Posts

The 250th anniversary of Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations"

Image
There is an irony that 1776 is the year of both the founding of the U.S. and the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. Few people pay any attention to the latter. Smith is mostly worshipped by anti-government conservatives and disliked by liberals who find more confidence in the collective exercise of government powers. The Wealth of Nations was and remains widely influential. Smith said that when each individual seeks his/own best interests, there is a benefit to society at large they may be unaware of. The benefit is the production and distribution of food, goods and services is organized and carried out. Smith recognized to some extent businesses seeking their interests might form monopolies that exercise power over working people. He was naive about costs businesses could avoid paying, like damage to water, air and soil.  A hundred years, later Karl Marx published an equally powerful book about economics, Das Capital. Marx said we could not trust businesses to orga...
Post a Comment
Read more

"Are You Religious" May Strike People as an Odd Question

Image
The sands of time bury some things. Asking people their views on religion may be different in the future.  The link discussed the difference in how people who have no contact or experience with religion versus those who grew up in it but left might answer questions like, "Do you believe in God?" or "Do you believe in a live after death?" Those with no experience or background may not know what the questions are about and answer from a different place than those who know the source of the question. I tried to come up with a way of imagining how questions about religion would strike someone who has no idea or experience with the topic. I looked up my birth date in an astrology site. I am Virgos. The traits attributed to Virgos seem not at all like me. If a pollster asked me questions about my life's experience as a Virgo I would be dumbfounded. My impulse, however, would be to be helpful and try to help out the person by answering even though I have no idea what t...
Post a Comment
Read more

When Christianity Harms People

Image
  Where I now live, the state legislature is debating whether to allow the practice of "Conversion Therapy." This is a type of counseling that claims to convert gay people to being straight people through a religious experience. It has been outlawed in various places at various times. Outside of a few who claim to have been changed, the consensus of people who have been subjected to "Conversion Therapy" is they were left harmed by it.  The message most who have been in it say they are told if they are strong and devoted to God they will be attracted toward the other sex. When this doesn't happen the only conclusion is something is wrong with them. Self-worth is at its lowest.  There has never been a reliable set of data on the percentage of people who "graduate" from conversion therapy and remain straight. People who have left it say it is unusual for people to change permanently. It happens for a while then gay people return to being gay. This happene...
Post a Comment
Read more

Much of Christianity Cannot Stand Young Adults

Image
It is amusing to read the never-ending solutions to the decline of Christian numbers. The elephant in the room is the majority of young under 25 who leave the faith every generation. With one exception I have come across, those inside the faith cannot possibly reverse the decline. Most cannot stop telling people what people are not allowed to believe. The exception that appeared recently was written by a man who claims to head an organization devoted to bring young adults into the faith be listening to their views. The idea is to listen to young people but not pass judgement on what they have to say.  In the comments that followed the article, most Christians were appalled at this idea. Young people are the very ones who need to hear an earful about their sins and the consequences, eternity in hell, that awaits them was the most common reaction. The link author claims his group listens to young people, but he never tells us what they have to say. Most of us can guess they talk abou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chaco Canyon: Societies Run By Women for Centuries

Image
About 20 years ago, wife and I visited a Federal Park in New Mexico called Chaco Canyon. Unlike most Federal sites it was accessible only by about 15 miles of gravel roads. It was a wonderful experience. The site is a large expanse of ruins, parts of walls and outlines of many little structures plus bigger ones with many rooms. Besides being on the backroad, the location in a high desert is very desolate. Obviously a large complex society had built it. But who were they, what did it all mean and why was it there is such an unlikely place? Since our visit, research has discovered who was buried in Chaco Canyon and how the society was organized. Plus, the mystery of why it was abandoned is known. Analysis of burial sites has revealed the Chaco Canyon was the center of a societies we now call Pueblo and Hopi. Drought ended about 1,000 years of prosperity in the early 1100's.  The royal people buried there reveal of royal linage of women. The royal linage not male. Power was passed fro...
Post a Comment
Read more

It is Impossible for Devout Christians to Accept Jews

Image
Buried far beneath accusations that liberal Harvard and Yale discriminated against Jews is an underlying tenet of Christianity. That tenet is Jews did not, and do not, accept Jesus as the "promised one." A Christian publication which bills itself as balanced and thoughtful recently published a piece by its editor saying the problem Jews have is one they put on themselves. If they believe God is the almighty, then they must to accept Jesus as the promised one. The Jew's problem, according to this Christian poster, is they refuse to do what they must do.  When I was an Iowa farm boy my family were member of the only local church. It was from the evangelical branch. The church's men's club had gone to some effort to invite a Rabbi to speak. He was from a city 20 miles away. The committee probably went to visit with him and he drove 20 miles on questionable roads. He was introduced in the church and as he approached the pulpit, tthe visiting preacher at the time, who ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Easter: Why Did Jesus Ride a Donkey into Jerusalem

Image
The tale of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey with adoring crowds cheering his arrival just did not happen. No doubt something like it happened in the mythology wealthy men at the time knew about. Only the very wealthy were literate at that time, so the tale comes from that small demographic. Every Easter Chirstian sites carry the orthodox version of the story. The imagery of leaders or famous people passing in front of crowds is, and probably always been, one of being higher than the crowds. This allows them to be seen, but also projects importance. We all know of holy men being carried in splendor on the shoulders of human beings. The donkey seems a compromise. Story tellers needed him to ride into town, not walk. He needed to be a little higher than the so-called crowds but not on the back seat of a shiny convertible car. So story tellers or scribes rewriting the story came up with Jesus on a donkey.  We can notice the Jesus as told in the Bible was not a farmer nor a banker....
Post a Comment
Read more