Thoughts of a Freethinker

Ancient Babylonians meticulously recorded movements of planets and stars before telescopes. They interpreted what they saw as their god moving them around. They did not need a telescope to know their god was real. During another ancient time, wise and prominent Incas and Aztecs stayed up all night watching the same stars and planets. They know for certain a god was guiding them and communicating to them personally a message. Perhaps the message was, "I'm making too much rain (or not enough) because I'm angry with you."  The Babylonians and Incas were watching the same stars but the gods guiding the stars were entirely different. In fact, neither god had heard of the other. If they had not met or knew the other god even existed how did they come to agreement on where to move? And, were these gods angry or pleased at the same things? Of course, the ordinary Christian believes about the Inca god the same thing the Babylonian would have thought about the Inca god if the B

A preacher has started a business, Cannabis for Christians. He testifies use of marijuana helped him deal with physical pains and with the death of his father. Using it before prayer, he says, helps you become closer to God. If "marijuana for medical use" is legal why not "marijuana for religious use." Alcohol for religious use was legal during prohibition.   It is inevitable drug use in religion will increase. The so-called Freedom of Religion is said to have started when native Americans were given legal rights to use peyote in their religious ceremonies. The drug is not part of native American ancient history but started not that long ago. Nevertheless, users said they had sincere religious experiences while using peyote and needed it for their worship.  It is well known hallucinogenic substances were used even in prehistoric times. We all know of those which are accepted as OK, alcohol, and those that are sinful, evil and criminal. Maybe someone else can recall

A professor of functionalism wonders why it is so maligned. Idealists get the headlines and some success in politics. Yet, after idealistic notions stumble it's back to being practical.  Let's start with gay marriage. Homosexuality happens but we don't really know why. Some people are born the something different or unexpected. In either case, the practical approach is to accept, provide the public rights and services and carry on. Why decide something else on the basis of ancient religious belief. An easy solution called acceptance is at hand. Idealistic anti-abortion people insist they can use laws to stop abortions. Such laws would be "right" and they know for certain abortion is wrong. There are two ways a practical and functional idea would help. First, those who "know" what is right in an absolute sense and what is wrong see the issue exactly the opposite way. No matter which side "knows" it is right will not convince the other. "Rig

A while back, a Christian author wrote that Christians should contemplate the "Benedict Option." It was an idea originated by a pope named Benedict hundreds of years ago. The faithful would no longer engage with the secular and political world but circle the wagons and keep the faith among themselves. While the idea was scoffed at by public figures in the faith it keeps coming up again for discussion. It comes up because there is good reason to believe numbers will keep falling. Europe has fallen further than the U. S. and there is good reason to believe the U.S. will look like Europe eventually. As the analyst of a recent poll said, The younger you are the less likely you are to believe in God, describe yourself as spiritual or regularly pray.   The author of "The Benedict Option," Rod Dreher, was asked how well churches are doing in preparation for the continued decline. He replied they are not prepared nor making preparations. Instead, they talk of a revival or l

Some wealthy Christians will spend $100 million to emphasize the " human " elements of the Jesus narrative. Perhaps this is part of the "Jesus only" branch of the faith that is talked about. The thrust of the ads will be that Jesus understands contemporary society. Of course, this assumes there is a "living Jesus."  This ad campaign sounds a bit similar to one funded by a wealthy Catholic. His deal was "Come home" (to your old Catholic faith). I have not heard of much success from that though I still hear the ads occasionally.  A more honest ad would say, "Leave reality and rationality behind, believe there is a Jesus." Or, "Want to escape what you face, escape to the fantasy of Jesus." No matter how cozy and friendly the church is presented, it requires one to jump from reality to unreality. If you are a person looking for "community" or new friends, the church is presented as a place make for that. You may not care

Billionaire Mackenzie Scott has given Planned Parenthood the biggest donation in its history, $275 million. Reports are donations to clinics and patients have been phenomenal ever since some states passed laws mostly prohibiting abortions. With enough money, all woman who want abortions will get them. There isn't enough money for that yet, but it is moving in the right direction. I believe it was California who has opened it vast treasury to help women from other states.  I could see abortion clinics opening or relocating to be more convenient for out of state women. The harassment laws will still hurt women, but I predict ultimately there will be only a small number of women forced to give births they did not want.  If this Supreme Court overturns Wade, it is almost inevitable some court in the future will have a majority to put abortion rights back into national law. Certainly, there seems no increase in anti-abortion political numbers since those backwards states outlawed it.  I

If you want to find crooks in politics, first start looking at conservatives. Maybe this is not always true but during the Presidencies of W Bush and Donald Trump we find plenty of skullduggery. One of them is the association of Gini Thomas to a large group of people now in prison and her husband, Judge Clarence Thomas, of the Supreme Court.  He was the lone vote to not open up documents about the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol. Gini was there and had been actively promoting the event in texts. To make matters even more suspicious, he was the lone vote on the Court no keep the documents secret. If this does not smell like a conflict of interest, I don't know what does. Right after the November election of Joe Biden, Ms. Thomas seems to have linked up with the infamous Sidney Powell. You may remember Attorney Powell appeared often with Rudy Guliani saying approximately, "We know there was fraud, we just don't have evidence. As soon as we get into court you will see the evid

Each year new numbers show declines in Christian number in the U.S. and Europe. Europe now polls less than 50% Christian.  Defenders of the faith claim growth in Africa and China. While there are numbers justifying this there are also questions about what is going on in those parts of the world. As an overview, numbers are falling fastest among young people in the U.S. Why would not whatever is happening to young people in the U.S. not be happening to young people around the world? The phone and internet is available everywhere. Antidotally, there is reason to doubt Christianity, or a Western version of it, is growing among young people in Africa and China. The Priest in the link laments couples in Africa are chosen to not marry. We know that is the pattern in the U.S. In China, the government is determined to manage religions. It appoints some of those at the highest level. This makes humous the Catholic myth that Jesus told Peter to run the church. The government has decided it will

Some eyebrows went up when Franklin Graham told Christians to "Pray for Putin." This thinking was foreign to most in the U.S. But it was very logical to Graham who is one of the dark corners of today's Christianity.  In recent times Graham has been the personal guest of Putin on one visit to Russia and of the Russian Pope, Kirill, on another. Apparently, Graham has spent considerable time with each and stays in regular contact.  The Russian revolution saw the Russian Orthodox church opposed by its government because Communist leaders perceived it was aligned with the previous government it had defeated. Debate continues as to whether Communist leaders themselves were against religion or whether they saw it as a political competitor. Stalin came along and allowed churches to continue. Stalin was followed by Nikita Khrushchev (I saw him in person) and the others who once again hammered down on the church. During his first two terms, Putin followed his predecessors in not ap

Ireland for centuries has been very Catholic, sometimes called the most Catholic country in the world. Places where I have lived have had priests from Ireland. The overview of Ireland was one of a narrow rock ribbed conservative national government. The rest of Europe modernized but Ireland did not. Looking back some called it a "quaint North Korea." While the seeds of modernization were sprouting for decades, they appeared as if overnight to us across the Atlantic. Today, the Catholic Church is shadow of its former self in Ireland and without any political clout. Abortion is legal. Ireland has emerged from its long period of darkness caused by religion in government. What caused Ireland to change? The link has a great summary, one which should be noted by states who want religion to run their governments.      The gap between pious pronouncements and "lived experience" was too great.    What this refers to are holier than thou words by the government about itself w

  How did this happen? The answer, there are too many people for the available water supply. In some of Christianity say the solution is to pray. In other parts it is to dig wells that later may be outrun by population growth. More rational parts of the faith and of no faith approach the problem rationally. There is but one solution, reduce population growth or reduce the size of the population. There is no end to the disagreement on how to do this. To some extent, economics can help find an answer. In many situations, it is not possible to produce more water. Nor is it possible to relocate either the water or the people. So, the solution is to not use as much. Too many people make the problem. One of the reasons people have more children is economic. If more children are seen as a way in increase the standard of living of a family it will have more of them. The opposite is also true. When the birth rate is outrunning food or water or harming the environment incentives to reduce it wil

Missouri is trying to stop women from crossing into Kansas, Illinois and Iowa to get abortions. It is trying to stop billboards and other advertising telling women abortions are available in nearby states. These two efforts violate interstate commerce and freedom of speech. Can Missouri's crack-pot legislators get away with this? So far, it seems they can. The majority of the current Supreme Court places their own religious views above the laws of the land. This flaunting of laws has been going on the decades. When I was a Mayor, anti abortion protesters thought is very rational to shut down streets owned by and used by the general public if the streets went by the abortion clinic. The sidewalk was also public use right of way and they thought if perfectly OK to shut this off because they were preventing "murder."  They glued themselves to the doors and other lawless behavior.  Their thinking is they are right about abortion and the other side is wrong. Therefore, they ca

Over 100 years ago, a smart science guy asked many respondents if they had heard a certain native story about ghosts. He selected those who had never heard the complicated story and told it to them. Then he asked them to rewrite it in their own words. Predictably, they produced many different versions of the story. Some rephrased parts to fit contemporary language use. Others left out details most people at that time would consider unimportant. For example, "ghosts" is in the title but some respondents never referred to ghosts in retelling the tale. They did not believe in ghosts and assumed even ancient people would not have believed ghosts existed. This makes it difficult to believe the Bible is a good representation of what was written 2,000 to 5,000 years ago. Thousands of handwritten copies were recopied over and over. It was originally written in different languages so even early on there were questions about its accuracy. Any of us who have lived a few decades know of

If I were more of an optimist I might think this period of history is a "teaching moment." It would teach Christian nationalists in the U. S. their mixture of politics and religion is a lethal soup. Most likely they will see their religious nationalism and healthy and good even if the same thing in Russia bad.  We've discussed here before the cross and the flag marching together into the Capital on Jan. 6th. To those marching in the two fit together like a hand in glove. To Putin and his circle of clerics bombing Ukraine into submission, maximizes deaths and destruction are equally righteous.  I recall a dufus Cabinet member during the Reagan Administration who spoke in Fargo. I think he was Secretary of Interior, can't remember his name. During the speech he left his prepared material and got all teary eyed about his visit home in one of the Western states. There in his church next to the Christian flag stood the U.S. flag he said. It was such an inspirational site,

I've been trying to figure out how the on-the-ground battle in Texas and Mississippi to obtain an abortion works. Finally, I found this interview with a young woman who lives near the border with Mexico and who helps women obtain out of state abortions. It wasn't necessarily a surprise but confirming nevertheless.  This woman works in a call center. She says the call center basically is a travel agency. While keeping the caller on the line she schedules an abortion in some other state, arranges an airline ticket and pays for the whole thing. Money comes from donations coming in from all over the U. S. This does not make it easy for the women who need abortions. They often have to miss work costing them money. Some have never been on an airliner nor left the state of Texas. But, as with every story I've read about abortion, they are determined and force themselves forward toward their goal. The work these women do to make all the arrangements for abortions should be consider

The AARP Bulletin I received today had a good article about how to guard against scammers. It focused on a trait we all have, "Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)". Probably every reader has heard such a pitch, "You have won Publishers Clearing House. We just need $500 to complete the paperwork." One I got recently said, "We have an important package for you." And, "You can get your credit card balance excused if you act immediately." So many of these.  AARP listed the steps to guard against falling for scams. Don't fall for glowing testimonials. Beware of "everyone's doing it". Critique your motivation. Turn off your emotions.  These bits of advice are good, too, for dealing with religion. Let's start with the first, "glowing testimonials. Every Christian, present or past, has heard glowing testimonials from Christians. It's almost a requirement that a Christian bore others with how happy he/she is in his/her Christian prac

George Barna, founder of the Barna Group, is a deep Christian but does survey work similar to those in the secular world. He finds regularly the public is leaving organized Christianity and becoming "nones", those who do not affiliate with any religion or religious group.  Barna has a blind spot, a big one. He believes that a.) parents are not well-versed in the Bibler and b.) if they were and passed this Biblical knowledge down their children would not be leaving the faith. Further he thinks exodus from Christian churches can be reversed by having parents better versed in the Bible. The entire Christian faith made a strategic error when it based its dogma on the Bible. Today it is impossible to convince the public the Bible different than the gazillion other kinds of propaganda bombarding the public. Barna needs to wake up and smell the coffee. People do not believe the Bible's content the way he does nor the way his parents did. If it were possible for today's young

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report condemning restrictions to abortion services. This is what any legitimate group concludes when it leaves religion out of the calculation. The laughable notion that anti abortion is separate from religion needs to be regarded as ridiculous.  The religious right mostly does not like the WHO. It has one rule about health organizations: If they are against abortion, good organization. For abortion rights, bad.  WHO has been influential in countries which need a legitimate source to justify abortion rights. I've been reading again about the success of abortion rights in Central and South America. These are countries where the Catholic hierarchy has made it views the views of governments. Now that is changing, three countries there have stopped criminalizing abortion.  The pattern in Central and South America is the same as everywhere else. WHO finds even where abortion is not legal in an entire country, middle class and up get abortion

Anti-abortion zealots are so smug these days having passed bills allowing citizen awards for turning in people who helped women get abortions. Now they are trying to stop other states from providing abortions to women from their own state who cross borders. A couple of academic attorneys now point out abortion rights states can put in place their own laws to protect women and those who assist them when they cross into abortion rights states. I don't understand all of it but it includes prohibition of prosecution across state lines, returning accused to the anti abortion states for arrest and other such measures. Eliminating these cooperative law enforcement practices will possibly hinder some legitimate practices to bring accused to trial. But when one state does not protect the rights of its citizens it makes sense that enlightened states do not allow it to be practiced in their state.  This new tactic against abortion rights is every bit as peculiar as Russia's invasion of Uk

Those who have studied this say it is women, Republicans and Southerners are most likely not to reveal they are atheists. This is understandable but sad. The irony is the most rational people, those who do not believe in invisible beings, an invisible life after they are dead and miracles are the ones who need to hide what they know to be true. It should be the other way around. Just now there is a terrible war started by a Christian despot. I'm sure most Christians still share that they are of the faith. While Putin claims to be fighting for the faith, atheists are the ones viewed with suspicion. My guess is the percentage of atheists is the same with women and men, Republicans, Northerns and Southerners. That fewer of some groups share their atheism is a product of local attitudes. Things are always churning and changes so which kinds of people share their atheist may change over time. In our local atheist group it seems like there are more new women than new men. Polls continue

 A reader sent me an alarming article about what U. S. Bishops did with many of the pedophile priests. The center of the story is right near us, Minnesota. There were so many abusive priests in Minnesota it leads the nation in bankrupt dioceses. The theme of the article is the sad revelation that untold numbers of children in Guatemala were abused because so many pedophile priests were sent there instead of to secular treatment facilities or incarceration. After World War II Catholic numbers began to fall in Central and South America. There were not many priests there and evangelicals began to send preachers there who paid more attention to the locals. Popes at the time wanted to shore up numbers and were determined to raise the number of priests. Along came a supply of pedophile priests and off to Central and South America they were sent.  About the same time Catholic rehab places were started to treat priests with various psychological problems including pedophilia. Once a priest had

The Catholic Church in New Mexico continues its efforts to derail the case but it is moving forward. It involves the usual, a victim who was sexually abused by a priest. There was a bit of a break from new cases of Catholic clergy abuse for some months. Now new cases are coming up all the time. I'm studying an article about Catholic priests and child sexual abuse in other countries. It is even more appalling than what we read about here in the U.S. As other countries come to grips with this sick behavior it might unleash a wave of new cases bigger than anything we have seen so far. The lawyer for the victim asked a reasonable question. He wonders why our legal system says mobs like that of Al Capone engaged in "racketeering" because they were organized in a way that facilitated crime while the Catholic Church, doing the same thing, treats the crimes as events it blames on individuals. The Catholic church has rules it requires adherence to which have protected child abusin

I'm sure most ordinary folks in the Western World were pleased some decades back when Putin began allowing people to attend churches. Maybe they were pleased also that he was building churches.  Putin had come to see what kings and dictators since forever have seen. In politics, you can grab a big portion of the public by talking up religion. Religious people are the biggest suckers in the lot for some sweet god talk. Step by step, Putin built up the church going demographic in Russia. He attached himself to it and elevated his minions in the clergy. The clergy and Putin ascended together. Today it is paying off big time. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church gave a blessing to the troops and equipment that are now off butchering innocent civilians in Ukraine. Praise Jesus. The church official appeared in a venue similar to our "National Cathedral." It is a place used to promote ideas that are both political and religious. Would Putin have received that much public supp

The phrase is "intrinsically disordered ." If you are gay, bi and trans you are "intrinsically disordered." This is in line with all of Christianity which says, "If you don't believe in our particular god there is something wrong with you. There is nothing wrong with us." The Catholics, and some Protestants, also pile on with "natural law." Things that give clergy more power and influence are natural laws. The opposite violates natural law.  Thus, people who don't agree with Catholic clergy or are a little different are intrinsically disordered or are violating natural law. Is there anything inside the Christian faith that is a "little off" or so weird it could be called intrinsically disordered?  Yes, a lot. Let's start with celibate priests. The requirement itself is intrinsically disordered. And, is it not natural law that heterosexual men are attracted to women, homosexual men to other men? Yielding to the nature of huma

The first statistics on the number of abortions in Texas and in neighboring states have been gathered. The number of abortions in Texas has dropped, not by dramatic levels but only by some. The drop has been about 10%. An anti-abortion official claims to be pleased by that number. He said anti-abortion operatives knew most women would find ways to get the abortions they needed.  We have to remember women in the state are still adjusting to the new law. There are women who did not know how to reach out of state abortion sites. Other women did not know how to obtain abortion medicines. As one observer mentioned, the number of women who find ways to obtain abortions will increase as street level information on obtaining abortions grows. The 10% reduction will be hard to maintain.  The anti-abortion official who was not surprised at the small effect the law has revealed what I have written here often. The law was meant, not to stop abortions, but to harass women. Proponents are now getting

The simple scenario that state legislators who have beaten their chests about being anti abortion will immediately pass anti abortion bills is not coming to pass. Some are now taking it slower . Eeven when it is believed by many the Supreme Court may overturn Wade, it turns out the politics of anti abortion is complex in some states. There are states where abortion rights are in state constitutions. The horses are not always there to change these constitutions. There are states with slim majorities against abortion. Running for reelection on draconian anti abortion bills is sometimes seen as risky. More money than ever is being raised to present the message of women's rights to abortion. This is a new development.  Everyone knows that travel out of state to obtain abortions is easier now than it was back before Roe. Cars and highways are faster. Thanks to covid, more women work from home. Telemedicine abortions done by video make those easier as well.  Probably we will never know h

My effort to understand the ignorance of Christian nationalists started at 9/11. Then, a group of religious nationalists commandeered airlines and attacked our country in the name of their god and their countries. Surely, I thought at the time, Christian nationalists in this country will see why it is harmful to put religion into government. But, I was wrong to think they would see themselves in the Muslims flying into building. The reaction was more, not less, religion in government. Shortly afterward, President Bush addressed the nation from the (Chrisitan) National Cathedral.  Now, Putin is appearing for photo ops next to the leading religious figure of Russian just as right wing preachers appeared over and over with President Trump.  Putin and Trump follow a long tradition of rulers and Christian leaders being very chummy. Kings and Popes were the team. Today's version is Putin and the Russian Orthodox leader.  I've heard over and over the criticism atheists want to "t

If anyone thinks Christianity cannot get more ridiculous than it already is, this proves you wrong. A Catholic priest of long standing has been saying " We baptize you in the name of...." The proper word, apparently is " I baptize you..." While the link tries to provide an explanation as to why this is important, it remains lost on me and most others I'm sure. The entire ritual of baptism is steeped in myth and fantasy. The premise of the ritual is, of course, that it is very significant and not merely myth. This makes the words carry magic. Those of us who do not understand the faith struggle with how anyone could believe certain words have mystical or magical powers. I have watched the "700 Club" where instruction was giving as to what words must be used in certain kinds of prayers. The original faith was not in English so how could anyone be absolutely certain the translated word has the same spiritual power as did the actual original word? Now we l

There are parents who want badly for their children to experience the training and rituals of Christianity. Their children, or they themselves, are immunocompromised. This population is about seven million people in the U.S. Their fellow church members refuse to wear masks in church. Many in this group with compromised health is giving up on attending church.  Unfortunately for the immunocompromised, wearing a mask is what people of the wrong party do. That is a sacrifice beyond what they can tolerate. Intolerance started in the Bible. There is the passage condemning those with a club foot or a disfigured face. Then we move to gays, pagans and atheists. There is no room for them. Today in the state where I live, Iowa, the Governor signed a bill preventing students who were once registered as boys from competing in sport as girls. There is not clear evidence these trans girls gain an advantage, but pointing at some group and yelling, "Shame," is plenty common in the faith. For

While homosexuality, heterosexuality or gender identity are not "God given" they are all part of human beings being human beings. There is not a full science-based explanation for same sex attraction. Nor is there one for humans who have the physical traits of one gender but are certain they are of another gender. What we know for certain is this is part of humans, has always been there and will continue as long as there are humans. It was wonderful and gusty to hear President Biden declare he supports trans people. I posted my praise of Biden on a Christian site comment page today. The replies quoted scripture as if that was a kind of factual truth about trans people or anything else for that matter. To have the President of the United States express support for society's pariahs is a terrible sin commenters said. That, even though the Jesus portrayed in the Bible seemed to do it regularly.    I remember when gay marriage first began to make headway as acceptable to the

I've been predicting for years women will face jail time in anti-abortion states. During this time more of it has actually happened and the framework for an anti-woman country is taking place. It's sad to remember the devious and under handed remarks that were made on the discussion pages of my blog from day one. When I wrote it is inevitable women will go to jail because of miscarriages it was scoffed at. Paraphrasing, anti-abortion commenters said, "The tradition has been women are innocent victims when abortions are performed. Abortion clinics manipulate the minds of women."  The true colors of anti-women politics run by anti-abortion operatives are now obvious.  The newest twist of persecuting women who had miscarriages is to run blood tests of the aborted fetuses. Any sign of drug use puts women in court for "child abuse." This has happened even when the women were taking drugs prescribed by their doctors. It has happened when the drug detected has no h