Thoughts of a Freethinker

The cultural change that has left organized Christianity in decline also leaves other values of previous generations behind. One is the goal of getting married and starting a family. According the the poll of some 19 thousand young people, marriage and forming a family did not reach a majority. It was higher among Christians than non Christians but a large proportion of young Christians did not hold it as the highest priority. When I was a young person marriage and family seemed highest on everyone's list. I can see in my five grandchildren it is different. They bring up a vague future of having children but don't seem to be moving a direction that takes them there. They discuss career options and great causes and issues almost exclusively. Only time will tell if this survey can be replicated or if attitudes change yet again. To the extent it prevails it challenges lots of conventional wisdom. It is often said Muslims will rule the world because their birth rates are

Having a Catholic name on a hospital projects "care" and compassion. In reality, it is exactly the opposite. Right up front is the effort to avoid property taxes. Churches are not required to pay them. If a church owns a regular business, like a hospital, it can try to avoid paying for the services provide it by secular taxpayers. The nasty part of church owned or operated hospitals is care for women. If you go to a Catholic hospital emergency room with an problem related to pregnancy the service you get may be determined by a Bishop instead of a doctor. A doctor's goal is goal taking care of patients. A Bishop's goal is taking care of Bishops. I have provided details of news stories in the past where women were admitted to a Catholic hospital and not told upfront some services related to reproduction were not allowed. The patients were led to believe various options were available but in reality were not. It's hard for me to envision the experience of

A poll of Catholics shows the follow church leadership in an issue or two, but are far from unanimous in several important ways. The majority , for example, do not believe abortion is "evil." Only 56% of Catholics believe in all or most of the denomination's tenets. One interpretation of this is that 46% do not believe in most of the denomination's teaching. Only 18% believe in all the denomination's teaching. Only a slight majority, 51%, believe religion is important. While this survey was of Catholics, I would guess other denominations would have similar percentages. From my experience, those in the pews have limited interest in what their denomination teaches and have no intention of learning more. People participate in church life for many reasons and only one of them is religion. It is hard for me to understand why some parts of Christianity believe the faith would thrive if only preachers came down harder on sin and if there were more strict adhe

Martin Luther King studied the marriage between religion and concern for equal opportunity and economic justice. He wrote , "Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them and the social conditions that strangle them is a  spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial." Today a large swath of Christianity is preoccupied, not with the slums and social conditions that strangle people but with lower taxes resulting in less help for the poor in enacting laws limiting opportunities for women, gay people, public education and foreigners. There remains some racial prejudice as well. When young people are questioned on why they leave the church they grew up in they often point to these very Christian preoccupations as the reason. King's prediction that a "spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial" seems appropriate. Fortunately, there are relatively small pockets of the faith promoting

Writing about corruption in the Catholic Church has become boring because it is so common. There are on going cases of sexual abuse and stolen money plus new allegations ones. One pattern remains constant. These men have been told they are special, something apart and higher than ordinary people. Most take this to mean they are obligated to serve believers. But, the having been told you are apart and higher than ordinary people plays with the mind. Some reach the wrong conclusion and commit acts that are despicable. I believe President Trump is such a person. There is a priest who typifies this attitude . He was Father Marcial Maciel. He saw the opportunity to create an enterprise under the Catholic brand. It is called the Legion of Christ. It had no clear purpose and that was the point. It could raise money which in turn allowed Farther Maciel to live like a king while molesting children. The money, like happens regularly in Christianity, was the key to his crimes. He gave s

In the 1930's, T.S. Elliot expressed alarm about the possibility paganism would swamp Christianity. The characteristics he attributed to paganism were exactly the characteristics now embraced by the religious right, Catholic and Protestant. https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/users/david-albertson-1 The Paganism defined in the 1930's by T.S. Elliot was a religion in which the state and religion united to reinforce each other. It was a religion that praised wealth. He saw this kind of religious thinking in the wild prosperity and super rich of the 1920's before the crash. That definition of paganism seems very similar to much of Christianity during this time of Trump. However, much of today's Christianity refers to secularism as similar to paganism. There are generalizations that secularists have no moral grounding like they think paganism has none. While the way some of Christianity has morphed into what was formerly paganism is alarming but not unusual. The f

After driving across deserts for four days and seeing almost no one except thousands of trucks, it's a little challenging to think we have run out of resources to support humans. There is so much space. But, we are running out  of resources nevertheless. The link is an interview with E. O. Wilson, a professor of biology at Harvard for 50 years. He has been plotting humans' affect on the environment for decades. He said three major changes are already documented. They are climate change, water shortages and species extinction. Even the most thickest skulls among climate deniers have to admit these are present. The ultimate source of all of these is the growing size of the world population and the amount of consumption per citizen of the world. That something should be done about the pressure of population on the world's resources puts a finger in the eye of anti abortion politics. That religious faction of voters cannot allow the growing population to appear as a pr

It was pointed out to me early in my blogging days there is something wrong with those of us who do not believe in the invisible and mythical God. We have what the Bible and people today say is a "hardened heart." We who do not believe need to be reminded there is something wrong with us, there is nothing wrong with those who hear voices like the voice of God or sense the presence of some being which no one has ever seen. We are visiting relatives in the San Diego area and today we visited a festival where various tables  advertised several causes in the region. I saw a table advertising Islam and a pamphlet, Atheism; an Islamic perspective. Learn the Basics. On the front is says, "We (God) will show Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. Quran 41:53" Inside the pamphlet made known that, like Christianity, Islam sees something wrong with those who do not believe. "God has placed in every perso

I came across another of the never ending discussions about the contributions of Christianity to societies with democracy, high standards of living and low crime rates. This one was from Mark Toole, a Methodist who writes a lot about his conservative brand of Methodism. Toole discussed a recent article by an atheists who challenged those claims Christianity is a major contributor to better societies. The claim comes from observations that Canada and Europe have moved significantly toward secularism and are in the same league with the Christian U.S. when measuring these valued attributes of good societies. Toole claims we should give the Christian histories of these societies credit for their successes. That is, even though they are now trending secular their history is Christian. Here we start dealing with social science issues that cannot be agreed upon by everyone. The way most social scientists would deal with this is to say religions come from society's values, not vi

It is common for Christian apologists to claim oral stories were accurately passed from person to person and generation to generation and then accurately recorded. These written accounts of what was passed along orally became the Bible. This claim that oral traditions pass along information accurately has little or no historical substance. The stories of the virgin birth, resurrection, healing, walking on water and all the rest were we must assume stories told around camp fires. No one who wrote the Bible claimed he saw any of the stuff attributed to Jesus. What about God? Moses claimed to have see the talked to God. Jesus made the same claim. Neither of these wrote the Bible--although some claim without evidence that Moses wrote some of it. Then the people who Moses was supposed to have led out of Egypt stayed alive for years because God dropped bread out of the sky. No doubt this story was repeated from generation to generation. I don't see how any literate person can b

A producer/writer will bring Spider Man up to date by writing a boy friend into the script. This reflects acceptance of sexual diversity that is sweeping the country--at least among urban young people. A few nights ago I attended a live performance of a kind of entertainment I had not seen before. I don't know what it is called by those who perform it or attend regularly. The name I made up for is was "lesbian burlesque". The show consisted of several acts where athletes did a kind of tumbling and gymnastics high above the stage using fabric, large rings and poles. The moves a similar to dance and there is loud music. The strength and agility required was amazing. While I had seen this display of skills before because an adult granddaughter performs I had never seen it as what I would call border line erotic entertainment. Pairs of women did complex performed feats that were both complex and suggestive. The crowd was enthusiastic to say the least. The conserva

Do anti abortion boosters regularly adopt or care for children of incapable parents? This came to mind when I encountered the story of one loud mouthed anti abortion blogger who talked a young woman out of getting an abortion. The baby was born, the mother could not care for her. Officials inquired of the blogger about taking the baby as a foster child. No, the blogger said, she had obligations and another baby would disrupt her life. Oh yeah, would disrupt her life. It was fine to persuade her friend to not get an abortion. When the baby was born, Ms. Blogger could not step up. The oldest and most accurate generalization about the anti abortion lobby group is the group will work tirelessly for fetuses. Once a baby is born they disappear--they could care less about the welfare of such children. Anti abortion politicians regularly vote against taxpayer funded programs for the vary births they promote over abortions. The word used for such Christian mischief is hypocrisy. It i

One of the questions frequently raised about the faith is why God allows so much suffering and death. Two popular preachers give an answer in the link . President Trump has a standard answer whenever some problem remains unsolved, "It's Obama's fault." In the case of the preachers, suffering is eliminated but that happens out of sight, in the afterlife. All kinds of good things await but you are not allowed to see these good things. You might learn actually there is no heaven and no good things await. So, did God alleviate suffering? Sure, you don't suffer when you are dead. Atheists offer as good a deal as Christians but you don't have to tithe. I agree, however, there are people who enjoy thinking of death as a happy time instead of the end of their time. Priests/preachers who promise there is an afterlife, like those in the link, never pay a price for their dishonesty. They are able to take people's money and in return make them believe somethi

Conservatives claim the Bible condemns gay marriage. If that were the case you would think preachers with more education would be more opposed to performing gay weddings. Just the opposite is the case. Preachers with more education are more likely to marry gay couples. Why would this be the case? Could it be that more education gives preachers a more accurate perspective of what appears in the Bible? My guess is that the more college level history, literature, humanities and social science a person has studied the better one can put those who wrote the Bible accurately in historical context. It is my understanding Author Bart Ehrman wrote the first college textbook about the Bible which placed it in a historical context. At the time he wrote that book the market was flooded with introduction to the New Testament textbooks which discussed theology. His book, however, was and remains very successful. It is now in its seventh edition. I would guess there are now other books using t

The Southern Baptist Convention is an association of churches rather than a top down denomination. Individual churches can apply for membership and also leave. It is the largest Protestant denomination of the U.S. As I understand it, Baptists in general hold that the individual reading the scriptures holds to power to interpret what is intended or meant. Yet, the SBC is quite opinionated as to what the scriptures mean. The link discusses yet another group has formed to challenge what it finds as "drift" from the "truth." What is happening in SBC is not altogether different than what happened in the Lutheran, Presbyterian and now Methodist denominations. Two groups, each were certain they understood the faith better than the other, split the denominations. I'm most familiar with Presbyterian history and know it has a history of splits over fine points of theology. An interesting new angel in play is the impact of various theological interpretations on th

Religious people must admit, there have always been atheists. At least so far a the written record has been preserved there is evidence of those who did not believe in invisible beings. Regardless the country or the religion, it is very common to see religious conformity enforced. Some Christians want children subjected to prayer in school and prayers before public meetings. They insist on keeping God on our money and in our pledge. When skepticism pops up efforts are made to hammer it down. The internet has made conformity hard to maintain. People can find material to reinforce their natural skepticism. This is true even in when governments are Islamic. An example is on-line sales of Richard Dawkins The God Delusion in Saudi Arabia. The number sold is almost breath taking. According to surveys, there are about the same percentage of atheists in Saudi Arabia as there are in the U.S. This surely is causing hand wringing among Muslim clerics. Surveys around the world have con

It has gone on for decades after decade. A politician promises to put Christian Right ideas into law but it doesn't happen. The politician, or the nonprofit claiming to speak for it, takes money often from people, including the poor, and gives them nothing  much in return. There is a litany of promising made but never delivered. Trump has claimed he has undone the Johnson Amendment prohibiting political advocacy from the pulpit by not enforcing it. It was not enforced by previous Presidents. He could claim some accomplishment if he had persuaded Congress to change to law. He made no effort to do that. He bragged to anti abortion religious people he would stop Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds for performing abortions. I read that Planned Parenthood's Annual Report shows the highest ever amount of federal money to perform abortions. Religious people often say it is the Democratic Senate that stops the President from making good on his promises. The guy ran

It used to be said Christianity would succeed over secularism because Christians have more children. That may not be the case much longer. The rate among Christian women is almost the same as that of Christians. The rate for the non religious population is 2.1 per 1,000 women. That for evangelicals including Catholics is 2.3. This is still 8% higher but the trend for toward equality. It is thought world overpopulation is affecting attitudes of couples including Christians. Inevitably affecting the trend also is the two income family and waiting some years to have the first child. I think religious conservatives who want more Christian babies have shot themselves in the foot because of their romance with corporations. Corporations lobby for fewer services and lower taxes. A deal has been struck with religious conservatives where corporations lobby for fewer abortions and Christian conservatives lobby for lower taxes. This romance has forced public schools to charge for many c

During my long lifetime I can't tell you how many times someone has said, "My God tells me..." or "Thinking of the Bible in this way helps me....." The question becomes, how many different ways can one god be perceived? The answer is in an almost unending number of ways. How can all these different ways of perceiving God be the same God? Could it be they are different gods with the same name, God. My name is Jon. There are thousands of people with that name. Let's start with where God came from. He, the male gender is traditional but not necessarily true, was written about in the Old Testament. Those ancient men who wrote about God had not seen him. Thus, we cannot conclude they knew who or what their "God" was.  The personality of God changed over the time the Bible was written becoming a little less mean and nasty as time went on. So even back in ancient times there might have been more than one God. All the writers writing about God ma

Religious conservatives have always see the world through their own eyes but lacked the ability to see it through the eyes of others. When they wave the flag of "religious liberty" they have been unable to see it will inevitably come back to bite them sometime in the future. Men dressed in drag reading stories to children in public libraries is one example. With no evidence of harm done to children complaints of Christians are merely opinions. Ultimately it will come down to whose religious liberties are more important, those of Christians or those of non Christians. A recent interesting case was about four liberal Christians who took food and water into the desert to save lives of illegal immigrants coming north to the U.S. border. Trump's U. S. border staff tried to make the practice illegal. The liberal Christians sited their "religious freedom." Included in their argument was the appeal of Hobby Lobby to be excused from providing birth control medicin

Many people, perhaps some who are reading this, are certain they hear the voice of Jesus or God. There are people who hear the voices of other gods. Then, there are people who see Jesus. I have known such people. Why is it some hear or see Jesus (or some other god) and others do not and say they cannot. A neurologist who studies this has a long, and still unresolved, explanation . I can't claim to understand him but the summary of what I took from his explanation is this. Some of these experiences of hearing or seeing gods or other voices and individuals come from the brain neurons we were born with. Some is from how we train ourselves to think. And, some is from our experiences and social and physical environment. Even as this entire field of science does not come up with clear cause and effect, it is further complicated by the inability to see into another's mind. Any research is left with hearing one describe what he/she mentally hears or sees, not actually seeing in

There are still Christians beating their chests to have teachers pray in school. This even though it was found to be not Constitutional decades ago. Now, they are claiming drag queens reading to children in a public library are some cult . I'm quite sure the drag queens have never told children, "You are sinners." Drag queens also do not tell children, "You should obey this God. He drowned thousands of kids who sinned by sending a flood and not letting them on the boat.That's why we know he loves you." It was the God teachers are supposed to pray to in front of children who said that, not drag queens. The link goes into great detail giving us the skinny on the cult these drag queens represent. It implies secret alliances between historical figures and present day entertainers. He does not give evidence other than his conspiracy theory. We all know children like fantasy. It has been in stories around camp fires since the beginning of humans we think.

Whenever the Catholic Church thinks its nightmare of sexual lawsuits is ending another Pandora's Box opens. A new one in opening. Over a dozen states have opened up the window of time when victims can file lawsuits against churches for sexual abuse. The one with the most cases coming at it is, ironically, the one with the deepest pockets for paying off victims. The Catholic Church says repeatedly it has sexual abuse under control and the future will not yield these long term horrific cases. I have my doubts. These doubts come from subscribing to the Freedom From Religion Foundation and receiving every other month its publication, Freethought.  Each new issue has a large section called, "Black Collar Crime."  Subscribers send to Freethoght  items from local newspapers about clergy crime that happen in their state or country. Some of these are allegations being investigated and others convictions and sentencing. I watch for sexual crimes alleged to have taken place

The churches which retain prohibitions against gay preachers or even parishioners need to do some serious evaluation of where their gay opposition stands today. Years ago I was active in the national work of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). I was on its Board of Directors and we had many meetings discussing where the organization should go and how it would survive in a changing society. I recall how amazed we all were when a corporation signed on as a sponsor. How could it afford giving this money to us and what will happen to its customer base, we wondered. How things have changed. We now have a gay Presidential candidate. And, in a recent publication I received from PFLAG I counted 80 corporate sponsors. These sponsors do not expect to lose business by doing this and probably expect it is good for business. They want to be known as a gay-friendly corporations. The Bible was used to protect slavery and later segregation. It was used to keep businesses closed

Recently I blogged about a "Satanic pregnancy" warning given by Paula White, a religious adviser to President Trump. Today I found an explanation of the term and of the Pentecostal branch of Christianity. According to the link, Pentecostalism started in the early 1900's with a street preacher. Today it has over half a billion worshipers world wide. Paula White, President Trump's "spiritual adviser" believes in the tenets of Pentecostalism. It is a generalization, but Pentecostalism is most popular among the poorest demographics of the U.S. and around the world. People living lives void of a hopeful future, it is said, need someplace to find hope. They find it in believe in miracles and personal relationships with the deity. Thus, they believe prayer will bring them prosperity, health and happiness. Much of Christianity has left behind miracles but not Pentecostals. Many of them also believe they are part of a great war of spirituality. There is a l

I blogged a few weeks ago that 2020 Presidential election would be about abortion and gay marriage. I still think that is the case. I'm thinking about this just now because in a few minutes I'll be going to the Iowa Caucus. Mine is just a couple blocks from our condo. My reason for thinking these two issues will be big goes like this. We all know there are states where the electoral college is already decided for one party or the other, California for Democrats, Mississippi and North Dakota for Republicans. A few that tipped for Trump in 2016 went for Obama both elections before 2016. What circumstances might tip them back to a Democrat in 2020. The states I'm most familiar with that seem in play for either party are Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. All four of these states have large agricultural sectors. It isn't only farmers but the large infrastructure behind farmers, machinery sales, livestock, crop inputs and the local coffee shop. To this set

The famous concept of "Religious Liberty" does not seem to apply to unpopular religious ideas. Popular ideas in court cases, like the religion involved in baking a wedding cake, prevail. Ideas against war and atheism mostly fail. There have been a few cases recently of Satanists and Wiccans being allowed to meet and to pray at public meetings. Too often, however, judges decide on the basis of whether they think certain religions ideas are out of the ordinary or not familiar to the public. In the case of the Catholic peace people trying to break into a nuclear facility to make a political point certainly it breaks the law and breaches security. Some jail time is appropriate. But prison terms of 20 years is severe in this period where there is talk of "religious freedom." I was involved in a several-year case to move the Ten Commandments off of City of Fargo property. A majority of judges treated our concern a not important. To me, being required to bake a ca

I'm always drawn to conservative writers who claim to have an understanding of society above the rest of us. They often site literature from the long standing list required historically in classes with the heading "literature."  The reading list used in past times is now scoffed at by some as that of "old white men." Such an author starts with Buckley's 1950 publication about social change. Buckley lamented the steady loss of Christianity in the national values of the U.S. He predicted, correctly, secularization would march on. In his view, of course, it would damage the quality of U.S. culture. I think it is helpful to note the BIG national Christian issue at that time was racial segregation. While there were Christian denominations trying to end segregation the largest one, Southern Baptist, was out in front promoting it. The link, ignoring segregation, praises Buckley for predicting the coming end to Christian growth and the destruction of moral v