Thoughts of a Freethinker

I enjoy reading writing by those who claim their is reliable evidence the Bible's main character, Jesus, died for our sins and literally came back to life. The reasons they give for believing all this is historical fact are  dubious . None of those who claim the be the Biblical authors were alive at the time all of it was supposed to have happened. No one wrote, "I saw Jesus alive after he died." Paul wrote he saw Jesus but it was in a dream. He wrote others were present but none of those people ever wrote they were there and saw what Paul described. Certainly it appears a story began circulating some decades after the alleged event that Jesus came back to life. That does not mean it actually happened. Based on nonreligious sources, the entire tale of a body taken to a cave or tomb is most unlikely. Bodies of political protesters were routinely left hanging in public view for a long time as a deterrent to others. This was the same practice used in the U. S. by wh...

A well know priest in Maryland says Catholics, and all Christians I suppose, are making a mistake in the most popular format at funerals. His complaint is that funerals today discuss and celebrate the lives of the dead. The most prominent topic of a funeral, he advises, should be punishment in hell or reward in heaven. He goes on to quote Catholic doctrine with makes it clear right after death each person is confronted with judgment and is sent off to one of the two. If Catholic, and much of Protestant, doctrine is punishment or reward in a life after one dies why has it become out of style to discuss it at funerals? Could it be the literal heaven and hell are not discussed so much today because people think it is nuts? Maybe because no one has ever come up with a convincing way to show there is a literal heaven and hell so it is wise not to bring it up? I have not heard a preacher talk in this way for years: Grandpa is dead but we don't know if he is in heaven or hell. W...

Watching a magician's show is seeing what we believe to be real but what is not . Nonbelievers see religious people as believing something is real which is not. Religious people see nonreligious as having disabilities because they cannot sense the presence of something the the religious know to be real, the god. In Christianity there is even a diagnosis for those who cannot sense the presence of an invisible being, nonbelievers suffer from a "hardened heart." In an article a magician tried to understand why people think that when he tosses and catches a ball two times, people believe he tosses it a third time when he does not. He thinks that because his eyes pretend to follow the ball upwards and he produces the ball which he has hidden in another hand under a table people believe they saw it tossed in the air. In the Old Testament it was promised God would send a person who would free the Jews from domination by the Roman Empire. Several Jews went about the countr...

So far as I know, every religion has a myth that explains "where we came from." Everyone of them is different. A priest friend told me once, "Every good religion is organized from beginning to end." He was criticizing Islam which he thought was incomplete in this way. He was, in turn, proud of how the Catholic branch had explanations for most everything. These explanations, of course, were made up by Catholic clergy. In Exodus it is claimed God created the earth, its animals and man. The religious writing which makes these claims started between two and five thousand years ago. Human-like creatures have existed for two hundred thousand years. If man is the master of all the earth why did creatures other than man run the earth for 500 million years before there were humans? Of all the reasons not to be religious this is one of the best. Man has ruled beasts for only a tiny period of the universe's existence. The new items found from the time before hum...

What human beings do inside their heads is a topic that will never be answered completely but will be studied forever. Religion is much about the insides of peoples' heads, but so is my field, economics. Most of the time, economics is regarded as folly by the general public and those Ph D's in the field are paid only nominally. But, there are times when economists are placed in the highest of posts. Such a moment is now. I read recently that Amazon has hired over 150 economists. That is the second largest number in any institution behind the Federal Reserve. They were hired by Amazon, not to assess interest rates or inflation, but to get inside peoples' heads. Amazon wants to know why people buy things and how much they will pay. The success of Amazon speaks well for the advice it received from its economists. Macro economics, the big picture of unemployment, interest rates and inflation is what the famous John Maynard Keynes worked with. Micro economics, why peo...

Some years ago when I began blogging a reader warned me I was close to committing "blasphemy." I did not know what he meant. The word is common but I had never paid any attention to what it referred to. Looking it up I learned it referred to specific scripture like Matthew 12:31-32 which says (paraphrased) "...all kinds of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven except one. That is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. That will not be forgiven in this life nor in the life after death." This idea is genius in the realm of controlling people. If authorities who make up this writing are the ones who design a fictional "Holy Ghost" they are also in a position to define what constitutes "blasphemy." Authorities are playing with the minds of people who believe such ideas. The idea of blasphemy reaches even deeper. Blasphemy which can be forgiven requires going to other unseen and unknown beings and begging. This concept, blasphemy, is a tool of oppress...

One of the reasons anti abortion advocates are trying to pass "heartbeat" bills is because they have run out of silly restrictions to make abortions more difficult. They need to keep legislation coming to keep their cash flow solid. Now there is only one choice left, eliminate abortions entirely. That is what the "heartbeat" bills do. Heartbeat legislation makes  abortion not legal. It's as simple as that. Roe v Wade made abortion legal. This is an effort to make it not legal. Anti abortion operatives have tried everything else. They have persuaded legislators to pass bills requiring women to view the fetus on a screen, required waiting periods, required doctors to have emergency arrangements, required women know of other options, held state wide votes and forced women to hear anti abortion propaganda. All of these ridiculous measures did not move the needle against abortion. Now they have no options left but to overturn Roe. They are going for broke. ...

Once in a while at gatherings of atheists the question of parents and grandparents comes up. If the older generation still worships is it always wise to tell them you are unable to believe in supernatural beings? Of course, the same problem comes up when parents/grandparents are atheists and children become believers. When I first started hearing about such dilemmas was during years working with gay people and parents of gay children. There were both tragic and beautiful stories--perhaps more of the tragic. Things become even more complicated when one suspects half of the parents/grandparents don't agree with each other. Reading columnists on this topic does not give us a clear cut answer applicable in all situations. Sometimes being truthful will cause a parent/grandparent to be so distraught it may not be wise to do so. When one has a preoccupation with the afterlife and worries to the extreme about a loved one's fate after death perhaps misleading an older generati...

To some Christians, we are here on earth only temporarily. The real point of living is to die and reap a big reward for a brief life. There is no responsibility to preserve the earth for a far off in time future. Atheists have never seen evidence of a life after death. The only life they know about is in the here and now. They know the success of those who follow requires those of now must practice of good stewardship of Mother Earth. This is why it is so dishonest of Christians like Ray Comfort to accuse atheists of having no moral standard. In fact, he says , this absence of a moral standard is why atheism is growing and Christianity is not. Being free from any moral constraints, Comfort believes, makes atheism more attractive than Christianity. To me, it seems Christianity opens the door to no responsibility. Since the world is here only until the return of Jesus there is no need to act responsibly. The Christian idea is to party one's life away and take no responsibil...

Many years ago when I was a Mayor, local members of the Unification Church would stop in to visit. Mostly, it seemed, they had been instructed to call on the local Mayor. I assumed they would record they had visited me in a monthly report. They needed to stay on good terms with local authorities so they could sell flowers on street corners. That denomination, founded by Korean Rev. Moon, was financially very successful. He once preached in Fargo. Rev. Moon died in 2010. Since then something very familiar has been taking place. First, the question of who was to receive and manage the many millions of dollars of assets. As I understand it, his wife and two sons are fighting among themselves for control of the money. Related to the question of money is the religious dogma of Rev. Moon. What were the founding religious tenet of the denomination? The two questions are intertwined because a judge has decided the money belongs to the faith founded by Moon and which ever of the three is ...

I've been waiting for someone to study this for years. Now a study has confirmed what atheists have been saying since day one: There are moral codes that are universal , across many if not all cultures and across the religions these cultures develop.

A new Bible aimed at the digital age is selling well. It is made for speed reading and heavily enhanced with pictures. When you think about the role of pictures in today's internet communications a Bible which tells the story heavily laced with pictures makes sense. This may be the future of Christianity. I have not seen the product but from what I read the pictures are not of a god or a king but are mood pictures, pictures that create an emotional backdrop for the story. It's interesting to think of how different the Bible is from the world of Tweets. Tweets are but a few pithy words. Other social media are almost no words at all but just pictures. The Bible, of course, is a slow moving book translated from other languages and written by ancient authors. Making the Bible into a Tweet vehicle or something resembling social media pictures is on its way. If the Bible becomes fewer words and more pictures will it be honest to say, "I read the Bible." I would sa...

I've been reading a great book about Benjamin Rush ( Rush, by Stephen Fried), a lesser known figure during the founding of the United States. Rush was a physician but was a prolific writer and influential in politics. An important part of his thinking was that humans had the ability to organize themselves and conduct their collective selves in ways that would be successful. While he was a Christian and assumed that all religions, not only Christianity, contributed something to the lives of humans he did not seem to think Christianity was the guiding force for a sound society: I am not so sanguine as to suppose..it is possible for man to acquire so much perfection from science, religion, liberty and good government as to cease to be mortal; but I am fully persuaded the from the combined actions of causes, which operate at one upon reason, the blood and the heart, it is possible to produce such a change in the moral character of man, as shall raise him to a resemblance of ange...

According to the NY Times, gay priests fear a purge of gay priests. They fear because it might promote the unfounded myth that gay priests are the child abusing priests. This has been thoroughly debunked. The real problem in the priest community, many believe, is the lofty pedestal clergy placed themselves on. Apparently, the independent and powerful aspects of Catholic clergy did not arrive in the church until a few hundred years ago. Before that time, lay people held power over the direction of the denomination. Now, clergy tell lay people that it is they who have a back channel to Jesus and are the only ones authorized to interpret what the faith stands for. This was a clever move by clergy way back when and has rewarded them with extraordinary powers. Back then there was no need to know there were gay priests or that gay people would be accepted by societies around the world. Catholic clergy were very naive when they came up with rules like divorced people cannot marry ag...

How much can male politicians and clergy manage the lives of women? Only so far we have learned in Ireland. Women voters were prominent in a nation-wide vote to legalize abortion in that country which has a history Catholic clergy dominating its politics. The margin to legalize surprised even advocates. Now the rules for providing abortions are being written by the government which provides the services. The first question is how much women will be charged. An abortion is free . Women will have to pay the same share of medicines as is required for other purposes. Ireland is perhaps to most stunning turnaround of abortion rights since Roe v Wade in the U.S. Yet, religious people in positions of authority are trying to block what voters approved at every turn. Already there have been efforts to exempt doctors of certain religious persuasions from being required to perform abortions. Various bureaucratic maneuvers have been attempted at every turn. Catholic clergy have repeated o...

An article a while back questioned use of tax or donor dollars at universities to teach about one particular god. Where would this topic come up? While individual professors in many disciplines may mention their religious beliefs or lack of them, a department of religious studies is where we would most likely find exposure to professors' beliefs or lack of same. Here is where an irony come up. Over and over one can read about how universities are packed with godless liberal professors. But in departments of religion the majority professors believe in the existence of the Christian god. The one atheist professor I know published a paper a few years ago outlining how unusual he is in such a department. Professors who are believers stand a good chance to profit from their beliefs. There are several wealthy individuals and groups who fund various chairs and studies. They are usually believers who are looking to validate something they are interested in. Professors known to be ...

After all the recent Catholic clergy sex scandals, Gallop did a poll of 500 randomly selected Catholics. It showed a 15% increase in the number who now contemplate leaving their church. This does not mean they will and other polls may show something different. What we know is there remains a decline in the number of Christians. We all know the is something called peer pressure. We know it influences us in many ways. In all the studies about religious beliefs and church membership I've not seen one that considers how much peer pressure has changed our interest in religion. My suspicion is that larger and larger churches have reduced peer pressure to believe in Christianity and to attend church. Both the Protestant and Catholic branches have had to consolidate into larger churches abandoning smaller ones. The smaller churches were and remain in both rural areas and in urban neighborhoods. When one sees the same people in church he/she waves at when a car goes by, sees in th...

The State of Iowa's Supreme Court told the State's health insurance group it must pay for transgender surgeries. The State of Iowa falsely claimed it did not cover surgeries done for psychological needs. On the face of it, the decision by Iowa's Health insurance group looks more political and religious than it does fiscal. While a transgender surgery is quite expensive, there are very few of them. The State claimed even after the decision that it does not pay for psychologically motivated surgeries. It has, however, funded disfigurement surgery and similar problems where people were psychologically disabled because of their appearance. That is one of the reasons the court forced the state to pay for gender-related surgeries. In addition, the state's surgery guidelines specifically mentioned it prohibition of trans gender surgery. Judges said this itself was an act of discrimination. One of the groups petitioning the court to not approve of trans gender surger...

The church I grew up in treated alcohol consumption as a serious sin. I never looked into where that came from but it was a serious issue. Gossip around the community told us of various people who were seen in taverns around the area. In church, it was said the word "wine" referred to a non alcoholic fruit drink. No one mentioned references in the Bible to beer. I've read there are several dozen references to beer. Alcoholic beverages were essential because the alcohol killed the bacteria that was in water. Today scientists are trying to figure out where the strain of yeast used in beer came from. It was different than the one used for other alcoholic beverages. It appears there was considerable sophistication about yeasts--which ones worked best for this purpose or that. From what evidence there is, it seems the yeasts traveled along the popular trade routes like spices and precious stones and metals. We all know about the Silk Road. It was only one of many rout...

The parents of a child applied to enroll in a Catholic school. The child was rejected . There was nothing wrong with the child. It was because the parents were of the same sex. Somehow, it was the child's fault its parents are gay and the child needed to be punished. Many parents in the school are angry at the Bishop who runs it. In addition, parents in other Catholic schools signed a protest petition. There is no universal Catholic rule that children of gay parents cannot attend Catholic schools. It is a rule in individual dioceses run by closed minded clergy. This diocese is in the Kansas City, Kansas metro area. As some of the protesting parents have pointed out, there are children in that school who's parents are divorced and remarried without annulments. By Catholic definition these parents are "living in sin." Why are children parented by one sin excluded while another sin is welcome? The answer can only be prejudice by clergy whose heads are still in t...

I predict there will be no end to standards bent because of "religious liberty." Lots of benefits and services conservative Christians want will not be available because they themselves insisted on being about to discriminate. They advocate pharmacists need not fill birth control prescriptions and doctors should be able to refuse to perform certain patient care because it violates their religious beliefs. The ultimate hypothetical result would be a hospital owned by satanists that refuses to treat Christians. The particular story I was referring to was not about health care but about something that does not seem very important at all. It is about a "born-again Christian" firefighter who says Jesus wants him to wear a beard in a city which requires male firefighters to be clean shaven--no beards. I don't know of any safety requirement that is compromised with beards but there might be some. (Firefighters now wear equipment that allows them to enter burning...

This is just my own theory. You may have a different one. I've been reading about discovery of a Mayan cave in the Yucatan. In it are 1,000 year old items that are perfectly preserved. By the art on the plates and tools it is thought to have been a site where the Mayans worshiped the Jaguar God. Gods who lived in animals was depicted many times in cave art dated to 40,000 years ago. Some North American native beliefs include spiritual worship of animals. It makes sense that if animals were both dangerous and were needed for food they might be the center of thought and imagination. From cave it appears early humans believed animals held secrets. In addition, women held secret powers which resulted in babies. Some cave drawing are creatures half animal and half woman, versions of mermaids. I watched a documentary some years ago in which an native of Alaska explained the spirits contained in the animals such as seals that they ate. The seals needed spiritual powers to repro...

Among the never ending stream of pundits trying to figure out why Trump won and is still supported by many evangelicals is an article written by a young professor at Pat Robertson's Regent University. He explains why certain kinds of religious people were and remain fearful of changes coming at them. The thing that makes the link between religion and Trump a little difficult to establish is that his Christian supporters were strongest among those claiming Christian credentials but who were not regular attendees at church. Support was not as strong among church-attending Christians. One way support for Trump is explained is through class economics. Women and people of color have been more successful than rural white Americans. When Trump began insulting those in power those who felt left behind saw him as speaking for them. The religious angle came into play because Christians has seen decades where their influence was rising. One President after another paid homage with ...

So many characteristics of our society are caused ultimately by demographics. These include politics, religion and wealth. Various church groups from Catholic to Pentecostal now depend on a high birth rate among Hispanics for maintaining numbers. The Democratic Party also needs them. But, the number of births per 1,000 women has dropped almost overnight. Women are delaying marriage and children just as their white counterparts have done the last few decades. In the article about this, young Hispanic women were asked about their plans for marriage and children. They said they wanted to wait until their 30's so they could first get their careers established. Their parents encouraged them is such planning saying they wanted a better life for their daughters than they themselves have had. It has been said by those who don't like Muslim people that the number of children of parents in that faith are much larger. This is an indication that religion will one day dominate othe...

Just when you think sin is at its funniest, someone comes up with an even better one. We know the Catholic church will not allow those remarried without cancellation, called annulment, to be members in good standing. The Archbishop of Philadelphia expressed his new "liberal" policy that gay people can live together--it's ok as long as there is no sex. Now, he has extended that peculiar reasoning to heterosexual couples marrying new partners after a divorce. They can marry but no sex. It's almost as if the Archbishop is doing religious parody. The Pope should order Bishops to no longer express Catholic views that the rest of society finds bizarre. He could explain that even though this is church doctrine, there is no good reason to bring it to the attention of the public. The strange practice of marriage annulment needs to be put under wraps also. Maybe a "Certificate of  Annulment" could be slipped into a file without anyone outside the clergy know...

It's almost humorous that there are still digs going on trying to d iscover artifacts that might historically validate claims from the Bible. Since the stories that gave rise to theories the artifacts exist are most likely fiction, the existence of the artifacts themselves is most likely fiction as well. One of the artifacts that some think can be found is the "Holy Grail". This is the cup supposedly used by Jesus at the last supper. Except for the tale in the Bible, there is no reason to believe the last supper itself actually happened. You can plan that some groups will beg for money because they are just on the brink of finding the cup. It will not be found. One we all know about is Noah's Ark. Constantly there are "discoveries" of poles of dead trees that are "exactly" the length of ark. Money is made by those who own these sites and charge tourists to see them. Since we have no independent source to verify the ark ever existed we can fo...

As a rank amateur in religion, it always seemed to me all religion was born in turmoil and has never left. We all know about the hundreds of branches of Christianity. Really, we should write "Christianity". Three other famous religions are filled with anarchy as well. Anarchy has a few different meanings but in this case I'm using, "Absence or denial of any authority or established order" or "the absence of order." How could this be when it is often said, "We are Bible based," or "Society changes, the truth never does"? Those who say such things will often be referred to a "salad bar Christians," "Christians in name only" or "fake Christians" by those they themselves criticism. I think it is safe to say all Christians refer to other groups as not being the true faith. There is a story in Buddhism that some young men encountered Buddha. They said they had talked to some holy men and the holy me...

The city of Dover, Ohio, displayed on publicly owned property a Ten Commandments monument and, during the holidays, a manager scene. A local resident complained to the Freedom From Religion Foundation and both have been moved . The Freedom From Religion Foundation has dealt with over 750 complaints in recent years. The U.S. is a better place for the work of the FFRF. Dover is not a big place, 12,000 people. But it is huge in the national debate about separation of church and state. In 2005 local Dover citizens took their School Board to court over the school's practice of teaching "Intelligent Design" along with evolution. The Board's requirement to teach intelligent design was ruled to be in violation of our Constitutional separation of church and state. The case turned against the School Board when documents from inside the intelligent design operatives admitted it was identical to Christian creationism. Apparently Dover is a city with a strong religious lobby ...

Several years ago there was a beautiful young woman who co-hosted Pat Robertson's 700 Club. Her personality and singing voice were great.  Then she disappeared for a long time. I happened to catch her return as a guest. She said she suffered from depression and had to leave for treatment. She recommended all those with depression go to a doctor for the medication that is available. I can't remember if Pat Robertson, her former boss, treats mental illness as the work of the Devil or not. But, plenty of Christians do. The "treatment" recommended from that branch of the faith is prayer. They go to doctors for physical illnesses and broken bones but not for mental problems. Now available are the testimonies of 40,000 people from Christian homes whose church kept them from medical treatment of mental illness. It is a story of cruelty. Whenever the question, "What good has Christianity done?" comes up, the answer from the faithful is about all the hospital...

Preacher and author Rick Warren wrote a book, The Purpose Driven Life , which has sold millions of copies. I've read the book but have read reviews and heard him talk on TV. So far as I can tell, a "Purpose Driven Life" is to attend church more often, pray more and give more money. It is entirely about believing and practicing the faith more intensely. To me all the things he advocates are about living a life without an important purpose. To begin with, of course, is the question of what god to worship if one is to worship a god. In Warren's view, it appears worshiping one of the hundreds of other gods is a waste. What if he is wrong and there is a god but it is not Warren's god? His life and his book would have been dishonest and otherwise pointless. If you set religion aside and thought about things in a secular sense, a "purposeful life" usually refers to a life of self sacrifice. "Purposeful" people would be those who spent thei...

For several years now, the Methodist denomination has had an internal struggle about homosexuality. Instead of splitting, as have most of the other large "mainline" Protestant groups, the Methodists stayed in one organization. I think both sides thought ultimately their side would prevail and they could impose their views organization wide. In the U.S. there has been majority agreement people in gay relationships could be Methodist pastors. But because of missionary work, the Methodist denomination in Africa has grown and sends delegates to its world wide gatherings. This past week, in a show-down vote, a majority of the delegates voted to exclude gay pastors. All the money spent sending missionaries to Africa resulted in the worst kind of theology imaginable. That theology is to pick out groups you hate and use the Bible to justify your hatred. U.S. based Methodists voted to accept gay ministers, those of Africa voted no. I read today Methodists who do not want to be ...