Teacher beat her, principal told school management, prayer leaders fumed in their sermons, the girl was expelled, she and her mother had to leave the city.… Read the rest
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Tudge said the thing which is not
Sep 24th, 2011 5:31 pm | By Ophelia BensonOne more thing about Colin Tudge, because it makes me angry.
He wrote in that non-review “review” (and I quoted him yesterday):
Thus he tells us that “reality is everything that exists” – and “exists”, he makes clear, means whatever we can see or stub our toes on, albeit with the aid of telescopes and seismographs. Everything else – including things we might think exist, like jealousy and love – derive from that material base and are to a large extent illusory. This, he implies, is what emerges from science, and science is true.
Dawkins pointed out what he actually wrote in the book Tudge was “reviewing”:
… Read the restDoes this mean that reality only contains things that can be detected,
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
If they retain their appearance
Sep 24th, 2011 11:36 am | By Ophelia BensonAnd another thing. This transubstantiation nonsense – another thing about it is that it’s a teaching.
Transubstantiation is the teaching that during the Mass, at the consecration in the Lord’s Supper (Communion), the elements of the Eucharist, bread and wine, are transformed into the actual body and blood of Jesus and that they are no longer bread and wine, but only retain their appearance of bread and wine.
What I wonder is, how do they know the teaching is right? If the bread and wine retain their appearance then who actually knows that they are in fact the actual body and blood of Jesus, and how do those people know it?
I don’t see how there can be any … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Many people of faith are filled with doubts
Sep 24th, 2011 9:57 am | By Ophelia BensonAn amusing passage in the conversation between Dawkins and Odone in the Guardian:
… Read the restCO: I’m a Catholic and my husband is an Anglican, and transubstantiation is an issue between us. Do I want my daughter to take up my Catholic beliefs? Yes I do. Do I believe my beliefs are superior in any way to his? Yes I do. But do I want to teach her that mine is the only way? No I don’t. What I want her to feel is that there are some beautiful principles in all religions. In your new book you say scientists cheerfully admit they don’t know, “cheerfully” because not knowing the answer is exciting. What’s so funny is that I feel about
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Love is only real to them if it’s a thing
Sep 24th, 2011 9:22 am | By Ophelia BensonSastra has a very illuminating comment* on PZ’s The magic of denying reality.
She quotes Colin Tudge’s bad-faith misreading of Dawkins:
Everything else – including things we might think exist, like jealousy and love – derive from that material base and are to a large extent illusory.
And comments
… Read the restSupernaturalists seem to have a lot of trouble trying to make sense of abstractions and levels of experience: they want to take everything literally, as irreducible substances. Love is only real to them if it’s a thing, a sort of spiritual-substance which is made of neither matter nor energy because it is the immaterial essence of love. Ironically, that makes them super-materialists — spinning material into finer
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Steven Pinker on the decline in violence
Sep 24th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJust as farmers try to prevent their livestock from killing one another, so rulers will try to keep their subjects from cycles of raiding and feuding.… Read the rest
Dawkins and Odone have a chat
Sep 24th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRD: But how do you decide which bits to doubt and which bits to accept? As scientists, we do it by evidence. CO: You can’t boil everything down to evidence!… Read the rest
No one ever talked to me for more than a minute
Sep 23rd, 2011 4:57 pm | By Ophelia BensonAbout appearing Normal, and being different (or not), and independence – Patricia Churchland has a telling little illustrative story in Braintrust. In a section of chapter 6, “Skills for a Social Life,” she discusses mimicry as a social capacity – it’s reassuring because it makes prediction easier.
As social sizing up develops over a few minutes, assuming I got the preliminary signals I needed, I may be motivated to reassure you. So I play my part in mimicry so that you do not start anxiously watching me, making me even more uncomfortable. [p 160]
There’s an endnote there. It’s the illustrative story. When she was a grad student in Oxford she was expected to go to the sherry parties
… Read the restthat
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
In line with the rest
Sep 23rd, 2011 4:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonLibby Anne posted on this cartoon:
Shades of The Life of Brian -
Brian, talking to a cheering crowd: You’re all individuals.
Crowd, in unison: Yes, we’re all individuals.
Brian: You’re all different.
Crowd, in unison: Yes, we’re all different.
Single voice in crowd: I’m not.
This business of being independent and thinking for yourself…Even for people who really do that to a smaller or greater extent, it’s such a small proportion of everything they do that in a way it’s absurd even to talk about it. The most eccentric of humans are only a tiny bit eccentric. Few humans resemble ants, or grey whales, or stones. Carl Sagan used to like to point out how human most … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Jacques Rousseau on gendered epithets
Sep 23rd, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRacist epithets are unquestionably considered unacceptable, but the sexist versions operate in a context where misogyny is so deeply entrenched that it can escape notice.… Read the rest
It gets better, but he couldn’t hold on until it did
Sep 23rd, 2011 10:55 am | By Ophelia BensonJamey Rodemeyer, a 14-year-old boy from Williamsville, NY, took his life Sunday after what his parents claim was years of bullying because of struggles with his sexuality.
His parents, Tracy and Tim Rodemeyer, say that Jamey faced bullies for years, though things intensified in middle school…
According to NBC, the Rodemeyers had gone to the school about the problem in the past. Jamey even sought counseling to learn to deal with the problem, but it seems it wasn’t enough.
While they say their son seemed happy in the days leading up to the tragedy, his “It Gets Better” YouTube posting from May includes details about how intense the bullying was.
The kind of thing that helps … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Consciousness is part of the fabric of the universe
Sep 23rd, 2011 9:42 am | By Ophelia BensonReally?
Richard Dawkins has no sense of irony. He rails endlessly against
fundamentalists yet he defends old-fashioned, Thomas Gradgrind-style materialism as zealously as the Mid-West Creationists defend the literal truth of Genesis.
Really? Does he, really?
Colin Tudge says he does, but I don’t believe it. That’s because I don’t believe Dawkins is as crude as Gradgrind or as ignorant as fundamentalists. I think Tudge is exaggerating.
… Read the restHe accuses others of misrepresentation yet he seriously misrepresents religion.
Also, which is irony writ large, he misrepresents science, in whose name he is
assumed to speak. He condemns the Catholics for filling the heads of children
with a particular view of life before they have had a chance to think for
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Colin Tudge says it’s time Dawkins was put a stop to
Sep 23rd, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSays “Religions do not depend upon their myths and miracles. They are there as
illustrations.” Says other things too.… Read the rest
Tim Radford on Dawkins’s The Magic of Reality
Sep 23rd, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe covers a lot of ground by addressing a series of pleasingly simple questions. Who was the first person? Why are there so many kinds of animals? Why do we have night and day?… Read the rest
We understand the concept
Sep 22nd, 2011 5:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonAs we saw, Jordan Sekulow complained that
Whether it’s Governor Rick Perry calling for prayer for our nation, Congresswoman Bachmann discussing her “calling” to run for elected office, or Governor Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, it is now acceptable for many in the media to ridicule the religious beliefs of one particular group of Americans – conservatives.
Let’s have a look at that first link. It’s Jordan Sekulow himself saying what a good thing prayer is.
… Read the restPrayer is essential. Faith is powerful. Non-believers and skeptics cannot comprehend the concept of literally asking God for His guidance and blessing. This is not surprising nor is it, in itself, offensive. When the lack of understanding turns into sneers and insults, usually
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Because she’s got a passport, he can get a visa
Sep 22nd, 2011 11:04 am | By Ophelia Benson… Read the restSeventeen-year-old Jessie faced being forced into marriage to her
40-year-old cousin in Bangladesh. She begged the British Consulate in Dhaka for help and officials stepped in. She is just one of an estimated tens of thousands of British women at risk of being forced into marriage.Alan Morrison, the British Consul in Bangladesh, says his team meet a girl
like Jessie every week.Born in Britain but living in rural Bangladesh and promised in marriage to a
much older man.Jessie managed to call the consulate when her father was at evening prayers.
“She told them she was desperate not to marry but did not have any money and
was not allowed to look after
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The God-given freedoms of its people
Sep 22nd, 2011 10:01 am | By Ophelia BensonNow for Jordan Sekulow’s post itself.
He’s pissed off because the pesky leftwing atheist media have been saying Dominionists are Dominionists.
… Read the restWhether it’s Governor Rick Perry calling for prayer for our nation, Congresswoman Bachmann discussing her “calling” to run for elected office, or Governor Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, it is now acceptable for many in the media to ridicule the religious beliefs of one particular group of Americans – conservatives.
The new insinuation is that conservative Christians are engaged in a concerted effort to establish a theocracy here in America. Under the guise of so-called ‘Christian Dominionism,’ our alleged goal is, “replacing American law with the strictures of the Old Testament.”
Nothing could be
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Jessie’s cousin wanted her for a passport
Sep 22nd, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson17-year-old Jessie faced being forced into marriage to her 40-year-old cousin in Bangladesh. She begged the British Consulate for help and officials stepped in.… Read the rest
Infiltration
Sep 22nd, 2011 9:30 am | By Ophelia BensonHere’s a question. Why is the Washington Post providing a platform for Jordan Sekulow, Director of Policy and International Operations for the American Center for Law and Justice?
Founded by Pat Robertson, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) and its Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow quickly established themselves as key players in the right-wing movement, litigating a variety of cases at all levels, including the Supreme Court. The ACLJ has been particularly active in fighting marriage equality and defending the Pledge of Allegiance, while Sekulow has maintained very close ties to the Bush White House and played a central role in pushing for the confirmation of Supreme Court Justices Roberts and Alito.
It reminds me of Obama … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
New Statesman on the rise of Dominionism in the US
Sep 22nd, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDominionism is theocratic, and that’s alarming.… Read the rest