Senior officials speak of keeping a proper balance between freedom and social cohesion.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
-
Tens of Thousands Protested Mali’s New Law
‘We have to stick to the Koran. It’s a tiny minority of women here that wants this new law – the intellectuals. The poor and illiterate women of this country – the real Muslims – are against it.’
-
Coyne on James Wood on Dawkins or Eagleton
Wood flings the usual mud at atheists, as usual with no quotations, then gets to grips with Terry.
-
Irish Church Paying Price for Clerical Dominance
The Ryan report was horrendous; the effect on the morale and reputation of the church and Ireland, devastating.
-
Belief in a God That Makes No Difference
There may not be any compelling reason to believe that such a being exists, but the question is intelligible.
-
Nesrine Malik Finds Feminism Patronizing
Western feminists must learn to understand the burqa.
-
Venezuela: Catholic Church Meddling in Politics
Venezuela’s bishops oppose new education law because it promotes secular education.
-
Catholic Group Working to Repeal Blasphemy Law
In Pakistan, where Christians are a minority subject to persecution. In Ireland, on the other hand…
-
Senator From Utah Writes Book on Mormonism
Asks four questions to test whether Book of Mormon is a fake. ‘Seriously, gold plates, Moroni?’
-
Sebastian Faulks Says the Koran is Terrific
Really – he loves it – he read Karen Armstrong for his research – he wouldn’t dream of offending.
-
Excerpt From Dawkins’s ‘Greatest Show on Earth’
With bizarro Times headline worthy of Glen Beck.
-
Mediawatchwatch on Sebastian Faulks
Did Faulks cave in to threats, or is he merely offering a pre-emptive apology in advance of them?
-
Quackometer on the Society of Homeopaths
Those studies they cite? Take a closer look.
-
Sebastian Faulks Not Totally Smitten With Koran
Has ‘courted controversy’ by saying so.
-
Alun Salt on the Politics of Accommodation
Van Houtan and Pimm do not argue that all the public should be treated as if they’re in the remedial class.
-
NY Times Magazine on Global Women’s Rights
Why women’s rights are the cause of our time.
-
Kristof and WuDunn on Unsubordinating Women
The world is awakening to a powerful truth: Women and girls aren’t the problem; they’re the solution.
-
They Want Us to Be Stupid Things
The Mirwais Mena School closed after the acid attacks, but only for a week. Nearly all the girls returned.
-
No Grand Bargain Between Evolution and Theism
It doesn’t follow that because organisms in nature have purposes, nature as a whole has a purpose.
-
The Daughter Deficit
In China and India girls are more likely to be missing in richer areas than in poorer ones, in cities than in rural areas.