Thoughts of a Freethinker

The cyber world is full of articles praising Chief Justice Roberts and demonizing him. In my opinion, this is the best analysis out there explaining what he is all about. While I'm not a lawyer one can somewhat read into a judge's mind what is going on there. I think I see the Chief Justice sizing up a new role in decisions. He realizes that with the new appointees there is a majority that does not like abortions. He also sees, however, making up reasons for stopping abortions that are false or outright lies is not justification enough to ban them. The other conservative judges don't seem to care what the reasons are for banning abortions, the important thing is the ban. Anti abortion operatives have been operating on the theory abortions could be stopped by a thousand tiny wounds. That is, adding more and more requirements, more doctor visits, more ultra sounds and more travel would make abortions to bureaucratic and paper work burdened to continue. Judge Roberts' opin...

This morning's ruling from the Supreme Court's majority gave abortion clinics in Louisiana the right to perform abortions without admitting contracts with local hospitals. It is the same ruling it issued only a couple of years ago when Texas brought an identical case. Both cases cost anti abortion groups untold amounts of money but also burned bridges between young people and Christianity. Trump burned bridges twice, first between himself and religious conservatives whom he over promised and from millions of voters called "suburban women."  The irony is this was all unnecessary. It was not necessary to lie about the "dangers" of abortion or the "dangers" of doctors not having admitting contracts. As one of the judges pointed out, there are seldom emergencies. But when they occur women are simply taken care of at an emergency room. The abortion doctor can voluntarily stop in to visit the patient but the hospital bills the patient for its own doctors...

Since the beginning of religion surely there must have been atheists. Since the beginning of recorded history those with skeptical thoughts have been making written challenges to religious myths. With religious people killing each other over which god is real, perhaps atheists were able to reach across cultural divides and save humans from annihilating themselves. Survey statistics show that old people make up the lion's share of church attendees these days. But, old people are a steady force in non belief as well. While some senior folks find comfort in the final years in the myth of a life after the funeral, others have accumulated decades of failures by religion to correct the world's ills and of over-riding dishonesty. It is often said that because old people are closer to the end of their lives they trend toward religion and belief in the afterlife. I've not seen polls that show this is true. Atheist publications and local atheists groups have lots of testimony from pe...

Many know a new kind of resistance by gays to persecution started during the Stonewall riots in New York City on June 28, 1969. Police routinely raided gay bars taking gay people to the police station and harassing them generally. So much of the world has moved on to understanding being gay is not something people choose to be and it has no effect on anyone else. The source of prejudice then as  today is "sin." Once they spot sin in others, true believers demand what they call "justice." Justice is to harassment of enemies in life and celebrate their eternity in a fiery hell. The real name for Christian "justice" is revenge.  What is entertaining to follow is the slow but steady erosion of this homosexuality-as-sin narrative. For decades it was profitable for preachers, denominations and Christian non profits to rail against this "sin." The push for gay marriage caught them by surprise. They came out on the short end. There are still holdouts cli...

There is an old idea that stays alive in the heads of some religious people. It is that Christians, or one particular branch of Christians, must have more children than other groups so there will be more of them in later generations. It has always been the assumptions of many that anti abortion politics of the Catholic Church came from the notion the faith needed more children to win against the competition of other Christian branches. Even though this naïve idea is still promoted by some, it never worked and is a failure today. The Catholic Church, and other branches of Christianity plus branches of Islam, are unsuccessful in their advocacy of more children because they do not bother to study the economics of family life. In the case of Catholics, policy makers and well as local priests are not married. This isolates them even further from economic reality. Economics has been studying the economics of institutions like the family, businesses and governments for most of the last 300 ye...

The self described "pro life" political group has never had much interest in "life" other than the lives of fetuses. There are so many ways it could have helped prevent death. Religious views about fetuses put up a roadblock to saving lives. I've mentioned here many times deaths in automobile crashes. It would be simple and not very expensive to reduce to almost zero these deaths, over 30,000 a year in the U.S. It would be unpopular, however. If there was a fundraising effort to fund a national non profit for this purpose, good luck. It has no religious juices.  Then, there is the entire field of good health. More than 30 countries in the world have more life longevity than we do in the U.S. For some reason, increasing human longevity is not "pro life." To be in favor of longer and healthier lives reflects liberal, secular or godless politics. To advocate longer and healthier lives instead of saving one fertilized cell would not be doing what God wants...

Religion, even for the not religious, is so diverse and otherworldly one can only absorb a little at a time. While I have Jewish friends and relatives, I never knew about the exacting rituals that are observed at death.  The link discusses in great detail the dilemma faced by the faith for the death ritual. The old rules are very gender specific. Appropriate people like relative and such are to prepare the body for ceremony and burial. This includes washing the body, etc. Only men or only women are to prepare bodies of their own gender. Then, along came people who changed gender, trans, during their lives. Some living trans people made their wishes know about these ceremonies while still alive. Others in the faith pondered what to do. Sometimes trans people get surgery for the change and some do not. Some get some but not complete surgeries.  I did not read the link carefully, but I believe the consensus of all this is that in death the body should be treated as of the gender ...

While probably the average right wing Christian thinks his/her version of Christianity will remain in laws forever, there is rumbling inside the community's leadership that things are dark for them. Various reasons have been advanced for thinking future court cases will go against them and DC will pass laws they do not like.  What they are experiencing, or feel they will experience, is something new to them but not to others who once thought their views or their work was so appreciated they would not be subject to ordinary street level politics. One of the latter was science and scientists. How could what we do, they said, saving lives, reducing misery and making peoples' lives better have to compete for public funding with subsidies for preachers and an ever larger war machine? How could we be just another constituency going to congress with our hands out? Conservative religious leaders are now saying something similar. How can we, the group who understands better than others ...

There is finally some acknowledgement recent Supreme Court decisions may affect politics. One reoccurring theme claimed by Trump voters in 2016 was that there may be only one reason to vote for him, the Supreme Court nominees he has promised to appoint. Now, the first one he appointed has turned out to be enemy Number One, Judge Neil Gorsuch. We all know it is not possible to predict what voters will do in November. Polling does not predict as good as it did a while back. Yet, if people actually voted for Trump because of his promised judicial choices and they have not turned out like it was predicted it's attractive to think they will not be persuaded so easily this coming November. A wise person once said, "You can't go too wrong predicting that Supreme Court decisions will follow closely the last election." The last election Democrats picked up House seats. I've been trying to understand the relationship between the Supreme Court and the other two branches of g...

A while back I wrote some blogs about President Trump's mistakes in trade policies. He put tariffs on Chinese imports. I wrote that this would reduce the standards of living in both China and the U.S. Almost every economist that ever lived has predicted two countries gain from trade and both lose when it is stopped. In addition, every President for many decades has endorsed reducing tariffs. Local senators and representative sometimes support tariffs for their own local reasons, but Presidents are elected nationwide and should see their interests as the nation's interests. I've tried to understand why Trump would do something that hurt the country he is supposed to help, the U.S. Some say it is because decades ago, when we bought lots of Japanese imports, Japanese investors competed against him to buy properties. He blamed their wealth on our imports from Japan. There is also the view that he sees trade as something he thinks he understands but does not. Having given himsel...

A Catholic alarmist is running about like Paul Revere claiming our country, make that world, is being destroyed by a new alliance. All those in the title used to be at odds, he says. Now they are joining forces. The link makes light of this claim of alliances. To the contrary, I think the alliances have always been there. What's different, however, is the sense of unity. All these groups did not have a common enemy in the past. Now they share two enemies, a disliked President and police brutality against black people. The alarmist is complaining because secularists/atheists have always disavowed any invisible gods or spirits. Now they are doing business with the world of witches and spells.  This alliance is not unlike an alliance the alarmist himself probably endorsed years ago. This was the teaming up of anti abortion operatives with anti tax/regulation business interests. There common enemy was liberal thinking. While the two groups had virtually nothing in common, they shared a...

How many "boycotts" have evangelical and Catholics called for? I can think of half a dozen. There were boycotts and Disney, Proctor and Gamble, Ford and refusal of communion for Biden. I can't remember any that changed anything, but believers thought they had the power to do so. Now comes sweet justice. A cocky preacher in Birmingham, AL., thought it would be cute to approve of a Trump backer who claimed white people are persecuted more than black people. It exploded into the public's awareness.  Reverend Cocky had not taken into account his several leases for preaching space in public schools. His leases were quickly cancelled. He was the "victim" of the boycott technique Christians love. Except theirs don't work. This one did. Suddenly the preacher was in tears apologizing. One thing zealous Christians are not good at is the long game. When they decide to ban gays, boycott businesses or go after politicians they don't think about opponents doing th...

I've always thought the liberal wing of Christianity will be the one which survives over the next few generations. Of course, there is no way to know this for certain, just that when one lines up the part of the faith that takes part of all of the Bible literally against the part which treats it as an old but unreliable friend the latter wins hands down. Among the sites I follow only occasionally is there an articulate and credentialed academic professor of philosophy. One appeared today. The blog author, a Christian and Professor of Philosophy, argues that "certainty" is the enemy of Christianity. Those who claim to know what the Bible means or what its message is are part of the problem. Another part are professors of philosophy who "prove" God or Jesus exists by tricks from logic. All of these, this professor says, create walls between believers and none destroy their opponents. The link author has been asked, "How can you be a Christian and a professo...

A new book goes through the details of Pagan ritual explaining what each represents. The author tells us these rituals are a threat to the meaningful and genuine rituals of Christianity. The alarmed reviewer of the book says these "new" rituals and belief systems come along now and then and are eventually left behind for something else. Her own Catholic rituals, however, are permanent because they have been performed in her church building which has been there since the 1800's.  We are to accept, then, that strange Christian rituals like communion are not strange because they have been performed for a thousand or two years? So far as we know, strange Pagan rituals have been performed much longer. It's lost on me why the link author might think there is some objective way to decide which rituals are "old and strange" and which are "flash-in-the-pan and strange." Wouldn't it be more rational to call all rituals which are strange strange. My think...

The new Supreme Court ruling which declared employers cannot fire an employee for being gay or trans has religious organization wondering if it means them as well as everyone else. They have been claiming since day one they will not employ gay people because gay people are sinners. And, they will not employ people living together that are not married. There are cases in the pipeline that will reveal the answer. While we don't know what that answer will be it's fun to speculate. My guess is that the Court will split hairs as it often does. That is it will find some technicality a majority can agree on. A potential technicality would be what responsibility the employee of a religious organization has.  For example, I'm certain that up to now, Franklin Graham would fire a janitor who he suspected was in a gay relationship. How would the goals of his organization, Samaritans Purse, be altered one way or another if a janitor were gay? If all his janitors were gay nothing would c...

The Supreme Court followed a script today that was written long ago. Decades ago it reversed a decisions allowing slavery and later segregation. Today it applied the same principle to gender. A few years ago a majority ruled in favor of allowing gay marriage. Perhaps there are few reading this that have encountered what it deals with. In 1984 I issued the first Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week Proclamation. One of the hundreds of responses was from a local businessman I knew. He wrote me a letter explaining he was appalled at what I had done. Gay people are the dregs of humanity, he wrote. He continued that after hearing about my Proclamation he walked around his small manufacturing business on Main Avenue, Fargo, and asked every employee, "Do you think I should fire any gay employee I learn about?" He wrote that every employee answered "Yes, absolutely." He went on to explain making the public aware there are gay people puts them at risk of being fired and he intende...

In Donald Trump's book, The Art of the Deal , he explained the in negotiating one should not let himself appear to eager to buy or sell.  The worst thing you can do is seem desperate to make a deal. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you're dead. This, of course, is common sense that anyone would know. But the book helped make him a celebrity which has always been his goal. Little did he envision someone else might know the cost of an over anxious negotiator. When the President allowed himself to be put in a position of negotiating weakness, one in which he absolutely had to make a deal, the other negotiator took full advantage. He was writing about himself when he wrote, you're dead. The person across the table from him was his wife, Melania. In a new book her negotiating with Trump illustrates how the tables were turned on a man who considers himself to be a master negotiator. As you will recall, Trump was elected in 2016 and took office in January of 2017. He...

A realization falling numbers of U.S Catholics needs to be addressed apparently has arrived. A committee of U.S. Bishops has proposed, to hold onto its youth, the church's message should be about social justice. I assume this came from asking young people what might keep them in the fold. Predictably a conservative crank issued a compliant about the Bishops' strategy. He says the Catholic Church does not exist for social justice. It exists only to keep people from going to hell after they die. To keep young people in the church they need to be told they will spend eternity in hell if they leave. Scaring people into the church is so Southern Baptist. S.B. is the largest Protestant denomination and is itself falling rapidly. If the strategy is not working for Southern Baptists why would it work for Catholics? Catholic young people have iphones just like young Southern Baptists. They can read that hell was not part of the Christian message until quite long after the alleged time o...

Not all statistics are in and some may not be reliable, but it now appears the largest drop in Southern Baptist Convention membership in 100 years happened in 2019. Southern Baptists are the largest Protestant denomination.  When we first moved to Fargo many decades ago a Southern Baptist preacher asked if he could visit with us. His purpose was, of course, to recruit us to his church which was in our neighborhood. I ask him how a Southern Baptist congregation came to be located as far north as one can go in the U.S. He said probably it was in Fargo originally because of military families from the South. Southern Baptist churches are all over the U.S.  Southern Baptists go through various periods of purification. One happened about ten years ago. Out were leaders trying to present the denomination as contemporary and relevant. In were backward looking out of date buffoons. While the denomination had reluctantly accommodated racial desegregation it had never really left the old...

If you go to church, is it for one reason or many? The results of several studies asking that question have been discussed recently. In addition, a colorful preacher expounded on his theory about why Christians must attend church. The link, written by a non believer, pokes fun a preacher who tells us why people should go to church. It is apparent he is talking about his church in particular. He says if an atheists enters a church filled with people speaking in tongues he/she will be so impacted by the Holy Spirit they will instantly convert. I wonder if the same holds true for a Unitarian who sees people speaking in tongues? And, are lots of people converted by watching a preacher handle snakes? Have my doubts.  This preacher also says to attend a church service is to experience a little of what heaven is like. If heaven is like a church service a large part of the public will not be interested in either. A few years ago the Barna Group asked teenagers why they are leaving the chur...

The widely different predictions about the virus have been matched by widely different predictions about the economy. When we are dealing with uncertainly there are always those who claim certainty.  I have a friend who told me God instructed him to go into a certain profession. He failed twice. He said God then told him to do something else which is working much better. I don't know what would have happened it he had not had his religion to guide him. Proverbs 16:30 tells us divine will is reflected to how the lots fall. Some societies have made decisions by the chief or the shaman tossing shells or bones. They believed in a higher power. Nancy Reagan made decisions about her life and that of her husband based on astrology. She did this until it became public knowledge. People shamed her into believing she was supposed to pray. The friend I wrote about above did not do astrology but prayed like Nancy was supposed to do. There is always uncertainty and we humans mostly don't li...

When I was a college student the big Methodist church I hung out at had a Youth Minister for students. She had a Master's degree from Garrett Seminary, a Methodist seminary. She mentioned often the argument that evidence of the super natural is found in Old Testament "prophesies." In Isaiah 53 are several verses that describe events attributed to "God's servant." God's servant has suffered and is due its reward. For a long long time, the idea has been sold to believers that "God's servant" referred to the future Jesus. That is why our student pastor many decades ago taught this to us. But why hasn't it been re taught in the hundreds of sermons I've heard since? These sermons were preached by graduates of Harvard and Princeton seminaries. According to Bart Ehrman, ( Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife. 2020)  and apparently the seminary professors of the preachers I have experienced in my decades of church attendance, there a...

Since most of human history was some version of Paganism it would be logical to conclude it better reflected the minds of humans than the upstart Christianity (and other recent upstarts). A professor recently dug into consequences of this. Christian comments here and elsewhere have been making the point for years liberal secular people, like many atheists, are flirting with some bad unknown when they work to extract Christianity from government or worse build a secular society. They make a valid point we don't know the future and cannot guarantee some future belief system will be better than Christianity. It could be worse they remind us.  The link makes the argument that Paganism was about societies, sub societies, clans and extended families, each of whom had their own identity, culture and gods. What we know of ancient history and perhaps prehistory is groups often looked at other groups with disdain. As I understand the argument, he believes humans have some deep need to expres...

While this period of history is unpleasant to live through in many ways, it is wonderful political theater. Trying to figure out what is going on gives us political junkies something to do. I was jolted by the insight of a person who had both engaged in and studied political resistance against autocratic leadership. He has studied Mahatma Ganhdi and leaders and other events closer to this country.  We need to insert a disclaimer here that political systems vary and democratic systems have solutions others do not for solving issues of power. That said, we all know majorities in democracies can impose autocratic solutions on minorities. This was addressed in by our founding fathers in the Constitution. What was addressed by the link was this question: How can nonviolent protests be effective against an autocratic leader or the majority? The answer is that nonviolent protests play with the minds of others in the system. That is other politicians, military and the general public. They ...

Much of the current heritage of the upper Midwest, Minnesota and North Dakota, is Scandinavian. From that heritage has been huge numbers of Lutherans and others such as the Swedish Evangelical Covenant denomination.  The notion of going back to the roots of belief is now meaningless for people in the U.S. of Scandinavian heritage. At least one country, Norway, now polls majority not believing in God. When I discuss here the falling numbers of believers a comment will often appear, "People will revert to how it used to be when they grow older and come to their senses. That has always happened in the past." When we talk about the "past" it is always possible to pick the past one likes most and ignore parts not liked. Most believers alive today probably had great grandparents, grandparents and parents who were believers. When they talk about the past that is the time period they are referring to. Most of the "past" however was long before that, like 200,000 y...

It's almost heresy to ask such a question. An apologist has proposed religion is good. His explanation has some holes in it. He admits societies with the most religion generally are the poorest and conversely those with less of it have higher standards of living. The U.S. is an exception to that rule, prosperous but quite religious. Then he goes through the usual litany of reasons why religion might contribute to better societies. There have been any number of questionnaire studies asking people if they are "happy?" The results show those with lots of religion say they are more happy than those with less. Studies also show there are fewer divorces. There is evidence that children of couples, married and not married, who have been together for long periods of time do better. Such couples are most often religious.  Then the link author wades into an area with mine fields. He says there is less pornography in counties with more religion. Countries with the most religion inc...

People on the left are pointing at the Christian right and saying, "Why do you want stores open and want not to wear a mask when a human life might be taken by your obstinance?" It's as if the Christian right is marching in a abortion rights demonstration carrying the most popular sign, "MY BODY; MY RIGHTS." As a columnist wrote recently, there is a pandemic of hypocrisy.  So many times people who don't want to be subjected to safety rules explain it is up to they, themselves, to decide whether to take risks with their bodies. It is not the right of government. At stake, of course, is the health of others, mostly adults. When it comes to "life" these folks don't really care--even though if asked they might proclaim themselves "right to life." I do agree the disease will spread to some degree regardless of the precautions taken. Apparently the precautions slow the spread to health facilities can better deal  with the problem.  I've...

Someone on the web today reviewed for the umpteenth time The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I don't claim to be knowledgeable about American literature but I had read the book more than a couple of times and watched the movie several times. As most know, it is a story of class and the consequences of those being careless when at the top. I never grow tired of hearing or reading the tale. I even think I can see it play out in real life in real time. Among today's billionaires there are a few that carefully determine where their money can be given and how they pass out at least a tiny bit of their good fortune. I see this in Bill and Malinda Gates and Warren Buffet. They are not the characters from The Great Gatsby.  Real life billionaires who leave behind they a trail of damage are the real life characters from that fictional story. Especially good representatives are those who, like the characters in the book, are either unaware of their damage or aware but without co...

There is an ancient story about a man with whom gods were pleased. The gods warned him they were displeased the rest of human kind punishment was coming. It was coming in the form of a flood which would wipe out all humanity except this man and his family. The gods, of course, needed someone to breed more humans so they decided all would not be murdered except this fine fellow and his family. They would be spared to repopulate the earth.  The man was instructed to build an enormous boat, an acre in size and with seven levels. He was to bring on board his wife and specimens of all living creatures.  The flood came as predicted. When the rains stopped the man sent out birds to find dry land. Sure enough, he was able to walk out of the boat along with every other species of life and repopulate the world. As a reward, the gods rewarded the man with immunity from death. The man's name was not Noah, but Ut- napishtim . The story about him was preserved in stone engravings and in bit...

The Mormons have had the same problem gender as other conservative branches of Christianity. Since their entire version of the faith is different their responses to gender issue has been a little different as well. Mostly though it has had the same view as some others in the faith, how a person refers their gender is something that can be correct or not correct. And, if it is not correct it needs to be managed by leaders in the faith. These leaders can instruct followers on the proper answer to the question, "What is my gender?" The Mormon fancy footwork on gender, as well as nearly all other socially conservative branches, reminded me of something believers often say to me. They say, "I can see you are struggling with your religious views."  I do not "struggle" at all with them. Gay people are often said by religious people to be "struggling with their sexual identity." There may be some who cannot figure out their gender or which gender they ar...