Really: the exact same ones.… Read the rest
Welcome to our archive of news stories relevant to the project of fighting fashionable nonsense. The stories are drawn from the electronic pages of the world’s media. On this page, you’ll find links to those stories that have been featured on Butterflies and Wheels during the current year. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find links to separate archives of stories from previous years.
We’re always pleased to hear about news stories that you think should be featured on Butterflies and Wheels. Just send an email here, if you want to point one out to us.
A note about links
Inevitably links go out of date. We suggest, therefore, that you make hard-copies of the stories that particularly interest you.
Hitchens on the King James bible 
Apr 15th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Tyndale translated ecclesia to mean “the congregation” as an autonomous body, rather than “the church” as a sacrosanct institution above human law.… Read the rest
PZ on the great quest for martyrs
Apr 14th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
We should no more find vindication in the execution of heretics than doctors would revel in the glory of millions of miserable deaths by typhoid and cholera.… Read the rest
Grayling reviews Baggini on the self
Apr 14th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The unity that is you, constructed from the interplay of various physical and psychological factors, is in some ways very fragile and in other ways robust.… Read the rest
No abortion and no contraception either
Apr 14th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Many social conservatives are simply opposed to giving women the ability to have sex without the possibility of procreation.… Read the rest
Paula Kirby on religion and women
Apr 14th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Right after the commandment to women to submit to their husbands comes the commandment to children to obey their parents, and to slaves to obey their owners.… Read the rest
Religion lays foundation for gender discrimination
Apr 14th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
No institutional religious leader accepts the premise that he or his denomination seriously discriminates against women.… Read the rest
Pakistan’s blasphemy vigilantes kill exonerated man
Apr 14th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He was cleared, but he was murdered anyway; thus Mo is protected.… Read the rest
Grayling’s secular bible is a sequel, not an attack
Apr 13th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The truth is that both the religious bibles and this new “secular bible” come from the same source – human experience.… Read the rest
Guardian supports women’s right to self-obliterate
Apr 13th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Not a word about Muslim women who support the ban.… Read the rest
How to ossify religious identity
Apr 13th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Train social workers as “Muslim social workers” so that there will be “enough role models for Muslim teenage girls.”… Read the rest
Berlinerblau scolds the gnu atheists again
Apr 12th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Louis, this looks like the start of a beautiful friendship.… Read the rest
Mona Eltahawy on the burqa
Apr 12th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The burqa represents an ideology that does not believe in Muslim women’s rights to do anything but choose to cover her face.… Read the rest
Sex trafficking charity loses out to Salvation Army
Apr 12th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Bad move.… Read the rest
French burqa ban is in effect
Apr 12th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Said a man, “According to this law, my wife would have to remain cloistered at home.”… Read the rest
Bangladesh: girl whipped to death for being raped
Apr 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
She was 14. The man who raped her was her cousin, age 40. He’s alive and well.… Read the rest
Does Mo want to make $50,000?
Apr 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He knows it’s not as easy as it looks.… Read the rest
Ben Goldacre on why cigarette packs matter
Apr 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Cigarette packaging has been used to sell the crucial lie that cigarettes which are “light”, “mild”, “silver”, and the rest, are somehow “safer”.… Read the rest
When wives are set on fire for their dowry
Apr 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
At least 249 women were killed in 2010 for their dowry, according to the Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights.… Read the rest
“Holy man” committed sexual assault by proxy
Apr 11th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Golossian convinced two Greek Orthodox women that they had been cursed by black magic and had to obey his angel-given instructions.… Read the rest
