Those who wish to engage in public debates on morality or ethics will find a far healthier environment in secular societies than in religious ones.… Read the rest
3 British schools require girls to wear the niqab
Oct 3rd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAll three are independent, fee-paying, single-sex schools for girls aged 11 to 18.… Read the rest
Four or five degrees of separation
Oct 2nd, 2010 6:01 pm | By Ophelia BensonI was at the bookstore browsing for nothing in particular, and I spotted The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion and took it down for a look. There were other Cambridge Companions listed in the front and back, and they were all religious – which is not surprising, since I now see on the CUP site that it is in the series Cambridge Companions to Religion. Not Cambridge Companions to Science, but Cambridge Companions to Religion. Not Cambridge Companions to both religion and science, but Cambridge Companions to Religion – despite the fact that Science gets top billing in the title.
Well that seems to confirm an impression I’m always getting from this Sci&Relig stuff, which is that it’s … Read the rest
Thought for the day
Oct 2nd, 2010 5:33 pm | By Ophelia BensonFrom Joe Hoffmann’s Three fewer things to say about atheism:
Just as not all atheists are humanists (and vice versa), atheists will differ about the role of the arts, and they will usually do so by asking a “utility” question: what are the arts good for? Does painting get you to the moon? Does poetry or theater improve life-expectancy? The answer to both questions is that a basketball scholarship will get you into Purdue, but not into Phi Beta Kappa.
Heh.… Read the rest
Who is making whose life more difficult?
Oct 2nd, 2010 12:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonI have one or two more quibbles with Matthew Reisz’s diatribe about atheism and science.
The notion that religion is perniciously simple-minded and locked in an eternal fight with science has been powerfully argued by a number of atheist thinkers, many of them based in the academy, with the charge led by Richard Dawkins in his 2006 best-seller The God Delusion. But what counts as evidence for such a claim?
It’s not really reasonable to give a simplistic version of a “notion” that you claim has been argued by “a number” of people, “many” of whom are academics, and then demand what is the evidence for your own simplistic version of a putative notion that belongs to no … Read the rest
Open letter to American Museum of Natural History
Oct 2nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere is no reason why children who come to the museum to learn about the theory of evolution should hear scientists proclaiming their belief in God.… Read the rest
Jesus heeds the archbishop, Mo groans
Oct 2nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThis little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.… Read the rest
Joe Hoffmann on 3 fewer things to say about atheism
Oct 2nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“I have always liked to refer to myself as Sartre’s grandmother: ‘Only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist.'”… Read the rest
NY Times on more drama at the Center for Inquiry
Oct 2nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIs it a feud between humanism and “negative, angry atheism” or a mismatch between academics and lawyers or Lear battling the winds?… Read the rest
That seminar
Oct 1st, 2010 12:26 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe audio of the Humanisterna seminar in Stockholm has been posted. The first part is pretty cringe-worthy – I find that my way of playing for time is not a Caroline Kennedy level of “you know”s (though I do say it now and then), but the simpler expedient of repeating most of my words two or three times. That’s intelligent.
Well what the hell, you know? You have to figure out how the sentence is going to end and you need time to do that, so rather than just fall silent for a few seconds, obviously it’s much better to say this this this and then proceed. Right? Sure.
But I had just put in 19 hours of travel, after … Read the rest
James Ley reviews Eagleton on evil
Oct 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEagleton is happy to attribute positive human characteristics, such as aesthetic preferences and a capacity for love, to pure nothingness when it suits his argument.
No barriers to entry
Oct 1st, 2010 11:39 am | By Ophelia BensonSo even the Times Higher thinks it has a duty to tell the world that there is no tension between science and religion, that they are perfectly harmonious and compatible, and that the only people who think otherwise are militant atheists. The Times Higher – which has some connection to higher education, and thus to intellectual development and the exercise of reason.
Matthew Reisz leans heavily on Karl Giberson for his “information” on this lack of tension. Giberson has co-written a book about six prominent atheist scientists: Dawkins, Gould, Sagan, Hawking, Weinberg, and Wilson. All of them have written something
… Read the restsetting out their largely unflattering views on God and the godly.Given that they have thereby ventured well beyond their central
Ed Miliband doesn’t believe in god shock-horror
Oct 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonYes, it’s true, he doesn’t believe in god. Other people do, and he does not. Blair and Brown do, and he does not. Really. It’s true.… Read the rest
Times Higher on science ‘n’ religion
Oct 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey’re the best of friends and it’s only those stupid militant atheists who think otherwise so nyah.… Read the rest
Audio of Humanisterna seminar in Stockholm
Oct 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRemember, this was after 19 hours of travel time, so I’m crap at first, but it gets better.… Read the rest
Why atheists should be feminists
Oct 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAs atheists, we ought to have a particularly easy time recognizing the harm done to women in the name of God.… Read the rest
Joe Hoffmann on 5 good things about atheism
Oct 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAtheists are required to assume moral responsibility fully. Religious people are not.… Read the rest
DR Congo rape victims speak to UN panel
Sep 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe aim of the hearings is to improve the treatment, support and compensation currently given to victims.… Read the rest
Court rules Babri Masjid site should be divided
Sep 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMuslims would get one third, Hindus another third, and the remainder going to a minority Hindu sect.… Read the rest
Fake ACORN Pimp O’Keefe Tries to Frame CNN Reporter
Sep 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCNN frequently played O’Keefe’s doctored videos smearing ACORN, without ever making a correction.… Read the rest