‘He has converted to Roman Catholicism. This requires much thought and reflection.’ Hmm.… Read the rest
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All label and no content
Apr 9th, 2008 11:44 am | By Ophelia BensonIssues of faith have clearly been consuming Mr Blair. Since leaving office, he has converted to Roman Catholicism. This requires much thought and reflection. After confessing serious sins, a convert must make the “Rite of Reception”, including saying that: “I believe and profess all that the Holy Catholic Church believes, teaches and proclaims to be revealed by God.”
And saying that requires thought and reflection? Wouldn’t you think it requires something more like the avoidance of thought, the abdication of thought? To say you believe all that the ‘Holy’ Catholic Church proclaims to be revealed by God is to say you believe something very all-encompassing, very broad, very dogmatic, and very evidence-free. What does that have … Read the rest
Old Tibet Was no Shangri-la
Apr 8th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOne third of the boys in Tibet were forcibly taken by the monastery. That’s human rights?… Read the rest
Wafa Sultan Forced Into Hiding
Apr 8th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSultan joins a growing list of public critics of radical Islam facing death threats.… Read the rest
Cross-dressing Children Shock-horror
Apr 8th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonChristian radio station rebukes costumes at school; cites ‘traditional family values’ and ‘Biblical values.’… Read the rest
Grayling and Monk Debate Education
Apr 8th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe appetite for finding out, and thinking about what is learned, grows by feeding.… Read the rest
Turkey Considers Tiny Change to Article 301
Apr 8th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProposed amendment would replace denigrating Turkishness with denigrating the Turkish nation.… Read the rest
Illinois Legislator Tells Atheist ‘Get Out’
Apr 8th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Get out of that seat. You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying!’… Read the rest
As well as
Apr 8th, 2008 9:10 am | By Ophelia BensonThe BBC reports that what it calls the ‘next UN investigator into Israeli conduct in the occupied territories’ has defended his comparison of Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis. But a couple of paragraphs down it adds something that should be (but isn’t) decorated with little red warning flags.
Professor Falk is scheduled to take up his post for the UN Human Rights Council later in the year.
Ah – the UN Human Rights Council. How depressing it is that that sounds like a good thing and is in fact a very bad thing. The IHEU explains why.
… Read the restBy 2005, the Commission for Human Rights had become widely discredited…The Commission was abolished by vote of the
What is blasphemy
Apr 7th, 2008 3:54 pm | By Ophelia BensonFrom David Littman’s article.
In an 18 February 1994 letter addressed to all delegates at the Commission on Human Rights, the Sudanese ambassador requested an immediate withdrawal of any reference – from the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Sudan – in which certain inconsistences were indicated between the international human rights conventions and the provisions of Sudan’s Criminal Act of 1991. The ambassador alleged that the report “contained abusive, inconsiderate, blasphemous and offensive remarks about the Islamic faith.” A further Sudanese circular, entitled, “Attack on Islam,” claimed that portions of the report “represent a vicious attack on the religion of Islam and contain a call for the abolition of its Islamic Penal Legislation.”
The Rapporteur’s report indicated tensions … Read the rest
Human Rights and Free Speech Rights
Apr 7th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA group of students filed a complaint against Maclean’s for a piece they feel violated their human rights.… Read the rest
Convenient Untruths
Apr 7th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHumans have a remarkable ability to tune out facts that don’t support pre-existing beliefs. … Read the rest
Mass Rescue at Fundamentalist Compound
Apr 7th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAuthorities remove more than 220 women and children from polygamous Mormon ranch in Texas.… Read the rest
Hitchens on Belief in Belief
Apr 7th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIs it not possible that the missionaries of ‘faith’ regard the objects of their charity as mere raw material?… Read the rest
Standing Idly By While Rights Are Undermined
Apr 7th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBy seeking to criminalize free speech, the resolution stands in breach of the UDHR.… Read the rest
Short answers
Apr 6th, 2008 4:17 pm | By Ophelia BensonI mentioned that believers can resort to a quick and easy way with difficult questions that secular thinkers and atheists can’t, and that this lack is perhaps one reason students are always moral relativists. We can offer reasons for thinking X is better than Y, or for thinking Z is entirely unacceptable in any moral universe we can think of (executing gays for being gay, genocide, murdering women for talking to an unrelated man), but we can’t hand out anything as brisk and simple and conversation-stopping as ‘God said so.’ Believers* have a short cut which unbelievers don’t have. Believers have an answer that is both quick and easy, while unbelievers have to spend time and effort if … Read the rest
Two Men Get Months in Prison for Killing Woman
Apr 6th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTribunal reduced the murder charge to a misdemeanour: defendant was defending ‘family honour.’… Read the rest
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Report
Apr 6th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson2007 proved to be one of the worst years for human rights in Pakistan’s history… Read the rest
Grayling on ‘Explaining Religion’
Apr 6th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe concept of religiosity will need clarification before a computational model of its dynamics is possible.… Read the rest
‘Psychics’ Fight New Consumer Laws
Apr 6th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPromises to raise the dead, secure good fortune or heal via laying on of hands all at risk of legal action.… Read the rest