Easy and tempting to mock Sartre as poseur and hypocrite.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Amartya Sen on the Argumentative Indian 
Jun 18th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Indians are not all ‘spiritual.’… Read the rest
Magic vs. Modernity
Jun 18th, 2005 | By Thomas R. DeGregoriIn the European Enlightenment, the belief was that science and reason
would soon sweep myth and magic into oblivion. For some, myth included
religion while others operated in terms of some variant of Deism or even
Theism, believing that there was an unknown power beyond what was known and
knowable to humans. In fact, many scientists, then and now, could fully
exercise their religious convictions and interpret them in such a way as
not to allow them to interfere with scientific understanding. For those for
whom there was no conflict between science and religion, it was because
particular statements or religious beliefs about the way the things work
always gave way to emerging facts and theories of scientific inquiry.
Science … Read the rest
Like an Anglican Clergyman From Central Casting
Jun 17th, 2005 7:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonWell, that’s one way of looking at it.
The story of science and religion since the Middle Ages has been one of estrangement rather than conflict. When the Aristotelian synthesis shattered, science and theology drifted apart, becoming at last disconnected universes of discourse.
Quite a good way, if you want to avoid talking about some obvious inconvenient facts. Quite handy to pretend that science and religion are just two ‘universes of discourse’ as opposed to two fundamentally different enterprises. Shifty, though. For one thing, how did we get from science and religion in the first sentence to science and theology in the second? Shifty, shifty. But the crucial move of course is to call science a universe of discourse.… Read the rest
Theological Thickness
Jun 17th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Christian theology has its own sources, insights, methods, and internal logic.… Read the rest
Evangelical Bullying at Air Force Academy
Jun 17th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Focus on the Family’ across the street, New Life church up the hill.… Read the rest
Public Relations Disaster for Pakistan
Jun 17th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Perhaps the work of ‘more loyal than the king brigade’ around Musharraf.… Read the rest
Mill and Russell Speak Up
Jun 16th, 2005 8:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd while we’re on the subject of ‘Intelligent Design’ and the people at the ‘Discovery Institute’ and so on – I just feel like aiming another kick at the design argument. I know I’ve done it before, I’m repeating myself, but – but I’m not sure they get shouted at enough about this.
Okay their big thing is ‘_____ is too complex to have come about without a designer. _____ is irreducibly complex, so a designer must have designed it, because otherwise it wouldn’t be there, being so complex and all.’ Complex things can’t just happen. A hurricane can’t whip through a junkyard and leave a 777 behind. An inebriated chimpanzee can’t shred a pile of old newspapers and end … Read the rest
Bad Astronomy Speaks Out
Jun 16th, 2005 7:02 pm | By Ophelia BensonOkay – so apparently you’re not sick of the sound of my voice even if I am. (Well you wouldn’t be, would you – because if you were, you wouldn’t be here. Unless you’re all a pack of masochists who go out of your way to read stuff that you’re sick of. But that’s not likely either, because in fact if you’re masochistic and want to read stuff you’re sick of, you can find plenty of stuff you’re sicker of than you are of me. I’m quietly confident of that. Really. I happen to know [this is a little-known fact, but I’ll make you a present of it] that there is quite a lot of boring stuff on the Internet, … Read the rest
‘Bad Astronomy’ on Creationist Astronomy
Jun 16th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Discovery Institute looks beyond biology…… Read the rest
Today Reporter Tells How He Got the Story
Jun 16th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why Sita Kisanga agreed to talk to BBC about the ‘witchcraft’ child abuse case.… Read the rest
But Mai Needs Her Passport
Jun 16th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mukhtar Mai has told the BBC her passport has been confiscated.… Read the rest
Pakistan Lifts Travel Ban on Mukhtar Mai
Jun 16th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mai welcomed decision, had been planning to travel to US at invitation of human rights group.… Read the rest
Pakistan Lifts Travel Restrictions on Rape Victim
Jun 16th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
US State Department and human rights groups objected.… Read the rest
Microsoft Criticized Over China Censorship
Jun 16th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Human rights’ forbidden in subject line but allowed in text.… Read the rest
Untitled
Jun 15th, 2005 9:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m sick of the sound of my own voice.… Read the rest
Vatican Wins in Referendum Boycott
Jun 15th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Failure of attempt to liberalise law on IVF treatment called ‘the great revenge.’… Read the rest
India Muslim Divorce Code Disappoints Women
Jun 15th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Code silent on minimum marriage age for women, triple talaq still there.… Read the rest
Woman Ordered to Marry Rapist
Jun 15th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Indian woman ordered by Muslim council of community elders to marry father-in-law. … Read the rest
“Theory’s Empire”
Jun 15th, 2005 | By Mark BauerleinThis spring, Columbia University Press published an anthology of literary and cultural theory, a 700-page tome entitled Theory’s Empire and edited by Daphne Patai and Will Corral. The collection includes essays dating back 30 years, but most of them are of recent vintage (I’m one of the contributors).
Why another door-stopper volume on a subject already well-covered by anthologies and reference books from Norton, Johns Hopkins, Penguin, University of Florida Press, etc.? Because in the last 30 years, theory has undergone a paradoxical decline, and the existing anthologies have failed to register the change. Glance at the roster of names and texts in the table of contents and you’ll find a predictable roll call of deconstruction, feminism, new historicism, neopragmatism, … Read the rest
