Frets about something called ‘Enlightenment fundamentalism.’… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Theism and Science Not All That Compatible
Sep 19th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘What sounds like a harmless metaphor can restrict the intellectual bravado that is essential to science.’… Read the rest
Pregnancy Centers Give Disinformation on Abortion
Sep 19th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonReport says 20 of 23 federally funded centers gave false or misleading information about abortion risks.… Read the rest
Brenda Maddox’s Biography of Ernest Jones
Sep 18th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPsychoanalysis turned out to be more like a religious cult or a fractious, fissile political party than a science. … Read the rest
Matt Ridley’s Biography of Francis Crick
Sep 18th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘This was a man who gave far more to the world than just the double helix.’… Read the rest
Michael Bérubé on the Dangeral Classroom
Sep 18th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAs students, you should expect to feel uncomfortable about your beliefs as a matter of course.… Read the rest
Madeleine Bunting is Cross at the Pope
Sep 18th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOffend, offence, offended, Islamophobe, outrage, insensitive, difference, oh dear.… Read the rest
Karen Armstrong is Cross at the Pope
Sep 18th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOffended, offensive, Islamophobia, western, medieval, Danish cartoon crisis, oh dear.… Read the rest
Junk Politics
Sep 17th, 2006 4:49 pm | By Ophelia BensonNo I’m still here, I haven’t run off with the minstrels. It’s just that there’s this deadline for TPM (The Philosophers’ Mag, you know) and I’ve been taken up with that. But I was reading an old Harper’s the other day, from November 2003, and found a lively article by Benjamin DeMott on ‘Junk Politics’ (excerpted from an eponymous book published a couple of months later). It’s not online, unfortunately, so I’ll give you an extract or two.
… Read the restThe case is that both the essential planks and the elaborating tropes of today’s junk politics are troublingly underexamined, yet they’ve been functioning for some time as major agents of public confusion…Junk politics introduces new qualifications for high political office…It tilts courage
Taslima Nasrin on Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Sep 17th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Ayaan’s questions may not be new, but they need to be reiterated, especially by women.’… Read the rest
Secretive MPAA Has Power, no Accountability
Sep 17th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonViolence is fine, lesbian sex unfine; what’s that about, and why are these people anonymous?… Read the rest
FCC Questioned About ‘Lost’ Report
Sep 17th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFCC hides report that says media consolidation is bad for tv news, says dog ate homework.… Read the rest
Booker Shortlist Saves Bookies a Fortune
Sep 17th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFavourites dropped, list full of young unknowns.… Read the rest
Argument Over Gibson ‘Passion’ Inspires Strangling
Sep 17th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMan upset by violent crucifixion scenes, so throttles wife.… Read the rest
On Jahanbegloo and openDemocracy
Sep 16th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnthony Barnett cites greater responsibility on those who seek to encourage ‘velvet revolutions’.… Read the rest
Bush Goes to Congress to Lobby for Torture
Sep 16th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWay to seize the moral high ground.… Read the rest
The US Christian Right Is Only a Little Scary
Sep 16th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSays Peter Steinfels, who writes a column on ‘religion and ethics’ in The New York Times.… Read the rest
Peter Singer Interviewed
Sep 16th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe issue is suffering.… Read the rest
Fuss About Pope’s Speech Continues
Sep 16th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson24-hour news, with comments taken out of context, disseminated and recycled, does its bit. … Read the rest
Andrew Brown on Religion as Collective Identity
Sep 15th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAlmost all the more loathsome attitudes of the OT will actually promote group cohesion and success.… Read the rest