BBC confuses every issue it raises.
Category: Latest News
Welcome to our archive of news stories relevant to the project of fighting fashionable nonsense. The stories are drawn from the electronic pages of the world’s media. On this page, you’ll find links to those stories that have been featured on Butterflies and Wheels during the current year. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find links to separate archives of stories from previous years.
We’re always pleased to hear about news stories that you think should be featured on Butterflies and Wheels. Just send an email here, if you want to point one out to us.
A note about links
Inevitably links go out of date. We suggest, therefore, that you make hard-copies of the stories that particularly interest you.
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Geert Wilders acquitted of inciting hatred
Amsterdam judge accepted that Wilders’s statements were directed at Islam and not at Muslims.
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“The bishops did not influence our findings”
Nearly half the funding for the study was provided by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, but.
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“Honor” killing in Sweden
“The honour lies between a woman’s legs,” Sara Mohammad of Never Forget Pela and Fadime explains.
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House of Commons debates sharia June 28
One Law for All and the NSS invite you to a debate on the use and practice of sharia law in Britain.
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Andrew Buncombe on Arundhati Roy
She says she has been told by several journalists that they have instructions – ‘No negative news from India’ – because it’s an investment destination.
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PZ on myths about atheists’ “myths” about religion
For a start, atheists did not grow up in petri dishes isolated from religion and religious believers.
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Ai Weiwei charges will probably be dropped
“This is a technique that the public security authorities sometimes use as a face-saving device to end controversial cases.”
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Ai Weiwei released on bail
State media said the artist had been freed “because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes”…
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Pakistan: man sentenced to death for blasphemy
Something about text messages that “blasphemed” the Koran, the prophet, the prophet’s friends…
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Maryam Namazie on the Islamic Inquisition
A religion that has been reined in by an enlightenment is very different from one that has political power and is spearheading an inquisition.
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Stephen Law’s field guide to bullshit
Because the mantra “it’s-beyond-the-ability-of-science-to-establish” gets repeated so often, it is effective at lulling people to sleep.
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We could just say no to bishops
Even rightwing Anglicans relish the spectacle of the established church being recognised as a respected meddler in sublunary affairs.
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BBC to dramatise unholy row over Life of Brian
A moment when freedom of speech was pitted against religious belief, a debate that is just as precariously balanced today.
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Johann Hari talks to PZ Myers
Johann makes a great point about the utility of mockery of religious beliefs.
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Trevor Phillips on religion, equality and rights
“A lot of very clever people have a lot of access to the airwaves and write endlessly in the newspapers knocking religion and mocking God.”
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Jihadists force young girl to wear suicide vest
Forced to wear a suicide vest, she was transported to a security check post in the northwest, according to police.
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David Colquhoun on a conflict of interest
Acupuncturists show that acupuncture doesn’t work, but conclude the opposite.
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Matthew Chapman on the atheist in the closet
Can atheists reduce the antipathy? Only if they learn that the first step toward acceptance is the one that takes you out of the closet.
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Joshua Knobe on “the true self”
People’s ordinary understanding of the true self appears to involve a kind of value judgment, about what sorts of lives are really worth living.