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Tag Archives: religion

We Don’t Know What We Are Talking About When We talk about Religion | Medium

We Don’t Know What We Are Talking About When We talk about Religion People rarely mean the same thing when they say “religion”, nor do they realize that they don’t mean the same thing. For early Jews and Muslims, religion was law. Din means law in Hebrew and religion in Arabic. For early Jews, religion […]

Religion, Pasquale Cirillo, Costco, Olive Oil, Narcissism, Gene Editing, Clintons

@wcsoto “Religion isn’t so much about telling man that there is one God as about preventing man from thinking that he is God.” N. N. Taleb @nntaleb Permalink 8:44 AM – 13 May 2015 @nntaleb 2nd accepted paper this year w/Cirillo. We need a paper on statistical properties of squid ink to have a good […]

Sam Harris Responds

Probably you find yourself as am I, baffled by the recent spat of Twitter hate emanating from NNT towards @SamHarris, @sapinker and many others. The Steven Pinker spat goes back to a 2009 NYT book review by Pinker of Malcolm Gladwell’s “What the Dog Saw”, where Pinker beats up on Gladwell (see also). Taleb, featured […]

People rarely mean the same thing when they say “religion”…

People rarely mean the same thing when they say “religion”, nor do they realize that they don’t mean the same thing. For early Jews and Muslims, religion was law. For early Jews it was also tribal; for early Muslims it was universal. For the Romans religion was social events and festivals (law was separate ). […]

NO WORSHIP WITHOUT SACRIFICE (Skin in the Game)

NO WORSHIP WITHOUT SACRIFICE (Skin in the Game) This is a picture of a church altar in Maaloula (St Sergius/Mar Sarkis) I saw a few decades ago, with a striking feature: it has a drain for blood. This altar came from a reconverted pagan temple used by early Christians. Pre Nicea (4th C) Christians recycled […]