Thoughts of a Freethinker

It's like the ancients who wrote the Bible were designing a video game. They said, "Wouldn't it be fun to have two freight trains with no brakes on a collision course where everyone will be killed unless one or the other group does something it thinks it can't do?" In real life, one of these trains is the human need for sex. We all know sex is needed for humans to survive. It is "natural law." The sex drive is mostly between the two sexes but it takes other forms such as homosexuality and attraction to children. There has never been a successful way to eliminate this desire for sex. It is dealt with by laws and social norms. It remains as strong in the heads of men who enter the Catholic clergy as it is in the lay community. We all know the history of clergy who have failed in celibacy. That train carrying sexual desire keeps barreling down the track. It has no brakes. Failure in celibacy will go on forever . On the other track are the rules of

Sometimes a great summary of something complex comes along. In this case it is that the Bible's only value is what it reflects about the individual who wrote. Of course, there were many unknown authors so we learn what many different people were thinking back in an ancient time. What the Bible is not is a historical record of what happened back then. There is a little information that matches non religious sources but not much. Certainly, there is no non religious source for the existence of a Jesus. This does not "prove" anything one way or another, just that the tale of a Jesus is dubious. The authors of the Bible wrote things they wanted other people at the time to read. They were trying to persuade them to think the way writers wanted them to think. Some of the writing also reflects what was on the minds of people. In the Old Testament we read people must not eat certain things together nor wear clothes made of two different fabrics. Probably these were topics

Accusers who are guilty of what they accuse others of is a sign things are falling apart. Recently, a high ranking clergy who has been a critic of Pope Francis claimed Francis had lowered a barrier so an accused Bishop could be appointed to a big position. Now, however, there is what seems to be credible evidence the accuser did the same thing. The saga goes on and on. Many who commented publicly about the Pope's recent visit to Ireland complained he did not go far enough in ridding the church of criminal molesters and of practicing homosexuals. It is understandable that rumors of all kinds must circulated within the circles of Cardinals about practicing homosexuals and about non celibate heterosexuals. Perhaps rumors are planted about Cardinals other Cardinals disagree with or do not like. If there as, say, 100 such rumors can a Pope or his staff chase down every single one of them? Think of all the priest residences where several priests live together. The church canno

In the abortion debate, so much ink is wasted telling us when, precisely, a cell or two is a "human being." We all know the arguments. A French philosopher recently wrote a short piece going more deeply into what is means to be human . In his case he was comparing a human to a human-like machine. A machine cannot, for example, aspire to be something greater than it is. A human being can do this. A human can be aware of himself and of his relationships to others. This requires a thought process of being something other than just oneself. The link does not discuss ante abortion politics but it should have. In this subset of religious politics a "human being" need not have any of the attributes that distinguish the difference between man and machine. To be a "human being" requires nothing except a few cells. How these few cells different from any other cells or from the same number of cells in an animal has never been explained. It religious zeal

The argument for capitalism has always been opportunity. That is, everyone has an opportunity to accomplish what they want and government does not hold them back. The problem with that argument comes when a majority of the public feels it is held back by capitalism itself. Capitalism is now being blamed for lack of opportunity and socialism is becoming seen as a road to opportunity. It is not difficult to see how so many, especially young people, have come to this conclusion. If you are a college age young person, the cost of college may well seem daunting. If you are a recent college graduate, you may have loan payments stretched out in front of you that make the future look dismal. When a politician promises public help no doubt it sounds attractive. We all know of people put behind the financial eight ball by health problems and the bills that go with them. When a politician promises help from the public sector the thought is no doubt, yes. With both of these groups capita

Every week or so we read about Pope Francis making another apology for misconduct of his clergy. Before Pope Francis other Popes apologized for clergy. Pope John II made at least eight major announcements of apologies. Pope Francis is on a world tour. It should be called the Pope Apology Tour. I tried to find how many speeches and press statements he has made apologizing for priests but could not find a tally. He must have issued two or three dozen public apologies. The apologies have not solved the need for them. New allegations keep coming out. I read that a group in Canada has demanded as apology for the mistreatment by Catholic Clergy of Native People there. Probably The Pope will get to that apology eventually--today he is busy apologizing in Ireland. I thought we could wager as to how many apologies for clergy Pope Francis will make during his career and add these to the apologies done by previous Popes. If we each tossed in dollar we could give all the dollars to the p

I've been doing this blog for several years and a frequent comment is, "Why do you always talk about the bad in religion when it does so much good?" Those comments, of course, refer to the hospital down the street with a denomination's name on it and many other charitable causes. My response it, why not end the harm done be religion so only those good works remain? If the harm is pointed out maybe it will end. If it is not pointed to surely it will go on forever. One of many places there is harm is that which surrounds treatment of people who take drugs such as heroin. Rhode Island is the least religious state in the U.S. measured by church membership and church attendance. Perhaps that is the reason it has the most successful treatment of prisoner incarcerated for drug violations and who are themselves addicted. These prisoners receive regular amounts of methadone, a drug that takes away the desire for heroin. Statistics show that taking methadone for quite a

Many factors have led to the dramatic decline of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Ireland is an interesting case to study because it has so firmly been under the thumb of the Catholic Church Popes have not wanted to waste their time visiting there. This is only the second visit of a sitting Pope in history. Popes often visit to build membership where they see trouble. Francis is visiting Ireland. The question is can he reverse the breath taking decline in numbers claiming to be Catholic and attending church? The Catholic church still provides most of the elementary education in Ireland. That will not change rapidly. Experience has shown, however, indoctrination of children does not necessarily lead to adults who follow in the faith. Ireland has changed rapidly from a society steeped in Catholicism to one that is pushing aggressively into the tech world and embracing secularism. It recently stunned the world by passing a measure making abortion legal. Christianity now polls as a

Today's addition of the  Irish Times  tells of a representative from the Vatican requesting that all documents from children's homes Catholics ran in 2003 be kept secret from the press and public. While the Irish official who received the request told the Vatican official to take a hike, the request itself is indicative of how far the church will go to cover up sexual crimes within its ranks. We have seen in the U.S. dishonest efforts to shield the church from lawsuits by victims of sexual abuse. Not only were there sex crimes, but adopting parents paid big fees for babies. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, New York City Diocese, was told by the court while Bishop of Milwaukee he could not hide funds in a cemetery trust fund in order to avoid having the money subject for court awarded damages from child abuse victims. This is how far the church will go to protect its wealth and wrong doing from publicity and punishment. When we think back about all the child abuse in some Pennsy

It's common in the U.S. for parents to feel they should take their children to church. That urge is present even among some parents who do not have the faith themselves. There is a view that church teaches some kind of moral values children will not get without it. Sociologists have been studying the effect of religion on people since forever. Especially they have been interested in its effect on children. It's probably good to start a discussion of this by noting there is no evidence religious adults have better moral values than those who are not religious. Religious people are over represented in prison compared to those not religious. It turns out that trying to figure out whether church helps mold children into adults with better moral standards is quite complicated. In the end, the link concludes there is no reason to believe church gives children better moral standards than no church. This information should guide both parents of others toward a more accurate

Perhaps everyone knows about the finite life of the sun. It is the same for all stars, they die. About 100 years ago  another phenomenon, expansion of the universe, was discovered. It means that travel to some other planet is all but impossible because they are all moving away from earth faster than we can reach them. I'm not able to understand people who agree with the rational view that, from what we know at this time, the earth will someday be mostly or entirely uninhabitable but think a god from somewhere else will provide them with an eternal life somewhere else. When I bring up practical arguments as to why a god will not prevent the earth from its ultimate demise they often say, "Well, here we are talking of the spiritual realm. You are unable to understand this dimension so you cannot understand that souls will live on forever in the afterlife." They are correct that I am unable to reach the spiritual realm and believe invisible beings will bring about an

A powerful piece in the New York Times  explained why it is no longer possible for men of the Catholic Church to run things as they always have. They have failed and must step aside for women and lay people. The news is full of ordinary Catholics expressing dismay over the revelations coming out of Pennsylvania. Those who have copies of the entire report say it is painful to read. The most sadistic of crimes goes unpunished and even rewarded. The reaction of the Catholic Church is much different than that of the suburban church in Chicago which was hit by a sex scandal. The Chicago church board and clergy all resigned. A variation of that did happen in the Catholic church of Argentina where all Bishops resigned and are now being vetted for return to posts. In the Catholic church there has been no widespread reform, only moving the figures around the chess board. It is said there is no possible way women could be given clergy status in the Catholic Church. One suggestion was t

The fear of death has been around maybe since the beginning of humans. Centuries before the idea of Judaism or Christianity was invented Egyptians invented a way of believing they could defeat death. Bodies were entombed with food and items the living believed would be needed in the afterlife. The technique of playing with the minds of others to make them believe they need not die in order to get their money or allegiance has been going on forever. We've had the Egyptians, the Jews, and Christians and in recent years a group called Heaven's Gate. When you think about it, it's a no lose idea. No one knows you have made a phony promise. The only reason I would want to live for hundreds of more years is to see what the next religion will promise. Right now we have traditional Christians offering life after death. Then, to one up them, prosperity gospel Christians are offering both life after death plus big money while on earth. It will take some creative thinking to of

Some months ago I wrote about the protests of professional football players who went to one knee instead of standing during the national anthem. We all know by now they were protesting what they believe to be mistreatment of black people by police in several cities. I said at the time this opportunity to protest was created by those showmen who owned the football franchises. They wanted the National Anthem ritual to establish football as an American sport and that somehow watching it was good citizenship. If owners did not want players using it for their own purposes owners could simply stop the practice of playing it before their games. As television viewing of all kinds has fallen, so has viewing of professional football games. Loss of viewers reduces advertising revenue. The sport's popularity also has been hurt, so I've read, by the frequent head injury of players. Now ESPN has read my blog and is acting on my advice. It will no longer give camera coverage to the

The most important whistle blower of sex abuse among Catholic clergy died recently at the age of 85. He correctly predicted back in the early 2000's that about 6% of Catholic clergy practiced some kind of sexual abuse. Further, he said, the dishonesty about sexual abstinence contributed to the dishonesty about pedophilia. According to the link, the priest took confession from other priests and was astounded by how many were not celibate. When, several years later, he left the priesthood and married he began doing research on the frequency of priests living double lives. Experience has shown his predictions of child abuse charges were accurate. His view was that child abuse became too common because of cheating on celibacy. He thought the common practice of dishonesty on celibacy put in place a culture of dishonesty that spread into child abuse and then to hiding of child abuse by Bishops. Linking child abuse to cheating on celibacy is his own opinion and not a fact. However,

A company which insures churches against losses from fraud has reported a continual growth of six percent per year. Every issue of the newsletter from the  Freedom From Religion Foundation lists the new cases of fraud. I will be the first to agree that fraud is found in every industry and may be no more or less present than it is in churches. Like with sexual predators in the clergy, the issue with churches is they lay claim to more moral authority than the rest of society. How many times has it been said here that atheism has no moral base while Christianity does? If Christianity has moral authority it would be nice to see it displayed more often. Unfortunately, those who are members of churches need to make the assumption their favorite institution has bad people in it. A second adult needs to be present in most circumstances where there are children. Checks need to be signed by two people and boards of directors need to personally hold bank statements in their hands. On to

Sitting in a comfortable arm chair, I find it interesting to contemplate a dismal future. It is a dismal future only in that it is our real future. How many societies or groups have survived since people similar to humans existed? The answer is almost none . The link speculated on how many human survivors it would take to repopulate the world after a disaster wiped out most of us. People at least similar to humans have been around for a brief period in the life of planet earth. Earth is millions of years old, humans have been here only 200,000 to 300,000 years. During those 200,000 plus years, some societies grew to dominate others than were destroyed by yet stronger groups or wiped out by climate or disease. Each time some humans survived and history moved along. If we take our own mindset and project it backwards in time, we can imagine what each of the dominant groups thought about themselves. "We are a superior people. We are invincible. All others are less than us

All of us, that is people of all religions and races, think of ourselves as the most important beings on our planet earth. The Bible tells us everything else on the planet is ours to enjoy. As our knowledge of all things scientific increases some sobering information comes along. Satellite images have measured what covers and constitutes the earth. It's not necessarily a surprise but plant life dominates Mother Earth. I think it is helpful to add another dimension to plant life: We would all be dead without plant life. Our ability to live on this planet is not due to a god, capitalism, democracy or our Constitution. For people who like gods, maybe we could consider plants to be a god of some kind that we are dependent upon. Then we would treat the earth, water and air the plants need with more respect. Cave drawings from 40,000 years ago hint that people at that time saw animals as their gods. The latest Atlantic Monthly  has a long article about a dispute over what ha

I discuss this question often here. It is important because the well funded anti abortion political operation says over and over that the abortion procedure is not safe. That is a flat out lie. It is more dangerous to give birth than to have an abortion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists pregnancy as the sixth leading cause of death for women ages 20-34. It is more deadly than flu, pneumonia or diabetes in this group. It is not necessary for there to be this many deaths related to pregnancy. One of the problems is that doctors and hospitals, like anti abortionists, do not place as high a priority on women's health as they do other health issues. The majority of hospitals do not report the steps in place for birth safety and do not want to discuss them. Anti abortion advocates do not want to discuss the hazards of pregnancy. This is consistent with the entire thrust of anti abortion politics. It has never paid attention to what women want to accomplish i

Understanding why anyone holds religious convictions is hard for some of us. Since I grew up as a practicing Christian I understand somewhat people who follow that faith. We know people in other cultures think Christianity is a fake religion. One thing that is not hard to see, at least for an outsider, is that all faiths basically are the same. All believe their faith is the absolute truth and that all others are fake or false. All feel close to their god and believe those who feel close to another god do so because they are being tricked or are gullible. In Christianity there are many factions who look down with disgust on other factions. We have lots of reinforcement in the U.S. on our narrow Christian focus. Each year, for example, the press dutifully covers anti abortion events. The press does not include a disclaimer that anti abortion participants believe the fertilized egg is a human being even though there is no reason, other than religion, to believe such a thing. Ch

A couple of years ago a Christian made a list of phrases that he never says to non believers. It is quite entertaining. The problem is Christians are taught to say these things even though they should not. I'll discuss a few of them. One of the ones most used on me is,  Do you know you will die and spend eternity in hell?  I know I will die, but neither you nor I know anyone who came back and told us of eternity in either hell nor heaven. Another is, Have you asked Jesus into your heart?  This is an extremely off putting question. If Jesus does not exist there is no way for anyone, Christian or not, to engage with him. Certainly if Jesus is something from the imagination it is possible. But, if the imagination does not generate a Jesus than there will be no Jesus. A part of Christian theology is contained in the phrase, Jesus died for your sins.   The first problem we run into here is that there is no much agreement on what is or is not a sin. Sins come and go depending on w

The recent disciplinary action against a famous Cardinal for abuse of children and his seminarians has generated a lot of discussion. An article written by a Jesuit priest about why priests don't turn in other priests was insightful. To begin with, we have to remember abuse and not reporting abuse happens in all kinds of institutions. Penn State, for example, was on the front pages for years. There is a current bit case of sexual harassment in Protestant Chicago area mega church. The link discusses what we have all experienced working for an institution or even being a member of a family. We feel we want that institution to do well. If one is being abused he/she realizes the institution will be harmed if the whistle is blown. Clergy, especially priests, make a big commitment when they go into the group and if it fails their own investment in it fails as well. Most victims have learned the hard way the abusers are clever people and know how to make others doubt an allegati

Anti abortion protesters perform political theater by pretending to pray and complaining that a  fertilized human egg is a "baby" or a "human being." You will see this almost exclusively at women's clinics. There are other places fertilized cells are destroyed but protesters are not there. I'll explain why. There are about one million frozen "human beings" stored in businesses that keep these embryos because couples might want one or two later. Some of these couples get divorced or die. During the divorce proceedings, the logical question comes up, "How owns this embryo? If is implanted back into a woman, who is financially responsible if a child is born?" Since the father most often makes money more than the mother, men are often awarded custody of the cells. Often the men want them destroyed rather than pay two decades of child support should a fetus becomes a baby. Judges regularly allow them to be destroyed. Protesters, so far

In case you were wondering what heaven will be like, there are many experts. Each is an expert about heaven but tells us something  different. I could refer to myself as an expert about heaven as well. I know nothing about it. That is exactly as much as those who tell us tales of what heaven is or is not. There seem to be more modern preachers telling us today that heaven is not a place we go to when we die but is here on earth. I'm not interested enough to learn why they say this but I like people who do not make up other places and see that where we are is the only place we will ever be. If you were determined to control a group of people you might come up with the same game those who wrote the Bible used back then. It is still being used today. First, make up some reward that cannot be seen nor has ever been experienced by anyone. Convince those you want to control it exists. Then, tell the gullible schmucks the only way to get to the reward is to go through you.

It's not a mainstream story yet, but there seems to be growing tolerance, even enthusiasm, for socialism in the U.S. An argument can be made it has been caused by capitalism. Capitalism is blamed for interest in socialism when it drives a class of people to the point where they started shopping for something different. Maybe they start shopping for new political representation or maybe for an entirely new economic system. If they conclude their fortunes will be better, or cannot be worse, their minds open up to something new. More than once in history people have started down a path of a new economic system. Once it was recognized society was moving toward something new the political parts of societies quickly moved the accommodate the public. Karl Marx of the mid 1800's has been called one of the most influential people in the world. He recognized the power the working class could have on European politics if it became a class alienated from the rest of society. In h

I'm surprised at times when I learn something I always thought to be true turns out not to be true. Here are some statements many believe to be true which are not: 1. If the Supreme Court reverses Roe v Wade there will be fewer abortions. Evidence from before Roe and from countries where abortion has been made illegal tell us the number of abortions continue as they were before. The number of abortions in the U.S. has been falling due to better birth control. 2. The U.S. was founded as a Christian Nation. Those who wrote the Constitution met in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787.  While there, they voted against starting each day of deliberations with a prayer. They knew how to write Christianity into the Constitution because some of the existing states had it in theirs. They didn't do it. Some of those who most aggressively argued against putting Christianity into the document later hinted Christianity was in it when they later they were rounding up votes for r

Attorney General Jeff Sessions launched the Religious Liberty Task Force in an effort to strengthen the hand of conservative Christianity and weaken the rights of everyone else. Anyone who reads the Constitution knows this. Those who support such Christian shenanigans have to know they are being dishonest. The ongoing ploy to redefine religious freedom is a means to provide privilege to one particular sect of Christianity and to force government to sanction discrimination on their behalf. If asked, "Do you support class discrimination?" a member of the religious right would answer, "No. I merely want the right to discriminated against those I dislike." And here I thought the civil rights movement, abolishing slavery and segregation, decided religious views against blacks do not trump the rights of black people to full citizenship. As the link explains,  Carefully orchestrated language perpetuates the notion that someone's religious freedom cannot be limi

In my long life (I'm ancient) I cannot recall a time when there was so much discussion in the popular press about metal traits of people. Sometimes this is called mental health but I think it is more accurate to call it mental or personality quirks. We all know some of this interest comes from our President who daily exhibits quirks and behaviors mostly not seen in our circle of family and friends. The President's personality traits and quirks remind me of a handful of similar people I have known, both alive and now dead. It is dicey to talk about the personality faults of others. I'm not trained. In addition, I'm not without faults and can use some improvement. The link from Scientific American  opens the door to some elementary understanding of what is called "dark" personality traits. There have been attempts to detect the presence and extent of the "D-factor". This is about what we often call severe ego, self centeredness or an old term

One of Christianity's successful traits is it's ability to persuade people they can get something for nothing. The most common is the promise of a life after one is dead. There is no reason to believe the afterlife exists but it continues to sell well. Coming in a strong second is the reward of prosperity. There is no reason to believe this either but among evangelicals over 40% believe they will be rewarded financially by believing. Last week I camped under my airplane wing as I do every year. My long time friend, another retired professor, and I spend hours talking philosophy and politics. He was a Bernie supporter and asked why I was for Hillary. I explained I did not like Bernie's strategy. He promised things like free college tuition. In my view, Trump would have counted that with "promise" of free tuition plus free beer and Bernie would have lost. Christianity has the same problem as Bernie. One group says, "You are living miserable lives as s

The link lists ten churches where God is not present. Actually, it is not a very good list because it includes a couple of parodies. There are many religions that continue to do well in the U.S. that do not include the Christian God. The list is interesting to me because it includes worship of contemporary sports and show business personalities. If you go to Graceland you can witness teary-eyed people still putting flowers of the grave of Elvis. I've always thought if some new religion would come along and sweep away millions of people and it would be based on a celebrity who grew into something mythical. That is exactly what happened with Christianity. I'm trying to remember non Christian religious movements that I myself came into contact with. One was followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Several famous people went to hear him including the Beatles who followed him to India. He was an advocate of transcendental meditation (TM). I remember being at a Fargo City Commissi