Religion
Atheism in the service of political reaction: A comment on author Sam Harris
By Christie Schaefer, April 16, 2007
In the recent review of Richard Dawkins’ new book, The God Delusion, Joe Kay mentions in passing the author Sam Harris, noting that the idealist standpoint of Harris and some of the other advoca...
Science, religion and society: Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion
By Joe Kay, March 15, 2007
In his new book, Dawkins has done us a service, if only in making more acceptable the general proposition that religion and science are at odds with each other, and that it is science that should win ...
The Pope and Islam
Ratzinger’s Crusade
By Justus Leicht, September 22, 2006
The Vatican has gone to some lengths to dampen down the controversy following the lecture given by Josef Ratzinger, alias Pope Benedict XVI, at Regensburg University in Germany. Ratzinger’s rema...
Letters on the anti-Muslim cartoons
February 15, 2006
The following is a selection of letters sent to the World Socialist Web Site in response to a number of articles written on the anti-Muslim cartoons published in Denmark.
In their own words: the politics behind the anti-Muslim cartoons
By Barry Grey, February 15, 2006
Common to the statements of virtually all of the pundits and politicians who have come to the defense of the Danish government and Jyllands-Posten in the controversy over the newspaper’s publica...
Death toll mounts in worldwide protests against anti-Muslim cartoons
By Patrick Martin, February 8, 2006
The death toll has reached at least ten in the repression of protests by Muslims angered by the publication in Europe of cartoons defaming the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. Demonstrations have take...
Pope Benedict XVI’s political resume: theocracy and social reaction
By Joseph Kay, April 22, 2005
The selection of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new pope is a clear sign that the Vatican will seek to use its influence to promote the most reactionary political forces within the ruling elites of ...
From “grand inquisitor” to pope: Benedict XVI to head crusade vs. secularism, democracy
By Peter Schwarz, April 21, 2005
With the selection of Josef Ratzinger as the new pope, the Roman Catholic hierarchy has placed at its head a hard-line enforcer of Church dogma, and one of the Vatican’s fiercest opponents of no...
Letters on the death of Pope John Paul II
April 13, 2005
The following is a selection of letters received by the World Socialist Web Site on the death of Pope John Paul II.
Cardinal disgraced in sex-abuse scandal plays prominent role in papal funeral rites
By Patrick Martin, April 11, 2005
Cardinal Bernard F. Law, compelled to step down in disgrace in 2002 as archbishop of Boston because of his role in the cover-up of priests who sexually abused young boys, has been given an honored rol...
Pope John Paul II: a political obituary
By Marius Heuser and Peter Schwarz, April 6, 2005
Amidst the media barrage depicting Pope John Paul II as a contemporary saint and uncritically presenting the pomp and mysticism of the Vatican’s funeral rites, almost nothing serious can be foun...
Why the epidemic of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church?
By David Walsh, March 29, 2002
Reports and accusations of sexual abuses carried out by Roman Catholic priests against children and teenagers, mostly male, continue to flood the American media. On March 20 a former professional base...
