A prevalent idea today is that we live in a post-truth world. That fake news and political figures like Trump and Putin have driven the world away from their ability to recognize truth from fiction. In this chapter, Harari gives us countless examples to show how this is false. The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused … Read more
Today, it is difficult to know what consequences your actions have and whether you are causing harm to the world. In primitive times, it was easy to understand the repercussions of your actions, you knew where everything came from and you understood how your behavior affected others. But this is no longer the case. The … Read more
From an evolutionary perspective , it has been advantageous to trust in the knowledge of others. But like other traits that may have worked well in the past but may not be useful today, the illusion of knowledge can be dangerous. We live in a more complicated world and few people understand the limitations of … Read more
What is secularism? It is important to know first what it is not. Unlike religion, secularists don’t believe that they have a monopoly on truth, compassion, and morality. Seculars try to separate truth from belief. The story of religion endows people with a sense of meaning and purpose when one believes in it strongly, but … Read more
There are two definitions of God, one is the campfire god that people talk about when they wonder about the universe and its origins. This God is unknown, mysterious, and philosophical. The other God is the one religious people pray to. He is a moral authority, He cares about marriage and sexuality, He cares about … Read more
In this chapter, Harari tells us that humility is a quality that most cultures lack. There are Indians that believe that the invention of nuclear science should be credited to them. The Jews believe that monotheism should be credited to them and that they are a significant group in the world – the top three … Read more
There was a time when wars made sense to some politicians – it was when wars were profitable and easy. In 1914, the British controlled the Nile Valley and the Suez Canal for decades without much push back. The U.S won the war against Mexico, gained a landmass equivalent to Western Europe, for the price … Read more
Since 11 September 2001, every year terrorists have killed about fifty people in the European Union, about ten people in the USA, about seven people in China, and up to 25,000 people globally (mostly in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria).1 In contrast, each year traffic accidents kill about 80,000 Europeans, 40,000 Americans, 270,000 Chinese, … Read more
“The rational man will not be too sure he’s right” This Bertrand Russell interview took place in 1955. There were many notable things about the conversation, like how different the style of interrogation used to be, but what was hard to miss was how the world has changed since the time of this interview – … Read more
The price we pay for the advancement of civilization is the heightening sense of guilt that we experience. In Civilization and its Discontents, Freud explains why we feel guilt, where it came from, and what consequences it has had on the individual. Religion Freud starts his inquiry by alluding to a shared reality among religious … Read more