About three years ago I came in to Big Think and I talked very strongly and very passionately about atheism, how I did not believe in God. And over the past three years I opened my heart to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit filled me. And all of a sudden I realized that everlasting life is possible by following in the ways of Jesus Christ our Lord. I have since then dedicated my life to…
World War One officially started on July 28th, 1914, and ended on November 11th, 1918. The number of casualties differs, depending on what source you read, and finding exact numbers is, of course, impossible. It’s generally thought this devastating war involving multiple nations ended with about 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. 10 million of those deaths were civilian deaths, and 9.7 million of them were military personnel. It’s said The Entente Powers (also called the Allies) lost around…
All systems of oppression are highly adaptive, and they can adapt to challenges and incorporate them. They can allow for exceptions. And I think the most powerful adaptation of the system of racism to the challenges of the civil rights movement was to reduce a racist to a very simple formula. A racist is an individual—always an individual, not a system—who consciously does not like people based on race—must be conscious—and who intentionally seeks to be mean to them. Individual,…
National crises: There are lots of them, and they have common features. The United States is spiraling into a crisis today. Other countries, countries that I know well and have lived in, have gotten through crises, such as Australia, Germany, Finland, Chile, Indonesia, Japan. There are generalizations about the outcomes of national crises. A country is not going to resolve a national crisis unless it acknowledges that it’s in a crisis. If you don’t, you’re going to get nowhere. Many…
When I go to college campuses, one of the ways I like to open my talk is I say, when the Mayflower Pilgrims landed on the eastern seaboard and they approached Plymouth Rock, they dusted it off, they saw etched on the stone the words, “Judeo-Christian nation.” And there’ll be a long pause, and all these 19-year-olds who did really well on their standardized tests will like look up at me, like, “Wow.” And then I’ll slowly start shaking my…
குழுந்தைகளே குழுந்தைகளே கொடி வணக்கம் சொல்லுங்கள் கொடிகாத்த குமரன் புகழை பாடிப் பாடிச் சொல்லுங்கள் செக்கிழுத்த சிதம்பரனார் அவரைப் போற்றிப் பாடுங்கள் வீரபாண்டிய கட்டபொம்மன் துணிவை நெஞ்சில் கொள்ளுங்கள் சுதந்திரத்தை வாங்கித் தந்த தியாகிகளைப் போற்றிடுவோம் மூவர்ணக் கொடியே ஏற்றி முதல் வணக்கம் சொல்லுடுவோம் குழுந்தைகளே குழுந்தைகளே கொடி வணக்கம் சொல்லுங்கள் கொடிகாத்த குமரன் புகழை பாடிப் பாடிச் சொல்லுங்கள் செக்கிழுத்த சிதம்பரனார் அவரைப் போற்றிப் பாடுங்கள் வீரபாண்டிய கட்டபொம்மன் துணிவை நெஞ்சில் கொள்ளுங்கள் சுதந்திரத்தை வாங்கித் தந்த தியாகிகளைப் போற்றிடுவோம் மூவர்ணக் கொடியே ஏற்றி முதல் வணக்கம் சொல்லுடுவோம் வண்ணங்கள் காட்டுது நமது கொடி . வானத்தை முட்டுது, நமது கொடி . எண்ணங்கள் ஊட்டுது நமது கொடி. என்னென்ன காட்டுது…
There’s been a big conversation about civility and the need for civility online, and I actually kind of don’t love that word because often what it means to people is kind of respect for the norms or the authority of a group that’s in power. And so it’s often the case in society that rabble-rousers and people who are lower on the power spectrum are seen as being uncivil. And, in fact, if you look back at the civil rights…
I’m obviously an extreme. What I found when I came out of the closet as trans because I will say, I always knew I was trans. And I think that’s not true of all trans people. It’s not what defines us. But it is true of a lot of us. So in part, I think I lost, I sometimes feel like many of us do a lost childhood that I didn’t get to fully be myself. But on the other…
Immigration in the United States is a controversial issue just as it is in most other countries of the world. Many other of not just first-world countries, like Japan, Australia, Western Europe are wrestling with immigration, but many developing countries. When I was last in Indonesia, Malaysia, Indonesia’s neighbor, is having a problem with Indonesians migrating into Malaysia because the standard of living in Malaysia is higher than in Indonesia. And South Africa, an African country, is having issues with…
Similar parts of the brain – there’s a lot of overlap in how we process both visceral disgust and moral disgust. Psychopaths – needless to say they’re these cold-blooded killers are over representative in many of our high security jails. And these individuals show damage to many of the same circuits that are involved in disgust. Another group of individuals, although they’re not predatory but people with Huntington’s disease it also damages some of the circuits that are involved in…