A Thinking Man

There are many people who chose to base their lives around a particular religious text. This religious text may contain writing composed thousands of years ago (in the case of the bible, composed over thousands of years). They choose to use this text to determine what they eat and wear, who they marry [...]

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Regular readers of this blog will be aware that I have occasionally been fairly scathing about certain aspects of the Roman Catholic church. I simply find it mind-blowingly incomprehensible that in the twenty-first century, intelligent adults are still promoting the alleged miraculous power of dead people or of dead people’s clothes or of other [...]

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Whatever you call it - heart, soul, mind - it is sacred to you, influenced by outsiders, yes, but controlled only by you. They can only reach it if you allow them to. It is yours and yours alone. You alone have the final say. Yours is what makes you, you: [...]

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In the middle of the current extreme perplexity and unease at the Archbishop of Canterbury’s remarks that the adoption of part of Shiria law in Britain was in unavoidable, it has been good to find a voice of calm and reason - coming from a Muslim living in Wales.
Sharia law – which is only used [...]

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“What’s right for me is compulsory for you!” At least, that’s what it is beginning to feel like. It seems that some Muslims are trying to insist that their views are given way to when they come into contact with another viewpoint. There doesn’t seem to be much room for accommodation to [...]

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There have been repeated threats in the US to limit the teaching of evolution in state schools. Three leading Florida state legislators are preparing to challenge new state science education standards that will make the teaching of evolution compulsory for the first time in Florida’s history.

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Towards the Light by A.C. Grayling is an informative, passionate, encouraging, and challenging book.
The author gives a short 300 page history of the movement towards greater freedom in the West, and as you would expect from a Professor of Philosophy, occasionally pauses to give brief cameo explanations of some of the key thinkers whose ideas [...]

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I was initially amused and then slightly concerned to read about what a team artificial intelligence (AI) scientists based in France are doing in support of Islam. If successful, the work could freeze the religion and make development within it even more difficult than it is at the present.
According to an article in [...]

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In a country where unmarried couples who have sex, or who even date and hold hands can be arrested, fined, and flogged, Maryam (a hairdresser) and Karim (a salesman) managed to carry on a relationship for five years. The reason this was possible is that they were able to produce the correct documents whenever [...]

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Just in case you have ever wondered why women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive in that country, a group of Saudi men recently gave an answer. It formed part of a submission to the UN’s Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

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