Thoughts of a Freethinker

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth brings up Christianity in briefings about defense. President Trump brings it up in his political messages. When I'm traveling, I try not to engage a seat mate in conversation because I've been trapped into endless sermons. Here is one I have not encounters, however, someone standing up in the airline cabin and preaching during a flight delay.  The pilot announced a take delay of 20 minutes so Christian influencer, Whitney Lynn, took that as an opportunity to stand and began preaching. When she did not respond to the crew's request to take her seat and be quiet they called security. Whitney was escorted off the plane. On the campus where I taught for 40 years various versions of whack-a-mole showed up. One was the Giddeons handing out New Testaments to students in areas where there was lots of foot traffic. I noticed the nearby trash bins were overflowing with these little books. I've always wondered if the Giddeons fished out those book...

Joe McCarthy was a House member from Wisconsin in the 1950's. It was a time when both parties were fervently opposed to Communism. The conventional wisdom of the time was that Russia was huge and wealthy and intended to eventually invade the U.S. Stories about vast arms supplies buried and spies across the U.S. were common. Money was thrown at the Pentagon and still is.  Today Washington politics goes after universities for teaching "woke." Professor are investigated. In the 1950's it was Communist professors. I don't recall there ever was even one Communist professor. There were many pointing out that communist block nations did not get along with each other very well and there was no actual evidence Russia and the old Soviet Union had any ability to invade other countries in Europe to say nothing of the U.S. The link reviews what came to be almost universal dislike of McCarthy. He held hearings that were broadcast live on the three networks of that time. Somewh...

World history is full or hoaxes about health. During my lifetime there have been some. One was "Hadacol." It was heavily advertised as a mineral and vitamin supplement. One could buy it over-the-counter in drug stores. People felt "good" after taking it. Eventually, it was determined the good results were from it 12% alcohol content. Government provided a public warning and the stuff was pulled. Conversion Therapy is not alcohol but a drug of religion. It is a "therapy" or "cure" for gay people by training the minds to think of gay urges as evil and harmful. Gay people enroll and learn an important thing in their minds, their gay partners and friendships in the gay community, even approval by their own families, is evil. While there are a few gay people who live out their lives as heterosexual, a large proportion return to their natural same sex attraction. A former head of a national Conversion Therapy group resigned and apologized for harming p...

Today VP JD Vance tested another villain, Satan. President Trump tried out "Chinese Communists" in his recent speech. Just a few decades ago Jerry Falwell said it was the "gays." Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council says it is abortion pills. So many villains to demonize, so little time.  Since Vance first used the "Communists" several others have used it also. My own theory is that inside the National Republican Party Headquarters are various departments. There is Finance, Fund Raising, etc. Then there is a Villain Department. One the wall is a list of the various sub departments which include Gays, Trans, Atheists, Liberals, Satan and Communists. If you look carefully at the door of the Communist suite of offices you will see the door once said "RUSSIA." That has been painted over. Since Trump came to office Russia is no longer a villain. Those who worked in the Russia Department had to transfer to a new villain or leave the villain indu...

  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...