Stumpy Jesus now squats on freeway, saluting a pair of semi-trucks.… Read the rest
Amanda Marcotte on “feminist” anti-feminists 
Jun 14th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Sarah Palin is not the first.… Read the rest
Massimo Pigliucci on Texas education and ideology
Jun 14th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The latest disturbing result of a long effort by right wing fundamentalists to undermine public education.… Read the rest
Hitchens on that speech of Chuck’s
Jun 14th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
P. Charles surrounds with every moon-faced spoon-bender, shrub-flatterer, and water-diviner within range.… Read the rest
London June 20: Rally against Sharia and religious laws
Jun 14th, 2010 | By Maryam NamazieHundreds will be demonstrating in London against Sharia and religious laws and in support of secularism and universal rights on Sunday 20 June 2010. The rally organised by the One Law for All Campaign will be held from 1400-1600 hours at Richmond Terrace junction with Whitehall opposite Downing Street (SW1A 2). (Please note venue change from Trafalgar Square made by police; closest underground: Westminster.)
On the day, the Campaign will make public its new report entitled: Sharia Law in Britain: A Threat to One Law for All and Equal Rights. In the report One Law for All outlines what Sharia law is, how it is practised in Britain and exposes the way in which Sharia Councils and Muslim Arbitration Tribunals … Read the rest
Knock three times for ‘yes’
Jun 14th, 2010 12:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonMichael De Dora said in a comment on Falling at the first post
Scientific claims are probabilistic explanations based on observation and empirical evidence, and are subject to disconfirmation. The God claim is nothing of the sort. We can’t scientifically measure God or God’s interaction with the world, and the God claim is not falsifiable.
Why can’t we scientifically measure God or God’s interaction with the world? One reason could be because god is not there. Another reason could be because god is especially hard to measure for some reason. If it’s the latter we just need better instruments. I think the reason De Dora is suggesting is that god is in principle incapable of being measured. But if that’s … Read the rest
Widen that division
Jun 14th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Oliver Kamm put the matter concisely and well.
Byrnes is not [at] that level*, but his views are reactionary and illiberal. They thereby illustrate a fundamental difference of values within the Left. I’m concerned to widen that division as far as I can.
Same here. I want there to be a vast gulf between the Left that opposes reactionary illiberal views and the “Left” that sucks up to them.
*The level of writing an article titled “Milosevic, prisoner of conscience.”… Read the rest
It is easy to manipulate memory
Jun 14th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s important to remember that.… Read the rest
Pope says priests are a gift to the world
Jun 14th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Made no mention of child-rape by priests in Ireland, Germany, Austria, the US and elsewhere.… Read the rest
More Guardian god-coddling
Jun 14th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘The concepts of equality, democracy and the right to be treated justly were gifted to the nations by the Bible.’… Read the rest
Oliver Kamm on Sholto and sharia
Jun 14th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Byrnes’s views are reactionary and illiberal, and illustrate a fundamental difference of values within the Left.… Read the rest
Madeleine Bunting is excited about something
Jun 13th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Big Ideas, insights, intriguing, failed, soul-searching, progressive, Enlightenment, Eurocentrism, Islam, the west, progress, optimism.… Read the rest
A schism between the nice people and the demons
Jun 13th, 2010 12:26 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnother columnist does a bang-up job of describing explicit atheists in such a way that everyone will take care to hate them.
the split also underscores a serious and widening schism in the broader community of non-believers, between those who want civil engagement with people of faith, and even cooperation where possible, and atheist “fundamentalists” (as Kurtz and the old guard call them) — true believers in godlessness who belittle religion and religious people at every turn, and yet by doing so can wind up sounding like the very enemy they are trying to defeat.
That’s wrong. It’s false. It’s inaccurate. We are not “fundamentalists” in any meaningful sense, we do not belittle religion and religious people at every … Read the rest
Equality begins at home
Jun 13th, 2010 11:13 am | By Ophelia BensonThey get it in Sweden, it appears.
… Read the rest“I always thought if we made it easier for women to work, families would eventually choose a more equal division of parental leave by themselves,” said [former deputy PM Bengt] Westerberg. “But I gradually became convinced that there wasn’t all that much choice.”
Sweden, he said, faced a vicious circle. Women continued to take parental leave not just for tradition’s sake but because their pay was often lower, thus perpetuating pay differences. Companies, meanwhile, made clear to men that staying home with baby was not compatible with a career.
“Society is a mirror of the family,” Mr. Westerberg said. “The only way to achieve equality in society is to achieve equality in
One version of Center for Inquiry ‘schism’
Jun 13th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
With plenty of rude language for overt atheists and tender language for the people who hate them.… Read the rest
Gender equality in Sweden
Jun 13th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Society is a mirror of the family. The only way to achieve equality in society is to achieve equality in the home.’… Read the rest
Steven Pinker on moral panics over new media
Jun 13th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Media critics write as if the brain takes on the qualities of whatever it consumes.… Read the rest
Ben Goldacre on the superstition effect
Jun 13th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Confidence tends to improve performance.… Read the rest
Falling at the first post
Jun 12th, 2010 4:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonMary Midgley begins badly.
Science really isn’t connected to the rest of life half as straightforwardly as one might wish. For instance, Isaac Newton noted gladly that his theory of gravitation gave a scientific proof of God’s existence. Today’s anti-god warriors, by contrast, declare that Darwin’s evolutionary theory gives a scientific disproof of that existence and use this reasoning, quite as confidently as Newton used his, to convert the public.
No they don’t. So why should we pay any attention to the rest of what she says? If she can’t even get the first paragraph right, why trust her?
No reason, so I won’t bother discussing the rest of what she says, which is just sentimental gesturing. But it’s … Read the rest
Bangladesh: paper allowed to resume publishing
Jun 12th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
But the editor of the opposition daily is still in jail, charged with sedition.… Read the rest
