Category Archives: religion

Dyson on Dennet in NYReview of Books

Posted on 2006-06-09 by alan

Freeman Dyson reviews Daniel Dennet’s Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. He gives what appears to be a fair summary of the book, but takes issue with Dennet’s opinion that religion is harmful and states “I see religion … Continue reading →

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Flemming Rose on “Europe’s politics of victimology”

Posted on 2006-06-02 by alan

Jyllands Posten editor Flemming Rose defends himself re the mohammed cartoons which idiot Mullah Krekar decried as a “declaration of war” against Islam claiming without apprent irony about Western secularists that “as the losing side, they commit violence.” Unfortunately Rose … Continue reading →

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Nextbook with Goldstein on Spinoza

Posted on 2006-05-23 by alan

Arts&Letters Daily linked to this interview (at nextbook.org) with Rebecca Goldstein (author of ‘Betraying Spinoza’). In her answer to the last question Ms Goldstein asserts that “despite himself, Spinoza identified with Jews”, citing as evidence his emotional reaction to a … Continue reading →

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Dirda on Goldstein on Spinoza

Posted on 2006-05-23 by alan

From the Washington Post (via Atrs&Letters Daily) comes This review by Michael Dirda of the book ‘Betraying Spinoza’ by Rebecca Goldstein.

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AlterNet: Why Religion Must End

Posted on 2006-05-21 by alan

This AlterNet interview with Sam Harris identifies him as a “leading atheist” but the acceptance of authoritative “leadership” is exactly what is wrong with religion and if “leading” is here intended to mean generating new ideas then the word is … Continue reading →

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Silence: A short history of our atoms

Posted on 2006-05-12 by site admin

Silence: A short history of our atoms is actually a posting by Dutch blogger Renee Alkmar about the idea of science as a form of religion. I arrived there via the link from the author’s March21 comment on the Jan24 … Continue reading →

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Philosophy Talk: The Blog: Does Truth Matter?

Posted on 2006-04-27 by site admin

From the ‘PhilosophyTalk’ blog, Ken Taylor’s posting on Does Truth Matter? leads to a discussion in which the question of whether the question has a well defined answer becomes one of the issues to address. But although “Truth matters” may … Continue reading →

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AlterNet: Why I Am a Christian (Sort Of)

Posted on 2006-03-10 by site admin

Why I Am a Christian (Sort Of) (by Robert Jensen on AlterNet) is a reasonably clear statement of a fairly common hypocricy. How to respond? I also took Jensen’s path at one time – and later, in recognition of the … Continue reading →

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AlterNet: The Slippery Slope of Self-Censorship

Posted on 2006-02-14 by site admin

The Slippery Slope of Self-Censorship (found via AlterNet) is an article by David Morris of Minnesota which provides the best commentary yet on the Danish Cartoon Furor.

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MWU!: A Mountain Out of a Molehill Over Danish Cartoons

Posted on 2006-02-09 by site admin

Mona Eltahawi’s article A Mountain Out of a Molehill Over Danish Cartoons provides a welcome breath of sanity.

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Writing for the Web: The Limits of Satire

Posted on 2006-02-09 by site admin

Crawford Killlian blogs his Tyee article ‘The Limits of Satire’ on the Danish cartoon frenzy. I agree with most of what he says in general terms, but I am not sure that it fits the actual circumstances. The cartoons were … Continue reading →

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Eden and Evolution

Posted on 2006-02-07 by site admin

Eden and Evolution is an article by Shankar Vedantam in the Washington Post. It starts out with an irritatingly positive-sounding description of a young “Creation Science” biologist presenting a specious distortion of what she was supposed to be teaching (eg … Continue reading →

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The Offending Cartoons

Posted on 2006-02-06 by site admin

Well, so far as I can tell from this image, the twelve cartoons (on the subject of fear of censorship and/or reprisals regarding representations of Mohammed) are as follows: One appears to be mocking the editor who commissioned the illustrations. … Continue reading →

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French editor fired over cartoons

Posted on 2006-02-02 by site admin

This BBC News article reports the firing of France Soir editor Jacques Lefranc by owner Raymond Lakah over the re-publication of cartoons originating in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten which “gave offense” to Muslims. But if Mohammed is not to be despised, then … Continue reading →

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spiked-essays | Essay | The curious rise of anti-religious hysteria

Posted on 2006-01-26 by site admin

In spiked-essays | Essay | The curious rise of anti-religious hysteria, Frank Furedi makes the “final point” that “Morality marketed by people who do not necessarily ‘believe in such things’ is unlikely to set the world on fire.” It would … Continue reading →

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spiked-science | Article | The root of all anti-science?

Posted on 2006-01-26 by site admin

Now here is a much more sensible response to Dawkins. I haven’t seen the shows (The Root of all Evil?), but I suspect from reading reviews that Dawkins went over the top by implying that the answer applied to religion … Continue reading →

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spiked-culture | Article | Is religion the root of all evil?

Posted on 2006-01-26 by site admin

A fuzzy-thinking response to Dawkins’ absolute antitheism (in ‘Spiked’). Author Neil Davenport says: “religion expresses kernels of humanism that sometimes appear progressive compared to contemporary thinking. For example, the major religions recognise that as humans are capable of making moral … Continue reading →

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Dennett in The Chronicle

Posted on 2006-01-26 by site admin

Daniel Dennett provides an article summarising ideas from his new book.

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Philosophy Talk: The Blog: Self-Deception and the Problem with Religious Belief Formation

Posted on 2006-01-09 by site admin

Philosophy Talk: The Blog: Self-Deception and the Problem with Religious Belief Formation I have two comments on this posting. First, unlike Mr Van Leeuwen, although I probably qualify as an unbeliever, I am not threatened by the admonition that the … Continue reading →

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Propositions | Uncertain

Posted on 2005-12-21 by site admin

Propositions | Uncertain is an essay in which the thesis and perhaps 90% of the sentences are false but the essence is true. It is not science but religion that “immanentizes the eschaton” – almost without exception and perhaps even … Continue reading →

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