Co-author of ‘Higher Superstition,’ author of ‘Prometheus Bedeviled,’ defender of science and reason.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Richard Dawkins on Norm Levitt
‘The books that he wrote and inspired are the best memorial to Norman Levitt. Read them, and encourage others to do so.’
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Josh Rosenau on Steve Fuller on Norm Levitt
‘Fuller has, apparently, decided to wait until Levitt could not answer for himself before replying to Levitt’s criticisms.’
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Steve Fuller’s Putrid Farewell to Norm Levitt
Now that he’s dead, it’s safe to call him a fascist – twice.
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Another Anecdote
The New Atheists + modern biblical scholarship = infidel.
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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.
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Scientologists Convicted of Fraud
Unlike the US, France has always refused to recognise Scientology as a religion.
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First Order of Business: Inspect Women’s Bras
Somalia is a wretched country in the grip of famine and chaos but officials there are busy inspecting bras.
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Sharia Spreading in Indonesia
Islamist parties tanked in elections, but local governments pass Sharia-based rules on conduct and dress.
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Plot to Avenge Motoons
Two men men allegedly planned to kill Flemming Rose and Kurt Westergaard.
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Priests Told: Ignore That Letter on Child Abuse
The letter attacks the Catholic Church for making itself immune from being sued over clerical sexual abuse.
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Hitchens on What He Has Learned From Debates
That religious believers are not all as convinced as he’d expected.
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University of Chicago Darwin-fest Oct 29-31
Richard Lewontin, Ronald Numbers, Marc Hauser, and more.
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Dawkins on the Vatican’s Outreach
Ratzinger urges the Anglican church to send its misogynists and bigots over to Rome.
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Leaving Scientology
Better late than never.
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Wafa Sultan’s ‘A God Who Hates’
The god who hates, she says, specifically hates women.
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James Richmond Disputes Dvir Abramovich
How are we are to decide which parts of the holy books are to be taken as the inflexible Word of God?
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Can We Talk About Religion, Please?
We should discuss religious institutions as we would others – courteously and vigorously.
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How to Be Existentialist Socrates at the Airport
As with the airport and the dentist’s waiting room, so with the gym, Steven Poole notes sagely.