‘Necessary and urgent that the faithful not be subjected to provocations injuring their outlook and religious feelings.’… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Aaronovitch Reports from a Parallel Universe
Feb 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Dan Brown apologizes and promises to become a monk in a silent order.… Read the rest
AAAS Invites Teachers to Annual Conference
Feb 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Teachers say finger-wagging parents insist they abandon biology textbooks for biblical creationism or ID.… Read the rest
Creationism on the Rise in the UK
Feb 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Most medical and science students could be creationists, says biology teacher at sixth-form college.… Read the rest
Saying What He Doesn’t Think
Feb 22nd, 2006 12:02 am | By Ophelia BensonThe Irving sentence raises some issues that are, it seems to me, not very well grasped by discussing them in the usual terms of the freedom or right to express an opinion or say what one thinks or similar. Because the thing about Irving is that, surely, he doesn’t actually hold the opinion he peddles, he doesn’t think what he claims to think. He falsifies the record, as the libel trial judge found. Well if he falsifies the record, he doesn’t do it in a trance or a fugue state, presumably – he knows he’s doing it, it seems fair to assume – so if he knows he’s doing it, he doesn’t really believe what he’s saying. If he knows … Read the rest
Deborah Lipstadt on the Irving Sentence
Feb 21st, 2006 4:03 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhat a good thing it is that Deborah Lipstadt has a blog. It is, needless to say, full of interest right now. She was floored yesterday by Irving’s sentence. She gave us her first thoughts and then further thoughts, she was summoned to talk to the BBC and then unsummoned because they switched to bird flu. Livelier than the average blog, you must admit – and also involved in centrally important issues. Truth, for instance, and evidence, and documentation, records, history, lies and the uncovering of lies.
… Read the restAfter having a long conversation with a reporter who was in the courtroom, I have learned that it seemed to him – quite clearly so – that the judge was really
The Pope of Holocaust Deniers
Feb 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
But not all Jews welcome the sentence. ‘Personally I prefer to treat him with disdain.’… Read the rest
The Historian Who Rejected Plain Facts
Feb 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Would-be martyr using free speech arguments to peddle myths.… Read the rest
Ian Traynor in Vienna
Feb 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Irving was arrested after returning to deliver more speeches despite being barred from Austria.… Read the rest
‘I Made a Mistake’ Didn’t Do the Trick
Feb 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Lipstadt says, ‘The one thing he deserves, he really deserves, is obscurity.’… Read the rest
Irving Revises History for the Jury
Feb 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Hard to claim he stopped being a Holocaust denier in 1992 after 2000 libel case exposed his distortions.… Read the rest
Lipstadt on the Irving Verdict
Feb 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Irving can’t claim ‘to have changed his mind in the 1990s when he took me to court in 2000.’… Read the rest
David Irving Sentenced to Three Years in Prison
Feb 21st, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Deborah Lipstadt dismayed. ‘The way of fighting Holocaust deniers is with history and with truth.’… Read the rest
Distortions Are Not Worth Debating
Feb 21st, 2006 | By Deborah LipstadtDeborah Lipstadt looks at the decision by the editors of the student newspaper of Northwestern University, The Daily Northwestern, to publish an article by Arthur Butz.
Things at Northwestern seem to be going from bad to worse. Electrical Engineering Professor Arthur Butz has, after many years of total obscurity in anything but the world of Holocaust deniers, once again grabbed headlines by praising Iranian President Ahmadinejad for his Holocaust denial. Mr. Butz has as much expertise on the history of the Holocaust as I do on building bridges. But he has tenure and this means that, as long as he does not introduce this false information into his classroom, he cannot be fired.
But Butz is an old story. … Read the rest
Why Truth Does Matter
Feb 21st, 2006 | By Ophelia Benson and Jeremy StangroomFrom Why Truth Matters by Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom, Continuum 2006, pp. 18-20.
But does it really matter? Is it worth bothering about? Academic fashions come and go. Dons and professors are always coming up with some New Big Thing, and then getting old and doddering off to the great library in the sky, while new dons and professors hatch new big things, some more and some less silly than others. Casaubon had his key to all mythologies, Derrida had his, someone will have a new one tomorrow; what of it.
Yes, is our answer; it does matter. It matters for various pragmatic, instrumental reasons. Meera Nanda discusses in Prophets Facing Backward the way Hindu fundamentalists in India have … Read the rest
Which Vulnerable Minority?
Feb 20th, 2006 5:05 pm | By Ophelia BensonYes, what about that Francesca Klug article. It’s worse than some of the more obviously woolly commentary, because its subtlety makes it that much more persuasive. But she starts from a very dubious premise, and sticks with it throughout – without it she has no case. She starts from the assumption that the Danish cartoons ‘denigrate’ not the prophet M, but Muslims themselves. But – if that’s true, then why isn’t that what all the shouting is about? Has she not noticed that the shouting is in fact about something else? Does she think that’s just displacement or a smokescreen? Well, if so, she needs to say so, and say why. She doesn’t.
… Read the restWhile some [of the cartoons] seem
Norman Levitt Considers Steve Fuller
Feb 20th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘In Fuller’s mind, working scientists are in an important sense intellectually deformed.’… Read the rest
Pseudoscience and The Occult in Public Schools
Feb 20th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Medical Qigong’ taught as science in California charter school.… Read the rest
AAAS Issues Statement Against ‘the Wedge’
Feb 20th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Veiled attempts to wedge religion into science classrooms are a disservice to students, teachers.… Read the rest
Blackmore and Midgley Discuss Memes
Feb 20th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Midgley seems to miss the point rather…… Read the rest