As street clashes broke out in Pankshin and Mangu, one report said 464 people had died in Jos.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Religion’s Role in California’s Prop 8
Jan 21st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonExperts said religion has been used to justify discrimination against African Americans, women and gays.… Read the rest
Maia Caron Interviews OB
Jan 21st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOn religion and women, compliance and fear, misogyny and habit.… Read the rest
A Bad Earthquake and a Good God?
Jan 21st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNo. [link fixed]… Read the rest
Straightening out the kinks
Jan 20th, 2010 5:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonChad Orzel said a strange thing the other day.
OK, fine, as a formal philosophical matter, I agree that it’s basically impossible to reconcile the religious worldview with the scientific worldview. Of course, as a formal philosophical matter, it’s kind of difficult to show that motion is possible. We don’t live in a formal philosophical world, though, and the vast majority of humans are not philosophers (and that’s a good thing, because if we did, it would take forever to get to work in the morning). Humans in the real world happily accept all sorts of logical contradictions that would drive philosophers batty. And that includes accepting both science and religion at the same time.
That’s very blithe – … Read the rest
A moral desert
Jan 20th, 2010 5:16 pm | By Ophelia BensonAn impoverished religious mind at work:
Recently, atheists seem intent on proving they can be good without God. I always get a kick out of evangelizing atheists and how they’re so desperate to prove that they’re as good (and usually better) than us religious types.
No, we’re not desperate, but we do like to counter the slanders of many theists to the effect that we can’t be good without God. If Matt Archbold were making a good faith argument (so to speak), he would acknowledge that many theists claim that atheists are necessarily immoral, and that we naturally disagree with that. But he’s not, so he didn’t.
… Read the restBut let’s give Dawkins the benefit of the doubt because us religious
Separation of Church and Medicine
Jan 20th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe religious ideologies that permeate BU’s academic policies may harm scientific progress at BCM.… Read the rest
Bowling for Atheists: Donations Pour In
Jan 20th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPeople give for many reasons; the more reasons, the more giving.… Read the rest
Catholic Reveals Defective Moral Sense
Jan 20th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Why is other human life worth anything if there is no God?’… Read the rest
Sean Carroll: The Truth Still Matters
Jan 20th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“X is true” and “People exist who believe X is true” are not actually the same statement.… Read the rest
Defining sexism downwards
Jan 19th, 2010 3:57 pm | By Ophelia BensonI did not know – some male students at St Paul’s College at the University of Sydney set up a pro-rape Facebook page.
The group, which was named “Define Statutory”, described its members as “anti-consent” and was listed in the sports and recreation section of the site…It was shut down at the end of [October], but had been live on Facebook since August, according to an investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald…The Sydney Morning Herald said the page was part of a broader culture at the residential colleges that “demeans women in a sexist and often sexually violent way”.
And here I was fuming (or should I say bitching?) about sexist epithets and men who type thousands of … Read the rest
OSCE: Turkey’s Internet Law Should Be Reformed
Jan 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘At present, 3,700 Internet sites are blocked in Turkey, including YouTube, GeoCities, and Google sites.’… Read the rest
Laurie Taylor on the Church’s Way With Children
Jan 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt happened to him and to his best friend. The priests made it the child’s fault.… Read the rest
Russell Blackford on ‘The Evolution of God’
Jan 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere is no phenomenon crying out for a deeper explanation that involves purpose or design or divinity.… Read the rest
Egypt: No Sex Before Marriage
Jan 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSo what you do is, you secretly say you’re married. Problem solved.… Read the rest
Clerics Demand More Time and Deference on TV
Jan 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s all gardening and natural history instead of God! It’s an outrage!… Read the rest
The milk of human kindness
Jan 19th, 2010 11:42 am | By Ophelia BensonCompassion is at the heart of every great religion.
Laurie Taylor kept a diary when he was at school, filled with the doings of himself and his best friend Richard.
… Read the restBut nowhere in the closely written pages is there a single reference or a solitary allusion to the most significant feature of my life at boarding school with Richard. There is not a word about the fact that at the time we were both being sexually abused by two of the priests who ran the school…We talked to each other about what was going on. We knew that it was not right but both of us were caught in the trap that has been described so well by other
Science and the Battle for Free Speech
Jan 18th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonScience progresses only through open criticism, and UK libel law makes this impossible.… Read the rest
Randi Foundation Teams With Dawkins Foundation
Jan 18th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd a dozen other secular groups to set up a way to donate money to help the people of Haiti.… Read the rest
Roy Greenslade on Liddle and Those Comments
Jan 18th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLiddle replies – unless that’s a hacker too.… Read the rest