Refuses to say how old she is, says he does not care what women’s groups think.… Read the rest
Mediawatchwatch on a bad week for free expression 
Apr 29th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Harry Taylor was sentenced, Molly Norris got scared, Kurt Westergaard and Lars Vilks got more of the usual.… Read the rest
Teasing the pope is much worse than raping children
Apr 29th, 2010 9:15 am | By Ophelia BensonOmigod omigod omigod somebody insulted the Catholic church!! And even the pope!!! Omigod omigod.
The memorandum, apparently written by staff planning events for the four-day visit by Pope Benedict XVI, suggested he might like to start a helpline for abused children, sack “dodgy” bishops, open an abortion ward, launch his own brand of condoms, preside at a civil partnership, perform forward rolls with children, apologise for the Spanish armada and sing a song with the Queen.
But it’s all right, the somebody’s bosses apologized and apologized and apologized.
… Read the restJim Murphy, the cabinet minister overseeing the visit and a practising Catholic, failed to see the funny side of it, describing the memo as “absolutely despicable. It’s vile, it’s insulting, it’s
UK: formal government apology to Vatican
Apr 29th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Jim Murphy, cabinet minister overseeing pope’s visit and practising Catholic, called the memo absolutely despicable, vile, insulting, an embarrassment.… Read the rest
Not so much crawling to the pope
Apr 29th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“The obsequious apology of this government to the pope is wrong.”… Read the rest
Nigeria: Senator allegedly marries 13-year-old girl
Apr 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Women’s groups staged a protest outside parliament Tuesday urging the senate to investigate the matter.… Read the rest
Scientism on stilts
Apr 28th, 2010 3:58 pm | By Ophelia BensonCarlin Romano goes after the annoying scientistic arrogant smug Galileo-wannabe whatsits that get on everyone’s nerves so much.
A brave champion of beleaguered science in the modern age of pseudoscience, this Ayn Rand protagonist sarcastically derides the benighted irrationalists and glows with a self-anointed superiority. Who wouldn’t want to feel that sense of power and rightness?
You hear the voice regularly—along with far more sensible stuff—in the latest of a now common genre of science patriotism, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science From Bunk (University of Chicago Press), by
By…one of the new atheists it must be? This should be good. By?
by Massimo Pigliucci, a philosophy professor at the City University of New York.
Yes! Massimo, the scourge … Read the rest
Paul Sims on the Harry Taylor question
Apr 28th, 2010 2:56 pm | By Ophelia BensonI don’t disagree with Paul Sims on all points, but I do on some.
If Taylor had been convicted for publishing the images in a magazine, or on a website, where members of the public have the choice not to buy or visit, I would strongly oppose his conviction. But this isn’t what Taylor did – he placed the images in a room provided for the religious to quietly practise their faith, away from public space.
But why is a room provided in an airport for the religious to quietly practise their faith? Rooms aren’t provided for the religious to quietly practise their faith in supermarkets and bookshops and bus terminals and parks, so why in airports? And if … Read the rest
Carlin Romano doesn’t like Massimo Pigliucci’s tone
Apr 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He’s so ferocious, so sarcastic, so scientistic.… Read the rest
Global population of Catholics growing
Apr 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Declining in Europe but rising everywhere else.… Read the rest
National Prayer Day – everyone should be disinvited
Apr 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why should Franklin Graham have all the fun?… Read the rest
Atheists and Asbos
Apr 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Paul Sims and I consider the punishment of Harry Taylor.… Read the rest
Why feminism must embrace reason and shun religion
Apr 28th, 2010 | By Amy ClareWhen I was four, I was an angel in the school nativity play. I had wanted to be the angel Gabriel, but my teacher had gently informed me that Gabriel was a boy. Mary had already been cast, so the only parts left for other girls were generic angels. I was disappointed but then I realised, what did Mary do exactly? It seemed to my young mind that all she did was have a baby; it was the baby that everyone was interested in, and the baby was a boy. I soon learned that all the good parts to play in this story belonged to the boys, and with every passing school year and corresponding nativity play, I felt more … Read the rest
The Christian churches are the conscience of our country
Apr 27th, 2010 10:01 am | By Ophelia BensonLawrence Lessig notes that the pope told victims of priestly rape in Malta last week that the church “was doing all it could to investigate abuse accusations and find ways to safeguard children in the future.”
But it’s not, Lessig says. In fact it’s doing the opposite. It’s defending a New Jersey statute immunizing charities against negligence even if their employees acted “willfully, wantonly, recklessly, indifferently — even criminally.”
… Read the restWhat was truly astonishing was the appearance of the New Jersey Catholic Conference in the case. As its Web site explains, the conference “represents the Catholic bishops of New Jersey on matters of public policy,” because “the Catholic Church calls for a different kind of political engagement: one shaped by the
The church is campaigning to block compensation
Apr 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It is lobbying hard against statute of limitation reform.… Read the rest
Believers don’t believe in God
Apr 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Oh and by the way new atheists are bad and wrong.… Read the rest
Believers without belief
Apr 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The idea is going viral: Michael McGhee, Theo Hobson, Andrew Brown all claim that belief is practice.… Read the rest
On dryness
Apr 27th, 2010 8:08 am | By Ophelia BensonKenan Malik points out that fundamentalism is an idea, not a biology.
… Read the restSecularism and fundamentalism are not ideas stitched into people’s DNA. They are not born so. Secularist ideas and religious beliefs are like any values: people absorb them, accept them, reject them. A generation ago there were strong secular movements within Muslim communities and fundamentalism was a marginal force. Today secularism is much weaker, and Islamism much stronger. This shift has been propelled not by demographic trends but by political developments. And political developments can also help reverse the shift.
Kaufmann doesn’t deny any of this. But, he insists, nothing can stop the inevitable demographic triumph of the fundamentalists. Why? Because ‘we inhabit a period of ideological exhaustion’.
Kenan Malik on “Eurabia”
Apr 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Secularism and fundamentalism are not ideas stitched into people’s DNA. They are like any values: people absorb them, accept them, reject them.… Read the rest
