Thoughts of a Freethinker

Researchers at the Un.of Texas did a global satellite search of water reservoirs. The populations have increased and the temperatures have risen there is more demand than ever before for water. Since this was not an on the ground survey there are not precise numbers. There is a consensus among researchers the problem is worldwide.  Water is the classic example of "The Tragedy of the Commons." The Tragedy of the Commons is thought to go back to ancient times. It is widely believed prehistoric people lived in groups or clans. This was necessary for defense and maybe for a social life. Whether hunting and gathering or later domesticating animals like goats or cattle, it was only logical all animals share the same grazing ground. The human instinct has always been to take as much as possible if there is no cost. So, take more animals when hunting and own more cattle when more has the same cost as fewer. The result, of course, is hunting grounds with an inadequate supply of wild a...

The plot thickens. As anti-abortion Catholic and Protestant clergy pound their pulpits about the sin of abortion other religious views keep knocking them down. Several cases claiming that withholding abortion is a violation of one's right to practice her religion are right now in the lower courts. A new and dramatic development is that 31 Catholics, all members of the House of Representatives, spelled out why abortion rights are consistent with the Catholic faith. This link on a conservative site included condemnation of these politicians. The case that abortion is a grave sin has holes in it. Watching the self-righteous squirm is always great entertainment.   The Representatives say that social justice, conscience and religious freedom are fundamental tenets of Catholicism. Understandably, these are never mentioned by the shady "Priests for Life." The social justice of allowing poor women the same access to abortion as wealthy women is just never brought up. This is beca...

 A lay pastor of an American Baptist (most liberal of the Baptists) church who sounds like an academic reviewed data on who attends church. It confirms data covered in this blog. It is that church going is not for the single, non-college educated or "blue collar" world. It is a place for college educated people with children. The link goes into detail showing the statistics of the rise in church going among married professional people with children. The numbers come from a really big sample and the survey has been repeated with the same results. Why might this be? Let's considered hypothetical sets of people who are mid career. For a single person or couple, working lots of hours at a dull job, how attractive is a dull church service where you are expected to part with your limited money. Add to unattractiveness if the couple is not married. We know unmarried couples are very common. If at church all or nearly all other couples are married would not an unmarried couple fe...

When the outcome of elections allowed the Supreme Court to be stacked with anti-abortion Christians, the logical question was, "How was that allowed to happen?" That is, how did Republican Christians gain control of Congress and the Presidency and put a religious view of the fetus into law? I wondered myself why women I have known who vote for Republicans but believe in equal rights kept putting these dufuses in office? The implied answer was that these Republicans did not really intend to outlaw abortion. It was just a game to get low tax and anti-government Republicans into office.  Now, however, a different reality is apparent. Roe was overturned. Those clinics able to provide abortions are seeing as much as twice their former traffic. And, abortion providers who talk to young women find the old reluctance to push back in politics found in the past has been replaced. A majority of the current generation of young women, if they are Republicans, will not put up with the old ...

I'm not very good at mathematics, but I do know there is both change and a rate of change. The rate of change is, I believe, called in mathematics the first derivative. This first derivative or rate of change is especially interesting when trying to figure out what has happened in societal change and what might be expected in the future.  The headline of a NY Time article says "The fastest largest change ever in religion is underway." The article   discusses a book by three preachers who lament the drop in church attendance and membership as well as the polling data show new declines in those identifying as Christians. The three preachers offer ideas on how to slow the rate of change as well as the change itself. This follows news from the weekend that the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination, which has been losing 10% per year for a decade or more, is suddenly experiencing a more rapid rate of loss. We have to remember the SBC is a association...

Countless times in my years here blogging I've pointed to overpopulation as a looming problem. Each time its evitability is discussed anti-abortion readers pile on about how previous predictions of overpopulation never came to pass. I have asked these readers if they see no problem with doubling the current global population or tripling it?   About 20 years ago my wife and I spent a few days in the country of Bangladesh. We have friends there. The woman was my wife's graduate student at NDSU and her husband was my colleague for a year. They had a baby girl while in Fargo who is a U.S. citizen. We've followed events there ever since.  Just to briefly review, Bangladesh was part of the British Empire. It would have been part of India when India was given independence but because there were two regions heavily Muslim these were separated out and became one country, Pakistan. East Pakistan became Bangladesh after a war with West Pakistan. Bangladesh is over 90% Muslim but its...

There have been enough election cycles in enough places so Republican have measured the damage they have taken from repeal of Roe. Women and the men who support them know the Republican Party is the enemy of good opportunities in family and careers. They are test marketing some gimmick legislation they think might divert attention from their anti women narrative.  Of course they are throwing money and benefits to religious "pregnancy centers" that offer ideology against abortion and some support for new mothers.  These centers have a reputation for giving pregnant women incorrect information about their pregnancies. They are known to tell women they are too far along to get a legal abortion when later women have found out they could have had the abortion. Republicans are also throwing money at programs to help women get through pregnancies. They are tiny amounts compared to the over 100 K it takes to raise a child. If Republicans cared one twit about women they would support ...

What have we learned since Roe? A lot really. A list of what has been learned was published recently but it left out the most important lesson. I'll try to summarize the list provided by the link. Both liberal and conservatives on the issue have splits within their ranks. Anti-abortion has split between those who want to leave the issue with the states and those who want a nationwide ban. To a lesser degree, abortion rights people split over just how far to push abortion rights.  If the Supreme Court majority thought that by overturning Roe it was washing it hands about abortion and would not need to revisit, the majority may be surprised at the number of cases lined up and headed its way. Overturning Roe unleased more cases, not fewer. The political landscape was changed by the overturn of Roe. There have been several elections centered on abortion rights. Anti-abortion has lost them all. It's unlikely all elections will center on anti-abortion and in some cases it will win. B...

Many times during my 16 years as a Mayor people took me aside at an event or came to my office and said something like, "I have (or had) a vision that a spiritual force is going through our city. I will have a big role in it."  After-mayor life has seen it too. At this moment I know of people who own or are trying to buy property to start hosting religious or religious-like events that will change the world. The link is about a woman in her early 60's who had read all about current-day "prophets" and people who had had visions of broad religious movements often led by themselves. She heard from God she herself has the responsibility to arm the world against Satan. A divorce gave her the $100,000 she needed to buy an abandoned youth camp in the mountains. A study concluded she needed over one million to build the conference center that would train people in current prophesies prepare them for the coming battle with Satan. She has been to conferences around the co...

You gotta love San Francisco. A Presbyterian church which has been going for 150 years and is on the National Historic Register decided enough bashing of drag queens was enough. The church welcomed and honored one of the most enduring forms of performance art in the history of human beings. It hosted a drag queen story hour for all ages. Not to be undone by the Bible waving protesters outside the church, a prayer of thanks to God for the gift of drag was given. Religious conservatives preached against interracial marriage for decades. Oh, the sin of mixing the races. God met for them not to be mixed by placing different races on different continents. After many decades and eventually threats to the collection plate it was decided to drop mixed marriages from the list of absolute taboos.  But, what next? Something had to move into its place. Homosexuality fit the bill. Jerry Falwell brought in a lot of money for the Moral Majority hammering away at his sin. But, alas, the Moral Majo...

It is possible to use "natural law" to condemn or promote most any behavior. The common pattern of argument is to say, "That behavior violates natural law," and pretend the argument is settled in your favor. A scholar in the field says using natural law to argue in this way does a disservice to the origin of the concept. The philosopher link author says there is considerable disagreement among those who devote much of their lives studying natural law. He says it is best in invoke the concept only after all the various ramifications and consequences have been considered. It does not work well, he says, as a reason to approve or disapprove of some act or belief.  I found the link interesting when it delved into what he called "practical" issues in natural law. He says it applies best to ground level questions of life, health, knowledge, friendship, virtue and religion. His expanded essay on the "practical" aspects seemed to track with economics and...

I finally finished the book The Ghosts of the Orphanage by Christine Kenneally. It is a research book about a residential childcare business, St. Joeseph's Orphanage, in Burlington, VT. The facility operated for 120 years closing in 1974. It was owned by the Diocese of Burlington and staffed by a group called the Sisters of Providence. The book filled with recollections of old people who were in the facility as children was so painful to read I had to put it down for a few days often. It is a book with recollections of beatings, murders and lying by Catholic officials.  I call it a residential facility because many of the children there at any moment had parents and extended families. The practice for more than a hundred years when a family badly needed to save some money, even money for food, they would place a child in such a facility. Sometimes a child would move back and forth between a facility and home. But the places went under the general term "orphanages" becaus...

Christianity, and I suppose most all other religions, preaches God or any god is sovereign or independent from all other events and forces. If this were proven not to be true God, or any god, would be dependent on something else (and not sovereign). Growing up in a Christian community it never occurred to me there might be people somewhere who did not believe God was sovereign. While I don't remember that this issue ever came up in my undergraduate years, I remember clearly when it came up in my first graduate school class. The professor noted that around the world people who live in rural areas and who cannot control the weather are more religious than those who live in cities and make a living doing business. Goodness, I thought, that means God and all other gods are not sovereign but are products of something else. That is, the gods enter human minds only when needed. I have heard this lack of sovereignty repeated countless times in the many decades of my life. Never have I hear...

Republican leaders do parody of themselves so naturally they don't seem to realize they are doing it. We can see many of them just now preparing to blame Trump for the coming loss in 2024. "If only he would drop out," many are hinting, "We could advance a more popular candidate and beat Biden." Trump is not their biggest problem. Their problem is the drift into religion and not counting votes. "We hate you sinners," is the message The sinners are women and men who support women's rights. By turning away this large constituency they have kissed the Presidency goodbye.  A politician in Nevada who worked for Trump is now supporting DeSantis. He thinks that, even though Trump lost Nevada twice, the margin was close and with effort the Party can garner the votes to win. I wonder what voters he thinks can be stolen from Democrats and taken to the Republican side? Is it all those women and men supporters who are voting for Dems across the country because ...

Pat Robinson knew his business. It was the personal God and the money to be made from that God. He said once he was made up of several Christian traditions and named them all.  What he wanted, however, was not people joining churches and putting money in the collection plate but sending him money at the 700 Club. Viewers sent money to support the 700 Club television program. Pat collected this money and bought other stations and satellite capacity. This was all rolled into a corporation owned by Pat and his family. It is said to be one of the biggest transfers of religious donations into personal wealth ever. His net worth was listed at $100 at when he died. There remains speculation a sale of all his companies might net $1 billion. His son, Gordon, is listed at $50 million as well as the other son who is in the business. There was never room for denominations in the Robertson plan. Robertson often referred to information he had received directly from God. This included who was goi...

There is a place or two in the Bible where people born disfigured are condemned. Then there are places where Jesus heals or raises people from the dead. Contemporary thinking is that if, for example, someone is born without legs it was not the person's fault. People born with same sex attraction, however, have themselves to blame. Only once in a while does a Christian columnist try to tackle this dilemma. I kept on reading the link wondering if ultimately the author would admit the Christain faith should drop its opposition to gay/trans. Perhaps, I thought, here might be an old school Christian who would see that most of the faith made a mistake by claiming God only made male and female and the gay/trans population should be encouraged to live a full and happy life.  But, alas he did not. Instead, he sort of admits God made gays/trans people. But, these people should not live out their lives with the gender category they were born with or find themselves. Instead, they should suppr...

In the Baptist world, Wallace Henley is a big name. He was pastor of a mega church in Houston for 20 years and has written a lot. He has been well known for decades in the Southern Baptist Convention. He wrote a column recently reminiscing about his arrival as a young man at the Southern Baptist SW Seminary. That was in 1941. It was the largest seminary in the world at that time and for many decades to come. He said his years at the Seminary were so wonderful he enjoys returning and dialing up memories. But, there is something that bothers him, the place feels rather empty. There are lots of parking spots and the sidewalks, once full of purposeful students, have little traffic. Enrollment at the seminary has plummeted along with that of Southern Baptists. Like everyone else he tosses in his theory about what happened and how to right the ship. It happened, Henley thinks, because of moral and financial scandals at the seminary and across the Southern Baptists. This is merely a theory an...

A delightful author, born a Jew but now an atheist, published a book, The God Desire , explaining how nice it would be if there were actually a God and heaven. He has discussed the ideas in the book in his blog. He has experienced the same thing I have experienced, lots of well-meaning people trying to explain how much happier he would be if he just believed in God. As a former Jew, he has received books, offers of coffee chats, etc. from both Jews and Christians. The offers include help to better "understand" the Bible and/or Torah so he will not need to continue his life of "misery." When I was a Mayor I had many visitors who came with the specific purpose of praying for me in person.  While I haven't read the author's book, I gather he admits it would be pleasant to believe one never had to die, that another life happens and the second life is even better than the first one. That people prefer not to die is universal. The Torah and Bible used that fear to...

The Southern Baptist Convention will hold its huge annual  gathering this coming week. On the agenda is kicking out a few churches who have women pastors. The SBC, Catholics and some other denominations, are the throwback to the old world of men running things. They are almost doing a parody of Christianity. Atheists or "nones" do not need to recruit Christians to leave the faith. People simply decide they do not want to be in a group with such peculiar ideas.  I've heard of several women who make a living putting on conferences and writing books about women who have left the Southern Baptist Convention. A big name is Beth Moore. The SBC is not a denomination like the Catholics or Methodists where the "home office" sometimes owns the real estate and employs the clergy. It is instead rather an association of "like minded" Baptists who can disaffiliate themselves or be cut at the annual convention. This makes it curious as to why there is such dog-eat-do...

The whacko wearing Viking horns who broke into the Capitol and gave a prayer in the House Chambers is out of jail. Dozens of those who broke into the Capitol at the behest of Trump will be getting out of jails during the next few years. It will be entertaining to learn how they now see themselves and what becomes of them. One who lived near where I live had a wife and two small children. He had a job and was doing OK in life until he went around the bend in religion and politics. The Viking horned "QAnon Shaman's" name is Jake Angelis. He is now in the Phoenix area. While the link does not explain how is earns money for food, housing and his car he is moving around the area trying to establish something like a spiritual consulting business where people would give him $500 for a week of seminars on "enlightenment." A reporter went with him to a meeting where he made a presentation but there were no takers. The problem is no one seems to understand what he believe...

There are so many ways scholars can try to plot the migration of humans and their ancestral origins. Besides archeological clues and DNA, there are language clues. That is, languages change in somewhat similar ways and we may figure out the ultimate origins of all the races and ethnic groups by plotting backwards our language changes. The link makes the case for Native Americans having origins in Europe. I think he limits his analysis too much with the last 3,000 or so years.  Recent evidence is our human ancestors go back much further than we previously thought. I have often said here there is evidence people similar to us dated back to 300,000 years ago. Now artifacts of human of human-like people have been found in Greece dated to 600,000 to 700,000 years ago. Evidence of ancient humans seems to show up the deeper into the earth archaeologists dig. It seems only logical the longer the history of human beings on the planet the less important is the 2,000 year dominance of Christi...

How many times a week (or a month or a year) do you hear or read that morals are declining in our society. I'm guessing it was repeated just as frequently by our grandparents and their grandparents. If linage goes back to other countries it was probably there as well.  Once in a while, an ambitious professor or graduate student in the social sciences or humanities looks into this. Looking into commonly held beliefs like "morals are declining" is a place these disciplines make their biggest contributions to the well-being of humans. No society improves by believing things that are not true. The humanities and social sciences destroy myths. Those who benefits from myths get profoundly angry at professionals in these disciplines.  A recent study found that morals are NOT declining. This conclusion was reached even though polls show quite consistently that when people are asked a question like, "Do you believe morals are declining?" about 70% to 80% of the public an...

"No abortions except to save the life of the woman." A version of this sentence is in the laws of some 15 states. What does it mean? The laws do not spell out for a doctor what constitutes danger to a woman.  The common understanding is that when a woman goes into something called "sepsis shock" her life is in danger and it is lawful in anti-abortion states to do the surgery. The public, including myself and legislators, know little about these cases and the risk involved. There is one statistic, however, that helps us understand. It is that the U.S. has more deaths associated with pregnancy than any other of the high-income countries. Death due to pregnancy is one is the most frequent causes of death in low-income countries. We are better off in the U.S. than the poorest countries in the world but worse off than any those in the higher group. To understand why we are killing to many pregnant women, it is helpful to have a doctor explain what happens when medical ac...

It's the human impulse to make order out of chaos. Maybe academics do this more than the rest of society but you see it everywhere. In theology-talk there are many big words meaning almost nothing. When talk turns to people who are religious or post religious there are continuing attempts to categorize groups and give them names. The link author writes a popular blog. She asked readers a while back to tell their individual stories of how and why they left the faith. She got over 7,000 responses. The reasons are all over the place. In the link she discusses six people who left the faith. All six were unique. One realized at the age of six the tooth fairy, Santa Claus and God all had to be the same. It makes perfect sense. A Lutheran preacher knew all during his career there were things in the faith that did not add up. The day after he retired he decided he simply did not believe and has left it all behind. A woman's husband died and she came to understand her church life was ju...

I agree with those who defend the clergy by saying the sex abuse was a tiny percentage of clergy. And I agree it is something present in other professions. Surely, however, even those defending the church have to admit clergy are presented and promoted as a source of goodness and morality. Other professions are not placed on this pedestal of morality.  I think I am correct also in saying no other profession has a long history of secrecy and hypocrisy of shifting abusing priests (or employees) from one parish to another. This policy of opening the door of abuse so abusers can walk right in is unique and despicable.   The story of sexual abuse of children will go on for at least a few more years. Attorneys General across the U.S. compiled a list of claims about sexual abuse. Most every state had hundreds. Now those who complained about abuse are being interviews and records made. This is uncovering even more stories and details, and these are appearing in the news.  I'...

Joan of Arc, seemingly a trans, has been canonized and held up as a martyr for the faith. After several states has passed laws against drag, is Joan still OK ? Jokes about Catholic and Protestant anti drag make good entertainment for many. A large organization in California, "The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" is parody of anti-drag Catholics. It was the group largely responsible for drag night at baseball games of the Los Angeles Dodgers. While one drag night was canceled others are now scheduled. The Dodgers need to sell tickets and Christians are able to help much. Better to rely on drag queens.  I looked on Google Images for pictures of "Joan of Arc." There are, if course, no photos. There are only drawings by artists who wanted to portray Joan is ways that fit the Christian narrative about who she was and the proper way to think of her today. From the drawings depicting Joan it is clear artists did not want her to be seen and appearing in drag. A couple of di...

How on earth can a state's legislature, school board or city government define a "drag show" and how can any of them enforce or stop such a thing? A Federal Judge appointed by Trump is asking the same thing, tossing out one such law. All through religion are cultural preferences about how people are to dress. In some Muslim countries women are forced to cover themselves up completely. There are laws and street enforcers who go around and scold women. Some places it works for a while. When women join together to ignore it, like in Iran, doesn't work. Now we have Christians trying to enforce something they personally don't like.  What this country needs is more films and plays like The Birdcage. That movie made fun of anti drag people. Instead of religious moralists pretending to present themselves as some kind of serious and thoughtful commentators of our culture we need comedians and actors presenting them as what they are, airheads.  The scenario of how drag came...

Anti-abortion zealots hate it when someone says there may be too many people in the U.S. or in the world. They always say there is land in many places where no one lives. The growing population can live there. Maybe they mean Death Valley, few people live there. While none of them have actually suggested Death Valley, the point is lots of places with sparse populations cannot support many people because of water or weather. All of us have supported in one way or another people living where costs are high and subsidies are needed to make an area habitable. Subsidies for places that do not work as places to live and work is coming to an end. A few years ago the Federal Government began requiring flood insurance to cover damage to homes and businesses built in flood prone areas. A two-billion-dollar project is underway in Fargo, ND, to handle flood water and make home insurable without the very expensive flood insurance. Flood prone areas will not be available for development like they we...

When I saw an essay that bragged the writer knew how to decide the Christian view when Jesus said nothing about the issue, I thought this is what I want to know. It was  nonsense . In essence, a Christian is supposed to use current prejudices and societal norms and attribute them to some divine source.  The writer said a Christian was to decide the correct Christian view by consulting with the Holy Spirit. Are we to believe the imaginary Holy Spirit will advise a Christian to believe something altogether different from what he/she was taught as a child and that view stayed during an entire lifetime? If one was taught homosexuality is weird and a mortal sin and the person hated it his entire life will the Holy Spirit come along and rule the exact opposite?  For reasons any rational person can understand, the Holy Spirit agrees with most everything each person is thinking. How could this be otherwise when the Holy Spirit was born in the mind of a person and never left the r...