Nominate best podcast, blog, event, science video, skepticism video. Awards will be presented at QEDCon in Machester in March 2012.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Up a steep hill
Dec 11th, 2011 4:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonSteve Jones wrote about denial of science in the Telegraph the other day.
Anyone, of course, is free to believe whatever they wish. But why train to become a biologist, or a doctor, when you deny the very foundations of your subject? For a biology student to refuse to accept the fact of evolution is equivalent to choosing to do a degree in English without believing in grammar, or in physics with a rooted objection to gravity: it makes no sense at all. The same is true for doctors. How can you put a body right with no idea as to why it is liable to go wrong?
I suppose the idea is that you do it by following … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
We drift and dabble
Dec 11th, 2011 11:42 am | By Ophelia BensonOh goody, another more in sorrow than in anger rumination on Atheists Are As Bad As Theists And Vice Versa for a Sunday.
For a nation of talkers and self-confessors, we are terrible when it comes to talking about God. The discourse has been co-opted by the True Believers, on one hand, and Angry Atheists on the other. What about the rest of us?
What does he – Eric Weiner – mean “co-opted”? What does he even mean “what about the rest of us” – what about them? “Angry Atheists” haven’t “co-opted” anything, and the rest of us are just as able to speak up as the people Weiner is trying to portray as marginal.
It’s such a typical and … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Here he is, he’s all yours
Dec 11th, 2011 11:05 am | By Ophelia BensonSome parents in Irvine California suspected their son, age 15, of smoking. So they sat him down and explained to him how useful it is to be able to breathe freely, how addictive tobacco is, how bad smoking makes you smell, right?
Not quite. They asked a guy to beat the kid up for them (authorities said).
An Irvine couple who suspected their 15-year-old son of smoking turned to a man believed to be relied on in their church to violently discipline children, authorities said.
Ah in their church – relied on in their church. Uh…whut? So people who attend this church have a designated guy who beats their children, and this is understood and relied on? Funny kind of … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Parents ask a man to beat their child 
Dec 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
They suspected their 15-year-old son of smoking, so turned to a man believed to be relied
on in their church to “discipline” children by beating them.… Read the rest
Sirleaf, Gbowee, Karman accept Nobel Peace Prize
Dec 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Peace Prize was presented to three female activists and political leaders for “their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights” as peacemakers.… Read the rest
An atheist talks cloying dreck about god
Dec 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“We Nones may not believe in God, but we hope to one day.” The hell we do.… Read the rest
Hitchens on Nietzsche on what makes us stronger
Dec 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And what doesn’t. One thing that doesn’t is debilitating illness.… Read the rest
Please confirm, please note, please stand, please sit
Dec 10th, 2011 3:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonOne of the beneficial side effects of the Burzynski uproar was finding Popehat (via Rhys Morgan, finding whom was another beneficial side effect). Popehat is funny.
A few days ago he got a “friendly note” from Marc Stephens.
The note contained what I would characterize as a decent effort, given his apparent abilities, to intimidate me. He sent it to my Popehat address and to my real-world big-boy-pants Ken’s-sekrit-identity law firm address.
The note is classic Marc Stephens. (Which is odd, because the Observer reported a week ago, on December 3, that Stephens was no longer working for the Burzynski clinic, but Popehat says Stephens sent him this note on December 6.) Very very bossy, as if … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Popehat replies to Marc Stephens
Dec 10th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“Marc, kindly take this post — the link to which I will email to you — as a formal, legally binding, 100% certified style invitation to snort my taint.”… Read the rest
Tenets of Islam are not subject to change
Dec 10th, 2011 11:21 am | By Ophelia BensonUN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay went to the Maldives, and there she said some things. She said some things relevant to human rights.
In an address delivered in parliament last Thursday, Pillay said the practice of flogging women found guilty of extra-marital sex “constitutes one of the most inhumane and degrading forms of violence against women, and should have no place in the legal framework of a democratic country.”
The UN human rights chief called for a public debate “on this issue of major concern.” In a press conference later in the day, Pillay called on the judiciary and the executive to issue a moratorium on flogging.
Well yes. Commissioners for human rights can be expected … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Outrage at Pillay was a “missed opportunity”
Dec 10th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
To show the noblity of sharia, says President Mohamed Nasheed. “That the punishments and rulings of Islamic Sharia are not inhumane is very clear to us.”… Read the rest
Maldives: officials condemn call to end flogging
Dec 10th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
UN HR High Commissioner Navi Pillay called for a moratorium on flogging as a punishment for fornication; outrage ensued.… Read the rest
On religious grounds
Dec 9th, 2011 12:30 pm | By Ophelia BensonHuman Rights Watch on child (meaning girl) marriage in Yemen.
… Read the restFourteen-year-old Reem, from Sanaa, was 11 years old when her father married her to her cousin, a man almost 21 years her senior. One day, Reem’s father dressed her in a niqab (the Islamic veil that covers the face, exposing only the eyes), and took her by car to Radda,150 kilometers southeast of Sanaa, to meet her soon-to-be husband. Against Reem’s will, a quick religious marriage ensued. Three days after she was married, her husband raped her. Reem attempted suicide by cutting her wrists with a razor. Her husband took her back to her father in Sanaa, and Reem then ran away to her mother (her parents are divorced).
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
BioLogos snares an MIT physicist
Dec 9th, 2011 9:59 am | By Ophelia BensonVia Sigmund at WEIT, an MIT physicist offers part 1 of a series on “scientism.” Yes really, an MIT physicist. I know, I know.
He (Ian Hutchinson) gives the gist in the first para.
One of the most visible conflicts in current culture is between “scientism” and religion. Because religious knowledge differs from scientific knowledge, scientism claims (or at least assumes) that it must therefore be inferior. However, there are many other important beliefs, secular as well as religious, which are justified and rational, but not scientific, and therefore marginalized by scientism. And if that is so, then scientism is a ghastly intellectual mistake.
Notice that he carefully leaves out the “true” in “justified true beliefs” – the standard … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Ian Hutchinson at BioLogos on “scientism”
Dec 9th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Scientism is a philosophy of knowledge which expands to an all-encompassing world-view. “In other words, it is essentially a religious position.”… Read the rest
Sigmund on BioLogos on “scientism”
Dec 9th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The aim seems to be to portray those committed to methodological naturalism as devoid of emotion or feeling.… Read the rest
“A war with people of faith”
Dec 8th, 2011 3:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd then there are the Republican contestants battling each other to see who can be Most Evil.
Starting point: the Secretary of State addressed delegates to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday and
… Read the restdelivered what historians will one day look back upon as a monumental speech, in which she declared that the continuing oppression of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people is “one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time.”
Sexual minorities, Clinton said, “are treated with contempt and violence by their fellow citizens while authorities empowered to protect them look the other way or, too often, even join in the abuse.” She addressed the pernicious argument — common in Uganda and many other
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Perry and Santorum cozy up to gay-haters
Dec 8th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Condemning the abuse of gay people overseas, Perry said, constitutes “a war with people of faith in this country.”… Read the rest
Stiff resistance
Dec 8th, 2011 2:53 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is just terribly sad – Jerry Coyne gave a lecture on evolution at a public school and a lot of the students were simply “offended” in their religious beliefs.
… Read the restI am dispirited. I’ve just returned from a two-hour lecture and Q&A session at the Woodlawn Charter School, a public school run by the University of Chicago on the South Side of the city. Some of the high-school biology students are reading Why Evolution is True, and I gave a presentation on the evidence for evolution—with a tiny bit about why religion prevents Americans from accepting evolution, for I was asked to mention that topic—followed by an hour of questions.
Some of the questions were good, and some of
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
