Ethical Record Articles

The Dead Sea Scrolls: Contours of Religious Belief

There are many aspects of the Scrolls that, having appeared to be solved in the decades after their discovery, have more recently become controversial. Rather than engaging in these unresolved debates, I will restrict myself to some of the major religious ideas that these manuscripts embrace—which are surprisingly, even challengingly, broad. The Scrolls’ Discovery The […]

From Fundamentalist Christian to Agnostic Atheist

Jonathan Edwards, the former Olympic champion, who still holds the triple jump world record, recently confessed he does not believe in God any more. In 2010, he told Sky News: “I think I was probably quite narrow-minded and fundamentalist in my views and a bit of a scary person. I believed that what I believed was the truth. Some […]

Understanding Humans

Over seven billion humans live on this planet. Theoretically speaking, there must be enough food and space for everyone. The reality, however, is very different. It has always been the case, it will always be the case, that never will all humans have exactly same belief system or value system. The dream of having a planet with perfect equality, […]

Freeloaders on the Land

The Freemen on the Land (FOTL) ideology is based on risible misinterpretations of legal concepts which are employed in the hope of giving the follower immunity from the law. Freemen beliefs change over time due to the conspicuous failure of their arguments in court, but the following ideas are typical. Freemen believe that statute law […]

The Ethics of Neuromarketing

Over a six week period in the summer of 1957, some fifty thousand Americans apparently fell victims to mind control. When news broke, the public was outraged and the media hysterical. Yet the ‘experiment’ at the heart of this controversy never took place. During the summer of 1957, a cinema in Fort Lee, New Jersey, was showing Picnic […]

Intelligently Designed: The Creationist Assault on Science

Before anything else, a plea for action. Please write to your MP in support of the BHA campaign to combat Creationism, including Creationism in publicly funded schools; details at http://campaign.publicaffairsbriefing.co.uk In a sense, the rest of this article, like the talk it is based on, is an explanation of why, shockingly, such action is necessary. […]

When Prophecy Fails… Again!

On 21 December 2012, the Mayans had prophesied that the End of the World would occur – at least, according to a number of New Age pundits and the authors of a surprisingly large number of books. In fact the Mayans had prophesied no such thing. In the exceedingly complex Mayan calendar there is only […]

International Women’s Day – Baroness Flather

Siana Bangura – International Women’s Day

Martin Rowson – “The Oppression and Resilience” of Women

International Women’s Day – Baroness Cox

International Women’s Day: Ahlam Akram