Thoughts of a Freethinker

When I was first a mayor I blind-sided by new worlds, interests people have and beliefs they carry, I did not know existed. An early one was letters from across the country telling me the meaning of certain numbers. These were people who had studied numbers all of their lives and assigned meaning to them. The Mayor's job was part time, so I was also a professor. I told one of my colleagues about this. He happened to know all about this world of people who held beliefs about numbers and explained some of it to me.  I was reminded of this experience when I read today the Shiite Muslims in Iran have declared a period of mourning over the death of their religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. The period of mourning is for a specific number of days, 40. Readers know how long it rained after Noah built his ark, 40 days and 40 nights. Remembering a little more about the Bible we recall Jesus fasted to in the wilderness, talking to God, for 40 days. Moses spent 40 days on the mountain talkin...

How many claims from the Bible can you think of that are ridiculous? My ancient brain can only keep in mind a few at one time. There is raising the dead, walking on water, loaves and fishes, water into wine, flooding the entire world, the all-knowing and many others. Some believers will say the biggest fish stories are in the Old Testament. But, no, the New Testament also has some doozies. The tall tales begin right away in the New Testament, in its first book, Mathew. My favorite passage from Mathew is about what happened when Jesus was killed. It says the earth shook. It shook so hard graves opened up and long dead people walked out of these graves. Here, the author senses any reader may have some doubts. These doubts may have been expressed when the tale was told after dark as part of evening entertainment when light, like fires, was too expensive. Perhaps a wise-acre child said, "I doubt that." The story-telling entertainer might have replied, "The formerly dead peop...

I wonder if those in the public who give money to the anti-abortion industry will ever wake up and smell the coffee. That is, will they ever come to realize the numbers of abortions is going up and the money they send to these slick prolife operators is money down the drain.  The link presents a more sophisticated appeal for money than some others. This woman admits there is no future in anti-abortion for prosecuting women for murder. She then selects parts of the Bible to point out that using the commandment, "Thou Salt Not Murder" does not apply to women who pay clinics for abortions. That anti-abortion politics is split over this is not good, she writes.  She then rifts into the vague notion that has been used by the Catholic hierarchy for many decades, "Blame the providers." Never do the Catholic officials acknowledge "the providers" are a bench so deep you cannot see the end from here. It starts with politicians. They make abortions legal. Add to that...

  According to those who follow the politics of U.S. Bishops, the elected officers continue to be anti (the late) Pope Francis. Embedded deeply this political wing is anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage. This even though Francis and now Pope Leo have moved on. These two Popes mostly have not discussed the two issues U.S. Bishops are obsessed with. In fact, Pope Francis canned an archbishop who made too much of anti-abortion. One would hope the U.S. Bishops would lead the world in enlightened and factual postures. Instead, they lean more toward the parts of the world that are most invested in discrimination while European Bishops move forward into the modern world. Pope Leo is trying to hold together these very different factions.  As time goes on, and the U. S. Bishops add more members appointed by Francis and Leo one would hope the entire enterprise would wise up, a least just a bit. Those in the pews will be unmoved for a long time but at the top we could see some progress....

In the 1980's an engraved ancient piece of stone was showed to a British anthropologist. The stone had come from the Middle East some decades before. It was carbon dated 1500 to 1700 BCE.  The stone detailed a flood story including a command from a long-age god giving orders that a boat be built that held pairs of all animals. Dimensions of the boat were detailed. This, of course, was not about Noah or the Christian God but about a more ancient society that worshipped the god popular at that time. The Noah story is one passed down from long before the Bible, even the Old Testament, was written.  As discussed here often, all humans lived by water for most of our history. Bodies of water flooded and, in dark winter caves and around summer night fires, entertainment included stories about past floods. No doubt the taler the tale, i.e., the more exaggerated the flood story, the more entertaining it was to the listeners. One would think a society like ours with a high level of lite...

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...