An armchair in flames has become the informal symbol of the experimental-philosophy movement.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Catholics Worry About ‘Doctors’ Rights’
Oct 3rd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPatients’ rights not so important, at least when it comes to abortion.… Read the rest
US Opposing ‘Defamation of Religion’ Resolution
Oct 3rd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPromoters of the coalition want to avoid being branded as part of a neocon effort to attack Muslims.… Read the rest
‘Salman Rushdie taught liberals to hate Islam’
Oct 2nd, 2008 12:51 pm | By Ophelia BensonWow.
Before that January day in Bradford, the Left-liberal consensus was notionally on the side of the Muslim community, which in Britain is predominantly Asian. Since that day there has been a creeping racialist antipathy towards Muslims, by the Left. The grounds of their growing hatred are entirely spurious and are represented as religious. The very part of Muslim belief that trespasses on the territory of the secular liberal creed is identified, for that reason alone, as intolerable. That is to say, Muslims are denied the right to take offence when their most holy emblems are deliberately pilloried.
No they’re not – they’re denied the ‘right’ to do things like kill people or torch embassies or threaten people or … Read the rest
Resist Attempts to Dilute Human Rights
Oct 2nd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe universality of human rights remains controversial 60 years after the adoption of the UDHR.… Read the rest
Blinded by Divine Light
Oct 2nd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonScience is based solely on doubt-based, disinterested examination of the natural and physical world. … Read the rest
Michael Walzer on Greed and the Financial Crisis
Oct 2nd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe right people to blame are the market ideologues and the politicians they seduced.… Read the rest
S. Fleischacker on the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Oct 2nd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Biblical claim to the land should be retired permanently from debates over this issue.… Read the rest
Left’s ‘Creeping Racialist Antipathy’ to Muslims
Oct 2nd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Muslims are denied the right to take offence when their most holy emblems are deliberately pilloried.’… Read the rest
Religious Killings Bad for India’s Reputation
Oct 2nd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAttempts to restore peace to Kandhamal district, the epicentre of the religious riots, have had little effect.… Read the rest
The fallacy of the too convenient
Oct 1st, 2008 12:24 pm | By Ophelia BensonSusan Haack in Defending Science – Within Reason (p. 286) quotes (in order to dispute) Richard Swinburne:
If God’s existence, justice and intentions became common knowledge, then man’s freedom to choose [to believe or disbelieve] would in effect be vastly curtailed. (Swinburne, The Existence of God p. 244)
What I immediately wondered (not for the first time) on reading that is: why is that important? Why is it even meaningful? Why is belief an issue? And why, being an issue, does it become an issue of freedom? Why is it treated as a test?
We have all kinds of common knowledge – and that’s not seen as a problem. We don’t worry about our freedom to choose to believe … Read the rest
Beware of Catholic doctors then
Oct 1st, 2008 12:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe European Federation of Catholic Medical Associations issued a statement
… Read the restat the conclusion of its 11th annual congress expressing its firm commitment to the defense of life in response to the threats of abortion, euthanasia, genetic manipulation, the creation of human embryos, and others…[T]hey stressed that ethical norms and principles precede civil laws, which should be influenced by natural law and the teaching of the Church. They went on to state that decisions about “the medical treatment for patients who put their trust in us should be guided above all by our conscience. Moral evaluation of medical practice should not be based on superficial opinions or the latest tendencies, but rather on the sensibleness of a conscience formed according to
Rushdie ‘Unrepentant’ About Satanic Verses
Oct 1st, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHis remarks are pertinent at a time when Islamists have again driven a literary figure into hiding.… Read the rest
Cult Stud Charlie Gere Does a Stanley Fish
Oct 1st, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNo free speech, good thing too. Muslim sensitivities; culture riddled with own taboos; no wonder angry.… Read the rest
From Obscure Texas Academic to London Firebomb
Oct 1st, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe campaign against The Jewel of Medina was started not by an imam but by an American academic. … Read the rest
Salil Tripathi on Firebombing Free Speech
Oct 1st, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAcquiescence to threats has emboldened other faiths to demand bans on plays or art they do not like.… Read the rest
Catholics Must Mobilize to Block Women’s Freedom
Oct 1st, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonArchbishop of Cardiff warns that teenage girls might be able to salvage their own lives.… Read the rest
Liberals Disagree
Oct 1st, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOffending people is sometimes wrong; but no one has a right against being offended.… Read the rest
All in the Name of Cultural Sensitivity
Oct 1st, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonToday free speech is seen as an inherent problem, because it can offend as well as harm.… Read the rest
Why bother
Oct 1st, 2008 1:56 am | By Ophelia BensonKenan Malik reminds us of the wise and reasonable words of Khomeini when he put out the hit on Rushdie and his accomplices.
[O]n February 14, 1989, the Ayatollah Khomeini issued his fatwa. “I inform all zealous Muslims of the world,” he proclaimed, “that the author of the book entitled The Satanic Verses and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its contents are sentenced to death.”
Note that – not just Rushdie, but also all those involved in its publication who were aware of its contents should be murdered by religious zealots. What a nice guy. It’s a shame he never had a chance to meet Torquemada; they would have gotten along so well.
And of … Read the rest