The debate between Jordan Peterson & Sam Harris was over about five sessions and across multiple continents.

At the very least it would have been an interesting
exchange of arguments.

" We must respect the other fellow's religion,
but only in the sense and to the extent that we
respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and
his children smart."

(H.L. Mencken).

63rd Webinar - 18 September 2021
Challenging Leonidas:
Shattering the Myth of Spartan Warrior Supremacy
with Myke Cole
The last stand at Thermopylae made the Spartans legends in their own time, famous for their toughness, stoicism and martial prowess. But was this reputation earned? The Spartan hoplite enjoys unquestioned currency as history’s greatest fighting man, but is this simply down to the success of a propaganda machine that began working long before the battle at the Hot Gates? Covering Sparta’s full classical history from the foundation of the city-state through to its final overthrow by Rome in the 1st century BC, author Myke Cole challenges the long-held myths about this ancient Greek society and depicts a very different view of Spartan warfare – one punctuated by frequent and heavy losses. Looking at the major battles, with a special focus on previously under-publicized Spartan reverses that have been left largely unexamined, it reveals why Spartan society became dedicated to militarism, and examines the men who lived under its brutal rule.


Myke Cole has had a colorful and varied career, with service in war and crisis response with the CIA, the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), and the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence). He commanded the reserve at US Coast Guard Station New York, where he was responsible for maritime law enforcement and search-and-rescue operations around the island of Manhattan. He went on to work for the NYPD in cyber threat intelligence, and continues that work in the private sector. Most recently he has taken up firefighting in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Myke’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The New Republic, and Foreign Policy. He is the author of Legion versus Phalanx: The Epic Struggle for Infantry Supremacy in the Ancient World and The Bronze Lie Shattering the Myth of Spartan Warrior Supremacy. Myke is also a popular fantasy and science fiction novelist with several major imprints. He appeared on CBS’ hit TV show Hunted,
and later starred on Discovery Channel’s Contact alongside fellow Osprey author Dr. Michael Livingston.

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Dear Josephus,

There is simply no evidence for the existence of a designer. There is no reason for me to think there is a designer. There is an explanation for the majesty of life in all its forms. In "The Origin of the Species" Darwin beautifully expressed it.

"It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the external conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

Darwinian evolution has been superseeded with rational thought, there is design and unfolding development in all life and it began at one point. In the beginning - time, space - heavens and matter - earth were formed instantly. In our Solar system life began on Earth as plant, then as aquatic, then trees then creatures of the air then animals and humans finally humans with intelligent reasoning.

Dear Josephus,

Darwinian evolution has not been superseded. It is still the basis of biological science. Darwin continued a tradition started by Thales, recognized as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition. The ancient Greeks, like possibly many other people, believed that the actions of the gods caused various events. They believed that Zeus threw thunderbolts, and Poseidon caused storms at sea. Your belief in a designer god is an example of that kind of thinking. Thales who died in the sixth century BCE thought that natural events have natural causes. Darwin found some of the natural causes for the proliferation of life we have on earth. Evolutionary biologists are finding out more about various evolutionary mechanisms, but Darwin’s insights are still accepted.