Thoughts of a Freethinker

I've bored readers here before with the difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics. I keep returning to the difference because of an inability to see the world in other ways. Macroeconomics is in the news constantly, unemployment numbers, inflation and average incomes. The actual world, however, is run by the less discussed microeconomic decisions each of us makes every day, every hour. Anti-abortion people think abortion is a macroeconomic issue when it is actually a micro one. Humans have been making life and death microeconomic decisions since they arrived on earth. We are here because our ancestors made good micro decisions, including abortion and euthanasia. Early humans, and perhaps remote tribes today, lived in small clans. The decisions they made were for the survival of their group alone, not for societies across their region. They were microeconomies. From generations of experience, they knew how much food was available to them each year and the amount of labor ...

Let's run through just a few of the "Commanders in Chief" who were really big in solving disagreements by sending armies to destroy the enemy. They all practiced a version of the old command, "Nuke 'em."  President W. Bush was in office when the 9/11 attack happened. He could have said, "This is what happens when religion, like Islam, takes over a government. The impulse is to destroy others. Let's not be that country." Then, he could have isolated those countries, put economic pressure on them and prevented any more attacks. Instead, it was send in troops and shoot up and bomb the country. After that it was bomb and shoot up Iraq, even though Iraq had not harmed the U.S. The killing went on for years and was never completely resolved. We pulled out of Afghanistan without a victory. Israel's Netanyahu said his country needed to destroy it's enemies. Off to war he went. Now, he is unhappy Trump is pulling out of Iran and leaving Iran...

Today a religious professor posted on a conservative Christian site an essay claiming it is not the faith that is obsessed with sex but society at large. He gives lots of examples and then claims the Bible is merely responding to the sins of society. Several commenters chimed in saying this is ridiculous.  One commenter said the Bible's reference to sex is mostly about women as property. Certainly, there is plenty of that.  To me, the current obsession parts of the faith have with homosexuality, abortion and church-approved marriage is about control. The faith drew up a set of rules about sex. Then it named itself as the judge and jury of sin. Like all sin, the rules are modified constantly as time moves along. I can't think of any reason the Catholic denomination came up with the idea a fertilized egg is a "human being" and that birth control is a sin other than the need to expand the population of Catholics. Absolutely these are self serving rules involving sex. For...

Of course, Southern Baptists voted against confirming women for clergy. Male domination and being judgmental of others is the reason the denomination exists. How could it vote otherwise? Yet, as membership drops and the ground under its feet shifts, Southern Baptists will see women continue moving into powerful positions. Who is the "head pastor" when the names attached to positions changes? What does it mean to "preach." Is being the featured speaker preaching? There is the constant decline of membership which has not yet changed the world inside conservative religions but change seems inevitable. Denominations are reluctant to change until competitors take their money.  Alcohol was a taboo for many Protestants for decades. Now it exists as a taboo in only a few outliers. Gay preachers and gay marriage resistance have faded to the sidelines. One by one the old taboos are sidelined.   The current hot button taboo is trans. Watch for opposition to that disappear. The...

Vice President Vance was rightly criticized for saying he hoped his wife, Usha, would convert to Christianity. Maybe he was not serious and the two of them have made peace about religion and he knows she is not considering changing and he knows this. One whacko Christian columnist justifies Vance's "request" to his wife and all other hard sells of Christianity made by Christians everywhere. According to the columnist, Vance is doing his wife a favor by giving her a shot at an eternity in heaven. A few years ago, when I was preparing to attend an event we pilots attend to talk about flying and our airplanes, an obnoxious Christian member started posting about a morning church service he was organizing. He asked for volunteers to read from the Bible, conduct a prayer and give a "message." Several pilots chimed in and told him this was not appropriate. His reply was the same as the link , "Eternity is forever. I'm only trying to help all pilots so they do ...

The Bible is full of dreams and visions. The difference between dreams and actual events was not clear then and is not clear to many believers today. The mythical "Paul" of the Bible have visions of talking with Jesus long after Jesus was dead. To this day it is assumed often in the faith that Paul actually spoke to Jesus. While one can understand the ancients had a view that dreams were some kind of communication with some other world, we would not think it lives on today. We would be wrong . I remember a few year back watching a panel discussion on a religious site. Benny Hinn, the fake healing preacher, was on the panel. The discussion morphed into what each was hearing from God. Benny went on for several minutes about seeing Jesus while in bed. He thought he might have been asleep and it was a dream but felt it had some serious meaning. He asked Jesus questions but Jesus did not answer. Benny was perplexed because he was certain the visit meant something important but he ...