What a special weekend for our airplanes to be in the air, interceding on behalf of the people of Ohio.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Jesus and Mo Test Dawkins’s Truth Claim
Apr 6th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd triumphantly falsify it, so ha.… Read the rest
Sharia Gangs Bully and Threaten in Islamabad
Apr 6th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCreeping campaign to Talebanise Pakistan has spread from the Afghan border to the capital.… Read the rest
Human Rights Activists Rally in Islamabad
Apr 6th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProtesters urged authorities to curb the rise of extremist forces promoting intolerance and violence.… Read the rest
The New Humanism Yet Again
Apr 6th, 2007 | By R. Joseph HoffmannAt the end of April 2007 a “gala celebration” is being staged at America’s oldest University – the one in Cambridge, Massachusetts – to honor thirty years of the Harvard Humanist chaplaincy. The event designs to bring together friendly but competitive visions of the unruly congeries of ideas we call, for simplicity’s sake, “humanism.” To spice things up, the Harvard organizers have decided to use the sexy phrase “New Humanism” to describe the agenda. and while I do not know at the time of this writing precisely what will be said by the wise and wizened who attend the conference, I can guess, and I can guess I’ll be right.
The new humanism will be called a bright and bold … Read the rest
The universal enemy
Apr 6th, 2007 9:29 am | By Ophelia BensonOh good. What a relief. How kind of Walter Isaacson to reassure us all on this very material point – Einstein hated atheists! Oh, whew! Hooray hoorah kaloo kalay, I was so afraid he might have thought atheists were okay but no, no, no, hallelujah, he made sure to say otherwise so that we in 2007 would not be put off our feed with worry.
… Read the restBut throughout his life, Einstein was consistent in rejecting the charge that he was an atheist…And unlike Sigmund Freud or Bertrand Russell or George Bernard Shaw, Einstein never felt the urge to denigrate those who believed in God; instead, he tended to denigrate atheists…In fact, Einstein tended to be more critical of debunkers, who seemed
Just the questions, ma’am
Apr 5th, 2007 12:59 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd, not for the first time, there’s Howard Gardner.
‘In his new book Five Minds for the Future, he argues that the 21st century will belong to people who can think in certain ways.’ One of the five is ‘the respectful mind, which shows an appreciation of different cultures.’ Why is that called the respectful mind? Why isn’t it called the appreciative mind? Or why isn’t the explanatory phrase ‘which shows respect for different cultures’? (Because minds can’t show things, for one reason. Okay but besides that.) I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that it’s because unconditional respect for (undefined, unspecified) different cultures is slowly but steadily being made mandatory. Which is stupid, in a … Read the rest
Parting of the ways
Apr 5th, 2007 12:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonMatthew Parris is amusing.
During Holy Week we are treated to a variety of decent-sounding people in print and on the airwaves explaining that religion – or “faith” as they now prefer to call it – is basically all about shared moral values, making the world a better place and gaining a proper sense of awe at life’s mystery…Such faith sounds so reasonable. Churlish nonbelievers like me are made to feel it is we who are being arrogant, dogmatic, closed-minded. How can we be so sure?
Beeeeecause (as Parris of course goes on to point out) that’s not in fact what religion or ‘faith’ really is all about, that’s how.
… Read the restYou are living, dear reader, at a watershed in
Happy Cruciversary
Apr 5th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt is the culmination of a plan set in motion at the dawn of time. And what a plan it is.… Read the rest
Walter Isaacson on Einstein and ‘Faith’
Apr 5th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe did believe in God – not the usual God, but – um – er – well he had a sense of awe.… Read the rest
Not Fashionable to be Christian
Apr 5th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonChristians depicted as zealots or people who haven’t caught up.… Read the rest
Block Your Ears to Cooing Voices
Apr 5th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAfter 2,000 years of a bad marriage, faith and reason must agree to part, citing irreconcilable differences.… Read the rest
Howard Gardner on the Need for Five Minds
Apr 5th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDisciplined, synthesising, creating, respectful, ethical. Respectful? Yes.… Read the rest
Ugandan Adultery Law Thrown Out
Apr 5th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBecause it treated women and men unequally; sections of inheritance law also void.… Read the rest
Dutch Philosopher Spending a Week in a Barrel
Apr 5th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonParts of a week anyway. Well, a few hours most days.… Read the rest
It’s the training
Apr 5th, 2007 10:31 am | By Ophelia BensonIt never ends. Drip drip drip; whine whine whine. Those mean fashionable intellectual mean people at their fashionable parties aren’t Christians and aren’t impressed by Christianity. It’s so unfair.… Read the rest
A nice day out
Apr 4th, 2007 2:49 pm | By Ophelia BensonA pretty story.
… Read the restNaked men, women and children, some of them in chains to prevent them escaping, cower in front of the men in charge in a dimly-lit room in the church of St Mary on Mount Entoto…The church…sits above a mountain stream, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church believes the stream is holy water with the power to cure HIV/Aids…Plastic jerry cans are filled with water from a pool, and passed along a human chain to priests dressed like deep sea fishermen. The bright yellow waterproofs protect them from the drenching they administer to their congregation. They hurl the water over the mass of people kneeling in front of them who shriek and scream, either through devotion or the
Memory and imagination
Apr 4th, 2007 2:26 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’ve been thinking about things like this lately, so it interests me a lot. Though it probably would even if I hadn’t been thinking about it – it probably would have started me thinking about it.
… Read the restHumans are born time travelers. We may not be able to send our bodies into the past or the future, at least not yet, but we can send our minds. We can relive events that happened long ago or envision ourselves in the future. New studies suggest that the two directions of temporal travel are intimately entwined in the human brain. A number of psychologists argue that re-experiencing the past evolved in our ancestors as a way to plan for the future and that
Sam Harris and Rick Warren on Religion
Apr 4th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOne talks sense, the other talks drivel. Ho hum.… Read the rest
Aids Patients Refuse Meds, Take Holy Water
Apr 4th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTreatment is offered by a church in Ethiopia which claims to have cured hundreds of believers.… Read the rest