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January 10 - January 23, 2019
Judaism, for example, argued that the supreme power of the universe has interests and biases, yet His chief interest is in the tiny Jewish nation and in the obscure land of Israel. Judaism had little to offer other nations, and throughout most of
its existence it has not been a missionary religion. This stage can be called the stage of ‘local monotheism’.
Christianity. This faith began as an esoteric Jewish sect that sought to convince Jews that Jesus of Nazareth...
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In one of history’s strangest twists, this esoteric Jewish sect took over the mighty Roman Empire.
Monotheists have tended to be far more fanatical and missionary than polytheists.
Since monotheists have usually believed that they are in possession of the entire message of the one and only God, they have been compelled to discredit all other religions. Over the last two
millennia, monotheists repeatedly tried to strengthen their hand by violently exterminating all competition.
Buddhism, the most important of the ancient
natural law religions,
The central figure of Buddhism is not a god bu...
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Siddhartha G...
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Gautama’s insight was that no matter what
the mind experiences, it usually reacts with craving, and craving always involves dissatisfaction.
When the mind experiences something distasteful it craves to be rid of the irritation. When the mind experiences something pleasant, it craves that th...
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mind is always dissatisfied a...
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when the mind experiences something pleasant or unpleasant, it simply understands things as they are, then there is no suffering.
train the mind to focus all its attention on the question, ‘What am I experiencing now?’ rather than on ‘What would I rather be experiencing?’
craving is replaced by a state of perfect contentment and serenity, known as nirvana (the literal meaning of which is ‘extinguishing the fire’).
Yet over the last 200 years, the life sciences have thoroughly undermined this belief. Scientists studying the inner workings of the human
organism have found no soul there.
human behaviour is determined by hormones, genes and synapses, rat...
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It is an iron rule of history that what looks inevitable in hindsight was far from obvious at the time.
We study history not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we consequently have
many more possibilities before us than we imagine.
memetics.
cultural evolution is based on the replication
of cultural information units called ‘memes’.
the single most remarkable and defining moment of the past 500 years came at 05:29:45 on 16 July 1945.
modern science differs from all previous traditions of knowledge in three critical ways: The willingness to admit ignorance.
more critically, it accepts that the things that we think we know could be proven wrong as we gain more knowledge.
The centrality of observation and mathematics.
modern science aims to obtain new knowledge. It does so by gathering observations and then using mathematical tools to connect these obs...
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It uses these theories in order to acquire new powers, and in particular to develop new technologies.
Modern-day science is a unique tradition of knowledge, inasmuch as it openly admits collective ignorance regarding the most important questions.
In 1687, Isaac Newton published The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, arguably the most important book in modern history. Newton
Newton showed that the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics.
A new
branch of mathematics was developed over the last 200 years to deal with the more complex aspects of reality: statistics.
The feedback loop between science, empire and capital has arguably been history’s chief engine for the past 500 years.
growth. For better or worse, in sickness and in health, the modern economy has been growing like a hormone-soused teenager.
Whoever believes in progress believes that geographical discoveries, technological inventions and organisational
developments can increase the sum total of human production, trade and wealth.
Smith’s claim that the selfish human urge to increase private profits is the basis for collective wealth is one of the most revolutionary ideas in human history
Smith says is, in fact, that greed is good, and that by becoming richer I benefit everybody, not just myself. Egoism is altruism.
All this depends, however, on the rich using their profits to open new factories and hire new employees, rather than wasting them on non-productive activities. Smith
profits ought to be reinvested in production.
Capital consists of money, goods and resources that are invested in production.
hard-working factory hand who reinvests part of his income in the stock market is.
The most important economic resource is trust in the future, and this resource is constantly threatened by thieves and charlatans.
Markets by themselves offer no protection against fraud, theft and violence. It is the job of political systems to ensure trust by legislating sanctions against cheats and to establish and support police forces, courts and jails which will enforce the law.
