CNN video and transcript.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Nonaffiliation is not un-American
Jan 8th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhether they are organized, cohesive or disgruntled, the unaffiliated are the fastest-growing religious category in America.… Read the rest
Who is to blame for murder of Salman Taseer?
Jan 8th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBy using words like “ghazi” (warrior) and “shaheed” (martyr) for cold-blooded killers, are we trying to placate the jihadi within?… Read the rest
Orac on Wakefield and his defenders
Jan 7th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWith extra added homage to Anderson Cooper.… Read the rest
Pakistanis mourn a once tolerant nation
Jan 7th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPakistan is a country where fundamentalism is becoming mainstream, leaving even less room for dissent, difference, and equality.… Read the rest
Is Pakistan past the tipping point?
Jan 7th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA lawyer said “the law that says that Mr Qadri is a murderer was not drawn in accordance with Islam.”… Read the rest
Wot’s a power balance band?
Jan 7th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSomething that works every bit as well as a lucky charm.… Read the rest
Brian Deer on “Piltdown medicine”
Jan 7th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe modus operandi was essentially the same: the dishonest representation of pre-assembled artifacts.… Read the rest
Science-based Medicine on Andrew Wakefield
Jan 7th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThese latest two articles will grind to dust any remaining “scientific resepctability” Wakefield might have enjoyed.… Read the rest
Taseer had been abandoned by his own party
Jan 6th, 2011 12:53 pm | By Ophelia BensonBack in Pakistan…Salman Taseer is buried.
Taseer’s three sons, men with black shirts and red eyes, flung rose petals into the grave. A bugle sounded; graveyard workers shovelled sticky winter clay on to the fearless politician’s coffin. And across Pakistan, people wondered what was disappearing into the grave with him.
Liberals have long been a minority force in Pakistan, reviled for importing “western” ideas and culture; now they are virtually an endangered species.
As Taseer was laid to rest in Lahore, his assassin, 26-year-old policeman Mumtaz Qadri, was also being showered with rose petals, in Islamabad. Cheering supporters clapped Qadri as he was bundled into court.
Oh dear god…it’s such a nightmare. That people like that exist … Read the rest
Recursively political
Jan 6th, 2011 12:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonFurthermore, Rosenau’s misreading is itself political, in the sense that I dislike. It’s what one might call a little too convenient. It frames me (as I just told him in a comment on his post) as dogmatic and unreasonable and nuance-free and kind of stupid. Well that’s how accommodationists like to frame gnu atheists, isn’t it – so how helpful it is that his foot slipped just as he was reading what I’d written so that he got it backward.
It’s the usual, usual, usual thing. Claim that new atheists say what they don’t say. Claim that new atheists in general say what one new atheist once said in a bilious moment. Paste in what one new atheist said and … Read the rest
In which Josh Rosenau does not read carefully
Jan 6th, 2011 12:13 pm | By Ophelia BensonTo say the least. To say it more politely than he deserves.
He did a post a couple of days ago on my post about Ben’s post. None of that now; I know you can follow along. It’s a pig’s life in the British army. Pull your socks up.
First he quotes Ben:
… Read the rest[Mooney’s] stance is self-consciously political. At least to some extent, there is a “difference in goals” between Mooney and the activist atheists — by which, I think, he means a difference in priorities. Mooney does not think that speaking out against religion is a priority, and that it is on the whole detrimental to science education; while others think it is a priority, and that it
BMJ: How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed
Jan 6th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBrian Deer exposes bogus data behind claims that launched global MMR scare, and how the appearance of a link with autism was manufactured at a London medical school.… Read the rest
Mainstream Pakistan religious organisations applaud Taseer murder
Jan 6th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBoth the large religious political parties declared that he had deserved to be killed for his views.… Read the rest
This man will pay you $6000 to commit murder
Jan 6th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonYousuf Qureshi has never met or seen Aasiya Bibi. Yet his heart is so full of hatred that he is willing to give anyone Rs. 500,000 to kill her.… Read the rest
How Pakistan responded to Taseer’s murder
Jan 6th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“But you see these are sensitive matters. He should have watched his words. He shouldn’t have spoken so carelessly.”… Read the rest
Qadri told other cops of plans to kill Taseer
Jan 6th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMany religious leaders, even those from so-called moderate groups, were angered by Mr. Taseer’s support in recent months of Asia Bibi.… Read the rest
A little comic relief
Jan 5th, 2011 11:58 am | By Ophelia BensonMooney in Playboy is funny, you must admit. The tasteful illustration is funny, given Kirshenbaum’s (laudable) concerns about sexism. The title is funny. The post is funny. The comment is funny. It’s all funny, except for the article itself, which is more goofy than funny.
It could be a good piece, if it were re-done, by someone with a different agenda. It could be about the charge of discovery without the baggage of “reconciling religion and science.” It could be about the wonder of nature without the axe-grinding of
… Read the restDoherty is among a growing number of nonreligious researchers who view scientific inquiry itself as a spiritual quest—a trend that has the potential to dramatically upend the idea that science
Iran: Zahra Bahrami sentenced to death
Jan 5th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe original charge was “enmity to God” but now they claim to have found 30 grams of “drugs.”… Read the rest