Thoughts of a Freethinker

  All of us can see around us people who have abilities that are extraordinary. Most of the time, they are extraordinary at one or two things. Athletes, for example, can control their bodies better than most of us. Artists see something the around them things the rest of us miss. There are people who see money-making opportunities that are in front of all of us but only they recognize it. Politicians, in most cases, are people who see how other people think. Most of us are focused on our own logic but a successful politician understands the thinking of groups different from him/herself. At one point is time Trump showed us this talent. That was when he entered politics, about 2015. He could see people did not like those at the top, especially those who had an air of self-importance. It was an eye opener when he dismissed Jeb Bush of the prominent Bush political family with "no more Bushes." That he once had that ability makes it all the more mysterious that he now has no unde...

I have several of New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman's books. Now that he is retired, he does podcasts instead of longer lectures and his prominence seems to grow rather than fade.  In these podcasts, he passes along what he has learned over a lifetime of academic work. One topic that fascinated me was his review of the bonkers idea some Christians have that Jesus died as a sacrifice for all of our sins. I've wondered who could believe such a thing?  In this podcast, he explains why this peculiar notion that Jesus "died for our sins" is not a tenet of Christianity. The claim Jesus said such a thing before he died is in a couple of the Gospels but not in all. No one was present who later wrote he said this. Instead, it somehow got imbedded in the folklore of the next decades and was written later by someone(s) who heard the tale but did not hear it from Jesus himself. Ehrman makes the case, and some others agree, that the book of Luke and later writing by Paul (Ehrman i...

Statistics show the liberal wing of Christianity, I think of it as moderate or main stream Christianity, is dropping in membership rapidly. This data come from denominations like the Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, etc. They are denominations, mostly, which now approve or do not condemn gay people or gay marriage.  This data does not show trends in non denominational churches which have become popular. So far as I know, there have been no studies of the theologies of these churches. If there is something called "return to the mean" in Christianity, a theme of theology that brings people in the pews back to something that has been believed for most of U.S. history, what would it be.  Recently, a post in the conservative Wall Street Journal pointed to the denomination of Presbyterianism as a force toward freedom of assembly and belief but resistant to a government religion. It concludes the ideal of Christian nationalism in the Presbyterian denomination has...

The view that religion is "important" dropped from the 60% range to under 30% in recent decades among democrats. Among Republicans, it dropped buy only about 20%. The religious right is wringing its hands over this drop. It claims false doctrine has taken the place of the real stuff. Instead of whining, the religious right should be figuring out why this is happening and trying to reverse the downward trajectory. Instead, it is watching its numbers fall and complaining. I've been watching commentary of the national convention of Missouri Synod Lutherans. One set of younger preachers has been telling the rest of the denomination on videos that the million-member drop is continuing because its churches are often in rural areas that are emptying and the average ago of member is rising increasing deaths. They believe the decline might slow if the requirements for preachers were made less expensive with on-line degrees so and more preachers could be licensed who in turn could...

Pregnancies take many unexpected turns and doctors with their patients need to figure out what to do is the case being made in Massachusetts by a legislator. She told of a woman whose fetus had a stroke and an abortion was needed after the legal limit. The patient had to leave her state to get the abortion. This logic that abortions, even late ones, are available somewhere in the U.S. undercuts the Bible thumpers and their one-cell human beings. "If abortions are available somewhere, why force our women to travel?" is a question for which anti-abortion has no political answer.  State by state, country by country, the availability of abortions is increasing. There could be a few set backs from time to time but the resolve of women to get them will be the force that prevails. The Roe decision which made abortions legal nation-wide set a time limit on when an abortion could happen. It is widely known this was at the point when the fetus was "viable" outside the mother....

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...