Thoughts of a Freethinker

  Along with friends in Red River Freethinkers, I spent several years trying to move a stone engraved version of the Ten Commandments off City of Fargo (ND) property. My wife, Elaine, and I put not only time but a considerable amount of money into the effort. While we were unsuccessful and the stone still stands there, it was an interesting experience and provided a life-long thread of events I still follow. One was an article published recently by a law professor at the Christian university, Liberty. To my amateur eyes it seems like a balanced view of the history and current status of displaying the Ten Commandments on public property.   These Ten Commandment display go back mostly to the 1950's. There was sort of an irony of history that Cecil B. Demill was promoting his movie, "Ten Commandments" at the same time a judge in Minneapolis concluded that children behaved better if the Ten Commandments are displayed in their homes. The result was stones being installed on pu...

In 2002 a Canadian writer regarded as an authority in religion predicted a religious revival would sweep through Canada. Instead, religion went into a nose-dive and has never recovered. Canada is ahead of the U.S.in the decline of religion but the U.S. is headed in the same direction.   The reason for the projected increase in the faith numbers made back in 2002 was, "There is a longing out there which can only be satisfied by engaging the faith." It turned out the "longing" was not there of if it was it was satisfied with something else. What's ironic is that one can read the identical words written about the U.S. today on religious sites. It is said there is longing in today's society which will be satisfied by large numbers coming back the church.  I suppose this comes from testimony of people who join or return to the faith. That some people claim the need experienced by recent converts can be assigned to the broader society. The facts are there is no ...

When Mitt Romney ran against Obama, Republican polling told Romney just before election day he would win. Election night he watched the returns in black districts in Ohio. He knew he was defeated. Republican polls had treated black voter turnout as average. A large black turnout turned the tide in states Romney needed. I don't understand why the turnout of black voters varies. We do know voter turnout varies among all groups. Logic would tell us, and voter drive activity reinforces, the prediction there will be a large black turnout in the coming election. It will be for Democrats but more meaningfully a vote against Trump and Republicans. The link explains the gradiences of various groups. One I had not thought of is the thousands of people laid off from Federal jobs. A disproportionate number of these are black voters. They are the kind of people knowledgeable about elections and the organizing that precedes them.  Our effort to understand electoral politics is helped by the 2024...

All of us learn over the course of our lives that some things we were taught earlier turn out not to be true. Sometimes it was "history" that was incorrect but passed down with good intentions. Sometimes it was myth. And sometimes the myths were passed down with bad intentions, such as the desire to control or take advantage of others including ourselves.  The passage of time has put the Bible on the defensive. While a few today treat it in its entirety as "true", the more common approach in Christianity is to select certain parts, treat those as true and powerful, and disregard other parts as myth. When trying to convince others of the Bible's importance the marketer has to convince the customer that not only is the favorite part "true" but the speaker, writer or preacher is the one that knows and can separate the chaff from the wheat.  Gambling can teach us about the probability of "truth." If you flip a coin and guess "heads" you...

Trump and company has been lampooning environmental rules and ridiculing concerns. The longer this goes on, and we're still here, it's easy to imagine there are no consequences. An end to our current standard of living is out there. Some scientists are still talking about it. The link calculates known resources and our rate of using them. The conclusion is the earth needs to cut its population by billions in order to shoe-horn back into the available resources. When I have brought up the need to reduce the earth's population before skeptics always say dire predictions of the past have never materialized. It is, of course, impossible to predict exactly when and how environmental damage will take its toll. It is not hard to realize the problem is out there. Rational people will see the need to adjust.  One simple way to see the problem is to recognize our food production depends on artificial fertilizers. We can produce food without it. We just cannot produce as much. In ingr...

Growing up in a tiny rural community we all knew the serious sins. The Sin Leader Board, as I remember, was beer, doing work in farm fields on Sunday, dancing and playing cards with clubs and spades. Probably it was not a place good for mental health. There was right there in the Bible a sin no one mentioned.  A recent article in Christianity Today reminds us the Bible's Sin Leader Board has near the top the sin of "usury." I don't have a subscription so a pay wall keeps me from reading the entire article. I think I know what it says, however. The conventional wisdom within the faith today is that "usury" refers to charging unfair or extraordinary interest. It is to take advantage of the borrower. "Reasonable interest" is OK. That is not how the Bible passages were interpreted during much of the time since its existence. Interest was bring in money for no labor. Nothing was produced, why should anyone be paid? There have been times and places in hi...