Gay Police Association has ’caused offence’ to Christians by linking Bible to homophobic violence.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Jesus and Mo on Religion and Superstition
Aug 3rd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
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 Ophelia BensonThere 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.
… Read the restThere 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
The Health Effects of Illiteracy
Aug 2nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Many researchers describe low literacy as a silent epidemic.… Read the rest
John Gray Welcomes Return of Religion
Aug 2nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘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 Ophelia Benson
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 Ophelia Benson
Postpositivist realists discover what philosophers of science already knew.… Read the rest
Sunny Hundal on the Brick Lane Fuss
Aug 2nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘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 Ophelia Benson
Medical progress has stirred religious and moral objections throughout history.… Read the rest
Oxygen of Publicity
Aug 1st, 2006 9:30 pm | By Ophelia BensonHow 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 Ophelia Benson
‘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 Ophelia Benson
It’s about men silencing women.… Read the rest
When Dry Drunks Go Bad
Aug 1st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
They drive dangerously and rave about Jews.… Read the rest
Iranian Student Leader Dies in Hunger Strike
Aug 1st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Akbar Mohammadi was on hunger strike to demand his release.… Read the rest
Hitchens on Tom Paine
Aug 1st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
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 Ophelia Benson
‘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 Ophelia Benson
Journalists don’t talk to women, for a start.… Read the rest
Follies of the Wise
Aug 1st, 2006 12:31 am | By Ophelia BensonI’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 Ophelia BensonDid 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