Construes the opposition as “the idea that human rights legislation should be used to prevent children from being exposed to a crucifix.” Wrong.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
New atheism=Tea Party? Oh hell yes. 
Mar 23rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Jacques Berlinerblau is annoyed that Ruse said it first.… Read the rest
Internationalism
Mar 22nd, 2011 5:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonGreta Christina has begun a list of non-pallid atheists, which makes it a global list of atheists, which makes it a list with a lot of friends on it.
Leo Igwe is on it. Kenan Malik is on it. Maryam Namazie is on it. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is on it. Homa Arjomand is on it. Friends and contributors.
The more global B&W is, the happier I am.… Read the rest
Greta Christina’s list of atheists of color
Mar 22nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Many of our best friends among them. Atheism is global.… Read the rest
Preventing Witchcraft Accusations and Child Rights Abuses in Akwa Ibom State, part 2
Mar 22nd, 2011 | By Leo IgweThe Prevent the Abuse of Children Today (PACT) campaign team has concluded its school outreach program in Eket senatorial district in Akwa Ibom state. The outreach targeted schools because we believe they are places where we could ‘catch them young’ in terms of preventing the abuse of children today – and tomorrow – in Akwa Ibom state. The schools are places that we can empower children and young people to defend themselves. In the first leg of the tour (February 28 to March 4), the PACT team visited schools in Oron, Okobo, Urue Offong Oruko, Udung Uko, and Mbo . And the second leg of the tour (March 7- 11) the team was at Esit Eket, Eket, Ibeno, Onna, Eastern … Read the rest
Stephen Budiansky reviews The Moral Lives of Animals
Mar 22nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Peterson simply ignores several decades worth of recent studies in cognitive science by researchers, especially on theory of mind.… Read the rest
Book launch canceled because of gay rights protest
Mar 22nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“It’s an attack on free speech. It’s a novel, it’s fiction and it isn’t offensive because a lot of these men have been corrupted and led astray into their lifestyle.”… Read the rest
BHA survey: 65% say they are not religious
Mar 22nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
While 61% of the poll’s respondents said they did belong to a religion, 65% of those surveyed answered “no” to the further question: “Are you religious?”… Read the rest
“Vilifying Gaddafi externalises evil”
Mar 22nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The people of Libya will be so relieved to hear it.… Read the rest
Veena Malik hands a mufti his head
Mar 22nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He tries hard to bully and shame her, and she fights back.… Read the rest
Carla Corsetti of Democrazia Atea on the crucifix
Mar 21st, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
After this ruling no Catholic will be able to calmly assert that the crucifix is a symbol which “unites”, or that is it shared peacefully.… Read the rest
Hardly a disaster
Mar 21st, 2011 4:38 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo now poor Michael Ruse has to write a petulant article (for Comment is Free this time? we don’t want to get out of sequence) saying that that horrid new atheist David Barash is mad at him, that he doesn’t care a bit, that he’s a brave contrarian who pisses off campus feminists and other bores who believe in equal rights, that he likes a good dust up, that he was in Arkansas testifying when everyone else was in nursery school, and that new atheists are a danger to the wellbeing of America comparable to the al Qaeda and the Westboro Baptist Church combined. That should take him at least ten minutes.
Barash was gobsmacked by Ruse’s
… Read the restassertion that
David Barash on Ruse’s new atheist:Tea Party comparison
Mar 21st, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The New Atheists do not propose to make the rich richer while withdrawing government assistance from the poor; the Tea Party does.… Read the rest
Students suspended for wearing pro-choice stickers
Mar 21st, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Students at a Catholic high school in Thunder Bay were not suspended for wearing anti-choice stickers.… Read the rest
Forced marriage in Germany
Mar 21st, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“That’s just the way it is in our world: a family can restore its honor by killing the runaway daughter.”… Read the rest
RAWA on Malalai Joya
Mar 20th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In 2012 Jaya was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world and in 2005 at the age of 27 she was elected to Afghanistan’s parliament.… Read the rest
Malalai Joya denied visa to US
Mar 20th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Because she is “unemployed and living underground.” What?!?!… Read the rest
Johann Hari on the myth of the panicking disaster victim
Mar 20th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The evidence gathered over centuries is overwhelming. The vast majority of people, when a disaster hits, behave in the aftermath as altruists.… Read the rest
You people are so amusing, and a danger to the wellbeing of America
Mar 20th, 2011 12:01 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhat, again? Yes, again. Yes, for the 14 thousandth time, Michael Ruse is telling us how angry with him “the new atheists” are, how right he is in spite of their anger, how wrong and bad and dangerous and immoral they are, how brave he is, and how right and brave and amusing and important he Michael Ruse is.
Oh dear, I am in trouble again with the New Atheists… I am being called all sorts of nasty things…Even I sometimes wonder why I am in such bad odor, apart from the fact that whenever I am confronted with people for whom disagreement is considered not just wrong but morally offensive my first tendency is to laugh and tease.
No … Read the rest
