Metaphorical God of physicists is light years away from the God of the Bible and ordinary language.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Joan Bakewell on The God Delusion 
Sep 23rd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Enumerates the many ways religion is excessively privileged in our supposedly secular society.… Read the rest
Danny Postel on Hossein Derakhshan
Sep 23rd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why did openDemocracy publish an article that justifies the repression of intellectual freedom?… Read the rest
Chet Raymo on Knowing You Don’t Know
Sep 23rd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Wisdom is willingness to say ‘I don’t know.’ Why is there something rather than nothing? ‘I don’t know.’… Read the rest
Pre-infected Condoms
Sep 22nd, 2006 8:34 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhy did no one (until G Tingey in comments today) tell me Richard Dawkins has set up a foundation and a website? It’s apparently (judging by the dates on some of the postings) been there since May. This is September. I’m out of touch.
So it republishes this Johann Hari piece about the real reasons to feel disapprobation for the pontiff. Here’s an item that stirred a certain amount of distaste in me.
… Read the restFor over a decade now, he has been one of the primary defenders of priests who go to the poorest, most vulnerable people in the world and tell them condoms are the cause of AIDS. In the past year, I have sat in two Catholic churches
Johann Hari: the Real Reasons to be Cross at Pope
Sep 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Hari has heard priests tell people that condoms come pre-infected with AIDS and are the reason people die of it.… Read the rest
Dawkins on Newsnight Tonight
Sep 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Talking to Jeremy Paxman about The God Delusion.… Read the rest
Bad Science: the Fish Oil Files
Sep 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Equazen won’t let Ben Goldacre review the research evidence unless he signs a confidentiality agreement.… Read the rest
The Economist on The God Delusion
Sep 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘If nothing else, his book should help bring the atheists out of the closet.’… Read the rest
Michael Shermer on Conservatives and Evolution
Sep 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ways to find compatibility.… Read the rest
SciAm on Dikika Baby
Sep 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Skeleton provides new information on A. afarensis locomotion.… Read the rest
Brown on Dawkins
Sep 21st, 2006 9:13 pm | By Ophelia BensonAndrew Brown doesn’t admire Dawkins’s new book, despite agreeing on the basics.
In his broad thesis, Dawkins is right. Religions are potentially dangerous, and in their popular forms profoundly irrational. The agnostics must be right and the atheists very well may be. There is no purpose to the universe. Nothing inconsistent with the laws of physics has been reliably reported. To demand a designer to explain the complexity of the world begs the question, “Who designed the designer?” It has been clear since Darwin that we have no need to hypothesise a designer to explain the complexity of living things. The results of intercessory prayer are indistinguishable from those of chance.
Despite all the trillions of words in theological … Read the rest
Bush Muses on Flawed Logic
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
If you object to torture you must think Murkans are no better than those Bad People. QED.… Read the rest
Conspecific of Lucy Found in Ethiopia
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Stunningly complete skeleton of 3 year old female Australopithecus afarensis found in Awash region.… Read the rest
Why the IAEA Matters
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Because once the inspectors are barred, speculation and exaggeration move in.… Read the rest
Elif Shafak Acquitted of ‘Insulting Turkishness’
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Government may amend Article 301 which makes ‘denigrating Turkish national identity’ a crime.… Read the rest
Michael Walsh on the Pope
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Pope’s desire to re-Christianise Europe underlies his Regensburg address.… Read the rest
No Good Blaming the Internet for Sockpuppetry
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Deception is deception, whatever the medium.… Read the rest
Andrew Brown on Dawkins on God
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why does religion persist in the face of arguments and evidence?… Read the rest
Scott McLemee on Walter Benn Michaels
Sep 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Michaels will have none of this repackaging of racist pseudoscience as “anti-racist” cultural relativism.’… Read the rest
