Haleh Esfandiari’s time in Evin prison highlights the danger of studying repressive regimes.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Why Minorities Should Cherish Free Speech 
Oct 3rd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘If people were forced by law to respect other people’s identities, you couldn’t criticise anything.’… Read the rest
Ali Eteraz on an Islamic Counter-reformation
Oct 3rd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The one thing the traditionalists guarded more than anything was the power to hand down fatwas.… Read the rest
Two Plays About Muslim Women
Oct 3rd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And the men who murder them.… Read the rest
Nuns and Child Abuse
Oct 3rd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
No audit has been carried out to determine how many nuns have abused children. … Read the rest
The New Humanist Manifesto
Oct 3rd, 2007 | By R. Joseph HoffmannThe New Humanist Manifesto
1. There are lots and lots of atheists and agnostics and people who really don’t know really what to think, or why.
2. We need to build a movement just for them.
3. And a big table.
4. Atheists and agnostics really need to discover the wisdom of the Buddha…
5. And Rainbow Love.
6. The problem with the Old Humanism is that it is Old.
7. The New Humanism is New. This is fundamental.
8. In the new humanism, everything will be tentative. For example, if someone asks us, “What do you stand for?” we must not take offense. We must say: “Why is that important to you?”
9. Similarly, if an Anti-New Humanist attacks … Read the rest
Why you must be secular
Oct 2nd, 2007 5:56 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe left everywhere ought to be identified with both tolerance (this has not always been so) and with critical intelligence – the latter often means challenging religious precepts, ambitions and institutionalized power. The hard thing is to balance the tolerance and the criticism, to insist on pluralism but not to allow religion to privilege itself in the public realm. The left should always want people to think for themselves, but this cannot mean “you must be secular like me” since it also should not mean “you must be religious like me.”
That last sentence isn’t right. ‘Secular’ doesn’t mean not religious, it means not theocratic. Wanting people to think for themselves pretty much does mean … Read the rest
Review of Nussbaum’s The Clash Within
Oct 2nd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What the Hindu fundamentalist forces did to the foundations of Indian civilisation has now become well known. … Read the rest
God’s Sick Punch Lines
Oct 2nd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Around the world, more and more people seem to be finding Gods, each more hateful and bloody than the next.… Read the rest
Logical Path from Religious Beliefs to Evil Deeds
Oct 2nd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Religion can change the definition of good.… Read the rest
Karen Armstrong Blames Dawkins for Islamism
Oct 2nd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
But Koranic fundamentalists are capable of coming up with their own follies without outside prompting.… Read the rest
Mitchell Cohen on the ‘New’ Atheism
Oct 2nd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Parts of the left apologize for Islamism as an earlier generation found ways to apologize for Stalinism. … Read the rest
Legacy of the Little Rock Nine
Oct 1st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Eisenhower sent paratroopers to enforce the Supreme Court decision against popular resistance.… Read the rest
Nigel Warburton on Doctors’ Consciences
Oct 1st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Idea that doctors could refuse treatments because of their cultural preferences is very worrying.… Read the rest
Stephen Law on Happiness
Oct 1st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Is happiness just about feeling good, or is there more to it? Is feeling good always what motivates us?… Read the rest
Dawkins on Atheism in America
Oct 1st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘I would like to see people encouraged to rejoice in the world in which they find themselves.’… Read the rest
Theo Hobson Pitches Another Fit
Oct 1st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Atheists are militant and arrogant and everybody hates’em, they are they are they are.… Read the rest
Ian Buruma Points out the Obvious
Oct 1st, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Religion is sometimes a force for good; other times it’s not; communism can work the same way; etc.… Read the rest
A bit too non-linear
Oct 1st, 2007 11:54 am | By Ophelia BensonDid Ian Buruma write this in ten minutes, or what? It’s all over the place.
It has become fashionable in certain smart circles to regard atheism as a sign of superior education, of highly evolved civilization, of enlightenment. Recent bestsellers by Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and others suggest that religious faith is a sign of backwardness…
Oh get over it for Christ’s sake. Is there no end to the market for people complaining about this overwhelming flood of atheist books that add up to all of five which is as a grain of sand to a beach compared to the flood of theist bestsellers? There certainly doesn’t seem to be. Is this the top item in The Lazy Editor’s Handbook… Read the rest
Skip the plebiscite
Oct 1st, 2007 9:21 am | By Ophelia BensonFunny what a hard time people have getting this.
… Read the restOddly, some of the people commenting on the UCU decision on the Engage website have expressed disappointment that the boycott proposal has been defeated through legal means rather than by a popular union ballot. This is a puzzling response. The Jim Crow laws in the United States were overturned in the 1950s and 1960s through Supreme Court decisions and civil rights legislation, rather than by popular referendums in southern American states. The civil rights movement did not attempt to argue with segregationists to give up their misguided commitment to discriminatory practices. It invoked legal authority in order to compel them to respect the human rights of African Americans. In a
