The secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has some odd beliefs.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Women in Iran 
May 2nd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Women are owned by fathers or husbands, and that’s that.… Read the rest
A C Grayling on Rowan Williams on Morality
May 1st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Disappointing but unsurprising that former custodians of moral authority say morality has gone to pot.… Read the rest
Jeff Weintraub Writes to Andrew Sullivan
May 1st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
About taking one’s own point of view to be the only or universal point of view.… Read the rest
Turkish Court Annuls Presidency Vote
May 1st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Secularist opposition parties accuse Gul of a hidden Islamist agenda.… Read the rest
Appreciate Your Secularism
May 1st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘It’s a luxury to be able to take it for granted here – and worth remembering that we shouldn’t.’… Read the rest
Inayat Bunglawala Speaks Up for Sharia
May 1st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Shariah courts deal with civil matters such as marriage and divorce. The arrangement is entirely voluntary.… Read the rest
How dare you, sir
May 1st, 2007 10:27 am | By Ophelia BensonSteven Poole muses on
a possible tension in what passes for my “thought”: evincing on the one hand a kind of Anglo-empiricism, I nonetheless have a soft spot for the works of such writers as Derrida, Baudrillard and Zizek, all of whom are anathema to the Anglophone analytic tradition…[P]erhaps the common factor was this: I was not at all sure that I was as clever as any of these men, and so even when I was troubled by seeming opacity or nonsense, I reckoned that I had better tread carefully.
That’s an interesting ‘and so,’ since it leads to something that doesn’t follow from what ‘and so’ seems to claim that it does. It is not necessary to be sure … Read the rest
Utter certainty, yet leavened by humility and doubt
May 1st, 2007 9:28 am | By Ophelia BensonSpeaking of unshakeable faith, Andrew Sullivan gave a pretty good display of that (and I don’t mean that as a compliment) in the debate with Sam Harris. A pretty good display of knowing what he can’t know, of labeling beliefs as ‘truth’ merely because he has decided to believe them for no very good reason, of admitting it’s all nonsense yet insisting that he knows it all the same.
… Read the restThe reason I cannot conceive of my non-existence is because I have accepted, freely and sanely, the love of Jesus, and I have felt it, heard it, known it. He would never let me go. And by never, I mean eternally. And so I could never not exist and neither
Are Persons an Illusion?
Apr 30th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Despite the lack of precise criteria for all kinds of things out in the world, we get along quite well.… Read the rest
Thought and Feeling Intimately Connected
Apr 30th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The top journals are now filled with research on the connections between emotion and cognition.… Read the rest
Huge Rally for Turkish Secularism
Apr 30th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘We want neither Sharia, nor a coup, but a fully democratic Turkey,’ demonstrators said.… Read the rest
Review of A C Grayling’s ‘Against All Gods’
Apr 30th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘To believe something in the face of evidence and against reason is ignoble, irresponsible and ignorant.’… Read the rest
Pill for Women Raises Libido, Lowers Appetite
Apr 30th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Next up: a pill that increases housework, reduces talk. The ideal woman is on the way.… Read the rest
How Multiculturalism is Betraying Women
Apr 30th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Women’s rights or multiculturalism? You can’t have both, Johann Hari notes; you have to choose.… Read the rest
Sign the Petition Against Stoning of Women
Apr 29th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Add your voice to those calling for change in Kurdistan and Iraq and for an end to the oppression of ‘honour’. … Read the rest
Hundreds of Men Watch as Du’a is Stoned to Death
Apr 29th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Relatives stripped her, beat and kicked her, and killed her by crushing her body with rocks and concrete blocks.… Read the rest
Arbil: Demonstration Against Stoning
Apr 29th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Of Du’a Khalil Aswad, 17 year old Kurdish girl murdered by public stoning after running away from home. … Read the rest
The Jesus Light
Apr 29th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Each of us is aware of a light, of something fundamentally good. This something is…Jesus. … Read the rest
Stephen Law on Clarity and Bullshit
Apr 29th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
There’s a story in which the Enlightenment version of reason is oppressive and leads to the Holocaust.… Read the rest
