The form has a distinguished history in the literary and philosophical tradition: Montaigne, Bacon, Johnson.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
-
Sam Harris on Ten Myths about Atheism
‘Atheists are arrogant.’ Nonsense; we’re far too wonderful to be arrogant.
-
Academics for Academic Freedom
Ray Tallis, Norman Levitt, A C Grayling among the signers.
-
Freedom to Express Offensive Views
Statement called a ‘rebellion against the regime of political correctness.’
-
Eichmann was a Careerist
Careerism may be as lethal as idealism; ordinary vices as lethal as extraordinary ideas.
-
Fred Halliday: Letter from Jerusalem
The phrase ‘unfinished business’ is on many lips, but what this involves is less clear.
-
Laurie Garrett on The Benghazi Six
‘The nurses were beaten with many-stranded wire, for a long time and painfully,’ Tachev said.
-
Michel Thieren on Medicine on Death Row
On 19 December medicine, public health, and humanitarian aid were publicly executed in Libya.
-
Scholars Demand Right to Offend
THES says this would ‘offer backing to’ McIntosh. Eh?
-
P and Not-P, says Queen Beatrix
Free speech important, and no one has the right to insult others.
-
Books on Science and Religion
Scientists think God’s existence or non-existence is a scientific fact about the universe; theologians don’t.
-
H Allen Orr on Three Books on God
Failure of imagination may mean one can’t conceive that one’s imagination is impoverished.
-
Allen Esterson Replies to Geraldine Hilton
Just repeating the original assertions won’t quite do the trick.
-
Science a Branch of Entertainment Industry
The story it tells is more interesting, intricate, and beautiful than anything anyone could make up.
-
Japanese and Chinese Historians Meet
Beginning a project to try to resolve arguments over the two countries’ shared past.
-
P Z Myers on The Courtier’s Reply
Has Dawkins not read On the Luminescence of the Emperor’s Feathered Hat?
-
Dawkins on the Only One in Step
Maybe McIntosh is right and the whole fuddy-duddy scientific establishment is wrong.
-
Freud and Minna Bernays Shacked Up
At least, a hotel register would seem to indicate as much.
-
Phillip Blond Talks More Nonsense
Religious fundamentalism is an ersatz copy of liberal humanism. How’s that again?
-
The Offence of Thought for the Day
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me, Yea, even between Tooting Bec and Streatham.