Free Republic

The ascetic and moralizing movements that spawned the world's major religious traditions -- Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Christianity -- all arose around the same time in three different regions... The emergence of world religions, they say, was triggered by the rising standards of living in the great civilizations of Eurasia... It seems almost self-evident today that religion is on the side of spiritual and moral concerns, but that was not always so, Baumard explains. In hunter-gatherer societies and early chiefdoms, for instance, religious tradition focused on rituals, sacrificial offerings, and taboos designed to ward off misfortune and evil. That...

Full Title: Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain! Roman Catholic History and the Emerald City Protocol In the field of Reformation studies, Professor Brad Gregory is somebody for whom I have immense respect.  Those outside the discipline of history are possibly unaware of the ravages which postmodernism brought in its wake, making all narratives negotiable and fuelling a rise in interest in all manner of trivia and marginal weirdness.  Dr. Gregory is trained in both philosophy and history and has done much to place the self-understanding of human agents back at the centre of historical analysis.  Thus,...

The French National Assembly’s finance committee has green-lighted an amendment to the country’s draft 2014 budget law, significantly increasing the amount of aid funds that can be generated from the upcoming financial transactions tax (FTT), EurActiv.fr reports. An unexpected proposal for taxing financial transactions—amendment 23—was adopted on Tuesday (15 October) by the French Parliament’s finance committee during its examination of the country’s draft budget law for next year. … But the proposal is viewed less positively by the French Finance Ministry, which wants to protect the interests of French banks. Financial market operators, such as NYSE Euronext and Paris Europlace,...

Israeli McCarthyism? by Ari Bussel Israel is embroiled in a new debate, although this one is internal of sorts: Should Israel investigate the money trail of not-for-profit organizations, particularly those associated with the Left or the Extreme-Left? The Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, has designated those who will be in charge of this national investigation. The idea burst a Pandora’s box wide open, and the sight is unpleasing. The essence of the demand to investigate the financing of the activities of the Left Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) is the claim that money is channeled from foreign governments and other foreign entities that...

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER will report tomorrow: 'Former 60 Minutes Wednesday executive editor Josh Howard has told colleagues that before he resigns, the 23-year CBS News veteran will demand that the network retract remarks by CBS president Leslie Moonves, correct its official story line and ultimately clear his name'... In the event of a lawsuit, Mr. Howard has told associates that he would like to see Moonves put under oath to talk about his own roles in the network's stubborn, hapless defense of the flawed segment on President Bush's National Guard service. Howard has also indicated to colleagues that he...

Ex-US president writes novelBy Sarah Baxter in New York 14apr03AFTER more than 200 years of independence, the US has produced its first presidential novelist. The laurels go to Jimmy Carter, the 78-year-old Nobel peace prize winner, who has written a work of historical fiction drawing on the life of one of his ancestors -- a Southerner who fought the British during the American revolution. Carter's family can trace its ancestry in the Deep South back to the 1600s. As part of his research, the former president pored over the diaries of British and American combatants, consulted historians and delved into...