Secular Philosophy Blog

So a group of philosophers, including Colin McGinn, Daniel Dennett, and others have teamed up on a new Secular Philosophy web site. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be putting much energy into the page. The page does sport some interesting content, though, especially for people who are generally interested in recent critical thought surrounding religion.

They've attached a blog to the site. While there's plenty of good fodder for people interested in bashing the delirious aspects of religion (mostly in the US), I'm sad to say that I haven't found the posts at the site very sophisticated, and have taken particular umbrage at a some of the posts by Mark Rowlands. For those interested in the controversy, see here and here.

It was, in any event, good of Mark to respond, especially since my first response was, admittedly, a bit harsh.

Iraq in Der Spiegel

So the often very good German weekly, Der Spiegel, has run a very good piece assessing the current situation in Iraq, especially against the five-year anniversary speech made this week by Bush. The piece is entitled "Wie Bush der Wirklichkeit trotzt," which means, more or less, "How Bush Defies the Truth." Here's the opening blurb:

"Nobel", "notwendig", "gerecht" nennt US-Präsident Bush den Irak-Krieg zum fünften Jahrestag. Und blendet das Desaster im Land einfach aus: Kein Wort zu den enormen Kosten, der politischen Zerrissenheit, den vielen Toten - die Schönfärberei nehmen ihm auch die meisten Amerikaner nicht mehr ab.

Funny thing, though. The English site at Der Spiegel ran, more or less contemporaneously, another story, entitled "Life in Baghdad after the Fall of Saddam."

The heading here is informative:

Five years after the US invasion, no one misses Saddam, but some Baghdadis are nostalgic for the relative freedom and stability they had before the Americans came.

Just the change in tone is pretty remarkable. It's unfortunate that the editors at this magazine choose to offer different sets of stories to their English and German readers.

Sam Harris on the Obama Speech

Given the truly childish tone of most public remarks on religion (and race) of late, it was really quite refreshing to hear Obama's recent speech. Although there have been many gushing editorials about it of late, the best I've seen by far is that of Sam Harris, who goes the additional step of putting the speech in the context of the lunacy surrounding it.

Well done, Sam.