Thoughts of a Freethinker

This term " worldview " is used a lot, mostly I think by Christians. Maybe I'm not understanding it right but it seems to be that a Christian "worldview" is that faith is the sole source of order and high morals. The non Christian worldview is one without order or high moral grounding. That is, the Christian view is correct, the non Christian incorrect. Anyone with even a scintilla of sense knows organizing society and establishing rule so behavior that serve the greater good comes from human experience and human reasoning. The God of the Bible killed a couple of million innocent people, if we are to take literally the god's deeds. Lofty moral values is not what the Bible is about. For whatever complex reasons, the public is turning away from what Christians call the Christian worldview. A series of polls in recent years finds smaller percentages each time. A recent poll by the Christian Barna Group ask 51 questions of respondents to gauge the level ...

In the couple of centuries before our Constitutional Convention, which took place in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787, there were a blizzard of articles published which lampooned Christianity. They covered exactly the same topics we discuss here these days. Atheist authors wrote about the ancients who never saw Jesus but quoted him. They wrote about the folly of calling unusual events miracles and of believing their exists a Holy Ghost and invisible God. One of the most biting and influential wrote under the pen name, Voltaire. Voltaire died just ten years before the Constitutional Convention. He was a contemporary of the men in Philadelphia. Voltaire made a comfortable living writing sarcasm about Christianity and all other religions. Thomas Paine wrote about Voltaire, "His forte lay in exposing and ridiculing the superstitions united with statescraft that had interwoven with governments." What could be a better reflection of the separation of church and state. T...

In the Des Moines Register is a poll about public attitudes toward abortion. A majority of older voters does not approve of abortion in some cases. A solid majority, 57%, of those under 35 years old generally approves of abortion. This trajectory follows the same demographic path as approval of gay relationships. Time is not on the side of social conservatism. At the heart of politics which have the goal of depriving gay people and women the same rights as straight people and men is prejudice. It is a prejudice we did not create but one that existed and we were born into it. Prejudice against some non white races was huge in my lifetime is has slipped into acceptance over time. People as old as I am know of the incarceration of people of Japanese decent as well as 400 years of slavery and segregation. How could something that went on for so long and was so well ingrained in our culture be upended? It was, or, at least we are quite far along in upending it. And so it is with ab...

There are four "gospels" in the New Testament, Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. The first three were believed to have been written between 30 and 60 years after the time Jesus was supposed to have lived. The fourth, John, was written over 100 years after the alleged Jesus years. In churches, it is my impression John is read more often than the first three. Some say it was developed after many decades of reading to people out loud and was changed to read more easily as spoken. These days with a small army of scholars combing over the Bible as literary critics arguments break out about how different the four books are in the way they portray their main character, Jesus. The book of John, the one written over 100 years later, portrays a much different Jesus character than the stories in the first three. Writers or rewriters of the first three portray Jesus as being somewhat secret about his religious significance. They include his story of a virgin mother and humble birth. H...

It's quite obvious the Noah flood tale came from oral stories passed down over camp fires for generations. Versions of it existed around the world. We can image a person who has not traveled more than a few miles over his life time would consider the entire world to be whatever he has seen. A local flood, then, becomes a world-wide flood. From the region where the Bible was written there were long periods of flooding . It would be logical a flood myth would have been passed down from prehistory times. I have written several times about the Noah flood myth and with the "lock down" I decided to spend some time looking at the Catholic Encyclopedia. That is a massive document as I understand it approved by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and is on line. It has a long segment about Noah's flood. It is amazing Catholic staff, and I suppose other branches of Christianity, have spent so much money going over the story and splitting hairs about what it may or may n...

Today I walked to a neighborhood super market. I mentioned to the produce manager I had seen  plastic gloves tossed on the ground in the parking lot and where we were standing sanitary wipes were tossed on the floor. He smiled and said yes, people are a bad mood and careless in their behavior. I asked to friendly young check out woman if she had many mad customers. "Oh yeah." she said. "They demand to know when the TP will be restocked. We have no answer because we don't know." It got me to wondering how long the public will tolerate these new circumstances. The President has hinted everything will almost normal by Easter.  This is not what people who study the spread of virus are saying . If behavior normalized, "packed churches for Easter services", the disease will spread faster and farther. To me there are two questions. What level of distancing will still allow the economy to generate the money it takes to treat sick people?  A poor country ...

A former preacher said he grew tired of being required to preach the same message after every disaster. The requirement was for a sermon which let God off the hook. Even though God is supposed to love his people and/or take care of them, he doesn't. This obvious fact had to be dodged the Sunday following something horrific. I'm reading articles to see if there is any different message from priests and preachers these days. I found the same required message is being preached everyday: Don't blame God for the Coronavirus. A conservative Protestant preacher/writer wrote the other day this was part of God's big plan and we needed to understand Coronvirum will ultimately be a good thing. A  priest with a higher intellect wrote he did not know where God was during all of this or why it is happening. He said both believers and non believers should realize Jesus gave us the model for caring for the sick and the poor. The priest at least came face to face with what he c...

A peculiar column showed up on line explaining to Christians what "the enemy" does and how to combat it. The enemy, she wrote, is Satan and Satan has special techniques for separating you from God. I have reviewed some of what she wrote and added a bit of my own advice. One thing the faithful will hear from non believers is that God did not answer their prayers. It is not healthy, the link says, to hear this. I would have to agreed hearing this over and over and seeing that it is true would cause angst. Satan must be involved somehow. Having the enemy point out no one has ever seen God nor knows anyone who has seen him is not healthy either. Believers know God is out there someplace but they best not get into defining where he is located. Satan's minions will bug Christians about details of where heaven is located and how they know it exists. This is a circumstance best avoided. Satan is always wanting the faithful to be questioned about who wrote the Bible and ...

Republicans have put their money of "socialism" as the gun to shoot at Democrats. They loaded their gun when Bernie Sanders looked like he would be the nominee. Now I suppose they will use it on Biden.  Biden's views on the role of government are not much different than those of Sanders. He just plays the communication game differently. Socialism is like Christianity in that it has many perceptions and differences. The important thing at this point is to recognize what Democrats advocate is not an aberration of U.S. governing, is in keeping with its history. What Sanders talks about is not socialist systems like China and Russia. He talks of values. All kinds of politicians talk about values, Reagan talked about them a lot. Preachers talk about values. Many of them are the same as Sanders' sharing the wealth and looking after others. He talks about free college education, i.e., opportunity, free or affordable health care and such. He does not talk about the go...

In today's Des Moines Register  was an article about sin in Iowa history. Probably the same article could be written about most state including North Dakota and Minnesota. Of course, what was the greatest sin before abortion and homosexuality does not have one answer. Many sins had their day in the heat of condemnation. Then, the faith moved onto another sin. The article was appropriate here in Iowa because one of the greatest preachers of all time, a leading warrior against sin, was from Iowa. That was the preacher who brought of record crowds at that time, Rev. Billy Sunday. He was from the small city of Nevada, about 30 minutes from where I live. Sunday made a good living preaching against the most sinful activity of the 1910's to 1920's, dancing. The tango, he said, is "the rottenest, lowest down, vilest, filthiest and most corrupting dance ever invented." He understood why people are moral failures. "Three-fourths of all the fallen women fell as th...

One of those who comments here asked why I don't blog about the economic conditions. I am reluctant to do this and say "We can expect this to happen." I don't know what will happen. Also I don't want to use the arcane language and methodology of economists. There are some observations I can make from 50 years of reading about and teaching economics that might help readers themselves decide what to make of it all. One is about the Federal Reserve and Trump's ridicule of it. Before the virus took hold he consistently berated the F.R. for not lowering interest rates. The Federal Reserve conducts monetary policy  which is the favorite economic tool of conservative Republicans. The F.R. can try to lower interest rates to stimulate the economy and raise them trying to cool it off and prevent inflation. This is a favorite of conservatives because it does not involve government stimulus and avoids the hint of "socialism" that is so often tossed around...

The Hobby Lobby family, deep Christians, thought they would convert the world to Christianity by buying ancient Bibles and Deep Sea Scroll fragments from secret sources they had located. After their puffed-up museum opened they were accused of purchasing stolen pieces as well as phony ones. Now scientific analysis has shown their prized exhibit, several fragments of "Deep Sea Scrolls", are all phony . The Green family who founded Hobby Lobby and are now very wealthy came up with the idea of a Bible Museum for Washington, D.C. I'm sure they thought D.C. would give such a propaganda site more credibility if it was in the same neighborhood and Smithsonian museums. So, they went to work. They were unaware the worldwide antiquities business is filled with people who have done it for generations. No doubt there are relationships and expertise that make it no place for rank amateurs. Almost from the day it opened there was trouble. Separating legitimate scraps of authen...

To follow up on yesterday's blog about the distribution of scarce medical supplies and services it is helpful to review what is happening in Italy. Italy has been hammered by the Corona virus. It's medical services and medicine cannot keep up. Thus, some people must go without. Just as a woman decides whether to remove a fetus the government and doctors of Catholic Italy is deciding who lives and who does not. The woman must decide if her time, money and energy can better be spent on her existing child or some other goal and have an abortion if it seems best for her.  The government of Italy must decide if its medical resources can better be used on someone young and otherwise healthy than on a sickly older person. Apparently, the myth that one fertilized egg is a human being with all the same rights as a citizen walking the streets seems just as nuts to Italian Catholics as it does to me. One would suppose that Italy, the country where the tiny enterprise called a ...

First a disclaimer, I don't know what will happen with the Coronavirus. Predictions are dire but I read today a view it may not be as bad as some predict. Anti abortion zealots, who refer to themselves as "pro life," resist all kinds of "end of life" measures that allow terminally ill people to die sooner or take their own lives when they choose to do so. Because their religious views include the myth that one fertilized cell is a human being it clouds their reasoning abilities and pushes them into a land of make believe. Economics has always taught an undeniable fact, there are limited resources. There are limited and finite amounts of space, food, air, water or time. In the anti abortion make believe world all these resources are unlimited. It is never necessary for a human, or many humans, to die because the world's resources have been used up. They cannot admit resources are limited and the number of people who can live is also limited because that...

I read today that gatherings featuring faith healers have been cancelled . We all know church services across the country have been halted. I wonder if all those small signs I read when I'm driving which say "Prayer Works" have been taken down? Among the preachers featured who has been cancelled is the famous healer, Benny Hinn. He heals a stage full of ill people at every show. I've read the same healed people get on a bus and appear at his next show. Atheist sites are ablaze with sarcasm about the impotence of religion while the illness spreads. Now is a time when going to church harms but it has been advertised since forever as a place that helps. I recall reading an ex preacher's frustrations. As a preacher, he wrote, I was forced to come up with a reason to take God off the hook every time there a national disaster. If if was a shooting, tornadoes or illness like today, there has to be a reason it is not God's fault. This fellow gave up on both p...

Argentina has historically been a Catholic country. Evangelical branches have been making inroads. Both should be huge forces in keeping abortion illegal. But that is now in question. The President of Argentina announced he will introduce a bill making abortion legal . There is still uncertainty about the bill's ultimate fate and what kind of abortions will be legal but introduction by a President is a new development. The link explains how this political development came about. It started with the murder of several women a few years ago. Women and supportive men organized a political movement to stop the violence against women. A nationwide organization was formed. That organization is now moving to change Argentina's anti abortion laws. Anyone who thinks about this issue has to come to the same conclusion. Abortion is the ultimate test of the rights of women. If abortion is available, women have a big chunk of the rights they should have in a democratic political sy...

It's said over and over again here and elsewhere. When Christians condemn, take life's options away from people and present themselves as morally superior, more people leave the faith. I'm always on the lookout for history books that are off the well beaten track. The well beaten path is a record of who won wars and who lead what countries when. Off of that track are writers that comb through the letters and records of both leaders when they told others what they were thinking when not in the public eye and ordinary people doing the same.  I'm just now reading a book about the late 1500's, the end of the Queen Elizabeth reign. There was a lot of "under the radar" secularism around even though most history has reported straight arrow religion was the order of the day. The reason for the secularism seems to have been preaching by the puffed up who considered themselves morally superior and scoffing at doubters. I'll probably write about the book l...

There is a picture of VP Mike Pence praying with officials in charge of dealing with the coronavirus emergency. It is being ridiculed on liberal sites all over the country. There are good reasons for this ridicule. First, Pence has a long history of opposing science-based solutions. He once refused to accept a link between smoking and cancer. When he was a Governor of Indiana he resisted science-based solutions to urgent problems. While his spokesman has said Pence does not support conversion therapy, use of religion to change sexual orientation, Pence himself has never said directly he does not support it. Use of praying photo ops such as Pence's, national days of prayer such as what Trump just declared or appearances in the National Cathedral which W. Bush did after 911 are clever uses of religion. They present the opportunity to distract the public's attention from failures in administrations. Even if public prayers and talk of public prayers only takes a few minut...

Bart Ehrman explained why most scholars in the field of textual criticism conclude the "sweating blood" passage was not in the original writing of the Book of Luke. I reviewed a couple of days ago that reference to Jesus sweating blood prior to his alleged assassination. An account in one version of manuscripts includes the passage, another group of manuscripts does not. One of the rules textual critics use to assign probabilities of original authorship as opposed to more recent additions from scribes is readability. The rule is the less readable, the more difficult a passage is to read, the more likely it was in the original writing. Conversely, of course, the more readable to more like it was altered in later recopying. The sweating blood version is more readable. So, why would a later scribe insert the sweating blood version. The answer, Ehrman says, can be found in controversies of ancient times. Around 100 CE a set forceful writers now call Docetists claimed it...

The is and always has been a set of believers who preach religion exists in our heads and only in our heads. They, like everyone else, can quote Jesus ' "own words" (as written by ancients who never heard him talk and scribes that might have altered the text later) as evidence. Some progressive Christians refer to Luke 17:21 which is Jesus' alleged response to the question of when the kingdom of God would arrive. Those ancients claiming to know Jesus' words report he said the kingdom would not be something people could see or point to, "Neither shall they say, Lo here, or, lo there, for behold the kingdom of God is within you." What better expression of what I have said here since day one, religion is in people's heads. I know I'm taking the quote out of context and there is something for everyone in the Bible. Jesus was also quoted as saying believers should be a group, etc. The link is by a liberal Christian who claims Jesus wants belie...

Bart Ehman's blog explained recently how scholars critique various things that appear in the Bible. He explained there are sometimes internal inconsistencies and sometime external. Internal are when the Bible and handed down versions point toward altered material. An example is the passage which tells us Jesus "sweat like blood" or produced sweat that was like blood before he was killed. (Luke 23:43-44) Neither verse 43 nor 44 was present in what most scholars consider the oldest and/or best manuscripts that have survived. So the question is whether it was or was not included in what the original author(s) wrote. Here scholars like Ehrman look for styles of writing. With computer technology it is easy to compile the words various writers like to use or notice words appear one place but are never used elsewhere. Then there is the over arching message a particular writer wants to pass along and whether some passages seem to not conform. When the latter happens there...

The notion that Catholic clergy serve for life was challenged by Benedict's retirement. But, the problem of a clergy culture of privilege is thought to be enhanced by the guarantee of lifetime employment. Various ideas to radically change the priesthood are being discussed and even mentioned publicly. The economic exchange between clergy and the Catholic church are simple. A man pledges to not marry and work for the church for life. In exchange the church grants him lifetime employment and a special status rank. This latter is handled by nearly all Catholic clergy well but a few see it as an opportunity to rape and plunder. Observing the cover up and secrecy around these bad apples one can see how the exchange theory used to employ these men caused terrible mistakes in management of the enterprise. The vows of poverty and celibacy caused clergy to abandon the idea of employer with expectations about the work of employees to one of fraternity. "We are all part of a speci...

Easter is a good time to celebrate the end of winter and beginning of Spring. An atheist pastor has suggestions on how a church, which may be approximately deist in belief or even agnostic, can reject to myths surrounding events leading up to the Crucifixion and Resurrection and focus on the marvels of the natural world. Right from the git-go Easter challenges the skeptic. This thing about Jesus dying for our sins is  trying to swim against the current. If Jesus died as reported, he died because he broke laws. It is hard to run through the Easter rituals when this big inconsistency is repeated over and over. Another reason for not enjoying the Easter rituals is that historical accounts tell us bodies of criminals, especially political opponents, were not taken down and given to the enemies' friends. They were left hanging there. How else were people learn what happens when one challenges Roman authorities? From this the best conclusion is there was no tomb or cave--that was ...

The crooked anti abortion industry faced a problem. They did well when they called abortions "unsafe." It turned out not to be true. What to do? They came up with a new ruse. Pass a law requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges. Since abortion doctors almost never have to admit their patients to a hospital they generate no revenue for that hospital. Hospitals have been limiting doctors outside hospitals from practicing inside hospitals because it generates more revenue to use their own staff doctors. So, by passing a law requiring hospital privileges for abortion doctors abortion rights advocates face several headwinds. What is so dishonest of anti abortion zealots is claiming the hospital rights requirements will make abortions safer. They are already safe and such laws do not make them safer in any sense of safe. They do accomplish there actual objection, to outlaw abortions which they were unable to do with Roe v Wade. More honorable people would overt...

Archaeologists continue to find artifacts that tell at least a little about our very ancient origins. To me, our ancient history was about how to find enough food and not be eaten by animals. Mixed in was how to not be killed by rival humans or rival pre humans. These, in turn, gave the ancients their religious beliefs. Some finds I read about involved skulls and stone tools found together. That they were found together, of course, suggests the tools belonged to the people of the skulls. I use the term "suggests" because that is all we know. These date back, not the 2-300,000 years it is believed being similar to ourselves have existed, but over 1 1/2 million years. We need to remind ourselves that the thread of beliefs that ended in Christianity started maybe 5,000 years ago and other world religions further back or more recent. That is, they are recent. The link is about the stone technology that existed 1 1/2 million years ago. Those pre humans had figured out how ...

I can't remember how many Republicans voted against gay rights and turned out to lament having done so because they are gay. Now we have a new one. I recall at least one Republican who was loudly anti abortion but a former girlfriend side he had driven her to a clinic for an abortion. The best one was Senator Larry Craig of Idaho. He voted for every anti gay piece of legislation. Then he played foot touch under the stall in the Minneapolis airport with an under cover agent. He said no he was not trying to make a gay overture. His foot came into contact with the agent's foot because he had a "wide stance."  He went on to say he did not condone gay sex. He did not run for reelection. None of these would matter where it not Republican's obsession with religion and sin. The Party Platform is full of it. There remains some anti gay politics in our country. Candidate Pete Buttigieg certainly encountered it, though he was reelected Mayor after outing himself. ...

The Bible, book of Psalms Chapter 91, tell us that those who believe and pay their tithes walk around with a shield protecting them from the virus. Those reading this who qualify can relax. This is according to a preacher who is spreading this message--it is appearing on Christian websites. This is hopeful news to tithing Christians because they will not have to wear those ugly masks. While preaching in his New Zealand megachurch Pastor Brian Tamaki pointed out that God will protect Bible believing, Jesus loving, Holy Ghost filled and tithing Christians. They will be protected from epidemics, pestilence and famine. He challenged those who were skeptical of this teaching saying it is right there in their Bibles. Another New Zealand preacher from the state church of New Zealand criticized Tamaki saying people should follow the precautions advised by government. It is noteworthy how often God does not protect as promised. There is a picture going around the internet of VP Pence...

We've all heard there was once a myth a fountain of youth existed. Explorers, Juan Ponce de Leon, searched for it. Today you can buy endless products that claim the stop the aging process. No marketing of the fountain of youth is as persuasive as that in the Bible. If you tithe and believe you will live forever. Hallelujah! There are legitimate scientists looking for ways to stop or reverse aging . Some of the earliest surviving writing told about interest in finding some way to stop aging. Today scientists are debating whether aging is some inevitable process baked into humans or whether it is a disease that can be cured or delayed. Arguments and experiments continue. The problem with treating aging as a disease is the notion is can be cured. This would not be a concern were is not for the universal experience of aging. This inexhaustible market invites treatments that experts say are "intentionally false, misleading, or, exaggerated for commercial purposes." ...

The Bible has something for everyone. If you want to believe abortion is not a sin the Bible can help you. In various passage the Bible explains what happens when a man hits a woman and kills her fetus. The penalty is never the same as that when someone kills someone else. The Bible did not see the fetus as a human being. The link above discussed the issue because religious people in 2019 pressured the Alabama legislature to pass a law that would imprison doctors who performed abortions. The law was passed and signed by the Alabama Governor. Then a Federal Judge overturned it--the law never went into effect. Not only was the law absurd as a practical matter, it was not , as claimed, Biblical. Using the Bible to claim abortion is murder, or even a sin, it a doubtful exercise. One phrase often used is "I knew you in the womb." The phrase did not refer to fetuses in general but to one person being addressed. In the field of critical Bible study, I don't know of a...

Everyday we encounter people who have absurd ideas they hold passionately. The list starts with the notion the universe is here for some purpose. Add to that each of us living here is here for some purpose. So far as we know, all of these ideas are absurd. There is no purpose for any of us and the earth and universe, like us, is here because of historical accidents. The universe does not need a reason to be here. Some people need to believe they are here for some purpose but others of us just try to live good lives without believing the purpose thing. Muslim suicide bombers believe they serve a god who does not exist. Then they believe they will go to a heaven that does not exist with virgins. No one has seen the virgins either. The idea of sin is absurd. In a rational world behaviors that harmed individuals, societies and the earth would be criticized. But behaviors that harm all of the above are praised instead of label "sins." And, those labeled as sins change as...