Lacking empirical fact and logic, creationism uses political approaches to winning arguments.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Iris Chang
Nov 15th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Her book outraged Japanese conservatives. Because?… Read the rest
Race, Class, Culture, and Education
Nov 15th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
How factors combine and then reinforce each other.… Read the rest
Political Islam vs. Secularism
Nov 15th, 2004 | By Azar Majedi‘Islam against Islam’ is an interesting topic. The irony of a believer criticising the beliefs is provocative. I am not a Moslem; I am an atheist. However, I have lived Islam; I have firsthand experience of Islam. I was born within a religious conflict: a religious mother and an atheist father. From childhood, I began to see the flaws, the restrictions, the misogyny, the backwardness, the dogma, the superstition, and uncritical nature of Islam vis-à-vis the enlightenment, the freethinking spirit of atheist thinking.
I became an atheist at the age of 12.
The establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran after a failed revolution laid bare many other appalling and cruel dimensions of Islam, which we later came to label … Read the rest
Iris Chang Commits Suicide
Nov 14th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Author of The Rape of Nanking created awareness and controversy.… Read the rest
Politics and Morality
Nov 13th, 2004 10:07 pm | By Ophelia BensonOkay, here I am doing my best. Brushing the sweat out of my eyes, swatting at mosquitoes, worrying about frostbite, avoiding hidden cravasses, catching bullets in my teeth, eating old bread with maggots and weevils and turnip crumbs in it, being charged by cranky lions and rhinos and people who sell insurance. Here’s one item I was thinking about before the virus pounced and turned my computer into an evil demon. Mark Bauerlein has an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Ed – but even though it’s interesting I have some disagreements with it. It’s about the familiar subject of lefty groupthink in (US) universities. One problem is that he says campuses, colleges, academics, rather than specifying ‘certain branches’ … Read the rest
Inferno
Nov 13th, 2004 6:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonWell perhaps not as bad as I thought.
I can’t just delete now because of the RSS feed.
And look what I just found! What a lovely surprise. I can pretend I’m still there.… Read the rest
Rohan Jayasekera Answers His Critics
Nov 13th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Sort of.… Read the rest
The Fundamentalist El Niño
Nov 13th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Evangelicals have taken advantage of religion’s immunity from criticism.… Read the rest
Blogger Threatened for ‘Insults’ to Allah
Nov 12th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Allah not threatened for insults to blogger.… Read the rest
Livingstone Under Investigation over al-Qaradawi
Nov 12th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Invitation to al-Qaradawi not popular with women, gays, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, some Muslims, non-bombers – most people.… Read the rest
Michael Fitzpatrick Reviews Richard Horton
Nov 11th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Lancet editor’s new book on MMR panic doesn’t explain why he published Wakefield’s flawed research.… Read the rest
Trip Nostalgia
Nov 10th, 2004 11:33 pm | By Ophelia BensonIt’s beautiful here today, in an odd, subdued sort of way. I went for a walk and gazed out over the Sound an hour or so ago. Everything is grey – the sky, the water – but it’s a bright, translucent grey in places. The clouds are shapey and various as opposed to being a single pewter-coloured blanket, and there are places where the sun almost shines through them, so in the distance the water is quite silvery. I’ve been back for a week (plus a bit). Things have shaken down as they do after a trip (that’s one of the fun things about trips: the sense of strangeness when you get back), and I’ve had time to think it … Read the rest
Oxford Wins Extension to Animal Rights Injunction
Nov 10th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Order grants ‘no harassment’ zone around all its buildings in the city. … Read the rest
‘Slaughterhouses’ Found in Fallujah
Nov 10th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Iraqi troops have found houses where hostages were held and killed by the ‘resistance’.… Read the rest
Arundhati Roy Speaks to Australia
Nov 10th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Why should people allow a novelist to influence their political views?’… Read the rest
Arundhati Roy Defends Views on Iraqi ‘Resistance’
Nov 10th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Several critics said Roy’s views on Iraq should have disqualified her.’… Read the rest
Kristallnacht March in Oslo Forbids ‘Jewish Symbols’
Nov 10th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Commemoration ended without a single representative from Norway’s Jews.… Read the rest
Calls For End to Violence at van Gogh Funeral
Nov 10th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Anger, hatred, sorrow, fear, remorse, all mix it up in aftermath of murder.… Read the rest
Court Rules Vlaams Blok Party is Racist
Nov 10th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Belgium’s highest court has ruled Flemish far-right Vlaams Blok is racist. … Read the rest