Thoughts of a Freethinker

  I binge-watch too much of Mormon Stories Podcast  because there are discussions of religion I don't see other places. I'm watching an episode now interviewing an anthropologist who goes over all the territory I've traveled before but in an engaging way . At the risk of misquoting or misstating, he says this: 1. All religions from prehistory were verbal. Nothing was written except surviving drawings. 2. All religions were based on the interplay between growing food, mostly corn, and the sun. The sun, the plants and the animals held spiritual powers.  3. Religions were passed down to the next generation by learning rituals which were practiced at various periods of sunshine. The sun, sky and crops held all religious ideas, they were the "Bible." Religions were not about prayers and scripture, they were about rituals. 4. The written word did not come along until about 6,000 BCE. Any claims of written or recorded text before then could not have happened.  5. All rel...

There is an irony that 1776 is the year of both the founding of the U.S. and the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. Few people pay any attention to the latter. Smith is mostly worshipped by anti-government conservatives and disliked by liberals who find more confidence in the collective exercise of government powers. The Wealth of Nations was and remains widely influential. Smith said that when each individual seeks his/own best interests, there is a benefit to society at large they may be unaware of. The benefit is the production and distribution of food, goods and services is organized and carried out. Smith recognized to some extent businesses seeking their interests might form monopolies that exercise power over working people. He was naive about costs businesses could avoid paying, like damage to water, air and soil.  A hundred years, later Karl Marx published an equally powerful book about economics, Das Capital. Marx said we could not trust businesses to orga...

The sands of time bury some things. Asking people their views on religion may be different in the future.  The link discussed the difference in how people who have no contact or experience with religion versus those who grew up in it but left might answer questions like, "Do you believe in God?" or "Do you believe in a live after death?" Those with no experience or background may not know what the questions are about and answer from a different place than those who know the source of the question. I tried to come up with a way of imagining how questions about religion would strike someone who has no idea or experience with the topic. I looked up my birth date in an astrology site. I am Virgos. The traits attributed to Virgos seem not at all like me. If a pollster asked me questions about my life's experience as a Virgo I would be dumbfounded. My impulse, however, would be to be helpful and try to help out the person by answering even though I have no idea what t...

  Where I now live, the state legislature is debating whether to allow the practice of "Conversion Therapy." This is a type of counseling that claims to convert gay people to being straight people through a religious experience. It has been outlawed in various places at various times. Outside of a few who claim to have been changed, the consensus of people who have been subjected to "Conversion Therapy" is they were left harmed by it.  The message most who have been in it say they are told if they are strong and devoted to God they will be attracted toward the other sex. When this doesn't happen the only conclusion is something is wrong with them. Self-worth is at its lowest.  There has never been a reliable set of data on the percentage of people who "graduate" from conversion therapy and remain straight. People who have left it say it is unusual for people to change permanently. It happens for a while then gay people return to being gay. This happene...

It is amusing to read the never-ending solutions to the decline of Christian numbers. The elephant in the room is the majority of young under 25 who leave the faith every generation. With one exception I have come across, those inside the faith cannot possibly reverse the decline. Most cannot stop telling people what people are not allowed to believe. The exception that appeared recently was written by a man who claims to head an organization devoted to bring young adults into the faith be listening to their views. The idea is to listen to young people but not pass judgement on what they have to say.  In the comments that followed the article, most Christians were appalled at this idea. Young people are the very ones who need to hear an earful about their sins and the consequences, eternity in hell, that awaits them was the most common reaction. The link author claims his group listens to young people, but he never tells us what they have to say. Most of us can guess they talk abou...

About 20 years ago, wife and I visited a Federal Park in New Mexico called Chaco Canyon. Unlike most Federal sites it was accessible only by about 15 miles of gravel roads. It was a wonderful experience. The site is a large expanse of ruins, parts of walls and outlines of many little structures plus bigger ones with many rooms. Besides being on the backroad, the location in a high desert is very desolate. Obviously a large complex society had built it. But who were they, what did it all mean and why was it there is such an unlikely place? Since our visit, research has discovered who was buried in Chaco Canyon and how the society was organized. Plus, the mystery of why it was abandoned is known. Analysis of burial sites has revealed the Chaco Canyon was the center of a societies we now call Pueblo and Hopi. Drought ended about 1,000 years of prosperity in the early 1100's.  The royal people buried there reveal of royal linage of women. The royal linage not male. Power was passed fro...