Thoughts of a Freethinker

There is a rule in the affairs of nations (well not a rule actually, I just made it up) that when religion and politics conflict with each other, no one can predict the outcome. That conflict is going on, not only in the U.S., in many places around the world. One is China. A story about a Christian preacher, a Chinese citizen, who is in jail for preaching Christianity is a case in point.  Catholics wanted bishops in China appointed the same way they are appointed everywhere else in the world. That is by the Pope and Vatican. The Chinese government decided the majority of Bishops in the Chinese Catholic Church would be appointed by the ruling government. Bishops need to be loyal supporters of the People's Party. It's obvious that if Christian numbers do rise in China it will be a version of the faith different from that in other areas of the world. Add to that a world-wide loss of interest by people under 25 years of age and we have the Great Wall stopping large growth of Christ...

I was surprised at a preacher's post on a conservative Christian post. He lamented about the modern view of God that he feels many church members have. His post surprised me at how accurate he depicted the people minds who were sitting in his pews. These people, he lamented , do not see God as condemning sin nor passing judgement on the sin of church members. Then, the preacher went on to quote scripture after scripture about that wrath of God when he sees sin.  He went on to say God is not your life coach or your Bro. God is not going wink wink at your sin or that you will try to better next time. God is about hell, fire and damnation, he pointed out and Christians should not try to take that casually. What the link misses is that most of the public, including most Christians today, just cannot buy the old time religion. To today's Bible reader, the Bibe sounds like all the other sources of propaganda trying to get our money or get our vote. The laptop and the phone added to t...

Probably few readers know of Bowling Alone  by Robert Putnam. It was discussed everywhere when it was published in 2000. I seldom see it referred to today although Wikipedia says it is frequently required reading in college social science classes.  Putnam, a retired Political Science Professor at Harvard, is credited with the term "social capital." This refers to social organizations that have existed traditionally in communities large and small across the U.S. There are fewer churches, service clubs and other groups as the years have passed. Putnam had written about what he perceived to be a general decline in happiness that he attributed to the fewer opportunities to socialize or experience community. He came up with a research project to document the decline in social capital, recording the decline in the number of organizations he had assigned to it. After considerable research to document these declining numbers, which represented a rather uninteresting book of numbers, ...

I was pleased to see the Trump guy won the Republican primary for Senate in Texas. This will set up the perfect battle of ideas that should have happened decades ago but has now arrived . It is the confrontation with a student of the Bible, Democratic Talarico, against the conventional-wisdom-Bible-talker, Paxton. An atheist with a big following on Face Book complained that the Democrats should have someone with broader appeal than Talarico. Another poster on a news site said both Democrats and Republicans should not put up such extreme candidates because the public is not that polarized. Talarico was one of his examples.  I think Talarico is the perfect guy to run in a state like Texas that has voted majority right-wing for a long time. He quotes the Bible on abortion. That is, he notes the Bible does not condemn abortion. A choir of pundits and politicians say he is wrong. But I think the political effect of him saying correctly the Bible does not condemn abortion is different th...

I don't think there is any other branch of the Jewish/Christian thread that has anything like nuns. Where did the concept come from? People in the faith have their own version of history. The economist looks for an explanation that has self-interest and a source of money.  A book and movie about local Catholics in Ireland explained how a parish supported itself. Besides local tithing, the parish operated a residence for young Catholic women who were unmarried but pregnant. The nuns who worked there were recruited from local families. It was strongly suggested to local parents who had several children they send one of their daughters to the local convent to be employed at the facility for unwed pregnant women. It was clear to some of the women who spent time there these nuns were not happy being there. Some tried to transfer out.  The facility took in laundry for money. Who did the laundry work? The young pregnant women, of course. After the babies were born, the mothers took c...

I'm nearly finished with the book, The Letters of Paul in Their Roman Literary Context; Reassessing Apostolic Authorship  by Professor Nina E. Livesay. The case she makes is that there was no "Paul." Instead, there were schools or groups studying under the tutelage of wealthy and literate men in the years surrounding 200 CE. These wealthy "professors" had various views, probably often self-serving, they wanted to promote in the public of that time. They used their "schools" to teach students, from wealthy families no doubt, how to write and circulate the ideas and philosophies their wealthy "professors" were all about.  A reviewer said the case made by Professor Livesay bordered on airtight. While it destroyed the narrative of Paul walking about starting churches and sending them letters that we read today he, himself, had trouble leaving behind the romantic narrative of the traveling preacher changing the world. Professor Livesay documents t...