Code words, exoteric and esoteric meanings, irony, you had to be there.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Inequality and US Democracy
Jun 14th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A report by the American Political Science Association.… Read the rest
No, Evolution is not a ‘Belief’
Jun 14th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Worry over Vardy foundation schools that teach creationism.… Read the rest
Life, the Universe, and Everything
Jun 14th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
To assess life in this cosmos, it helps to understand it.… Read the rest
Special Rules
Jun 13th, 2004 11:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd on a more serious note, on the same David Aaronovitch column – he does make a number of important points.
… Read the restHis argument seems to be that it’s a human right to attend a denominational school and given these may be further away from home than the local school, parents should not be subject to the same penalties as those whose child’s journey results purely from choice. In other words, a religious choice in education is a matter of freedom of conscience, whereas any other kind of choice isn’t. Steam emerges from every orifice at this. Especially when the barrister adds: ‘When I got married we promised to bring up our children in the Catholic faith and so we put
Punk Eek
Jun 13th, 2004 9:55 pm | By Ophelia BensonI can’t resist – because it made me laugh too hard just now when I read it. An update on the comma question – another example of the ‘eats, shoots and leaves’ phenomenon. This is from a column by David Aaronovitch in the Guardian:
This week a local barrister is looking into whether the scheme breaches human rights legislation according to the Hampstead and Highgate Express.
Oh? But why? Why does anyone care about HR legislation according to the Ham and High? And what about the Brixton Tribune or the West Kilburn Times? What’s their take on human rights legislation, eh?
Well you see what I mean. What a difference a comma can make.… Read the rest
David Aaronovitch on Religious Schools
Jun 13th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘I’ve been asleep to this creeping indoctrination. I’m awake now.’… Read the rest
Is This a Joke?
Jun 13th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Congressional reps attended a ‘coronation’ for Sun Myung Moon in a federal office building?… Read the rest
Belief
Jun 12th, 2004 10:16 pm | By Ophelia BensonQuite a lot of atheist material lately. There is this review of Nicholas Everitt’s The Non-Existence of God in The New Humanist –
…some theists maintain that asking for reasons to believe in God’s existence is beside the point. The demand for reasons in this context is, they say, either blasphemous or vacuous. As Kierkegaard put it, echoing Luther, belief in God is a matter of faith; it’s not like our ordinary belief in the existence of things like tables and chairs, which can be justified or shown to be false. Everitt is impatient with such manoeuvres, and dispatches them rather effectively.
Good. I wonder if he also dispatches the maneuver we’ve noticed a lot in these arguments – what … Read the rest
Sharia Proposal to Undergo Review
Jun 12th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ontario Premier McGuinty is concerned about implications.… Read the rest
On Dennett and Determinism
Jun 12th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Soul, Will and God are not purported things that exist, but values that are aimed at.… Read the rest
Into the Realm of Magical Thinking and Delusion
Jun 12th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
News flash: Bush really does believe all that stuff.… Read the rest
Nussbaum
Jun 12th, 2004 2:10 am | By Ophelia BensonThis was a nice little coincidence, or confluence, or something, this morning. I started reading Martha Nussbaum’s new book Hiding from Humanity and then when I got on the computer I found this interview with her. It’s an interesting and amusing interview, too.
As for philosophers, I find Mill the most soothing because I imagine him as a friend to whom one would like to talk. Most male philosophers of the past are not the friends of women, but Mill is.
I like Mill a lot. And come to think of it, one of the things I like in him is one of the things I like in Nussbaum, too: they’re both extremely lucid.
The interviewer asks ‘Is it … Read the rest
Julian Baggini on the Importance of Status
Jun 11th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Egalitarianism may be a matter of life or death.… Read the rest
Democrats Attempt to Disown Secularism
Jun 11th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Atheism, being a minority view, is shunned by both parties.… Read the rest
Interview with Martha Nussbaum
Jun 11th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
She dislikes ‘bad arguments put forward cultishly, with an in-group air of authority.’… Read the rest
Interview with Paul Bloom
Jun 11th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
One can expand the moral circle by taking other people’s perspectives.… Read the rest
Mattering and Meaning
Jun 10th, 2004 9:51 pm | By Ophelia BensonWe were talking about meaning the other day. I read something in Daniel Dennett’s Consciousness Explained that seems relevant:
So the conscious mind is not just the place where the witnessed colors and smells are, and not just the thinking thing. It is where the appreciating happens. It is the ultimate arbiter of why anything matters…It stands to reason – doesn’t it? – that if doing things that matter depends on consciousness, mattering (enjoying, appreciating, suffering, caring) should depend on consciousness as well.
Mattering is about caring – therefore (surely?) meaning is related to caring – perhaps is another word for the same thing, or both words name the same thing but from different angles. I said much the same … Read the rest
Women Resist Sharia in Ontario
Jun 10th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why should Muslim women be treated differently from other Canadian women?… Read the rest
Discrimination Against Atheists in the US
Jun 10th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Many targets are silent for fear of attracting more hatred.… Read the rest