One of those books is set in Soviet gulags. And it's depressing. The main character is constantly hungry, going to sham trials, and on the verge of being killed by freezing or brutal guards or overworking or other prisoners. And prisoners sometimes kill other prisoners just so they can go to trial and thus be spared from work for a few months.
They are also so sparse with food that they inspect the outhouses and if there is shit with undigested food in it they would wash the shit off, cook it again, and eat it (again).
They are also so sparse with food that they inspect the outhouses and if there is shit with undigested food in it they would wash the shit off, cook it again, and eat it (again).
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
