In Focus

This section of the site is where we get specific, examining particular examples of truth claims rooted in ideology rather than evidence, frivolously casual dismissals of science, truth and reason, and other forms of fashionable nonsense. Each section comprises an overview of the particular subject area, plus links to relevant external internet resources and recommendations for further reading.

Women Under Theocracy
Religion and culture function to shield the oppression of women from criticism.
Date filed: 09-05-2007

Steve Fuller
Expert witness for the other side.
Date filed: 15-03-2006

Cartoons
Is it forbidden to 'offend the religious feelings of believers'?
Date filed: 14-03-2006

Einstein’s Wife: Mileva Marić
Feel-good history strikes again.
Date filed: 08-03-2006

Michael Ruse on Religion and Science
Is 'evolutionism' a religion? Does religion limit itself to asking questions?
Date filed: 10-09-2005

Enlightenment or Submission
Calls for reform in Islam
Date filed: 30-08-2005

'Victims of Jihad' Conference
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ibn Warraq and Azam Kamguian address UN conference on Human Rights
Date filed: 27-08-2005

Animal Rights and Medical Research
Is animal research necessary? Are threats and intimidation legitimate tactics?
Date filed: 24-08-2005

A Law Against Incitement to Religious Hatred
Should religion be immune from criticism?
Date filed: 08-12-2004

Nonsense Files
Where to find everything B&W isn't.
Date filed: 29-07-2004

Freud
What are Freud's truth-claims worth?
Date filed: 07-05-2004

Hindutva on the Attack
Campaigns to silence, intimidate, or destroy scholars and scholarship.
Date filed: 08-01-2004

Hear the Noise
Will a tv drama make the fear of the MMR jab even worse?
Date filed: 14-12-2003

Bad Writing
Is it difficult? Is it daring? Or is it just pretentious and empty and circular.
Date filed: 26-10-2003

Academic Bill of Rights
Do we want the state guaranteeing an equal distribution of political views among university teachers?
Date filed: 19-09-2003

Science and Religion
Are science and religion separate but equal? Or just separate.
Date filed: 17-07-2003

What is Elitism?
Is anything better than anything else? Is it thought-crime to think so? Is majority opinion always right?
Date filed: 06-06-2003

Higher Education and its Discontents
What are universities for? Job training? A boost up the ladder of success? A place to play football? A protracted party? A coolness competition?
Date filed: 14-05-2003

Whose Bones?
Creationism, sacred burial sites, ancestors, DNA; ancient bones and not so ancient bones; science or negotiation; identity meets fundamentalism.
Date filed: 12-04-2003

Cultural Relativism
Tolerance can conflict with opposition to caste violence and other injustice.
Date filed: 30-03-2003

Education and Inequality
What is fairness? Is it fair to judge all applicants on their merits? Or is it fair to judge them on their merits plus the obstacles they have had to overcome?
Date filed: 09-03-2003

A Scientific Controversy In Progress
Can a sociologist write a popular book about the natural science of environmentalism? Is it 'dishonest science' or merely a difference of opinion?
Date filed: 13-01-2003

Science Studies
Is science merely a social construct?
Date filed: 02-11-2002

Difference Feminism
How Difference Feminism goes the long way around to come back to where we started, with women confined to intuition, instinct and feeling.
Date filed: 24-10-2002

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