Ethics Grounded in the Binary Sets of the Bible

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The early Hebrew were acute observers of the order of creation. Their observations led them to consider the relationship between the Creator and the human creature. They perceived that the Creator is infinitely greater than the creature. The creature is entirely dependent upon the Creator and is to live under the Creator’s authority. They regarded the Creator-creature relationship as universal and inescapable. 

Christian Ethics builds upon this foundation and goes further by insisting that the Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ means that God can fully relate to the experiences of humanity. That divine intrusion also reveals the unfathomable depth of the Creator’s love and mercy toward all humanity.

Resentment of God’s sovereignty is fed by a distorted picture of the Creator-creature relationship. This binary set has both balance of authority and hierarchy. The Creator rules over all and is above all, yet the creature has been given authority to rule the domain of earth. Genesis 1:28 indicates that humans have been given the mandate to spread over the earth and have dominion. Respect for the mandate leads to good stewardship of the earth and the earth’s resources.

The second set to be considered is the binary set of Life-death. A binary thinker recognizes that life is greater than death, and vitality is greater than moribundity. God told the people of Israel (Jacob’s clan) to choose life rather than death by taking the path of obedience rather than disobedience. “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deut. 30:19).

The living human can perceive, experience, think, and interact in both positive and negative ways. While there is life, there is the potential for positive growth and development of the body, mind, and soul by which the individual may hope to avoid the “second death”. The second death is mentioned in Revelation 2:11 - "Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death." The second death occurs when the body and the soul as a unit are not restored to life in the general resurrection. That is what the early Hebrew (4000-2000 B.C.) believed, and their belief is reflected in their mortuary practices and texts. The earliest known resurrection texts were prayers offered by Nilotic priests for their deceased kings. They hoped for a righteous ruler who would rise from the dead and lead his people to immortality. This hope explains why the priests took such care to preserve the bodies of their rulers. St. Augustine noted that the Egyptians took great care in the burial of their dead and never practiced cremation, as in the religions that seek to escape material existence (Death, Burial, and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity, Jon Davies, Routledge, 1999, p. 27)

Great effort went into the preservation of the ruler’s body because the early Hebrew anticipated that one of their kings would be restored to life and would lead his people to immortality. This path was described as the way to the “imperishable stars”. For the biblical Hebrew the number three was associated with the third day rising of HR, the Son of God. He serves his people in life and death, clearing the path to the Father. As the Son of God, HR rises on the third day. “Oh Horus, this hour of the morning, of this third day is come, when thou surely passeth on to heaven, together with the stars, the Imperishable Stars" (The Ancient Pyramid Texts, Utterance 667).

For the biblical Hebrew heavenly recognition was not an individual prospect. Heavenly recognition came to the people through the righteousness of their king. They hoped the king would rise on the third day and lead his people to immortality. This language of royal processional appears in reference to the Messiah, who has the power to deliver captives from the grave and present them before the throne of heaven (Ps. 68:18; Ps. 7:7; Eph. 4:8). Paul speaks of Christ leading captives in his royal train.

Some Christians have championed the belief that all people will ultimately receive the gift of eternal life (universalism). This argument rests on the belief that the Creator’s character is such that He is unable to assign anyone to extinction. However, even this world is assigned to extinction and must give way to a new heaven and a new earth prepared for a new people. The new people are those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, delivered from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, and clothed in Christ’s righteousness. The Creator never ceases His creative activity. He gives life and He takes it away (Job 1:21; Deut. 32:39). Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

Because Christians seek to please God, who alone has authority to take life, we defend and advocate for the unborn. We seek to maintain space for God to work to the natural end of a person’s life. We support the development of all humans toward the maturity they were created to enjoy. We visit the sick whose weakness makes them vulnerable. We pray for them and anoint them with consecrated oil. 

Related reading: Binary Reasoning and Gender Balance; Philosophers' Corner: Two Types of Binary Reasoning; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Orthodoxy Requires Binary Reasoning; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Territorial Ambitions of the Early Hebrew

A Nilotic Priest's Complaint

 

The Ipuwer Papyrus dated to c. 1250 B.C., the height of the Egyptian Empire.

Papyrus Leiden I 344 recto, also known as The Admonitions of Ipuwer, is the complaint of an Egyptian priest about the loss of central authority as Egypt extended its political influence far beyond the Nile Valley. This was a time of syncretism when the old religion of the Nilotic Hebrew priests was subsumed in order to sustain an empire of multiple deities. The lesson to be learned from Ipuwer applies to the disruptions and compromises that globalism necessarily demands.

The papyrus describes a time of chaos in contrast to a former age of peace and prosperity when Re (Father God) and Horus/HR (Re's Son) were the principal deities for the people of the Nile Valley. It is a political treatise and an ethical lesson about the loss of governmental authority, social reversals, and anarchy expressed in the desecration of sacred sites and royal tombs. Slaves turned against their masters. Robbers achieved wealth and status. The stabilizing influence of the Nilotic priests was denigrated. 

Some have attempted to link Ipuwer's description of rivers of blood, darkness, and social upheaval to the Ten Plagues of Exodus. However, the timeline and literary conventions of the text do not support a direct connection to the Exodus narrative. Instead, this is an account of the breakdown of religious tradition leading to social disruptions. 

The Nile water looking like blood relates to the fact that the Nilotic priests mixed red ochre powder and barley with the water to make it look like blood (See James B. Pritchard's The Ancient Near East, Vol. I, page 4). This "blood water" was ritually consumed in their "communion" with Re, whose solar rays gave light, sustained life, and helped to purify the Hebrew priests of the Nile.

 

You may find the translation here: The Admonitions of Ipuwer: A Tale of Chaos and the Importance of Government - World History Encyclopedia

Related reading: BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: The Hebrew were a Caste; The Golden Calf in Anthropological Context; The Afro-Asiatic Conception of Purity

The European Union and Ethical Standards

 

Corruption scandals in Europe led to the creation of an official body of the European Union. Impetus for the establishment of the Interinstitutional Ethics Body (IBES) came after a cash-for-influence investigation involving European Union officials accused of taking bribes from Qatar, Morocco, and Mauritania.

Eight major EU institutions and bodies signed an inter-institutional agreement in May 2024 following momentum from prior corruption scandals. Participating Institutions include the European Parliament, European Commission, Council of the EU, Court of Justice, European Central Bank, and others.

The landmark EU ethics body was to create common minimum ethical standards across its major institutions. It establishes shared, minimum ethical guidelines and transparency rules for politicians and political appointees within EU institutions such as the European Parliament and European Commission. However, it has no authority to investigate corruption. Each member state is responsible for monitoring and policing ethics violations within their own countries.

The Interinstitutional Body for Ethical Standards has had limited effectiveness since its agreement in 2024 due to institutional compromises, a lack of investigative powers, and political delays in funding and implementation. The IBES has been criticized for lack of transparency because it relies of self-coordination and is without independent oversight.

Related reading: Political corruption in Europe: A threat to more… - Transparency.org; AI systems are only as good as the procurements that select them - The Ethics Blog

Eiseley on Individual Moral Responsibility

 

For Loren Eiseley individual moral responsibility is the foundation of human survival and ethical dignity and can never be replaced by collective or institutional mandates. He warned his readers about the dangers of a silenced individual conscience.

Loren Eiseley told the truth when he argued that state-sponsored collectivism seeks to replace the individual conscience. He wrote, "I believe in Christ in all who defend the individual from the iron boot of the expanding collective state." 

In his 1960 book The Firmament of Time Eiseley argued that collectivist ethics can never replace individual moral responsibility.

The warning should be sounded about all movements that seek to shape people's moral conscience, be they on the left or the right.  

Related reading: 8 Great Passages From Loren Eiseley's "The Firmament Of Time"; Remembering Loren Corey Eiseley

On the Churching of Women

An Orthodox priest presents an infant before the icons of Christ and the Theotokos.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The fact that some Anglicans have never heard the term "churching" of women suggests that they are not aware of the significance of blood in the Bible, and specifically about the blood work of women.

The "churching" tradition was lost in the wave of prayer book revisions. It was obfuscated by feminists who saw the early tradition of a new mother remaining home for 40 days, then coming to the church for a rite of purification and blessing, as misogynistic.

The eastern churches have preserved the custom. After 40 days of being sequestered with the newborn, the mother comes to the church. She is met at the door where the priest offers a rite of purification and blessing. The mother remains standing there while the priest takes the infant to the front of the church and presents the child before the icons of Christ and the Virgin Mary. If the child is a female, she is then carried back to the mother who joins the congregation. If the child is male, the priest carries him into the altar sanctum and walks him around the altar. This rite acknowledges the blood work of females and clarifies that it is distinct from the bloodwork of male priests at the altar. Consider the deep significance of that gender distinction.

The traditional rite is about more than giving thanks for the safe delivery of a child. The 40 days before returning to church is symbolic, and good for the woman and infant. The sequester is patterned on the symbolism of the number 40 in the Bible. The Virgin Mary took Jesus to the Temple 40 days after his birth. Angels ministered to Jesus after his 40 days in the wilderness. Liturgy that is rich in symbolism connected to Scripture should not be so easily eliminated or dismissed.

Blood when shed in any form has significance in the Bible. After being involved in combat the priest-king Melchizedek ministered to Abraham with bread and wine. This was a rite of blood cleansing as was common in the ancient world. Our unbreakable bond as Christians is that of kinship formed through Christ's blood. St. Paul refers to the blood of Jesus no less than twelve times in his writings. Because God makes peace with us through the blood of Christ, the Apostle urges us to, "Take every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together" (Eph. 4:3).

Blood speaks of the distinctions between male and female and between life and death. For the early Hebrew, the blood work of males and the blood work of females was distinct. The blood work of females pertains to the monthly cycle and childbirth. The blood work of males pertains to war, hunting, execution, and animal sacrifice by the priests. Men preparing to hunt or go to war sequestered themselves from menstruating women. That also was true of the priests when it was their time to serve at the Temple. Women in childbirth sequestered themselves from men. The distinction between the two types of blood work speaks of life and death. The two are never to be confused or mixed. Men were never allowed in the birthing chambers and women were never allowed in the place of animal sacrifice.

The traditional churching of women addresses blood. It involves priestly prayer for purification. Antinomian Anglicans neglect what the Bible reveals about our accountability to the Creator for all blood that is shed. Balanced acknowledgement of the "blood work" of males and females is biblical. That anthropological observation is confirmed by a detailed study of the canonical Scriptures which themselves reveal acute gender balance. I have written on this extensively as an Anglican.

By reducing the rite to a service of thanksgiving, the newer prayer books lost the connection to the biblical understanding of blood as having power before our Creator. That takes us back to Genesis where we read that Abel’s blood cried to God from the ground.

Related reading: A Christian Anthropologist Considers Gender in the Bible; Orthodoxy Requires Binary Reasoning; Is "Male Headship" a Biblical Doctrine?; Changing the Church by Stealth; Philosophers' Corner: Two Types of Binary Reasoning; Binary Reasoning Informs Christian Morality and Ethics

The Ethical Formation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

Bonhoeffer traveled to New York City in the summer of 1930 to pursue further theological training, arriving in the U.S. as Hitler was beginning his rise to power in Germany. While at Union Theological Seminary, Bonhoeffer was mentored by Reinhold Niebuhr, regarded as the father of modern social ethics. Niebuhr’s influence on Bonhoeffer stimulated Bonhoeffer's thoughts on a more practical social engagement between the Church and the world. Bonhoeffer respected Niebuhr’s deep commitment to linking faith with practical social and political action.

Bonhoeffer's time in New York City exposed him to African American worship with spirituals and vigorous preaching styles. He became active at Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church where he taught Sunday School. Founded in 1808 to fight segregated seating, the church became a hub of social activism, civil rights, and community empowerment. Bonhoeffer's formation as a Lutheran pastor and activist clearly were shaped by his experiences at the historic church and Niebuhr's teaching and witness.

As a Lutheran Bonhoeffer advanced the "Two Kingdoms" (or two governances) theory of Martin Luther. He viewed the church and state as distinct "divine mandates," both subordinate to God but with separate roles: the state preserves earthly order through law, while the church proclaims the Gospel. Luther’s Two Kingdoms theory posits that God rules the world in two distinct ways: the spiritual kingdom (right hand) governs souls through the Gospel and grace, while the secular kingdom (left hand) restrains evil through law and the sword. Both are by God's authority but must be separate to prevent church interference in state politics and the state's interference with the Church's Gospel mission.

The best presentation of Bonhoeffer's view on State and Church can be found in his book Ethics, Section III. Here he articulates that true ethics involves taking active responsibility for others and engaging with reality rather than isolating oneself from the world's conflicts. He states that "whether or not government is aware of its own true basis, its task consists in maintaining by the power of the sword an outward justice in which life is preserved and is thus held open for Christ." He believed that "government serves Christ by its very existence." 

Ethics was unfinished before Bonhoeffer died. It was edited and published after his death by Eberhard Bethge in 1949. Simon and Schuster published the first Touchstone Edition in 1995 (cover shown above).

Beginning in 1935, Bonhoeffer helped to establish an underground seminary for the Confessing Church in Finkenwalde (now Szczecin, Poland). Before its closure by the Gestapo in 1937, the community focused on spiritual formation, communal living, and training pastors to confront Nazi ideology and defend Gospel truth. Bonhoeffer believed that a "new monasticism" was needed to renew the Church which had become a passive in the face of the rising Nazi power. He was especially critical of German Christians who permitted Hitler to be their conscience (Ethics, pp.139-140). The experiment at Finkenwald resulted in two of Bonhoeffer's most significant works, Discipleship and Life Together.

Bonhoeffer's role in the Nazi resistance and in a failed assassination attempt on Hitler cost his life. He was executed on April 9, 1945, a few months before the end of World War II. He was 39 years old.

Related reading: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: German Christian Martyr Transformed by Experience With Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church | dday media

11 US Scientists Dead or Missing

 

Maj Gen (ret.) William Neil McCasland has been missing for several weeks 

(Image: Susan McCasland Wilkerson)

Nuno Loureiro (age 47) was the Director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center. On December 15, 2025, he was fatally shot at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. His death and the deaths and disappearances of at least 9 other US nuclear or high-tech scientists raise national security concerns.

Missing are retired Air Force Major General William Neil McCasland (age 68), a former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Anthony Chavez (age 79), a retired lab worker at the Air Force Research Lab, and Monica Reza, the Director of Materials Processing at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. On June 22, 2025, Reza waved at her hiking companion on a ridge in the Angeles National Forest and was never seen again. Also missing are Steven Garcia (Kansas City National Security Campus) and Melissa Casias (Los Alamos National Laboratory).

At the Air Force Research Laboratory, McCasland led billions of dollars in advanced materials sciences and future weapons research across one of the largest scientific centers in the Department of Defense.

Authorities previously told Newsweek they were aware of the speculation surrounding McCasland's case but had no verified information establishing any connection between his disappearance and any other missing person investigation.

Michael David Hicks, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, died on July 30, 2023.

Frank Maiwald, a principal researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory died on July 4, 2024. 

Carl Grillmair, a Caltech astrophysicist who worked on NASA’s NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor missions died February 16, 2026.

The nuclear lab worker, Melissa Casias, was reported missing June 25, 2025.

Read more here: White House Investigating Wave of Missing or Dead Scientists - Newsweek; Missing Air Force General Case Draws FBI and Online Conspiracy Theories | Military.com

Bryan Bedford's Conflict of Interest

 

Bryan Bedford, the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, maintained a multimillion-dollar financial stake in an airline company his agency regulates for more than seven months after he took the top job, despite saying he’d fully divest within 90 days.

This week, Bedford disclosed the sale of $5 million to $26 million worth of airline stock in February, raising questions of whether he maintained a financial conflict of interest well into his tenure as FAA administrator and violated an ethics agreement he signed ahead of his confirmation.

Beford is the former longtime chief executive of Republic Airways Holdings, an aviation holding company that owns two airlines.

"This appears to be a serious matter,” Foundation for Aviation Safety Executive Director Ed Pierson said in a statement.

The foundation, he said, “expects FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, and all government officials, to fully comply with the law and to avoid any potential financial conflicts of interest. Unethical and/or illegal behavior has no place in the aviation industry.”

Read more here: FAA Chief Dumps Millions in Airline Stock Months After His Ethics Agreement Deadline

Crimes Among High Level Persons in 2025

 

Ethics violations involve breaching established codes of conduct, professional standards, or legal regulations, resulting in actions like fraud, discrimination, harassment, data breaches, and misuse of company assets. Key examples include conflicts of interest, embezzlement, bribery, unsafe working conditions, and unprofessional conduct.

In 2025, U.S. government officials faced convictions and charges for wire fraud, bribery, and corruption, with local officials accounting for over 45% of January 2025 cases. Notable 2025 cases included convictions of federal representatives and union officials for embezzlement and fraud, while international cases involved major money laundering.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced new parameters for what kinds of crime will qualify under the Whistleblower Pilot Program. Going forward, the Pilot Program will prioritize Trump policy priorities—namely, immigration violations and tariff cheats. Learn more on the Ethicast.

Colombian narcotics kingpin Diego Marín discovers that it’s a whole lot easier to run a $100M/year criminal empire when you simply bribe the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to help you do it.

Intel files to recover over $840,000 embezzled by a former employee and a third-party vendor Israel in a fraudulent invoices conspiracy that ran from 2023 to 2024 and relied on insider information.

Ethics & Compliance Issues 2025: Year-in-Review notes:

 
CEOs behaving badly, the regulatory and governance turmoil of the second Trump administration, and the inescapable effects of AI dominated the ethics and compliance news environment in 2025.

As E&C professionals look for real-world examples that illustrate the risks they manage and the value their efforts create, Ethisphere offers this list of major E&C stories as a helpful point of reference. Throughout this list, you will find each month’s top E&C news story, episodes of the Ethicast that provide a deeper dive into these topics, and a list of additional major stories.

Read more here: Ethics & Compliance Issues 2025: Year-in-Review

The Karen Ann Quinlan Case

 

Karen Ann Quinlin in 1972

Wikipedia

This video explores the profound, real-life story of Karen Ann Quinlan, a 21-year-old woman who fell into a coma after consuming alcohol and Valium while on a crash diet. Quinlan had suffered irreversible brain damage after experiencing respiratory failure. Sustained by a ventilator and feeding tube, she entered a persistent vegetative state (PVS)—a condition marked by basic bodily functions without meaningful consciousness. Her case sparked a landmark legal battle over the right to withdraw life support and became a cornerstone in the formation of modern bioethical standards.

Hospital staff initially refused her parents’ request to remove life support, leading to a lawsuit. Her parents, focusing on her right to a natural death, argued that the respirator constituted extraordinary, painful means to prolong life.

On March 31, 1976, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unanimously that her right to privacy allowed her parents to act on her behalf. This allowed removal of the ventilator without civil or criminal liability. archives.law.virginia.edu

Contrary to expectations, Karen continued breathing unaided. She lived for a decade in a vegetative state before passing away from pneumonia. Quinlan weighed 65 lb (29 kg) at the time of her death

Quinlan's case raised questions in moral theology, bioethics, euthanasia, legal guardianship and civil rights. Her case had an impact on medical practices and led to the development of ethics committees in hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices.

Jack Carson Compares Jewish and Cherokee Ethics

 

Photo: Aimee Yu

Jack Carson, an MIT second-year undergraduate and EECS major, is the recent winner of the Elie Wiesel Ethics Essay Contest. His entry, “We Know Only Men: Reading Emmanuel Levinas On The Rez,” compares Jewish and Cherokee ethical thought. 

The essay links Carson’s hometown in Adair County, Oklahoma, to the village of Le Chambon sur Lignon, France. Both were places where the people went to extremes to help the "other". Carson attempts to answer the question: “What is to be done after catastrophe?” 

Carson explains in this interview that he wanted to explore how a culture that has been completely displaced can be preserved. Read the full interview here: Q&A: On the ethics of catastrophe | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Carson believes that the fast pace of technology highlights the importance of philosophy, literature, history, and the liberal arts. He plans to have a career at the intersection of machine learning, chemistry and biology. 

He said, "When I was younger, I just happened across a discussion of CP Snow’s famous essay on the “Two Cultures.” In it, he talks about his scientist friends who had never read Shakespeare, and his literary friends who couldn’t explain thermodynamics. In a modest way, I’ve always thought that I’d like my education to be one that allowed me to participate in the two cultures. The essay on Levinas is my attempt to pursue this type of education."

Perhaps he will wander down the path of cultural anthropology. Were he to do so, the discipline would be the better for it.

Questions about Sexual Harassment at Oxford

 

Copyright © University of Oxford Images / John Cairns Photography

John Tasioulas resigned from his position as director of the University of Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in AI in September 2025. Five months earlier, the university had begun an investigation into allegations of harassment against him.

Those details are revealed in an investigative article at Bloomberg by Katherine Griffiths about how “Oxford University has failed women over harassment concerns”:

Multiple men have remained in senior roles at Oxford for months or years after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged against them, Bloomberg found in a nine-month investigation based on interviews with almost 50 people as well as documents and other records.

The Bloomberg article does not state what the specific allegations against Tasioulas are, nor does it share the findings of the university’s internal investigation of those allegations.

Read more here:  Sexual Harassment Investigations at Oxford - Daily Nous

Nietzsche's The Genealogy of Morals

 

Friedrich Nietzsche's The Genealogy of Morals is one of the Project Gutenberg ebooks that is available to read online.

Excerpt from Part 9:

"But why do you talk of nobler ideals? Let us submit to the facts; that the people have triumphed—or the slaves, or the populace, or the herd, or whatever name you care to give them—if this has happened through the Jews, so be it! In that case no nation ever had a greater mission in the world's history. The 'masters' have been done away with; the morality of the vulgar man has triumphed. This triumph may also be called a blood-poisoning (it has mutually fused the races)—I do not dispute it; but there is no doubt but that this intoxication has succeeded. The 'redemption' of the human race (that is, from the masters) is progressing swimmingly; everything is obviously becoming Judaised, or Christianised, or vulgarised (what is there in the words?). It seems impossible to stop the course of this poisoning through the whole body politic of mankind—but its tempo and pace may from the present time be slower, more delicate, quieter, more discreet—there is time enough."

Heady stuff, if not necessarily true or evident.

Lloyd Gerson on Plato's Moral Realism

 

Dr. Lloyd Gerson is a Canadian. He teaches at the University of Toronto. In this YouTube video he defends Plato's moral realism and ground of truth against revisionist readings of Plato.

Gerson speaks about his book Plato's Moral Realism in which he argues that Plato's ethical philosophy is inseparable from his systematic metaphysics.

Plato's moral realism rests on the Idea of the Good, the unhypothetical first principle of all. It is this, as Plato says, that makes just things useful and beneficial. That Plato makes the first principle of all the Idea of the Good sets his approach apart from that of virtually every other philosopher. This fact has been occluded by later Christian Platonists who tried to identify the Good with the God of scripture. But for Plato, theology, though important, is subordinate to metaphysics. For this reason, ethics is independent of theology and attached to metaphysics. 

This book challenges contemporary accounts of Plato's ethics that start with the so-called Socratic paradoxes and attempt to construct a psychology of action or moral psychology that makes these paradoxes defensible. Rather, Lloyd Gerson argues that Plato at least never thought that moral realism was defensible outside of a metaphysical framework.


Related reading: Dr. Gerson's lecture on Platonism vs Naturalism; Philosophers' Corner: Thumbnail Sketch of Phillipa Foot; Moral realism - Wikipedia

Aldarir Sentenced for Multiple Counts of Smuggling

 

Ancient Egyptian artifact stolen and sold by Eldarir in 2019.

BROOKLYN, NY: A federal judge sentenced Egyptian doctor Ashraf Omar Eldarir to six months in prison for smuggling nearly 600 Egyptian antiquities through JFK. He used fake provenance to funnel gold funerary amulets, wooden tomb models, an ancient Egyptian polychrome relief, an ancient Roman limestone stele, and an ancient Roman limestone head.

The false provenances included “multiple documents, including what appeared to be decades-old Egyptian blank pages with watermarks, decades-old Egyptian loose stamps, and multiple black-and-white old-looking photographs purporting to depict an ancestor of the defendant displaying several of the artifacts in his office from long ago,” stated court documents, which noted forensic examiners determined the documents were forgeries and the photographs had been photoshopped and aged.

Robbers sent Eldarir videos of the objects from the grave sites "as if it were K-Mart and here’s your pick to choose from," William Campos, the assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in court.

Read more here: Man packed luggage with hundreds of looted ancient artifacts, feds say

Artists Against AI Generated Art

 

AI images are programmed. We should consider the value of original and truly unique work.

Why are some artists refusing to use AI for creative work?

Many express concerns about copyright infringement. They believe that their work is being used without their consent to train AI models, which then generate derivative works that compete with their own.

Artists argue that the AI technology does not represent true artistic work, and that it devalues their efforts. AI generated images do not entail the natural and lengthy process of art creation. True art is an expression of human experience, emotion, and creativity, something which AI lacks. That is why many view the AI generated images as the opposite of art.

Artists are also concerned that human artists are increasingly being replaced by AI technology.

Molly Crabapple posted an open letter and petition, calling for book and magazine publishers to refuse to use AI art. Crabapple’s letter include signatures from high profile people such as author Naomi Klein and actor Jon Cusack.

Related reding: The Harm and Hypocrisy of AI Art; Independent Artists Are Fighting Back Against AI Image Generators With Innovative Online Protests by Richard Whiddington for Artnet; Colonizing Art | OpenMind Magazine; Philosophers Needed to Navigate the AI Revolution

Philosophers Needed to Navigate the AI Revolution

 

Demis Hassabis, CEO and co-founder of Google DeepMind, has pondered the need for profound philosophical thought to guide humanity through the uncharted waters of advanced AI. His observation highlights a fascinating and potentially critical aspect of the ongoing AI revolution. He believes that the AI revolution requires not just technical prowess but also deep ethical and philosophical reflection.

“I think there is a need for some great philosophers,” Hassabis said. “Where are the great next philosophers? The equivalent of Kant or Wittgenstein, or even Aristotle.”

He went on to explain why he believed such philosophical minds were crucial: “I think we’re going to need that to help navigate society to that next step because I think AGI and artificial superintelligence is going to change humanity and the human condition.”

Read it all here: Will Need Great Philosophers To Navigate The AI Revolution: Google's Demis Hassabis

Failure to Preserve Science Journals

 

Today online research can supplement field and lab research in multiple sciences, but a study suggests that some potentially important findings are no longer available because they have not been preserved.

The work of archiving and preserving science journals is time consuming and there is no uniformly applied process to preserve free downloadable journal articles. If the publisher ceases to exist, the journals may vanish. 

Eighty-four online-only, open-access (OA) journals in the sciences, and nearly 100 more in the social sciences and humanities, have disappeared from the internet over the past 20 years as publishers stopped maintaining them. The average duration of online access appears to have been about 10 years.

“The analysis demonstrates that research integrity and the scholarly record preservation … are at risk across all academic disciplines and geographical regions," says Andrea Marchitelli, managing editor of JLIS.it, the Italian Journal of Library, Archives, and Information Science.

The authors of the study are Mikael Laakso (Hanken School of Economics), Lisa Matthias (Free University of Berlin), and Najko Jahn (University of Göttingen). To determine the list of the 176 vanished journals, they did some digital detective work because clues about them are fragmentary. After the journals go dark their names no longer appear in bibliometric databases.

The authors defined a vanished journal as one that published at least one complete volume as immediate OA, and less than 50% of its content is now available for free online. Some of the content may be accessible as printed copies or in paywalled commercial services.

They used a historical archive of internet content, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, to determine when production ceased and when content disappeared from the internet (within 5 years for three-quarters of the journals). The journals had been based in 50 different countries. Most of the now dark journals published articles only in English.

The study found that only about one-third of the 14,068 journals indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals in 2019 ensure the long-term preservation of their content. Some commercial services offer it, and the Public Knowledge Project Preservation Network, does so for free.

Source: Dozens of Internet Journals Have Vanished; How Open Access Journals are Transforming Science

Two Kinds of Human Dignity

 

I recommend reading this paper by Dr. David Bradshaw, Philosophy professor at the University of Kentucky. "Making Human Rights Orthodox," International Conference on Post-Humanism and Artificial Intelligence, Athens, Greece, November 2024.

Dr. Bradshaw often speaks at Eastern Orthodox conferences and is an expert in early Greek theology. His book Aristotle East and West: Metaphysics and the Division of Christendom is fascinating and challenging (Cambridge U Press, 2004).

Bradshaw writes, "From an Orthodox standpoint, contemporary human rights discourse is problematic in two ways: many rights that are widely advocated are contrary to Orthodox moral teaching, and even those that are acceptable (such as, for example, the right to life) are often justified through faulty reasoning. Hence it is important to articulate a legitimately Orthodox framework for human rights.

 
The approach suggested here is based on a distinction between two kinds of human dignity: ‘mere’ human dignity, consisting in being accorded respect and appropriate treatment by others, and ‘true’ human dignity, consisting of possessing a pure conscience before God. These give rise to two distinct categories of human rights, which I refer to, respectively, as rights of non-abuse and rights of agency."

The Reality of Human Exceptionalism

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Many social issues of the Western world hinge on decisive statements about humans. They touch on human dignity, human diversity, human rights, and human reproduction. We hear from "experts" in many fields, but rarely from anthropologists whose focus is humankind.

The British biologist Richard Dawkins has been outspoken on these issues. In a particularly flamboyant statement, he denigrated the dignity of the unborn human.

"With respect to those meanings of 'human' that are relevant to the morality of abortion, any fetus is less human than an adult pig." - Richard Dawkins' Tweet

Yet Dawkins acknowledges that humans are exceptional. He states: "As Darwin recognized, we humans are the first and only species able to escape the brutal force that created us, natural selection….We alone on earth have evolved to the point where we can…overthrow the tyranny of natural selection.” (Have Humans Outgrown Natural Selection?)

The Hebrew writers of Genesis believed that God created humans fully human from the beginning in a divine act at a moment in the distant past. There is no reason to reject this view since humans appeared suddenly on the earth about 4 million years ago, and though these were anatomically archaic, they were nonetheless, fully human. We have evidence that they walked upright, had human dentition, hunted and butchered, and controlled fire.

The discovery of a complete fourth metatarsal of A. afarensis at Hadar shows the deep, flat base and tarsal facets that "imply that its midfoot had no ape-like midtarsal break. These features show that the A. afarensis foot was functionally like that of modern humans." (Carol Ward, William H. Kimbel, Donald C. Johanson, Feb. 2011)

A. afarensis used polished bone tools, had communal meals, and controlled fire. Some of the earliest evidence of controlled use of fire by humans was found at Swartkrans in South Africa. Other sites that indicate fire use include Chesowanja near Lake Baringo, Koobi Fora and Olorgesailie in Kenya.

In 2011 researchers discovered jaw bones and teeth of four individuals in the Afar region of Ethiopia which date to between 3.3m and 3.5m years old. These archaic humans were alive at the same time as other groups of early humans. Clearly, there were more archaic humans living in Africa 3 million years ago than is generally recognized.

Jeremy DeSilva showed that Australopithecus lacked the large grasping toe typical of tree climbers, and its spine, pelvis, knees, and ankles were made for walking on two legs. DeSilva compared the ankle joint, the tibia and the talus fossils of human ancestors ("hominins") between 4.12 million to 1.53 million years old, he discovered that all of the ankle joints resembled those of modern humans rather than those of apes. Chimpanzees flex their ankles 45 degrees from normal resting position. This makes it possible for apes to climb trees with great ease. While walking, humans flex their ankles a maximum of 20 degrees. The human ankle bones are quite distinct from those of apes. (One Small Step for Man — Bostonia Summer 2010)

Muscle reconstruction provides further evidence that the Australopithecine walked as modern humans do.

From the perspective of anthropology, the deep time record of human activity is evident in the vast number of innovative objects made and used by humans. Here is a short list.

Deniers of Human Exceptionalism

Human exceptionalism proposes, on the basis of data, that humans are unique and superior to other animals. Deniers claim that the belief is dangerous because it can lead to unsustainable practices and environmental degradation. However, humans also undertake many productive measures to preserve their environments.

Deniers assert that belief in human exceptionalism can lead to forgetting how all living creatures are interdependent. However, humans protect and encourage pollinators such as bees and butterflies, and control invasive species. We create protected areas, practice sustainable land management, support conservation efforts, and encourage biodiversity.

Deniers claim that belief in human exceptionalism promotes exploitation of other living creatures. Yet humans are compassionate toward animals and seek to preserve them and their habitats. Humans came up with animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, and fund-raising projects to improve the lives of other creatures.

Humans organize for war, ritually bury their dead, and offer prayers. They venerate their ancestors, create shrines to their heroes, and develop political systems. 

To deny the reality of human exceptionalism is to deny facts. Anthropologists have observed many complex social structures among humans, our ability to laugh at ourselves, to create play, to reason using high logic, to negotiate and resolve conflicts, to deliberate moral and ethical questions, and to adapt fairly quickly to ever-changing conditions. 

Related reading: STEM Education: What Paleoanthropologists Want to Discover; Many Groups of Archaic Humans; Can Molecular Models be aligned with Human Morphology?