Sociologist Charles Tilly examines our reasons for giving reasons.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Translation of Polittiken Piece by Ibrahim Ramadan
Apr 8th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Organisations such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir working to control what other Moslems should believe, think, do.… Read the rest
Armchair Warriors Pile On Jill Carroll
Apr 8th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ooh, I’m sitting in the Empire State Building, I’m on the front lines.… Read the rest
Close Encounters and Identity
Apr 8th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Having the right mix of strong and weak ties is an essential component of people’s quality of life.’… Read the rest
Kanan Makiya on What’s Gone Right and Wrong
Apr 7th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Ba’ath party was hated, but it turned out to be far more deep rooted in Iraq than we thought.… Read the rest
Enough With the ‘Faith Schools’ Already
Apr 7th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
National Union of Teachers says religious fundamentalists are gaining control of state schools.… Read the rest
Ignatieff Interviewed
Apr 7th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Even when cabinet ministers admit they’ve lied, nobody believes them, interviewer notes.… Read the rest
Misinterpretation and Misreporting
Apr 7th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mims, Pianka, the Discovery Institute.… Read the rest
Conversation and Cosmopolitanism
Apr 7th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Carlin Romano on conversation as a process of learning to live with one another.… Read the rest
It Takes a Sentence
Apr 6th, 2006 7:49 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere’s a lot of kack in this piece on religion in the New Statesman. This particular sentence especially caught my eye, for sheer quantity of kack in one sentence.
“So far, the response of the government has been mostly correct: dismissing the crude secularism of the French ban on the hijab, allowing for the establishment of Muslim schools and working closely with the leaders of the Muslim community.”
One, the word ‘correct’, as if political decisions were as clear-cut as arithmetic. Two, that much-recycled bit of obfuscation: the French ban on the hijab is not a French ban on the hijab, it’s a French ban on the hijab (and other conspicuous religious symbols and garments) in state schools. … Read the rest
Explaining and Understanding
Apr 6th, 2006 7:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonI posted a comment on Dennett’s reply to Ruse and Bunting this morning – and since the idea I was commenting on is (I think) a fairly pervasive one, and related to this whole question of ‘shut up about your atheism, they might hear you,’ I thought I might as well post it here too. The first para, in italics, is someone else commenting.
on the subject of Dawkins getting up ones nose, it would be all well and good if he was just another academic. He does however hold a position called ‘The Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University’ (according to wikipedia) which means he has the task of communicating his subject to … Read the rest
Introduction to ‘Living Without God’ [pdf]
Apr 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ronald Aronson on finding faith in disbelief.… Read the rest
Only Animists Shout at Their Computers
Apr 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The danger here, Dennett says, lies in the sacred becoming too sacred.… Read the rest
André Glucksmann on Separating Truth and Belief
Apr 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Civilized discourse analyzes and defines matters of fact relating to knowledge, not to faith. … Read the rest
What War on Christians?
Apr 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Disagreement isn’t oppression.… Read the rest
Irfan Husain on Apostasy and Liberal Attitudes
Apr 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Double standards can be problematic.… Read the rest
On Taking the Templeton Foundation’s Dime
Apr 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
If you don’t think science and religion should be reconciled, qualms arise.… Read the rest
Cultural Relativism and its Enemies
Apr 6th, 2006 1:26 am | By Ophelia BensonPhyllis Chesler and Maryam Namazie are (you should pardon the expression) singing out of the same hymnbook.
Chesler:
… Read the restChesler’s experiences in Afghanistan have helped shape her thoughts about the failure of feminism to engage with what she sees as the oppression of women in Islamic countries…looking at mainstream feminism in the west – in the universities, in the media, among academics and the socalled intelligentsia – there is a moral failure, a moral bankruptcy, a refusal to take on, in particular, Muslim gender apartheid. So you have many contemporary feminists who say, ‘We have to be multiculturally relativist. We cannot uphold a single, or absolute, standard of human rights. And, therefore, we can’t condemn Islamic culture, because their countries have
All-purpose Tool Going Cheap
Apr 5th, 2006 5:31 pm | By Ophelia BensonIt’s good to know that whatever happens, whatever the conditions, whether it rains or sizzles, at midnight and at noon, whether things are going well or badly, in peace and war, in poverty and plenty, whether there are too few women or too many, the result is always the same – women are treated like dirt. Women are grabbed, pushed around, sold and bought, beaten and killed, raped and enslaved, exploited and used, thrown away and swapped around. Women are treated like livestock, like farm machinery, like incubators, like any old possession except worse because they have to be broken and forced and violently bent to the will of other people. Incubators and ploughs don’t argue, but women – well, … Read the rest
Profile of Maryam Namazie
Apr 5th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
She rejects attempts to silence all criticism of theocratic regimes as ‘racism’ or ‘Islamophobic.’ … Read the rest