In this tv documentary Irshad Manji says – before going on to say in what ways she is critical of contemporary Islam – ‘My faith in God is unshakeable.’ It takes an effort to balk at that statement, precisely because she does go on to say in what ways she is critical of contemporary Islam, and because she gets a lot of threats for doing so; but all the same I do balk at it. I admire Manji, and I hope she succeeds, and I earnestly hope there are a lot of people like her; but all the same, I wish unshakeable faith were not considered a virtue, as (one can tell by the way she says it) Manji clearly … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Barmaid Asks What Price Gender
Apr 28th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLeviticus 27 says a man is worth 50 shekels, a woman is worth 30. Because?… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo Worry About Bigotophobia
Apr 28th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFirst they came for the bigots, but I did not speak out, for I was not a bigot.… Read the rest
Sharaf Hjältar Combats ‘Honour’ Violence
Apr 28th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSwedish group tries to change the patriarchal view of women still held by many men.… Read the rest
‘All I Remember is Beating and Subjugation’
Apr 28th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Many girls in immigrant communities are trapped in rigid patriarchal structures and live in fear of their families.’… Read the rest
Hey Angels Are Real, Says Telegraph
Apr 28th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy should there not be pure intellects, with no admixture of matter, who are located wherever they act?… Read the rest
Teaching Creationism Blocks Education
Apr 27th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘What the creationist alternative does to students is to intercept and deaden curiosity.’… Read the rest
Hitchens on Mormonism
Apr 27th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLike Muhammad, Smith could produce divine revelations at short notice and often simply to suit himself.… Read the rest
Mstislav Rostropovich
Apr 27th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThanks for all the music.… Read the rest
Johann Hari Puts Zizek in Pseud’s Corner
Apr 27th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonComplex manner in which he expresses himself does not imply that his thought is itself subtle or complex.… Read the rest
Hundreds of ‘Bad Hijab’ Women Arrested in Iran
Apr 27th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThousands cautioned. Shopkeeper told to saw off the breasts of mannequins.… Read the rest
Intercepting curiosity
Apr 27th, 2007 11:13 am | By Ophelia BensonAnd there’s Stanford President Emeritus Donald Kennedy.
Kennedy argued that teaching creationism discourages students from applying the scientific method, which emphasizes conducting experiments with reproducible results and drawing logical conclusions from observable, measurable evidence. “What the creationist alternative does to students is to intercept and deaden curiosity,” he said. “If relationships or correlations can be simply allocated to the cleverness of a designer, there’s very little incentive to think up an experiment or undertake an analysis.”
Exactly. That’s one of the most annoying things about the whole brawl – the way believers claim that there are all these profound mysterious areas in which science has no place but religion does, with the implication (which is often made explicit) that … Read the rest
Another excerpt
Apr 27th, 2007 10:59 am | By Ophelia BensonIslam when examined is not much more than a rather obvious and ill-arranged set of plagiarisms, helping itself from earlier books and traditions as occasion appeared to require. Thus…Islam in its origins is just as shady and approximate as those from which it took its borrowings. It makes immense claims for itself, invokes prostrate submission or “surrender” as a maxim to its adherents, and demands deference and respect from nonbelievers into the bargain. There is nothing – absolutely nothing – in its teachings that can even begin to justify such arrogance and presumption.
In fact it’s a little hard to think of any teachings that would justify such arrogance and presumption.… Read the rest
Public Official Dedicates ‘Reflexology’ Path
Apr 26th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Walking on uneven stones is believed to stimulate acupressure points in the feet.’… Read the rest
Extract from ‘God is not Great’
Apr 26th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe argument with faith is the foundation and origin of all arguments.… Read the rest
Man Signed Pledge not to Harm his Sister
Apr 26th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSo she left police protection; brother ‘shot her in cold blood on their way home.’… Read the rest
Many ‘Honour Killings’ of Kurdish Women
Apr 26th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUNAMI said Iraq’s three Kurdish provinces have reported dozens of women killed for ‘immoral conduct.’… Read the rest
God is not great
Apr 26th, 2007 11:01 am | By Ophelia BensonHitchens’s new book is out. He’s an eloquent bastard.
… Read the restAnd here is the point, about myself and my co-thinkers. Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely solely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake. We do not hold our convictions dogmatically: the disagreement between Professor Stephen Jay Gould and Professor Richard Dawkins…is quite wide as well as quite deep, but we shall resolve it by evidence and reasoning and not by mutual
A buffoon
Apr 25th, 2007 2:46 pm | By Ophelia BensonFun and games with the cult studs.
… Read the rest[W]e attended a recent PhD confirmation at the Queensland University of Technology, where we teach. Candidate Michael Noonan’s thesis title was Laughing at the Disabled: Creating comedy that Confronts, Offends and Entertains….Noonan went on to affirm that his thesis was guided by post-structuralist theory…He then showed video clips in which he had set up scenarios placing the intellectually disabled subjects in situations they did not devise and in which they could appear only as inept. Thus, the disabled Craig and William were sent to a pub out west to ask the locals about the mystery of the min-min lights. In the tradition of reality television, the locals were not informed that Craig
Say What? Is This a Hoax?
Apr 25th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA PhD thesis consisting of a reality tv show that mocks two intellectually disabled guys?… Read the rest