A couple more thoughts on Dabashi, because they tie into other things, into larger subjects. (Which, come to think of it, is part of what he is claiming about Nafisi and RLT. It’s a reasonable enough thing to claim, it’s just that he does such a terrible job of it. It could for instance be the case that RLT, whether intentionally or by accident, did something to increase US hostility toward the Iranian regime; but that’s a rather different thing from claiming that, for instance, ‘there is no difference between Lynndie England and Azar Nafisi.’ You’ll notice I haven’t been claiming there is no difference between Hamid Dabashi and Iran’s religious police. That would be because I think there’s a … Read the rest
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Respect
Oct 22nd, 2006 7:49 pm | By Ophelia BensonSpeaking of respect for religion…There’s Adele Stan in The American Prospect:
… Read the restIn positions it takes on other issues, Feminists for Life is indeed “pro-woman,” whether in regard to its stance on the Violence Against Women Act or support for mothers on welfare. But it’s hard not to wonder if those positions aren’t just a beard, along with the term, “feminist,” for the hard-core, misogynist agenda of the Vatican. The organization’s no-exceptions anti-abortion position follows Catholic doctrine to the letter, a doctrine that has always demanded of women that they bear whatever burden men place upon them, and that they not soil the altar with the very bodiliness they represent by virtue of the means by which children are born.
Mary Warnock on Music and Education
Oct 22nd, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Nobody can deny how central a part music plays in the life of most children and adolescents.’… Read the rest
Nick Cohen on Bono and Being ‘Tax-efficient’
Oct 22nd, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd humbug.… Read the rest
Untruth in Advertising
Oct 22nd, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Feminists for Life’ might as well be an office of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.… Read the rest
Religious Believers Will Just Have to Live With It
Oct 22nd, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPissed-off atheists are finding their voice in a debate set up and manipulated by religious forces.… Read the rest
The Shorter History of God
Oct 22nd, 2006 | By R. Joseph HoffmannFirst some history. The Hebrew tribes were a violent lot, not just because their literary enemies, like the 3rd century BCE historian Manetho, says they were, but violent even by their own reckoning. From Abraham’s fatwah on the cities of the plain, described gleefully by the author of Genesis (Genesis 19:12-29) as the first victory of Yahweh against his enemies, right down to the final humiliation of the God-forsaken people (their description) and the fall of the southern kingdom of Judaea (586 BCE), the love of war and the smell of blood dominates the Hebrew Bible.
Take for example this little story in the Book of Judges: A certain Levite takes a concubine, who deserts him. Outraged, the Levite drags … Read the rest
Preference for Fairness
Oct 22nd, 2006 2:23 am | By Ophelia BensonDid you read Jeremy’s article on justice? It’s very good.
One bit reminded me of something else I’d just read. Serendipity kind of thing. This bit reminded me.
If this is right, it does not follow that one cannot account for the existence of retributive feelings. Mackie, for example, employed Darwinian principles in order to explain their ubiquity and persistence. His argument was roughly this: individuals achieved an evolutionary advantage to the extent that resentment of injuries became a deeply ingrained psychological disposition in their personality structures; this disposition was then universalized for broadly sociological reasons, so that certain harms came to be cooperatively resented, which is the mark of retributivism generally.
It reminded me of this article in … Read the rest
Grayling and Blackburn on Religion and Respect
Oct 21st, 2006 9:01 pm | By Ophelia BensonWell this is what I keep saying.
It is time to reverse the prevailing notion that religious commitment is intrinsically deserving of respect, and that it should be handled with kid gloves and protected by custom and in some cases law against criticism and ridicule. It is time to refuse to tip-toe around people who claim respect, consideration, special treatment, or any other kind of immunity, on the grounds that they have a religious faith, as if having faith were a privilege-endowing virtue, as if it were noble to believe in unsupported claims and ancient superstitions.
That’s all. It’s quite simple. Faith is not a virtue, and it shouldn’t endow privilege. It’s not noble to believe in unsupported claims, especially … Read the rest
Ben Goldacre on Oliver Curry’s Fanciful Essay
Oct 21st, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEmpty ‘science’ stories are being generated by PR companies who pay academics to produce some spurious piece of ‘research’.… Read the rest
P Z Myers Reviews The God Delusion
Oct 21st, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPromotion of religion as a guide to absolute truth and substitute for scientific thinking is a bad idea.… Read the rest
Jim Holt Reviews The God Delusion
Oct 21st, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUnderestimate of difficult philosophical questions about religion makes it intellectually frustrating.… Read the rest
Eagleton’s Review of The God Delusion
Oct 21st, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNow non-subscription at LRB.… Read the rest
Shahid Malik MP Tells Azmi to Give Up Fight
Oct 21st, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMuslim parents in his constituency don’t want their children taught by veiled teacher.… Read the rest
A C Grayling on What Merits Respect
Oct 21st, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTime to refuse to tip-toe around people who claim immunity on the grounds that they have a religious faith.… Read the rest
Catching Up with Jesus and Mo
Oct 20th, 2006 6:14 pm | By Ophelia BensonHmph. I’ve been too busy lately – I’ve missed some great Jesus and Moze (it’s hard to make a plural Jesus and Mo in writing). Such as this one. Haw. What’s he going to do, sit on us? Haw!
And this one. I love the barmaid. Can I play the barmaid in the movie? Can I, huh, huh? I’d be perfect.
And this one. Catchy. Violent, and catchy.
And this one. ‘That laws-of-physics-defying explanation never even occurred to me.’ Try to keep up, Mo.
And the niqab one is brilliant. Oh, Mo, I feel so liberated.… Read the rest
Participation on equal terms
Oct 20th, 2006 2:31 pm | By Ophelia BensonPolly Toynbee says a secular state would be a good idea.
Here is a conflict between two principles – respect for a religious minority and respect for women’s equality…The veil turns women into things. It was shocking to find on the streets of Kabul that invisible women behind burkas are not treated with special respect. On the contrary, they are pushed and shoved off pavements by men, jostled aside as if almost subhuman without the face-to-face contact that recognises common humanity.
She’s right you know. That’s how it works. You can’t have the one without the other – you can’t have the concealment without the reification – the concealment is reification. That is essentially what it’s all about: erasure of … Read the rest
Jesus and Mo Try Out the Niqab
Oct 20th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy should the girls have all the fun?… Read the rest
Media Ignore MMR Correction
Oct 20th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey were all over 2002 report, but now that new study suggests there were false positives – yawn.… Read the rest
Parliamentary Motion on Science Education
Oct 20th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLiterature being sent to UK schools by ‘Truth in Science’ is full of scientific mistakes.… Read the rest