Thoughts of a Freethinker

  Amid constant bashing and the decline of mainline denominations, there is hope liberal denominations will survive. Conservative Christian seminaries across the country are struggling or have closed. Union, a liberal seminary in New York City, is growing . According to the link, Union has added classes in Buddhism and other of the great faiths. The outgoing President said her goal was to develop a broad approach to religion. This brings to mind the claim one sees so often by fundamentalist in Christianity. It is that the faith will stop declining soon because out there in the public is a "thirst" for something substantive like what the fundies preach. We see from Union's growth there is also interest in other aspects of religion including what other religions teach. With hundreds of TV channels we know there are hundreds of interests out there in the public. That any theological seminary is growing is quite amazing. The number of Christians is falling, The percentage of ...

The conservative hand wringing about falling fertility rates blame women. Women are selfish or put their careers before motherhood it is said. This has ignored the role men must be playing in pregnancy and family planning. It seems likely men are joining women in  wanting fewer children. Surveys show that men now spend more time doing housework and caring for children than did previous generations. This surely has to do with women spending more time at work. The positive thing about this for today's men is that the pressure to earn is spread between the genders. Many men, perhaps the majority, prefer to work at their job fewer hours and spend more hours with family. We all know couples where the major bread winner is the woman. It is not always true the men in these family units want it to be the reverse. The result is that efforts to reverse the decline in fertility will not be solved by the ideas often mentioned. That is, more time off for women after births, subsidies for childc...

A year or so ago I read a book that reviewed the decline of the practice of confession among Catholics. It used to be a regular event, monthly or maybe annually. Now it is seldom practiced except by older members. It fell out of favor, at least in part, by the sexual of a few priests. The question was planted in people's mind, "Why should I share any secret part of my life with this guy?" The link discusses the difference between the practice of confession and that of talking to a licensed therapist. It would be wise if every branch of Christianity became aware of how confession, put in the hands of an untrained and dangerous person, can do great harm. Catholics are not the only branch of Christianity that uses a form of confession to control its members. Other branches, often called "high maintenance", that control through confession are Mormons (now called Latter Day Saints) and old order Amish. On the web one can listen to stories of abuse from the practice. ...

We all know there are people all around us trying to get at our money. They call on the phone and advertise everywhere. If there was a contest to find the most outrageous scam that takes peoples' money, what do you think it would be? Is there a place where atheists take money and give us nothing in return? I've never heard of such a thing. Christianity is full of such scams. Christian numbers are falling. Atheist numbers are growing.,  Giving money to a church is problematic in several ways. First most, maybe 90+% goes to pay the preacher and maintain the building. The "tithe" is about paying the church's bills, not some more lofty cause.  Today I read a column by a woman who apparently makes a living listening and interpreting the dreams of Christians. Her  site advertises standard dream interpretation at $50 for 30 minutes but more advanced interpretation will cost you $75. She is so knowledgeable she can even determine whether your dream is a message from God o...

                 ] Thomas Paine was an influential figure in U.S. history for sure. He championed democracy. But he did not want religion in government. While he was known to be the author of many of the Federalist Papers urging a vote to ratify the Constitution, which included endorsement of Christianity, he later was an influential atheist. He published some of the best known and most quoted atheist statements.  This year, the 250th birthday of the founding of our country, there are the usual claims our "founding fathers" were Christians and advocated a "Christian nation." But then the name Thomas Paine comes up. They have nothing good to say about Paine but go on to laud the "founding fathers." Paine, an atheist, was a founding father.  Perhaps it doesn't matter whether Paine liked, or disliked, Christianity when he campaigned for ratification. If he disliked it and was doing a wink-wink while writing the Federalist Papers, today...

The anti-abortion industry thinks it can continue to collect money from the gullible public forever by promising to end all abortion. They are claiming that if the Trump Administration says it will enforce a decades old law the government will be start opening mail to see if it contains abortion meds and women will not be able to get the products. The Trump Administration has not agreed to do this, but crazy things can happen.  If the Post Office were to start opening mail there would be a national outrage. Abortion rights might flood the mails with suspicious but empty mailings to use up Post Office time. It would also open the door, it seems to me, to delivering abortion meds through non postal channels. Every reader knows of these which include the giant Amazon and taxi-type rides to food delivery. These do not include new ideas that could come along out of the innovative abortion rights itself. We have to remember why the anti-abortion industry is pushing the unrealistic propos...