University scientists wondered to each other in internal e-mails if Gaskell’s religion would interfere with the job, which included public outreach.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Dickens is not cozy hot chocolate reading 
Dec 18th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Great Expectations is a bitter, tragic novel.… Read the rest
Steiner Waldorf Schools Part 3: racism
Dec 18th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Yet more reasons to think that Steiner schools are all based on pseudoscience: Steiner’s Spiritual Science.… Read the rest
Guardian leaks police documents on Assange
Dec 18th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“The case against Assange is laid out in police material held in Stockholm to which the Guardian received unauthorised access.”… Read the rest
Israel: rabbi issues anti-Arab edict
Dec 17th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Forbidding Jews to rent flats or sell property to non-Jews; Arab students are bullied and threatened.… Read the rest
Kenan Malik on Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly
Dec 17th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The more that liberals concede on free speech and Muslim sensitivities, the more that Islamists gain a spurious moral legitimacy.… Read the rest
Bad Faith awards 2010
Dec 17th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And the winner is – Sheikh Maulana Abu Sayeed, head of the UK Islamic Sharia Council.… Read the rest
The F word
Dec 17th, 2010 12:13 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Hitchens-Blair debate was on one of the local public radio stations the other day, and I listened to a few minutes of it; something caught my attention that I hadn’t noticed at the time (because I mostly read it, and watched only a bit). What caught my attention (because it irritated the bejeezis out of me) was Blair’s insistent unctuous repetition of the word “faith.” It occurred to me that Hitchens used that word little if at all, and that I should check the transcript to see what the proportions were. They were as I suspected. It’s quite amusing to use the search function (CTRL + F) and see Blair’s sections speckled like measles with the highlighted word.
This … Read the rest
Rosenhouse on Dixon on Religion and Science
Dec 17th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Conflicts over who is authorized to produce and disseminate knowledge are conflicts between science and religion.… Read the rest
Massimo Pigliucci on Objectivist politics
Dec 17th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
By far the weakest point of the Objectivist conception of rights is that they limit themselves to what are called negative rights.… Read the rest
Martin Gardner on Oprah and woo
Dec 17th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
She promotes, as frequent guests, people who preach views that are medically worthless and in a few cases can even lead to death.… Read the rest
Pamela Ronald on trying to counter woo on TV
Dec 17th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Which is difficult when the producers cut all the examples (such as reduced insecticide use, disease resistant papaya, Golden rice).… Read the rest
“Rock star of science” peddles pseudoscience
Dec 17th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mehmet Oz is an alarmist about GM crops.… Read the rest
Going to a movie in which women are stoned to death
Dec 16th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And some of the audience applauds.… Read the rest
Templeton asks: is atheism unnatural?
Dec 16th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why yes, it is. Thank you for asking.… Read the rest
Sensitive and complex
Dec 16th, 2010 12:00 pm | By Ophelia BensonI can’t read this calmly; it makes me quake and gibber with rage. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Ireland is messing with the human rights of women by not allowing them to get abortions to save their lives.
… Read the restTaoiseach Brian Cowen said the ruling raised “difficult issues” that needed to be carefully considered. Speaking in Brussels, he said it was much too early to make any decision on whether legislation would be required in light of the court’s decision.
Minister for Health Mary Harney said the Government [would] take legal advice. Acknowledging the judgment was binding on the State, she said the Government would have to come forward with proposals to reflect it. “However, this will
Review of Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction
Dec 16th, 2010 | By Eric MacDonald[References to Dixon’s book are to location numbers in the Kindle edition. There are 2548 locations in the book, so those using the print edition should be able to access the general page vicinity of the quote based on the percentage of the book traversed at the location number indicated. This, by the way, raises a question for publishers of ebooks. They should include page numbers for the sake of scholarly reference.]
This is a worryingly confusing and confused book, as I shall try to show in detail. It purports to be a very short introduction to a field of academic study, and yet it does not really address the question of whether or not there is such a field. … Read the rest
Ruling: Irish abortion laws breach human rights
Dec 16th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Because there is no exception when the woman’s life is at stake. Ireland says this is sensitive and deep.… Read the rest
Not festive reading for Catholic clerics in Dublin and Rome
Dec 16th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
How could they have allowed a man they knew to have a track record as a child abuser go forward for ordination as a priest?… Read the rest
Witheld chapter of Murphy report to be published
Dec 16th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Material on Tony Walsh was witheld because criminal proceedings were pending on charges of the sexual abuse of three children.… Read the rest
