Thoughts of a Freethinker

Poland is a country identified with the Catholic Church. While Italy is home to the Vatican, Poland has a long history of devotion to the faith. Recently, however, a conservative publication sounded the alarm that religious instruction in public schools is being lowered in importance and resources. When one reads the statistics of Catholicism, one can see why.  Only 1/3 of Polish adults say the attend weekly mass. As with all polling asking, "How often do you attend mass?" many, thinking no one keeps track, no doubt overstate how often they attend. The number of priests and those entering priesthood training is falling. The same thing is happening in Italy, home of the Vatican. Lots of tricks have been used to get people to church. Decades ago it was the guitar mass. In Protestant churches it was Christian rock and/or adding a contemporary service with little preaching and lots of music. While apparently are some exceptions, attendance keeps falling. The peculiar thing is tha...

It is widely known fertility rates have declined to below the replacement rate. There are groups with vested political and economic interests who hype this as a terrible thing and say send us money to stop this. Only occasionally does one come across a balanced view of the seemingly inevitable decline in the world population. One appeared recently in The Atlantic but I'm unable to link it. We all know the dilemma of fewer births. More old people drawing Social Security and money for healthcare and fewer young people paying in. No let up in the need for "blue collar" workers but fewer workers. Salaries/costs will rise.  The article reaches the same conclusion I have mentioned here many times. What we call the standard of living may well fall, the article guesstimates 10%.  On the other hand, there will be some offsetting benefits. Less traffic, shorter line and smaller crowds. Natural resources will last longer and the severe impacts of climate change will be less. Part of...

A Catholic site recently discussed the question of how long a member should spend in the confession session with their priest. The article asked if 30 minutes was too long? A while back I wrote here about a book published by the Catholic professor who found the practice of confession is much less popular today than it was in the past. The majority of Catholics do not go to confession. Yet apparently some do. Perhaps it is more popular in some parishes. Older members are more likely to practice it than younger. My late friend who was a priest said listening to people drone on about details in their lives was quite boring. Catholic friends I've asked about confession said they learned while children they were to think of something insignificant, hear they are forgiven and leave. But reading the link about half hour confessions gives me the impression some Catholics view confession as a counselling session. They don't see it as an opportunity to get their sins forgiven but a time...

Modern worship today is, apparently, really big on long songs that are not old hymns but written recently. There are conferences discussing seriously whether this modern music which eats up more worship time than the sermon is "Christianity"?  Some are wondering if Jesus would return playing a guitar. I've been at such a service and am baffled by this practice. This reflects, of course, my age and that I associate "worship" with the practices I have known in my lifetime.  None of this means my experience was "right" nor that modern worship that is closer to a rock concert is wrong. It merely shows that the entire enterprise of religion, its beliefs and its rituals, are man-made to fit what the culture reflects at any given time. It's a given that the worship I experienced would have seemed strange to generations before me. Many churches have two different kinds or style of services--almost two separate groups in the same congregation. Does the invi...

Anyone who watches the Supreme Court, including the Stare decisions made outside of court sessions, can see the term "religious liberty" means there are good versions of Christianity and not-so-good. The good versions, as conservatives see it, need favorable treatment. The long-standing ability of religions to get away with things that establish certain religious views as law has accelerated in this court. This court majority was appointed around the time of Covid. Attending church services had the obvious risk of spreading disease. Religions kept pounding on the church attendance. One can read on the web the series of decisions that favor religion. This included overturning Roe which as we know backfired. The New Yorker recently published a long profile of Chief Justice John Roberts. Its conclusion is that Roberts sees his mission as returning the Court to what it was in the 1950's. That is a court whose decisions reflect traditional views of religion and family. He some...

Readers know Moses came down from his personal chat with God somehow carrying stones upon which God had chiseled the Ten Commandments. He saw that his followers were worshipping and celebrating a calf made of gold. For reasons not explained in the Bible, Moses in his anger smashed the stones God had so carefully given him. If God carefully engraved stones with his wishes and gave them to me, I would treat them with great care, knowing they were rules that must be followed for eternal salvation. But not Moses, he just tossed them as if, "Yeah, God gave them to me, but you guys made me so mad I smashed them. It's your fault we don't know what God wrote." A more peculiar part of the story is the "golden calf." It says in the Bible  the gold for the golden calf came from gold earrings worm by the women Jews who had escaped slavery in Egypt. This got me to wondering how bad the slavery was for the Jews in Egypt if they could afford so many golden earrings that on...