Thoughts of a Freethinker

There is a novel and movie I never tire of seeing again and again, The Great Gatsby. It is about class and the abuses that go with it.  While it might be class differences will always exist, the great question is how much, if any, opportunity exists for generations to move up in class or more down. We can see, even in the Bible, there is always resistance by upper classes to encourage or even allow upward mobility. In the U.S, we have experienced growing resistance to upward mobility. It is hard to see how we can continue as a world leader unless we unleash lower economic classes so they can compete with upper classes.   I don't see how any reasonable person can think our country, or any country, is stronger with a rigid class system. If, for example, we need soldiers to defend our country, most of them will come from families without much money. If those soldiers feel they might do better with some other economic or political system they will not defend well this one. We only...

The Satanists have filed a lawsuit against the Texas anti abortion law. I've seen only one effort to seriously analyze what the case is about. The link author wrote a book about the Satanic Temple which was published by the academic press, Oxford. He interviewed 50 people including Satanic Temple members, opponents and constitutional attorneys.  The case Satanists are making challenges the notion the term "religion" is about the famous supernatural gods that people have worshipped since written history. People have mostly moved on since the Greek gods and now worship gods in Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and many others. The Satanic Temple does not worship Satan but has a spiritual element that some say appears to provide a solid challenge to existing concepts of what defines "religion." People might be tempted to say that for beliefs to be "religious" they must have ancient origins. This is not the case. The Freedom of Religion case centered on the us...

While leaving the faith is more common now that is has been since the last half of the 1800's, it still is not easy for some. Their social life and family life centers of belief in strange ideas and to express disbelief is to be a stranger among all those you know and depend on. People who are able to do this deserve our admiration .  In both the atheist groups I have been involved in there is a steady stream of new people wanting to meet and make new friends because they have walked away from their old lives. This happens even among clergy. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has an on line group of practicing clergy who are no longer able to believe but are trapped in a career they cannot leave and sometimes in such a marriage as well. We have to remind ourselves deep faith is a system. First, the system tells you you are a sinner. Then it tells you it has the only path out of your sin. Believe and your sins will be forgiven. Leave and you will be saddled forever with your sin. ...

That is the result of a new poll in the State of Iowa. It shows a dramatic increase in support of abortion rights in one year. Iowa cannot be regarded as a "liberal" state, it went 60% for Trump in the 2020 election. It's been my thought for years the politics of abortion are similar, maybe identical, to the politics of prohibition. Beer and whiskey caused absenteeism at work, divorce, illness and was a sin. That was repeated until a majority thought it was correct and prohibition was passed. But prohibition changed the reasoning of many in the public. The new thought was, "Wait a minute. That affects me." Support in Iowa for abortion rose 8% since 2020. The only thing that has changed is the Texas anti abortion event. Like prohibition, it's "Wait a minute. That affects me (or those close to me)." It changed the politics of abortion rights. Certainly, what happened in Iowa polling may not represent all of the U.S. But, with 66% of women polling in ...

A few decades back, the Catholic Church and the draconian Franco regime were very cozy. Franco was Spain's dictator from 1939 to 1975. What could be better, Catholic clergy thought, than a dictatorship we run and that outlaws all abortion? But times are changing. Several Catholic countries in Central and South America have legalized abortion.  Catholic Ireland now has legal abortion. Spain ignored Catholic clergy and make significant improvements in abortion availability in 2010 and 2015.  A Catholic Bishop in Spain was quoted recently in the New York Times recently as saying, "Bulls from the bull fighting ring are treated better than babies in Spain." I think, in reality, he is more interested in treating bulls well than he is in treating women well. In several pieces I have read about Spain, doctors who will not perform abortions tell women they will suffer permanent psychological damage by having one. The U.S. study, Turnaway,  found this was false. Thus, these doctors...

As the clock ticks so many things change. The wedding ceremony and funeral used to be always at the church. Now, even those affiliated with a church are choosing to have their weddings, etc., somewhere else. It seems to me to be part of the church not being the center of social and ceremonial life in the U.S. as it once was.  We have a small family buy it has run the gamut of wedding ceremonies. Our daughter made quite an effort to join a church so she and her husband to be could be married there. Her husband was raised a Catholic and she thought it would be hard enough for them to use a Protestant church, let alone a hotel. It was a wonderful event and his Catholic family was happy with it too. The son's wedding was at the other end of the spectrum. They were married in their backyard by a tarot card reader. They had another wedding in Thailand that was a huge affair. All of this seems to me to be a good trend, the withdrawal of the church in personal lives where it never should h...

In the Des Moines Register this morning was an article authored by three professors, two from Notre Dame and one from the University of Akron. I'm sorry I was not able to link it here. They described what they had found from polling people about religion. Rather than people being "religious" or "secular", a wide swath is both. It is not unusual for people to hold two opposing views at the same time. We find many who oppose abortion, believing the fetus to be a person, to be in favor of killing people in other ways. But a new adjustment has to be made for a Chaplain at Harvard to be an atheist. How could that be? Religious secularists are the largest and fastest growing group in the U.S., possibly in the world. There are twice as many as there are Southern Baptists. They make up about one-sixth of the population. Traditional labels in the group would be many Jews and main line Protestants and Catholics as well as atheists and such. On politics they are against re...

It's not a new topic but new perspectives on old issues are always helpful. Religions are often about good and evil, saints and sinners. Politics is about friends and enemies. The two approaches do a dance that often is hard to understand . Currently, the demographic most rapidly leaving organized religion is lower middle class. It used to be regarded as the group Christianity could rely on the carry the ball. What group most enthusiastically joins with evangelicals and votes for Trump? Yes, that group.  Could it be their political passion as "the left behind", those who have benefited the least from the technological revolution, have become politically super charged and organized religion is no longer their vehicle? While the far left has mostly not been religious it now is also Bernie super charged and does not need the church if it ever did. For the right especially, politics is expressed as religion even though it is not.  I've heard that in conservative Islamic c...

The calculation that defying laws meant to save lives is more important than saving lives can be illustrated by the COVID  statistics in North Dakota. Burleigh County, home of the State Capital, Bismarck, had a much higher rate of Covid and death than Cass County, home of the largest City, Fargo. The link written by a doctor who worked in the State's Public Health office explained that if Burleigh County had followed the same precautionary protocol as Fargo 93 people in Burleigh County would be alive today.  If you polled lots of people in Burleigh County, "Are you against abortion?" many would say, "Oh yes. I'm in favor of life. On this mask deal, I'm in favor of freedom. Don't try to take away my freedom." This reminds me of a wise observation about people: It is not uncommon for people to hold two opposing views, advocating for each, at the same time. This certainly is the case with anti mask wearing and vaccination while insisting women do not ha...

There are pages and pages in the Bible that claim to be the words of Jesus. No one who wrote the Bible claimed to have been present when Jesus spoke. No one even claimed to have seen or talked to Jesus. So when we "quote Jesus" we may not be quoting him at all. It's fun to review things Jesus is supposed to have said that really annoy Christians today. Christians today are enthusiastic capitalists and, while Jesus talked a lot about money, he never embraced the wealth most Christians today pursue. Recall that the rich man is a camel trying to fit through the eye of a needle the rich man Jesus told to give away all he had.  Jesus supposedly said his male followers were to leave their families to work for him. While there is a lot of machoism in Christianity there is also a lot of advocacy of men being involved in family life. Certainly no preacher or membership outreach committee today says to prospective members, "If you join our church we want Dad to leave the famil...

We all know that across the globe are Christians of all varieties. Their cultures are different and the versions of Christianity they glop onto differ accordingly.  Once upon a time all these differences were put to bed. It happened at the Council of Nicene in the 300's. The Roman Emperor Constantine was weary of hearing about this very of "God the Father" and "Jesus the Son" and the various versions of what that meant. So the Emperor said Bishops from several countries were to convene and resolve their various differences.  That they were to resolve differences was in itself a defeat of Christianity. If the "truth" was out there why would there be a need to sit around and argue about what it was? In the true spirit of Christianity, then and now, the wealthy 1% meant to negotiate compromises as to what was acceptable. That, from then on, was to be "Christianity." But, it was not.  For the next thousand or so years practices of the faith morph...

Yet another poll has come out asking Christians what they believe, and equally as important, what they don't believe. The majority don't believe there is a Holy Spirit. Also, they do not believe the Christian God is the only legitimate god. According to "experts" in the faith, such people are very wrong. The question, what can be done about it?  So many solutions have been run up the flag pole. Parents must teach their children correctly. Preachers must hammer home the message. Fellow Christians must become better informed about their faith. These result of all these imperative solutions has been more erosion of beliefs among those who profess they are Christians.  We all know the only requirement for being called a "Christian" is for a person to say yes when asked. Of course, there are criticisms of those who answer yes but know little about the faith's doctrine. If a majority of self identified Christians do not believe in the central tenets of the fai...

In the book I just finished about women in ancient Christianity the author pointed to the change in the status of women around the 14th century. Prior to that time women served in leadership positions. There were women Bishops in the Catholic Church. But that honor and responsibility was hacked off around the 1500's. No women Bishops since then. There is a group lobbying Bishops to allow women to again serve and a gathering in the Vatican just now considering it. Several other times there were discussions about allowing it but never happened. According to the author about women in Christianity I've been discussing, the role of women in the Catholic church tracked accurately society's attitudes toward women. Religion simply slapped it label on whatever the culture was doing. Catholics made sure men held the highest positions but needed women to fill in jobs elsewhere. Then, after the Referendum cultural machoism entered the breakaway which became Protestantism.  According to...

It makes sense that the 40 or so faculty members at Harvard who are designated as chaplains elected as their Chair an atheist who is a full time Chaplain there. Harvard is regarded as an intellectual powerhouse world wide. This is national news because it represents a new reality. If you were to guess, how many atheists are included in this year's Harvard freshman class? If you guessed 40% you would be correct. Thus, it makes sense for the other Chaplain's to select an atheist--that Chaplain will have more students listening to him than any of the others. As Mark Silk, the Methodist professor and writer pointed out, Harvard has a long history of secularity. Even though it was established to train preachers it soon because a place that disregarded them. It is said occasionally in this blog's discussion page the discipline called Philosophy can prove "there is a God." There are 21 members of the Department of Philosophy at Harvard. I would be willing to wager there ...

No one can deny climate change is already causing massive changes in the world. No one can say he/she know exactly where it will all go from here. The majority opinion is science is the effects will continue to increase for decades ahead. Regardless of whether this prediction of doom is correct or not, it is prudent, even conservative, to prepare for and anticipate the worst. If the worst does not happen the consequences on balance will be less that if we pretend there is no chance the worst will happen. For some reason many people who call themselves "conservative" do not believe or carry the ideas and ideals of conservatism. Instead, they are risk takers. A study just released concludes 216 million people will be forces to migrate in the near future. That is by the year 2050.  The population of the U.S. last year was 330 million. Thus, those that will have to migrate would be equal to 2/3 of the people now in the U.S.  It is projected the majority of movement of people will...

Back when the airliners crashed into the towers in NYC, those doing the crime were saying "Praise be to Allah." The lesson of this was so obvious to me. That lesson was that when religious ideas permeate deep into government terrible things happen.  It would follow then that we should not let that happen in our country. That is, the issues at the time were about the same as the issues today, gay rights and abortion. The lesson was these issues and a host of others where religious ideas took over our secular government should be identified by voters and the ideas and the politicians who trafficked in them should be scorned. I was so wrong in assuming a big part of the public saw it as I did. Instead, a big swath of the U.S. public saw it as a reason to inject more, not less, religion into politics. There were prayers, church services and an appearance by the President at the National Cathedral. Religion in government was ramped up, not tamped down. It reminds me of the many wa...

I'd hate to guess how many times in human history governments kept control of people by having their own secret spies scattered around among ordinary citizens. It must be the most common form of control ever devised. Communism, at least what we heard about here in the West, was all about this, Communist cells were formed. They covered every neighborhood. Operating at their best every citizen had someone watching them for signs of disloyalty. Russia had them, China, Cuba and so on.  While I don't claim to know much about the French Revolution, the fictional portrayal in Tale of Two Cities  had the revolutionaries watching in neighborhoods. In the story the spy was a lady who ran a wine shop.  In the book, 1984, the government watched and reported on everyone. In a report today, Christianpost.com published a story that seemed to imply something incorrectly. Christianpost loves stories about persecuted Christians. Somewhere a story that two elderly men who are Christian cler...

If there is no Roe, abortion will be turned back to the states. While liberals most everywhere oppose this, making it a state instead of national issue was endorsed by an icon of liberalism, the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She once said in an indirect way abortion should have been battled out state by state like gay marriage. Now gay marriage is unstoppable while abortion is still jacked around.  While I don't think the current Texas circumstance will prevail over time, states will still tinker with abortion. As they do, the role of the national message spinners will be diminished. Efforts to divert the argument to pseudo science like "DNA" will be replaced with more honest expressions like "God hates abortion." In other words, religion will become more central to the debate.  Already the Satanists are using religion in favor of abortion. A long time Rabbi just published an article explaining why he would use his religion to endorse abortion for young women in dif...

 The Texas anti abortion law has been crowed about by anti abortion zealots. But national Republican politicians have mostly been silent . This, at least so far, plays out what I have said here for years. Anti abortion politics is not about actually stopping abortion, it is about pretending to try to stop them. If abortion is actually stopped, Republican politicians are out of money and out of time. As the link explains, they are like the dog that caught the car.  This, of courage, presumes the law will actually take effect and remain over time. A Christian columnist who opposes abortion and opposes the Texas law wonders what will happen when a citizen prosecutor notices a woman who was pregnant is no longer pregnant. The citizen took 24/7 videos of the woman's home. It shows a late night and hurried exit to a car. Another video shows her at a clinic that performs abortions. The prosecutor files suit against her husband for driving her to a clinic and against the clinic. ...

As a result of the funky Texas law against abortion, a 70 year old semi retired Rabbi explained recently why his branch of the Jewish faith finds abortions part of its religion. The Satanic Temple has already filed a religious discrimination case. Maybe others will follow.  Taking religious rights away from people is very much the popular grievance recently. What many Christians don't understand is others in addition to themselves have rights as well. For some reason there is a mental block about this.  It seems like both the Jewish and Satanist arguments have at least a small chance of throwing Christians off balance in the court. While opponents may argue Satanists are too late to the dance they cannot say that about Jews. Even the argument that Satanists are "insincere" or "opportunistic" may not fly. Are the Christians against abortion really sincere about their Christianity or is it just a tool to use toward their real divine entity, the fetus? Our recent h...

The carbon footprint each of us leaves helps to change the climate. As the climate changes it brings bigger floods, hurricanes, droughts and heat. More people die in the wake of it all. It is reasonable to project increasing death and destruction as more carbon does its thing.  In economics there is a behavioral observation that humans discount future benefits compared to current benefits. For example, on two busy streets adjacent to my building crazy motorcycle riders speed beyond belief while with their front wheel far off the ground. One died recently when he could not stop.  Most motorcycle riders do not do this because the value of their lives is greater than the thrill of the stunt. But what if the death from accidents was always far off into the future, five or ten years? The calculation would be different. Many riders might decide the value of their lives off into the future is less and would take more risk. The same calculation applies to reward. How much would you pa...

When a group of humans cannot get their brains to grasp at least some parts of reality, it can lead to mass deaths. It can also lead to powerful political movements which endanger the future of entire civilizations and perhaps humans on the earth. We have all heard of Hitler, the Nazi Party of Germany and their roles in World War II. There is now renewed study of the long standing popularity of strange myths which drove formation of the Party and of Hitler's rise to power. That history is easier to understand in the context of what we are experiencing in real time. WWII started in the late 1930's with a thread of thinking about the superiority of the Aryan race. This thinking was enhanced by pseudo scientific propaganda. Books and articles were published about the superiority of those who were white, of certain height, facial characteristics, etc. It was claimed this group was a race, though this was not true. We know, however, this false belief drove an entire nation into a po...

I thought I had a clever idea recently.  You have all heard of the new Texas law where citizen vigilantes are given protection and awards for a civil suit against anyone helping a woman get an abortion. This is my understanding it. It includes not only abortion medical personnel but anyone giving a ride, escorting a woman past screaming prayers on her way to a clinic or taking care of her pet while she is gone. Reports are that medical personnel have stopped performing abortions of pregnancies except those in the first few weeks. It is as if there is no defense for this cruel religious law. This was my idea. All of us in favor of abortion rights would buy magnetic signs to put on the outside doors of our cars, vans and trucks. The sign would say, ABORTION BUS, OUT OF STATE SERVICES. There would be thousands of these. Vigilantes would be checking license numbers, plotting relationships, checking facial recognition and wasting their time trying to score against an automobile owner wh...

All the handwringing of conservative Christians over children self identifying with a different gender or no gender goes on and on. One would think there was something one could find in the Bible that condemned changing genders, or declaring no gender. That is, something besides the creation story where God created Adam and Eve. Even that story and that verse has a variety of meanings depending on assumptions one makes before reading it. Feminists have always referred to Bible passages that declare God was neither male nor female. This is a rather broadly held view. From Wikipedia we read:     However, there are a significant number of feminine allegorical references to God, most often in some maternal role. There is another interesting one, Job 21:24. Job was supposedly in an argument with someone. In the King James Version published in 1611 Job 21:24 says God has breasts that are full of milk. This set off a flurry of angry arguments that has been going on in the centuries s...

Today there was news about a guy who lives near me. His name is Doug Jensen. He was one the the first to break into the Capitol on Jan. 6 so his picture went all over the world. That he was so stupid he did not wear a disguise meant he was hauled in shortly after the attack. He promised that if he could be under home confinement instead of jail awaiting his trial he would not use the internet. The judge did not notice he has a considerable rap sheet of low level criminal activity and was not known as an honest upright citizen. He broke his promise about the internet and is going back to jail. The Viking Horn guy today pleaded guilty to his charges. He is a self appointed "shaman" but no one knows what group he ministers to. His tune has changed after no time in jail. But wait! There's more. Some lawyers have lost their license to practice law. Rudy claims to be broke though he was once considered worth around $20 million.  And they there is Trump's favorite, Mr. Pillo...

Soon the Pope will start the long and arduous Catholic process to change where its decisions come from. He does not want the "top down" model to remain. Instead, he wants lots of interaction between local parishes and the Vatican. The Pope pointed out what I have maintained here since forever. The top down model which treats clergy as know all wise men plays with the heads of clergy. They, or some of them, begin to see themselves as aloof from those in the pews. Sited by the Pope are sex abuse, theft of Catholic funds and luxury housing, all encouraged by the notion clergy have been granted powers far beyond those of the average Joe in the pews. I wish the Pope well in this effort but have my doubts he will pull it off. A sector of the clergy likes its luxury and power. We would expect those enjoying perks to hang onto them and claim Jesus guaranteed the perks for life when he told Peter upon this rock build this church.  I don't understand the structure of the Catholic C...

For some reason there are about three dozen people at Harvard who carry the title, Chaplain. I don't understand why so many, but that's another issue. There are so many there is a Chaplain's organization on campus. It just elected an atheist Chaplain as President, the author of a popular book, Good Without God. Just applying the numbers it makes perfect sense. Nationwide, young people who identify as "nones", no affiliation to any religion, is larger than any denomination. Thus, if there is a Catholic Chaplin or a Methodist, they serve smaller constituencies than an atheist Chaplain.  The atheist Chaplain was elected with a unanimous vote of his colleagues, other Chaplains. Because this appears somewhat unusual he has been interviewed by the press who ask, "What hope do you provide students? What is the bigger world about to atheists?" His answer is that there is no god for us. But there is a source of hope and inspiration. We all belong to each other a...