And while we’re at it, let’s accuse “the New Atheists” of braying. That will set the tone nicely.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Homophobic vandalism at University of Cape Town 
Oct 8th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A pink closet, meant to promote gay rights at UCT, was torched on Monday night, just hours after it was set up… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo scold barmaid for strawmanning
Oct 8th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Just what you’d expect from someone who wants to stamp out beauty and replace people with robots.… Read the rest
Ahadi and Namazie meet European Parliament VP
Oct 8th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mina Ahadi and Maryam Namazie met with Roberta Angelilli to discuss the urgent case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and hand deliver a letter from her son.… Read the rest
The BHA Census campaign
Oct 7th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Data on religion produced by the 2001 census gave a wholly misleading picture of the religiosity of the UK, halving the number of non-religious people.… Read the rest
More on the Science-n-religion question
Oct 7th, 2010 11:29 am | By Ophelia BensonThomas Dixon commented on one of the recent posts on this issue, and I thought it only fair to make his comment more visible, since that post is now oldish, and I also hope he will comment further.
Dixon’s comment:
… Read the restI’ve been dismayed by some of the misinformation going around in the wake of the recent BBC Four programme I presented and a related online article I wrote for the BBC News magazine. Just for the record, I am a historian, not a theologian (although my first degree was indeed in Theology and Religious Studies), and membership of ISSR is open to anyone who has made a scholarly study of relations between science and religion, as I have. As
More on Smithsonian human evolution exhibit
Oct 7th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And why David Koch funded it: because it gives the impression that human-caused climate change is no big deal, we’ll just “adapt.”… Read the rest
Kitcher and Dennett on new atheism
Oct 7th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The orientation model and the belief model, and whether the first makes the second worth keeping.… Read the rest
Russell Blackford on good and bad dissent
Oct 7th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A nuanced explanation and advocacy of how to do nuanced explanation and advocacy.… Read the rest
USA Today’s “Faith and Reason” asks questions
Oct 6th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“Do you think a baby conceived in test tube is still a child in the eyes of God?” Gee, I don’t know. Maybe they’re all zombies and we should kill them.… Read the rest
Hey, atheists all have something wrong with them
Oct 6th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Agnostic has a think, concludes that “most of the new wave of atheists who offer screeds against faith” are ideologues. Exciting!… Read the rest
The true nature of Steiner education
Oct 6th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The role of the Steiner kindergarten teacher is to facilitate the ‘incarnation’ of the spirits and souls of children into their physical bodies…… Read the rest
Bonjour, canard
Oct 6th, 2010 11:04 am | By Ophelia BensonIt’s kind of the friendly people at the “Battle of Ideas” (some of whom are also the people at the Institute of Ideas, some of whom are also the people at Spiked, some of whom are also the people who used to be Living Marxism and the Revolutionary Communist Party) to offer up a neat example of the backlash against gnu atheism just when the New Humanist posts online the article I wrote for the next issue, on that very subject. Caspar Melville invited me to write it in reply to his article on the new atheism at Comment is Free. Honorable!
As for David Bowden of the Battle of Ideas…well, he’s all too typical of that … Read the rest
Greg Mayer on The Hall of Human Origins
Oct 6th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
At the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Many excellent displays but also lost opportunities.… Read the rest
Philippa Foot 1920-2010
Oct 6th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
TPM republishes an interview with Foot from 2003.… Read the rest
My reply to Caspar Melville on “new atheism”
Oct 6th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In general it’s a good thing to be sceptical of one’s own commitments as well as other people’s. But…… Read the rest
Another pre-emptive self-censorship
Oct 5th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A cartoon that does not show Mohammed. Some newspapers turned pale and said no no no no we can’t run that.… Read the rest
Sam Harris on the Daily Show
Oct 5th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Harris says moral realism is suspect. Perhaps not suspect but complex, says Stewart. Quite.… Read the rest
Appropriate decorum
Oct 5th, 2010 12:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonA guy called Erich Vieth did a useful interview with Paul Kurtz the other day. There are some odd things in it, which could shed some oblique light on the PK-CFI quarrel.
PK says he left voluntarily but under great duress, which is useful to know. I don’t think I’ve seen that before. Then they talk about why no explanation of his resignation appeared in Free Inquiry, and he said it was because it was censored. Vieth said isn’t that at odds with free inquiry?
… Read the restPK: It is similar to thought police. Alas! They refused to publish three of my editorials, and they refused to publish my statement regarding my resignation. What a contradiction. Even though I am the founder
Jesus and Mo on the Vatican on condoms and IVF
Oct 5th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Catholic church is against both because…?… Read the rest
