Free Republic

He had no doubts at first, but slowly they emerged. He was struck, he says, by the fact that the first coins bearing Muhammad’s name did not appear until the late 7th century — six decades after the religion did. He traded ideas with some scholars in Saarbrücken who in recent years have been pushing the idea of Muhammad’s nonexistence. They claim that “Muhammad” wasn’t the name of a person but a title, and that Islam began as a Christian heresy. Prof. Kalisch didn’t buy all of this. Contributing last year to a book on Islam, he weighed the odds...

“At every moment of consciousness, we are fated to wrestle with God.” (Pg. xxxi)Dr. Jordan Peterson is one of the most influential conservative voices in the world. Many Christians have actively tried to discern his theological positions. Does Peterson believe in God, if so, what does that mean? What does he think of Jesus? These questions have been bandied about online for years, most recently in Peterson’s admission to Alex O’Connor (internet atheist nonetheless!) that if a Panasonic camera was pointed at Jesus’ tomb, on Easter Sunday, its LCD screen would show “a man walking out of ” it. To...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) claimed Monday on CNN’s “The Lead” that to serve in the Trump administration, you must have “affection for racist and misogynist philosophy.” Host Jake Tapper said, “You’re on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. There are reports that a gentleman named Darren Beattie is going to be put forward to be Acting Undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs. That’s a key post. We should note, Beattie left the first Trump administration after the tide of criticism because he attended a conference tied to white nationalists. Beattie also posted on social media things like this, quote, ‘Competent...

It is within the bounds of “open” Religion Forum town square style debate for a Freeper to express his hatred of a belief. But such posts are never allowed on RF threads labeled “prayer” “devotional” “caucus” or “ecumenical.” It is never within the bounds on the Religion Forum for a Freeper to express his hatred of people who hold a particular belief when any Freeper is part of the belief group. For example: It is ok to express hatred towards MormonISM on “open” Religion Forum threads. It is never ok to express hatred towards Mormons because some Freepers are Mormon....

AI Just Analyzed Philosophy—And Its Questions Are Terrifying | 16:44Lucas A. Baxendale | 39.2K subscribers | 209,601 views | November 4, 2024

The anti-Trump demonstrations we now see in the streets are not just examples of the immaturity of many modern secular liberals, who seem to think that everyone else is somehow obligated to agree with them. They’re also a symptom of the distorted influence politics now exercises over our culture.But in addition to being a symptom of our culture, the dominance of politics in every aspect of life is also a consequence of liberalism itself.The tendency of liberalism has always been to politicize everything. Thanks to liberalism, we have a politicized media that has abandoned journalistic standards in a misguided attempt...

There are so many misconceptions about Fascism, National Socialism and Third Positionism that few people actually know what their ideology is. Yes it's racist, but why? And what else do they believe? In this video, we will read quotes from modern and historical Third Positionists, and listen to the adherents themselves, to uncover the truth - that this ideology is different than what you might expect. I AM NOT A FASCIST, nor a Nazi, nor a Third Positionist. I am against these hateful ideologies. This video is for informational purposes and was created so we may better understand the past...

There’s an odd and unsettling strain of fatalism sweeping through the ranks of erstwhile conservative thinkers these days, as though they've been put into a form of collective hypnosis and conditioned into believing that the only way to stave off disaster is for all of us to throw ourselves headlong into another Trump campaign—ironically, more than Trump himself is willing to throw himself into it. It’s the kind of logic that says, “If the Titanic is sinking, you should try to put out the fire in the engine room by drilling more holes in the hull.” We are told in...

Both Buddhism and Stoicism emphasize self-control, ethical living, and the attainment of a passionless state. However, the Indian philosophy predated Stoicism by about 500 years. Did Buddhism influence Greek Stoicism and thought, and, if so, how did it do so a continent away? Similarities between Stoicism and Buddhism: A shared path to inner peace Practitioners of Stoicism and Buddhism deeply understand life’s impermanence and the need to overcome desires. The philosophies teach mental discipline and detachment from external circumstances as paths to inner peace. In Stoicism, “apatheia” means freedom from emotional disturbance, closely mirroring Buddhism’s “nirvana,” the liberation from suffering....

A respected philosophy professor who plunged to his death amid an investigation over historical sexual assault allegations led an “extremely kinky, illicit drug taking” double life behind closed doors, according to an escort who entered into a “sex contract” with the 77-year-old promising to “make her daddy happy.” Dr John Forge, an honorary professor at the University of Sydney who authored numerous books on morality and ethics, was found dead at the base of Cataract Gorge in Launceston, Tasmania on May 2, hours after a detective knocked on his door to request he attend a police station for questioning. It’s...

Former President Donald Trump is set to speak at the Libertarian Party’s National Convention on Saturday in Washington, D.C. It’s in some sense both a big win and loss for the party. For a former president to address the party is a symbolic victory. But, on the other hand, it is a bizarre thing for the party to do given that Trump is neither the Libertarian Party presidential candidate nor is he in any meaningful sense a libertarian. The only beneficiary of this, at the margins, is Trump, who has made clear he wants the vote of registered Libertarians. “We...

Video interview of Alexsandr Dugan conducted by Tucker Carlson discussing the future of humanity.

Like the Nazis, Islamist terrorism weaponized horror to demoralize the West. Christianity has a soft underbelly: It struggles to reconcile belief in a God who so loved the world that He sacrificed Himself for its salvation with the suffering of innocents. That was the nub of Voltaire’s attack on theodicy after the Lisbon earthquake killed 12,000 in 1755, as well as Ivan Karamazov’s protest that “if the sufferings of children go to swell the sum of sufferings which was necessary to pay for truth, then I protest that the truth is not worth such a price.” The post-Christian world, which...

In this blog article, we will explore the profound quote by Voltaire, "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." At its core, this quote serves as a sober reminder of the power of manipulation and the dire consequences it can have on individuals and society as a whole. Voltaire's words encapsulate the notion that when people are persuaded to accept and adopt absurd beliefs or ideas, they become vulnerable to committing acts of great cruelty or injustice. This statement holds immense importance in our modern world, where manipulation is rampant, giving rise to extremism and...

You need wisdom to navigate the challenges and complexities of life. But how do you get it? Owen Anderson, professor of philosophy at Arizona State University, suggests the perfect place to start.

The following article is essentially a review of ideas put forward in a book published nearly a century and a half ago but which deserve to be more widely known. What follows should be read as a supplement to discussion of the subject elsewhere, notably in the detailed appendix to Gary Bates’ book Alien Intrusion: UFOs and the evolution connection.1 A lightly-edited version of the latter is available here: Who were the ‘sons of God’ in Genesis 6? We strongly urge anyone who wishes to comment on the present article to read that latter link first.CMI recognises that evangelical Christians...

Why his repulsiveness may have been exaggerated. Posted April 25, 2023 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk -His students Plato and Xenophon described Socrates as ugly and made much out of this. -His supposed repulsiveness did not prevent Socrates from leading a rich and remarkable love life. -Plato and Xenophon may have had good reasons for inventing or exaggerating their teacher's ugliness. Socrates was remarkably full-blooded for an ascetic philosopher. In Xenophon’s Symposium, he says, “For myself I cannot name the time at which I have not been in love with someone.” By all accounts, Socrates’s greatest love was with the...

The ‘music of the spheres’ was born from the effort to use numbers to explain the universeAn image of a white half circle at the bottom-center on a starry background. There are 8 arches spreading away from the circle. The Pythagoreans believed that the motions of the heavenly bodies, with just the right ratios of their distances from a central fire, made pleasant music — a concept that evolved into the “music of the spheres.” If you’ve ever heard the phrase “the music of the spheres,” your first thought probably wasn’t about mathematics. But in its historical origin, the music...

What happens to a culture when absolute truth is determined by a group of elites instead of spiritual morality

The new slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives lacks something besides its slim majority and the battle over leadership positions. It lacks intellectual depth. The Reagan administration may have been the last one to challenge Americans to think for themselves, and for that matter, just to think. Perhaps this lack of thinking and intellectual depth in our politics is caused by instruments and websites that do the thinking for us. We now tune in to whatever newspaper, cable network or website reinforces our beliefs and care little about how ideas were developed, whether they work and who benefits...