Zizek is at least honest, while Hardt and Negri mix strangulated jargon and toe-curling uplift.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Russell Blackford on the Move to Ban Blasphemy 
Nov 21st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Deep concern about the implications for freedom of speech is totally appropriate. … Read the rest
Ben Goldacre on a Delayed Warning
Nov 21st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A story about how risk information is disseminated to patients and doctors, and how it can be disappeared.… Read the rest
R Joseph Hoffmann Reviews Karen Armstrong
Nov 21st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Armstrong, friend to all religion, needs to write less and read more. And think about what she reads.… Read the rest
The Manufacture of Conspiracy Theory
Nov 21st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Chomsky, free speech, the Bosnian Serb camps, ITN v Living Marxism, Moral Maze.… Read the rest
The Problem of the Oblivious White Male Atheist
Nov 20th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The women of atheism seem to be semi-invisible.… Read the rest
UK: Many Muslim Schools Out of Money
Nov 20th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Non-state Muslim ‘faith schools’ may close; some parents may send children to Pakistan.… Read the rest
Archbishop to Pope: We Disagree
Nov 20th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
About women, and about other things. Maybe this ecumenical stuff won’t work after all.… Read the rest
Algeria, Pakistan et al. Seek Blasphemy Ban
Nov 20th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The OIC countries are lobbying a UN committee to agree that a treaty protecting religions is necessary.… Read the rest
Behind the Public Face of Scientology
Nov 20th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Scientology is a joke, but people still subscribe to its pseudo-Freudian science fiction beliefs. … Read the rest
Peter Tatchell on Tomorrow’s ‘No Sharia’ Rally
Nov 20th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘The religious right, which exists in all faiths, is a serious threat to human freedom wherever it manifests itself.’… Read the rest
No Thoughts Please We’re Atheists
Nov 19th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
BBC clings to the notion that only religious believers have thoughts significant enough for the Day.… Read the rest
Iraq Spends Millions on Magic Bomb-finders
Nov 19th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A proprietary process of electro-static matching of the ionic charge and structure of the substance…… Read the rest
‘Psychic’ Cop Claims Religious Discrimination
Nov 19th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Claims he was sacked for believing that mediums should be consulted in criminal investigations. … Read the rest
Kinder Gentler Catholic Bishops
Nov 19th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Contraception, sex outside marriage, divorce are no longer ‘evil’; they are ‘objectively wrong.’… Read the rest
Fox News Runs Wrong Video of ‘Crowds’
Nov 19th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ran video supposed to be Palin drawing crowds now, but was from 2008. Naughty.… Read the rest
Yes but what was he doing?
Nov 19th, 2009 11:35 am | By Ophelia BensonWhat are we talking about here?
A police trainer who was sacked for believing that officers should use psychics to solve crimes is going to court to prove he was the victim of religious discrimination.
Was he sacked – is he claiming he was sacked – just for believing that? Or was he sacked for practicing it? Surely that makes an important difference – yet, oddly, the piece nowhere makes it clear which possibility is at issue.
… Read the restAlan Power, who has been a member of a Spiritualist church for 30 years, argues that his belief in the power of mediums should be placed on a par with more mainstream religious and philosophical convictions…At a tribunal in London, Mr Power
When facts are missing, just surmise
Nov 18th, 2009 1:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m reading Terry Eagleton’s Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate. It’s a very slight book which one could read in an hour, but I’m reading it slowly because I’m taking a lot of notes, and also because it makes me sick, so I don’t like to read it for long at a stretch. I gave myself a break from it for a few days, and when I picked it up again after this break, I was struck all over again by its truly objectionable combination of rudeness and glibness and shallowness and pretension. I really hate that combination, and Terry Eagleton wears it as if it were a mink coat and he were a heedless aristocrat.… Read the rest
Somalia: Woman Stoned to Death for ‘Adultery’
Nov 18th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Was divorced, had sex, had baby, was buried up to waist and stoned until she was dead.… Read the rest
Hitchens on Nidal Malik Hasan
Nov 18th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A depressive person does not have to end up screaming religious slogans while butchering people.… Read the rest
