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Why Socialism and Communism are Christian

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:00:00 GMT

The metaphor of a camel going through the eye of a needle is common to both Matthew and Luke. Do not be misled by your pastor... this passage is saying rich men cannot get into heaven.

The Great Weimar Crash of 1923

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 01:00:00 GMT

In the first stages of the currency collapse, nobody foresaw the full consequences. By the end, shopkeepers were putting up their prices at least twice daily.

The Truth about Zionism

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

People all over the world hoped that Israel would take the road of peace and cooperation with its neighbours. Zionist leaders, however, took a different road.

A Religion for Agnostics—N Micklem

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:00:00 GMT

If Jesus were God as Christians believe, then he is a perverse God. Jesus said on one occasion that, if men could not recognize the spiritual authority of Moses and the prophets, they would not believe though one rise from the dead!

Questioning Conspiracy Theory Questioners

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

A conspiracy theory claims an official line is false. Officialdom has seen the need to issue a false account as misinformation to guard its secrets, and is deliberate propaganda intended for the gullible.

Kuenen, Wellhausen and Robertson Smith in Old Testament Research

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Wellhausen was not to know therefore that the prophets' punitive force, the Assyrians, stood for the later Persians, and the message of justice and righteousness was a Persian one, a doctrine that had indeed been heard before—in the Zoroastrian religion.

Can Amateurish Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeology Verify King David

Tue, 22 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I Finkelstein and A Fantalkin have slated the interpretations and the amateurish methodology of the excavation of Khirbet Qeiyafa, claimed to confirm king David!

Ramat Rahel Palace near Jerusalem

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

At Ramat Rahel, the evidence of irrigation systems, exotic plants in the garden, and C14 dating indicate a Persian building, garden and pottery.

Growth of the Gentile Church in the Roman World

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Until it was established as the Roman state religion by Constantine, Christianity was not what Christians see it as today, and it faced as much opprobrium as Islam in the west today.

Nazarene

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Updated: Origen of Caesarea (185-254 AD) lived thirty miles from Nazareth, but could not find it. He concluded that many places mentioned in the gospels never existed. Before Constantine, Nazareth was attested only by the New Testament evangelists.

How a Lemon (a Citron) Links Persia with Judaism

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The citron tree, long ago absorbed into Jewish tradition, made its first unequivocal appearance in Israel in this Persian period garden. It suggests a link between the setting up of the temple state by the Persian authorities, and a fruit used in jewish ritual.

Lorem Ipsum in English: Replace Lorem for Web Design

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Lorem Ipsum, is not meant to make sense but simply to fill space to show how a functioning web page would look filled with text. Something that is nonsense but imitates plausible English a bit better could look more convincing.

Georg Polti Plots: The 36 Dramatic Situations

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT

If you have been intending to start that novel or screenplay but felt short of ideas, here is the Wise Women's synopsis of Polti plots to give you a few ideas.

Christianity, Colonialism, Imperialism, and the West

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

The Christian church was triumphant. The task now was to convert the world, a task that suited Roman imperialism. As Christianity was the religion of Rome, Christians were Roman citizens. Christian faith was identical to loyalty to Rome...

Fairy Tales and the Bible

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Fairy tale plots have their own internal logic which must satisfy the desire for a marvel and a satisfactory outcome, like the bible stories. Though religious stories have so much in common with fairy tales, they are too sacred to be considered the same.

Jesus and Essene Evangelism in the Last Days

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 01:00:00 GMT

The last days required the first among the Essenes to reduce themselves to the level of the least to do God's work, call all Israel, men, women, and children to righteousness in an exhortation like the Sermon on the Mount

Religious Slavery, God and Moral Convenience

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:00:00 GMT

The need for God expresses our dependence on each other, on society. Evil now has a supernatural connotation, but it just meant dangerous. God as society protects us, and god as a father guides us in our tasks and duties in society, duties commanded by God!

Syriac Christianity: A Transitional Stage Between Essenism and Catharism

Fri, 4 Nov 2011 23:00:00 GMT

"Sons and Daughters of the Covenant", were pious elite Christians whose main characteristic was their chastity, even when married. Like the Essenes, they aspired to be angels, eternal beings with no more need of reproduction than God Himself.

New Testament and Christian Ethics: Christ's Morality or Paul's?

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 23:30:00 GMT

Who should be believed? The Christian believes Christ to be God, so there is no question about it. Paul is a man, Christ is God! Why do Christians believe Paul and ignore God?

Decaying Society: Libertarianism Undermines Social Instincts

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:00:00 GMT

The extension of individuation by ever greater personal freedom ignores society, particularly that it is held together by constraints that can be broken only at the risk of its destruction.

Knowing God, Man, and Morality

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:00:00 GMT

It is not compellingly apparent that God is the explanation of human history -- the problem of evil seems to deny it. Why would God expect us to believe in Him having arranged the world such that He is not apparent to us? We can imagine many things that do not exist like mermaids, and God is one of them.

Christianity without Love is not Christian

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Christ told a rich man how to be saved. It was not by faith alone. He had to love God and his neighbors, and give his wealth to the poor. Like the rich today, he could not do it because the rich love money more than people! Only works, care and kindness for other people, shows when faith is real.

Francis Hucheson and Moral Sense

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 24:00:00 GMT

Ultimately how do you judge what is moral? Either God has given us the gift of moral judgement, or He has not. Yet sympathy with the feelings of others explained the moral sense adequately...

Positive Freedom, Christian Morality and the Human Moral Instinct

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:00:00 GMT

"Freedom to" is positive freedom, a concept that the Christian west hasn't understood, yet it is practical Christian morality, which reflects human sociality.

The Nature of Christ: the First Six Hundred years of Christian Love

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

After the Nicene Council, Arianism became the Christology of the invading barbarians. The savages who destroyed Rome and took over the western empire were Christians. Cyril's gangs of brutal Christian monks ensured he was always right. He was implacably opposed to Christ having two natures.

Christology and Metaphysical Warfare

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

"Who or what Christ is?" is the problem of Christology. No one today are much interested in it, least of all, the Christian sheep, who think their believes would not be worth having if they were required honest answers to honest questions.

Mithras or Mica

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:00:00 GMT

Updated: Roman writers believed that Mithraism came from Persia and that Mithraic iconography represented Persian mythology. Mithraism was called the mysteries of the Persians. Christian apologists say Iranian Mithraism was not continuous with Roman Mithraism.

The Magi and Epiphany

Sun, 2 Jan 2011 10:00:00 GMT

Epiphany has become most closely associated with just twelve verses of Matthew concerning the visit of the wise men from the East, or Magi, who came to adore Jesus in Bethlehem.

J Horgan, R Dawkins and the Anthropic Principle

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 18:00:00 GMT

The anthropic principle is more of an observation than a theory. We are here, and so the Universe's age and physical constants are those that allow us to exist, and not all those others that would make our existence impossible, because the physical constants would be too big or small for the universe to exist itself, or to exist long enough for us to have evolved.

F C Conybeare: History Of New Testament Criticism

Sun, 7 Nov 2010 22:00:00 GMT

Where there are two rival and inconsistent accounts of the same divinely inspired biblical fact or event, only one can be true. Christians must have to believe that gospel inspiration is consistent with discrepancies, and even with untruths and inaccuracies.

Secular Christianity

Fri, 8 Oct 2010 18:00:00 GMT

PDF book length paper: The Natural History of Secular Christianity. Freely circulate. Constructive comments welcome.

Politics and the Moral Instinct

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:00:00 GMT

The ordinary citizen does not have power and cannot so exercise it. We have yielded our rights to a professional political caste, out for their own personal gain, not often doing what electors want, then using the media to persuade them they want what they get. Without a satisfactory welfare system allowing benefits and personal enterprise, the gross inequalities of capitalist society will justify revolution!

Religion: a Spandrel of the Social Mind

Thu, 8 Jul 2010 15:00:00 GMT

Religion is a side effect of natural mental processes, an evolutionary spandrel. Moral instincts support us as animals for which society is essential, not just an option. An instinct to attribute agency to anything suspicious or unusual helped us survive by being cautious. These contrived to give us religion, an explanation of phenomena we experience through our sociality.

Personal God: How Morality, Intentionality and Religion Evolved

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 18:00:00 GMT

Updated: People often reason egocentrically about others' beliefs, using their own beliefs as an inductive guide. Correlational, experimental, and neuroimaging evidence suggests that people may be even more egocentric when reasoning about God's beliefs. The God of the believers has just the same opinions as themselves!

Diaspora of the Jews

Mon, 5 Apr 2010 23:00:00 GMT

The Hellenized world of Alexander's generals was already full of Jews from the outset. Their Persian masters had been destroyed leaving the underclass of Juddin as a substantial body of people with a history and a temple.

Jonathan Haidt: The Happiness Hypothesis

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Where is the political balance? About half way along the left-right scale appear the liberals, the demonic lefties of modern US conventional politics, almost at the center of the whole political space! In Great Britain, political parties are differentiated mainly on the left-right continuum, and little on the authoritarian-libertarian axis.

New Atheists and the Misunderstanding of Religion

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Emile Durkheim showed that morality is a set of rules to bind people into an effective group. Religiosity is a feature of human life, and evolutionary, developmental, neuropsychological, and anthropological theories must explain human religions. J Haidt thinks the New Atheists do not get it.

Secular Christianity, Morals and the Kingdom Vision

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Christ's message was a practical ethic for a successful, caring, unoppressive society for everyone. "God is love" is meaningless outside of a social context, and acted upon within society. Those accepting it and acting on it were Christians. They live their lives by the teachings of Christ, whether they believe in God, or Christ himself.

Secular Christianity for Christians and Darwinians

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Professor Kitcher of Columbia university classifies Christianity into three main taxa, of which "spiritual" Christianity is the only one suited to the modern world, and seems closely similar to Secular Christianity.

Pauline and Secular Christianity

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Since Paul, Christians have had almost two millennia to justify their revisions of Christ's social teaching. Real Christians get on with being a Christ. Fake Christians boast about their faith. Faith and doing nothing is not an option. Christ told them precisely what they had to do, love one another.

Evolutionary Morality, Society and the Golden Rule

Sun, 6 Dec 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Moral judgments promoted prosocial behavior, expressed to our ancestors the common judgement of the group of why anyone should act favorably to others in society, even though directly it might be somewhat detrimental to themselves. People had this instinct because those without it had been unable to live in a group. Those with it could, and the group was stronger for it.

Reciprocity and Selfishness

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Cooperation is the cement of society, but people will cooperate only when others cooperate. Selfish people prefer free riding. When free rider unfairness cannot be punished somehow, people stop cooperating. Without social glue, society will come unstuck. Selfishness must be punishable.

Divine Command Theory and the Evolution of Morality

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Survival of the fittest was misinterpreted for a long time as equalling pure selfishness. It seemed to mean selfish enough to make sure you reproduced even if it meant your rival did not. Pure selfishness seems to exclude any type of altruism, but reciprocal assistance within a group might make all of the members of it better able to reproduce than their purely selfish solitary rivals.

Morality and Humanity

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Excessive richness shows society is malfunctioning, and wealth must be redistributed to correct it. The Principle of Humanity is to get people out of bad lives, not to put them into them, even the rich. If everyone has a good life, then no one has a bad one. Those who are already well rewarded, like bankers, do not need inflated bonuses as an incentive. It is robbery of the bank's customers and shareholders.

John Rawls, a Theory of Justice as Fairness

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Justice as fairness permits justice to be indeed fair. It shows why people want a fair and equal spread of rights and duties, and also an equal distribution of benefits, to value a place in society. Any variation in the distribution of benefits will only be acceptable because they are within acceptable limits of tolerance, or because some inequality of distribution benefits everyone.

The Origins of Religion

Sun, 9 Aug 2009 22:00:00 GMT

The origins of religion. Further update of pages that introduce aspects of religion as a scientific study.

When was the Bible Written?

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:00:00 GMT

If the bible was written around 700 BC, Jewish historians preceded the first historian, Herodotus by 200 years. It is manifest nonsense. Persian scholars with access to Assyrian records wrote the history to back up the law, Deuteronomy. The message was to obey God whose law it was. It showed God had punished previous generations for apostasy, and would do again, if the people were not righteous, ie obedient to the law. Obedience suits rulers.

Did King David ever Live?

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Revised: The evidence for king David outside the bible is minute and controversial. No kings of Judah before Hezekiah are attested outside the bible. Judah was created as an Assyrian puppet.

Solomon and his Temple

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Revised: An empire centred on Jerusalem in the tenth century BC is strongly disputed. There was a tenth century BC, but no emperors called David and Solomon lived in it. Tenth century BC "Solomonic" strata should be dated to the ninth century BC Omride dynasty of the Northern Kingdom. No literary tradition existed in tenth century BC Palestine.

When was Exodus Written?

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Updated: Evidence that Exodus is an Hellenistic romance written in Alexandria