Told Murphy O’Connor it was not for him to create laws to ‘put pressure on people to end their lives.’
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Madeleine Bunting Ponders Darwin
Displays her usual difficulties with accuracy and comprehension.
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New Stats Show US Still World’s Top Jailer
With 756 of every 100,000 residents behind bars, the US has the world’s highest rate of incarceration.
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HRW to Saudi Arabia: Ditch Capital Punishment
Saudi has no penal code, no formal definitions of what constitutes a crime, and no tradition of following established legal precedent.
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Afghanistan: Suicide Bomb Kills 14 Schoolchildren
‘Children walking past, and then they detonate the vehicle bomb. The driver was able to see the children.’
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Zimbabwe: Activists Appear in Court
Jestina Mukoko and 31 others, some with bloodied and swollen faces, appeared in court on Monday.
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Andrew Brown Kicks ‘the New Atheism’
Some atheists actively believe there is no god. It’s an outrage.
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Could it be Pretty Obvious There’s No God?
If we look at the world around us, do we find that there’s no god? Stephen Law asks.
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Review of Chris Hedges on Atheism
Takes Hedges’s wild claims at face value, and endorses them.
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Many Teenagers Don’t Keep Virginity Pledges
The notion that it has to be either a virginity pledge or encouraging teens to have sex is a false dichotomy.
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Judge Delays Ruling on Zimbabwe Activists
Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened to suspend negotiations with ZANU-PF over the case.
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Scientific Illiteracy of the Rich and Famous
Obama got MMR wrong; Demi Moore recommended ‘highly trained medical leeches.’
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Philosophers Weigh In on God
Contemporary Christian philosophers often content themselves with pulling up the drawbridge.
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Grayling on Ideas That Could Save Humanity
Good ideas should be stashed somewhere so that we don’t have to keep reinventing them.
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Senior Judge Calls for Sharia Divorces
Baroness Butler-Sloss wants religious divorce to precede civil divorce for Muslim couples.
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Johann Hari on Harold Pinter
Pinter often fumed about tyranny, but equally fumed about people who resisted it.
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Even Atheists Can Go to Heaven
‘Only’ 39 % of Xians believe the bible is the literal word of God; 18 % think it’s a book written by humans.
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Ponzi Schemes and Credulity Work Together
How an expert on gullibility and financial scams could fall prey to a hustler like Madoff.
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Times Should Read its Own Bad Stats Column
‘Public opinion has moved sharply,’ the Times said – but actually it hasn’t.
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Ben Goldacre Offers The Year in Bad Science
When you line these jokers up side by side you realise what a vast and unwinnable fight we face.