm | By Ophelia BensonIt’s a funny thing, but there are people who think it’s worth pointing out that ‘atheists are no more rational than anybody else.’ Gosh, really? And here I was thinking that just by being an atheist, I automatically and indisputably occupied an Upper Level of humankind where the air is thinner and the rationality flows like wine.
No actually I don’t think anything so stupid, and I never have. I do think something much more limited and carefully phrased than that…but of course that wouldn’t be exciting to contradict, because if you make limited carefully-phrased claims then you’re probably not saying anything as obviously and risibly stupid as ‘atheists are more rational than anybody else.’ What would I say? That … Read the rest
Atheists Are the Source of Conflict in Society
Mar 5th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMonash University Professor Gary Bouma says people without a specific faith fuel sectarian conflict.… Read the rest
George Carey Says Politicians Bully Christians
Mar 5th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s the other way around.… Read the rest
No Freedom of Expression for UK, Thank You
Mar 5th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAtheist convicted of ‘religiously aggravated intentional harassment’ for cartoons; maximum sentence 7 years in prison.… Read the rest
No Venus de Milo for Rahway NJ, Thank You
Mar 5th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNeighbor complained of naked snow statue, police told sculptor to cover it up.… Read the rest
Atheism is Illegitimate and Evil, Act LXXXVII
Mar 5th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonKen Miller is good. Atheists are bad.… Read the rest
I’m offended, call the cops!
Mar 5th, 2010 11:14 am | By Ophelia BensonThe BBC is tipping its hand again. Check out this bizarre subhead:
Anti-religious campaigners have condemned the conviction of a “militant atheist” who left rude images in Liverpool Airport’s prayer room.
‘Anti-religious campaigners’ being their hand-tipping tendentious hostile ill-mannered term for secularists and, you know, people who believe in freedom of speech – otherwise known as liberals. And what is up with that ‘militant atheists’ and what are the scare-quotes for? Who, exactly, is being quoted there? Anyone? Or is that just a very underhanded way of throwing more mud at atheists while pretending it’s someone else doing it. That’s what it looks like to me.
Anyway – what it’s reporting on is jaw-dropping to a Yank.
… Read the rest[Harry] Taylor,
Please donate to clerical rapists’ defense fund
Mar 4th, 2010 5:10 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhat was that I was just saying about the Catholic church presuming to lecture everyone on how to be good and what a flesh-crawlingly bad joke that is? Well spare a thought for the bishop of Ferns.
… Read the restDr Denis Brennan, the Bishop of Ferns, was inviting parishioners (and any individual priests who felt so inclined) to donate money to assist the church in footing a bill, the tally for which comes to more than €10m, to meet the legal costs of defending civil cases brought against the diocese in relation to clerical sexual abuse. In other words the Roman Catholic Church in Ferns is asking the victims of its own bitter failings to pay the price for the crime.
What We Celebrate When We Mark March 8th
Mar 4th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFeminism has a compelling lens through which to understand marginalisation, as women have long occupied the margins.… Read the rest
Meera Nanda on ‘The God Market’
Mar 4th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMarkets are said to be exorcising the demons of religiously inspired fanaticism, patriarchy and oppression.… Read the rest
Douglas Murray on Homophobia in Mosques
Mar 4th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Only in a mosque in Britain could routine hatred like this pass by unnoticed and largely unobjected to.’… Read the rest
Teach the Controversy, on Everything
Mar 4th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf somebody somewhere contradicts a scientific claim, that’s a controversy, so add it to the curriculum.… Read the rest
The Origin of Atheism
Mar 4th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf theistic belief comes naturally, then it is atheism that needs to be explained.… Read the rest
Lawyers’ Fees in Libel Cases Reduced
Mar 4th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonScientists and journalists will be able to write in the public interest without giant legal bills.… Read the rest
Madrid: Israel Protests Anti-Semitic Postcards
Mar 4th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Israeli embassy received postcards from schoolchildren accusing it of killing Palestinian babies.… Read the rest