Pakistani penal code makes “defiling Muhammed” a crime punishable by death. And that applies globally?… Read the rest
Texas Republicans want to criminalize “sodomy” 
Jun 21st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Also want to make it a felony to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple.… Read the rest
The Missionaries of Charity
Jun 21st, 2010 | By Hemley GonzalezI worked as a volunteer in one of Mother Teresa’s homes in Calcutta, India for a period of two months at the end of 2008. It was during this time that I was shocked to discover the horrific and negligent manner in which this charity operates and the direct contradiction of the public’s general understanding of their work.
After further investigation and research, I realized that all of the events I had witnessed amounted to nothing more than a systematic human rights violation and a financial scam of monumental and criminal proportions.
Workers washing needles under tap water only to be reused again. Medicine and other vital items being store for months on end, expiring and eventually still applied sporadically … Read the rest
How to do dialogue
Jun 21st, 2010 12:30 pm | By Ophelia BensonChris Mooney is in praise of dialogue again.
The fact is, journalism (and dialogue) about science and religion are pretty difficult to oppose.
Case in point: Last week, here in D.C. (my old, new home), I attended an event at the American Association for the Advancement of Science to reintroduce its Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion…At the close of the session, I rose and posed a question. One can never remember exact words, but in essence, it was this: “I’m glad you’re trying to foster dialogue between scientists and the religious community, and I’m sure you’ll succeed. But here is a harder question–how will you foster dialogue with the New Atheists?”
Oh that dialogue about science and religion – … Read the rest
Chris Mooney incites new round of atheist-bashing
Jun 21st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“I rose and posed a question…how will you foster dialogue with the New Atheists?”… Read the rest
Teach children the bible and protect them from ethics!
Jun 21st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Once kids have a strong grounding in what “the gospel is all about, they won’t be so easily falling for the ethics material.”… Read the rest
We notice things selectively
Jun 21st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
We don’t see everything there is, and we need to keep that in mind.… Read the rest
Results of Cherie Blair inquiry ‘were covered up’
Jun 21st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Office for Judicial Complaints told the public one thing, the NSS another.… Read the rest
Margaret Drabble on Jane Austen
Jun 21st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Finds Virginia Woolf on Austen almost as imbecilic as E M Forster ditto.… Read the rest
Julian Baggini reviews Marilynne Robinson
Jun 21st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What might look like subtlety is too often plain sloppiness.… Read the rest
Does the Tar-Spangled Banner Wave Over a Nation That Hates Britain?
Jun 21st, 2010 | By Mary Ellen FoleyThis time last week, all of the United Kingdom seemed to be up in arms because Obama called BP by its former name, British Petroleum. As ludicrous as it sounds to American ears, droves of British people, from established journalists down to the chap on the next stool at the pub, took this as an anti-British remark—several bloggers going so far as to call it racism—and soon some journalists were reporting an anti-British backlash among Americans generally. Some of my friends and neighbors here in England insist that there’s no other way to interpret the remark: Obama has revealed himself to be anti-British, plain and simple.
I’m a dual national, but I’ve been an American for far longer than I’ve … Read the rest
FGM in Northern Iraq
Jun 21st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Girls who hear the screams and try to run away are dragged back for their turn.… Read the rest
Call it peace
Jun 20th, 2010 5:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonWell how nice for Toronto – unlike poor sad deprived Britain, it gets to have Zakir Naik telling it what’s what.
Zakir Naik, founder of online Peace TV in Mumbai, India, tops the bill at the Journey of Faith Conference, July 2-4, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It is being described as the largest Islamic conference ever in North America. In videos on YouTube, Naik advocates death to homosexuals and to Muslims who leave the faith…“This guy has absolute hatred for the West,” Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Congress said Friday.
And homosexuals and apostates, apparently. I bet he’s not much of a feminist, either.
… Read the rest“What we want him to preach here is peace. We want him
Zakir Naik to headline Toronto conference
Jun 20th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In videos on YouTube, Naik advocates death to homosexuals and to Muslims who leave the faith.… Read the rest
Cue Twilight Zone music
Jun 20th, 2010 11:48 am | By Ophelia BensonRemember Kees? I mean “Kees”? The troll who appeared in February-March 2009 pretending to be a naive observer who had just discovered moral relativism by watching a tv documentary about a South Pacific island where the men (prepare for a shock) ran everything?
Who then revealed himself (by emailing a lot of commenters here to urge them to escape my dictatorship, and using a revealing email address) to be the same as one “Bernie Ranson” who had staged a similar extended charade at Talking Philosophy more than a year earlier, in January 2008?
Remember him? (He claimed to be male, and I think that particular claim is true.)
I’ve been reading some of his comments from those two encounters. They’re … Read the rest
Leo Igwe on caste in Igboland, Nigeria
Jun 20th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Nwadiala regard themselves as people of ‘pure blood’ and Osu as people of ‘impure blood’.… Read the rest
London council drops prayer for poetry
Jun 20th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Telegraph claims, “The vast majority of councils choose to start meetings with Christian Prayers.”… Read the rest
Ayala says you can have it all
Jun 20th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“If humans came about by evolution, then the Bible isn’t wrong when it says that humans were created in the image of God.”… Read the rest
Clumsy cover-up in Cherie Blair case
Jun 20th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Office for Judicial Complaints sent its letter to the NSS second class.… Read the rest
Mixed messages on Cherie Blair complaint
Jun 20th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A statement suggested she had been cleared but a private letter to the NSS said the complaint was partly upheld. … Read the rest
