Thoughts of a Freethinker

The fantasy that post Roe courts will be filled with prosecutors and law enforcement putting women who got abortions and those who made it possible in jail will one day be put to rest. An example is the prosecutor in Virginia who says she will not prosecute.   Everyone who has spent time around law enforcement, or any other branch of state or local governments,  knows budgets are smaller than the demand for services. Priorities are adhered to. Who or why are some things more important than others? To at least a limited degree, priorities are decided on the basis of whomever is in charge. We have seen in the U. S. overzealous prosecutors of women who had miscarriages.  There are some women in jail who were accused of killing a fetus when they explained they had a miscarriage. The evidence left behind is nearly identical.  If there are prosecutors who are overzealous prosecuting those who had miscarriages, it is reasonable to assume there will also be those like the one above who pledge

  A news story that should be big was barely covered recently. It was an apology by the Church of Scotland for thousands of (mostly) women who were tortured, convicted then killed for practicing witchcraft. It brings to mind the various reasons non believers give for their non belief. One is, "Children would not suffer and die if there was really a God." Witches tortured and killed in the name of God carried the doubt to its ultimate conclusion, there is no God or god. The practice of killing mostly women for witchcraft carried over to the U.S. In the U.S. the blame is defused a bit because there is no state church. However, the church is just as bad or worse.  Everyday, at several places in the U.S. women walk past hissing and praying Christians who call them murders. They are women going into abortion clinics. The only reason for the hissing is religious. Now, the hissing nut cases are putting this religious view into national laws. It's the same law as Scotland had aga

So many times during my life have I heard a sentence start with, "The church teaches there are separate and appropriate roles for men and women..."  Then, the person outlines the more important and dominant role for men. Why would this not tell certain kinds of men they are entitled to rights of sexual abuse over women? Why would certain kinds of men not conclude they are superior to women? Why would not women trained in this belief they are the lesser to men push back? Like when male Catholic clergy are put in the spotlight as abuses and the Pope plus a choirs of others talk of evil priests and homosexual priests, the Christian press was filled this past week with condemnations of Southern Baptist clergy and others in the denomination who abused women. Both the Catholics and Protestants railed at individuals. We need to purge our ranks of such men, those with halos over heads lamented. Nowhere in all this was there even the slightest hint the problem starts with the theology

There is always the question of motives in politics. Does a position urging government to do this or that have behind it a valid source of idealism, or, is it using something that sounds like idealism for the purpose of power per se.  The U.S. South is a case in point. It used, as we all know, religion to justify locking people away in slavery. There was some slavery in the North too but the Bible Belt has always had the reputation of coziness between conservative Biblical Christianity and slavery. They were peas in a pod. It was no different during segregation.  Today the South leads the nation in church going and spousal abuse. Is it a surprise their brand of Christianity prohibits women from being preachers and places the man at the head of the household? A Bible that preaches male domination and males who abuse females fit together like a hand in glove.  The leading anti abortion states are the same ones that feature spousal abuse and no female preachers. Anti abortion is simply an

Not only is there a long experience in the U.S. of obtaining abortions when they are not legal, it is common all over the world. There is a well-funded organization in Europe with branches all over the globe providing both above and underground abortion meds. It is sad to think the U.S. might become one of those backwards countries where such organizations need to set up shop but it could happen.  Polls show the majority in Europe has put Christianity in its rear view mirror. This makes it easier to also put in the past Christian-based views on things such as abortion and gender. Hopefully the U.S. can make progress in catching up to Europe in these progressive issues and Europe can help move the needle just a bit in the U.S.   One can be thankful for the international positive help from our neighboring nations of Canada and the U.S. Canada poured millions of gallons of beer and spirits into the U.S. during prohibition which no doubt make our laws seems as ridiculous as they were. Ther

Let's suppose some politician introduced a bill which had these objectives: Single out one gender and prevent a large percentage of them from finishing high school or going to college. From that gender, select the lowest income cohort take away chances for education and at the same time assign a $200,000 bill to be paid during the first decade of their young adulthood. That is the economics of overturning Roe.  "But, we're concerned about an issue of higher calling, murder," the Bible pounding and Rosary clutching crowds will say. This implies there is no moral issue with class. I would ask, "Is the caste system in India a moral issue? Were slavery and segregation moral issues?" The answer to my questions might be, "Well yes, caste, slavery and segregation are moral issues. And segments of the population even today use religion to justify them. Our moral issue is more important than other moral issues. Our religious views are superior to any other relig

For reasons I do not understand, only now are stories about Christians who support abortion rights being published. Nowhere in the Bible is abortion condemned. Yet, the clever operatives in both the Protestant and Catholic branches have said this so often people believe abortion is a sin. Such an incorrect view has spilled over into the Supreme Court itself. The link explaining this particular religious passion for abortion rights comes from a religious black southern tradition. It's widely accepted the black protestant tradition contains much more support for abortion. We merely have to remember Christianity was forced upon slaves. Included was the economic value of slave babies because they could be sold later. Abortion and birth control were against the economic interests of the very people teaching slaves Christianity. Is it a surprise white people taught against abortion nor that black people to this day have mostly a different view? Money talks in religion as well as everywhe

Just now when all kinds of illegal channels to get abortions are about to pop up, it's a good time to read about the underground world of abortion past. The 1995 book titled, The Story of Jane; The legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service  (by Laura Kaplan) is about an underground abortion service in Chicago before Roe. Here is a review: "Before Roe v. Wade, most women seeking abortions were forced to turn to illegal, unregulated, and expensive abortionists. But in Chicago, those who could discover the organization code-named "Jane" found a level of protection and financial help. Laura Kaplan, who joined Jane in 1971, has pieced together the histories of those who broke the law in Chicago to help care for thousands of women in what they called the Abortion Counseling Service of Women's Liberation. Drawing on interviews with dozens of members of Jane and women who had abortions through the service, Kaplan shows how a disparate group of ordinary women--most

A review of a recent sermon by a mega church preacher provided a hint of light. The sermon reviewed the preacher's experience talking with those who have doubts about the faith. He said doubters' minds are open to generalizations about how to live as supposedly taught be Jesus. But, doubters minds are closed to claims attributed to Jesus like "I am the one." They just don't buy the claim of exclusivity: Jesus is the only God franchise so all the God business goes through him.  I can't remember ever reading an article like this that concluded, "They just don't believe our stuff anymore." The only acceptable preaching has always been, "Shame on you who don't believe. Shape up." It was back in 2009 Bart Ehrman's book casting doubt on who wrote the Bible was published in Newsweek . This was not new but Ehrman's ability to put doubt into play helped move along what was already happening. Highlighted was the fact no one knew, or k

Often, when people such as myself discuss the authors of the Bible we use the term "ancients." In human history, the Bible actually is quite recent, 2,000 to maybe 8,000 years ago. Humans have been making history, mostly not recorded, for 250,000 years. That much of this was not recorded does not make in less important. There are some sources of Mayan history. The reference I'm using today uses a Mayan history of 7,000 years though much of that is before normal kinds of records can be found.  The Mayan ruled part of what is now southeast Mexico plus most of Central America. They had advanced mathematics, written language and architecture. The link is about what is believed to be the final period before the collapse of the empire. The empire was based of Mayan gods. These gods had protected people for some 7,000 years. Pleas were made to continued protection in the form of rain but were ignored.  Found deep within caves are sacrifices to the gods. The sacrifices were made

One of the ancient concepts we've discussed here is the various levels of gods that existed before and during the alleged time of Jesus. There were local gods not known elsewhere and some more famous ones. Bart Ehrman is confident Jesus had a low level or local ranking as a god until years after he was dead. Then the tales began circulating he had come back to life and he hit the big time.  Scholars of the Bible have recognized for many decades that during the ancient times of the Bible the concept of death or being dead was different than the way we use it today. Today we see a human as being "dead or alive." The ancients, at least those who wrote the Bible, did not see it so clearly. People were for a while in the area of being dead, not arrived yet. They might proceed to become dead or they might return to being fully alive.  It was as if there was a "mud room", a room some houses have to leave shoes and boots, you entered before death. You might proceed to d

Willow Creek church in a Chicago suburb is one I follow because I have a relative who was a member years ago. I remember her saying the church had a good policy, not to grow by taking church goers from other churches but by attracting the "unchurched." It grew by leaps and bounds. There is a huge building. The church sponsored an annual conference on church growth that attracted big crowds of preachers and officials from all over the world. Bill Hybels, the preacher, was the toast of the town. Sexual issues brought Bill down. Then the same with his second in command. Out went most of the pastors and the entire Board. Covid came along after that. The 7,000 seat church averages half of what it attracted before covid. Now it is laying off about half its staff. Where are those "unchurched" going to church? My guess is they remain happily unchurched.  And family budgets are the better for it. I can't imagine pledging money to pay off the butt pinching and sex comment

It has been inevitable since day one women would be prosecuted for having abortion. Yet, "The woman has always been the victim of the crime, never the perpetrator" remains a myth and treated as fact.  Today, anti abortion writers are trying to keep alive the idea women don't know much and that is why they should be excused from prosecution in abortions. The idea from long ago of stupid women is needed for political purposes.  I remember reading a long essay written by one of the leaders of a national anti abortion non profit. He described what he saw as the future. It was repealing Roe. That would be followed by years of state political work getting anti abortion legislators elected and turning all states anti abortion. Note who gets the pay day of fund raising from this long drawn out process: non profits like his. It is job security. Such groups do not want something mucking up or disrupting this stable and profitable future. The Southern Baptist Convention has passed t

When Obama was running for his first term, he referred to his faith frequently. I thought to myself this was a mistake--much of the faith world will scoff and the rest doesn't care about your personal faith. Others in the Democratic Party grabbed onto Obama's approach. Keeping religion at arm's length was not a priority.  Some argue today that if Obama, Inc. had secular back then we would not see the big prayer meeting that seems to be the Supreme Court today. While there is no way to relive past decades, we can note the founding fathers. They left a national religion out of the Constitution because, according to collected writing, they knew there is no way to hold it back once it's in the tent. Once the religion of anti abortion is the law, will it stop? Already we know the intentions of some, to stop birth control and other ways to discipline women. It is a march backwards in time that I have mentioned from the book, We Don't Know Ourselves. For the years of WWII

Right now, I assume people in Russia are hearing their war in Ukraine is going great. If the truth is it's not, someone or something will crash. We went through something like that in Viet Nam. I recall the news releases were about "body counts." Our soldiers were racking up big numbers. It turned out these meant nothing. We live with something similar today, the Catholic practice of marriage annulment. The church pretends a marriage never took place. Let's see, there was a license, a wedding with lots of people attending, then there was a house, children, etc., but the church pretends there never was a marriage. Like governments pretend they are winning a war when they are not the Catholic church pretends some were never married so they can pretend they were never divorced. I just finished a popular book, We Don't Know Ourselves by Fintan O'Toole. It is a history of Ireland since about 1950. Ireland, writes O'Toole, has always had an over-arching history

For years I have been saying here anti-abortion zealots' law must prosecute the women or it is not a law at all. It is instead a joke. No one says it directly, but everyone knows the sleight-of-hand game going on here. If women are jailed for their abortions, political support will evaporate. Someone else, a more appropriate villain, must be fingered. So far, that has been the abortion staff, giving rides or money for abortions, etc. Everyone is guilty except the woman.  In Louisianna, anti abortion politicians spoke the truth. They said if abortion is murder, the person who makes the ultimate decision to murder has one has to be guilty of the murder. That's the woman.  The old adage, it's been repeated several times in comments on this site, is women must say no to sex unless they want to be pregnant. "A women has the power to say no," it is repeated. "Keep those legs crossed" it is said. But there is a different story altogether with abortion. With abo

So much of the Bible has been found to be B.S. it's almost hard to where to start. Recently, a prominent atheist declared it was evolution. We now know through DNA that there were several origins of humans, not just one. This makes the Adam and Eve story complete fiction. If Adam and Eve never existed what does that do to the Christian narrative? Or, it could be asked, is there anything left of the Christian narrative if there never was an Adam and Eve? If fun to think of all the junk that comes from that story. It started "sin." Sin exists because Eve persuaded Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. This, after being warned by a talking snake, but that's another bonkers story in Christianity.  If there was no Adam and Eve, there was no original sin. If there was no original sin we are not born sinners. If we are not born sinners we don't need any forgiveness. If we don't need any forgiveness, we don't need a god or a representative from the god central offices,

All the chest beating about "a fertilized egg is a human being" does not engage reality. There has always been an economic calculation about having children. Back when the world was mostly agriculture, each child was an investment which yielded a profit. More hands working in the fields more than paid back the investment of time required to raise them. Big families with some older children helping with younger ones gave a return to the mother for the time she would not work. Children were what economists call "producer goods" like donkeys and hoes.  As agriculture became mechanized and cities grew, children were no longer a good business investment. They became a "consumer good" competing with other consumer goods. Note in all of this I am not making a judgement, just stating the facts.  As more women entered the labor force and having a child meant time off and less family income, the cost of a child went up. It continues to rise. Women are now more than

I've written here for years about the threat to women's health caused by dumping Roe. It is about miscarriage. Now the problem is happening . Doctors in Texas are unsure whether they should or can care for a woman when they learn her pregnancy was terminated out of his sight. I've read several places that when a woman who has had a terminated pregnancy, the fetus is gone, an examination does not reveal any hint as to whether it happened because of a spontaneous miscarriage or an abortion. All the doctor can do is turn the case over to local police or the sheriff. That has already happened in some cases. A columnist in the New York Times  explained yesterday what I have written here many times. The government "would need access to...all histories, text messages, medical records, bank statements, social media and location data." The released draft from the Supreme Court made clear no women was given the right in the Constitution to abortion. Apparently, no woman wil

When discussing the current status of the term, Christianity, defenders often say, "Well, yes, attendance and church membership is down, but mega churches are growing." The recent scandal in a mega church group called "Hillsong" shows large showy church shows are not churches in a participatory sense, they are money-making schemes. They are Limited Liability Corporations (LLC) that have a provision , "The corporation shall have no members."  They are run by a very few wealthy people and those in the pews cannot remove a crooked preacher. They are run from the top like the Catholic Church. When I bring up money and the faith, detractors often say the clergy they know are not in it for the money. Clergy at small churches are not paid lots of money but that does not mean money is not involved. The preacher has to be paid something or he/she would take a different job. It is exactly the same with Catholic priests who take a vow of poverty. They must make a liv

So many deep in the faith, any faith, wonder what will happen to their children. Different religious cultures handle the faith of their children differently. Some Orthodox Jews disown and shun children who marry outside their faith. I once knew a deep Catholic man who was angry at another man in his church. The other fellow's son dropped out of the local Catholic school and attended a public school. "When a child lives under the parents' roof, he goes to their school." The link quotes parents from a variety of religions. All the parents, however, live in the U.S. These parents seem to have embraced our contemporary culture practice of accepting whatever children decide. They know the likelihood their children will not be religious and are more or less resigned to accept the new development. I suppose in most of these cases the parents feel they followed the religious practice of their parents and expected their children to do the same.   I suppose in all religions the

Judge Alito's draft had a claim overturning Roe would be consistent with U.S. history. Instead, it is Roe that is consistent. Benjamin Franklin was a choice guy. Franklin, and others before him, published a "cocktail" that was to rid a woman (and the man responsible) of this problem. Franklin did not carry on about abortion being either good or bad, when life begins and such stuff as we hear today. Surely, no one can deny Franklin was one of our "founding fathers." He was even in attendance at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. One contribution he tried to make was to start each session with a prayer. It was voted down.  I have my doubts also about the "Christian Nation" claim religious people make.  Franklin included his recipe for "misfortune" (pregnancy) in a math textbook. Perhaps he got the idea from a math textbook published some years before which also had a solution for "misfortune." Franklin was an interesting fellow to

I know several women in my age cohort who got abortions in the 1960-70's. Now we know some details of who did the abortions and how they got away with it. It is stunning and relevant information for today. Those in the anti-abortion cult want to believe there were not abortions before Roe. Thus, if Roe were gone, they believe, there would be no abortions. Details of the underground operations were published in a 1995 book, The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan. "Jane" was the secret code name for the group organizing and performing the abortions. (also in Wikipedia) The underground Jane worked only in the South and West sides of Chicago and mostly among low income black women. Abortions were done in several different homes and apartments, sometimes moving quickly when suspicions came along. There was always a "front" location where women would be sent. The women would then be moved to another location for the abor

In all the fracas over Roe v Wade the attacks on it are dominated by white Christians. Some of them try to quiet others who bring up Jesus/God saying it is not about religion. They are unsuccessful. The Christian part of it is front and center. A similar thing happened in the gay marriage war. So far, there is enough confusion to protect it. In separating religion and government, I think minorities did not have the confidence to wade in guns blazing. It's easy to understand their reluctance after having been shouted at and discriminated against since the beginning of this country. But the time of hanging back is over. "Sincerely held beliefs," religious beliefs, need to come forward now and correct the freedom of religion needle. The first such group surprised me. It is Muslims. There are various posts around the net explaining the Muslim faith does not focus or have much interest in "the moment life begins." The faith is about life while it is being lived.  I,

I looked at several websites to see which anti-abortion denominations house pregnant women and the charge big bucks to adoptive parents. The Protestants sites I happened to look claimed not to be involved in abortion placement. Catholics, the original anti abortion denomination, is big into the adoption business and I gather profiting from it. It's just smart business, they might say, increase the number of babies with anti abortion and increase our revenue from adoptions. Adoptions today cost between $20,000 and $50,000. I'm guessing revenue from adoption will rise in coming decades just because of lower births which opens the door to higher prices paid adoption services.  Revenue from adoptions goes way back. In the past couple of years there has been a lot of publicity of homes for unwed mothers especially in Europe. Young women did tough labor there while waiting for the birth. Then, the babies were taken from them and given to adoptive parents in return for a fee. Children

A dramatic original piece of writing appeared today in the New York Times. It was written by a doctor who performs second trimester abortions. The doctor mentions something I have heard for years about Christian anti-abortion centers. They advertise their caring nature and desire to "help" pregnant women. But many women who show up at abortion clinics after visiting one of the Christian centers are surprised at the diagnosis of their pregnancies. The pregnancy is not as far along was they were told by the Christian anti-abortion center they had visited. The author of the link is diplomatic. She explains the fraud as "mistakes" or "misinterpretation" of data. Seeing the pattern of false diagnosis from these Christain centers across the country the only logical conclusion is the centers want women to think their pregnancy is too far along to qualify for an abortion. Perhaps their motto is "Lie for Jesus."  The link author has three small children a

Some new cave drawings have been found , this time in Alabama. Cave drawings have been dated to as early as 40,000 years ago. The new ones in Alabama are from only about 1,000 years ago but they may exhibit spiritual beliefs from long before. We may find out in time--they are in a location very difficult to study.  The thing about cave drawing is they are history during "pre history." They are a form of writing and the artist is expressing something. The new drawings in Alabama reflect, one scholar said, something from "the underworld (spiritual)". As is common in cave drawings, these new ones feature a lot of part human, part animal works. In these, humans and snakes are one being. As an aside, why does the Adam and Eve story feature a snake instead of a bird or big cat? The latter can speak just as good English as a snake!  The cave drawings, to me at least, represent some kind of spiritual or religious beliefs provided to people of the time by their culture and e

Being up to my neck in City government and community affairs for two or three decades left me unable to leave them behind. There is a topic no one seems interested in but affects the health of every human being on earth. It is plastic. (Does anyone else remember the one-word line from Dustin Hoffman in the Graduate , "Plastics.") Today the Attorney General of California tossed the first bombshell of attack against the petroleum and plastics industries. He said they have been lying to the public for decades about recycling. While most every piece of plastic has a number on it that implies it is recycled in some manner, historically only about 9% of this plastic has been recycled. Numbers on bottles are a facade leading the public to think the bottle they tossed will be reused in some way. Mostly, it will not. For some decades plastic from recycling bins has been loaded into empty ocean containers which are loaded onto ships headed to the poorest ports in the world. China no lo

Is it far off the mark to say Marjorie Taylor Greene is the new Donald Trump? She has outrageous cause and effect theories, lately blaming Catholic Bishops for current problems. Catholics replace "illegal immigrants", liberals, abortion doctors, other races and so on as society's primary problems.  Catholics were big villains a few decades in the past.  Why not bring them back?  Greene, a former or present Catholic, says the Bishops are run by Satan. She has children and says she does not want Catholic clergy near them. As to the Bishops, of course, she is referring to Bishops who protected priest abusers by constantly transferring them when local parents complained of sexual abuse.  While Greene is certainly an off-the-wall personality, she may well be expressing something many more quiet Catholics are wondering. They are wondering how Bishops, with college degrees, experience and training could decide to move child abusers to new places where they would abuse anew? Even

In just 10 years, 2010 to 2020, the percentage of self-identified Catholics south of the U.S. dropped in a way I call dramatic. While no religion and Protestant Pentecostalism have been growing for some decades the rate is accelerating. This kind of change is happening in countries where the Catholic hierarchy has been very influential in pushing governments around. Ireland is another example. Traveling in Mexico as a young man I was always taken aback by villages that were extremely poor surrounding a magnificent Catholic Church. "Why do people put up with that?" I wondered back then. Now they are not. While there are many explanations for the South/Central American decline, the Pope says one problem persists , sexual abuse by priests. Only a few years ago reforms in the Catholic Church were announced that were to solve the problem. Done, it was said. Court statistics as reported in newspapers show abuse continues. These appear every other month in a publication from Freedom

There are many stories in the news about a crackdown by the Chinese government on Christianity. We have to acknowledge China is a huge place and news stories in one place may not reflect what is going on everywhere. But it is certain the government does not intend to tolerate a huge Christian presence.  Today's news about crackdowns in China is in sharp contrast to claims by the Catholic church itself that Catholic numbers are rising sharply  there. In my opinion, this happy talk from publicity arms of the Catholic hierarchy is being pumped out to offset the decline of Catholics in many parts of the world. According to the link there are Catholics in China who support the Pope and don't want the Chinese government to insert itself into the faith. Another group wants the government regulating the faith. Still others identify with a thread called Catholicism that is in neither camp. Calling all three groups as "Catholic" is a bit of a stretch. It's rightly called &q