Thoughts of a Freethinker

When the Coronavirus came along everyone asked, "Where did it come from?" President Trump said it was invented by the Chinese and they sent it here. If you are trying to debunk Darwin, that is the right answer. The wrong answer, if you are trying to debunk Darwin, is that it evolved in animals and was transferred to humans. The anti Darwinists, already a little dim in the brain, did not see the opportunity. When President Trump and others latched onto the odd theory the Chinese had invented the virus intelligent design people should have jumped on that. They should have been delighted to learn the virus was not a mutation or evolution-based virus. It had, they could have said, no history just as all the rest of the universe until God created it. Of course, to make this work intelligent design people would have had to block all research into the origin of the virus.  The only intelligent design comment I saw was the virus proves that evolution only destroys and never creates.

Religion plays with the mind in so many ways. To some Christians the communion ritual is so powerful it changes temporarily their behavior. There are Christians who pass out from emotions. Now we read how Hindus see religious meaning in the Hindu traditions. Mid August was the time of a huge Hindu celebration. Traditionally, massive numbers of people came from across India to the shores of the Arabian Sea. They enter the water with cheap idols of the god, Ganesh. Often they would leave the idols in the sea and they would wash up other places. Worshippers wear make up considered toxic to the environment. On land the celebration includes Ganesh statues raised high above the crowds. People gather around below the statues and have parties. Several adjustments had to be made because of the Coronavirus. Instead of crowds in the Arabian Sea the city water utility drove around with water trucks. They hosed water into tanks or puddles where people immersed their statues. Sometimes the tanks we

Marx was one on the world's greatest thinkers. He was not religious so he is not included seminary reading lists. He was not a political leader so he is not in that group. He also was not the complete basher of capitalism as he is so often characterized. He realized there was a place for some private business was not interested in the ideology of private ownership. What absorbed him was the nature of humans, what motivated them and what their inherent weaknesses were.  Marx was always quite poor, his books banned in many places in the world. He also suffered physically from various ailments. He commanded no armies or appealed to any voters--held no public office. From all of that came a man of powerful ideas so important they are yet today both promoted and debunked around the world.  He wrote about the human weakness for excesses in money and power. Societies need to be structured to hold back these excesses. The capitalist, we wrote, has no internal warning light telling him he h

  An article appeared on the Christian Post site that has appeared in every election I can remember. The names change but the chicanery remains exactly the same. The letters and columns are always from a military person or retired one. It is always implies, "I know all about how to keep our country safe. The Democrats are dangerous and will endanger you. Trust me, I know." This phony says America will be engulfed in fames if protesters are not stomped on. Four years ago it was Hillary's emails and some "General" claimed they would ruin the country. During one of the Bush II elections I remember a "General" who was the one person in charge of the nuclear button. He wrote that his experience as the only person with that responsibility made him uniquely qualified to judge who would be the best President beside him. Surprise, it was Bush II. This is not to say Democrats don't play "the sky is falling" with gusto sometimes. Bill Clinton did i

I did not know the religion of Zoroastrianism was still alive. It is but not for long. The list of religions that once dominated parts of the world, ruled empires and were thought to have bright futures is long. They include the Egyptian beliefs, Norse, Roman pantheon and many others. What happened during their final years? What did the last living believer in each think before he/she died? They all just died and tip toed away quietly.  Zoroastrianism has many good things going for it. It has two gods, one good and the other evil. They are evenly matched so the triumph of good over evil is not preordained. This is a better explanation of good and bad behavior than Christianity.  While Zoroastrianism has existed for over 2,500 years, it has never learned the basic technique of survival. That is to mirror the culture around it. The small number of remaining believers are just as fanatical as some Christians, Jews and Muslims we know. These fanatic beliefs include that only a child born o

  After surveying many Pastors the Christian Barna Group found much more pessimism now than they did a few months ago. At the beginning of the pandemic the majority of preachers thought their membership was committed to their church, would participate in whatever worship the church had to offer and would donate as they had in the past. A more recent poll found things have not played out that way. Large denominations like the Methodists have found national giving down by 20%. Amounts of other reporting denominations reported declines in giving both above and below the number.  Eighteen months is a time period that goes beyond the predicted beginning of vaccinations for the disease. We don't know yet that it will be successful. I read today it may be somewhat successful but not entirely so. This certainly would complicate the return of various activities to the level they were before. We would all predict that if the economy does not recover rapidly this will hold down donations of a

The common good, good which falls more on others and less on individuals, is something discussed more at election time than at other times. Everyone pitches in with their notion of what ideas benefit society at large and other ideas that are harmful to society at large. Usually we all tend to see ideas that benefit us as individuals as the ones we think also benefit society at large. A Christian academic recently wrote in detail how a Christians should see the common good. He quotes the great philosophers and goes into the Bible to sort out what referred to the good for Christians exclusively. He made a few fleeting references to the good of society beyond the Christian community. In the final paragraph he concludes (my paraphrasing) we are all better off worshiping God because we can then all enjoy the common good which are the blessings of God. Balderdash.  We know early humans lived together in families, clans and tribes. Humans knew the clan would not survive unless there was some

  Buddhism is an old philosophy, not a religion according to some of its followers. To me, it is an accumulation of wisdom modified and adjusted to meet problems universal to humans. It is not necessary to know or follow, but it is interesting nevertheless. A claim was made recently by a writer who practices it that it can help all of us these days. To begin with we need to acknowledge there are many ways to get through difficult times in life. Praying no doubt helps many. Other religions have their thing. Those who have no religion seem to be doing as well as anyone else. Buddhism is an old philosophy born, according to those who write about it, of the Buddha's own despair. The link mentions five sources of despair he has dealt with an a little about the Buddhist's way of dealing with them. 1.) Death.  Death is a reality but the ego cannot stand to think of the world without "me." It is only by setting that ego aside and thinking of the larger view of life, that lif

The position of an executive in a religious liberty organization describes and analyzes it differently than most preachers and pundits. The staff attorney for a religious liberty organization warns others talking up "religious liberty" that they will get no where until they acknowledge and respect the religious liberty of all views on religion. He includes those who do not believe in any religion. The link author wants pastors and others who talk about religious liberty to learn completely the views of others. He wants them to study and converse with this wide variety who have a stake in the outcome. The author makes it clear he is not talking about "universalism" or "multiculturalism" or that they must modify their own religious beliefs. His carefully thought out views are refreshing to read. I would paraphrase him as saying we are all in this country together. Any concept of religious liberty that takes away the rights of others will not work. One of his

The American Library Association keeps tabs on which books most frequently experience requests or orders to be banned from school or public libraries. Topics popular for banning change as Christianity changes. Currently, the most popular reason to request banning a book is the topic of homosexual relationships or transgendered characters. "Satan" is at work in those books. When this blog was available from the Fargo Forum website there were requests made to the Forum to have it taken down. Even now I get scolded occasionally for posting it here on a site few people can find.  A member of the local atheist group grew up in a fundamentalist church and was lectured on what books available at that time should be banned and even the topic of burning them was discussed. Evil was in those books. When she was older she became an atheists but the titles of those evil books stayed with her. Her hobby for many years has been to haunt used book stores finding and buying the titles she r

So far as anyone has found, no political party platform has ever before acknowledged the right "not to believe" in its religious freedom statement. Obama spoke those words in at least one speech but it has now been approved by a party. Hopefully the Republican Party will see it as competition and will slow its movement toward becoming even more of a "Christian Party." Religion and its current obsessions, abortion and gays, it typical of the way the economics and politics of Christianity operate in the U. S. Both leaders and their followers get caught up in some sin, latch onto it and ride it as far as it goes. When the sin starts to fade as something to demonize leaders and followers abandon it and jump on a new sin bandwagon.  The "sins" of abortion and homosexuality are following the same path as prohibition . The players are a little different but the overarching story is the same. Some leaders in Protestantism began calling alcohol a moral issue. Witho

Instead of the old narrative that abortion is about a "life," a new narrative is gaining momentum. It comes with the rise of women in high positions. It is called Reproductive Justice . A counter argument was also published illustrating the unsolvable and unresolvable dilemma of the pro life movement. It is denying that the life of the fetus is more important than the health and life of the mother. Anti abortion claims it is concerned with the mother but then goes to state unequivocally the mother must yield to religion's rules about a part of her body. Which argument ultimately will win, the one based on on-the-ground real lives women lead on one based on mythical religious beliefs? It is inevitable, the former will win in the long run. The old narrative that abortion is all about the life of the fetus will be replaced with an increased recognition of the importance of women. They see abortion as a broader issue. It involves her current children, children she wants to h

  If Christianity continues its long-lasting slide in popularity, what could slip in to replace it. The majority of humans like imagining there is something bigger than what they can actually see and feel. To me, the next big religion would involve technology and places that both exist in reality but are mysterious because we have never been there. Outer space is such a place. There are several religions that look to aliens for the super natural. One already available was written up recently. It has been here since the 1950's. A taxi driver in England heard a distinct voice and recorded exactly what it told him. It told him to start a new religion based on extraterrestrial life. If this sounds familiar then you are recalling Jesus told Peter to run a religion and Joseph Smith who Jesus tell him to start the Mormons. George King, the taxi driver, was told to  start the Aetherius Society. It now has 35 centers all over the world. The link shows a worship ceremony where a member pray

This past year a book called Atheist Overreach was published in an effort to reverse Christian decline. There have been hundreds of sermons and articles trying to figure this out. Atheist Overreach apparently   blames it on atheists. He is particularly angry at the "new atheists" who wrote four best selling books several years ago. No one among atheists, so far as I know, now refers to the four authors as "new atheists," they are just among the millions of ordinary atheists. Christians claim on this blog that atheists "want to remove all Christianity from the public square." This, of course, is a complicated issue involving two Constitutional issues, freedom of speech and no government endorsement of a religion. To a large extent, Christians have been successful in leaving all kinds of marketing of their faith, and no other faith, in the public square. Even as they continue to be successful in doing this their numbers continue to fall. I doubt either more

  I've said it here before, but now a Christian site has confirmed that the public will choose between abortion rights and none. The Biden/Harris ticket is called "the most pro abortion ticket in history." I admit that is at least a little misleading. President Reagan was there eight years as was W. Bush. H.W. Bush was there four years as has been Trump. That is 16 years of Presidents who claimed to be against abortion but abortion is still legal. Perhaps those years should be included as abortion rights years as were the sixteen years each of Clinton and Obama.  For all of those 32 years, those who make money off of anti abortion politics and those who get votes from it have claimed, "Keep sending money. We are just on the cusp of outlawing abortion."  In spite of the evidence abortion rights are here to stay, gullible people still spend their money and their votes on an unreachable goal. There is an unspoken message this time, it seems to me. It is that democr

  It was as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning. It is happening because (1.) the Bible does not condemn homosexual marriage, (2.) young people are tolerant of equality and (3.) older prejudiced members are dying off. Statistics show a steady increase in tolerance for gay people. It is not the majority yet but may well be soon. It's fun, at least for me, to think of all the ways things used to have clear demarcations and no longer do. Race used to be easier to identify. At least there were those who thought so. Even though many people were considered to be black had white slave-holding ancestors, it was thought to be clear who was what. With the rapid growth of interracial marriage and citizens from other countries race is now on a scale with no way to measure. Then, there is gender. People who change how they self identify themselves by gender are now out and about among us. The old saw that if you were born with more male than female parts or visa versa made that deci

There is more interest just now in the controversial economist, John Maynard Keynes. He is mostly thought of as the one who advised Roosevelt in the late 1930's to make big public expenditures in order to lift the economy out of the Great Depression. It turns out Keynes had a broad overview of society and what makes for a good and successful one. Keynes was not an ideological socialist. Instead, he had a model in his mind of a successful society. It included the view that poverty put income and social classes at odds. A successful society is not in a permanent civil conflict within itself. A peaceful and productive society is a successful one. Though he himself was wealthy he thought wealthy people were happier in a stable society. There was a way, Keynes thought, to reach this societal ideal. It was progressive taxation and government spending. The spending needed to managed in a way that brought up the lowest incomes. These were the people who would stimulate the economy. Money t

  Camala Harris ended her Biden team press conference with the old saw, "May God bless you and may God Bless America." That sentence is not old and traditional. It was first said by Richard Nixon and thought to be political gold ever since.  Harris apparently is a member of some kind of Baptist church. This gives her a lot of wide berth of what to believe and claim to believe in Christianity. She said she is in favor of abortion rights using the code language of "women's rights."  If Biden/Harris win, my expectation is we will hear a lot of religion. A hint of what is to come is Biden's choice of "Soul of America" as a theme phrase. Use of the word "soul" strikes me as way to inject the language of religion into his campaign. In Biden's past comments on religion there is what sounds to me like a pattern of the social gospel. He has said his religion taught him concern for the poor and working people. If there were a way to vote nation

The word redemption is not one I use much but I've noticed it is a word used often by religious people. I read once the President George W. Bush said he was enthusiastic about invading Iraq because his family needed "redemption." The redemption was that his father had called off military attracts without invading Iraq after the Gulf War. Growing up in an evangelical church and hearing testimony from traveling evangelists it occurred to me all of them claimed to have once lived lives of drinking and partying. I wondered why they were all so similar. Later I learned this was part of the schtick. That preachers who performed at rallies and such needed to say that had been rescued by religion from a life of decadence. It was as if one could not be a real Christian without first living a sinful life. Given the "system", we may well expect Jerry Jr. to announce he has seen the light and will retake the Presidency of Liberty University where he was recently fired (is o

When religious conservatives demand laws against abortion they are putting their faith in government. The nature of the federal government and of the Presidency has changed in the last several decades and one wonders why religious conservatives have not see the change.                                            I listened to an interview with the author of On Corruption; What is at Stake. She looked back in the history of the U.S. and found corruption large up to the years of World War I, the depression and World War II. Prior to that series of events corruption was largely in the open and attention drawn to it was scoffed at by those on the take. It was "Sure I'm doing it. Try to stop me." The trauma of the depression followed by war time patriotism took away, largely, the notion politicians could take bribes and steal with impunity. Profiting from the Presidency was absent during the years of Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and others into the 1980's. The link author

                                                While President Trump has fumbled with religion several times while trying to appeal to the religious, this ad lib that Biden will hurt the Bible and hurt God was the most interesting. The next phrase he muttered was that Biden will "take our guns." It's back to the old "God and guns" campaign of a few years back. It seems to me we have new issues and the culture is different now.  I wonder how one goes about hurting the Bible and hurting God. In the U. S. when asked, "Do you believe in God?", about 2.7 million people answered "No." The number of atheists in the world has been estimated to be between 500-750 million. What is meant by the word atheist can alter that number. I wish I could remember the number of times when sitting in a circle of avid atheists someone has said, "I was a Christian until I read the Bible. After that, no."  Bart Ehrman, a famous author of books treating the

The Satanic Temple announced a ritual that women can perform while undergoing an abortion. It is a ritual not unlike those of Christianity, Islam and Hindu. The Temple will, of course, go to court to get the ritual approved under the concept of Freedom of Religion. Government may not prohibit, the court will say, people from practicing their religion. In this case it religious abortion. And, according to the well-established script, anti abortion lawyers will claim Satanism is not a religion. That is after they have declared atheism a religion for various schemes they have had in the past. For the life of me, I cannot understand how one group of people can make up a god and receive benefits for the made up god while another group makes up another god and goes without. It just defies common sense. Perhaps by the time my grandchildren or their children are old like me we will have a court system in the U.S. that quotes George Carlin, "All religion is bull$hit." I suppose oppone

                                          Among black Catholics the feeling about blacks killed needlessly by police is bitterness . Among white Catholics, six of ten think Black Lives Matter is the enemy. How could an effort for racial justice by rejected by 60% of a huge Christian denomination. That is the question black Catholics cannot understand. One of those is a prominent black radio personality and Catholic in Texas, Gloria Purvis. She hosted a population talk show on a Catholic network in Texas. That was until it was pulled off the air. While the network has not said specifically why, Purvis knows why. After George Floyd was killed by a police office Purvis spent several days explaining why racism and violence against black citizens by police is against teaching of the Catholic faith. She talked about the many Catholic saints who had spoken out against racism. She pointed to the harm racism does to society. And, she discussed how God made man in his own image. Black people are

Mayor Pete, gay, pro choice and pro gay marriage, has been given an annual research award position at the Catholic institution, Notre Dame University. Oh my, there is bitterness . The link is written by a priest who is a Professor of History and Notre Dame and hates it that the University honors politicians who do not conform to instructions from Rome. What we might call "the Catholic world" is filled with defiance to church teachings. The German branch of the church pays lots of money into Rome's coffers.  To keep the government collecting voluntary fees from taxpayers ear marked for the church the German church has to conform to some extent to societal values. If people are indifferent they may not object to paying the fee. If they are straight up mad, well, that's taking a risk. So, the German church does not condemn gay marriage, Rome objects but Germany does not conform. Remember the Catholic Church claims it has a linage from Peter. Jesus allegedly told Peter to

Today I learned  spiritual demons are causing all of our problems.  The link is about one of President Trump's new religious heroes, Dr. Stella Immanuel. Trump tweeted about a video she made praising his cure for the Coronavirus, hydroxychoroquine. Later Trump claimed he knew nothing about her. There is plenty to know. Dr. Immanuel is steeped in the African culture of demons. She can tell you about "demon sperm," "demon sex," and "generational curses." These are concepts with their roots in the Mountain of Fire Ministries, Lagos, Nigeria from 1989. That church has roots further back to a Nigerian tradition, Christ Apostalic Church in 1941. This history, of course, plots the organizations with records and not religious folk traditions starting who knows when. The current version of the faith is expanding across the world and includes several churches in the U.S. According to some writers, Christian missionaries went into Africa unprepared for the onslau

You may have missed it, but during the third week of the month just passed, July, the Governor of Louisiana held three days of fasting and praying to end the Coronavirus. The next week numbers of the sick and the dead went up in Louisiana. A couple of months ago the President declared a day (or maybe it as a week, can't remember, don't care) of prayer against the virus. The nationwide number of cases immediately went up. The lesson in this may well be don't pray, it causes illnesses. We all know days or weeks of prayer are not about helping the country or anyone in the country. They are about helping the politicians or clergy who propose them. It is a trick as old as the faith. People of faith can help. A large group of clergy where I live had a press event today. Clergy who spoke said people of the faith should wear face masks. That is a way for them to express and carry out concern for their fellow man. Many branches of the faith are not holding services until it is safe

So called "right to life" anti abortion activist so often claim they are "saving lives." The lives they want to save are not those of people but those of fetuses. They have no interest in saving the lives of people. I spent several days in Bangladesh several years ago. We have close friends there who were at North Dakota State University. Their daughter was born in Fargo. Bangladesh was once called "East Pakistan". This came about when Britain withdrew its colonial status with India. There were two areas that were majority Muslim which were given sovereign status as one country, Pakistan. The two areas were far apart and culturally different. Eventually there was a war and the two are now Bangladesh and Pakistan. While among the poorest countries in the world, Bangladesh has been doing many things right. It has improved education and health. But, it made one mistake which is bordering on fatal. It did not control the number of births. Its success in educat

Unlike several years ago when I started this blog, there are many articles in the Christian press trying to figure how to stop the faith exodus. The evidence was there years ago but Christian writers and leaders thought it was just a temporary bubble that would soon reverse itself. What leaders today are trying to discover is the cause. They, of course, want to "flatten the curve" of falling numbers. Writers in the Christian press and even readers here at this tiny blog have offered up ideas as to what is the cause and how to correct it. Causes in their minds include the young simply taking a break from church and will return later, bad experiences with a church member, not enough invitations to attend church, atheist propaganda, gay propaganda and so on. What if the problem is something else? What if it simply is a "bad product?" The late comedian, George Carlin, gave a monolog that has been listened to and republished millions of times: When it comes to bullshit,

Everyday I read three newspapers on line and one daily delivered to my condo. The one with the largest number of Christian contributors is the Fargo Forum. It also has four writers with different religious views and one is left with the impression Fargo, and places like it, are dominated by Christian thinking. That's why it is educational to read columns by natives of the U.S. who have no background in Christianity and who seem to be oblivious to its presence in the country. I'm sure there are many such pockets and people.  I don't know where they are nor would I know how to get acquainted with these people. I wish I could. I came across a long piece in the New York Times by a female writer who grew up in an occult community in Florida. She wrote there is a sizable group near the site of the Daytona 500. It is near DeLand where I visited on an economic development project years ago. The larger community is very conservative Christian. Having grown up in an occult environmen