The best solution is to put religion where it belongs: in the history curriculum of non-faith-based schools.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Alfano Rejects Prosecution of Sabina Guzzanti
Sep 19th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘I decided not to authorise it, knowing well the stature and capacity of the pope for forgiveness.’… Read the rest
Fighting Fashionable Nonsense: Beyond the Hoax
Sep 19th, 2008 | By Max Dunbar‘Though it may wound the amour proper of some postmodernist humanities scholars to discover that a mere physicist could learn their jargon well enough, in a few months’ library research, to write a half-convincing simalcrum of it, that is, alas, exactly what happened.’
A lot has been written on this site about postmodernism, and especially its stylistic hallmarks: ambiguity over clarity, irony over actual humour, the buzzwords and red flags of management-speak. Deconstructionist writers portrayed themselves as radicals, often purporting to argue against capitalism or to support oppressed peoples. But as Nick Cohen pointed out, all they really offered was a dull satire of the ‘hegemon’. He quotes an American philosopher, Martha Nussbaum:
… Read the rest[R]esistance is always offered as personal, more
EU Weakened in UN Human Rights Debates
Sep 18th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSupport for EU is down, that of China and Russia is up. Not good.… Read the rest
Turkey Prosecutes Artist for PM Cartoon
Sep 18th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMichael Dickinson is charged under article 125/3: ‘insulting the prime minister.’… Read the rest
Michael Ignatieff on the Duty to Rescue
Sep 18th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson2001 UN report that advocated the ‘responsibility to protect’ was the high-water mark of the humanitarian faith.… Read the rest
Review of Books on Islamic Anti-Semitism
Sep 18th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWestern liberals hesitate to tackle the subject of Muslim anti-Semitism, lest they seem anti-multicultural.… Read the rest
CFI: Austin Dacey on Islam and Human Rights
Sep 18th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSeveral Islamic states have challenged the UDHR and have penned ‘Islamic human rights’ documents in its place.… Read the rest
Turkey Blocks Dawkins Website
Sep 18th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCourt order blocks access after complaints from Harun Yahya; Dawkins panned his ‘Atlas of Creation.’… Read the rest
Pew Report on Global Attitudes [pdf]
Sep 18th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson% of Turks, Egyptians, Jordanians, Lebanese and Pakistanis with favorable opinions of Jews is in single digits. … Read the rest
Not freedom of opinion but freedom of thought
Sep 17th, 2008 6:43 pm | By Ophelia BensonAlan Wolfe reads BHL on speaking truth to power.
It is frequently said that we ought to tolerate religious differences; whatever we might think of Islam, we should respect the rights of adherents to believe what they want. No, Levy responds, what the Muslim world needs is not tolerance but secularism.
‘No’? What do you mean ‘no’? That’s not a ‘no’. That is in fact a yes. We ought to tolerate religious differences; whatever we might think of Islam, we should respect the rights of adherents to believe what they want, and secularism is by far the best way to create such a state of affairs, because secularism puts religion aside for purposes of government, thus making it unnecessary … Read the rest
Christian Voice Makes New Grab for Attention
Sep 17th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWith cryptic remarks about Dawkins and the father of lies. Attention must be paid, or perhaps not.… Read the rest
Reiss Statements Open to Misinterpretation
Sep 17th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Royal Society said this was not his intention but that it ‘has led to damage to the society’s reputation.’… Read the rest
Barton Gellman on Dick Cheney
Sep 17th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat Dick Armey told him, and whether Armey is angry about it.… Read the rest
What Cheney Told Armey
Sep 17th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThat Saddam Hussein had personal ties to al-Qaeda and was close to miniaturizing nuclear weapons.… Read the rest
Dick Armey Says Cheney Lied to Him
Sep 17th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonConservative Republican Armey was against the war, might have stopped it.… Read the rest
Criminal Sharia Judgments
Sep 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonImagine what kind of consent wives involved in domestic violence cases have given to sharia court’s jurisdiction.… Read the rest
Aaronovitch on a Web of Sinister Untruths
Sep 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe MMR panic was aided by a boneheaded refusal to discriminate between better and worse arguments.… Read the rest
Royal Society Fellows Turned on Reiss
Sep 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNo way an ordained minister, for whom unverified dogma is central, can present free-thinking, doubt-based scientific philosophy disinterestedly.… Read the rest
Dawkins to New Scientist on Reiss
Sep 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘What Reiss actually said is not a self-evidently inappropriate stance for the Royal Society to take.’… Read the rest