Are there any? Will “is Hamlet better than Macbeth?” do? How about “why is this flower pretty?” Or “how shall we then live?”
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Where bad science comes from
Is it lax editing? Or is it something wrong with peer review, or the Royal Society, or the organization of symposia?
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Ireland: male staff rate looks of female staff
Photographs featuring various young female financial staff were circulated among the men and each woman was judged on her looks and desirability.
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New report: child abuse in lesbian households 0%
None of the 78 NLLFS adolescents reports having ever been physically or sexually abused by a parent or other caregiver.
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“Religious obligations” are the kidnapper’s friend
A cop looking for Elizabeth Smart asked her to lift her veil but her kidnapper said no, it was a religious obligation; the cop walked away.
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Climate change no problem: god promised
US Representative John Shimkus wants to chair Energy Committee, quotes the bible to show that god won’t destroy the earth.
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Atheist pastors and their struggles
One says his initial doubts about God came as he read the work of the so-called New Atheists.
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Banaz Mahmod ‘honour’ killing cousins jailed for life
Mahmod was seen by her father and uncle to have brought shame on her family after she left her violent husband.
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Iran, Saudi Arabia bid for global gender policy role
Iran and Saudi Arabia may get seats on the board of a new UN super-agency to promote women’s rights. Yes really.
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US atheist groups start ad campaign
One way to end the stigma attached to atheism is to show that there are a lot of us. “It’s the same idea as the out-of-the-closet campaign for gay rights.”
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Pakistan: gang rape of child by powerful men
The perpetrators wanted to take revenge on her brother for his help in arranging a love marriage.
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Charles Freeman replies to James Hannam
Christianity brought the concept of absolute theological truths, many ring-fenced as “articles of faith” which were unchallengeable.
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James Hannam replies to Charles Freeman
The secondary purpose of the book is to deal with the old myth, no longer accepted by historians, that the Church held back science at every turn.
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Blackburn, Pinker, Krauss, Harris on morality
Can science shape human values, and if so, should it?
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Ernie Lepore on speech and harm
Why slurs matter.
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Pakistan: woman sentenced to death for blasphemy
Ali Hasan Dayan of Human Rights Watch: “It’s an obscene law used as a tool of persecution and to settle other scores that are nothing to do with religion.”
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Saudi fatwa: women may not work as cashiers
Official board of clerics said the cashier jobs are not permissible because they would result in the women mixing with unrelated men.
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In time for Xmas: a new book for the kiddies
About how the evil black Obamaclaus stole Xmas but the nice white people defeated him. Or something.
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Oh yay, atheists are doing interfaith whatsits
It’s totally great because you get all the advantages of faith and – um – well you get all the advantages of faith.
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Gay suicides and the Mormon church
Utah has the highest rate of suicides among men 15-24 of any state in the US. Coincidence?