Nigel Warburton, who blogs as the Virtual Philosopher, had a rather eyebrow-raising conversation with his taxi-driver last week. Bob, in the comments, points us to this video of Stewart Lee talking about a similar experience with another taxi-driver.
Category: Society
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Honour Killing
The phrase Honour Killing seems to me to be a perfect example of the societal form of Unspeak, since what it usually means is the murder of women by their husbands or fathers. The Observer reports today thatLast year 133 women were killed in Basra – 47 of them for so-called ‘honour killings’, according to the Basra Security Committee. Out of those 47 cases there have been only three convictions for murder. Since January this year, 36 women have been killed.The statistics are numbing, and mask the fact that each murder victim was an individual, with hopes and fears like all of us. The Observer’s report looks at one case, the story of 17 year old Rand Abdel-Qader. "She was stamped on, suffocated and stabbed by her father. Several brutal knife wounds punctured her slender, bruised body – from her face to her feet. He had done it, he proclaimed to the neighbours who soon gathered round, to ‘cleanse his honour’." He has not been prosecuted for her murder, because it was an "honour killing". Words fail me.Update 11 May 2008: Abdel-Qader Ali has no regrets about killing his daughter and he remains a free man. -
Wash Those Brains
Matt Taibbi has a riveting article about the techniques used by the pastors of the Cornerstone Church. It makes terrifying reading.By the end of the weekend I realized how quaint was the mere suggestion that Christians of this type should learn to “be rational” or “set aside your religion” about such things as the Iraq War or other policy matters. Once you’ve made a journey like this — once you’ve gone this far — you are beyond suggestible. It’s not merely the informational indoctrination, the constant belittling of homosexuals and atheists and Muslims and pacifists, etc., that’s the issue. It’s that once you’ve gotten to this place, you’ve left behind the mental process that a person would need to form an independent opinion about such things. You make this journey precisely to experience the ecstasy of beating to the same big gristly heart with a roomful of like-minded folks. Once you reach that place with them, you’re thinking with muscles, not neurons.Of course, the same techniques work for any flavour of religious or political dogma, this is not simply true for Christians alone. It is a great pity that we, as a species, are so susceptible to these techniques designed to extinguish critical thinking. As George Carlin has said: Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that””.(hat tip to Dangerous Intersections for the link)Addendum July 2017: …and, wouldn’t you know it, Mr. Taibbi turns out to be a despicable human being himself. -
Fences
J. Carter Wood, over at Obscene Desserts, has an excellent post on the mental fences that we, or more usually, persons with power (real or imagined), attempt to erect around our mental processes. Definitely worth reading. Some fences are not only false, but actively harmful. -
Boiling The Frogs
Interesting piece by David Byrne. Perhaps the super-rich will indeed go on partying as they always have, but perhaps they are also frogs sitting in water that is slowly being heated to boiling point along with the rest of us. -
Could Do Better
I see that Daniel Dennett and Lord Winston fired the opening salvos of their debate yesterday (on the question of whether religion is a threat to rationality and science) in written form. I must admit that I was surprised at how weak the arguments of Lord Winston seem to be. But then, I don’t find the Book of Job to be "deeply mysterious and spiritual", but a rather unpleasant story of what happens when God has a bet with Satan. -
Head, Meet Desk
Perhaps the person responsible for this banner was in full irony mode; but somehow, I rather doubt it. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. -
Strawmens ‘R Us
Dear lord, but this piece by Mark Ravenhill is pure shite. He clearly hasn’t read anything of TGD before putting up this strawman. What a wanker. -
“I Have to do this thing for our future”
The words of Mohammed Siddique Khan to his baby girl. Truly terrifying and sad beyond all my understanding. And here’s another example: the matyrdom video of Umar Islam. He’s clearly not the sharpest pencil in the box. Born Brian Young 30 years ago, how has he ended up as he has? -
“God Said So”
David Thompson ruminates on the phenomenon of believers being convinced that they are merely echoing what their particular deity meant, rather than using their deity as a label to justify their own prejudices. A common happenstance, I fear.For a measure of understanding of this whole phenomenon, I advise the reading of Martin Rowson’s The Dog Allusion. A witty, and I feel, true, explanation that "rationally, the whole enterprise of religion is a monumental and faintly ridiculous waste of time and money. But then again, so is pet-keeping".That’s as may be, but on the other hand, I don’t recall cat-owners embarking on an actual crusade against dog-owners, or the latter pronouncing death for apostates who renounce dogs in favour of goldfish. Apart from that, I think that Rowson hits the nail on the head. -
A Secular Society
I’ve noticed that some people seem to equate secularism with atheism. They assume, for example, that a secular society must be an atheistic society. This is not correct. Stephen Law explains secularism in a very clear fashion here. Worth reading, particularly if you’re one of the people who confuse secularism with atheism. -
The Golden Rule
I’ve only just got around to watching Karen Armstrong‘s speech at this year’s TED conference, in which she makes a plea to restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine. She wants leaders from the three major monotheistic religions to help her build a Charter for Compassion. It’s a very laudable aim, but it sounds rather like the Global Ethic that was drafted for, and signed by the Parliament of the World’s Religions back in 1993. From where I stand, I can’t see that the Global Ethic had much impact on this sorry world, and I fear that the Charter of Compassion will achieve the same result.Still, I wish her the best of luck, I think she’s going to need it. As she herself says, many religious people would rather be right than compassionate.One last thought, Armstrong believes that the core of religions is the Golden Rule. Indeed, she quotes the story of Rabbi Hillel, the older contemporary of Jesus, who taught the golden rule in a particularly emphatic way. One day a pagan said he would convert to Judaism if the rabbi could sum up the whole of Jewish teaching while standing on one leg. Hillel stood on one leg and replied: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the Torah; the rest is commentary; go and learn it!" It occurs to me that one can equally dispense with all religions in that case. The Golden Rule stands alone, and all religions then become simply noise and gloss. I think I’m with Confucius on this one. -
Nasty Nationalism
I see that Rita Verdonk is playing the Nationalist card. I’m sorry, but there’s something about her views that simply makes my skin crawl. I’m reminded of Samuel Johnson’s aphorism, recorded by Boswell, that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". Of course, as Boswell wrote, Johnson "did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak of self-interest". Somehow Verdonk’s love of the Netherlands has never struck me as "generous". She strikes me as being close to the sort of patriot described by Johnson thus:A man sometimes starts up a patriot, only by disseminating discontent, and propagating reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of violated rights, and encroaching usurpation. This practice is no certain note of patriotism. To instigate the populace with rage beyond the provocation, is to suspend publick happiness, if not to destroy it. He is no lover of his country, that unnecessarily disturbs its peace. Few errours and few faults of government, can justify an appeal to the rabble; who ought not to judge of what they cannot understand, and whose opinions are not propagated by reason, but caught by contagion. The fallaciousness of this note of patriotism is particularly apparent, when the clamour continues after the evil is past. -
Cod Science
It amazes me that tosh such as Brain Gym is apparently taught in schools. Clearly aimed at raising a gullible generation of Woo-fodder, then. I’m very thankful that I got through the school system before this rubbish was around. We got taught critical thinking instead.Update: I see that Brain Gym has also enraged Charlie Brooker. He does rants so much better than I. Go and read it. -
Letting Them Down Gently
While I manage to spot obvious scams fairly easily, I think it’s only fair to recognise that not everyone does. And if I come across some poor fish on the end of a scammer’s line, then I hope that I will have the sense and grace to deal with the situation just as this librarian did. -
We Are Made For More
It’s strange. This article misses the point on so many levels that it’s more than simply sad, it’s verging on a sin. As one of the commenters notes, it is a "breathtaking exercise in hypocrisy, cant and mendacity."Update: Justin says it far better than I could. -
Following Procedure
Not unexpectedly, Ama Sumani has died. As Udo Schuklenk writes, free care to medical migrants who make it to our shores seems a small price to pay for the asset-stripping that we do to the talent of the developing world.
