Thoughts of a Freethinker

Brazil has to be one of the most fascinating countries in the world. It was invaded and taken over by white Portuguese. Some black slaves arrived from Africa but some came there who were slaves by in Portugal. In spite of efforts to force out of existence the gods worshipped in Africa, the gods came with the slaves. The slaves and later freed descendants Christian names to the African gods everything was OK. The new Christian "saints" loved the music and mythology from Africa. It's all still there in Brazil. Christianity, being a religion of the hustle, adapted to the market by endorsing the new gods from Africa and the music these gods liked. Many of them became saints. Why not? In Brazil there have always been and remain today Christian wagging their fingers at this adaptation. The "true faith" did not have the dancing swaying religious iconic street performers that meander down the street to music during Carnival. They shout shame on Carnival. All of this mak...

Many places on the web where the future of Christianity is discussed are on the topic of "young people returning to the faith." Is this really happening anywhere in the West? A look at all sources of this question leaves doubt there is anything other than the decades-old decline in faith across all ages and everywhere.  The flickers of optimism among the faithful seem to come from comments of clergy, on-line surveys and, perhaps, people just making stuff up. Traditional polling companies who do expenses polls do not find anything but a continuation of the downward trend. A person in the Church of England said if there was a glimmer of hope that young people were returning to the faith it would be seen across that country in their churches. There are so many churches a small number showing up would change numbers significantly. It's not there. This is following the typical pattern in the Christian right: "More women are learning they have a baby at the moment of conce...

Most know of "Pascal's Wager." It is that even if one has doubts about the faith, the price of misery in hell is great and the price of believing is small. Why not buy the insurance? The Christian author of the link reviews the creator of the comic strip, Dilbert. The creator has Dilbert running through the wager only a few days before the creator himself died of cancer. It is not known whether the creator was serious or poking fun at the Christian narrative. The link author points out going through the motions of believing merely for self-interest is not really Christianity. Neither are the various arguments that Christians are happier or more successful. Add to the self-serving that Christian societies are better ones for democracy and so on. Real Christianity, he writes, is believing the faith's god forgives sins and that he "loves" his entourage. The link author allows, however, that sometimes actual belief comes along eventually even if one begins by go...

After the "Second Vatican" council which established that mass be performed in languages other than Latin, a protest group formed. Later, the conservative Pope Benedict appeased them by seating the clergy they had "ordained" and allowing Latin mass. Now, Pope Leo has again banned Latin mass and the group is planning to "ordain" more rogue clergy. The Vatican and this rouge group is headed for another collision. The link and suggest that inside the Latin Mass advocates is a political operation that worked against Pope Francis and now Leo. One would guess that as Pope Francis began to fail their hopes were the next Pope would be another conservative like Benedict. This was never a possibility, however, because Francis only named Cardinals who were at least somewhat sane and liberal. Now, the Latin Mass group is frozen out for a couple of decades and has decided to make a fuss. Latin Mass, no women in powerful positions, no gays, no abortions and no birth con...

The newspaper, Desert News, in Salt Lake City carries a lot of baggage for the Momon denomination. Today it published a piece originating from a Christian group that claims Nones, those who poll they are of no religion, are impressed with Christianity when they are told of Christian groups helping the poor and responding to disasters. The message is Christianity will do better with the public if it shows up doing good deeds. Lots of the Protestant Christian right has argued on this site that good deeds are of no interest to God. Jesus said on the cross, "Believe in me." He didn't add, "...and do good works." The Catholic branch is big on good works. It's a toss up. That doing good works and letting the public know about them will bring reverse the decline of the faith seems doubtful. A majority of those 16 to 30 something is disgusted with the right's condemnation of gays and abortion. I can't imagine hordes of them saying, "Yes, they condemn ou...

I look for Christian nationalism to be a theme of the right during our 250th anniversary. You can count of the religious right to forget that when the nation was established slavery was legal and justified by the very Bible used today. An outrageous example of such writing showed up today by a well-known Christian figure, Tony Perkins. The Hindu religion had been in existence for many centuries when white Europeans took the Americas from those who lived here. Hindu societies were doing fine. Why then, does the Christian right think our society, democracy and sovereign country would fall in a heap if the majority was non Christian? It has not been a perfect place with Christianity, slavery being one flaw. Countries with other religions are not perfect either. Some cultures are better for the human beings that live in them than others. The religions of societies come along after the culture is there and adjusts. One of the humorous events in U.S. history was the Treaty of Tripoli. That ...