‘Among the more irritating consequences of our flagrantly religious society is the special dispensation that mainstream religions receive.’… Read the rest
Fashionable nonsense has been with us since the time that prehistoric man first transcribed Of Grammatology on to the walls of the Lascaux caves. Here we cast an eye back at some historical highlights.
Reminding liberals how to get mad
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Michael Bérubé on the Chomskian left and obfuscation… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo on Righteous Blasphemy
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Jesus is reading The Philosophers’ Magazine.… Read the rest
Meera Nanda on the Case for Indian Enlightenment
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Meera Nanda had good reasons to fight against patriarchal, upper-caste Hindu traditions that would have suppressed all she valued. Science was not ‘elitist’ or Western but a way of life and a philosophy for social action.… Read the rest
Steven Weinberg on the Sokal Hoax
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
No, linear doesn’t mean what pomos think it means.… Read the rest
A Moral Argument for Atheism
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Slaughter of innocents, human sacrifice, eternal torture – it’s all there.… Read the rest
Report on Resistentialism
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Betrousered, two-eyed philosopher Ventre considers a world in which Things are Against Us.… Read the rest
Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
When cultures are organized around controlling and using women, is blanket respect for Other cultures such a good idea?… Read the rest
‘Frontline’ on Alternative Medicine
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Alternative to what? Testing and evidence?… Read the rest
Norman Levitt on Kennewick Man.
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
NAGPRA is a well-intentioned piece of legislation that has grown into a monster of anti-scientific bias.… Read the rest
Please, No More Glamorama
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
James Wood on the grim outlook for social realism and ‘hysterical realism’, which may allow a space for the aesthetic and the contemplative again.… Read the rest
Anthropologists sharpen their knives
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Anthropologists are trained to appreciate cultural differences, but they can’t stand it within their own profession.’… Read the rest
Hitchens on Contrarianism
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Among his many weapons are a forensic curiosity, a vast learning, a savage wit, a commanding intellect, an international perspective and a moral authority that is built on something sturdier than cheap moralising.’… Read the rest
Human Rights and Asian Values
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Dissent is part of all cultures, Asian decidedly included.… Read the rest
Fifteen Answers to Creationist Nonsense
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Some antievolutionists admit that they intend for intelligent-design theory to serve as a “wedge” for reopening science classrooms to discussions of God. … Read the rest
Eagleton on Fish
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘A superficially historicist, materialist case – our beliefs and assumptions are embedded in our practical forms of life – leads not only to a kind of epistemological idealism, but to the deeply convenient doctrine that our way of life cannot be criticised as a whole.’… Read the rest
NAGPRA and the Demon-haunted World
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
NAGPRA proceeds from an antievolutionary perspective grounded in fundamentalist religious belief.… Read the rest
A Duty to Annoy
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Is feminism about being a fragile flower needing protection and consolation at every hint of conflict? Or is it about being a cactus and fighting back. Wendy Kaminer disavows florality.… Read the rest
Ethnomathematics
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Mathematics is absolutely integrated with Western civilization, which conquered and dominated the entire world.’… Read the rest
So Sylvia Plath was a Poet?
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Death and marriage may have fed and fuelled her writing, but – posthumously at least – they cramp her style.’… Read the rest