I’ve been thinking about the puzzling (to me anyway) question of where all this automatic hostility to science comes from. This is not the first time I’ve thought about that question, of course; it’s not even the second, or the fifth. I think about it quite often. It is something of an enigma. There are a lot of people out there who do reliably say very dismissive things on the subject, not as if such things were controversial or debatable, but as if they were obvious and taken for granted and incontrovertible. As if it were just common knowledge among all people who pay attention even slightly, that science is root and branch wicked and harmful and to be condemned … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Another Rhetoric Guide
Sep 1st, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShame about the exclusively male pronouns though.… Read the rest
The Line Between Explanation and Sympathy
Sep 1st, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe problem of examining motivations without excusing.… Read the rest
Unveiling the Debate on Secularism and Rights
Sep 1st, 2004 | By Maryam NamazieA ban on conspicuous religious symbols in state schools and state institutions has caused heated debate regarding secularism vs. religious freedoms, giving us the opportunity to reiterate our defence of secularism and women’s and children’s rights. While Islamists and their supporters have proclaimed that banning religious symbols in schools and state institutions is a ‘restriction of’ ‘religious freedoms’ or ‘freedom of belief’, ‘religious intolerance’, ‘a violation of women’s and girls’ rights’, ‘racist’, ‘discriminatory’, and so on, we believe the truth is simple and quite contrary to what they claim. In brief:
The ban is pro-secularism not a restriction of religious freedoms and beliefs: A ban on conspicuous religious symbols in state schools and institutions is but one step toward secularism … Read the rest
Henry James
Sep 1st, 2004 1:38 am | By Ophelia BensonDavid Lodge has a new novel out, Author, Author. It’s about Henry James, and about writing – especially about writing. I thought Lodge’s two latest novels were really verging on bad, but this one sounds brilliant. The people on Saturday Review last week (all but one, who was tepid) competed with each other in superlatives. ‘I just, loved it,’ they kept exclaiming.
I find James quite an interesting character, and always have. His letters fascinate me. I have a lovely volume of letters beween him and his also fascinating brother William. But I find Harry even more interesting, I suppose because he’s more obsessive and peculiar – less ‘normal’ than William. Though neither of them was what you’d call … Read the rest
Lift Hijab Law or We Kill Them
Aug 31st, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonKidnappers of two French journalists demand end to law banning religious apparel in school.… Read the rest
Moan, Kvetch, Whine, Sneer, Bleat, Fuss, Mewl
Aug 31st, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThree oldish guys say what’s wrong with everything.… Read the rest
Women Are From Boston, Men Are From Birmingham
Aug 31st, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIdeas about gender difference based on bad or no research have a strange popularity.… Read the rest
It Isn’t Racist To Attack Homophobic Music
Aug 31st, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe fact that a group is oppressed doesn’t give it the right to oppress.… Read the rest
Ecumenicism
Aug 30th, 2004 8:46 pm | By Ophelia BensonAww. I don’t know when I’ve been so, so, so almost maudlin with emotion. So nearly overcome. So tempted to soak my delicate silk and lace hanky with tears. So hungry. (Eh? Well it’s past noon, and anyway I’m pretty much always hungry.) Norm is planning to swap anecdotes with me in the great chat-fest in the sky. And he’s chuffed to learn that we’ll both be able to, according to no less an authority than the dear achbish of Canterbury. I do love those guys. So – agile in their accomodation of dreadful beliefs along with less disconcerting ones. Yes, Jesus decides these things, and yes he sorts the sheep from the goats and sends the goats (or is … Read the rest
God Moves In Mysterious Ways
Aug 30th, 2004 1:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m not one to laugh at the religiously afflicted (okay, that’s probably not true), and certainly not at people being seriously injured; and I know that this is probably terribly unsophisticated, but what’s god up to? She’s an omnipotent, omniscient being (apparently). You’d have thought she’d be able to handle a bit of grandstand seating. But it appears not. Hmmm. Which reminds me of the story of Widecombe parish church. October 21 1638, in the middle of an afternoon service, a lightning bolt lands smack bang in the middle of the church, killing or maiming half the congregation. Needless to say, the devil is the chief suspect. Isn’t it just always so…
And since I’m talking about religious … Read the rest
Cardinal Attacks Sex Lessons
Aug 30th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Catholic Church lecturing people about the sexual abuse of children. There’s an irony.… Read the rest
Muslims Can Go to Heaven, Archbishop Says
Aug 30th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonChristians don’t control access to heaven, although Jesus does.… Read the rest
UK Scientists Resist US Pressure on Cloning
Aug 30th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUK scientists back international campaign against US efforts to ban all cloning. … Read the rest
Scientists Want Compromise on Cloning
Aug 30th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonReproductive cloning should be banned, therapeutic should be permitted.… Read the rest
Top British Scientists Oppose Blanket Ban On Human Cloning
Aug 30th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Royal Society favours therapeutic human cloning.… Read the rest
A Monopoly of Virtue and Omniscience?
Aug 29th, 2004 5:34 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo it turns out my colleague is not the only person out there who finds Crooked Timber irritating. Not a bit of it. There is for instance Oliver Kamm who has just posted about his decision to unlink the Timberites. His reasons are strikingly similar to those Jerry S has alluded to in passing.
… Read the restOf Kant’s observation about “the crooked timber of mankind”, Isaiah Berlin, in his book of that title, wrote:
To force people into the neat uniforms demanded by dogmatically believed-in schemes is almost always the road to inhumanity.
Recently the authors of the Crooked Timber blog have excelled not only in the neatness of their uniforms, but also in their eagerness to congratulate themselves on how they
Dogmatic Commitment to Instrumentalism
Aug 29th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf knowledge is not an intrinsic good, then any ‘knowledge’ will do.… Read the rest
Philosophy is not Just Self-Help
Aug 29th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBut the promotion for Penguin’s Great Ideas series might make one think otherwise.… Read the rest
Raymond Gaita on Why Truth Matters
Aug 29th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIts importance is not merely instrumental.… Read the rest