News
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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
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Latest News
Go to School and Learn to Pick Lettuce
A vacuous ideology robs too many US schoolchildren of hours they might have spent reading books.
Date filed: 08-02-2010
Germany's Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandal
The code of silence has been upheld for decades, informally or by virtue of Vatican directives.
Date filed: 08-02-2010
Terry Glavin on AI and Cage Prisoners
They don't belong together.
Date filed: 08-02-2010
Ukpabio's Lawsuit Against Igwe Struck Out
Helen Ukpabio of the Liberty Gospel Church failed to show up, so her suit against Leo Igwe is over.
Date filed: 08-02-2010
The 'Islamophobia Watch' Take on Gita Sahgal
She is 'a member of a nutty group called Women Against Fundamentalisms.'
Date filed: 08-02-2010
Nick Cohen on Amnesty and Gita Sahgal
Given a choice between violent patriachy and women's rights, like many liberal institutions AI chooses reaction.
Date filed: 08-02-2010
Amnesty Shafts What it Purports to Defend
AI suspended Gita Sahgal for suggesting AI should not cozy up to the Taliban.
Date filed: 08-02-2010
Gita Sahgal Publishes a Statement
Defence of the torture standard has been allied to political legitimization of individuals and organisations on the Islamic Right.
Date filed: 07-02-2010
Richard Bartholomew on Gita Sahgal
Amnesty has suspended her in the wake of the article.
Date filed: 07-02-2010
Gita Sahgal and Amnesty International
Sahgal suggests AI supports Begg and Cageprisoners out of fear of being branded racist and 'Islamophobic.'
Date filed: 07-02-2010
The Role of Program Code in Climate Research
We really do need to be sure that we're not getting any of our sums wrong.
Date filed: 07-02-2010
The People Speak on Autism and MMR
My kids aren't vaccinated and they don't have autism. Explain that, smarty! [The Onion]
Date filed: 07-02-2010
As Close as Private Eye Gets to a Mea Culpa?
For its 'largely uncritical and unquestioning adherence to the Andrew Wakefield school of junk science.'
Date filed: 07-02-2010
Ben Goldacre on the Wakefield MMR Verdict
Wakefield is being blamed by journalists as if he were the only one at fault; the media are equally guilty.
Date filed: 07-02-2010
Jesus and Mo on the Moderate Majority
A graceful job of moving the goalposts.
Date filed: 07-02-2010
Taliban Blow Up Girls' School in NW Pakistan
They are opposed to girls' education.
Date filed: 06-02-2010
Mary Midgley Sets 'Neo-Darwnists' Straight
She's still fretting about the metaphors.
Date filed: 06-02-2010
Ethnomathematics
Yes, really.
Date filed: 06-02-2010
Girl Buried Alive and Awake for Talking to Boys
Medine Memi was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a small hole dug outside her home.
Date filed: 06-02-2010
Enlightenment, Yes
The counter-Enlightenment was really the anti-Enlightenment.
Date filed: 06-02-2010
Skepticism is not Enough
David Mikics finds Derrida most instructive in his failure to move from doubt to any feasible ethics or politics.
Date filed: 06-02-2010
Life With the Taliban
'My brother used to tell me that the place for a woman is either at home or in the grave.'
Date filed: 05-02-2010
Turkish Girl Buried Alive and Probably Awake
Most such killings happen in 'conservative Muslim communities' but it's custom not religion, BBC insists.
Date filed: 05-02-2010
Jerry Coyne on Building Bridges to Anti-vaxxers
Can there be a compromise between science and ignorance?
Date filed: 05-02-2010
How to Convince 'Vaccine Skeptics'
They will never heed evidence, so 'we need to encourage moderation,' says Chris Mooney.
Date filed: 05-02-2010
Hugo Rifkind Slept Through Philosophy Class
His philosophy degree taught him in week one: 'If God isn’t the ultimate answer, what is?'
Date filed: 05-02-2010
But Of Course Religious People Are Better
Not superior; just better. Any fule kno that!
Date filed: 05-02-2010
NSS Files Complaint Against Cherie Booth
NSS complained to the Office for Judicial Complaints, suggesting Booth acted in a discriminatory way.
Date filed: 05-02-2010
Wole Soyinka is Not Impressed by Islamism
'We should assemble all those who are pure and cannot abide other faiths, put them all in rockets, and fire them into space.'
Date filed: 05-02-2010
Anthony Gottlieb on Gods and Gardens
If the divine gardener is invisible, how do we know the divine gardener is tending the garden?
Date filed: 04-02-2010
Iran Will Execute 9 More Dissidents
A senior member of Iran's judiciary said nine government critics would be hanged soon.
Date filed: 04-02-2010
Obama Attends Creepy 'Prayer Breakfast'
Sponsored by ultra-creepy evangelical network called The Fellowship aka 'The Family.'
Date filed: 04-02-2010
Susan Jacoby on 'Nasty v Nice' Atheists
This dichotomy is wholly an invention of believers who think atheism is a religion in need of a schism.
Date filed: 04-02-2010
P Charles Pitches a Fit at the Enlightenment
'We cannot go on like this, just imagining that the principles of the Enlightenment still apply now.'
Date filed: 04-02-2010
Andrew Brown on Religious v Secular Jurisprudence
Or on his idea of it, anyway.
Date filed: 04-02-2010
Lisa Bauer's 'Subjection and Escape' Parts 1-3
All in one place.
Date filed: 03-02-2010
NY Times on Lancet Retraction
Anti-vaccine guy said the retraction would strengthen Dr. Wakefield’s credibility with many parents.
Date filed: 03-02-2010
Science-Based Medicine on Faith Healing
Harriet Hall on the many problems with claims of 'faith healing.'
Date filed: 03-02-2010
General Medical Council to Andrew Wakefield
'The panel is satisfied that your conduct was irresponsible and dishonest.' David Gorski reports.
Date filed: 03-02-2010
Full Text of Lancet Retraction [pdf]
'Following the judgment of the UK General Medical Council’s Fitness to Practise Panel on Jan 28, 2010...'
Date filed: 03-02-2010
The Lancet Retracts Wakefield's Article
It's ok to be wrong in science, but error should not include scientific fraud or misrepresentation.
Date filed: 03-02-2010
Wendy Kaminer on Science and Public Opinion
People may express respect for science in general without being open to persuasion by scientific evidence.
Date filed: 02-02-2010
BBC Slightly Less Excited About Pope's Visit
Peter Tatchell called Pope's comments a coded attack on legal rights of women and gay people.
Date filed: 02-02-2010
Harman Defends Equality Legislation
Harman expects religious organisations to obey UK law like anyone else.
Date filed: 02-02-2010
BBC Totally Excited About Pope's Visit
He'll visit Birmingham! And Scotland! In ever such a pretty white dress.
Date filed: 02-02-2010
Lisa Bauer on Escaping Islam
'Islam reinforced the weakest aspects of my personality. Indeed it sacralized them.'
Date filed: 02-02-2010
Aceh: WLUML Call for Repeal of Qanun Jinayah
Stoning to death would be codified and Islamic jurisdiction would be expanded into criminal law.
Date filed: 01-02-2010
CFI Announces 3 New Hosts for Point of Inquiry
Chris Mooney, Karen Stollznow, and Robert Price.
Date filed: 01-02-2010
Telegraph Joins Pope in Demanding Theocracy
'Religious freedom nowadays seems to take second place to other sorts of freedom.'
Date filed: 01-02-2010
Reactionary Pope Meddles With Secular Law
Joins bishops in demanding right to impose religious law everywhere.
Date filed: 01-02-2010
Pope Attacks UK's Equality Legislation
'The truth revealed through scripture and tradition and articulated by the Church’s Magisterium sets us free.'
Date filed: 01-02-2010
Real Men Think Church is Too Girly
Men like to be waited on - if they are not made to feel guilty. So tell the women to serve them! And smile!
Date filed: 01-02-2010
Church Will Fight to Keep 'Divine Right' to Children
In Ireland the bishops and priests who controlled the schools behaved like dictators for generations.
Date filed: 31-01-2010
Catholicism Shrinking in South Jersey
It's a start.
Date filed: 31-01-2010
Haiti: Idaho Church Group Accused of Abduction
One girl, aged 8 or 9, was crying and saying, ‘I’m not an orphan. I still have my parents.'
Date filed: 31-01-2010
'Homeopathic Remedies': Real Cure or Nonsense?
There is no evidence that homeopathy works, yet it gets public funding.
Date filed: 31-01-2010
A Gift to the Creationists
A book titled What Darwin Got Wrong that's not by a creationist.
Date filed: 31-01-2010
Simon Singh and Andy Lewis on Homeopathy
Filmed by Stephen Law at the CFI UK Trick or Treatment event.
Date filed: 30-01-2010
Edmund Standing on Sick BNP 'Christians'
Who compare immigration from the developing world to the Nazi Lebensraum policies in Poland.
Date filed: 30-01-2010
'New Perspectives on Faith and Development'
Tony Blair Faith Foundation, Islamic Relief et al. to host 'groundbreaking' seminars on Faith and Development.
Date filed: 30-01-2010
Oliver Kamm on Howard Zinn
If your heart is in the right place, the assumption is, then it doesn't matter if your scholarship is sloppy.
Date filed: 30-01-2010
The Boston Globe on Howard Zinn
His books and plays are about the power of ordinary people to affect history.
Date filed: 30-01-2010
Iran Executes 2 Mohareb or 'Enemies of God'
The prosecutor's office said nine other detained protesters have been condemned to death as Mohareb.
Date filed: 29-01-2010
Orthodoxy Enforcement at Wheaton College
Wheaton is nondenominational, but has a detailed statement of faith that all at the college must follow.
Date filed: 29-01-2010
Ogling Teaches Women to Self-objectify
When a female believes her body is being sized up by a male, she'll diminish her presence by speaking less.
Date filed: 29-01-2010
Questioning Homophobic Pseudoscience
'That a child needs a male parent and a female parent is so taken for granted that people are uncritical.'
Date filed: 29-01-2010
Roeder Convicted of First-Degree Murder
It took jurors 37 minutes to convict Scott Roeder of first-degree murder in the death of George R. Tiller.
Date filed: 29-01-2010
Blair is Sorry the War Was 'Divisive'
He acknowledged 'things obviously look quite different' now given the failure to find any weapons.
Date filed: 29-01-2010
Tesco Says No Shopping in Pyjamas
Buffoon doesn't see why, she only wanted a packet of fags, she would have worn clothes for a full shop.
Date filed: 29-01-2010
Johann Hari on Corruption in America
It has reached the point that lobbyists now often write the country's laws. Not metaphorically; literally.
Date filed: 29-01-2010
A Common Problem in Science Journalism
Science reporters tend to avoid looking hard at research that produces interesting conclusions.
Date filed: 28-01-2010
Panel Finds MMR Scare Doctor 'Acted Unethically'
Wakefield's Lancet study caused vaccination rates to plummet, resulting in a rise in measles.
Date filed: 28-01-2010
Televangelist Accused of Fraud Over Haiti Relief
Six televangelist ministries are being investigated by Senate Finance Committee for possible tax law fraud.
Date filed: 28-01-2010
'Europe Must Assert its Religious Identity'
Italian Foreign Affairs Minister laments lack of 'common European identity' which he takes to be Xian.
Date filed: 28-01-2010
Russell Blackford on Complexities of Free Speech
What if speech with real social value seems very likely to lead to violence?
Date filed: 28-01-2010
Ben Goldacre on Animal Research
A lot of it is flawed; it's stupid to make animals suffer to do flawed research. Do it right.
Date filed: 27-01-2010
Christianity Explained for Pesky Militant Atheists
Christianity is based on the Bible, as read in the light of reason under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, OK?
Date filed: 27-01-2010
More Warnings on 'Bomb Detectors'
'Speaking as a professional, I would say that is an empty plastic case,' said explosives expert.
Date filed: 27-01-2010
Pope Calls for More Evangelism
Urges 'shared witness' against secularization, relativism, abortion, euthanasia, science.
Date filed: 27-01-2010
Scientology Meddling in Haiti
'Healing patients' via 'the power of touch to reconnect nervous systems.' Doctor doubts touch cures gangrene.
Date filed: 27-01-2010
Bangladesh: Rape Victim Gets 101 Lashes
For getting pregnant. Her father was fined. The village elders pardoned her rapist.
Date filed: 26-01-2010
'Religious Freedom' to Ignore the Law
If Christian influence is a licence to practice bigotry at public expense, it's time for armchair secularists to resist.
Date filed: 26-01-2010
Why Atheists Are Helping Haiti
We have an evolved psychological need to help people who are suffering, especially when we can see them.
Date filed: 26-01-2010
The Job of the Humanist Chaplain
Someone who can empathise without offering a load of meaningless or insulting platitudes.
Date filed: 26-01-2010
More Theodicy, and More and More
'God will work all things for our good even if we don’t understand.' 'Even catastrophes include divine presence.'
Date filed: 26-01-2010
HRW to Canadian Embassy in Riyadh
We look forward to your cooperation in this very urgent matter.
Date filed: 25-01-2010
Katha Pollitt on Nazia Quazi
An adult woman who made the mistake of setting foot in Saudi Arabia; her father is holding her prisoner.
Date filed: 25-01-2010
C of E Officially Opposes Equality
We support fairness but we want to go on excluding women and gays. Surely you understand.
Date filed: 25-01-2010
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is Conflicted on the Burqa
While fighting racism we cannot allow ourselves to become apologists for another, abhorrent injustice.
Date filed: 25-01-2010
Football and Family and Forced Pregnancy
They all go together, surely.
Date filed: 25-01-2010
Religion 'Fills the Void' in Haiti
'The earthquake is God's voice and He will do other things. The stars will crash down onto the earth.'
Date filed: 25-01-2010
Churches Demand Right to Maintain Inequality
Meanwhile demands that religious groups should comply with equality provisions have intensified.
Date filed: 25-01-2010
Iraqi Interior Ministry Still Backs 'Bomb Detector'
Despite total lack of actual detection capability.
Date filed: 24-01-2010
'Religious Man' Allowed to Commit Assault
Cherie Booth let a guy who broke someone's jaw in a fight to go free because he is 'a religious man.'
Date filed: 24-01-2010
Al-Qaeda Has Trained Female Suicide Bombers
They believe in gender equality.
Date filed: 24-01-2010
Islamist Cleric to Tour UK Universities
He has described Jews as 'monkeys and pigs' and universities are 'plural societies' therefore...something.
Date filed: 24-01-2010
Xians Vow to Get Culture Minister Out of Her Job
They say she is betraying Christ.
Date filed: 24-01-2010
Homeopathy By Very Very Very Big Numbers
How much arnica is in Boots-brand 84 arnica homeopathic 30C Pills for £5.09?
Date filed: 24-01-2010
The Theological Language of Punishment and Mercy
Either God is punitive and interventionist, or as capricious as nature and so absent as to be effectively nonexistent.
Date filed: 24-01-2010
Obama Disputes Supreme Court Ruling
Conservative majority said limits violated 'corporations' constitutional right to free speech.'
Date filed: 23-01-2010
No More Jesus Rifles
'It is not the policy of the Department of Defense to put religious references of any kind on its equipment.'
Date filed: 23-01-2010
Paula Kirby on Suffering and Significance
Theologians start with their desired answer - God is good! - then contort themselves to make the evidence fit.
Date filed: 23-01-2010
McCormick Planned Improvements to ADE-651
'The machine does look a little primitive. We are working on a new model that has flashing lights.'
Date filed: 23-01-2010
150 Bodies Found in Nigeria After Religious Riots
Many of the bodies found in Kuru Karama had massive burns, other victims were hacked to death or shot.
Date filed: 23-01-2010
Phil Plait on the Arrest of Jim McCormick
Say it twice: he has been arrested on suspicion of fraud.
Date filed: 23-01-2010
Jim McCormack Arrested on Suspicion of Fraud
Sold 'bomb detectors' to Iraq for $40,000 apiece.
Date filed: 23-01-2010
Export Ban on Useless Bomb Detector
Iraq paid $40,000 apiece for a device that contains a cheap electronicky tag-thing that detects nothing.
Date filed: 22-01-2010
Jesus and Mo on Science and Religion
Religious scientists do exist, as do pedophile priests. That's simply a fact.
Date filed: 22-01-2010
Nick Cohen on Chomsky
Chomsky doesn't seem to get the nature of clerical fascism.
Date filed: 22-01-2010
National Association of Muslim Police Protest
Stigma, communities, faith, black, ethnic, wrong to blame Islam.
Date filed: 22-01-2010
Wall St Journal Gloats Over Freedom of Bribery
'Corporations are entitled to the same right that individuals have to spend money on political speech.'
Date filed: 22-01-2010
Fresh Air on 36 Arguments for the Existence of God
Part academic farce, part metaphysical romance, all novel of ideas.
Date filed: 21-01-2010
A Visit to the Creation Museum
There’s a room that has all the stuff God made on each day; the exhibit looks like holiday photographs.
Date filed: 21-01-2010
A Jump Too Many
From contempt for philosophy to contempt for the idea that we should strive to have beliefs that make sense.
Date filed: 21-01-2010
Christian-Muslim Riots Spread in Nigeria
As street clashes broke out in Pankshin and Mangu, one report said 464 people had died in Jos.
Date filed: 21-01-2010
Religion's Role in California's Prop 8
Experts said religion has been used to justify discrimination against African Americans, women and gays.
Date filed: 21-01-2010
Maia Caron Interviews OB
On religion and women, compliance and fear, misogyny and habit.
Date filed: 21-01-2010
A Bad Earthquake and a Good God?
No. [link fixed]
Date filed: 21-01-2010
Separation of Church and Medicine
The religious ideologies that permeate BU's academic policies may harm scientific progress at BCM.
Date filed: 20-01-2010
Bowling for Atheists: Donations Pour In
People give for many reasons; the more reasons, the more giving.
Date filed: 20-01-2010
Catholic Reveals Defective Moral Sense
'Why is other human life worth anything if there is no God?'
Date filed: 20-01-2010
Sean Carroll: The Truth Still Matters
“X is true” and “People exist who believe X is true” are not actually the same statement.
Date filed: 20-01-2010
OSCE: Turkey's Internet Law Should Be Reformed
'At present, 3,700 Internet sites are blocked in Turkey, including YouTube, GeoCities, and Google sites.'
Date filed: 19-01-2010
Laurie Taylor on the Church's Way With Children
It happened to him and to his best friend. The priests made it the child's fault.
Date filed: 19-01-2010
Russell Blackford on 'The Evolution of God'
There is no phenomenon crying out for a deeper explanation that involves purpose or design or divinity.
Date filed: 19-01-2010
Egypt: No Sex Before Marriage
So what you do is, you secretly say you're married. Problem solved.
Date filed: 19-01-2010
Clerics Demand More Time and Deference on TV
It's all gardening and natural history instead of God! It's an outrage!
Date filed: 19-01-2010
Science and the Battle for Free Speech
Science progresses only through open criticism, and UK libel law makes this impossible.
Date filed: 18-01-2010
Randi Foundation Teams With Dawkins Foundation
And a dozen other secular groups to set up a way to donate money to help the people of Haiti.
Date filed: 18-01-2010
Roy Greenslade on Liddle and Those Comments
Liddle replies - unless that's a hacker too.
Date filed: 18-01-2010
Sunny Hundal on Rod Liddle and Those Comments
Are they his or a hacker's?
Date filed: 18-01-2010
Secularists as Dogmatic and Even More Strident
Says the archish of Westminster sweetly. Also the Irish mess is v good, reminds us we are sinners.
Date filed: 18-01-2010
Clare Sambrook on Children in Detention Centres
'While the Government misrepresents the evidence, children’s suffering goes on.'
Date filed: 18-01-2010
Joe Hoffmann Says 'Thanks, God'
The only way to show you how we really feel is to rebuild the churches and get people back on their knees, where they belong.
Date filed: 18-01-2010
Voodoo 'Faith' Could Hinder Haiti's Recovery
No worries about the other kind though.
Date filed: 17-01-2010
Unbelievers Giving Aid
Donate to Doctors Without Borders or other secular organizations.
Date filed: 17-01-2010
Hitchens on Blaming Geology, not the Devil
If any single thing explains the abject misery of Haiti, it is the prevalence of religious cultism.
Date filed: 17-01-2010
Jeremy Havardi on 'Blasphemy'
If religious beliefs appear absurd and immoral by liberal standards, let us feel free to say so.
Date filed: 17-01-2010
One Good Thing About Pat Robertson
His claim underscores the absurdity of religious belief, instead of obscuring it with touchy-feely doubletalk
Date filed: 16-01-2010
'Guru-like Saint' Had 17 Women, 60 Children
Ratzon banned the women from communicating with men and demanded absolute obedience.
Date filed: 16-01-2010
Tel Aviv: 'Guru' Arrested for Enslavement and Rape
He was 'romantically involved' with 17 women, is suspected of raping several of them. How dreamy.
Date filed: 16-01-2010
Algerian Feminist Playwright Attacked
'We know who you are, you miscreant whore.'
Date filed: 16-01-2010
Science Shows: God is the Answer to all Questions
Anxious? Try God. Want sex? Try God.
Date filed: 15-01-2010
UK: Government is Friends With MCB Again
The 'communities secretary' said the separation was simply too tragic.
Date filed: 15-01-2010
Pope Blames Atheists for Copenhagen Summit
Moral sense comes from God; look at those materialistic and atheistic regimes; case closed.
Date filed: 15-01-2010
Senior Member of Hizb ut-Tahrir Teaches at LSE
Reza Pankhurst is a postgraduate student and teaches for the course 'States, Nations and Empires.'
Date filed: 15-01-2010
Bishops Horrified by Equality and Rights
Believers must be able to insist that homosexuality is a sin and that only men and women can marry.
Date filed: 15-01-2010
Maia Caron Interviews Udo Schüklenk
Religious institutions and the states they control move ever more viciously against freedom of speech to protect themselves from legitimate criticism.
Date filed: 14-01-2010
Why Do Newspapers Report on 'Miracles'?
Why are editors who are so resistant to the evidence for climate change so uncritical about this nonsense?
Date filed: 14-01-2010
The Never-ending Horror of Pat Robertson
Writing horror stories in the blood of innocent victims of a monstrous natural occurrence - again.
Date filed: 14-01-2010
Pat Robertson's Amateur History
Haiti, Napoleon, pact with the devil - what's he talking about?
Date filed: 14-01-2010
Wendy Kaminer: No Atheists Need Apply
Atheists who regard all religions with equal disrespect are sometimes the most reliable defenders of equal religious rights.
Date filed: 14-01-2010
Pat Robertson Says Haiti is Cursed
Because of that pact with the devil.
Date filed: 13-01-2010
Paul Fidalgo on Karen Armstrong
When cornered by particularly formidable atheists and rationalists, religionists play the Socrates Card.
Date filed: 13-01-2010
If Murder is Sincere Then it's Not so Bad?
Judge refused prosecution request to bar evidence that might support a voluntary manslaughter conviction.
Date filed: 13-01-2010
Manslaughter Charge 'Could Justify Violence'
The court 'should not be the first to enable a defendant to justify premeditated murder because of an emotionally charged belief.'
Date filed: 13-01-2010
Judge Rules Killer Can Argue for Right to Kill
Will be allowed to argue in court that he believed he was justified in trying to save unborn children
Date filed: 13-01-2010
Why Did a British Professor Support Pol Pot?
The other historians went into the archives; Caldwell had very clear ideological views and the empirical basis didn't seem to worry him.
Date filed: 12-01-2010
Dear God Please Bless My iPhone
Possessed bankers hold their toys aloft for blessing. Seriously.
Date filed: 12-01-2010
Jesus and Mo Defend Moral Absolutes
Killing is tricky, of course - but some things are totally absolute!
Date filed: 12-01-2010
Violence Against Journalists in Philippines
Nightmare 2009 culminated in massacre of 30 journalists by a militia on Mindanao, and 2010 has started badly.
Date filed: 12-01-2010
The Fate of Journalists Imprisoned in Eritrea
'The conditions in which Eritrean detainees are held are among the most disturbing in the world.'
Date filed: 12-01-2010
Dennett on 'Media Bias Against Christianity'
There is none.
Date filed: 12-01-2010
Gay Muslims Made Homeless By Family Violence
Forced marriage, 'honor' killing, beatings, imprisonment.
Date filed: 11-01-2010
More 'Equality Threates Religious Expression'
'As umpteen bishops and other religious leaders have pointed out.' Oh well say no more.
Date filed: 11-01-2010
More 'Human Sacrifices' in Uganda
Witch doctors, children chopped up for parts, ritual, get rich quickly.
Date filed: 11-01-2010
What is Blasphemy and Should We Care?
My take on Comment is Free Belief question of the week.
Date filed: 11-01-2010
Telegraph Says No to Equality
Tolerance means letting other people exclude inferiors from power. Why can't Labour understand this?
Date filed: 10-01-2010
UK: Catholic Church in Panic Over Equality Bill
The church could no longer exclude women from power. This must not be!
Date filed: 10-01-2010
Atheism Has Left the Closet
The new atheism is bigger, more organised, and much more assertive than ever before.
Date filed: 10-01-2010
Nicholas Kristof on Religion and Women
When religious institutions exclude women from their hierarchies, the implication is that females are inferior.
Date filed: 10-01-2010
Gallery Director Pitches Fit at Two Artists
They criticized religion! One religion in particular! Director placed giant 'Warning!' sign on stairway.
Date filed: 10-01-2010
Michael Totten Interviews Christopher Hitchens
These two religions make very large claims for themselves, and further say they should be immune from criticism.
Date filed: 09-01-2010
Dubai: Woman Reports Rape, is Arrested
British woman reports a waiter raped her, so she and her boyfriend are arrested for 'adultery.'
Date filed: 09-01-2010
God's Economy
The plea of a backward-looking prophet crying in the midst of a welfare wilderness that only democracy can solve.
Date filed: 09-01-2010
Harry's Place on Hitchens on Westergaard
'Then you pick up yesterday’s Guardian, and there’s a long article that says Westergaard asked for it.'
Date filed: 09-01-2010
BBC World Service on Football and 'Faith'
'A new generation of football players are bringing God back onto the pitch'; isn't that wonderful.
Date filed: 09-01-2010
Malaysia: Arson, Violence Over Who Says 'Allah'
Protesters carried posters reading 'Heresy arises from words wrongly used' and 'Allah is only for us.'
Date filed: 08-01-2010
Aftenposten Publishes Motoons
The Norweigan newspaper printed small versions of six out of the twelve cartoons.
Date filed: 08-01-2010
Julian Baggini on 'Ethical' Shopping
Never mind obvious consumerist tat, what about the more insidious stuff?
Date filed: 08-01-2010
Sweden: Lars Vilks Threatened for his Motoon
He got a phone call from a man who said that it was his turn next time.
Date filed: 08-01-2010
Liberal Muslims Form a Group in Norway
The hegemony of the illiberal Muslims is finally being broken.
Date filed: 08-01-2010
The Omniscient Reader Experience
A very droll review.
Date filed: 07-01-2010
An Unknown Unknown: Tetrapod Tracks
It’s not only the date that’s got people excited, it’s also the location where these fossils were found.
Date filed: 07-01-2010
Russell Blackford on Nancy Graham Holm
What she has written is worth denouncing - soberly, deliberately, and in all seriousness.
Date filed: 07-01-2010
Gay Ex-Monk Fears the Pope's Visit to UK
Because it will be a gift to the secularists...
Date filed: 07-01-2010
Sikivu Hutchinson on the Morality of Choice
'Precious' is one more in a long line of contemporary US films that 'omit' reference to abortion as a viable life option.
Date filed: 07-01-2010
Margaret Talbot Blogs on Perry v Schwarzenegger,
She analyzes the bizarre arguments so you don't have to.
Date filed: 06-01-2010
Der Spiegel: the West is Choked by Fear
This time, in contrast to the Rushdie case, few have shown solidarity with the threatened Danish cartoonists.
Date filed: 06-01-2010
PaleoTexans Control US Textbooks
California is too broke to buy textbooks, so Texas has more clout than ever. Be afraid.
Date filed: 06-01-2010
Life Now for Kurt Westergaard
Defiance helps - it reduces the fear.
Date filed: 06-01-2010
Taj Hargey Responds to Anjem Choudary
A ban is just what the party-of-one Choudary wants. Ignore him.
Date filed: 06-01-2010
Oliver Kamm Responds to Nancy Graham Holm
He is not impressed.
Date filed: 06-01-2010
Amnesty International Reports Leo Igwe Released
Latest news: he and his father have been released on bail. Read the details.
Date filed: 05-01-2010
Malaysia: Hotel Raids Target Unmarried Couples
Only the ones in cheap hotels though.
Date filed: 05-01-2010
Swedish Motoonist Also Gets a Threat
From al-Shabab, at that; lucky him.
Date filed: 05-01-2010
Norway: Liberal Muslims Support Westergaard
A group of liberal Muslims is calling on the Islamic Council of Norway to demonstrate in support of Westergaard.
Date filed: 05-01-2010
Fear and Censorship
My take on Index on Censorship and the Motoons.
Date filed: 05-01-2010
Leo Igwe Has Been Arrested
Along with his father; they are at risk of being tortured.
Date filed: 05-01-2010
An Expanded List of Female Atheists
When other polls and lists seem to forget our existence, every little bit of awareness helps.
Date filed: 04-01-2010
News Archive (note: these files may well be large!)
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