The early Hebrews were no more murderous than other tribes; early Hindu, Christian, Muslim and Chinese histories also contain frequent boasts of torture and genocide.
Not researched Checkable, but outside the sample that was researched.
Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?
Cite this claim
Steven Pinker, “The early Hebrews were no more murderous than other tribes; early Hindu, Christian, Muslim and Chinese histories also contain frequent boasts of torture and genocide.” (said 1 January 2007). Verdict: not researched. Reliability API, claim c_656932cd3f2e, method 0.1.0+28da144b, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_656932cd3f2e
This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.
Reply to this claim
More factual claims by Steven Pinker
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Mostly true
“But in other kinds violence, such as homicides, the progress has definitely continued.”
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“I float a number of hypotheses as to why cooperation and human flourishing in general have increased.”
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“Those were as old as civilisation.”
Slavery and imperialism were as old as civilisation, predating the Enlightenment.
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Mixed
“Nuclear doomsday scenarios in the 1960s set off not disarmament but an arms race with the Soviets.”
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Mixed
“More countries are democratic than not, even though if it’s fewer than it was 20 years ago.”
More countries are democratic than not, though fewer than 20 years ago.
Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.