Thoughts of a Freethinker

I've long believed railing out against homosexuality is one of the causes for declining church membership. A survey found the states where churches successfully lobbied their state legislatures to outlaw gay marriage were the states that experienced the largest church decline. To envision how stupid it is for churches to condemn homosexuality, we first need to look at its "cause." There is no "cause." We don't know why some people are attracted to the same sex. We only know it is not their choice. Calling people with blue eyes "sinners" it would be just as ridiculous as calling gay people sinners. Second, think of the numbers. No one knows for sure the percentage of the gay population but mostly it is considered five to ten percent. Let's use the number five percent. In a church youth group of just 20 kids, there will be a gay kid. That kid will have friends. Plus, he/she will have brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, other relativ

One thing consistent about politics, it's always changing. The same is true in religion. For decades, Democrats compares the rich to the not rich. This led to support from labor and for redistribution of income. But, around the time of Reagan columnist George Will wrote that the computer gave young people the impression they themselves held the power to their economic status. Whatever lay ahead, they would master it with their newfound tool. Who wants taxes on the rich if they themselves will be rich? In his inauguration speech, President Trump said that if you felt prosperity had gone to those other than yourself he would change that. He made this point across several states in counties that had been reliably Democratic. They switched to voting for him.  He keeps making this same point over and over. One has to wonder if it will push the same emotional buttons. New buttons were available for others in the recent election. For a couple of centuries, Judaeo/Christianity has

The Catholic Church itself have never determined the percentage of gay priests. Outside groups have tried to determine it. The lowest percentage ever estimated is 15%. Other estimates are much higher. Of course, no one knows. In reality, no one should care. If priests are performing their work as required, what difference does it make whether one is gay or straight? Those defending the Catholic church often blame homosexuals for the child abuse problems. There is not a science based rational for that. I'm sure Catholic research universities would not endorse that view. From everything I read these days, there are not enough priests in the pipeline to replace the huge number approaching retirement. Some perishes do not have priests today because there are not enough of them. So, if the denomination went on a witch hunt to ferret out all gay priests, and the number was about fifteen percent, it seems it would make staffing problems even worse. There have

I read a fascinating account of a mother whose ten year old daughter asked her, "Mom, what is sin?" Theater performers had used to word in front of them and the child had been raised without religion. She did not recall hearing the word before. There must be today thousands of U.S. children being raised in homes where the word sin never comes up. Their social circles are with people who do not use the word. Most everyone reading this and myself grew up hearing the word daily. How would our lives be different if we, like the ten year old above, had never heard the word. Here is my take on how the word is used. To the groups I call fundamentalists or evangelicals, the word is used to threaten children. The mother above said she was told constantly as a child sin led to punishment from God including hell. If this is the only childhood circumstance you have ever known, you might wonder how children learn right from wrong? For that matter, how do the children's paren

Nothing is closer to religion than death. The big pitch of Christianity is that death can be defeated. Then, there is the preoccupation with some branches that the death of a one fertilized egg is more important than the death of an already born human. I think is is legitimate to gauge the sincerity of a political or religious idea by the amount of money spent on promoting it. A news release yesterday said that beginning in 2015 the average lifespan of people in the U.S. is falling. It means that about 62,000 more people a year die than before 2015. If a branch of religion is "pro life" it seems like this problem would attract dollars and attention. But, it does not. The big dollars are still attracted to fetuses. I don't recall reading of money spent by anti abortion groups promoting better health or longer lives for those already born. One result of this hang up over fetuses is that health care for pregnant women is less than it could be. I blogged a while bac

Trump and his appointees are not known for rational thinking. Rational thinking leads to conclusions they do not like. How they will escape cause and effect rational when it comes from within their own Administration is what all of us who enjoy political theater are waiting for. The bad news from climate change is a steady drip that is not stopping. From within his own administration has come a scientific report concluding that man made carbon is an important force in climate change. Melting of ice and the consequences are showing up everyday. The Republican Party and Trump have a united front about what to do: Nothing. In politics there is something called "the long view." Paraphrased, it is "We need to have a Plan B in case things turn against us."  President Trump does not have a long view. He assumes he can will people to do what he wants and everything will go his way. He had a version of long view in business. If things cost more than he wanted to pay

Someday, pundits will look back at the election of Donald Trump and provide an  explanation that makes sense as to how this strange character became President. These days there is a constant stream of analysis though I'm not sure anyone can quite get their arms around all of it. One thing to note is that religious participation is falling fastest among lower income Americans. Lower income white Americans voted for Trump in big percentages. Does this mean less religion drove political numbers to him? While we are doing arm chair speculation, it is fun to move back up the food chain. While government dollars and employees have been rising, government programs and regulations have been declining. A Presidential aspirant mentioned the other day we should return to an 80% tax on the highest incomes. I can recall a time when the tax rate on income over a high level was taxed at 90%. At that time, welfare programs were easier to obtain. Farm subsidies were larger. There were many

To a religious person both our present and future life is wrapped up in the belief there is God who determines what happens here and what happens after we are dead. The god runs everything. If there is no god, who runs all of this? What happens to life at this moment and after we are dead? The atheist just shrugs at all of this. It is self evident people can regulate themselves because that is what they have always done. Religion was introduced to justify what humans had already decided. Thus, humans have always regulated themselves and they always will. What happens after we die is also self evident. Nothing happens. We are all dead. There has never been a shred of evidence there is any "life" after we are dead. Often religious parents are distraught on the news a child has left the faith. They think the god they believe in is necessary for their child to have an afterlife. I can't begin to remember how many such parents I have known. A generation is now mov

Just because a fetus has a heartbeat a six weeks does not mean it is a "human being." That was what an Iowa State Judge correctly ruled without holding a hearing. Last year the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Iowa women have a right under the Iowa Constitution to abortions. That is why the Judge found the "heartbeat" bill passed by the Iowa Legislature and signed by its Governor without enough merit to bother holding a hearing. It goes without saying court time cannot be used up with ridiculous matters while serious matters await. The "heart beat" gambit is just another of the endless attempts by anti abortion zealots to claim a human life begins sometime before its birth. Under current U.S. law birth is the beginning. Some factions of Christianity, including Catholics, have in their dogma that a human life exists at the moment of conception. That is, one fertilized cell is a "human being." After realizing the odd notion that one fertilized ce

We can all agree most Catholic priests are fine people and not guilty of sexual abuse. What Catholics must face, however, it that their church harbors executives who are dishonest . There is an incredible story about the Argentine Bishop Zanchetta. The Pope worked with him in Argentina and they are considered friends. Around 2015 Zanchetta sent nude pictures of himself and they began circulating world wide. He also was too friendly with young seminarians and some left because of him.  Three different officials say they made formal complaints to the Vatican about Zanchetta between 2015 and 2017. Yet, in 2018, the Vatican claimed it was unaware of any complaints about Zanchetta. This might be a good time to repeat the Catholic hierarchy claims to have the sole authority handed down from Jesus to what the faith stands for. It condemns as sinners those who practice birth control, have abortions and gay sexual relationships. Handing the hierarchy this responsibility would make som

There is a march in science toward creating man-made DNA and all the human attributes that go with it. Questions are now being raised about whether or not research to create human beings artificially should be allowed to continue. Anti abortion politics has been thrown curves like this before. Human eggs are united with sperm cells in petri dishes now. The Catholic bureaucracy does not approve of this even though it bring happiness to childless couples. Only the most promising of the fertilized eggs are implanted into the woman and the others are, I assume, flushed down a stool. One can assume the proportion of Catholic couples who give birth to babies that began in a petri dish is about the same as the general population. When religious concepts try to stand in the way of practical solutions to problems religious officials go quite silent rather than carry on a fight over the ridiculous. It seems to me religious leaders would be taken more seriously if they would help provide

A former minister who left the faith and now show business star has an audience. He points out, correctly, that black people were brought here as slaves and were not Christians. Christianity was forced upon them by white slave owners. He does not think it possible that if there really is a God he would tolerate slavery. Yet, Christian slave owners used the Bible to justify both slavery and the segregation that followed. Thus, the entertainer's conclusion , "We're being lied to." In a video that has gone viral he points out Christianity was used to keep slaves quiet and obedient. There never was a god watching over slaves and taking care of them. The video comes at a moment when Indian people might be about to wonder some of the same things. Priests and preachers went about converting Native people to Christianity at a time when white people were pushing them off their land and destroying their societies. A few days ago some anti abortion teenagers in DC sponsor

I can't count the number of times I have read a Christian pundits tell the faithful how to fill their churches again. Their message is almost always the same one they have been giving for two centuries: Invite them to church, make friends with them, read passages of scripture, etc etc. Whenever I've been in a room of atheists, I never hear anyone say, "If a Christian asked me to attend their church I'd be so pleased." It seems like Christians would want to know why people have become less interested in church and adjust accordingly. That is not to say Christians never show up at atheist gatherings. We had at least a couple in Fargo. There has been one here. Those that show up do not, however, ask why we are not interested in attending their church. They show up to preach to us about the faith. We explain they can preach at our meeting if they agree we can make a presentation at their church. They immediately say that would be unfair. We need to hear about

One part of the Christian faith is fascinated with learning words used in theology. It comes up with long new words constantly that are used in place of rather simple ideas. One of these terms is "The Great Commission." So far as I know the term itself is not in the Bible but was invented by some pointy headed theologian in the 1800's. Now, it is supposed to be part of every Christian's language and purpose. But, it turns out most do not even know what it is. The term can roughly be interpreted as "Go out and make converts" or "Go out and preach the religion." Christian pundits talk all the time about the need for Christians to go around persuading the disinterested in the faith. Many said the faith's problem today is that not enough members are doing this. That the majority of Christians are not familiar with "The Great Commission" is no doubt a sign people in the pews are not interested in theological concepts. Preachers ma

All women need to know that if they become pregnant and abortion is not legal, they are at risk of being prosecuted for murder if they suffer a miscarriage. Current anti abortion politicians deny this is a threat but prosecutions of pregnant women happen even now when abortion is legal. One of my favorite organizations is a little know group that provided legal advocacy for pregnant women. Why would there need to be an organization to provide legal assistance to pregnant women you might ask? Because there are law enforcement officials who want to  arrest them. It is self evident that if abortion is murder law enforcement will be required to interview women who have miscarriages or still-born births. A missing "human being" will need to be found and identified. If there is no "body" women who have miscarriages will have to account for their crimes. Lately there has been exposure of something long known among women's groups. There is not adequate care giv

I can't vouch for its accuracy, but an article going around the web traces the history of power confined to it clergy. I had assumed it was always as it is today, with lay people frozen out of decision making. It turns out, according to this author, the power now held and guarded by clergy was amassed  methodically during the past few hundred years. In an earlier time, lay people started church enterprises and held sway over major decisions in the denomination. The clergy carefully and methodically rearranged the chairs so laity would have less and less influence and clergy more and more. In doing so, it ignored one of the powerful observations about humans: Money and power lead to a bad place. One of the brilliant observers of humans was Karl Marx. His view was the capitalists had no way to slow their greed. They would continue to take more and more from the value workers created until the workers would revolt.  While Marx's prediction of revolt never quite came to

How could it be that a few generations ago most Icelanders believed such a thing but  none do today. It seems almost impossible. Yet, Europe is headed in the same direction and, though it is hard to fathom, it could be also the case in the U.S. someday. We all know each generation brings to the culture something new. Even we who are old remember how we saw the world differently than did our parents. I was reminded of this again reading the current issue of AARP. It has a couple of great articles about Motown, the record and show business company that produced music that became famous around the world. All the performers and song writers were young black people who were from poor parts of Detroit. Only a black promoter would develop the music and acts because white companies thought there was no market among white teenagers for this music. White teenagers, however, had little interest in the race of the music and made it a huge commercial success. The promoter started Motown wi

Nothing sets off some religious pundits more than "humanism." Humanism is the belief system that tells us humans can come up with a just society without help from a god. Somehow, and it baffles me how, Christian pundits come up with the notion that we must have divine moral guidance or there will be no morals. There are so many holes in this thinking a truck could pass through. To begin with, how do we know humans have always been running things and there has never been a god giving us morals or anything else? If gods are products of human minds than morals have come from those same minds. So far as we know, gods come from human minds. If we learn otherwise some day that will change things. But that is what we know now. So where did humans get these rules commonly attributed to gods? There is only one place. Their collective experience. Every generation of humans has had to figure out, not only how to get food and shelter, but how to keep from stealing and killing ea

There is almost daily now an article by some prominent Christian giving his view on why the faith is in a slow decline. One today by a preacher laments that people are suspicious of Christianities' pitch. This, in turn, makes Christians reluctant to make their pitch. Where do the suspicions come from? We all know about the sexual abuse and the preachers who got rich off of those in the pews. Another may be related to the volume of advertising people have been exposed to. I would guess there is a collective lesson people get from so much advertising. It is that they believe less and less of it the more there is of it. Included in the great volume of advertising are claims which the public may or may not believe. There are laws against making claims extraordinarily dishonest. Automobiles cannot claim to get 500 miles to the gallon. A pill company cannot claim it kills all cancers. Religion is not subject to laws against false advertising. It can and does make claims far mo

Many religious people like to say "the faith never changes." But it changes all the time. It follows the culture around like a puppy dog. Most of us recognize politics is always changing. To some degree we have learned to expect surprises. Religion, politics and the culture are birds of a feather, constantly changing together. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination. It has been losing ten per cent of it membership annually for several years. Only a few decades ago it embraced racial segregation. Now its new young President is warning the faithful not to get comfortable in the old time religion but be ready always for change. He said this has been the faith's history. He gave as an example the first time he baptized a black person in his Southern Baptist church. Older members were comfortable with having no black people in their midst. They used the Bible to justify their dislike of black people. Today, we can guess the majority o

Archaeologists have long known of a religion practiced in South America before the Spanish conquests. It involved what we now consider bizarre human sacrifice. The Bible contains stories of human sacrifice. There is evidence the famous tribes of Southern Mexico and Central America had enough wealth to afford people who did not raise food but studied the stars. They figured out an accurate calendar. From what can be gleaned, this was all about the religion of that time. Even on this continent are some hints of religion. I visited Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. There are remains of peculiar round buildings the purpose of which seems religious but no one knows. Then, there are the remains of a long road like structure that goes on for miles. The "road" does not meander as do roads that follow original paths used by animals and people. Instead, it tracks perfectly with certain moon phases. We assume this involved some religious beliefs. The evidence we have of pre Christian

I taught at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. It remains one of the only all women institutions of higher education. Now, it is faced with defining female. What does it do about applicants who have transitioned from male to female? There have been and perhaps remain cultures in the world that are not as hung up on gender as is ours. I have read that native American cultures regarded the undefined gender people as having mysterious powers. They were treated with extraordinary respect. Christianity eventually robbed them of that cultural heritage. Stephens now admits women who have completed the transition from male to female. I assume they do not require separate bathing areas as some religious people demand. Often it is hard to fathom people who are outside the cultural box we ourselves are in. A few years ago I read a book written by the 100 year old black man. He had grown up in the segregated South. As a young man he went to Mexico. In a restaurant he was told he coul

A story in the New York Times tells of violence in India over banning of women from a temple during their years of menstruation. Girls and older women can enter, not women during their child bearing years. We could read about this in Hinduism and conclude correctly this does not happen in Christianity. But why is there any differentiation between women and men in the practice of religion? If we accept that any religion reflects the culture of the society that invented a religion, it makes sense. Men have been larger than women at least for the last few thousand years. That meant men could beat up women. This put women in an inferior status. If women could have beaten up men maybe they would have put men in a inferior status. That men were considered superior was a view assigned to invisible gods and included in religions. Prehistoric religions may have been different. Cave drawings, going back about 35,000 years before recorded history, seem to depict female god-like charact

The door has closed on a literal interpretation of Adam and Eve. Without Adam and Eve, there was no original sin. Without an original sin there is no need for forgiveness. We don't need a God to forgive our sins if we do not sin. Analysis of DNA suggests we humans carry evidence of many sources. Archaeology evidence show settlements of humans that seemed to grow and then die out. All evidence points to many sources rather than one man and one woman. The technique used in the Adam and Eve tale is an old one. It is used today. The technique is for those manipulating the public to hype up a "problem", make it seem bigger than it actually is and then present themselves as the only ones with a solution. If people realize there really is no "problem" the problem solver loses. The most bizarre "teaching" that comes out of the Adam and Eve story is that children are born sinners. This teaching is necessary for those preaching the religion to hold con

When the U.S. Bishops announced a few days ago they were going to meet for the purpose of praying about sexual abuse, I thought it might have been parody. This is what a comedian would have the Bishops doing if he was making fun of them. Of course, it is not parody. It is the Bishops taking advantage of their lofty circumstances which allow them to do nothing. Some of the victims of sexual abuse by priests stated they wished the Bishops would actually do something instead of pretending to do something by praying. This praying is in preparation of an upcoming conference where the Pope will outline the Vatican's world wide policy on sexual abuse by Catholic Clergy. We can expect two measures from the Pope and Vatican. One will be continued prayers. It is an ancient default position for all bad deeds by clergy. The other will be some bureaucratic steps aimed at preventing those prone to abuse into the priesthood and a protocol for dealing with it when it comes up. Experienc

Sexual abuse by clergy is a big story. The decline in young people's belief in the faith is declining. But underneath and almost unseen is the slow movement of the culture toward something new, different and perhaps almost foreign. How about belief in crystals ? Superman came from a crystal. Almost weekly these days there is a news story about the growth on "nones", people who do not identify with any religion. There are rebuttals to these stories by those in the faith discussing other polls which show the majority believe in some super natural being. Sometimes it is referred to as a god. This, they claim, shows an underlying faith in Christianity. I'm sure none of us can capture completely the vast variety of what people believe, but it seems to me there are trends revealed in polls that are not discussed enough. One is "new age" religious concepts. When asked questions like "Do you think astrology governs your love life?", "Do so

I suppose every religion has a version of how the universe began and how it will end. To know the truth of those matters it is best to leave religion behind and learn what scientists are saying. Science has not answered all these questions completely, but it knows a lot. Simplifying what science knows so people like me can understand it is done only occasionally. An article in Forbes attempted to do that. In my way of thinking, whatever events gave us the current universe are still, and will always be, continuing. Thus, if there was a "big bang", there were events before it. Events that followed the big bang are on going. Scientists agree the universe is expanding and one day a long time from now that will affect our local planets including earth. The Forbes article proposes some ways the universe will end. As I understand it, no one knows for certain whether gravity will pull the universe together causing crashes among its objects or gravity will weaken and send o

This year will will be no different  than previous years. Between 100 and 200 churches in the U.S. will close each week. Why is this happening? Of course, some of this is demographics and some economics. The demographics is rural to urban migration. The norm in rural areas is more religious than in urban areas. Either the most secular in rural areas move to cities or they become secular after they move. Successful urban churches do not offset the general trend of fewer believers. Then, there is the economics of a church. Many religions including Christianity have in their rituals a concept of something called a "sacred space." We call it a church and mostly it is used only for religion. This means most of it is only used a few hours a week. A commercial business building needs to generate income in a space many hours everyday. The parts of a church building used only a few hours a week, like a sanctuary, should be called "financial dead weight." We have t

The State of Delaware has introduced the opportunity for women who are trying to escape poverty long term birth control devices. It has been found these devices prevent unplanned pregnancies better than other birth control techniques. Eliminating or even reducing poverty is difficult. We all know it is complex involving mental illness, education, culture and opportunity. A big part of poverty comes from women who have unplanned children. Losing work hours and more mouths to feed are obvious barriers to being economically successful. Delaware has learned listening to poor women explain their goals is the place to start their path out of poverty. If a woman tells an interviewer she does not want to become pregnant in the coming year she is giving an implanted device that is effective for one year. Other choices are offered other birth control options. There may be other ways to reduce poverty, but reducing unplanned pregnancies is the cheapest. Taking people out of poverty bene

The genius, Bertrand Russell, provided an explanation of atheism that has never been equaled. Even though it is from the 1950's, you will often hear a version of his Celestial Teapot at lectures on atheism: Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instille

A speaker at a well known youth conference warned young people they should not go out and preach a "tainted gospel." This brings up a huge question. Which of the hundreds of versions of Christianity are "tainted" and which are not "tainted"? Whenever I see the word "Reformed" in the title of a denomination I think it could be retitled "Not Tainted Like the Other Guys." Every time a group splits off from its starting denomination we could say the same thing. At the youth conference the speaker was referring to conservative branches of the faith as "tainted." They are tainted because they exclude certain categories of people from the group and endorse practices that are bad for the environment. I happen to agree with him on the policies he is advocating. But, of course, those policies are the very ones conservative church goers call tainted. There has never been, nor will there ever be, a resolution as to which parts