Marilynne Robinson also says positivism is reductionist and sciencey and bad.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Neil deGrasse Tyson on the perimeter of ignorance 
Jul 4th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
When scientists feel certain about their explanations, God gets hardly a mention.… Read the rest
Poverty is a gift from God
Jul 4th, 2010 10:59 am | By Ophelia BensonLet’s celebrate Christopher Hitchens (and the 4th of July, if you like) by watching his hard-eyed look at a putative saint.
Doctor’s Data sues Quackwatch
Jul 4th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Thus making Doctor’s Data more widely known as a fraud.… Read the rest
Belgium v Vatican: threats against witnesses
Jul 4th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Threats have been made against people who gave the authorities information or made a complaint, and against some magistrates.… Read the rest
Stop the stoning of Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani
Jul 4th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Do not allow our nightmare become a reality. Today we stretch out our hands to the people of the whole world.… Read the rest
Rust Belt Philosopher on Ron Rosenbaum
Jul 4th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
For a fan of agnosticism, Rosenbaum is remarkably confident about what he can know.… Read the rest
The banality of inappropriateness
Jul 3rd, 2010 12:53 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m just echoing Norm here, but what the hell.
Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani is due to be stoned to death on a bogus charge of “adultery.” She’s already had 99 lashes, but the authorities in Iran have decided to be thorough about it.
“She’s innocent, she’s been there for five years for doing nothing”, [her son] Sajad said. He described the imminent execution as barbaric. “Imagining her, bound inside a deep hole in the ground, stoned to death, has been a nightmare for me and my sister for all these years.”
Yes. Naturally. And there is something hideously, deeply, intolerably wrong with people who can not only contemplate doing that, but actually do it. Who consider it not a nightmare but … Read the rest
John Gray parades his pessimism again
Jul 3rd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“The humanist assumptions that underpinned science fiction are no longer credible even as fictions.”… Read the rest
Christopher Hitchens on “Mother Teresa”
Jul 3rd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Who could fail to be touched by the work of the orphanage? But.… Read the rest
US State department on stoning
Jul 3rd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Thinks it’s not “appropriate punishment” for adultery.… Read the rest
Iranian woman faces death by stoning
Jul 3rd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Under Iranian sharia, the sentenced individual is buried up to the neck (or to the waist in the case of men) and stoned.… Read the rest
Another LRB review of What Darwin Got Wrong
Jul 3rd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini believe that they can replicate Chomsky’s demolition job on Skinner.… Read the rest
Johann Hari on speculation and starvation
Jul 2nd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The world’s wealthiest speculators gambled on increasing starvation, and won.… Read the rest
The vultures gather
Jul 2nd, 2010 11:03 am | By Ophelia BensonCristina Odone is there, announcing to a breathless world that She is Praying for Christopher Hitchens. Well good, because that is the first thing that leapt to my mind, of course – will Cristina Odone be praying for him?
… Read the restWhile condemning the intolerance of religious organisations, he shows zero tolerance for believers: a person of faith must be a fanatic, or a fraud. (Mother Teresa, according to his book The Missionary Position, was both.) He refuses to consider the evidence of religious do-gooding, found in the Catholic Church’s AIDS clinics in Africa, Anglican schools in Asia, and Jewish charities around the globe. He is determined to persecute Pope Benedict XVI, and would like to see him arrested on
Cristina Odone announces she is praying for Hitchens
Jul 2nd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“He is determined to persecute Pope Benedict XVI.” No. The word is “prosecute.”… Read the rest
Neuroskeptic graphs the flatline of Freud
Jul 2nd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Proportionally speaking, psychoanalysis has gone out with a whimper, though not a bang.… Read the rest
BMA: gay ‘conversion therapy’ is harmful
Jul 2nd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Calls for mental health standards bodies to reject such treatments and ban their use in their codes of practice.… Read the rest
Bishop Mixa could be allowed to return to work
Jul 2nd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He appears to have received much more lenient treatment from the Pope than has been proposed by church authorities elsewhere.… Read the rest
Can the Vatican survive without immunity?
Jul 2nd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
US supreme court decision paves the way for other suits against priests accused of child rape, which will in turn involve the Vatican.… Read the rest
