Month: January 2008

Barack Obama, the e-mail culture and religious smears

I thought this might interest readers of this blog. You can watch a full report, via PBS, HERE . Now, as you will know Barack Obama is one of the two main competitors for the Democratic nomination for…

A Good Death – how do we measure the value of ‘a life’?

Over at http://unfspb.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/a-good-death/#more-336 there is an interesting discussion that arises out of the death of the actor Heath Ledger. His death is often described in media reports as a ‘tragedy’ – but how do we balance the value…

Julian Baggini Talk: All Invited

Popular Philosopher Julian Baggini will be giving a talk on communitarianism in Britain. In a recent piece for Prospect magazine, he writes that while the elite of Britain remains liberal, much of the rest of the population adopts…

Podcast on Buddhism for RPE208

Those of you doing RPE208 – Indian Religions – may wish to download the Four Noble Truths podcast that I talked about in class. You can find it at http://r-p-e.blogspot.com/2007/02/buddhism-podcast-2-four-noble-truths.html – and download via a link there. You…

Cheltenham Ladies College Event – 2008

Cheltenham Ladies College is having its annual Religious Studies Event – and as last year (see the report by RPE students HERE) they have kindly invited RPE students to attend should they wish.Details are below – but let…

Why Study Religion, Philosophy and Ethics?

Philosophy seems more popular in Schools than ever. [As noted HERE by Nigel Warburton] In Scotland, the Herald newspaper has considered this – causing a number of its online readers to comment HERE about the value of philosophy….

GLOUCESTERSHIRE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 2008

Here are the upcoming Gloucestershire Philosophical Society sessions- 1. 16th. January, 2008. Chris Eddy, Swindon Philosophical Society. :”Why I am not an atheist”. Chris Eddy accepts Philip Kitcher’s challenge, in ‘Living with Darwin’, to articulate a form of…

Blogging the Qur’an

“How should Islam’s sacred book be read in the 21st century? How should non-Muslims interpret its message? In a year-long project, Ziauddin Sardar will read the Qur’an from beginning to end, discussing its verses, themes, language and meaning.”…

Kant Attack Ad

Those who observe US political campaigning will be familiar with the ‘Attack Ad’ – the vicious, personal TV ads that assualt viewers with assertion and implication. This is a nice spoof version on Kant: enjoy…..Dave

New Year’s Resolutions

According to an article I read today, the practice of making New Year’s Resolutions dates back to Babylonian times:Four thousand years ago in Babylonian times, resolutions were made with theintention that what was done on the first day…