It is inappropriate to put figures about purported nutritional advantages of organic food into the public debate in the absence of any context.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Prince Declares Mind Unchanged
Aug 4th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘This study hasn’t changed His Royal Highness’s views one bit.’… Read the rest
The Home Office Have Assembled Some Evidence
Aug 4th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ben Goldacre takes a look at it. He asks if it is a joke.… Read the rest
Royal Family’s Support for Homeopathy is a Joke
Aug 4th, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
BMA and MHRA have condemned Ainsworths and ‘Swine Flu Formula.’ Time the Royals did the same.… Read the rest
Have some Treatment
Aug 3rd, 2009 6:01 pm | By Ophelia BensonGot a broken leg? Hepatitis? Chapped lips? Have you tried some nice medicine?
… Read the restA pharmacy supplying homeopathic remedies to the Royal Family…, Ainsworths, has been accused of “quackery” for supplying bottles of pills labelled as “Swine Flu Formula” for people suffering from the disease…Ainsworths has been granted a Royal Warrant by the Queen and Prince Charles, who are both said to be supporters of homeopathy…Its treatment is in the form of small “sugar pills”, which dissolve under the tongue. It is sold in £7 bottles, containing 50 pills, which can be bought on the company’s website or over the counter of its central London store. The label on the bottles reads: “SFF (Swine Flu Formula). Treatment: One to be
The Chiropractors’ World Unravels
Aug 3rd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
They are getting more attention than they wanted. Sad.… Read the rest
Homeopathic ‘Pharmacy’ Sells Sugar Pills
Aug 3rd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ainsworth’s, homeopaths to the royal family, sells sugar pills as swine flu treatment.… Read the rest
The Epistemology of Photoshopping
Aug 3rd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Bachelard, Lacan, Heisenberg, Peggy J Bowers – it all adds up.… Read the rest
Daughter Turns Atheist – Call the FBI
Aug 3rd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Or an exorcist.… Read the rest
Andrew Brown Pitches a Fit at ‘Militant’ Atheists
Aug 3rd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Clock strikes twelve.… Read the rest
Footnotes on footnotes
Aug 2nd, 2009 12:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonI mentioned that a commenter at The Intersection said I was lying. Tim Broderick, he is; here’s the central part of what he said:
… Read the restWhen Ophelia Benson claims through her “questions” that Chris and Sheril have no evidence she is not telling the truth. It’s one thing for people who haven’t read the book to assert this – she has the book. So let me say that again and more emphatically: She is lying.
Here is the question from her own site: “How do you know overt atheism causes people to be hostile to science? How does that work? What is your evidence?”
From page 173 to page 185 there are detailed endnotes with citations to back up the assertions
Americans Have No Sense of Humour
Aug 2nd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Says BBC reporter on his way out the door.… Read the rest
Oregon Faith-healing Father Gets 60 Days
Aug 2nd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Convicted in the death of baby from illness that could easily have been cured with antibiotics. … Read the rest
Marjane Sur Tous les Fronts!
Aug 2nd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Marjane Satrapi, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Bernard-Henri Levy protest the Iranian election.… Read the rest
Kara Neumann’s Father Convicted in her Death
Aug 2nd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
But they are devout Christians who were faithful to their convictions, so…… Read the rest
Rosenhouse on Unscientific America Part 2
Aug 2nd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Isn’t it obvious that the problem is the attitude that places religious faith in a privileged position relative to science? … Read the rest
The secular conscience
Aug 2nd, 2009 11:41 am | By Ophelia BensonAustin Dacey, in The Secular Conscience.
“In the United States, secular and liberal have become dirty words…Best sellers allege that liberalism is a dogmatic faith, a critique popularized by evangelical leaders in the 1980s…When a rare few secularists push back against religious belief in print, they are branded – often by fellow seculars and liberal religionists – ‘dogmatic,’ ‘evangelical,’ ‘militant’ and ‘fundamentalist’ atheists. [examples in an endnote] Their scandalous premise is that religion is an urgent topic of conversation and therefore subject to the intellectual and moral standards of all serious conversation.” [p 11]
One thing that’s interesting about this is that Austin Dacey was one participant in something called ScienceDebate2008. Lawrence Krauss was another. Chris Mooney and Sheril … Read the rest
The limits of ironism
Aug 1st, 2009 6:16 pm | By Ophelia BensonThought for the day, from Owen Flanagan’s The Problem of the Soul (no, he doesn’t think there is such a thing as the soul).
“As for my ironist friends who think that science is no more objective than any other way of thinking, I have observed in most of them a fairly deep ignorance about science. Being around intellectuals who know almost nothing about science does not particularly bother me, except when they pronounce on the nature of science. My view is that if you are going to claim that all forms of discourse are equally subjective, you better have real familiarity with all the forms of discourse you aim to level.” p. 54… Read the rest
It will just have to go here then
Aug 1st, 2009 12:12 pm | By Ophelia BensonNow sometimes a cunning plan turns out to be not so cunning after all. Mooney’s cunning plan of banning me from commenting on his blog so that my unkind questions and objections would no longer appear there is going to turn out to be a mistake, because it means I will post them here instead. This is penny wise and pound foolish. A comment on his blog would just get lost in the clutter of kwokkery and other nonsense there, and would not be on the main page in any case. A post here is on the main page for a month. So you see…he should have just settled for letting me ask questions there. The morally bankrupt path Does … Read the rest
Pope Tony Launches UK Tour
Aug 1st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Will begin in Durham then process South.… Read the rest