Over at a Fistful of Euros, Douglas Muir writes a commentary on a rather depressing piece by Serbian writer Vladimir Arsenijevic. It’s worth reading.
Category: Society
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Another Debate
David Thompson draws our attention to a terrific debate on the motion: We Should Not Be Reluctant to Assert the Superiority of Western Values. Do go and listen. Ibn Warraq and Douglas Murray are spectacular, while Tariq Ramadan strikes me as disingenuous, shifty and rather scary.The free-for-all of the Q&A session is wonderful. -
Vernon’s Tosh
Dear lord, I’ve often thought that Mark Vernon writes some utter tosh at times, but I have seldom come across a bigger pile of codswallop than this. Ophelia gets stuck in to show it up for the rotting pile of fish ordure that it is. -
Hitchens vs McGrath
Here’s a video of the recent debate between Christopher Hitchens and Alister McGrath on the topic of religious belief in the modern world. I’m sorry, but it seems to me that Hitch simply wipes the floor with McGrath, who waffles as much as ever. Surely there must be better proponents of the religious position than this…McGrath seems to be a perfect illustration of what Dennett calls a Murky (see the previous entry). -
Daniel Dennett
Here’s the second part of the speech that Daniel Dennett gave at the recent Atheist Alliance International conference. Thought-provoking stuff. -
Ayaan Hirshi Ali
If you haven’t read Hirshi Ali’s autobiography Infidel, then here’s a chance to see her telling part of her life’s story. Well worth watching. I never thought that something so mundane as the Nancy Drew stories could have such a far-reaching effect… -
We Band of Brothers
James Anderson (Andy) Thomson gives a most thought-provoking talk on the motivations of suicide terrorists. Well worth watching. -
Life’s Too Short
Geoff Arnold reminds me why I’ve stopped reading Andrew Sullivan’s blog. Life’s too short to waste on reading tosh like this. Geoff shows up the emptiness of it by quoting wise words from Frederick Crews. -
Poster Propaganda
Via J. Carter Wood, over at Obscene Desserts, I simply must draw your attention to this online exhibition of Chinese propaganda posters. They’re a communist version of Norman Rockwell turned up to 11… Thoroughly unsettling. -
Fame and Dan Whatsit
Stephen Fry continues his blog with a terrific musing on fame. I’m pleased to see that he and I are in total agreement over the literary talents of Dan Whatsit. -
British Values
Prospect magazine asked "50 writers and intellectuals" (erm, so they are distinct groups, are they?) to define what they meant by the phrase "British Values". It provides an entertaining read, showing that the meaning is very difficult to pin down.However, I was rather taken by Brian Eno’s restatement of Gandhi’s aphorism:The values we usually claim as ours: democracy, peaceableness, equality of opportunity, pluralism, social responsibility, diplomacy, fair play, the rule of law —are all fine by me. Now let’s try them. -
An Interview With Oliver Sacks
This is an interview with Olver Sacks. It’s worth reading. He sums up my feelings almost exactly:I intensely dislike any reference to supernaturalism, but I think there can be profound mystical feelings which do not have to call on fictitious agencies like angels and demons and deities. The whole natural world is bathed in wonder and beauty and mystery. The feeling of the holy, the sacred, the wonderful, the mystical, can be divorced from anything theological, and is conveyed very powerfully in music.Absolutely. But, I would add, the powerful conveyance of those feelings is not simply constrained to music alone. -
Another World
I see that the Dutch "Scientific Council for Government Policy" in its report to the Dutch government has stated that the fact that a person holds dual nationality need not be an obstacle to their integrating into Dutch society. Phew, that’s a relief I thought, metaphorically clutching my British and Dutch nationalities to my bosom.It seems perfect common sense to me. And for that reason of course it gets right up the nose of rightwing politician Geert Wilders who claims that the council is living in "another world". Well, suck it, Geert. -
Denial…
…is not just a river in Egypt. Here’s President Ahmadinejad in full flow:"In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals. In Iran we don’t have this phenomenon. I don’t know who has told you we have it."Of course, he appears to be doing his best to kill them off or make them flee the country, so I suppose in that sense he is merely anticipating what he sees as the desired outcome. -
Just Talk It Over
Flea points out how easy it is to lose trust between parents and children, often without ever realising that the process is happening. Boiling frogs again. -
The Savages Are Taking Over…
This time, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown writes with a modicum of rationality. As she says, people deny facts, or commit the perversion of calling violence a question of honour.(hat tip to Ophelia for the link) -
The Council Of Europe On Creationism
I’m pleased to see that the Council of Europe has got to the facts in its report on Creationism:Creationism in any of its forms, such as “intelligent design”, is not based on facts, does not use any scientific reasoning and its contents are definitely inappropriate for science classes.However, some people call for creationist theories to be taught in European schools alongside or even in place of the theory of evolution. From a scientific view point, there is absolutely no doubt that evolution is a central theory for our understanding of life on Earth.The Assembly calls on education authorities in member states to promote scientific knowledge and the teaching of evolution and to oppose firmly any attempts at teaching creationism as a scientific discipline.It’ll be interesting to see what happens when this report (The dangers of creationism in education – Document 11375, dated 17th September 2007) is submitted to the full Council for voting on its draft resolution. It will be even more interesting, if the Council supports its findings and the draft resolution, as to whether the 47 member states will have the guts to implement the report’s suggestions.Update 5 October 2007: I see that the Council has indeed adopted a resolution (by 48 in favour, 25 against and 3 abstensions). Terrific!
Geoff Coupe's Blog 