In March 2006 I sent a detailed complaint to the PBS Ombudsman about the numerous factual errors on their Einstein’s Wife
webpages. Due to a communications mix-up at PBS I only received a response on 20 November, although it was ready for sending in July. It comprised a reply to my
critique
of the “Einstein’s Wife” film, solicited from the writer/producer Geraldine Hilton, of which more below.[1] First let me note that the lack of disinterestedness on the part of PBS is indicated by the fact that the only person consulted was the writer/producer of the “Einstein’s Wife” film, who naturally will defend her product however flawed, and that the three Einstein scholars with considerable knowledge of the documentary evidence … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Einstein’s Wife: An Open Letter to PBS
Nov 23rd, 2006 | By Allen EstersonThe word is out
Nov 22nd, 2006 8:35 pm | By Ophelia BensonExcellent. Word is out at last. Via Hari Kunzru.
… Read the restSomehow the idea of culture has got very confused in the UK. Multicultural politics once provided a light in the post-imperial gloom…However, as biological racism has faded away, a form of cultural racism is taking its place, often propagated by left-liberals who consider themelves, um, whiter than white on issues of diversity. Underlying much of the current hot air about “respect” and “offence” we find implicit the idea that as BME’s…we’re somehow more determined by our culture than our flexible white co-Britons…Our more serious conversation has to be with the communitarian politicians who feel happiest when dealing with us in groups. Instead of asking us as individual British citizens what
Some Massacres are More Massacres Than Others
Nov 22nd, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonArmy shelling at Kathiraveli killed at least 65 civilians; where is the UN condemnation?… Read the rest
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on an Optimistic Breeze
Nov 22nd, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOnce activists stood up for all victims of racism and the internal oppressions within groups.… Read the rest
Hari Kunzru on Ossified Multiculturalism
Nov 22nd, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOur views are too often inferred from a dialogue with self-appointed, conservative ‘community leaders.’… Read the rest
Spread of AIDS Continues
Nov 22nd, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUganda’s progress has been reversed, perhaps due to switch from condoms to abstinence.… Read the rest
God is both p and not-p, okay?
Nov 21st, 2006 11:26 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo I’m not the only one who found Terry Eagleton’s review of Dawkins’s book more than slightly incoherent, especially the ‘God is not a person God is not a celestial super-object or divine UFO but then again God is an artist who did it for the sheer love or hell of it God is the condition of possibility’ stuff. Others have had the same reaction. Good. A C Grayling for instance.
… Read the restTerry Eagleton charges Richard Dawkins with failing to read theology in formulating his objection to religious belief, and thereby misses the point that when one rejects the premises of a set of views, it is a waste of one’s time to address what is built on those premises…Eagleton’s touching
Science Fights Back at Last
Nov 21st, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd the Templeton Foundation gets huffy.… Read the rest
Elaine Scarry on Why Military Honour Matters
Nov 21st, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDisregarding the laws of war leads to neo-absolutism.… Read the rest
Polygamy is Multicultural Isn’t It?
Nov 21st, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s all about female subservience, one escapee says.… Read the rest
Manifesto Seeks an End to Communalist Politics
Nov 21st, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWe want to be treated not as homogenous blocks but as free-thinking citizens with diverse views.… Read the rest
Sunny Hundal on Self-appointed Leaders
Nov 21st, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt is in everyone’s interests to challenge those who claim to speak for entire groups.… Read the rest
Fifth Column
Nov 21st, 2006 12:01 am | By Ophelia BensonAnother interesting discussion here and later here. It starts from the idea that I contradict myself by “saying that disgust is worthless as a moral compass” and yet using the word “disgusting” to express strong disapprobation quite often and consistently. I argue that it’s not inconsistent because my claim is only that disgust is worthless as a guide to morals on its own, not that disgust itself is morally worthless. On the contrary – I think it’s often called for, and that’s why I resort to the word. (I had noticed that I use it fairly often, when I’m feeling particularly…outraged, vehement…disgusted.) Brandon doesn’t agree, so the discussion has continued. I think he’s underestimating the degree to which … Read the rest
Ritual and art
Nov 20th, 2006 11:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo now we’re talking about ritual, partly via what Julian said in that interview (‘And also you have rituals of gratitude. A religious person can say grace, they can pray. Now, you can try to create these little rituals in atheist settings if you like, but I tend to think they wouldn’t work.’) and partly via what JS said in that other interview (‘You have the thought that the rituals that go along with religious practice are desirable, and so on. However, there’s a lot of research that suggests that people get seduced by ritual…’). This is connected, it seems to me, with a post of Nigel Warburton’s the other day, which is also about something I ponder sometimes.… Read the rest
Instrumentalist theology
Nov 20th, 2006 7:38 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo yesterday I asked, with reference to Theo Hobson’s argument, ‘how do you go about seeing god as the source of all goodness, all life if you don’t believe god exists? How can god’s existence be a non-question if you’re going to have gratitude to that god for being the source of all goodness, all life?’ and Jerry S answered ‘A lot of people in the non-realist tradition think something like this. I think Robin LaPoidevin makes this kind of argument, for example (check out my interview with him in New British Philosophy)’ – so I did. He asked an interesting question in that interview.
Robin Le Poidevin had said this about instrumentalist theology as opposed to the realist … Read the rest
BBC Reporter Dilawar Khan Wazir Missing
Nov 20th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWas reporting on pro-Taleban militants in Waziristan; has received threats.… Read the rest
The Wrong Sort of Petition
Nov 20th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAsking LSE to condemn unpopular research without regard for its academic merit. … Read the rest
Review of Kingsley Amis Biography
Nov 20th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonKA spent a good deal of time making sure his whole personality was more or less continually on view.… Read the rest
Robert Pirsig Interview
Nov 20th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘There are crackpots with crazy ideas all over the world, and what evidence was I giving that I was not one of them?’… Read the rest
Attitudes
Nov 19th, 2006 8:58 pm | By Ophelia BensonTom Freeman at Fisking Central also disputed with Theo Hobson and his rather idiosyncratic account of what atheism is. He points out that Hobson isn’t altogether consistent.
… Read the restThis atheist, believing that religious claims are factually untrue, is naturally likely to prefer others to reject these untruths. It is also possible, though, for an atheist to believe that (some) religion can (in some circumstances) have (some) social or cultural benefits. And Hobson knows this: less than a week ago, he wrote about the atheist philosopher Julian Baggini, who “agrees that dogmatic atheism is unattractive: ‘to think there is nothing to be learned from religion is extremely arrogant,’ he says. And he acknowledges the appeal of religion, even to a hardened atheist.”