Religious laws are religious hatred, intolerance, discrimination and fanaticism turned into state policies. In most parts of Africa, they are a disaster.… Read the rest
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Mo is surfing
Mar 28th, 2012 5:01 pm | By Ophelia BensonJesus and Mo aren’t very keen on secularism. Not only that, but Jesus reads the Daily Fail.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
HRW: Afghanistan: women and girls jailed for being victims 
Mar 28th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
These “crimes” usually involve flight from unlawful forced marriage or domestic violence. Some women and girls have been convicted of zina after being raped or forced into prostitution.… Read the rest
Another loving father
Mar 28th, 2012 10:10 am | By Ophelia BensonHere’s a cheerful item:
According to news reports on Wednesday, an Egyptian man and his family tied up their daughter and threw her into the Nile river as a result of a divorce to her aging husband, who mistreat[ed] her and abused the young woman.
Luckily, a fisherman saw the girl and rescued her before she died, Emirates 24/7 reported.
According to their report, the girl had initially refused to marry the elderly man, but then acquiesced to her family pressure and wed…
After she and the man divorced over abuse, she returned to her family, who when the girl refused to remarry the man, was tossed into the river in an “honor crime.”
It’s interesting how women and girls … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Egypt: man throws daughter into Nile for divorcing
Mar 28th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
She had refused to marry the much older man, but submitted to family pressure; he abused her, she left, her father tied her up and dumped her in the river.… Read the rest
Say prayer works or we will squash you
Mar 27th, 2012 5:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonThree MPs (UK) are trying to get the Advertising Standards Authority to change its ruling about advertising that claims prayers can heal diseases.
Last month, a Christian group in Bath were banned from using leaflets that said: “NEED HEALING? GOD CAN HEAL TODAY!… We believe that God loves you and can heal you from any sickness.”
The ASA said the claims were misleading and could discourage people from seeking essential medical treatment.
Here’s the letter they sent:
… Read the restRt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury Chairman, Advertising Standards Agency 21st March 2012
We are writing on behalf of the all-party Christians in Parliament group in Westminster and your ruling that the Healing On The Streets ministry in Bath are no longer able
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
3 MPs to ASA: let ads say that prayer works, or else
Mar 27th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“We write to express our concern at this decision…It appears to cut across two thousand years of Christian tradition and the very clear teaching in the Bible.”… Read the rest
Woman murdered for refusing to withdraw rape accusation
Mar 27th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Six weeks after a schoolgirl was reportedly raped in Betul, India, her mother was allegedly shot dead by the accused and his friends in front of the family.… Read the rest
Pennsylvania church kidnaps teenagers for a giggle
Mar 27th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A shaken 14-year-old told police two men came in with guns, pulled pillow cases over some of their heads, and pushed them into a van. Whee, training exercise!… Read the rest
Homeless vets? Let’em starve
Mar 27th, 2012 4:55 pm | By Ophelia BensonJustin has some shocking news – Fort Bragg wont let us feed homeless vets at the atheist festival
… Read the restI fought very hard for this to happen at the festival this weekend. We went back and forth for several months. The ‘pro-starvation’ camp has prevailed.
The idea was simple.
Our festival is already paid for, via a generous donation from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation (directly deposited into our accounts at American Atheists). So here we are with a free festival on our hands. We would have put the word out to bring canned food (and similar items). Next, we would drop off the food where it needs to go.
It’s a win-win. Obviously we get a measure of publicity that is
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Mothers and daughters
Mar 27th, 2012 4:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonVia a tweet by the great Deeyah – a woman in India is murdered for refusing to “compromise” in her daughter’s rape case.
I suppose I should warn you: it makes very ugly upsetting reading. That’s so often the case, but maybe I should give warnings more often.
… Read the restA month-and-a-half after a schoolgirl was reportedly raped in Betul, her mother was allegedly shot dead by the accused and his friends on Friday night. No arrests have been made so far.
Imarti Uike, a 45-year-old tribal woman, had refused to withdraw the case related to the alleged rape of her 16-year-old daughter and had filed a written complaint about the repeated threats being faced by her family.
Late on Friday,
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Vocational hazards
Mar 27th, 2012 11:32 am | By Ophelia BensonBarbara J King at NPR is repeating her mantra that it’s wrongwrongwrong bad awful reprehensible to say that absurd beliefs are absurd.
Last Thursday, I spoke with evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in a recorded interview at the NPR studios in Washington, D.C. That meeting was suggested by the American arm of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, in the wake of a post I wrote here at 13.7 last month.
In my original post, I questioned whether Dawkins was the best choice to be headline speaker at the March 24 Reason Rally in Washington, given that one of its goals was to change negative stereotypes about atheists.
Yes she did. She wondered if Dawkins was “the … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Amnesty: sharp rise in executions in Middle East
Mar 26th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
There were at least 360 judicial killings in Iran (up from 252+ in 2010), at least 82 in Saudi Arabia (up from 27+), and at least 68 in Iraq (up from 1+).… Read the rest
Discourses
Mar 26th, 2012 5:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere’s a new course at UBC this spring: ‘Ecology, Technology, Indigeneity and Learning: Contexts, Complexities, and Cross-cultural Conversations’ May 7 – June 15, 2012. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1:00 – 4:00pm
Here’s the skinny:
… Read the restEcological and technological educational discourses are often taught as separate discourses downplaying, or ignoring altogether, their interconnectedness, complexities, and complicities, as well as their diverse cultural contexts. This course offers students an opportunity to critically explore how to reconnect and reshape these storylines into enactments of equity, social justice, cultural inclusivity, environmental sustainability and environmental justice.
Students will be introduced to the voices of Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized peoples impacted by neoliberalism and global economics who share their struggles for survival, cultural regeneration and protection/reclamation of
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
CNN talks to Dave Silverman
Mar 26th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“We want people to know we are huge, we’re everywhere, and we are growing.”… Read the rest
What Jason Rosenhouse learned from talking to creationists
Mar 26th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
On many occasions I asked people the blunt question, “What do you find so objectionable about evolution?” Never once did anyone reply, “It is contrary to the Bible.”… Read the rest
A tribe of one
Mar 26th, 2012 12:08 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere was an earlier Heathen’s Progress a few days ago, which did hint that the series isn’t in fact intended to go on forever. That’s good to know. (One needs to know what to pack.) On the other hand, Julian used it to treat all disagreement as “tribalism,” which looks to a naive observer like an unfair move.
… Read the restFirst of all, it is dispiriting to see how tribal so many people seem to be. For all the interesting, thoughtful comments that have been posted on the pieces I’ve written, and supportive emails I’ve been sent, there have been many more that have used whatever the subject of the week is as a simple pretext to get in the familiar old
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
A spectre is haunting the Guardian Open Weekend
Mar 26th, 2012 10:33 am | By Ophelia BensonOh no not that – not another installment of Heathen’s (ant-like) Progress. But yes, it is so.
This time it’s a manifesto. Oh good, more management of atheism by a self-nominated boss of atheism. More telling us all how to do it more korrektly by some random guy. More “we have to do it this way” from one person who keeps forgetting to show us his Certificate of Rulership Over All Atheists.
… Read the restIn recent years, we atheists have become more confident and outspoken in articulating and defending our godlessness in the public square. Much has been gained by this. There is now wider awareness of the reasonableness of a naturalist world view, and some of the unjustified deference
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Fuck the pope…but use a condom
Mar 25th, 2012 3:34 pm | By Ophelia BensonRowdy irreverent people in Mexico city protest the pope’s visit. I want to be friends with all of them!
Wisely, the pope is not going to Mexico City. He’s going to a city where people like him.
I wonder if his BFF Sayeeda Warsi is going to meet him there so that they can plan the war on militant secularism some more.
h/t Roger… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
