Watch out for the Deep Rift!
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Play Gender Bingo
Are you called rude and abrasive while your male colleagues who say rude things are simply ‘assertive’?
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Jason Rosenhouse on Accommodationism
It is liberal denominations that are losing members, while more conservative churches are going strong.
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Nick Cohen on Instant Protests
If someone points out an incorrect fact, you correct it; if people say you must think what they think, you ignore them.
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Andrew Copson: Happy 150th to ‘On Liberty’
The communalist approach to diversity places ‘groups’ at the centre of policy rather than free individuals.
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First Scientology, Then the Rest of Religion
Scientology is deemed a sect not a religion, so they are required to produce evidence for their claims.
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Eugenie Scott on the Creationist ‘Origin’
Faced with ignorance like this, she is reminded of a jeremiad: ‘Oh foolish people, and without understanding.’
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Is Scientology a Religion or a Business or Both?
It is easier to arrive at a ‘just price’ for beer and jam than for purification.
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No Tight Jeans for Women in Aceh
‘If there are parties who disagree, don’t be angry with me. Be angry with God as I’m only carrying out a religious obligation.’
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How It Should Be Done
It’s about framing, and communication, but with reasons, and examples, and more reasons.
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Jesus and Mo Dress up for Halloween
Spooooky.
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Marching Against al-Muhajiroun
We are turning out to defend the virtues of a secular democracy that Islam4UK despises.
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David Nutt on the Cannabis Conundrum
The process of determining drug classification has become complex and highly politicised.
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Journalists See Dawkins as Mr Big Atheist
Says journalist Chris Mooney, who has been calling Dawkins Mr Big Atheist for months.
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Home Secretary Sacks Drugs Adviser
David Nutt accused ministers of devaluing and distorting evidence, politicizing drugs classification.
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Ben Goldacre: Aids Denialism at the Spectator
A lot of strange stuff can fly in under the claim that you are ‘simply starting a debate.’
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Illegal Drugs Harmful Because Illegal
‘We remain determined to crack down on all illegal substances and minimise their harm to health.’
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Medvedev Repudiates Stalin-defenders
Said there are attempts to justify the repression of the past, warned against the falsification of history.
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Cartoonist on the Pope’s Kind Invitation
To all those unhappy disaffected Anglicans looking for a home…
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Scientists v Politicians
Government refused to accept expert views of a council set up to judge relative harms of different drugs.