Why did openDemocracy publish an article that justifies the repression of intellectual freedom?
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Joan Bakewell on The God Delusion
Enumerates the many ways religion is excessively privileged in our supposedly secular society.
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Extract from The God Delusion
Metaphorical God of physicists is light years away from the God of the Bible and ordinary language.
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The Economist on The God Delusion
‘If nothing else, his book should help bring the atheists out of the closet.’
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Bad Science: the Fish Oil Files
Equazen won’t let Ben Goldacre review the research evidence unless he signs a confidentiality agreement.
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Johann Hari: the Real Reasons to be Cross at Pope
Hari has heard priests tell people that condoms come pre-infected with AIDS and are the reason people die of it.
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Elif Shafak Acquitted of ‘Insulting Turkishness’
Government may amend Article 301 which makes ‘denigrating Turkish national identity’ a crime.
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Conspecific of Lucy Found in Ethiopia
Stunningly complete skeleton of 3 year old female Australopithecus afarensis found in Awash region.
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Bush Muses on Flawed Logic
If you object to torture you must think Murkans are no better than those Bad People. QED.
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Scott McLemee on Walter Benn Michaels
‘Michaels will have none of this repackaging of racist pseudoscience as “anti-racist” cultural relativism.’
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Indolink on Nussbaum on Hindutva
New book traces background of Gujarat riots in ideology of the Hindu right.
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Gore Writing Book on ‘the Assault on Reason’
On public hostility to reason: problem-solving impeded by unwillingness to let facts drive decisions.
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Walter Benn Michaels on the Trouble with Diversity
‘We like to talk about the differences we can appreciate, and we don’t like to talk about the ones we can’t.’