http://www.askwhy.co.uk/index.php AskWhy! Books website on Christian and Jewish origins, history, faults, fallacies, and alternatives. Fri, 5 Feb 2010 20:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/thumb_awdonkey0.png http://www.askwhy.co.uk/index.php http://www.askwhy.co.uk/awoverviewpresentation.htm http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0538lent.php European pagans celebrated the return of spring with fertility festivals commemorating their goddess of fertility and of springtime, Eostre. Lenten frugality under subsistence agriculture might have been a necessity rather than a feature, as food stored away in the previous autumn was running out or going bad in store, and little new could be expected soon. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0538lent.php Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/326The_Happiness_Hypothesis.php 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. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/326The_Happiness_Hypothesis.php Fri, 5 Feb 2010 20:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/c60moralpsychjhaidt.php 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. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/c60moralpsychjhaidt.php Fri, 5 Feb 2010 20:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0875secularchristianity.php 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. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0875secularchristianity.php Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/c50norenzayan.php Human sensitivity to social reputation is a psychological mechanism, unrelated to religion, that evolved to facilitate reciprocal co-operative bonds in groups. Selfish people could be accused, punished or excluded from the group. Religions help sociality in large groups, but efficient secular social organization, and practical institutions to enforce the law have reduced the need for and conviction behind the upholding of morals by religion. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/c50norenzayan.php Sat, 2 Jan 2010 22:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/c40allenor.php 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. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/c40allenor.php Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0000christmas.php Christmas Feature: Six links to articles at AskWhy! on Christmas, putting the festival into context http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0000christmas.php Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0885personalvalues.php 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. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0885personalvalues.php Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/c30epley.php 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! http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/c30epley.php Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/c20evolethic0.php 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. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/c20evolethic0.php Sun, 6 Dec 2009 22:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/marienbad/010critic.php Updated: New daily literary criticism for students to get ideas for coursework. Free to use. Public domain. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/marienbad/010critic.php Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/c10bpctheory.php 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. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/c10bpctheory.php Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:00:00 GMT http://localhost/askwhy.co.uk/truth/c00moralityevol.php 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. http://localhost/askwhy.co.uk/truth/c00moralityevol.php Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0890bandits.php Even peasants who normally accept a degree of exploitation and subjection, dream of equality, brotherhood and freedom, an apocalyptic renewal--the messiah will come, king Arthur will return, or Barbarossa, or Charlemagne, or the Queen of the South, or Zoroaster, or Christ--the sign being the collapse of social order making the apocalypse seem imminent. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0890bandits.php Fri, 6 Nov 2009 16:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/b90arnhart.php Sympathy is the basis of morality. In The Descent of Man, Darwin says our morality is rooted in human nature, and modern social scientific research confirms it. Proper conduct is socially approved conduct, conduct that earns us the praise of others when we do it. Proper conduct towards others is morality, and evolution upholds it. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/b90arnhart.php Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/b80jsmillliberty.php People should be allowed to carry their opinions into practice without molestation as long as the cost borne is entirely their own. The condition of freedom of action is like that of freedom of speech: they must not make themselves a nuisance to other people. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/b80jsmillliberty.php Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:00:00 GMT http://askwhy.co.uk/dinosauroids/?p=569 Are human beings still evolving? For long it was thought that human evolution had stopped when culture took over from natural selection about 50,000 years ago, in other words when we started to use our brains. But the human races emerged since then. At the "Who Lies Sleeping?" blog. http://askwhy.co.uk/dinosauroids/?p=569 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/b70morality.php Why is justice the fundamental and essential moral law? It is a vital regulation of social life. Why is murder the greatest crime? It is the gravest social delinquency. In tribal society religion and morals had remained close to each other. Then religion became the interest of the sacerdotal caste of priests http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/b70morality.php Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/b60honderichpoh.php 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. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/b60honderichpoh.php Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0006writing.php How writing began in the ANE not for recording speech but for recording items and quantities, ie numbers. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0006writing.php Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/b50rawlstoj.php 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. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/b50rawlstoj.php Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0406theophany.php The people were fearful of the theophany, and asked Moses to mediate with God. Moses entered as Ahuramazda brought down to earth, and Yehouah replaced Ahuramazda. The law had the authority of Ahuramazda, the Persian god, but God had to be Yehouah. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0406theophany.php Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0010ReligiousOrigins.php The origins of religion. Further update of pages that introduce aspects of religion as a scientific study. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0010ReligiousOrigins.php Sun, 9 Aug 2009 22:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/ab0possessive.php Biblical scholars have decided that whatever Jesus possesses is written as Jesus', as in Jesus' miracles. Most people would quite naturally say Jesus's miracles http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/ab0possessive.php Mon, 3 Aug 2009 20:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/01325whenwasthebiblewritten.php 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. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/01325whenwasthebiblewritten.php Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0150David.php 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. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0150David.php Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0160Solomon.php 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. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0160Solomon.php Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/anthroposaurus/index.php They're back! The Anthroposaurs! "Who Lies Sleeping?" is online again from adelphiasophism.com http://www.askwhy.co.uk/anthroposaurus/index.php Sun, 17 May 2009 20:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0404Moses.php Updated: Evidence that Exodus is an Hellenistic romance written in Alexandria http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0404Moses.php Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0005jaynes.php The breakdown of the bicameral mind that Jaynes saw in the mid first millennium BC was a bonfire of scribal vanities, writing conventions from the times when only specialized scribes were literate, and all recording was official. The Persian empire torched the conventions of the ANE, and Greeks continued the bonfire after Alexander. But there was a stage when the personality did not count in consciousness. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0005jaynes.php Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:00:00 GMT http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/b00moslemorigin.php Islam, like Judaism and Christianity, is a sham and honest scholarship on these religions cannot avoid being offensive to believers. Religious belief excludes scholarship, so no believer can decry work critical of belief as not scholarly. Moslems, as usual, will be outraged that their beliefs are subject to the same criticism here as Judaism and Christianity. These religions are false, and any amount of indignation cannot change it. http://www.askwhy.co.uk/truth/b00moslemorigin.php Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:00:00 GMT