It’s good to speak truth to power, but that requires truth.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Archaeology, Middle East Studies, Tenure
El-Haj case among several involving Middle East scholars that have set off debates on academic freedom.
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Norman Levitt on Steve Fuller’s ID Book
‘A truly miserable piece of work, crammed with errors scientific, historical, and even theological.’
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Sue Blackmore on Believing in ‘Revealed Truth’
You have to believe certain things because other people tell you that God told someone else they were true.
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Tariq Ali Deplores a Feudal Charade
The PPP is being treated as a family heirloom, a property to be disposed of at the will of its leader.
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Tariq Ali on the Bhutto Assassination
What has happened is a tragedy for a country on a road to more disasters.
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Jemima Khan on Benazir Bhutto
The first democratically elected female leader of a Muslim country never even tried to repeal the Hudood Ordinances.
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The Arranged Marriage of Bhutto and Musharraf
The experience of her father’s trial and death radicalised and politicised his daughter.
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Hitchens on Belief in Belief
‘Faith’ is at its most dangerous not when it is insincere and hypocritical and corrupt but when it is genuine.
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Moni Mohsin on Pakistan Without Benazir
Alone among the leadership of Pakistan, she understood the grave threat from religious extremists.
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Aziz Huq Says Bhutto Was No Mandela, But
Without democracy, there is scant chance the religious leaders who have backed the Taliban can be won over.
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So Much For Higher Education
Texas higher ed panel recommends letting Institute for Creation Research offer degrees in science education.
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Hitchens on Why Bhutto’s Murder is a Disaster
She was pro-Taliban and pro-nukes as PM, but had changed her mind about the Taliban.
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‘Box to Box’: Vote and You’re Dead
Islamist opposition to democracy is based on the claim that allowing humans to legislate is a form of sherk.
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Political Violence is the Bane of South Asia
Militants and fanatics of all dogmas and grievances have assassinated leaders since independence.
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Anthony Gottlieb Reviews Antony Flew
Or rather a book purporting to be by Flew.
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Where Did the Laws of Nature Come From?
Cosmology meets philosophy.
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McGinn Did Not Like Honderich’s Book
But was his tone wrong? Philosophers and others discuss.
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Grand Opening of London Center for Inquiry
Paul Kurtz, Joseph Hoffmann, Julian Baggini, Stephen Law, Nigel Warburton, Polly Toynbee, Ibn Warraq, etc.
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The Most Potent Voice for Liberalism and Change
Bhutto’s assassination a defining act of the politics of murder – a phenomenon that we see from Lebanon to Iraq to Pakistan.