Occidental View

OCCIDENTAL VIEW

Intelligent-Design Debate Reveals Limits of Religion and Science

Despite the clashes between claims based in faith v. reason, it seems that most people -- on both sides of the debate about religion and science in the United States -- share a belief in a kind of magic. Sadly, this need for magical thinking undermines the ability of religion and science to deal with the complexity of the material world and the mystery of creation.

OCCIDENTAL VIEW

Giving “Freedom of Speech” a Bad Name

The Sanctity of the freedom of expression is validated by reason and is not a reason in itself to exercise it.

“…one of the founding principles of our E.U.rope is freedom of expression, including the right to criticise. It should be crystal clear to all that violence, intimidation, and the calls for boycotts or for restraints on the freedom of the press are completely unacceptable.”
- E.U. Justice Commissioner

OCCIDENTAL VIEW

T.V. Images Don't Bring Change

For weeks after the racialized poverty of New Orleans was laid bare in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, people in the United States asked, “Could this be a turning point? Is this a moment when America might wake up to the inequality and racism in our own country?”

OCCIDENTAL VIEW

The Patriotic Press

In the United States it can seem as if any event - no matter how tragic - creates a public-relations opportunity for the self-proclaimed guardians of patriotism.And there seems to be no patriotic public-relations gambit that the U.S. news media won’t swallow.

Islaamic Radicalism or Defensive Mechanism?

There are quite a number of statements - the above is one example - that are laying the blame for the most recent of the uprisings in France on Islaamic radicalism.

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