All entries by this author

‘Faith Crime’ Under Investigation *

Aug 3rd, 2006 | Filed by

Gay Police Association has ’caused offence’ to Christians by linking Bible to homophobic violence.… Read the rest



Jesus and Mo on Religion and Superstition *

Aug 3rd, 2006 | Filed by

Religious people are superstitious! Crimes are committed by criminals! Cat owners have pets!… Read the rest



Arranged Marriages

Aug 3rd, 2006 12:14 am | By

There were some very interesting (and alarming) comments (by one ‘tarxien’) on this post by Sunny on the Brick Lane fuss by (the comments say) a GP who has seen some distressing examples of arranged marriage.

There is a very fine line between ‘arranged’ and ‘forced’…This is an issue I feel strongly about because as a GP working in Tower Hamlets and south London I have seen many desperate, depressed women in ‘arranged marriages’. None of them could be called ‘forced’ in that the women were not tied up and raped as has happened in some cases but you cannot ignore the emotional pressure that is put on young women by their families (i.e fathers in most cases). Once married

Read the rest


The Health Effects of Illiteracy *

Aug 2nd, 2006 | Filed by

Many researchers describe low literacy as a silent epidemic.… Read the rest



John Gray Welcomes Return of Religion *

Aug 2nd, 2006 | Filed by

‘It is time Paine, Marx and other secular prophets were gently shelved in the stacks.’… Read the rest



Evolution Opponents Lose Kansas Board Majority *

Aug 2nd, 2006 | Filed by

Kansas voters set stage for return of science teaching that broadly accepts theory of evolution.… Read the rest



Wheel Successfully Reinvented *

Aug 2nd, 2006 | Filed by

Postpositivist realists discover what philosophers of science already knew.… Read the rest



Sunny Hundal on the Brick Lane Fuss *

Aug 2nd, 2006 | Filed by

‘This controversy has all the elements of being conjured up and playing along expected lines.’… Read the rest



Optimistic View of Bush’s Stem Cell Veto *

Aug 2nd, 2006 | Filed by

Medical progress has stirred religious and moral objections throughout history.… Read the rest



Oxygen of Publicity

Aug 1st, 2006 9:30 pm | By

How come novelists are so violent? Why are they always running around swinging baseball bats and roughing people up? Are they on steroids or what?

Novelists Salman Rushdie, Hari Kunzru and Lisa Appignanesi have attacked community groups, the police and the media after Ruby Films decided to move shooting of an adaptation of Monica Ali’s Brick Lane out of London’s Tower Hamlets area last week.

Wow. That seems like a lot of people for three unathletic novelists to attack. Did they draw blood?

The criticism follows a march organised by the Campaign Against Monica Ali’s Film Brick Lane yesterday which drew no more than two women and 70 older men. Threats of violence and book-burning failed to materialise.

Ohhhhh, … Read the rest



Ramin Jahanbegloo and Universal Values *

Aug 1st, 2006 | Filed by

‘Cross-cultural learning’ is a more effective method than imposition by force.… Read the rest



Johann Hari on the Brick Lane Fuss *

Aug 1st, 2006 | Filed by

It’s about men silencing women.… Read the rest



When Dry Drunks Go Bad *

Aug 1st, 2006 | Filed by

They drive dangerously and rave about Jews.… Read the rest



Iranian Student Leader Dies in Hunger Strike *

Aug 1st, 2006 | Filed by

Akbar Mohammadi was on hunger strike to demand his release.… Read the rest



Hitchens on Tom Paine *

Aug 1st, 2006 | Filed by

Lincoln used to deploy arguments from The Age of Reason in his disputes with religious sectarians.… Read the rest



Novelists ‘Hit Back’ at Brick Lane Whiners *

Aug 1st, 2006 | Filed by

‘Novelists have attacked community groups, the police and the media.’ Attacked?… Read the rest



Bookburners Don’t Speak for All of Brick Lane *

Aug 1st, 2006 | Filed by

Journalists don’t talk to women, for a start.… Read the rest



Follies of the Wise

Aug 1st, 2006 12:31 am | By

I’m reading Frederick Crews’s Follies of the Wise, which is terrific; don’t miss it. I thought I would give you a bit that resonated strongly with me.

When I began distancing myself from Freudianism around 1970, it was because of a growing, and personally vexing, sense that psychoanalytic ‘knowledge’ is acquired and certified by fatally lax means. I realized at that juncture that my deepest loyalty was not to any particular doctrine but to empirical rationality itself – the ethos that characterizes not just science but every investigative discipline worthy of the name. Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated by irrationalist movements that make a strong appeal to educated people who ought to know better. [page 344]

Well. It … Read the rest



Rank Superstition

Aug 1st, 2006 12:18 am | By

Did you enjoy the Times article about the study that found – o wonder – that churchgoers are superstitious? Were you dumbfounded, gobsmacked, astonished, staggered, amazed, knocked for a loop – in short, were you surprised? I can’t say I was. What surprises me is that anyone thinks there’s a tension between the two. I know people do think that (there was that hilarious item a few months ago about some cardinal at the Vat complaining about that very thing – about people believing all sorts of bizarro superstitious nonsense) but it still surprises me that they do. It seems to me that they’re not quite thinking things through if they think that. They’re not asking themselves why it’s sensible … Read the rest



Archives

Aug 1st, 2006 12:00 am | By

The Archive

The Interrogations ArchiveRead the rest