Thoughts of a Freethinker

I don't recall ever seeing a survey of Christians on the Shroud of Turin, but my guess is millions across the globe believe it is the actual garment the body of Jesus was wrapped in. One can read the long complicated history of the thing in Wikipedia . I was not aware the myth went back to around the 1200's. Even though a Pope back then declared it to be authentic the Catholic Church has backed off just a bit. Currently, its position is that it neither affirms nor denies its authenticity. The ruse is called "of Turin because it has been displayed in the City of Turin, Italy, for hundreds of years. Twice it was damage by fires and then repaired.  The history of evaluations outside of religion is lots of fun. The image is that of an entire body. Someone measured the arms and found them to be impossibly long. Others have done carbon dating and found it to be of the 12-1300's. What appears to be blood has been found to be fruit or vegetable dyes. The type of fabric was not...

One thing that does NOT sell newspapers or the modern version of newspapers, talk and news on our screens or trolling on the internet, is a script that reads, "No one has any idea why these things are happening." Better for selling ads and making money is, "Today we're going give you inside information. We'll to talk to experts and learn why these things are happening." An example is this essay. It seems to me most often there is no explanation. The exception is people with religious or political passions that have gone over the edge. Otherwise, it is next to impossible to explain why people go off the rails and kill numbers of other people. To pretend we can explain why these tragedies happen seems out of reach. Maybe it would be more helpful for the news media to admit this, even though it would not be as profitable as teasing the public into thinking an answer is coming. An early idea that seemed good to me at the time was to limit access to firearms. Tod...

Even though the total amount of money donated to religion is still huge, a survey found the average amount given by evangelicals continues to fall . If one were to choose a single variable that predicted the future success or failure of an organization, it has to be how much money it brings it. Money pays for preachers and church buildings. These are two large marketing variables. Without these, membership will fall. The old saying is, "It pays to advertise." I follow a site in the Lutheran Missouri Synod denomination. There preachers and professors at its seminaries talk about how to stop the dramatic downward trend. The denomination still has a large amount of money stashed away. But the discussions involve what it should do to reverse its decline in membership.  The denomination's dilemma, not much different I'm sure than similar denominations, is that its preachers are to do considerable academic work in order to be ordained. This, of course, is expensive if done ...

Re-ploughing old ground is what Christianity does. So, too, does the community of doubt . That there is scant evidence there ever was a Jesus continues to be raised.  Since way back, Jesus and his life was called "history" by believers and a "story" by skeptics. In either case it was a very successful public relations effort. Jesus remains a topic discussed endlessly. The more modern word for the Christian religion based on Jesus is "narrative." That is, in spite of critics, doubt and lack of evidence, the Christian narrative remains that there was a Jesus and words and ideas he actually used are repeated in the Bible. I don't remember a year when I read quotes from prominent Christians repeating what skeptics have said for years, "Jesus may not have been born on January 25th. But that does not matter." I would call this a new narrative. It would never have become this common were it not for skeptics raising doubts for years. The new narrativ...

I don't need to tell readers the death of Jimmy Carter has brought an avalanche of media attention. So much of it is not interesting to me--was he a successful President, why was he defeated, what did he do after his Presidency, etc.  I was so invested in him these issues are old ground. I chatted briefly with him and my wife and I spent several hours in Plains, GA and the Carter Center a few years ago. What is interesting ground to replough is his religion and his devotion to it. I've restated several times that Protestants were in favor of abortion rights prior to the Roe decision decades ago making it legal. This included Carter's church, the Southern Baptist Convention. Then his denomination changed its position, but Carter did not. He grew up in the rural countryside surrounded by black families and their children. They were his playmates, welcomed to the Carter home by his mother.  Later, when he took over the family's business of buying and processing peanuts, th...

In spite of some Christians saying "This is impossible" there are clergy willing to go inside clinics and offer Christian blessings. These are not Satanists, but credentialed Christian clergy.  While this seems unusual today, it is not unusual when considered over time. We have discussed here many times that nearly the entire Protestant faith endorsed abortion rights before the Roe v Wade decision. Anti-abortion was considered a Catholic thing, not part of traditional Protestsm. A study of the effectiveness of propaganda would have to rank the broad conversion within Protestantism to anti-abortion as an astounding success. Theologically, however, there is nothing there. God finds a way to bless just about everything. I was raised in a no alcohol church. It was the only church in our town and there was no tavern. Beer was at the top of the sin list like trans is today. I did not drink in college because it stuck with me the any alcohol was a really terrible thing. Eventually, ...