All entries by this author

Orlando

Mar 6th, 2011 11:42 am | By

Remember Orlando Figes? Remember what he got up to?

The future of one of Britain’s leading historians was looking increasingly uncertain tonight after he admitted that he was the author of anonymous reviews that praised his own work as “fascinating” and “uplifting” while rubbishing that of his rivals.

Oh that. He used a pseudonym to trash people. This was considered a bad thing. Not an excusable little lapse in manners, but a seriously bad thing.

John Sutherland, professor of English at University College London, suggested Figes’s position at Birkbeck could be under threat. “On the whole academics are pretty tolerant,” he said. “Clearly in the present climate he’s a star, and Birkbeck needs stars because of the upcoming research

Read the rest


Pakistan becomes a country at war with its minorities *

Mar 6th, 2011 | Filed by

It is becoming a country at war with its individuals, with itself, with you and with me, with the human desire to be allowed to believe what we believe.… Read the rest



“Pro-life” Republicans cut funding for poison control *

Mar 6th, 2011 | Filed by

Poison control centers actually save far more money than they cost.… Read the rest



Jahanshah Rashidian on International Women’s Day *

Mar 6th, 2011 | Filed by

The world practically ignores the fate of hundreds of millions of Muslim women, who are victims of Islamic states or dominant Islamic traditions of misogyny.… Read the rest



Iran appointed to UN commission for status of women *

Mar 6th, 2011 | Filed by

A nation where we can be arrested for getting a suntan, or wearing too much makeup, will opine on ways to safeguard our rights.… Read the rest



Muslim physicist threatened for evolution lecture *

Mar 6th, 2011 | Filed by

“I seek Allah’s forgiveness for my mistakes and apologise for any offence caused,” physics lecturer Dr Usama Hasan said.… Read the rest



Nick Cohen on the assassinations in Pakistan *

Mar 6th, 2011 | Filed by

Western writers who want to criticize religious misogyny, homophobia, racism and censorship must also live with accusations of “Islamophobia.”… Read the rest



Kamila Shamsie on Pakistan’s blasphemy laws *

Mar 5th, 2011 | Filed by

From the first, the new and expanded blasphemy laws were used as tools of persecution.… Read the rest



Ahmed Rashid on the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti *

Mar 5th, 2011 | Filed by

As leaders worldwide strongly condemn Bhatti’s murder, the reaction of the Pakistani government has been vapid.… Read the rest



Worship is immoral

Mar 5th, 2011 4:27 pm | By

Aikin and Talisse (potentially startling many readers of 3 Quarks Daily) argue that religious belief is morally wrong.

The thought is frequently associated with Bertrand Russell: The worship of anything is beneath the dignity of a rational creature.  That is, we argue that worship is immoral.  Consequently, for any type of religious belief, if it requires one to worship anything, then it is intrinsically immoral.  The argument turns on the claim that any conception of worship that’s worth its salt will involve the voluntary and irrevocable submission of one’s rational faculties to those of another.

That idea resonates with me, whether I know how to defend it or not. It addresses what I dislike about “faith,” even (or … Read the rest



Joseph Hoffmann on a secular ethics *

Mar 5th, 2011 | Filed by

A secular ethic will always require that religion enjoy no privileged status based on assertions of authority that are widely regarded as untrue.… Read the rest



Aikin and Talisse on the moral argument for atheism *

Mar 5th, 2011 | Filed by

We hold that there’s something intrinsically morally wrong about holding religious beliefs. This perhaps is a startling claim.… Read the rest



Susan Jaboby on revolutions and women *

Mar 5th, 2011 | Filed by

Egypt has many university-educated women. Will they be invited to the table when the organization of political parties begins in the post-Mubarak era?… Read the rest



When regulation is secretive, trust is all you have *

Mar 5th, 2011 | Filed by

Science  is built on transparency, but the pharmaceutical industry is regulated behind closed doors; trust is all that’s left.… Read the rest



Ben Goldacre on torpedoing cherished ideas *

Mar 5th, 2011 | Filed by

Such as the efficacy of sniffer dogs, who turn out to be doing a Clever Hans.… Read the rest



Lying about Obama *

Mar 5th, 2011 | Filed by

Mike Huckabee said Obama’s perspective was shaped by “growing up in Kenya.”… Read the rest



PZ Myers reviews David Brooks’s sciencey novel *

Mar 5th, 2011 | Filed by

The neuroscience in the book feels a micrometer deep and a boring lifetime long.… Read the rest



Why Evolution is not Faith

Mar 4th, 2011 | By Franco Henwood

Nine years ago, controversy erupted regarding a Christian school in the UK (Emmanuel College, Gateshead), which openly challenged the theory of evolution in its lessons and taught creationism alongside evolution.  

One of the school’s defenders, journalist Melanie Phillips, quoted  Emmanuel’s head teacher Nigel McQuoid and the former head John Burns, who stated that ‘the school should teach both evolution and creation theory [my italics], and that both are ‘faith positions [my italics].[1]

You may think that this issue is now old hat, a storm in a tea cup that has long subsided.  You may well be mistaken; if opinion polls are to be believed, such views appear to be gaining traction in the UK. One recent … Read the rest



Katha Pollitt on Republicans v women *

Mar 4th, 2011 | Filed by

Republicans at the state and federal level are letting their misogyny, their fundamentalism and their sheer nuttiness show.… Read the rest



The Elephant in the Statehouse

Mar 4th, 2011 | By Jim Cornehls, Ph.D, J.D.

State governments and (Republican) Governors currently are going through paroxysms of false hand wringing and despair.  They pretend not to know why state budgets are so wildly out of balance.  In mock anguish they lament the need to cut education budgets, renege on public employee pensions and cut health benefits for these groups.

Something has to be done to balance state budgets.  But the nation can’t simply eliminate all the give-away programs and policies for the wealthy and the big corporations.  These are the people and businesses that provide the hand-full of jobs in the U.S. that haven’t yet been moved abroad or phased out in essential cost saving measures.

But wait……there may be yet another (Republican) way out after … Read the rest