Call people ‘baby murderers’ then provide their addresses. Nice.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Letters on Wiesltier’s Review of Dennett
Mar 16th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Everyone thinks it’s stupid and bad and awful. Very pleasing.… Read the rest
Take That, Leon
Mar 16th, 2006 1:58 am | By Ophelia BensonNow this is satisfying. A lot of people telling the infuriating smug NY Times what a crap review that review by Wieseltier was. It would be all the more satisfying to see Wieseltier admit as much and express remorse and embarrassment at the horrible juvenile abusive spittle-flecked tone of it – but this is satisfying all the same.
Sam Harris:
… Read the restWieseltier writes with triumphal smugness about the “excesses of naturalism” that apparently blight Dennett’s work. He might as well have pointed out the “excesses of historical accuracy” or the “excesses of logical coherence.” If utter naturalism is a sin, it is one only from the point of view of religious faith — a faith that has grown ever more
Out of Order
Mar 15th, 2006 10:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonNot a good day. A frustrating day, a malfunctioning day, an irritating day. Email problems – or perhaps correspondent problems. It can be so hard to tell. When someone ignores several emails, you may decide ‘well, I guess I can take a hint (however belatedly)’ and stop emailing, but then when the same person emails on unrelated subjects, you think ‘Hmm, did my emails not get through?’ so you ask – only to be ignored again. Then you scratch your head until the blood drips onto the floor and the cat squalls in alarm, wondering whether what we have here is an email problem or an irritating correspondent problem. This causes bad temper and a strong desire to be in … Read the rest
Sympathetic to Husbands of ‘Difficult’ Women
Mar 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Well, after all, she did remove her burqa.… Read the rest
Taliban ‘Roving Envoy’ Goes to Yale
Mar 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Blames Ministry of Vice and Virtue, though he defended it in the past.… Read the rest
Education Ministers Say Silly Things
Mar 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Worker needs not vocational knowledge but research skills, imagination, rigour in thought and argument.… Read the rest
Eloquence
Mar 14th, 2006 6:33 pm | By Ophelia BensonThought for the Day. Via Deborah Lipstadt’s blog History on Trial, from a correspondent…
Although I am not anti-semitic, your Jewish greed is overbearing and crippling.… Read the rest
Cartoons
Mar 14th, 2006 | By Ophelia BensonThe cartoons of the prophet Mohammed were published in the Jyllands-Posten on September 30. On October 17th the Egyptian newspaper al-Fagr reprinted some of the cartoons (calling them a ‘continuing insult’). On October 20th ambassadors from ten majority-Muslim countries complained to the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who said, ‘The government refuses to apologize because the government does not control the media or a newspaper outlet; that would be in violation of the freedom of speech.’
Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Aboul Gheit wrote to the Danish PM and the UN. In December the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, sent a letter to the Organisation of Islamic Conferences, which had complained about the cartoons. … Read the rest
The Court Laughed in Their Faces
Mar 14th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Two blunt sentences in Kitzmiller decision punctured an illusion crafted by proponents of ID.… Read the rest
Rousseau and Hume
Mar 14th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A book that strives more to amuse than to illuminate.… Read the rest
Wieseltier Rebukes Fish
Mar 14th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Not all strongly held faiths are held for reasons worthy of respect.’… Read the rest
Dawkins on Selfish Gene’s 30th Anniversary
Mar 14th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Many critics, especially vociferous ones learned in philosophy, prefer to read a book by title only.’… Read the rest
South Park’s ‘Inappropriate Ridicule’ of Religion
Mar 14th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Of Scientology, that is. ‘He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion.’… Read the rest
No in Between?
Mar 13th, 2006 10:58 pm | By Ophelia BensonMore on free speech and the discussion with Norm, who has said more on the subject.
If the law does not prohibit people from doing something, then legally – and assuming no restraints created by voluntary contracts etc – they have the right to do that thing. It is what is sometimes called a ‘liberty right’, as opposed to a ‘claim right’…If (where) Holocaust denial is not a criminal offence, consequently, Irving and others have a liberty right to say, to write and to publish that the Holocaust did not happen or that it has been exaggerated.
Sure. I’ve stipulated that more than once – though without knowing the term ‘liberty right’, which is useful. But on the other … Read the rest
Breaking What Spell?
Mar 13th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“The spell which creates an invisible moat around religion…that whispers, ‘Science Stay Away’.”… Read the rest
Bruce Bawer’s Pamphlet on Islamism
Mar 13th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Eric Weinberger suggests Europe may get Ulsterization rather than Balkanization.… Read the rest
Interview With Daniel Dennett
Mar 13th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘There were too many presumptions in the air about the elevated status of religious presuppositions.’… Read the rest
Marek Kohn on Breaking the Spell
Mar 13th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Scientists must develop accounts of how religion arises from the way the mind works. … Read the rest
Public Disclosure Versus Free Speech
Mar 13th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A conflict inherent in the pairing of money and politics.… Read the rest