Author: Ophelia Benson

  • Girl Bleeds to Death After Forced Marriage

    In Yemen, where more than a quarter of girls are married before the age of 15.

  • Massimo Pigliucci Disputes Sam Harris

    In what sense can science answer (as opposed to inform) ethical questions?

  • Points for accuracy

    What is it with Massimo Pigliucci and the dreaded Dawkins-Coyne Phalanx or whatever it is? Why does he keep…pinging at them? And saying things that are exaggerated at best?

    …my problem with Dawkins and Coyne is different, but stems from the same root: their position on morality is indeed distinct from Harris’ (at least Dawkins’, I don’t recall having read anything by Coyne on morality), but they insist in applying science to the supernatural, which is simply another form of the same malady that strikes Harris: scientism, the idea that science can do everything and provides us with all the answers that are worth having.

    Dawkins and Coyne don’t think or say or write that science can do everything and provides us with all the answers that are worth having. They say lots of things that are not compatible with that idea.

    As for the Dawkins/Coyne stuff, I’m really baffled by so many smart people having such a difficult time wrapping their heads around it. I don’t want them to shout that philosophy is the greatest, I just want them to stop shouting that science is the ultimate arbiter of everything. That would be very decent of them, and then we could all get along nicely.

    They don’t shout that. They don’t shout that at all, or anything resembling it. What is it with Massimo?

    His new colleague is joining in the fun. Ew.

  • Journalistic ethics

    The Times is shameless. (Wait – why do I even bother to say that? It’s a Murdoch paper. Murdoch is the genius behind Fox “News” – for which the word “shameless” would be gross flattery.) Its headline is untrue, yet it won’t even post a letter from the subject saying so.

    The Times ran the headline: Richard Dawkins: I will arrest Pope Benedict XVI. It went on to say he was planning a legal ambush, he’d asked lawyers to do things, and so on. He says that’s not how it went. He posted a comment on the Times (and his own site) saying how it went.

    Needless to say, I did NOT say “I will arrest Pope Benedict XVI” or anything so personally grandiloquent. So all the vicious attacks on me for seeking publicity etc are misplaced…

    Marc Horne, the Sunday Times reporter, telephoned me out of the blue and asked whether I was aware of the initiative by Geoffrey Robertson and Mark Stephens to mount a legal challenge to the Pope’s visit. Yes, I said. He asked me if I was in favour of their initiative. Yes, I said, I am strongly in favour of it. Beyond that, I declined to comment to Marc Horne, other than to refer him to my ‘Ratzinger is the Perfect Pope’ article. How the headline writer could go from there to “Richard Dawkins: I will arrest Pope Benedict XVI” is obscure to me.

    It is a remarkably large and brazen jump, you must admit. Are you aware of, do you support, becomes total initiative for and responsibility for. Are you aware of the Obama administration’s attempts to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians? Yes. Do you support those efforts? Yes. Headline: I will make peace between Israel and Palestine says random person.

    Richard reported an hour or so ago that five hours after he posted the comment, it still hadn’t appeared. Bill O’Reilly must be beaming with pride. Glen Beck must be sobbing with joy.

  • Meera Nanda on God and Globalization Gospel

    India is not the only country where markets are supposed to be exorcising the demons of religious fanaticism.

  • Nicholas Lezard Reviews Baggini on Spin

    The book that started life here as ‘Bad Moves’ column.

  • Official Body Tries to Hide Scientific Ignorance

    National Science Board Survey removed survey sections on evolution and cosmology.

  • Even Ruse is Disgusted by the Vatican

    There is no concern whatsoever for the victims. Simply fear of the story getting out and advice for how to prevent it happening.

  • Vatican Can No Longer Ignore International Law

    Which now counts the widespread or systematic sexual abuse of children as a crime against humanity.

  • Steiner racism and state funding

    At Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship ‘special pre-election seminar’

  • Alaina Podmorow in action, age 11.

    Canadian government matches funds raised by Little Women For Little Women in Afghanistan.

  • The Skeptic’s dictionary on alien abductions

    John Mack claimed that he could think of no better explanation for his patient’s abduction stories than that they were true.

  • NOVA Talks to John Mack

    In case after case after case, I’ve been impressed with the sincerity with which people tell their stories, the power of feelings connected with this.

  • The Pennsylvania Taliban

    Punish girls for taking pictures of each other semi-naked, do nothing about boys who distribute the pictures.

  • The Skeptical Alt-Heath Practitioner

    A skeptical massage therapist/science writer is being sued for being ‘offensive.’

  • Anthony Gottlieb on Gods and Gardens

    If the idea of God is inexpressible, just get on with the gardening.

  • Columbia University ‘Miracle’ Study: Flawed and Fraud

    Even a cursory review of the report reveals many potential flaws.

  • Role of US evangelists in Uganda’s ‘kill the gays’ bill

    It is not being homosexual but the prevailing atmosphere of homophobia that makes some people miserable.

  • On misogynist language

    ‘Racial slurs would not be tolerated or defended, but the use of sexist language was acceptable.’

  • The Hunt for the Hat Gene

    If there’s a God gene, there must be a hat gene, and a jeans gene, and a singing gene, and…