Answer: established beliefs or customs

Context: Heresy is any provocative belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs. A heretic is a proponent of such claims or beliefs. Heresy is distinct from both apostasy, which is the explicit renunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is an impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.

Question: What is heresy mainly at odds with?


Answer: A heretic

Question: What is a person called is practicing heresy?


Answer: Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Marxism

Context: The term is usually used to refer to violations of important religious teachings, but is used also of views strongly opposed to any generally accepted ideas. It is used in particular in reference to Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Marxism.

Question: What religions and idea of thought is heresy cited as being used frequently in?


Answer: Christian, Islamic and Jewish

Context: In certain historical Christian, Islamic and Jewish cultures, among others, espousing ideas deemed heretical has been and in some cases still is subjected not merely to punishments such as excommunication, but even to the death penalty.

Question: What cultures are listed as examples of discipline for being a heretic?


Answer: Greek

Context: The term heresy is from Greek αἵρεσις originally meant "choice" or "thing chosen", but it came to mean the "party or school of a man's choice" and also referred to that process whereby a young person would examine various philosophies to determine how to live. The word "heresy" is usually used within a Christian, Jewish, or Islamic context, and implies slightly different meanings in each. The founder or leader of a heretical movement is called a heresiarch, while individuals who espouse heresy or commit heresy are known as heretics. Heresiology is the study of heresy.

Question: What language does the term heresy find its roots in?


Answer: slightly different

Question: What is the relationship between the context heresy is used in for Christian, Jewish, or Islamic cultures?


Answer: heresiarch

Question: What is the head person of a heretical movement called?


Answer: Heresiology

Question: What is the study of heresy?


Answer: "choice" or "thing chosen"

Question: What is the original meaning of heresy when translated directly from its root word?


Answer: two times

Context: According to Titus 3:10 a divisive person should be warned two times before separating from him. The Greek for the phrase "divisive person" became a technical term in the early Church for a type of "heretic" who promoted dissension. In contrast correct teaching is called sound not only because it builds up in the faith, but because it protects against the corrupting influence of false teachers.

Question: How many times is it suggested that you should warn people you are in disagreement with before parting ways?


Answer: divisive person

Question: What term is used to describe an individual in the early Church that introduced discord?


Answer: sound

Question: What word is used when speaking of correct teachings in contrast to a false teacher?


Answer: Jews and Judaism

Context: The Church Fathers identified Jews and Judaism with heresy. They saw deviations from Orthodox Christianity as heresies that were essentially Jewish in spirit. Tertullian implied that it was the Jews who most inspired heresy in Christianity: "From the Jew the heretic has accepted guidance in this discussion [that Jesus was not the Christ.]" Saint Peter of Antioch referred to Christians that refused to venerate religious images as having "Jewish minds".

Question: What culture and religion did Fathers of the Church correlate with heresy?


Answer: Orthodox Christianity

Question: What religion were these Fathers of the Church?


Answer: Tertullian

Question: Who suggested that it were the Jews that brought dissension into Christianity?


Answer: Irenaeus

Context: The use of the word "heresy" was given wide currency by Irenaeus in his 2nd century tract Contra Haereses (Against Heresies) to describe and discredit his opponents during the early centuries of the Christian community.[citation needed] He described the community's beliefs and doctrines as orthodox (from ὀρθός, orthos "straight" + δόξα, doxa "belief") and the Gnostics' teachings as heretical.[citation needed] He also pointed out the concept of apostolic succession to support his arguments.

Question: Who gave more exposure to the term heresy when attempting to descredit opponents during the early centuries of Christianity?


Answer: orthodox

Question: What term did Irenaeus use to describe the Christian community's ideologies?


Answer: apostolic succession

Question: What concept did Irenaeus cite to help support his arguments?


Answer: Constantine the Great

Context: Constantine the Great, who along with Licinius had decreed toleration of Christianity in the Roman Empire by what is commonly called the "Edict of Milan", and was the first Roman Emperor baptized, set precedents for later policy. By Roman law the Emperor was Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of the College of Pontiffs (Collegium Pontificum) of all recognized religions in ancient Rome. To put an end to the doctrinal debate initiated by Arius, Constantine called the first of what would afterwards be called the ecumenical councils and then enforced orthodoxy by Imperial authority.

Question: Who was the first Roman Emporor that was baptized?


Answer: Edict of Milan

Question: What did Constantine the Great and Licinius pass to introduce toleration of Christianity in the Roman Empire?


Answer: Pontifex Maximus

Question: What was the high priest in the College of Pontiffs called?


Answer: the ecumenical councils

Question: What were the meetings called that were hosted by Constantine that helped enforce orthodoxy by Imperial authority?


Answer: AD 380

Context: The first known usage of the term in a legal context was in AD 380 by the Edict of Thessalonica of Theodosius I, which made Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire. Prior to the issuance of this edict, the Church had no state-sponsored support for any particular legal mechanism to counter what it perceived as "heresy". By this edict the state's authority and that of the Church became somewhat overlapping. One of the outcomes of this blurring of Church and state was the sharing of state powers of legal enforcement with church authorities. This reinforcement of the Church's authority gave church leaders the power to, in effect, pronounce the death sentence upon those whom the church considered heretical.

Question: In what year was the first usage of the term heresy in a legal context?


Answer: Thessalonica of Theodosius I

Question: Who intitiated Christianity to be a state church of the Roman Empire?


Answer: state-sponsored support

Question: What was the church lacking before the edict that would allow them to legally counter heresy?


Answer: state powers of legal enforcement

Question: What did church authorities gain as a result of this edict?


Answer: death sentence

Question: What punishment is cited as church authorities being able to exact on individuals perceived as heretics?


Answer: Priscillian

Context: Within six years of the official criminalization of heresy by the Emperor, the first Christian heretic to be executed, Priscillian, was condemned in 386 by Roman secular officials for sorcery, and put to death with four or five followers. However, his accusers were excommunicated both by Ambrose of Milan and Pope Siricius, who opposed Priscillian's heresy, but "believed capital punishment to be inappropriate at best and usually unequivocally evil". For some years after the Reformation, Protestant churches were also known to execute those they considered heretics, including Catholics. The last known heretic executed by sentence of the Roman Catholic Church was Spanish schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoll in 1826. The number of people executed as heretics under the authority of the various "ecclesiastical authorities"[note 1] is not known.[note 2] One of the first examples of the word as translated from the Nag Hammadi's Apocalypse of Peter was" they will cleave to the name of a dead man thinking that they will become pure. But they will become greatly defiled and they will fall into the name of error and into the hands of an evil cunning man and a manifold dogma, and they will be ruled heretically".

Question: Who was the first Christian individual to be sentenced to death by the church for heresy in Rome?


Answer: excommunicated

Question: What happened to the people that sentenced Priscillian to death?


Answer: Catholics

Question: What religion is an example of Protestants killing for conviction of heresy after the Reformation?


Answer: Cayetano Ripoll

Question: Who was the last known person to be sentenced to death for the crime of heresy by the Roman Catholic Church?


Answer: Nag Hammadi's Apocalypse of Peter

Question: From what passage is cited as being one of the first known examples of using the word heresy?


Answer: obstinate and willful manifest heresy

Context: In the Roman Catholic Church, obstinate and willful manifest heresy is considered to spiritually cut one off from the Church, even before excommunication is incurred. The Codex Justinianus (1:5:12) defines "everyone who is not devoted to the Catholic Church and to our Orthodox holy Faith" a heretic. The Church had always dealt harshly with strands of Christianity that it considered heretical, but before the 11th century these tended to centre around individual preachers or small localised sects, like Arianism, Pelagianism, Donatism, Marcionism and Montanism. The diffusion of the almost Manichaean sect of Paulicians westwards gave birth to the famous 11th and 12th century heresies of Western Europe. The first one was that of Bogomils in modern day Bosnia, a sort of sanctuary between Eastern and Western Christianity. By the 11th century, more organised groups such as the Patarini, the Dulcinians, the Waldensians and the Cathars were beginning to appear in the towns and cities of northern Italy, southern France and Flanders.

Question: What is thought of to spiritually cut one off from the Church even before excommunication?


Answer: The Codex Justinianus

Question: What book gives the definition of a heretic as anyone that does not follow the Catholic Church or the orthodox holy faith?


Answer: Arianism, Pelagianism, Donatism, Marcionism and Montanism

Question: What groups are cited as being considered heretical by the Church before the 11th century?


Answer: Paulicians

Question: What group moved westward to give rise to the famous 11th and 12th century heresy in western Europe?


Answer: Patarini, the Dulcinians, the Waldensians and the Cathars

Question: What groups began to appear in northern Italy and southern France during the 11th century?


Answer: France

Context: In France the Cathars grew to represent a popular mass movement and the belief was spreading to other areas. The Cathar Crusade was initiated by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate the Cathar heresy in Languedoc. Heresy was a major justification for the Inquisition (Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis, Inquiry on Heretical Perversity) and for the European wars of religion associated with the Protestant Reformation.

Question: In what country did the Cathars grow to represent a popular movement?


Answer: The Cathar Crusade

Question: What was started by the Roman Catholic Church to dispense of the Cathars in Languedoc?


Answer: Heresy

Question: What was a major reason and justification for the Europian wars of religion?


Answer: Galileo Galilei

Context: Galileo Galilei was brought before the Inquisition for heresy, but abjured his views and was sentenced to house arrest, under which he spent the rest of his life. Galileo was found "vehemently suspect of heresy", namely of having held the opinions that the Sun lies motionless at the centre of the universe, that the Earth is not at its centre and moves, and that one may hold and defend an opinion as probable after it has been declared contrary to Holy Scripture. He was required to "abjure, curse and detest" those opinions.

Question: Who was brought before the Inquisition for heresy but renounced his beliefs and thus remained under house arrest for life?


Answer: the Sun lies motionless at the centre of the universe

Question: What belief did Galileo have at the time that appeared to be extremely heretical to the church?


Answer: Pope St. Gregory

Context: Pope St. Gregory stigmatized Judaism and the Jewish People in many of his writings. He described Jews as enemies of Christ: "The more the Holy Spirit fills the world, the more perverse hatred dominates the souls of the Jews." He labeled all heresy as "Jewish", claiming that Judaism would "pollute [Catholics and] deceive them with sacrilegious seduction." The identification of Jews and heretics in particular occurred several times in Roman-Christian law,

Question: Who denounced Jewish People in many of his writings?


Answer: Christ

Question: What were the Jews described as enemies of?


Answer: Jewish

Question: According to Pope St. Gregory what religion must you be in order to be a heretic?


Answer: Roman-Christian law

Question: In what culture of law were Jews and heretics often lumped together?


Answer: Eastern Christianity

Context: In Eastern Christianity heresy most commonly refers to those beliefs declared heretical by the first seven Ecumenical Councils.[citation needed] Since the Great Schism and the Protestant Reformation, various Christian churches have also used the concept in proceedings against individuals and groups those churches deemed heretical. The Orthodox Church also rejects the early Christian heresies such as Arianism, Gnosticism, Origenism, Montanism, Judaizers, Marcionism, Docetism, Adoptionism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism, Monothelitism and Iconoclasm.

Question: What area of Christianity commonly cited the first seven Ecumenical Councils in regards to heresy?


Answer: Great Schism and the Protestant Reformation

Question: After what two events did various Christian churches also begin using the first seven Ecumenical Councils to identify heresy?


Answer: Arianism, Gnosticism, Origenism, Montanism, Judaizers, Marcionism, Docetism, Adoptionism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism, Monothelitism and Iconoclasm

Question: What beginning Christian heresies did the Orthodox Church also reject during this time?


Answer: "On the Jews and Their Lies"

Context: In his work "On the Jews and Their Lies" (1543), German Reformation leader Martin Luther claims that Jewish history was "assailed by much heresy", and that Christ the logos swept away the Jewish heresy and goes on to do so, "as it still does daily before our eyes." He stigmatizes Jewish Prayer as being "blasphemous" (sic) and a lie, and vilifies Jews in general as being spiritually "blind" and "surely possessed by all devils." Luther calls the members of the Orthodox Catholic Church "papists" and heretics, and has a special spiritual problem with Jewish circumcision.

Question: What is the work called that Martin Luther created regarding Jews and heresy?


Answer: blasphemous

Question: What term does Luther assign to the practice of Jewish Prayer?


Answer: Jewish circumcision

Question: What is said to be a special spiritual problem?


Answer: European Reformation

Context: In England, the 16th-century European Reformation resulted in a number of executions on charges of heresy. During the thirty-eight years of Henry VIII's reign, about sixty heretics, mainly Protestants, were executed and a rather greater number of Catholics lost their lives on grounds of political offences such as treason, notably Sir Thomas More and Cardinal John Fisher, for refusing to accept the king's supremacy over the Church in England. Under Edward VI, the heresy laws were repealed in 1547 only to be reintroduced in 1554 by Mary I; even so two radicals were executed in Edward's reign (one for denying the reality of the incarnation, the other for denying Christ's divinity). Under Mary, around two hundred and ninety people were burned at the stake between 1555 and 1558 after the restoration of papal jurisdiction. When Elizabeth I came to the throne, the concept of heresy was retained in theory but severely restricted by the 1559 Act of Supremacy and the one hundred and eighty or so Catholics who were executed in the forty-five years of her reign were put to death because they were considered members of "...a subversive fifth column." The last execution of a "heretic" in England occurred under James VI and I in 1612. Although the charge was technically one of "blasphemy" there was one later execution in Scotland (still at that date an entirely independent kingdom) when in 1697 Thomas Aikenhead was accused, among other things, of denying the doctrine of the Trinity.

Question: What event in England during the 16th century had an outcome of many deaths for heresy?


Answer: Henry VIII

Question: During what king's reign did 60 Protestants die for heresy?


Answer: Sir Thomas More and Cardinal John Fisher

Question: What two notable figures are cited to have perished for refusing to give up the Church in England?


Answer: Edward VI

Question: Under which king were the heresy laws repealed in 1547?


Answer: 1612

Question: In what year was the last known person sentenced to death in England for heresy?


Answer: 1659, 1660, and 1661

Context: Another example of the persecution of heretics under Protestant rule was the execution of the Boston martyrs in 1659, 1660, and 1661. These executions resulted from the actions of the Anglican Puritans, who at that time wielded political as well as ecclesiastic control in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. At the time, the colony leaders were apparently hoping to achieve their vision of a "purer absolute theocracy" within their colony .[citation needed] As such, they perceived the teachings and practices of the rival Quaker sect as heretical, even to the point where laws were passed and executions were performed with the aim of ridding their colony of such perceived "heresies".[citation needed] It should be noticed that the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox communions generally regard the Puritans themselves as having been heterodox or heretical.

Question: During which years did the execution of the Boston martyrs take place?


Answer: Anglican Puritans

Question: Which group was responsible for the deaths of the Boston martyrs?


Answer: purer absolute theocracy

Question: What goal is cited as the reason these killings took place?


Answer: Quaker sect

Question: What rival group did the Anglican Puritans want purged from their area?


Answer: Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox

Question: Which two groups viewed the Puritans themselves as nothing more than heresy?


Answer: 1826

Context: The era of mass persecution and execution of heretics under the banner of Christianity came to an end in 1826 with the last execution of a "heretic", Cayetano Ripoll, by the Catholic Inquisition.

Question: What year did the deaths of heretics under Christianity come to an end?


Answer: Cayetano Ripoll

Question: Who was the last heretic put to death under the Catholic Inquisition?


Answer: Christian

Context: Although less common than in earlier periods, in modern times, formal charges of heresy within Christian churches still occur. Issues in the Protestant churches have included modern biblical criticism and the nature of God. In the Catholic Church, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith criticizes writings for "ambiguities and errors" without using the word "heresy".

Question: Under which religion do charges of heresy still occur in modern times?


Answer: Protestant

Question: Which religion is cited as having problems with modern biblical criticism?


Answer: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Question: What belief of the Catholic Church criticizes writings without using the word heresy?


Answer: Spanish inquisition

Context: Perhaps due to the many modern negative connotations associated with the term heretic, such as the Spanish inquisition, the term is used less often today. The subject of Christian heresy opens up broader questions as to who has a monopoly on spiritual truth, as explored by Jorge Luis Borges in the short story "The Theologians" within the compilation Labyrinths.

Question: What event is stated as a reason why the word heretic is used less often in modern times?


Answer: Jorge Luis Borges

Question: Who was the author of the short story "The Theologians"?


Answer: Christian heresy

Question: What subject does the question of who has a monopoly on spiritual truth regard?


Answer: Shia Qizilbash

Context: Ottoman Sultan Selim the Grim, regarded the Shia Qizilbash as heretics, reportedly proclaimed that "the killing of one Shiite had as much otherworldly reward as killing 70 Christians."

Question: What group did Sultan Selim the Grim label as heretics?


Answer: 70

Question: What number of Christians did Selim the Grim equate to the killing of one Shiite?


Answer: Sharia law

Context: In some modern day nations and regions in which Sharia law is ostensibly practiced, heresy remains an offense punishable by death. One example is the 1989 fatwa issued by the government of Iran, offering a substantial bounty for anyone who succeeds in the assassination of author Salman Rushdie, whose writings were declared as heretical.

Question: What type of law is still in practice in which heresy results in execution?


Answer: Salman Rushdie

Question: What author was declared a heretic and had a bounty placed on his head by the government of Iran?


Answer: heretical

Context: Orthodox Judaism considers views on the part of Jews who depart from traditional Jewish principles of faith heretical. In addition, the more right-wing groups within Orthodox Judaism hold that all Jews who reject the simple meaning of Maimonides's 13 principles of Jewish faith are heretics. As such, most of Orthodox Judaism considers Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism heretical movements, and regards most of Conservative Judaism as heretical. The liberal wing of Modern Orthodoxy is more tolerant of Conservative Judaism, particularly its right wing, as there is some theological and practical overlap between these groups.

Question: What does Orthodox Judaism regard Jews who depart from traditional practices as?


Answer: right-wing groups

Question: What alignment within Orthodox Judaism view individuals as heretics that reject Maimonides's 13 principles of Jewish faith?


Answer: The liberal wing

Question: Which wing of Orthodox Judaism is stated as having a more tolerant view of Conservative Judaism?


Answer: squirreling

Context: The act of using Church of Scientology techniques in a form different than originally described by Hubbard is referred to within Scientology as "squirreling" and is said by Scientologists to be high treason. The Religious Technology Center has prosecuted breakaway groups that have practiced Scientology outside the official Church without authorization.

Question: What term is used for the act of using Church of Scientology techniques in contrast to what Hubbard envisioned?


Answer: The Religious Technology Center

Question: What institution has prosecuted groups that practice outside the official Church without permission?


Answer: innovation

Context: In other contexts the term does not necessarily have pejorative overtones and may even be complimentary when used, in areas where innovation is welcome, of ideas that are in fundamental disagreement with the status quo in any practice and branch of knowledge. Scientist/author Isaac Asimov considered heresy as an abstraction, Asimov's views are in Forward: The Role of the Heretic. mentioning religious, political, socioeconomic and scientific heresies. He divided scientific heretics into endoheretics (those from within the scientific community) and exoheretics (those from without). Characteristics were ascribed to both and examples of both kinds were offered. Asimov concluded that science orthodoxy defends itself well against endoheretics (by control of science education, grants and publication as examples), but is nearly powerless against exoheretics. He acknowledged by examples that heresy has repeatedly become orthodoxy.

Question: What must be welcomed in areas for the term do be perceived as complimentary?


Answer: an abstraction

Question: What did Isaac Asimov consider heresy as?


Answer: endoheretics

Question: Which type of heresy is the scientific community well equipped to defend itself against?


Answer: orthodoxy

Question: What has heresy within the scientific community repeatedly become?


Answer: The Dinosaur Heresies

Context: The revisionist paleontologist Robert T. Bakker, who published his findings as The Dinosaur Heresies, treated the mainstream view of dinosaurs as dogma. "I have enormous respect for dinosaur paleontologists past and present. But on average, for the last fifty years, the field hasn't tested dinosaur orthodoxy severely enough." page 27 "Most taxonomists, however, have viewed such new terminology as dangerously destabilizing to the traditional and well-known scheme..." page 462. This book apparently influenced Jurassic Park. The illustrations by the author show dinosaurs in very active poses, in contrast to the traditional perception of lethargy. He is an example of a recent scientific endoheretic.

Question: What is the title of the book published by Robert T. Bakker regarding mainstream opinion of dinosaurs?


Answer: the field hasn't tested dinosaur orthodoxy severely enough

Question: What criticism did Robert T. Bakker share about the paleontologist community regarding the last fifty years?


Answer: Jurassic Park

Question: What film did Robert T. Bakker's book reportedly influence?


Answer: active poses

Question: What type of poses did the book's illustrations portray dinosaurs as?


Answer: endoheretic

Question: What label is associated with Robert T. Bakker as a result of his work?


Answer: exoheretic

Context: Immanuel Velikovsky is an example of a recent scientific exoheretic; he did not have appropriate scientific credentials or did not publish in scientific journals. While the details of his work are in scientific disrepute, the concept of catastrophic change (extinction event and punctuated equilibrium) has gained acceptance in recent decades.

Question: What label is associated with Immanuel Velikovsky due to his works outside the accepted discipline?


Answer: scientific journals

Question: What medium did Immanuel Velikovsky not publish his works in that is accepted practice?


Answer: extinction event and punctuated equilibrium

Question: What two examples of ideas from Immanuel Velikovsky are stated as to have gained some acceptance?


Answer: an established orthodoxy

Context: The term heresy is also used as an ideological pigeonhole for contemporary writers because, by definition, heresy depends on contrasts with an established orthodoxy. For example, the tongue-in-cheek contemporary usage of heresy, such as to categorize a "Wall Street heresy" a "Democratic heresy" or a "Republican heresy," are metaphors that invariably retain a subtext that links orthodoxies in geology or biology or any other field to religion. These expanded metaphoric senses allude to both the difference between the person's views and the mainstream and the boldness of such a person in propounding these views.

Question: By definition, what contrast does heresy depend on?


Answer: metaphors

Question: What figure of speech is the word heresy commonly used as in present day scenarios?


Answer: 1955

Context: The Warsaw Pact (formally, the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance, sometimes, informally WarPac, akin in format to NATO) was a collective defense treaty among Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon), the regional economic organization for the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO in 1955 per the Paris Pacts of 1954, but it is also considered to have been motivated by Soviet desires to maintain control over military forces in Central and Eastern Europe.

Question: In which year was the Warsaw Pact established?


Answer: Soviet Union

Question: Which nation formed the nucleus of the Warsaw Pact?


Answer: the Cold War

Question: Which conflict was the impetus for the formation of the Pact?


Answer: seven

Question: How many Soviet allied countries were members of the Warsaw Pact?


Answer: West Germany

Question: The acceptance of which country into NATO prompted the formation of the Warsaw Pact?


Answer: NATO

Context: While the Warsaw Pact was established as a balance of power or counterweight to NATO, there was no direct confrontation between them. Instead, the conflict was fought on an ideological basis. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to the expansion of military forces and their integration into the respective blocs. The Warsaw Pact's largest military engagement was Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia (with the participation of all Pact nations except Romania and Albania). The Pact failed to function when the Revolutions of 1989 spread through Eastern Europe, beginning with the Solidarity movement in Poland and its success in June 1989.

Question: Which organization was in direct competition with the Warsaw Pact?


Answer: Czechoslovakia

Question: Which nation saw the most significant Warsaw Pact military deployment?


Answer: Solidarity

Question: What was the name of the Polish revolutionary movement which the Warsaw Pact failed to suppress?


Answer: Czechoslovakia

Question: Which country saw the largest Warsaw Pact deployment?


Answer: 1989

Question: In which year did the Warsaw Pact cease to function effectively?


Answer: Solidarity

Question: What was the name of the Polish labor movement which successfully defied the Warsaw Pact?


Answer: Hungary

Context: On 25 February 1991, the Pact was declared at an end at a meeting of defense and foreign ministers from the remaining member states meeting in Hungary. On 1 July 1991, the Czechoslovak President Václav Havel formally declared an end to the Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance which had been established in 1955. The USSR itself was dissolved in December 1991.

Question: In which country did the Warsaw Pact dissolution meeting take place?


Answer: Václav Havel

Question: Who was the president of Czechoslovakia during the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact?


Answer: the USSR

Context: The Warsaw Treaty's organization was two-fold: the Political Consultative Committee handled political matters, and the Combined Command of Pact Armed Forces controlled the assigned multi-national forces, with headquarters in Warsaw, Poland. Furthermore, the Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization which commands and controls all the military forces of the member countries was also a First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, and the Chief of Combined Staff of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization was also a First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Therefore, although ostensibly an international collective security alliance, the USSR dominated the Warsaw Treaty armed forces.

Question: Despite being headquartered in Poland, the top-ranking operatives of the Warsaw Pact were from which country?


Answer: the USSR

Question: Which nation was in effective control of both political and military functions of the Warsaw Pact?


Answer: socialism and communism

Context: The strategy behind the formation of the Warsaw Pact was driven by the desire of the Soviet Union to dominate Central and Eastern Europe. This policy was driven by ideological and geostrategic reasons. Ideologically, the Soviet Union arrogated the right to define socialism and communism and act as the leader of the global socialist movement. A corollary to this idea was the necessity of intervention if a country appeared to be violating core socialist ideas and Communist Party functions, which was explicitly stated in the Brezhnev Doctrine. Geostrategic principles also drove the Soviet Union to prevent invasion of its territory by Western European powers.

Question: Which ideologies did the Soviet Union aspire to lead around the globe?


Answer: Brezhnev

Question: Which Soviet leader formed doctrine aimed at keeping socialist satellite nations in line?


Answer: Western Europe

Question: The Soviet Union feared invasion from which potential enemy?


Answer: West Germany

Context: Before creation of Warsaw Pact, fearing Germany rearmed, Czechoslovak leadership sought to create security pact with East Germany and Poland. These states protested strongly against re-militarization of West Germany. The Warsaw Pact was primarily put in place as a consequence of the rearming of West Germany inside NATO. Soviet leaders, as many European countries in both western and eastern side, feared Germany being once again a military power as a direct threat and German militarism remained a fresh memory among Soviets and Eastern Europeans. As Soviet Union had already bilateral treaties with all of its eastern satellites, the Pact has been long considered 'superfluous', and because of the rushed way in which it was conceived, NATO officials labeled it as a 'cardboard castle'. Previously, in March 1954, the USSR, fearing the restoration of German Militarism in West Germany, requested admission to NATO.

Question: The formation of the Warsaw Pact was driven by fears of which country rearming itself?


Answer: the USSR

Question: Which country sought NATO admission in response to the fear of German rearmament?


Answer: Molotov

Context: The Soviet request to join NATO arose in the aftermath of the Berlin Conference of January–February 1954. Soviet foreign minister Molotov made proposals to have Germany reunified and elections for a pan-German government, under conditions of withdrawal of the four powers armies and German neutrality, but all were refused by the other foreign ministers, Dulles (USA), Eden (UK) and Bidault (France). Proposals for the reunification of Germany were nothing new: earlier on 20 March 1952, talks about a German reunification, initiated by the socalled 'Stalin Note', ended after the United Kingdom, France, and the United States insisted that a unified Germany should not be neutral and should be free to join the European Defence Community and rearm. James Dunn (USA), who met in Paris with Eden, Adenauer and Robert Schuman (France), affirmed that "the object should be to avoid discussion with the Russians and to press on the European Defense Community". According to John Gaddis "there was little inclination in Western capitals to explore this offer" from USSR. While historian Rolf Steininger asserts that Adenauer's conviction that “neutralization means sovietization” was the main factor in the rejection of the soviet proposals, Adenauer also feared that unification might have resulted in the end of the CDU's dominance in the Bundestag.

Question: Who was the Soviet minister who proposed German reunification?


Answer: 1952

Question: When was reunification first proposed as an idea?


Answer: the USA

Context: One month later, the proposed European Treaty was rejected not only by supporters of the EDC but also by western opponents of the European Defense Community (like French Gaullist leader Palewski) who perceived it as "unacceptable in its present form because it excludes the USA from participation in the collective security system in Europe". The Soviets then decided to make a new proposal to the governments of the USA, UK and France stating to accept the participation of the USA in the proposed General European Agreement. And considering that another argument deployed against the Soviet proposal was that it was perceived by western powers as "directed against the North Atlantic Pact and its liquidation", the Soviets decided to declare their "readiness to examine jointly with other interested parties the question of the participation of the USSR in the North Atlantic bloc", specifying that "the admittance of the USA into the General European Agreement should not be conditional on the three western powers agreeing to the USSR joining the North Atlantic Pact".

Question: The omission of which nation from involvement in the proposed security system led to its NATO opposition?


Answer: Hastings Ismay

Context: Again all proposals, including the request to join NATO, were rejected by UK, US, and French governments shortly after. Emblematic was the position of British General Hastings Ismay, supporter of NATO expansion, who said that NATO "must grow until the whole free world gets under one umbrella." He opposed the request to join NATO made by the USSR in 1954 saying that "the Soviet request to join NATO is like an unrepentant burglar requesting to join the police force".

Question: Who was the general who spoke out against the USSR joining NATO?


Answer: burglar

Question: To what did the British general compare the USSR in his opposition to their joining NATO?


Answer: 1954

Context: In April 1954 Adenauer made his first visit to the USA meeting Nixon, Eisenhower and Dulles. Ratification of EDC was delaying but the US representatives made it clear to Adenauer that EDC would have to become a part of NATO.

Question: In what year did Konrad Adenauer first visit the United States?


Answer: France

Context: Memories of the Nazi occupation were still strong, and the rearmament of Germany was feared by France too. On 30 August 1954 French Parliament rejected the EDC, thus ensuring its failure and blocking a major objective of US policy towards Europe: to associate Germany militarily with the West. The US Department of State started to elaborate alternatives: Germany would be invited to join NATO or, in the case of French obstructionism, strategies to circumvent a French veto would be implemented in order to obtain a German rearmament outside NATO.

Question: Which NATO country feared a unified and rearmed Germany?


Answer: 1954

Context: On 23 October 1954 – only nine years after Allies (UK, USA and USSR) defeated Nazi Germany ending World War II in Europe – the admission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the North Atlantic Pact was finally decided. The incorporation of West Germany into the organization on 9 May 1955 was described as "a decisive turning point in the history of our continent" by Halvard Lange, Foreign Affairs Minister of Norway at the time. In November 1954, the USSR requested a new European Security Treaty, in order to make a final attempt to not have a remilitarized West Germany potentially opposed to the Soviet Union, with no success.

Question: In which year was West Germany admitted to NATO?


Answer: Norway

Question: Halvard Lange was a minister of which NATO member?


Answer: May

Context: On 14 May 1955, the USSR and other seven European countries "reaffirming their desire for the establishment of a system of European collective security based on the participation of all European states irrespective of their social and political systems" established the Warsaw Pact in response to the integration of the Federal Republic of Germany into NATO, declaring that: "a remilitarized Western Germany and the integration of the latter in the North-Atlantic bloc [...] increase the danger of another war and constitutes a threat to the national security of the peaceable states; [...] in these circumstances the peaceable European states must take the necessary measures to safeguard their security".

Question: In which month of 1955 was this pact declared?


Answer: East Germany

Context: One of the founding members, East Germany was allowed to re-arm by the Soviet Union and the National People's Army was established as the armed forces of the country to counter the rearmament of West Germany.

Question: Which nation was permitted rearmament by the foundation of the Warsaw Pact?


Answer: the National People's Army

Question: What was the name of the East German armed forces?


Answer: eight

Context: The eight member countries of the Warsaw Pact pledged the mutual defense of any member who would be attacked. Relations among the treaty signatories were based upon mutual non-intervention in the internal affairs of the member countries, respect for national sovereignty, and political independence. However, almost all governments of those member states were indirectly controlled by the Soviet Union.

Question: How many countries formed the initial Warsaw Pact membership?


Answer: 1963

Context: In July 1963 the Mongolian People's Republic asked to join the Warsaw Pact under Article 9 of the treaty. For this purpose a special protocol should have been taken since the text of the treaty applied only to Europe. Due to the emerging Sino-Soviet split, Mongolia remained on observer status. Soviet stationing troops were agreed to stay in Mongolia from 1966.

Question: In which year did Mongolia seek entry in the Warsaw Pact?


Answer: 1966

Question: In which year were Soviet forces scheduled to leave Mongolia?


Answer: containment

Context: For 36 years, NATO and the Warsaw Pact never directly waged war against each other in Europe; the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies implemented strategic policies aimed at the containment of each other in Europe, while working and fighting for influence within the wider Cold War on the international stage.

Question: What was the focus of both alliances' policies towards the other in lieu of direct fighting?


Answer: Europe

Question: Which continent was considered to be at the center of NATO/Warsaw Pact intrigues?


Answer: 1956

Context: In 1956, following the declaration of the Imre Nagy government of withdrawal of Hungary from the Warsaw Pact, Soviet troops entered the country and removed the government. Soviet forces crushed the nationwide revolt, leading to the death of an estimated 2,500 Hungarian citizens.

Question: In which year did Hungary attempt to leave the Warsaw Pact?


Answer: Imre Nagy

Question: Who was the head of the Hungarian government at the time of the revolt?


Answer: 1968

Context: The multi-national Communist armed forces' sole joint action was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. All member countries, with the exception of the Socialist Republic of Romania and the People's Republic of Albania participated in the invasion.

Question: In which year was the Warsaw Pact activated in a joint action?


Answer: Czechoslovakia

Question: Which country did the Pact conquer?


Answer: Hungary

Context: On 25 February 1991, the Warsaw Pact was declared disbanded at a meeting of defense and foreign ministers from remaining Pact countries meeting in Hungary. On 1 July 1991, in Prague, the Czechoslovak President Václav Havel formally ended the 1955 Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance and so disestablished the Warsaw Treaty after 36 years of military alliance with the USSR. In fact, the treaty was de facto disbanded in December 1989 during the violent revolution in Romania, which toppled the communist government, without military intervention form other member states. The USSR disestablished itself in December 1991.

Question: In which country did Warsaw Pact officials meet to dissolve the alliance?


Answer: 1989

Question: In which year did Romania overthrow its communist government?


Answer: 36

Question: For how many years did the Warsaw Pact formally exist?


Answer: Albania

Context: On 12 March 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO; Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia joined in March 2004; Albania joined on 1 April 2009.

Question: Which former Eastern Bloc country was the latest to join NATO?


Answer: 1999

Question: In which year did Poland join NATO?


Answer: 2004

Question: In which year did Slovakia join NATO?


Answer: 2005

Context: In November 2005, the Polish government opened its Warsaw Treaty archives to the Institute of National Remembrance, who published some 1,300 declassified documents in January 2006. Yet the Polish government reserved publication of 100 documents, pending their military declassification. Eventually, 30 of the reserved 100 documents were published; 70 remained secret, and unpublished. Among the documents published is the Warsaw Treaty's nuclear war plan, Seven Days to the River Rhine – a short, swift counter-attack capturing Austria, Denmark, Germany and Netherlands east of River Rhine, using nuclear weapons, in self-defense, after a NATO first strike. The plan originated as a 1979 field training exercise war game, and metamorphosed into official Warsaw Treaty battle doctrine, until the late 1980s – which is why the People's Republic of Poland was a nuclear weapons base, first, to 178, then, to 250 tactical-range rockets. Doctrinally, as a Soviet-style (offensive) battle plan, Seven Days to the River Rhine gave commanders few defensive-war strategies for fighting NATO in Warsaw Treaty territory.[citation needed]

Question: In which year did Poland declassify most of its Warsaw Pact-era archives?


Answer: 70

Question: How many documents remain classified?


Answer: Seven Days to the River Rhine

Question: What was the name of the Warsaw Pact's planned counteroffensive to a NATO first strike?


Answer: 250

Question: How many nuclear weapons were eventually housed in Poland?


Answer: 1979

Question: In which year was the counteroffensive strategy first conceived?


Answer: a form of philosophical monism

Context: Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all phenomena, including mental phenomena and consciousness, are identical with material interactions.

Question: What is materialism?


Answer: matter

Question: In nature, this is an essential substance?


Answer: spacetime, physical energies and forces, dark matter

Context: Materialism is closely related to physicalism, the view that all that exists is ultimately physical. Philosophical physicalism has evolved from materialism with the discoveries of the physical sciences to incorporate more sophisticated notions of physicality than mere ordinary matter, such as: spacetime, physical energies and forces, dark matter, and so on. Thus the term "physicalism" is preferred over "materialism" by some, while others use the terms as if they are synonymous.

Question: What are some examples of philosophical physicalism?


Answer: Materialism

Question: Some people consider physicalism to be synonymous with what?


Answer: monist ontology

Context: Materialism belongs to the class of monist ontology. As such, it is different from ontological theories based on dualism or pluralism. For singular explanations of the phenomenal reality, materialism would be in contrast to idealism, neutral monism, and spiritualism.

Question: What class does materialism belong to?


Answer: "what does reality consist of?"

Context: Despite the large number of philosophical schools and subtle nuances between many, all philosophies are said to fall into one of two primary categories, which are defined in contrast to each other: Idealism, and materialism.[a] The basic proposition of these two categories pertains to the nature of reality, and the primary distinction between them is the way they answer two fundamental questions: "what does reality consist of?" and "how does it originate?" To idealists, spirit or mind or the objects of mind (ideas) are primary, and matter secondary. To materialists, matter is primary, and mind or spirit or ideas are secondary, the product of matter acting upon matter.

Question: What is the first question to ask in order to define the two classes?


Answer: "how does it originate?"

Question: What is the second question to ask in order to define the two classes?


Answer: spirit or mind or the objects of mind (ideas)

Question: An idealist considers what as the most important?


Answer: matter

Question: A materialist considers what as the most important?


Answer: materialist

Context: The materialist view is perhaps best understood in its opposition to the doctrines of immaterial substance applied to the mind historically, famously by René Descartes. However, by itself materialism says nothing about how material substance should be characterized. In practice, it is frequently assimilated to one variety of physicalism or another.

Question: Was René Descartes an idealist or a materialist?


Answer: how material substance should be characterized.

Question: Materialism does not define what?


Answer: dialectical materialism

Context: During the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels extended the concept of materialism to elaborate a materialist conception of history centered on the roughly empirical world of human activity (practice, including labor) and the institutions created, reproduced, or destroyed by that activity (see materialist conception of history). Later Marxists developed the notion of dialectical materialism which characterized later Marxist philosophy and method.

Question: What type of materialism defined the Marxist philosophy?


Answer: Karl Jaspers

Context: Materialism developed, possibly independently, in several geographically separated regions of Eurasia during what Karl Jaspers termed the Axial Age (approximately 800 to 200 BC).

Question: Who coined the Axial Age?


Answer: Eurasia

Question: In what part of the world did materialism develop during the Axial Age?


Answer: 600 BC

Context: In Ancient Indian philosophy, materialism developed around 600 BC with the works of Ajita Kesakambali, Payasi, Kanada, and the proponents of the Cārvāka school of philosophy. Kanada became one of the early proponents of atomism. The Nyaya–Vaisesika school (600 BC - 100 BC) developed one of the earliest forms of atomism, though their proofs of God and their positing that the consciousness was not material precludes labelling them as materialists. Buddhist atomism and the Jaina school continued the atomic tradition.

Question: Around what time did materialism become part of Ancient Indian philosophy?


Answer: Ajita Kesakambali, Payasi, Kanada, and the proponents of the Cārvāka school of philosophy

Question: At that time, who helped develop materialism?


Answer: Nyaya–Vaisesika school

Question: What school advanced atomism?


Answer: 600 BC - 100 BC

Question: Between what years did the school advance atomism?


Answer: reductionism

Context: Materialism is often associated with reductionism, according to which the objects or phenomena individuated at one level of description, if they are genuine, must be explicable in terms of the objects or phenomena at some other level of description — typically, at a more reduced level. Non-reductive materialism explicitly rejects this notion, however, taking the material constitution of all particulars to be consistent with the existence of real objects, properties, or phenomena not explicable in the terms canonically used for the basic material constituents. Jerry Fodor influentially argues this view, according to which empirical laws and explanations in "special sciences" like psychology or geology are invisible from the perspective of basic physics. A lot of vigorous literature has grown up around the relation between these views.

Question: Materialism is linked to what?


Answer: Lucretius

Context: Ancient Greek philosophers like Thales, Anaxagoras (ca. 500 BC – 428 BC), Epicurus and Democritus prefigure later materialists. The Latin poem De Rerum Natura by Lucretius (ca. 99 BC – ca. 55 BC) reflects the mechanistic philosophy of Democritus and Epicurus. According to this view, all that exists is matter and void, and all phenomena result from different motions and conglomerations of base material particles called "atoms" (literally: "indivisibles"). De Rerum Natura provides mechanistic explanations for phenomena such as erosion, evaporation, wind, and sound. Famous principles like "nothing can touch body but body" first appeared in the works of Lucretius. Democritus and Epicurus however did not hold to a monist ontology since they held to the ontological separation of matter and space i.e. space being "another kind" of being, indicating that the definition of "materialism" is wider than given scope for in this article.

Question: De Rerum Natura is a poem by who?


Answer: mechanistic explanations

Question: What kinf of explanation does De Rerum Natura provide for phenomena?


Answer: Tattvopaplavasimha ("The upsetting of all principles")

Context: Later Indian materialist Jayaraashi Bhatta (6th century) in his work Tattvopaplavasimha ("The upsetting of all principles") refuted the Nyaya Sutra epistemology. The materialistic Cārvāka philosophy appears to have died out some time after 1400. When Madhavacharya compiled Sarva-darśana-samgraha (a digest of all philosophies) in the 14th century, he had no Cārvāka/Lokāyata text to quote from, or even refer to.

Question: Name the title of the work by Jayaraashi Bhatta.


Answer: materialistic Cārvāka philosophy

Question: Which type of philosphy did not continue after 1400?


Answer: a digest of all philosophies

Question: What is Sarva-darśana-samgraha?


Answer: Madhavacharya

Question: Who wrote the Sarva-darśana-samgraha?


Answer: Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus Autodidactus)

Context: In early 12th-century al-Andalus, the Arabian philosopher, Ibn Tufail (Abubacer), wrote discussions on materialism in his philosophical novel, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus Autodidactus), while vaguely foreshadowing the idea of a historical materialism.

Question: What is the name of the novel written by Ibn Tufail?


Answer: 1592-1665

Context: The French cleric Pierre Gassendi (1592-1665) represented the materialist tradition in opposition to the attempts of René Descartes (1596-1650) to provide the natural sciences with dualist foundations. There followed the materialist and atheist abbé Jean Meslier (1664-1729), Julien Offray de La Mettrie, the German-French Paul-Henri Thiry Baron d'Holbach (1723-1789), the Encyclopedist Denis Diderot (1713-1784), and other French Enlightenment thinkers; as well as (in England) John "Walking" Stewart (1747-1822), whose insistence in seeing matter as endowed with a moral dimension had a major impact on the philosophical poetry of William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

Question: Pierre Gassendi lived from what year to what year?


Answer: 1596-1650

Question: René Descartes lived from what year to what year?


Answer: 1664-1729

Question: abbé Jean Meslier lived from what year to what year?


Answer: 1713-1784

Question: Denis Diderot lived from what year to what year?


Answer: 1770-1850

Question: William Wordsworth lived from what year to what year?


Answer: 1788-1860

Context: Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) wrote that "...materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself". He claimed that an observing subject can only know material objects through the mediation of the brain and its particular organization. That is, the brain itself is the "determiner" of how material objects will be experienced or perceived:

Question: Arthur Schopenhauer lived from what year to what year?


Answer: how material objects will be experienced or perceived

Question: What did he say that the brain would decide?


Answer: Ludwig Feuerbach

Context: The German materialist and atheist anthropologist Ludwig Feuerbach would signal a new turn in materialism through his book, The Essence of Christianity (1841), which provided a humanist account of religion as the outward projection of man's inward nature. Feuerbach's materialism would later heavily influence Karl Marx.

Question: Who wrote "The Essence of Christianity"?


Answer: 1841

Question: In what year was "The Essence of Christianity" written?


Answer: the outward projection of man's inward nature

Question: What did the author of "The Essence of Christianity" consider religion to be?


Answer: Karl Marx

Question: The author's ideas would later influence what well known philosopher?


Answer: functionalism, anomalous monism, identity theory

Context: Many current and recent philosophers—e.g., Daniel Dennett, Willard Van Orman Quine, Donald Davidson, and Jerry Fodor—operate within a broadly physicalist or materialist framework, producing rival accounts of how best to accommodate mind, including functionalism, anomalous monism, identity theory, and so on.

Question: In regards to the mind, what are 3 theories that modern day philosophers try to harmonize?


Answer: matter

Context: The nature and definition of matter - like other key concepts in science and philosophy - have occasioned much debate. Is there a single kind of matter (hyle) which everything is made of, or multiple kinds? Is matter a continuous substance capable of expressing multiple forms (hylomorphism), or a number of discrete, unchanging constituents (atomism)? Does it have intrinsic properties (substance theory), or is it lacking them (prima materia)?

Question: What is hyle?


Answer: matter and energy

Context: One challenge to the traditional concept of matter as tangible "stuff" came with the rise of field physics in the 19th century. Relativity shows that matter and energy (including the spatially distributed energy of fields) are interchangeable. This enables the ontological view that energy is prima materia and matter is one of its forms. On the other hand, the Standard Model of Particle physics uses quantum field theory to describe all interactions. On this view it could be said that fields are prima materia and the energy is a property of the field.

Question: Relativity illustrates that what is interchangeable?


Answer: energy

Question: Ontological theory suggests that what is the main substance?


Answer: fields

Question: Quantum field theory suggest what is the main substance?


Answer: Lambda-CDM model

Context: According to the dominant cosmological model, the Lambda-CDM model, less than 5% of the universe's energy density is made up of the "matter" described by the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and the majority of the universe is composed of dark matter and dark energy - with little agreement amongst scientists about what these are made of.

Question: Which model suggests that matter is 5% of the universe?


Answer: dark matter

Question: What type of matter does the model consider it to be?


Answer: things

Context: With the advent of quantum physics, some scientists believed the concept of matter had merely changed, while others believed the conventional position could no longer be maintained. For instance Werner Heisenberg said "The ontology of materialism rested upon the illusion that the kind of existence, the direct 'actuality' of the world around us, can be extrapolated into the atomic range. This extrapolation, however, is impossible... atoms are not things." Likewise, some philosophers[which?] feel that these dichotomies necessitate a switch from materialism to physicalism. Others use the terms "materialism" and "physicalism" interchangeably.

Question: Werner Heisenberg suggested that atoms are not what?


Answer: quantum mechanics and chaos theory.

Context: Some modern day physicists and science writers—such as Paul Davies and John Gribbin—have argued that materialism has been disproven by certain scientific findings in physics, such as quantum mechanics and chaos theory. In 1991, Gribbin and Davies released their book The Matter Myth, the first chapter of which, "The Death of Materialism", contained the following passage:

Question: What are some of the findings that support their argument?


Answer: The Matter Myth

Question: What is the name of the 1991 book by Paul Davies and John Gribbins?


Answer: information

Context: Davies' and Gribbin's objections are shared by proponents of digital physics who view information rather than matter to be fundamental. Their objections were also shared by some founders of quantum theory, such as Max Planck, who wrote:

Question: Digital physicists consider what to be more important than matter?


Answer: religions

Context: According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1907-1912, materialism, defined as "a philosophical system which regards matter as the only reality in the world [...] denies the existence of God and the soul". Materialism, in this view, therefore becomes incompatible with most world religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In such a context one can conflate materialism with atheism. Most of Hinduism and transcendentalism regards all matter as an illusion called Maya, blinding humans from knowing "the truth". Maya is the limited, purely physical and mental reality in which our everyday consciousness has become entangled. Maya gets destroyed for a person when s/he perceives Brahman with transcendental knowledge.

Question: Based on the above definition, materialism is not consistent with what?


Answer: simple, immaterial, formless, substance/essence (ousia) that transcended all that was physical

Context: In contrast, Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, taught: "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter." This spirit element has always existed; it is co-eternal with God. It is also called "intelligence" or "the light of truth", which like all observable matter "was not created or made, neither indeed can be". Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints view the revelations of Joseph Smith as a restoration of original Christian doctrine, which they believe post-apostolic theologians began to corrupt in the centuries after Christ. The writings of many[quantify] of these theologians indicate a clear influence of Greek metaphysical philosophies such as Neoplatonism, which characterized divinity as an utterly simple, immaterial, formless, substance/essence (ousia) that transcended all that was physical. Despite strong opposition from many Christians, this metaphysical depiction of God eventually became incorporated into the doctrine of the Christian church, displacing the original Judeo-Christian concept of a physical, corporeal God who created humans in His image and likeness.

Question: Neoplatonism describes divinity as what?


Answer: Christians

Question: Which religious group strongly opposed the idea of Neoplatonism?


Answer: materialism

Context: An argument for idealism, such as those of Hegel and Berkeley, is ipso facto an argument against materialism. Matter can be argued to be redundant, as in bundle theory, and mind-independent properties can in turn be reduced to subjective percepts. Berkeley presents an example of the latter by pointing out that it is impossible to gather direct evidence of matter, as there is no direct experience of matter; all that is experienced is perception, whether internal or external. As such, the existence of matter can only be assumed from the apparent (perceived) stability of perceptions; it finds absolutely no evidence in direct experience.

Question: If you believe in idealism, you are disbeliving in what?


Answer: Emergence, holism, and process philosophy

Context: If matter and energy are seen as necessary to explain the physical world, but incapable of explaining mind, dualism results. Emergence, holism, and process philosophy seek to ameliorate the perceived shortcomings of traditional (especially mechanistic) materialism without abandoning materialism entirely.

Question: What 3 types of philosophies attempt to correct the problem with matter and energy without removing every belief about materialism?


Answer: dual-aspect monism

Context: Some critics object to materialism as part of an overly skeptical, narrow or reductivist approach to theorizing, rather than to the ontological claim that matter is the only substance. Particle physicist and Anglican theologian John Polkinghorne objects to what he calls promissory materialism — claims that materialistic science will eventually succeed in explaining phenomena it has not so far been able to explain. Polkinghorne prefers "dual-aspect monism" to faith in materialism.

Question: Instead of faith, John Polkinghorne relies on what when it comes to the theory of materialism?


Answer: German rocket technology

Context: The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (US), for supremacy in spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations that occurred following World War II, enabled by captured German rocket technology and personnel. The technological superiority required for such supremacy was seen as necessary for national security, and symbolic of ideological superiority. The Space Race spawned pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, unmanned space probes of the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the Moon. The competition began on August 2, 1955, when the Soviet Union responded to the US announcement four days earlier of intent to launch artificial satellites for the International Geophysical Year, by declaring they would also launch a satellite "in the near future". The Soviet Union beat the US to this, with the October 4, 1957 orbiting of Sputnik 1, and later beat the US to the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961. The Space Race peaked with the July 20, 1969 US landing of the first humans on the Moon with Apollo 11. The USSR tried but failed manned lunar missions, and eventually cancelled them and concentrated on Earth orbital space stations. A period of détente followed with the April 1972 agreement on a co-operative Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, resulting in the July 1975 rendezvous in Earth orbit of a US astronaut crew with a Soviet cosmonaut crew.

Question: Whose technology enabled the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the united States?


Answer: the Soviet Union

Question: Who was able to launch the first orbiting satellite?


Answer: Yuri Gagarin

Question: Who was the first human in space?


Answer: July 20, 1969

Question: When did Apollo 11 land on the moon?


Answer: August 2, 1955

Question: On what date did the Space Race begin?


Answer: October 4, 1957

Question: Sputnik 1 started orbiting on what date?


Answer: Yuri Gagarin

Question: Who was the first person in space?


Answer: April 12, 1961

Question: What was the date that the first human reached space?


Answer: Germany

Context: The Space Race can trace its origins to Germany, beginning in the 1930s and continuing during World War II when Nazi Germany researched and built operational ballistic missiles. Starting in the early 1930s, during the last stages of the Weimar Republic, German aerospace engineers experimented with liquid-fueled rockets, with the goal that one day they would be capable of reaching high altitudes and traversing long distances. The head of the German Army's Ballistics and Munitions Branch, Lieutenant Colonel Karl Emil Becker, gathered a small team of engineers that included Walter Dornberger and Leo Zanssen, to figure out how to use rockets as long-range artillery in order to get around the Treaty of Versailles' ban on research and development of long-range cannons. Wernher von Braun, a young engineering prodigy, was recruited by Becker and Dornberger to join their secret army program at Kummersdorf-West in 1932. Von Braun had dreams about conquering outer space with rockets, and did not initially see the military value in missile technology.

Question: Where were the actual origin of the Space Race?


Answer: liquid-fueled rockets

Question: What were German aerospace engineers experimenting with in the 1930's?


Answer: Wernher von Braun

Question: What engineer was recruited by Becker and Dornberger to join their secret program?


Answer: World War II

Question: Which war in history did the Space Race begin to take root?


Answer: 1932

Question: A secretive army installation began in Kummersdorf-West in what year?


Answer: technical director of the ballistic missile program

Context: During the Second World War, General Dornberger was the military head of the army's rocket program, Zanssen became the commandant of the Peenemünde army rocket centre, and von Braun was the technical director of the ballistic missile program. They would lead the team that built the Aggregate-4 (A-4) rocket, which became the first vehicle to reach outer space during its test flight program in 1942 and 1943. By 1943, Germany began mass-producing the A-4 as the Vergeltungswaffe 2 ("Vengeance Weapon" 2, or more commonly, V2), a ballistic missile with a 320 kilometers (200 mi) range carrying a 1,130 kilograms (2,490 lb) warhead at 4,000 kilometers per hour (2,500 mph). Its supersonic speed meant there was no defense against it, and radar detection provided little warning. Germany used the weapon to bombard southern England and parts of Allied-liberated western Europe from 1944 until 1945. After the war, the V-2 became the basis of early American and Soviet rocket designs.

Question: What was von Braun's role in the army's rocket program during during World War II?


Answer: the Aggregate-4

Question: What was the name of the first vehicle to reach outer space?


Answer: General Dornberger

Question: During WWII, who was in charge of the German army's rocket program?


Answer: Aggregate-4 (A-4) rocket

Question: What was the first object to enter space?


Answer: 1942 and 1943

Question: When did the Aggregate-4 (A-4) rocket reach space?


Answer: Germany's rocket engineers

Context: At war's end, American, British, and Soviet scientific intelligence teams competed to capture Germany's rocket engineers along with the German rockets themselves and the designs on which they were based. Each of the Allies captured a share of the available members of the German rocket team, but the United States benefited the most with Operation Paperclip, recruiting von Braun and most of his engineering team, who later helped develop the American missile and space exploration programs. The United States also acquired a large number of complete V2 rockets.

Question: After World War II what did the American, English and Soviet allies want to capture?


Answer: Operation Paperclip

Question: What military operation allowed the US to recruit the German engineer, Von Braun?


Answer: V2 rockets

Question: The US had captured what type of missiles during Operation Paperclip?


Answer: Sergei Korolev

Context: The German rocket center in Peenemünde was located in the eastern part of Germany, which became the Soviet zone of occupation. On Stalin's orders, the Soviet Union sent its best rocket engineers to this region to see what they could salvage for future weapons systems. The Soviet rocket engineers were led by Sergei Korolev. He had been involved in space clubs and early Soviet rocket design in the 1930s, but was arrested in 1938 during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and imprisoned for six years in Siberia. After the war, he became the USSR's chief rocket and spacecraft engineer, essentially the Soviet counterpart to von Braun. His identity was kept a state secret throughout the Cold War, and he was identified publicly only as "the Chief Designer." In the West, his name was only officially revealed when he died in 1966.

Question: Who led the Soviet rocket engineers


Answer: Siberia

Question: Where was Sergei Korolev imprisoned for six years?


Answer: the Chief Designer

Question: What was his "secret" title after World War II?


Answer: Peenemünde

Question: The German rocket center was located in what city?


Answer: Sergei Korolev

Question: Who was in charge of the Soviet rocket engineer team that went into Germany?


Answer: 1938

Question: What year was Sergei Korolev arrested?


Answer: 1966

Question: Sergei Korolev died in what year?


Answer: USSR's chief rocket and spacecraft engineer

Question: After the war, Sergei Korolev was known under what title?


Answer: 1948

Context: After almost a year in the area around Peenemünde, Soviet officials moved most of the captured German rocket specialists to Gorodomlya Island on Lake Seliger, about 240 kilometers (150 mi) northwest of Moscow. They were not allowed to participate in Soviet missile design, but were used as problem-solving consultants to the Soviet engineers. They helped in the following areas: the creation of a Soviet version of the A-4; work on "organizational schemes"; research in improving the A-4 main engine; development of a 100-ton engine; assistance in the "layout" of plant production rooms; and preparation of rocket assembly using German components. With their help, particularly Helmut Groettrup's group, Korolev reverse-engineered the A-4 and built his own version of the rocket, the R-1, in 1948. Later, he developed his own distinct designs, though many of these designs were influenced by the Groettrup Group's G4-R10 design from 1949. The Germans were eventually repatriated in 1951–53.

Question: What year was the R1 rocket born?


Answer: Robert H. Goddard

Context: The American professor Robert H. Goddard had worked on developing solid-fuel rockets since 1914, and demonstrated a light battlefield rocket to the US Army Signal Corps only five days before the signing of the armistice that ended World War I. He also started developing liquid-fueled rockets in 1921; yet he had not been taken seriously by the public, and was not sponsored by the government as part of the post-WW II rocket development effort. Von Braun, himself inspired by Goddard's work, was bemused by this when debriefed by his American handlers, asking them, "Why didn't you just ask Dr. Goddard?"[citation needed]

Question: What professor began working on solid-fuel rockets since 1914?


Answer: 1921

Question: Liquid-fueled rockets were developed in what year?


Answer: New Mexico

Context: Von Braun and his team were sent to the United States Army's White Sands Proving Ground, located in New Mexico, in 1945. They set about assembling the captured V2s and began a program of launching them and instructing American engineers in their operation. These tests led to the first rocket to take photos from outer space, and the first two-stage rocket, the WAC Corporal-V2 combination, in 1949. The German rocket team was moved from Fort Bliss to the Army's new Redstone Arsenal, located in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1950. From here, von Braun and his team would develop the Army's first operational medium-range ballistic missile, the Redstone rocket, that would, in slightly modified versions, launch both America's first satellite, and the first piloted Mercury space missions. It became the basis for both the Jupiter and Saturn family of rockets.

Question: The United States Army's White Sands Proving Ground is located where?


Answer: 1945

Question: Von Braun and his associates were sent to United States Army's White Sands Proving Ground in what year?


Answer: 1949

Question: The first two-stage rocket was developed in what year?


Answer: Huntsville, Alabama

Question: The Army's new Redstone Arsenal is located in what city and state?


Answer: 1950

Question: What year was the German rocket team moved to Alabama?


Answer: 1949

Context: In simple terms, the Cold War could be viewed as an expression of the ideological struggle between communism and capitalism. The United States faced a new uncertainty beginning in September 1949, when it lost its monopoly on the atomic bomb. American intelligence agencies discovered that the Soviet Union had exploded its first atomic bomb, with the consequence that the United States potentially could face a future nuclear war that, for the first time, might devastate its cities. Given this new danger, the United States participated in an arms race with the Soviet Union that included development of the hydrogen bomb, as well as intercontinental strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of delivering nuclear weapons. A new fear of communism and its sympathizers swept the United States during the 1950s, which devolved into paranoid McCarthyism. With communism spreading in China, Korea, and Eastern Europe, Americans came to feel so threatened that popular and political culture condoned extensive "witch-hunts" to expose communist spies. Part of the American reaction to the Soviet atomic and hydrogen bomb tests included maintaining a large Air Force, under the control of the Strategic Air Command (SAC). SAC employed intercontinental strategic bombers, as well as medium-bombers based close to Soviet airspace (in western Europe and in Turkey) that were capable of delivering nuclear payloads.

Question: What year did the US lose its monopoly to the atomic bomb?


Answer: the hydrogen bomb

Question: What type of bomb was first developed during the Cold War?


Answer: intercontinental strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles

Question: ICBMs is an abbreviation for what?


Answer: Strategic Air Command

Question: The SAC is an abbreviation for what US force?


Answer: 1950s

Question: During what decade, did a fear of communism oversweep the US?


Answer: 27 million

Context: For its part, the Soviet Union harbored fears of invasion. Having suffered at least 27 million casualties during World War II after being invaded by Nazi Germany in 1941, the Soviet Union was wary of its former ally, the United States, which until late 1949 was the sole possessor of atomic weapons. The United States had used these weapons operationally during World War II, and it could use them again against the Soviet Union, laying waste its cities and military centers. Since the Americans had a much larger air force than the Soviet Union, and the United States maintained advance air bases near Soviet territory, in 1947 Stalin ordered the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in order to counter the perceived American threat.

Question: How many casualties did the Soviet Union have during WWII?


Answer: 1941

Question: The Soviet Union was first invaded by Nazi controlled Germany in what year?


Answer: 1949

Question: Until what year, was the US the sole possessor of the atomic bomb?


Answer: 1947

Question: In what year did Stalin order the development of ICBMs?


Answer: air force

Question: What type of military force did the US possess a much larger fleet than the Soviet Union?


Answer: Korolev

Context: In 1953, Korolev was given the go-ahead to develop the R-7 Semyorka rocket, which represented a major advance from the German design. Although some of its components (notably boosters) still resembled the German G-4, the new rocket incorporated staged design, a completely new control system, and a new fuel. It was successfully tested on August 21, 1957 and became the world's first fully operational ICBM the following month. It would later be used to launch the first satellite into space, and derivatives would launch all piloted Soviet spacecraft.

Question: Who began developing the R-7 Semyorka rocket?


Answer: German G-4

Question: R-7 Semyorka rocket resembled closely to what other missile?


Answer: August 21, 1957

Question: When was the R-7 Semyorka rocket tested successfully?


Answer: R-7 Semyorka rocket

Question: The first satellite launched into space used what rocket?


Answer: 1945

Context: The United States had multiple rocket programs divided among the different branches of the American armed services, which meant that each force developed its own ICBM program. The Air Force initiated ICBM research in 1945 with the MX-774. However, its funding was cancelled and only three partially successful launches were conducted in 1947. In 1950, von Braun began testing the Air Force PGM-11 Redstone rocket family at Cape Canaveral. In 1951, the Air Force began a new ICBM program called MX-1593, and by 1955 this program was receiving top-priority funding. The MX-1593 program evolved to become the Atlas-A, with its maiden launch occurring June 11, 1957, becoming the first successful American ICBM. Its upgraded version, the Atlas-D rocket, would later serve as an operational nuclear ICBM and as the orbital launch vehicle for Project Mercury and the remote-controlled Agena Target Vehicle used in Project Gemini.

Question: The US Air Force began research of ICBMs in what year?


Answer: MX-774

Question: What type of rocket was first researched by the Air Force?


Answer: 1947

Question: The MX-774 was tested in what year?


Answer: Cape Canaveral

Question: The Air Force PGM-11 Redstone rocket family was tested where?


Answer: June 11, 1957

Question: The Atlas-A first launched on what date?


Answer: James C. Hagerty

Context: In 1955, with both the United States and the Soviet Union building ballistic missiles that could be utilized to launch objects into space, the "starting line" was drawn for the Space Race. In separate announcements, just four days apart, both nations publicly announced that they would launch artificial Earth satellites by 1957 or 1958. On July 29, 1955, James C. Hagerty, president Dwight D. Eisenhower's press secretary, announced that the United States intended to launch "small Earth circling satellites" between July 1, 1957, and December 31, 1958, as part of their contribution to the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Four days later, at the Sixth Congress of International Astronautical Federation in Copenhagen, scientist Leonid I. Sedov spoke to international reporters at the Soviet embassy, and announced his country's intention to launch a satellite as well, in the "near future". On August 30, 1955, Korolev managed to get the Soviet Academy of Sciences to create a commission whose purpose was to beat the Americans into Earth orbit: this was the de facto start date for the Space Race. The Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union began a policy of treating development of its space program as a classified state secret.

Question: Who was president Dwight D. Eisenhower's press secretary?


Answer: August 30, 1955

Question: The starting date for the Space Race was which date?


Answer: September 20, 1956

Context: Initially, President Eisenhower was worried that a satellite passing above a nation at over 100 kilometers (62 mi), might be construed as violating that nation's sovereign airspace. He was concerned that the Soviet Union would accuse the Americans of an illegal overflight, thereby scoring a propaganda victory at his expense. Eisenhower and his advisors believed that a nation's airspace sovereignty did not extend into outer space, acknowledged as the Kármán line, and he used the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year launches to establish this principle in international law. Eisenhower also feared that he might cause an international incident and be called a "warmonger" if he were to use military missiles as launchers. Therefore, he selected the untried Naval Research Laboratory's Vanguard rocket, which was a research-only booster. This meant that von Braun's team was not allowed to put a satellite into orbit with their Jupiter-C rocket, because of its intended use as a future military vehicle. On September 20, 1956, von Braun and his team did launch a Jupiter-C that was capable of putting a satellite into orbit, but the launch was used only as a suborbital test of nose cone reentry technology.

Question: A Jupiter-C was launched by Von Braum on what date?


Answer: Vanguard

Context: The Soviet success caused public controversy in the United States, and Eisenhower ordered the civilian rocket and satellite project, Vanguard, to move up its timetable and launch its satellite much sooner than originally planned. The December 6, 1957 Project Vanguard launch failure occurred at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, broadcast live in front of a US television audience. It was a monumental failure, exploding a few seconds after launch, and it became an international joke. The satellite appeared in newspapers under the names Flopnik, Stayputnik, Kaputnik, and Dudnik. In the United Nations, the Russian delegate offered the U.S. representative aid "under the Soviet program of technical assistance to backwards nations." Only in the wake of this very public failure did von Braun's Redstone team get the go-ahead to launch their Jupiter-C rocket as soon as they could. In Britain, the USA's Western Cold War ally, the reaction was mixed: some members of the population celebrated the fact that the Soviets had reached space first, while others feared the destructive potential that military uses of spacecraft might bring.

Question: The civilian rocket and satellite project in the US was called what?


Answer: December 6, 195

Question: Project Vanguard launch failed on what date?


Answer: Florida

Question: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is located in what state?


Answer: Jupiter-C rocket

Question: in response to Project Vanguard's failed launch, what was the rocket the Soviet Union launched?


Answer: January 31, 1958

Context: On January 31, 1958, nearly four months after the launch of Sputnik 1, von Braun and the United States successfully launched its first satellite on a four-stage Juno I rocket derived from the US Army's Redstone missile, at Cape Canaveral. The satellite Explorer 1 was 30.8 pounds (14.0 kg) in mass. It carried a micrometeorite gauge and a Geiger-Müller tube. It passed in and out of the Earth-encompassing radiation belt with its 194-by-1,368-nautical-mile (360 by 2,534 km) orbit, therefore saturating the tube's capacity and proving what Dr. James Van Allen, a space scientist at the University of Iowa, had theorized. The belt, named the Van Allen radiation belt, is a doughnut-shaped zone of high-level radiation intensity around the Earth above the magnetic equator. Van Allen was also the man who designed and built the satellite instrumentation of Explorer 1. The satellite actually measured three phenomena: cosmic ray and radiation levels, the temperature in the spacecraft, and the frequency of collisions with micrometeorites. The satellite had no memory for data storage, therefore it had to transmit continuously. Two months later in March 1958, a second satellite was sent into orbit with augmented cosmic ray instruments.

Question: The first US satellite to launch without failure was on what date?


Answer: cosmic ray and radiation levels, the temperature in the spacecraft, and the frequency of collisions with micrometeorites

Question: The Explorer gathered what 3 measurements?


Answer: Lyndon B. Johnson

Context: On April 2, 1958, President Eisenhower reacted to the Soviet space lead in launching the first satellite, by recommending to the US Congress that a civilian agency be established to direct nonmilitary space activities. Congress, led by Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, responded by passing the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which Eisenhower signed into law on July 29, 1958. This law turned the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It also created a Civilian-Military Liaison Committee, chaired by the President, responsible for coordinating the nation's civilian and military space programs.

Question: Who was the Senate's Majority Leader in 1958?


Answer: 1958

Question: The National Aeronautics and Space Act was established in what year?


Answer: National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics

Question: What was NASA called before it became NASA?


Answer: April 2, 1958

Question: The first US satellite was launched on what date?


Answer: July 1, 1960

Context: On October 21, 1959, Eisenhower approved the transfer of the Army's remaining space-related activities to NASA. On July 1, 1960, the Redstone Arsenal became NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, with von Braun as its first director. Development of the Saturn rocket family, which when mature, would finally give the US parity with the Soviets in terms of lifting capability, was thus transferred to NASA.

Question: The Redstone Arsenal became the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center when?


Answer: von Braun

Question: Who was the first director in charge of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center?


Answer: 4

Context: In 1958, Korolev upgraded the R-7 to be able to launch a 400-kilogram (880 lb) payload to the Moon. Three secret 1958 attempts to launch Luna E-1-class impactor probes failed. The fourth attempt, Luna 1, launched successfully on January 2, 1959, but missed the Moon. The fifth attempt on June 18 also failed at launch. The 390-kilogram (860 lb) Luna 2 successfully impacted the Moon on September 14, 1959. The 278.5-kilogram (614 lb) Luna 3 successfully flew by the Moon and sent back pictures of its far side on October 6, 1959.

Question: How many attempts to the Moon did Luna E-1-class probes fail before successfully launching?


Answer: 1959

Question: The first probe to land on the Moon was in what year?


Answer: Luna 3

Question: Which Luna probe successfully photographed the back side of the Moon?


Answer: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Context: The US reacted to the Luna program by embarking on the Ranger program in 1959, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Block I Ranger 1 and Ranger 2 suffered Atlas-Agena launch failures in August and November 1961. The 727-pound (330 kg) Block II Ranger 3 launched successfully on January 26, 1962, but missed the Moon. The 730-pound (330 kg) Ranger 4 became the first US spacecraft to reach the Moon, but its solar panels and navigational system failed near the Moon and it impacted the far side without returning any scientific data. Ranger 5 ran out of power and missed the Moon by 725 kilometers (391 nmi) on October 21, 1962. The first successful Ranger mission was the 806-pound (366 kg) Block III Ranger 7 which impacted on July 31, 1964.

Question: The Ranger program from 1959 was managed by what organization?


Answer: Ranger 4

Question: The first spacecraft to make it to the Moon was what?


Answer: Block III Ranger 7

Question: The first Ranger mission that didn't fail was which one?


Answer: July 31, 1964

Question: The Block III Ranger 7 mission successfully reached the moon on what date?


Answer: Luna

Question: What program led to the establishment of the Ranger program?


Answer: the USSR

Context: By 1959, American observers believed that the Soviet Union would be the first to get a human into space, because of the time needed to prepare for Mercury's first launch. On April 12, 1961, the USSR surprised the world again by launching Yuri Gagarin into a single orbit around the Earth in a craft they called Vostok 1. They dubbed Gagarin the first cosmonaut, roughly translated from Russian and Greek as "sailor of the universe". Although he had the ability to take over manual control of his spacecraft in an emergency by opening an envelope he had in the cabin that contained a code that could be typed into the computer, it was flown in an automatic mode as a precaution; medical science at that time did not know what would happen to a human in the weightlessness of space. Vostok 1 orbited the Earth for 108 minutes and made its reentry over the Soviet Union, with Gagarin ejecting from the spacecraft at 7,000 meters (23,000 ft), and landing by parachute. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (International Federation of Aeronautics) credited Gagarin with the world's first human space flight, although their qualifying rules for aeronautical records at the time required pilots to take off and land with their craft. For this reason, the Soviet Union omitted from their FAI submission the fact that Gagarin did not land with his capsule. When the FAI filing for Gherman Titov's second Vostok flight in August 1961 disclosed the ejection landing technique, the FAI committee decided to investigate, and concluded that the technological accomplishment of human spaceflight lay in the safe launch, orbiting, and return, rather than the manner of landing, and so revised their rules accordingly, keeping Gagarin's and Titov's records intact.

Question: Which country succesfully launched the first person into space in 1961?


Answer: Vostok 1

Question: The first ship to carry a human through space was called what?


Answer: 108 minutes

Question: How long did Yuri Gagarin orbit the earth in the spacecraft?


Answer: Cosmonautics Day

Context: Gagarin became a national hero of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, and a worldwide celebrity. Moscow and other cities in the USSR held mass demonstrations, the scale of which was second only to the World War II Victory Parade of 1945. April 12 was declared Cosmonautics Day in the USSR, and is celebrated today in Russia as one of the official "Commemorative Dates of Russia." In 2011, it was declared the International Day of Human Space Flight by the United Nations.

Question: April 12, in the USSR, is what special day?


Answer: 2011

Question: What year was established as the International Day of Human Space Flight by the United Nations?


Answer: US Air Force

Context: The US Air Force had been developing a program to launch the first man in space, named Man in Space Soonest. This program studied several different types of one-man space vehicles, settling on a ballistic re-entry capsule launched on a derivative Atlas missile, and selecting a group of nine candidate pilots. After NASA's creation, the program was transferred over to the civilian agency and renamed Project Mercury on November 26, 1958. NASA selected a new group of astronaut (from the Greek for "star sailor") candidates from Navy, Air Force and Marine test pilots, and narrowed this down to a group of seven for the program. Capsule design and astronaut training began immediately, working toward preliminary suborbital flights on the Redstone missile, followed by orbital flights on the Atlas. Each flight series would first start unmanned, then carry a primate, then finally men.

Question: Man in Space Soonest was a program by which organization?


Answer: Project Mercury

Question: Man in Space Soonest was reestablished as what in November 26, 1958?


Answer: Alan Shepard

Context: Three weeks later, on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, launched in a ballistic trajectory on Mercury-Redstone 3, in a spacecraft he named Freedom 7. Though he did not achieve orbit like Gagarin, he was the first person to exercise manual control over his spacecraft's attitude and retro-rocket firing. After his successful return, Shepard was celebrated as a national hero, honored with parades in Washington, New York and Los Angeles, and received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal from President John F. Kennedy.

Question: The first American to travel into space was whom?


Answer: May 5, 1961

Question: When did Alan Shepard first arrive in space?


Answer: Freedom 7

Question: The spaceship that carried Alan Shepard was named what?


Answer: Alan Shepard

Question: The first person to have control over driving their spacecraft was whom?


Answer: John F. Kennedy

Question: Which president awarded Alan Shepard the NASA Distinguished Service Medal?


Answer: Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson

Context: Gagarin's flight changed this; now Kennedy sensed the humiliation and fear on the part of the American public over the Soviet lead. He sent a memo dated April 20, 1961, to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, asking him to look into the state of America's space program, and into programs that could offer NASA the opportunity to catch up. The two major options at the time seemed to be, either establishment of an Earth orbital space station, or a manned landing on the Moon. Johnson in turn consulted with von Braun, who answered Kennedy's questions based on his estimates of US and Soviet rocket lifting capability. Based on this, Johnson responded to Kennedy, concluding that much more was needed to reach a position of leadership, and recommending that the manned Moon landing was far enough in the future that the US had a fighting chance to achieve it first.

Question: President Kennedy sent a letter on April 20, 1961 to who about the US's space program?


Answer: May 25

Context: Kennedy ultimately decided to pursue what became the Apollo program, and on May 25 took the opportunity to ask for Congressional support in a Cold War speech titled "Special Message on Urgent National Needs". Full text

Question: The speech by Kennedy, "Special Message on Urgent National Needs" was delivered on what date?


Answer: Rice University Stadium

Context: He justified the program in terms of its importance to national security, and its focus of the nation's energies on other scientific and social fields. He rallied popular support for the program in his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech, on September 12, 1962, before a large crowd at Rice University Stadium, in Houston, Texas, near the construction site of the new Manned Spacecraft Center facility. Full text

Question: "We choose to go to the Moon" speech was given at what location in Texas?


Answer: John Glenn

Context: American Virgil "Gus" Grissom repeated Shepard's suborbital flight in Liberty Bell 7 on July 21, 1961. Almost a year after the Soviet Union put a human into orbit, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, on February 20, 1962. His Mercury-Atlas 6 mission completed three orbits in the Friendship 7 spacecraft, and splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, after a tense reentry, due to what falsely appeared from the telemetry data to be a loose heat-shield. As the first American in orbit, Glenn became a national hero, and received a ticker-tape parade in New York City, reminiscent of that given for Charles Lindbergh. On February 23, 1962, President Kennedy escorted him in a parade at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where he awarded Glenn with the NASA service medal.

Question: The first American to orbit around the planet was whom?


Answer: February 20, 1962

Question: When did John Glenn orbit the Earth?


Answer: Atlantic Ocean

Question: Where did John Glenn land on Earth after coming back from orbit?


Answer: Friendship 7

Question: John Glenn's spaceship was named what when he orbited the Earth?


Answer: 3

Context: The United States launched three more Mercury flights after Glenn's: Aurora 7 on May 24, 1962 duplicated Glenn's three orbits; Sigma 7 on October 3, 1962, six orbits; and Faith 7 on May 15, 1963, 22 orbits (32.4 hours), the maximum capability of the spacecraft. NASA at first intended to launch one more mission, extending the spacecraft's endurance to three days, but since this would not beat the Soviet record, it was decided instead to concentrate on developing Project Gemini.

Question: How many more Mercury missions were there after John Glenn's?