Thoughts of a Freethinker

While many Christians will disagree with a letter to the editor in yesterday's Forum , perhaps millions will agree. The letter says that stress and anxiety are caused by sin . The solution, of course, is to believe what Christian propaganda tells you to believe. According to the preacher who wrote the letter, we are helpless because we were born sinners. Instead of a cure for depression and such the preacher inflicts it on us. After that he offers up a solution, put money in the church offering to support him. He doesn't say it just that way. He say it indirectly. We cannot solve this problem of being born sinners, we need help from some invisible gods. The preacher knows all about them so best we come to his church to be helped.  Branches of the faith have seen psychiatry and psychology as competitors for many generations. I'm sure the thinking has been, "If depressed and anxious people go to medical professionals for treatment where do we fit in?" It w...

I was surprised to read how many different groups are actively promoting a brand of Christianity that includes socialism .  While this is a departure from the last several decades of Christians mistakenly identifying their religion with capitalism, it is something peaking through the cracks in other places. The largest support group for liberal Bernie Sanders is the youngest voters. When I think about it, however, this is not a surprise. If one tries to see the world through the eyes of a young adult today, it makes sense. College enrollments are falling. Wages are too low to either save money or pay off student debt. The future to some of these young may look bleak. There must have been millions of young people in previous generations who were optimistic and went to college. Now after graduation today's youth may see their future is over powering debt, health care they cannot afford and housing costs that force living in cramped quarters. If that young person is Christian, ...

Cyber world is scratching its head about what Rev. Paula White means when she prayed for "Satanic pregnancies" to miscarry. A member of the Church of Satan sarcastically thanked Rev. White for endorsing the right to abortions. If you could say there is one Christian adviser closest to President Trump it would be Paula White. They have been mutual admirers for years even before Trump ran for office. Could it be we will see some official policy on "Satanic pregnancies" coming from the White House? Paula White's version of demons and sin are not Christian brothers or sisters but when you think about the faith we might say they are "cousins." We all know Eve made humans sinners at birth. This latter idea makes about as much sense as "Satanic pregnancies." Several columnists on Christian sites said today her comments do not reflect Christianity accurately. However, if you ask her you will learn only she reflects it accurately. Because th...

I cut and pasted the textbook proposal by Professor  Bart Ehrman yesterday. I did not post it to advertising the subjects covered. There is nothing unusual about the topics. The same topics would be covered by a Christian author writing for students in a Christian institution. A Christian author obviously would have a different approach than one approaching the Bible from a critical literature perspective. I included the topics because it will be fascinating to see what stories will be illustrated by an artist and then how they will be explained by a critic in just a few words. I've been away from the academic world for several years but learned recently this approach, using graphic artists and compressed explanations, is used in several disciplines. It is even used in mathematics. In a way, this just more of the textbook innovation that has been going on for many decades. My first college texts were black and white. The ones I used at the end were several colors with pictures...

Cut and Pasted for anyone interested in Bart Ehman's writing: e: 5.00 out of 5) Loading... How I Will Write My “Graphic Textbook of the New Testament” Yesterday I began to describe my Graphic Textbook of the New Testament, as I have proposed it to my publisher, Oxford University Press.   In this post I continue, by explaining how I will actually set up the first fascicle (installment), on the Gospels and Jesus. ******************************************** Fascicle One: The Gospels and Jesus The four Gospels are by far the largest section of the New Testament, and any reconstruction of the historical Jesus depends on a critical understanding not only of how each of the Gospels portrays his life, death, and resurrection, but also of how they can be used as sources of historical knowledge.  After providing necessary background about the Greco-Roman world in which Christianity was born, with a special coverage of first-century Judaism, this fascicle will ex...

To me, studying the history and social forces that brought Christianity to the forefront is fascinating. No one will ever understand them all. Now, a member of the Catholic clergy is pointing out that the forces bringing about an exodus from both Catholicism and Christianity in general are too complex for simple remedies. There is no shortage of remedies tossed out there. The link uses the writing of St. Neuman, a Catholic philosopher of the 1830's. Neuman did not see conversion to the faith as something jumped into from somewhere else. He saw people as being in communities and having experiences that made a package of political their political views and their interpretation of reality. These all developed slowly over time, Neuman believed. This is what I think as well. Many personal and societal variables impress reality on us. It is not the presence of an actual God for Christians, but the impression of a God. Belief of any sort, Neuman thought, was a complex matter. The...

Professor Bart Eherman is an innovator who is relentless. He has a background in scholarly study of ancient texts in their original languages. He has many publications in peer reviewed scholarly journals. He is constantly on speaking and lecture tours. His field is critical Bible study. He studies the Bible as a work of literature, not as a book to be used in worship. As time went on he discovered the ideas in theology and the history of Christianity can be explained in lay-person language. He began publishing what he had learned in work as a scholar but written in language accessible to the general public. One of his defining publications was featured on the cover of Newsweek. It was about the forgery and false authorship in the Bible. I believe Ehrman is a large force in the downward trajectory of Christian identity. His college textbooks have remained popular through several editions. He is now embarking on another genre. He is about to start writing a textbook which communi...

A beautiful blog by a current official at Christianity Today explains the dead end Christianity is headed for when it stays deeply involved in government and politics. It points out a the trap Christianity has already fallen into. The trap is government and politicians guiding religion instead of the other way around. Philosopher John Locke in the 1600's wrote that when church and state mix, it is more likely the government will influence the church than it is that the church will influence government. When they start becoming one and the same it is often referred to as the "Locke Trap." Locke's shrewd observations of government and religion were so persuasive many think he influenced our country's founders. They prohibited establishment of a state religion. I am often described by critics here as a humanist, which I acknowledge. I believe humans have always solved their own problems but often have ascribed their own decisions as guidance from gods. Many of...

                                          Roe v Wade has been the law for 47 years. Every year since it became law there have been state legislatures and lawsuits trying to "overturn" it. Why have these 47 years past without success by opponents? I have never seen the explanation for Roe's success laid out better than in an article written by an attorney who opposes it. She knows her enemy. What feeds the enemy and makes Roe successful is mistakes by her side, opponents. What these mistaken opponents of Roe want, she writes, is legal anarchy. They want rogue states to pass and enforce law in direct opposition to Roe. That a majority of the Supreme Court, a body established to eliminate or reduce legal anarchy, will embrace is not in the cards. She writes that each time a state or group goes to court to overturn Roe but fails it puts another nail in the coffin of overturning i...

Across the country, drag queens are reading stories to children in public libraries. According to what I have read, children and their parents are amused by these performances. That is, except for Bible thumping parents who think it is immoral for men to dress as women but okay for men to dress as other fictional characters. Enter a legislator from rural Missouri who thinks this is harmful to children. He has introduced a bill to prohibit men dressed as women from performing in front of children. This reaction from the religious right is quite common. When I was a Mayor another member of the City Commission introduced an ordinance prohibiting performances of any kind that "simulated the sex act." Just what that referred to was never determined. About that time the musical, Cabaret was being presented at NDSU. I watched the main character on stage moving his pelvis as in simulating sex. No one ever complained about Cabaret.  I suppose it has been performed by other gro...

Margaret Mead remains, long after her death, a polarizing public personality. Mead was born in 1901 and studied under the earliest professor we now call anthropologists. While still in her 20's, she published a book about Somoan culture. She had mastered to Somoan language and lived in a village for a long time. The book she published was the most popular book on anthropology ever. That made the book and Mead the target of anger an demonization all of her life and it continues to this day. She wrote many other books that also contributed to the anger against her. Mead's 1920's book praised, instead of criticized as immoral, the casual sex practices of young people in the Somoan culture. Any hint that casual sex was not sin went, and still goes in many religious circles, against absolute moral standards. She advanced the idea that different cultures have different definitions of approved sexual activity, including homosexuality, as well as definitions of family. Perh...

In Texas, fund raising or organizing has begun to keep abortions available to women should Roe v Wade be overturned.  Overturn of Roe v Wade would mean some states would have abortion available and others would not. Or, some would have rules that could accommodate providers and others would have rules that are difficult to impossible to accommodate. Medical abortions at home are becoming easier as time goes on. Of course there will be efforts to prohibit sales of medicine. If experience in other countries is applicable, it will be hard to stop access to this medicine. To get a surgical abortion in states where it is prohibited or difficult, the only options would be having illegal abortions or traveling to other states or Mexico or Canada. That is where today's organizing is focused. Planning for fund raising to transport patients to places where abortion is available has already begun. There are thousands of volunteers across the United States who now escort young women ...

The love of Jesus was illustrated in South America by ten exorcists who killed six native children. I don't know the accuracy of this story but this is what has been reported. Those doing the exorcism were members of The New Light of God Church. According to witnesses, the victims were beaten with sticks and Bibles and told they must convert. There are news accounts all over the world of other religions that beat Christians. Apparently, there are Christians who also practice violence to bring about conversion. I've never understood the part of Christianity which claims there are demons inside of people and exorcism is the way to remove demons. If there are demons, would not they be present in other societies and in other societies and other religions. While there is violence against Christians, I've never it is because Christians have demons in their heads. The official position of the Catholic church is demons exist and exorcism is practiced to remove them. It wou...

Questionnaire research has revealed evangelicals who support Trump are not really interested in the tenets of Christianity per se. They are interested in and freighted by social change in society. The first time I remember hearing about the pace of social change was as a young graduate student. I remarked to a professor I could not understand the angry people in the news. What made them red in the face and led them to kill people. He said, "The pace of change is just too fast for them." The change was about race, specifically requirements that schools integrate, swimming pools allow all kids and hiring not discriminate. People today do not remember how bitter was the resistance to these simply and harmless requirements. It is often repeated the election of 2016 happened because women were rising in power, black people making strides including a President and Hispanic people were on the rise. Those who had to watch this progress without enjoying any of it were white pe...

That the Methodist denomination is splitting into to two denominations follows the historical trajectory of Christianity perfectly. Denominations have split up repeatedly as times have changed. In this way it is healthy for Christianity. As we all know it is splitting into a gay friendly denomination and a gay-hating one. I suppose some individual churches will be hurt because members will be split about 50-50 on which way to go. Smaller churches will have a tougher time hanging in there. A few mega churches will go with the gay hostile branch. The most immediate impact will be on the employees of the home office. Many will lose their jobs. From the economy's perspective they may find work that contributes more to health, shelter and feeding of the general population. It may well those employees will find more satisfying work. It seems most likely that as the oldest generations of any denomination die off those remaining will be more gay friendly. Denominations founded on a g...

In a recent post a Christian talk show host laid out his solution to the Christian problem of young people polling majorities non Christian. That is, a majority of the under 25 years old say they affiliate with no branch of Christianity. The first source of the problem, he writes, is that these young people were not raised by parents who held strong Christian beliefs and convictions. So what would the solution to that be?  When these young people raise their own children they will hold even weaker convictions, likely none at all. It is ridiculous to think today's young people will raise their children as conservative Christians. This highlights the problem Christianity has in the U.S. Its followers don't get one simple fact: People don't buy this stuff anymore.  More precisely, a majority of the young don't buy the religious tenets. If we want to know what people are buying at the "store of religion" we should go as far back in history as we can. We ca...

It took a while, but someone final noticed in the hour or two before the President announced he had killed an Iranian general there was a flurry of stock market buys. These were not random fluctuations in orders and prices. There were purchases of, among others, Lockheed Martin, a huge supplier to the military. Those who bought these share saw them rise 2 1/2% immediately after the President's tweet. Cynical pundits say the President did this assassination only for political purposes, to get himself reelected. Now we see there was another reason, to enrich someone. There is always the possibility the man killed represented some danger to other countries and by killing him this danger was prevented. This is the same rational used be the Bush/Chaney administration who said it was necessary to invade Iraq because it was planning to attack others. We later learned there were no weapons of mass destruction that were claimed by Bush. He admitted this later himself. Since no infor...

A faculty member in the Catholic setting recently reviewed the separation between Catholic academics who train priests and the changing world of religion. I think it applies not only to the Catholic denomination but to many Protestant ones as well. I read the link twice and am not certain I understand it completely. The author, a professor of theology, laments several developments taking place. He laments that students entering seminary studies have less grounding in academic theology than in past generations. But, seminaries are devoting less training in theology than in the past. It's importance has slipped over time. At the same time outside the seminary there are ever increasing headwinds for the church. Students, he said, are not being trained to move into those headwinds and compete. The smaller colleges which provided deeper training in the denomination's theological tenets train few students, are becoming smaller and some are closing. Larger Catholic research...

I'm always amazed there are people in the year 2020 who still believe the old myth Christianity provides moral guidance and without Christianity there would be wholesale pillage. What is obvious from the last decade or so is that wholesale pillage goes instead inside Christianity itself. So, where do rules of good behavior come from. They come from human experience. A great example are the seven principles of Kwanzaa . The seven principles of Kwanzaa are not technically considered modern. They were published recently in 1966. Starting in late December one of the seven principles is celebrated each day with ritual and food. The seven principles presented here without broader explanation are: Unity of the family and group. Selfdeterminization Collective work and responsibility Purpose of the group Creativity Faith in the group Collective economics It is specifically stated none of these has religious meaning, even though a person can be religious and follow them. Kwa...

A columnist in the New York Times recently posted alarm at what is going on in academia. Among other changes, the classes and faculty which focus on traditional literature are in decline . The link author used the word apocalypse. I would agree this is happening. The inside of academia is a complex place fraught with both idealism and economic reality and what takes place is neither easy to explain nor predictable. One thing going on is called generically, critical thinking. Out of this comes the concept of humanism, issues are resolved through human argument and evidence. The link criticizes the approach of humanism as, "Humanism can only teach disciplinary procedures and habits of the mind...we model a style of engagement: we don't transmit value." Humanists also teach "approaches to knowledge rather than the thing itself." The old approach to literature was a list of classics used by professors of past Ph.D. programs and by the professor before t...

Over and over again anti abortion operatives tell us, "Science has determined that one fertilized cell is a human being." Science has not determined this is the case. The only agreement about this is within the religious community of anti abortion Christian nationalists. Science does, however, discuss "life," an entirely different topic. There are at least 100 definitions in science that try to define "life." The definition used is different because applications of the term differ according to the issue under examination. One of the novel tricks of recent years used by Christian nationalists is to say one fertilized human egg has a difference DNA than the woman carrying it. Viruses have unique DNA. Another trick used by Christian nationalists is to say that when the fetus has a heart beat it is separate from its mother. Our doofus Governor here in Iowa just repeated that in today's newspaper. A rabbit fetus probably has a heartbeat. In either ...

I belonged to a Methodist Church decades ago. Back then the Southern Methodists merged with Northern Methodists. Some decades later the United Brethren and Methodists merged. Methodists have expanded big time into Africa. Now, a big split is about to happen. It is over, of course, gay marriage and gay pastors. Many denominations have split many times. There have been many in Presbyterian history. When the founding document, the Bible, is a Medieval piece of writing with vague statements about all kinds of things it allows various groups to claim they know "the truth" better than all others. Don't like black people? The Bible has your back. Don't like gay people, same thing. Women? Eve sinned. Can't have women preachers. Methodists tried to create the "United" Methodist Church. There is nothing to unite around. There is, however, much to divide around. Whatever anyone wants to believe he/she can find it in the Bible. I'm sure there were thousa...

There is really no on-going debate about how to stop the growing rate of suicides and drug overdoses. A common explanation for Trump's election was the unexpectedly large turnout of low income rural people in crucial states. Since his election, the plight that demographic has gotten worse, not better. A New York Times expose about an Oregon family illustrates the problem. Most of a large family has died of suicide, alcoholism and drug over doses. The family's story is supported by national statistics. The growing number of these deaths have been labeled, "Deaths of despair." Some segments of society have seen their lives improving, people of color and women, but this one has seen no improvement or slippage. We all know income inequality has been increasing. What measures are within political reach that might make this segment of society view their lot more optimistically than it does now? One that has been talked to death and made some progress is healthcare. ...

I'm grateful I have lived long enough to enjoy the perspective of female scholars who take on the task of revisiting history. Several decades ago my wife, H. Elaine Lindgren, a sociologist, said she was suspicious of books about women who were part of the homesteading movement. They generalized that men thrived on the experience while women sat in their homestead shacks and cried. Elaine reviewed correspondence and interviewed women who were still alive and found most of them to had thrived. It appears men suffered despair as often as women. She published a book still in print after several decades, Land in Her Own Name . A wonderful recent book, Victoria: The Queen, by the first woman scholar to have written about her, Julia Baird, portrays Victoria as more formidable than previous male scholars. So often she has been viewed as obsessed with proper English dress and customs. The new book plots her life and challenges as a Queen who ruled an empire for several decades. Susan...

I admitted this long ago. We don't know where the universe came from, at least not yet. There is a least a slim possibility it could have some divine source. There is not evidence of such a source but I admit it cannot be completely ruled out. In this way I am not an theist but an agnostic. So my challenge to the most devout of Christians is join me in the resolution, "I admit I could be wrong." That is, admit what you believe could be nothing but myth . I've offered this to believing readers before but have had no takers. Every believer should have stepped forward. Most believers have a need for the faith but none have evidence other than the Bible of a Jesus or a God. If the entire population of Christians in the U.S. could make come to the conclusion there was at least a slight possibility they are wrong perhaps we could eliminate some of the mandatory rituals the permeate life in the U.S. Prayers at public meetings requests for prayers by political leader...

Population growth in the U.S. slowed to the lowest rate in decades. It grew by only 0.5% or 1.5 million. It now stands at around 350 million. The growth that is occurring in the U.S. is largely new citizens from other countries. The birth rate has slowed while the death rate has risen. Deaths have increased mostly because the population is aging. Health and medical services have also contributed somewhat. Everyone knows that when the average age of the population rises or falls the goods and services people buy changes and the work for needed to produce changes as well. As the average age rises our society spends less on raising children but more on old people like me. Of course it changes religion. Older people are the most religious cohort. Unless something changes, they will take a big chunk of the faith to their graves. I don't know what will happen with our taxes and government spending. While the average age of the population keeps rising, which implies increasin...

For reasons no one has been able to discern, fervent Christians treat much of the Bible as a set of historical facts, not as a set of ideas that go back to a time before the faith. Efforts to track the sources of these ideas back in time is far more interesting than the ideas themselves. It is interesting as well to wonder why some find the faith based on historical fact, contrary to evidence, while others find it merely a collection of ideas. A new scholarly box has just been published which concludes, so I have read, there is, and always has been, an emotional reason not to believe any tenets of any religion just as there has been an emotional reason to believe them. I will review this book in coming weeks. As to the world of ideas, author Susan Jacoby recalled her days at Lutheran Augustana College where she learned the beautiful phrase, "I was blind, but now I see." Later she came to see a coded message, "You are blind, and now you must see what I see." ...