Yesterday's blog mentioned Plato's 5 regime types and that the belief systems Politics and Religion will be kicked out during the transfer from the 4th (ie, Democracy) to the final regime type (ie, Tyranny). With the knowledge of hindsight, one regime type is missing: Theocracy. My diagram below pictures that missing one in between Democracy and Tyranny. Money must...
The ancient Greek had (at least) six words for Love, being agape (divine love), eros (romantic love), philia (friendship), philautia (self-love), storge (familial love) and xenia (hospitality). These words are all connected to my concept Faith, Beliefs & Willpower. When you love someone, you believe in them. You have faith in them. Both give you the willpower to...
I was born in 1960. Back then, blasphemy was limited to an occasional cursing. I suppose blasphemy became mainstream due to TV shows featuring comedians. Late 2013, Dutch liberals and socialists proposed to remove the 1932 penalty on blasphemy from Dutch law (NOS, Wiki). In Western countries, blasphemy is almost normal but why do we condone blasphemy?The Dutch...
One of my favourite movies is Kingdom of Heaven (IMDb), albeit for different reasons than you might expect. The movie shows several historic events besides the Crusades: the weakening of the Sasanian Empire of Iran (Persia), the rise of Islam, and the fall of the Golden Age of Islam. This 2005 movie changed my perspective on that region. Wiki:...
This Sunday, I had an epiphany: plausible deniability is the reason why extremism hides behind belief systems. A recent example was the news that Dutch salafist primary schools teach young children that killing "unbelievers" is a commendable deed. The school is protected by the Dutch Constitution that guarantees freedom of religious education. A very different...
In the Netherlands, we have 2 types of state funded education which are both public schools but differ in their (non) religious background. Essentially, Christian and other religious people often attend Christian public schools, while others attend regular public schools. The Dutch call this freedom of education, a principle that was hardly questioned. Since about a...
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