Author: Ophelia Benson

  • Ryan Lizza on Michele Bachmann

    It is a curiosity that a politician with a history of pushing sectarian religious beliefs in government is a hero to a libertarian movement.

  • Michele Bachmann’s intellectual influences

    “She recommended this book on her website for a number of years. It is an
    objectively pro-slavery book…”

  • Supreme Court should limit ‘ministerial exemption’

    The Americans United brief urges the Supreme Court not to deny judicial access to Americans who face discrimination by religious groups.

  • Humanism and Secularism in Benin

    Being an address delivered by Leo Igwe at a seminar on Secularism in Benin (Laicite au Benin) at Codiam, Cotonou, Republic of Benin on July 26 2011

    Thank you friends and the good people of Benin. I bring you all greetings from IHEU, its member groups and individual supporters. I thank you for creating time to be here. I call you friends because I believe we are together in this struggle to realize a secular country and a secular continent and a secular world. A secular Africa is long over due. But as you know we cannot have a secular Africa without a secular Benin. So we need to make secularism happen in our life or at least commence the process of making it happen some day.

    I believe we are together in this quest for the enthronement of secular and humanist values – reason, science, critical thinking, compassion and cooperation with one another, democracry and human rights.This seminar is convened to underscore these common goals and to explore ways of achieving them.

    For all of you in Benin, this important campaign starts here. It starts by making your country a secular republic in principle and in practice. It starts by identifying those programs and policies that frustrate the evolution of a secular society. It starts by working and campaigning to realize those secular promises contained in our constitution and in the various human rights instruments, which this country has signed or ratified, but have continuosly eluded most people over the years. In many cases, the constitutions of African countries say that the states are secular but in practice, they are not. They priviilege one or two religions and discriminate againsttheir citizens on the grouds of religious belief and unbelief.We need to ensure that the money meant to fund public health, public schools and infrastructure is not used to finance religious myths and dogmas.

    Benin like Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire etc has a history, a common history. Benin has a history of ancient kingdoms marked by tyranny and despotism, wars and conflicts, slavery and superstition. Benin has a history of transatlantic slavery, colonialism by the West, forced conversion to Islam and Christianity, of invasion and conquest by foreign religious and political merceneries. Benin has a history of independence, military dictactorship and a struggle for democracy and human rights. Unlike my country Nigeria, Benin has made significant progress in maintaining peace and unity, in organizing credible elections and enthroning multi party democracy. But as you know there are still a lot of work to be done in areas of tackling poverty, illiteracy, and superstition. We still have a lot work to do in improving the quality of education, governance and ensuring the respect of universal human rights,and in maintaining a wall seperating church,mosque, shrine and state. We need to continue to struggle for the realization of a dignified life for all. We cannot afford to be complancent at this time or anytime.

    I want to assure you that we at IHEU are with you, the people of the Republic of Benin, in your struggle against the forces of oppression, exploitation, irrationalism, religious fundamentalism and superstition. These are the forces that have hampered the progress of many societies across the world. These are forces that have held the progress, development and emergence of Africa hostage.

    That is why we encourage the formation of humanist and secular groups. That is why we are organizing this seminar today. That is why I urge you to get involved in promoting humanism and secularism in Benin. I hope you can take advantage of this opportunity and join efforts with us in organizing humanism and secularism in Benin. Because we need proactive secular and rationally minded individuals and groups to work together, to defend secularism and realize a secular and tolerant society. We need committed, creative, courageous and diligent individuals to help fufill this important mission.

    Humanists and secularists need to work together to combat the belief in witchcraft which is causing a lot of problems in Benin and in Africa. Witch hunts ended in Europe centuries ago, but continues to ravage Africa early in this 21st century. Many people across the region continue to blame their problems and misfortune on witches and wizards and other imaginary entities. Many people continue to commit criminal and atrocious acts based on primitive fears and imagined sense of evil and misfortune. Many people across Africa particularly the elderly, women, children and people living with disabilities are suffering and dying as a result of accusations of witchcraft. The time has come for us to work and campaign to end this needless suffering and set our people free so that everybody young and old, male or female, ‘able’ or ‘disabled’ can live a dignified and happy life in this world.

    After all, the evidence of another life after death in another world is simply not there. We need to liberate our society from the grip of this religious illusion and the witchcraft mentality that are darkening and destroying the lives and minds of Africans. We need to encourage the spirit of doubt, debate and critical examination of issues.

    We need to commence the process of changing the mentality of our people. I know it is difficult. I know it is risky. But I am convinced it is important. I know it will take time for us to achieve it. But we need to start now. We need to start here today in Benin.

    I hope some day we or generations yet unborn shall look back at this event as one of those programs that marked the beginning of this process of liberation, enlightenment and emancipation in Benin and in Africa.

    For a secular Benin
    For a secular Africa
    For a secular world
    Thank you

     

  • How wide is skepticism?

    There seem to be different views on what “skepticism” is. Daniel Loxton seems to define it (or perhaps I mean prefer it) quite narrowly.

    For decades, skepticism has very deliberately worked to stay close to what it does best: tackling empirical questions in the realm of pseudoscience and the paranormal, and (as the other side of this same coin) promoting scientific literacy.

    That’s skepticism? That’s it? To me that sounds more like science education combined with some applied science. I thought skepticism could be applied a good deal more generally than that.

    Also, perhaps, more…searchingly.

    consider this passage from the first editorial of North America’s first regular skeptical publication, written when I was a toddler:

    Finally, a word might be said about our exclusive concern with scientific investigation and empirical claims. The Committee takes no position regarding nonempirical or mystical claims. We accept a scientific viewpoint and will not argue for it in these pages. Those concerned with metaphysics and supernatural claims are directed to those journals of philosophy and religion dedicated to such matters.

    Demonstrable evidence is common ground for skeptics like Houdini (who wrote, “I firmly believe in a Supreme Being and that there is a Hereafter”).

    But if you’re a skeptic, then the question arises, why do you firmly believe in a Supreme Being and that there is a Hereafter? What are your reasons? What causes you to believe those things?

    The answer isn’t obvious, after all. It’s the opposite of obvious. There seems to be nothing in the world that corresponds to a reason for believing those things, and skeptics as such generally want reasons for beliving things. Not invariably, but generally. So why would a skeptic believe those things? And why is it not part of skepticism to ask questions of that kind?

    It seems to be because Loxton doesn’t want atheism messing up skepticism, but that just presents us with the same question in a slightly different form.

  • Warren Jeffs gets life in prison

    For sexually assaulting two underage girls he nailed in what his church deemed “spiritual marriages.”

  • Rock Beyond Belief will take place

    “This just might be the turning point in the foxhole atheist community’s struggle for acceptance, tolerance and respect,” Justin Griffith said.

  • ‘Let’s go Boots?’ ‘No, Body Shop.’

    If this is the Amadou Diallo moment for Blighty, then why are minorities and the working class the principal victims of “socially excluded” aggression?

  • Skeptic lawyer on the two cultures redux

    Arguments for the existence of God (or Gods) are not pseudoscientific. They’re just not testable.

  • Zimbabwe: torture camp discovered

    “They beat us 40 whips in the morning, 40 in the afternoon and 40 in the evening,” said one victim.

  • I point to X and I point to Y. That’s all.

    Carl Zimmer has (with help from Susan Greenfield) created a new Twitter meme.

    The neuroscientist Susan Greenfield has for several years been saying “Look out! The internet will rewire your brain.”

    She warns that Twitter is turning us into social cripples. When asked for evidence, she either points to papers that provide no support for her sweeping claims, or says that we shouldn’t wait for evidence. Her claims positively hum with contradiction. In order to make new technologies seem truly sinister, she ends up getting nostalgic about television.

    She has, too.

    When I was a kid, television was the centre of the home, rather like the Victorian piano was.

    That made me yell with laughter – the tv as a fireplace.

    Carl continues:

    Yesterday, The Guardian followed up with an interview with Greenfield, in which she defended herself against such attacks. Along the way, one of the things she said finally rewired my brain into a seizure:
    “I point to the increase in autism and I point to internet use. That’s all.”
    Which drove me to Twitter, to sum up the ridiculousness of such a statement in 140 characters or less:
    I point to the increase in esophageal cancer and I point to The Brady Bunch. That’s all. #greenfieldism

    And others joined in.

    I point to Alzheimer’s and I point to cheese doodles. That’s all. #greenfieldism

    Try your own!

  • Carl Zimmer on Greenfield and Twitter and a meme

    I point to the increase in esophageal cancer and I point to The Brady Bunch. That’s all. #greenfieldism

  • Martin Robbins on Greenfield on Twitter and autism

    If she is going to make these claims, she needs to be able to back them up with evidence.

  • The year’s best astronomy photos

    From the New Scientist.

  • David Allen Green on riots and sentimentality

    Nobody’s mind will actually change, for – as usual – civil disturbances will re-affirm and not challenge views already held.

  • Ok so truth matters, but what is it?

    The anti-relativist tried for a philosophical fait accompli, but seems to have taken some short cuts in so doing.

  • Dealing with complaints about homeopathy websites

    ASA has told marketers of homeopathic treatments and services to remove claims that refer to, or imply, the efficacy of homeopathy.

  • Lawsuit against homeopathy manufacturer

    Yes: a manufacturer of a homeopathic medicine is being sued because said homeopathic medicine doesn’t work.

  • 39 sent to jail for serving food during Ramadan

    The Pakistan government has prohibited eating and drinking in public during the fasting hours of Ramadan to ‘ensure the sanctity of the month’.

  • Geoffrey Falk

    And just in case we’re bored with the Abbie and Miranda show, let’s pay another visit to Geoffrey Falk. We’ve visited him only once before, in October 2009, so let’s do it again. He’s been calling me a bitch and assorted other choice names at frequent intervals all that time. Yesterday he did a new one, complaining that he’d just found I had a picture of him here.

    As soon as I saw it I emailed him (weirdly, he had sent me a couple of friendly emails before changing his mind and deciding to call me names two or three times a month) and said what, where, I’ll take it down. He didn’t reply, he simply updated his disgusting post with a link – so I found the picture and took it down. He hasn’t updated his disgusting post to reflect the fact that I took it down.

    He has a tag for me: Ophelia Benson’s Granny Panties. If you click on it you can see what a regular I am, and what refreshingly amusing and insightful things he has to say about me. There’s a lot about the offensive smallness of my tits, and my ugliness and sexlessness and general repulsiveness.

    I’m posting this in order to shame him. He could have just emailed me about the damn picture (which was in a comment, and I didn’t know it was there, or that it was a problem); he could have removed the post once I removed the picture; he did neither. Now I want to shame him.

    I might do it again some time, too. You never know.