Laws will give the Iranian government legal grounds to kill any citizens who choose a religion other than Islam. … 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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
Section Five: Apostasy, Heresy, and Witchcraft 
Feb 28th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Article 225-7: Punishment for an Innate Apostate is death. Article 225-8: Punishment for a Parental Apostate is death.… Read the rest
Tom Flynn: Why the A Word Won’t Go Away
Feb 27th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mainstreamers have powerfully negative, largely noncognitive responses to atheism. … Read the rest
Cultural Sensitivity Puts Rights at Risk
Feb 27th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Prevents police, teachers, social services from protecting basic human rights for fear of upsetting ‘communities.’… Read the rest
Biologists Join Philosophers in Moral Thinking
Feb 27th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Marc Hauser, David Sloan Wilson, Samuel Bowles look at trolleyology, altruism, and moral behavior.… Read the rest
Seyla Benhabib on Turkey’s Hijab Legislation
Feb 27th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Unfortunate that reform of Article 301 (on ‘insulting Turkishness’) was dropped.… Read the rest
Paul Gross on Florida’s New Science Standards
Feb 27th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The compromise is a sop to voters who think some other way of knowing is equal or superior to science.… Read the rest
Measles Cases at Record High in Britain
Feb 26th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The only way to reduce impact of such outbreaks is to ensure uptake of MMR vaccine increases.… Read the rest
Lookin’ Good for Jesus
Feb 26th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The products included a “Virtuous vanilla” lip balm and a “Get Tight with Christ” hand and body cream.… Read the rest
Turkey Begins Radical Revision of Hadith
Feb 26th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Dept of Religious Affairs has commissioned theologians at Ankara University to revise the Hadith.… Read the rest
The War Against Women Never Ends
Feb 26th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In West Africa, as in so many places where rape was used as a weapon of war, it has become a habit.… Read the rest
Steve Jones Disses Creationism
Feb 26th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Creationism is boring and empty, and I usually ignore it, but this week at UCL it’s hard to do so.’… Read the rest
Multi-secularism: The New Agenda
Feb 26th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Multi-secularism seems to be the best strategy: adapting secular values to the societies in which they arise. … Read the rest
Open Letter from American Feminists
Feb 26th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Katha Pollitt notes: ‘Women’s rights are human rights’ was not a slogan dreamed up by David Horowitz.… Read the rest
Nigeria: Human Rights Group Condemns Stoning
Feb 25th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The group called for compulsory education of all sharia judges on the provisions of the UDHR.… Read the rest
Hamas Bunny on Motoon Cartoonists
Feb 25th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Assud: If they do it again, Saraa, we will kill them, right?’ Aww, how cute.… Read the rest
The Indy Talks to Sayed Pervez Kambaksh
Feb 25th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘What they call my trial lasted just four minutes in a closed court.’… Read the rest
How to Interpret Evidence
Feb 25th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Atheists have a disease that makes them unable to see Angels of the Lord.… Read the rest
Ultra-orthodox News Media Delete Women
Feb 24th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Spiritual committees.’ Rabbis. Modesty. Obscurity. Result: women Photoshopped out of pictures.… Read the rest
Amartya Sen on Imperial Illusions
Feb 24th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
How tidy and how regular were the processes that led to the emergence of the largest empire in history?… Read the rest
