The academy is the arena for debate; the sharper that is, the more likely that truth is what will emerge.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
What we can’t know
Jun 2nd, 2007 11:20 am | By Ophelia BensonAbout the theist four-step again – I’ve been pondering the fact that 2) and 4) are a tricky combination. What would it even mean to have reliable knowledge that ‘God’ is ‘good’? It’s not really even possible to know that. It’s possible to believe it in a sense, but not to know it.
It’s possible to imagine having reliable knowledge that God exists – and that God is all-powerful and all-knowing, and that it wants us to do certain things and not others. But that it is good? No. Because that’s not knowable in principle.
Imagine it. There’s been some global mass revelation that puts it all beyond question. Included in that is God’s own declaration that God is good. … Read the rest
Abortion is a Wedge Issue
Jun 1st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPart of a wider attempt to roll back the values of secularism and impose religious views on everyone.… Read the rest
Collins Has It, Hitchens Doesn’t
Jun 1st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAn intrinsic feeling for religion.… Read the rest
Chris Hedges Explains ‘Authentic’ Religion
Jun 1st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Religious faith has no quarrel with science. It seeks a spiritual truth, not a scientific or historical fact.’… Read the rest
Female Flight Attendants Told to Be Thin
Jun 1st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOtherwise the plane might fall down, you see.… Read the rest
Religionized versions of secular ideas
Jun 1st, 2007 2:49 am | By Ophelia BensonIs this true?
What is missing from the book is much sense of what a world without religion, or one that had not had religion in it, might look like. Lots of the principles that Mr Hitchens holds dear, like tolerance and justice, are secularised versions of religious ideas.
Are tolerance and justice secularised versions of religious ideas? What does that in fact mean? I suppose that the ideas originated in religion and that no one ever thought of them independently of religion, though they have now become partially secularized, but only partially since there are always people saying they are in fact religious. But is that true? I don’t believe it. I think people were able to and did … Read the rest
Truth or otherwise
Jun 1st, 2007 12:44 am | By Ophelia BensonSomething I wonder about – Jonathan Derbyshire commenting on something Chris Dillow said:
… Read the rest“I should stress here that my beef is not with religion as such. It’s about the role it should play in politics. In an egalitarian polity, in which people should be persuaded rationally of policies, religion should have no place – even if it is true. Religion might motivate political beliefs, but it shouldn’t, and needn’t, be the public justification for them.”
In other words, the truth or otherwise of religious beliefs is irrelevant to the question whether they should play a role in public deliberation. So the putatively religious roots of Gordon Brown’s egalitarianism oughtn’t to worry us so long as they play no role
Joan Smith on the Boycott
May 31st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThese are dark times for those of us who believe that the free exchange of ideas is a prerequisite of democracy.… Read the rest
On the Boycott
May 31st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe resolution cited ‘the complicity of Israeli academia’ in the occupation of Palestinian lands.… Read the rest
Lecturers’ Union Backs Boycott of Israel
May 31st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDelegates at conference of new University and College Union voted three to two to recommend boycotts.… Read the rest
Martha Nussbaum: Against Academic Boycotts
May 31st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIndifference to the lives and health of women has never been seriously considered as a reason for any boycott.… Read the rest
Jon Wiener Interviews Sari Nusseibeh
May 31st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Very often in life the implementation of one right conflicts with the ability to implement another.’… Read the rest
Can Philosophy Save the Middle East?
May 31st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDoes philosophy provide a language through which people can communicate even if they do not accept each other’s religious commitments?… Read the rest
Iran Accuses ‘Persepolis’ of ‘Islamophobia’
May 31st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWell it would, wouldn’t it.… Read the rest
Catholic Cardinal Threatens Pro-abortion MPs
May 31st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCardinal has been frustrated by ‘the marginalisation of Christian values in public affairs.’… Read the rest
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry Threatens Academics
May 31st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey will be suspected of spying if they interact with foreign institutions or attend international conferences.… Read the rest
Why Islamic Hijab
May 31st, 2007 | By Jahanshah RashidianWith the arrival of spring, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s police have launched this year their traditional crackdown on women’s dress. Such crackdowns have become a regular feature of life for Iranian women. The crackdown is to force women to respect the strict Islamic dress code.
Under Iran’s Islamic laws (Sharia) women are obliged to cover their body from head- to-toe with a black chador or at least long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their whole figures. The Islamic dress code is severely imposed at this time. Violators can receive lashes, fines or imprisonment.
Since the existence of the IRI, not a day has passed without attack, physical assault, arrest, acid-throwing, harassment and psychological pressure on women in Iran. The IRI … Read the rest
Boycott of Israel Divides Academics
May 30th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTom Hickey, philosophy lecturer at Brighton University, is proposing the motion. … Read the rest
Steven Weinberg Cancels UK Visit Over Boycott
May 30th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWas scheduled to speak at Imperial College, canceled because of NUJ boycott of Israeli products.… Read the rest