Why did openDemocracy publish an article that justifies the repression of intellectual freedom?… Read the rest
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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
Joan Bakewell on The God Delusion 
Sep 23rd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Enumerates the many ways religion is excessively privileged in our supposedly secular society.… Read the rest
Extract from The God Delusion
Sep 23rd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Metaphorical God of physicists is light years away from the God of the Bible and ordinary language.… Read the rest
Dawkins on Newsnight Tonight
Sep 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Talking to Jeremy Paxman about The God Delusion.… Read the rest
Johann Hari: the Real Reasons to be Cross at Pope
Sep 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Hari has heard priests tell people that condoms come pre-infected with AIDS and are the reason people die of it.… Read the rest
SciAm on Dikika Baby
Sep 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Skeleton provides new information on A. afarensis locomotion.… Read the rest
Michael Shermer on Conservatives and Evolution
Sep 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ways to find compatibility.… Read the rest
The Economist on The God Delusion
Sep 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘If nothing else, his book should help bring the atheists out of the closet.’… Read the rest
Bad Science: the Fish Oil Files
Sep 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Equazen won’t let Ben Goldacre review the research evidence unless he signs a confidentiality agreement.… Read the rest
Scott McLemee on Walter Benn Michaels
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Michaels will have none of this repackaging of racist pseudoscience as “anti-racist” cultural relativism.’… Read the rest
Andrew Brown on Dawkins on God
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why does religion persist in the face of arguments and evidence?… Read the rest
No Good Blaming the Internet for Sockpuppetry
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Deception is deception, whatever the medium.… Read the rest
Michael Walsh on the Pope
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Pope’s desire to re-Christianise Europe underlies his Regensburg address.… Read the rest
Elif Shafak Acquitted of ‘Insulting Turkishness’
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Government may amend Article 301 which makes ‘denigrating Turkish national identity’ a crime.… Read the rest
Why the IAEA Matters
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Because once the inspectors are barred, speculation and exaggeration move in.… Read the rest
Conspecific of Lucy Found in Ethiopia
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Stunningly complete skeleton of 3 year old female Australopithecus afarensis found in Awash region.… Read the rest
Bush Muses on Flawed Logic
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
If you object to torture you must think Murkans are no better than those Bad People. QED.… Read the rest
Gore Writing Book on ‘the Assault on Reason’
Sep 20th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
On public hostility to reason: problem-solving impeded by unwillingness to let facts drive decisions.… Read the rest
Walter Benn Michaels on the Trouble with Diversity
Sep 20th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘We like to talk about the differences we can appreciate, and we don’t like to talk about the ones we can’t.’… Read the rest
Interview with Walter Benn Michaels
Sep 20th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Race gives a certain fantasy of what equality is: a world that is equal if there are no racists.… Read the rest
