The 'Good' Book and the changing moral Zeitgeist
E739218
"The 'Good' Book and the changing moral Zeitgeist" is a chapter in Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion that critiques the morality of religious scriptures and contrasts it with the evolution of secular ethical values over time.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The 'Good' Book and the changing moral Zeitgeist canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8503925 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The 'Good' Book and the changing moral Zeitgeist Context triple: [The God Delusion, chapterTitle, The 'Good' Book and the changing moral Zeitgeist]
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A.
The Two Sources of Morality and Religion
The Two Sources of Morality and Religion is a 1932 philosophical work by Henri Bergson that explores the origins and functions of moral systems and religious belief in human society.
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B.
Their Morals and Ours
"Their Morals and Ours" is a 1938 political essay by Leon Trotsky that defends revolutionary socialist ethics against bourgeois morality and critiques Stalinism.
-
C.
A Short History of Ethics
A Short History of Ethics is a philosophical work by Alasdair MacIntyre that surveys the development of moral thought from ancient Greece to the modern era, critically examining how ethical concepts and theories have evolved.
-
D.
On the Ends of Good and Evil
On the Ends of Good and Evil is a philosophical work by Cicero that explores and critiques major ancient theories of ethics and the highest human good.
-
E.
The Elements of Morality
The Elements of Morality is a 19th-century philosophical treatise by William Whewell that systematically explores ethical theory, moral duties, and the foundations of human conduct.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The 'Good' Book and the changing moral Zeitgeist Target entity description: "The 'Good' Book and the changing moral Zeitgeist" is a chapter in Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion that critiques the morality of religious scriptures and contrasts it with the evolution of secular ethical values over time.
-
A.
The Two Sources of Morality and Religion
The Two Sources of Morality and Religion is a 1932 philosophical work by Henri Bergson that explores the origins and functions of moral systems and religious belief in human society.
-
B.
Their Morals and Ours
"Their Morals and Ours" is a 1938 political essay by Leon Trotsky that defends revolutionary socialist ethics against bourgeois morality and critiques Stalinism.
-
C.
A Short History of Ethics
A Short History of Ethics is a philosophical work by Alasdair MacIntyre that surveys the development of moral thought from ancient Greece to the modern era, critically examining how ethical concepts and theories have evolved.
-
D.
On the Ends of Good and Evil
On the Ends of Good and Evil is a philosophical work by Cicero that explores and critiques major ancient theories of ethics and the highest human good.
-
E.
The Elements of Morality
The Elements of Morality is a 19th-century philosophical treatise by William Whewell that systematically explores ethical theory, moral duties, and the foundations of human conduct.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book chapter
ⓘ
essay ⓘ |
| argues |
modern secular morality is often superior to scriptural morality
ⓘ
moral progress is driven by secular reasoning and human empathy ⓘ moral values evolve over time ⓘ religion is not necessary for morality ⓘ religious scriptures reflect the moral standards of their time ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
New Atheism movement
ⓘ
linked to:
New Atheism
|
| author | Richard Dawkins ⓘ |
| claims |
many believers ignore or reinterpret immoral scriptural passages
ⓘ
moral intuition often overrides literal scriptural commands ⓘ |
| contrasts | biblical morality with contemporary ethical standards ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| criticizes |
appeals to scripture as a foundation for absolute morality
ⓘ
divine command theory ⓘ |
| critiques |
moral teachings of religious scriptures
ⓘ
morality in the Bible ⓘ morality in the New Testament ⓘ morality in the Old Testament ⓘ |
| discusses |
homophobia in religious traditions
ⓘ
slavery in the Bible ⓘ treatment of women in religious texts ⓘ violence in religious scriptures ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
role of empathy in ethical decision-making
ⓘ
role of reason in ethical decision-making ⓘ |
| genre |
atheist literature
ⓘ
non-fiction ⓘ popular science ⓘ |
| includedIn | first edition of The God Delusion ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
moral progress
ⓘ
moral relativism ⓘ morality of religious scriptures ⓘ religion and morality ⓘ secular ethics ⓘ |
| partOf | The God Delusion ⓘ |
| positionInWork | a middle chapter of The God Delusion ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 2006 ⓘ |
| publisherOfContainingWork | Bantam Press ⓘ |
| relatedWork | The God Delusion ⓘ |
| supports |
secular humanist ethics
ⓘ
the idea of a changing moral Zeitgeist ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
general readership
ⓘ
readers interested in religion and ethics ⓘ |
| workType | chapter-length argument against scriptural morality ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The 'Good' Book and the changing moral Zeitgeist Description of subject: "The 'Good' Book and the changing moral Zeitgeist" is a chapter in Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion that critiques the morality of religious scriptures and contrasts it with the evolution of secular ethical values over time.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.