She’d be happy to ignore all religions “if their leaders didn’t keep telling me that their ethics are better than mine.”
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Guardian rebukes the pope’s “militant opponents”
They “failed to afford sincere faith the respect it is due.”
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Dawkins: Ratzinger is an enemy of humanity
“Original sin means that, from the moment we are born, we are wicked, corrupt, damned. Unless we believe in their God.”
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Sweden narrowly re-elects centre-right alliance
PM Fredrik Reinfeldt says he will not make a deal with the far-right Sweden Democrats.
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Full text of the pope’s Westminster Hall speech
He tells the piously listening government boffins that religion is marginalized, thus performing an oxymoron.
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Better video of Dawkins’s speech at pope protest
That’s Peter Tatchell behind him, and Maryam Namazie on his right, with Johann Hari next to Maryam.
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Maryam Namazie at protest the pope rally
“Isn’t it racism to say that billions of people deserve nothing better than to live under sharia law?” [cheers]
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Nick Cohen on the Paul Chambers case
He has a criminal record and has been fired from two jobs because of a jokey remark on Twitter.
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Paula Kirby on the pope’s pastoral visit
When people are persuaded that real human suffering counts for less than the religious concepts of sin and purity, then greater human suffering is the inevitable result.
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Dawkins at the anti-pope demonstration
How dare Ratzinger suggest that atheism had anything to do with the Nazis’ wicked deeds.
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Zainab Bangura is Sierra Leone’s foreign minister
Her father was a strict Muslim cleric who did not believe in educating women. Her mother – though illiterate – fought for Zainab to go to school.
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Andrew Copson’s speech to protest the pope rally
We support equality, human rights, secular and liberal democracy. And we support justice, even if that justice is inconvenient for the power and reputation of churches and clergy.
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Swedish elections: far-right likely to win
“Sweden is still an extremely conformist, authoritarian society, where opinion formers and politicians move together like a shoal of herring.”
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Tony Judt on Czesław Miłosz and open minds
Miłosz brilliantly dissects the state of mind of the fellow traveler, the deluded idealist, and the cynical time server.
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Paul Cliteur on secularism v religious extremism
Religious neutrality in religiously pluralist societies is the path to tolerance. When will the American president and the American people acknowledge this?
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Theocracy in Ireland
Judge orders a man to “do the four stations of the famous Mayo pilgrimage” as punishment for drunken swearing at a garda.
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London: thousands protest papal visit
Peter Tatchell notes, “When he says no woman is fit to be a priest, that’s an insult to the whole of female humanity.”
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Tim Minchin’s pope song
Beware: could “create divisions.”
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Pope makes surprise announcement
“Science cannot explain everything,” pontiff tells stunned audience of rival clerics.
