If Gore would only take Matthew Nisbet’s advice, he might begin to get somewhere.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Girl Marriage 
Oct 13th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Child brides are more likely to die young, suffer from health problems, live in poverty and remain illiterate.… Read the rest
Can you prove it?
Oct 12th, 2007 3:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe ‘Militant atheists are wrong’ mould has turned out another cookie.
In the last few years, so many books have rolled off the presses challenging God, belief and religion itself (by Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Victor Stenger and Christopher Hitchens, among others) that a visitor from another planet might think America was in the iron throes of priestly repression.
Yes – four or five books, maybe even six or seven if you count Stenger and Onfray. Gee wow. Compared to how many books celebrating God, belief and religion itself? Any guesses as to the number? Something tells me it’s more than six, or even seven.
… Read the restIf anything, you could imagine these assaults on religion becoming infamous in
Jesus and Mo Swap Religions
Oct 12th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Jesus hits a snag.… Read the rest
Falwell Colleague Found Dead
Oct 12th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He was wearing rubber underwear…… Read the rest
Gore and IPCC Win Nobel Peace Prize
Oct 12th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Nobel Prize “is honoring the science and the publicity, and they’re necessarily different.’… Read the rest
Journalists Convicted of ‘Insulting Turkishness’
Oct 12th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Arat Dink, son of Hrant Dink, and Serkis Seropyan referred to Armenian genocide.… Read the rest
Deaths Among Pregnant Women a Global Problem
Oct 12th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In Nicaragua a new law has put a blanket ban on abortion even if the woman’s life might be in danger. … Read the rest
Nicaragua’s Abortion Law Risks Women’s Lives
Oct 12th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Nicaraguan doctors are now afraid of going to jail. Many think it is better to let a woman die.… Read the rest
Can we talk?
Oct 11th, 2007 12:30 pm | By Ophelia BensonWish I’d been there. Norm was there – perhaps I could have sat with him and we could have elbowed each other at exciting moments.
The motion ‘We should not be reluctant to assert the superiority of Western values’ was proposed by the author Ibn Warraq. He contrasted the West’s openness and flexibility with the ossified ‘closed book’ culture of Islam. ‘Easterners flock to collect their degrees from Oxbridge, Harvard and the Sorbonne,’ he said. Traffic in the other direction is minimal. Rejecting the ‘mind-numbing certainties’ of Islam in favour of the ‘liberating doubt’ of Bertrand Russell, he asked us if Islam would tolerate an equivalent of The Life of Brian.
I wish the values had been called liberal … Read the rest
What Kind of Dialogue?
Oct 11th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Where does it start? Jokes? No. Cartoons? No. A film? No. A book? No. Where then?… Read the rest
Normblog on the Debate About Values
Oct 11th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
To assert the superiority of some values over others is no different from defending the former.… Read the rest
Ibn Warraq Debates Tariq Ramadan
Oct 11th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Easterners flock to collect their degrees from Oxbridge, Harvard and the Sorbonne. Traffic in the other direction is minimal.… Read the rest
Quebec Council on the Status of Women v Hijab
Oct 11th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Freedom of religion must be limited, intrinsically, by the right to equality between women and men.’… Read the rest
Wars in Africa Piss Away $300 Billion in 15 Years
Oct 11th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf wrote the preface to the NGO report.… Read the rest
New Humanist Poll
Oct 10th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Is Sam Harris right to reject labels like ‘Atheist’ and ‘Humanist’?… Read the rest
David Barash on Redirected Aggression
Oct 10th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The urge to pass along pain lurks behind modern warfare no less than it did behind medieval pageantry.… Read the rest
Hitchens on a Death in Iraq
Oct 10th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘I don’t remember ever feeling, in every allowable sense of the word, quite so hollow.’… Read the rest
Kanan Makiya
Oct 10th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The catastrophe in Iraq has made Makiya and the others who justified the invasion look reckless and naïve.… Read the rest
What Label for People Like Us?
Oct 10th, 2007 | By Paul KurtzI note with interest that Margaret Downey organized a blockbuster atheist conference in the Washington, D.C. area, to which she brought many of the “new atheists.” We congratulate her on her energy. However, may I agree with Sam Harris who states that in accepting the label of “atheist” that “we are consenting to be viewed as a cranky sub-culture… a marginal interest group that meets in hotel ballrooms.”
May I first compliment Sam (as the newest kid on the block) for his two fine books and his eloquent voice now being heard on the national scene. May I then disagree with his subsequent “seditious proposal” that we should not call ourselves “secularists,” “humanists,” “secular humanists,” “naturalists,” “skeptics,” etc. “We should … Read the rest
