• Ian Robinson took a critical look at the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments, and considered what might be a more comprehensive and positive set of moral guidelines to live by.
• Paul Monk reviewed historian Frank Dikötter’s new book on China’s path to communism.

By Ian Robinson

One of the many untruths propounded by the Judea-Christian religious tradition is the concocted story that, one day on Mount Sinai, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. But the actual phrase ‘Ten Commandments’ does not appear anywhere in the Hebrew text of the Bible. Archaeologists are now pretty certain that Moses didn’t exist, at least as far as being the hero of the story told in Exodus is concerned – the escape from captivity in Egypt and crossing the Red Sea and getting the tablets from God and so on. There is absolutely no evidence for a Jewish captivity in Egypt at that time (or at any other), let alone a miraculous escape. Read the full article

It is impossible to capture seven decades of formidable intellect, wrapped into some 14,000 books and articles, in less than a thousand words. Yet German philosopher Jürgen Habermas staked his career on the power of dialogue and deliberation, so it is worth chiming in. Habermas, who died on 14 March at the age of 96, was among the greatest thinkers of our time. He was unshakeable in his conviction that people have minds of their own, can hope for a better future, and have the capability, collectively and democratically, to bring that future to life. Read the full article

Dikötter has just written and published the fifth in his series on the impact of communism on China. It serves as a prequel to the other four volumes and covers a crucial aspect of the subject: the extraordinary brutality of the communist movement, in its quest for power, starting a century ago. The key to this new book is that it takes the reader back into the decades before the Communist Party seized power in 1949. That era is often depicted as a kind of heroic ‘Robin Hood’ era of the party. It was no such thing. Read the full article

In a world where science has managed to get us to the moon, drastically decrease infant mortality, and increase human longevity, the idea of pandering to beliefs that cannot be demonstrated to be true fills me with horror and disgust (‘Exclusive: Albanese government expresses interest in setting up privileged faith advisory body’, 21 February 2026, Rationalist Society of Australia). “Respecting religion” has no place in a rational world. By all means, practise it. But special privileges? That’s a hard no. Read the full Letters column