• What Does a Religion of Peace Look Like?

    What Does a Religion of Peace Look Like?

    It is often argued whether this is a religion of peace or that is a religion of peace. We come up with different answers. However, when it is pointed out that there are specific doctrines in almost all major religions which support violence, in one form or another, we start talking about the context. Then Read more

  • Xuanzang in India: The Travels of the 7th-century Chinese Scholar

    Xuanzang in India: The Travels of the 7th-century Chinese Scholar

    Xuanzang, also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a seventh-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He came to India along the Himalayas into the rich plains of the Punjab, a land watered by five rivers. Two days out of Rajouri, he crossed the river Chenab. This section of his journey closely followed India’s present-day Read more

  • Is Your Job Bullshit?

    Is Your Job Bullshit?

    Before we get to that question, let’s discuss what we mean by a bullshit job. The defining feature of a bullshit job: one so completely pointless that even the person who has to perform it every day cannot convince himself there’s a good reason for him to be doing it. He might not be able Read more

  • How the Bible was Written

    How the Bible was Written

    The earliest portions of the Old Testament are held to date from the tenth or eleventh century BCE, while the latest (the book of Daniel), comes from the Maccabean period of the second century BCE. The time-span for the New Testament is much shorter. The earliest of Paul’s letters stems frok C.50 CE; the majority Read more

  • Why Westerners Are WEIRD People

    Why Westerners Are WEIRD People

    Who are you? Perhaps you are WEIRD, raised in a society that is Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic. If so, you’re likely rather psychologically peculiar. Unlike much of the world today, and most people who have ever lived, we WEIRD people are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, non-conformist, and analytical. We focus on ourselves — Read more

  • How to Raise a Child with a Temperament

    How to Raise a Child with a Temperament

    Parental horror stories about placing difficult children are all too common. But in most cases, where effective understanding and intervention starts early it need not come to that. As National Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan shows us in his book The Challenging Child, parents can actually help their children make the most of Read more