Jerry Coyne, Philip Kitcher, Daniel Dennett take issue with Jerry Fodor on natural selection.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Oh yes, very compelling
Nov 14th, 2007 10:53 am | By Ophelia BensonThis is quite funny. Christianity Today did a survey asking ‘What do you think is the most compelling argument for Christianity? ‘ The choices are: 1) The exquisiteness of the physical world; 2) The reliability of the Scriptures; 3) The life and character of Jesus; 4) Christianity’s positive influence on culture and individuals; 5) The experiences of individuals; 6) Something else.
Notice anything about the arguments? They’re not arguments! They’re so not arguments. They’re not even gestures at arguments – they wouldn’t be arguments even if you generously supplied some missing steps. Well I suppose 2 could be if some facts were completely different – if the ‘Scriptures’ actually were ‘reliable’ and if they didn’t contradict themselves all over … Read the rest
Scientists Do Succumb to Groupthink 
Nov 13th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Scientific pronouncements should begin: ‘At our present level of ignorance, we think we know…’ … Read the rest
Busted for Offending Royal Family
Nov 13th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Slandering or defaming the Spanish royal family can carry a sentence of up to two years in prison.… Read the rest
Maori Priest Shocked by Exorcism Death
Nov 13th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
You have to be very careful, he notes.… Read the rest
Onward Christian Teachers?
Nov 13th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A C Grayling on the influence of Christianity on teacher education and thus education in general.… Read the rest
The Secular Society and its Enemies
Nov 13th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Susan Jacoby wonders why US media pay so little attention to serious secular and political thought.… Read the rest
Report From the Secularism Conference
Nov 13th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Jacoby, Hecht, Goldstein, Dawkins, Tyson, Druyan, Kaminer, Goldberg, Tabash, Stenger.… Read the rest
The demotic Supreme
Nov 13th, 2007 10:20 am | By Ophelia BensonJeffrey Toobin wonders why Clarence Thomas is so pissed-off. (Why indeed. He is a Supreme Court justice after all – what more does he want? Universal adulation? Well – sorry, but that’s not owed to anyone.)
A touchstone of Clarence Thomas’s career on the Supreme Court has been his hostility to what he calls élites…“All the Law School cares about is its own image among know-it-all elites.”…“Nothing but an interest in classroom aesthetics and a hypersensitivity to elite sensibilities justifies the school districts’ racial balancing programs,” he said. “If our history has taught us anything, it has taught us to beware of elites bearing racial theories.”
One wonders what he thinks he is, if not a member of a … Read the rest
Clarence Thomas’s Memoir is a Howl of Rage
Nov 12th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Beyond belief that Thomas’s success owes nothing to the affirmative action he has come to despise.
.… Read the rest
‘On the Media’ on Gujarat and Tehelka
Nov 12th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Asks the wrong questions, but interesting.… Read the rest
Najam Sethi, Editor of Pakistan’s Daily Times
Nov 12th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
As long as you are in charge of the Army, the Army obeys you. You can be extremely unpopular and still rule.… Read the rest
A Chat With Simon Blackburn
Nov 12th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘I don’t think of myself as diluting philosophy, rather I’m bringing more people to it.’… Read the rest
Clarence Thomas Fumes at ‘Élites’
Nov 12th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Throughout his judicial career Thomas has, in the name of anti-élitism, shown great solicitude for actual élites.… Read the rest
Einstein’s Wife: PBS continues to fail the test of integrity
Nov 12th, 2007 | By Allen EstersonThe story so far: In 2003 the US Public Broadcasting Service first broadcast the documentary “Einstein’s Wife” (co-sponsored by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation), which purports to present evidence that Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Marić, was a brilliant mathematician and scientist who co-authored his epoch-making 1905 papers, and whose major contributions to his work had been carefully concealed throughout the twentieth century. In fact, as Alberto A. Martínez has demonstrated,[1] the film is a travesty of the historical record. I belatedly came across the film and accompanying PBS website in late 2005, and, following a close examination of the historical evidence, in March 2006 I submitted a complaint to the PBS Ombudsman, providing documentation of the falsehoods, misconceptions and tendentious misrepresentations … Read the rest
Through a glass darkly
Nov 11th, 2007 6:12 pm | By Ophelia BensonMore again on fiction and why we get so involved in it. There are further posts by Richard at Castrovalva and Dale at Faith in Honest Doubt, twice.
I said something in a comment on Fiction and Unreality yesterday that came back into my head this morning (hours and hours ago, and I’ve done many things and been many places since then; it seems like a lifetime ago) and suggested part of an answer to the original question (why we get so involved in stories and with the characters in them).
… Read the rest…of course the thing that makes (good) novels so engrossing is that in fact we know far more about the point of view characters than we
The Home Office on Hate Crime
Nov 11th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Lots of hate crime, lots of perps, lots of new laws, lots of ways to report, lots of support, lots of everything.… Read the rest
Ben Catches a Boo-boo
Nov 11th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Free energy! More comes out than goes in! If your meters aren’t working, that is.… Read the rest
A Masterclass in Spotting Fallacious Science
Nov 11th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Science and technology committee report on scientific developments relating to the Abortion Act.… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo Discuss Blood Atonement
Nov 11th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mo thinks it’s sick.… Read the rest
