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The Cosmic Calendar
The Cosmic Calendar is a scale in which the 13.7 billion year lifetime of the universe is mapped onto a single year. At this scale the Big Bang took place on January 1 at midnight, and the current time is mapped to December 31 at midnight. The concept was popularized by Carl Sagan in his […]
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Colonial Empires on the Eve of Revolution
Between 1492 and 1750, European powers invaded and conquered much of the Americas. The Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English had carved out large colonial empires from the Arctic to Patagonia, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This article surveys those colonial empires, their dimensions, and key characteristics in 1750. In the century and a half […]
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Origins of Revolution in the Atlantic World
By the beginning of the 18th century, the Americas, Europe, and Africa formed part of a world intimately connected by the exchange of peoples, goods, and ideas across the Atlantic Ocean. In this article, we look at the most important transformations that shaped that Atlantic world by the middle of the 18th century. The Enlightenment […]
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The Empathic Civilisation
Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society. In the last ten years there’s been some very interesting developments in evolutionary biology neurocognitive science, child development, research and many other fields which is beginning […]
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U.S. Vetoes of UN Resolutions Critical of Israel: 1972 – Present
U.S. Vetoes/Negative Voting 1972-1982 Subject Date Vote Palestine: Syrian-Lebanese Complaint. 3 power draft resolution. (S/10784) 09/10/1972 13-1, 1 Palestine: Examination of Middle East Situation. 8-power draft resolution. (S/10974) 07/02/1973 13-1, 0 (China not partic.) Palestine: Egyptian-Lebanese Complaint. 5-power draft power resolution. (S/11898) 12/08/1975 13-1, 1 Palestine: Middle East Problem, including Palestinianquestion. 6-power draft resolution. (S/11940) 01/25/1976 9-1,3 (China […]
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The Secrets of Haiti’s Living Dead
In seeking scientific documentation of the existence of zombies, anthropologist Wade Davis found himself looking beyond the stereotype and mysteries of voodoo and directly into a cohesive system of social control in rural Haiti: Five years ago, a man walked into l’Estère, a village in central Haiti, approached a peasant woman named Angelina Narcisse, and […]
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The Importance of Disobeying God
One of my favorites points to bring up with those who defend middle eastern religion and their “God” is that it is actually of vital importance that we disobey “His” commands. Case and point: Take a look at the 10 commandments of the “Lord”. One of the most sacred of commands deals with how to […]
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Nicaragua: The First Real American Coup
During the last decades of the nineteenth century, the ideals of social and political reform swept across Central America. Visionary leaders, inspired by European philosophers and nation builders, sought to wipe away the feudal systems that had frozen their countries into immobility. One of them, President José Santos Zelaya of Nicaragua, took his nationalist principles […]
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Quenching God’s Thirst for Blood
1) Capital Punishment Crimes: Kill People Who Don’t Listen to Priests As for anyone who presumes to disobey the priest appointed to minister there to the Lord your God, or the judge, that person shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12) Kill Witches You shall not permit a female sorcerer […]
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The Athletes of God
Before the conversion of Constantine, martyrs and confessors (those who professed their Christian faith to Roman officials in the expectation of martyrdom) were Christianity’s heroes and spiritual elite. Martyrdom and openly professing one’s faith before Roman officials were supremely meritorious actions. They were the equivalent of a second baptism, fully atoning for a person’s past […]