Part 2 But Nietzsche’s main contention, and his most controversial conjecture, was this: Christianity as Jewish revenge. He paints the following picture, to which I have added factual details as we understand them today. Paul could see the growing oppression of the Jews. They had only limited ability to fight back militarily. They were increasingly […]
Over the course of two thousand years, Christianity has grown from nothing to the largest religion on the planet. Some 2.1 billion people now consider themselves Christian, about one third of all of humanity. It significantly outnumbers Islam, in second place with 1.5 billion members.1 America is among the most religious of all industrialized nations; […]
Philosophers, as a rule, are a rather low-key bunch. They generally discuss mundane, technical, or utterly abstract topics that cause little concern among society at large. Of course there were exceptions, primarily during the Renaissance when the early humanists incurred the wrath of the Church (think of Bruno or Spinoza); this required some to publish […]
At 308 million people, the U.S. is currently the third most populous nation on Earth, behind only China (1.3 billion) and India (1.2 billion). By 2050, India will rise to #1, with 1.6 billion—a 37% increase. China’s ‘one-child’ policy will limit its increase to about 8% (1.4 billion). The growth rate in the U.S., though, […]
