The mighty do not fear free speech as an abstract idea but as the beginning of the end of their privileges.… 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.
The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn [pdf]
Jan 2nd, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJonathan Bennett on Huck, Himmler, and Jonathan Edwards, and the relationship between sympathy on the one hand and bad morality on the other.… Read the rest
Katha Pollitt: Freedom From Religion, ¡Si!
Dec 31st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBecause the most energetic religions tend to be the ones most invested in keeping women subordinate, women in particular have nothing to gain from the burgeoning involvement of religion in the public sphere.… Read the rest
Martha Nussbaum on the fragility of goodness
Dec 26th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTalking to Bill Moyers around…1988?… Read the rest
Rosenhouse on Dixon on Religion and Science
Dec 17th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonConflicts over who is authorized to produce and disseminate knowledge are conflicts between science and religion.… Read the rest
Martin Gardner on Oprah and woo
Dec 17th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShe promotes, as frequent guests, people who preach views that are medically worthless and in a few cases can even lead to death.… Read the rest
Abandoning FGM in the Afar Region of Ethiopia
Dec 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe strategy is to gain the support of a core group, which decides to abandon the practice then helps mobilize enough people to facilitate a tipping point.… Read the rest
Jerry Coyne on Michael Behe in Boston Review
Dec 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBehe likens himself to Newton, Einstein, and Pasteur, but claims that a defensive band of evolutionists blocks his ascendancy to the pantheon. Such declarations of unrecognized genius are a diagnostic feature of crank science.… Read the rest
Roy Sablosky on the myth of Christian charity
Dec 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe statistical studies that supposedly demonstrate that religion has a positive influence in charitable giving do not hold up when examined carefully.… Read the rest
Council of Europe resolution on the dangers of creationism in education
Nov 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe aim is to warn against certain tendencies to pass off a belief as science.… Read the rest
Waleed Al-Husseini on why he left Islam
Nov 28th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRenouncing Islam is a choice offered to everyone and anyone has the right to do so.… Read the rest
Why CCR sued to represent Awlaki
Nov 20th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCCR Legal Director explains, but his characterization of Awlaki is incomplete.… Read the rest
Richard Owen reviews Origin in Edinburgh Review
Nov 17th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSet the cat among the pigeons.… Read the rest
Huxley’s review of Origin in Westminster Review
Nov 17th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA classic.… Read the rest
Why smart people do stupid things
Oct 26th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPeople buy high and sell low. They believe their horoscope. They supersize their fries and order diet Coke. They text while driving.… Read the rest
The cut-and-paste theology of Alister McGrath
Oct 20th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDan Bye finds that McGrath frequently recycles his own writing.… Read the rest
Ajita Kamal argues for gender equality in freethought
Sep 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAny organization that challenges superstition and religion in India must make an effort to break established patterns of gender inequality.… Read the rest
Ajita Kamal on the uses of outspoken atheism
Sep 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIdeas die in a culture when it becomes embarrassing to hold on to them.… Read the rest
Tom Clark reviews Gary Drescher on demystifying paradoxes
Sep 4th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProblems that arise when common sense conflicts with the science-based view that we inhabit a purely physical, mechanistic, deterministic universe.… Read the rest
Peter Medawar reviews Teilhard de Chardin
Aug 27th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“In expounding this thesis, Teilhard becomes more and more confused and excited and finally almost hysterical.” Mind 1961.… Read the rest