Thoughts of a Freethinker

If today, July 22 is Mary Magdalene Day in the Catholic denomination and you are a Catholic, you have an obligation to go to church. The Catholic denomination has some cleaver marketing. It comes up with reasons you should spend your time and money supporting the denomination.  When I was a young person I lived in Catholic Puerto Rico for a year. There were so many holidays based on Catholic saints an outsider could not keep track of them. I suppose each of these was a reason to demand Catholics attend church. More religious days crowded out other interests. The Catholics are still playing the saint card. "Mary Magdalene" is in the Bible, allegedly present at the death of Jesus. She was said to be a woman of ill repute but brought back from her sin to be briefly big in the Easter story. She disappeared from Bible tales so what became of her was not of interest to the men who wrote the Bible. Her big contribution was that is gave Catholic executives a reason to have a day dedi...

Famous authors today say books by the author of The Late Great Planet Earth plus that book itself sold more books than any other author of Christian books in the world. This book was said to be quite influential with Reagan and his cabinet including James Watt, Secretary of the Interior. I visited with Watt in Fargo when I was mayor. Watt was in religious la la land.  It's almost alarming the book is classified as "nonfiction." The topic is prophesy and the New Testament book Revelations. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of books have been written and sermons delivered telling of the events prophesized before the return of Jesus and the end of the world. It is almost a cottage industry. Every generation is willing to shell out money to read "inside" information as to how current events foretell those prophesized in Revelations. That a President and the Cabinet that run our country now believe, or believed back then, this fictional mythology is reality is frightening.  I ...

While Christian missionaries are not allowed in Iran there are efforts to spread the faith through satellite broadcasts. It was a pleasure to read an article in the Christian press by a devout Christian who is involved in Christian broadcasts aimed at Iran but who has studied Iran's current leaders and knows them better than does Trump and his tight circle of chest-beating bomb-them-to-dust cronies.  The Iranian clergy/politicians believe they can outlast the U. S. and be in a stronger international position afterwards. They believe this because that's what happened when Iraq invaded and was unsuccessful even having more and better weapons. Sadam finally decided he could not conquer the country and gave up trying. To the Iran leadership, the same thing is unfolding against the U.S. Iran has been badly damaged, but is a large and well-educated society with oil. The Christian link author does not think Iran will negotiate nor give up its gains. In WWII, the German nazis invaded R...

All of us, or maybe just me, enjoy reading things that are exactly what we believe. An author who writes for the public just published a nice article listing 10 things humans across cultures and time fear and/or believe that give religion an opening. He says humans believe religions in order to fill needs from these fears/needs and that if/when religion does not work anymore something else moves in. That something else is today's political factions, tribes and single-issue voters. It all suggests the case Christians make that it is "needed" for a cohesive society has some validity. The author points out we can handle these without religion. Readers here know all the "needs" listed in the link but I'll list some of the old regulars: Fear of death/need for an afterlife, need to know/understand the origin of human, need to know rules to live by for approval and the need for a villain/Satan to blame things on. There are others the link author does not list in th...

An anti abortionist recently chastised her group for not attacking the in vitro practice of fertilizing several human eggs, picking the best one for implantation and discarding the rest. She pointed out the in vitro clinics "kill" more "babies" than Planned Parenthood. I've never heard of anti abortionists demanding these clinics be charged with murder or that there be funerals for the discarded fertilized eggs. Readers may recall some states have laws requiring funerals for ended pregnancies  I think there is a simple way to explain why anti-abortion groups do not demand in vitro clinics stop throwing away these "babies." There is no money in it. To bring donations, anti-abortion needs a villain. Once upon a time the villain was the abortion clinic. This villain is disappearing as more pregnancies are done by taking meds. When the villain became the woman taking the pills it hurt anti-abortion revenue. In the case of the in vitro clinic, the "vil...

We all know denominations have seminaries. What seminaries and their professors study, write about and teach is what might be called (I'm the only one I know of who calls it this) the faith's manufacturing and wholesale sector. Preachers preach what those in the pews want to hear preached. This is the retail sector of Christianity. Those in the pews are the consumers. In the market system, what consumers buy sends money to the manufacturing, wholesale and retail sectors.  Professor Stevphen Prothuro in his book, "God is Not One, says Christianity is the retail sector, what those in the pews think and talk about. In most of both the Protestant and Catholic branches this is sin. It's what they worry people worry about. Ultimately, preachers read this back to them. Then, there is what a denomination's leaders, like the Pope, talk about. A professor at Mormon BYU studies what the head of Mormons focuses on. It changes. These leaders talk about certain sins until those ...