Thoughts of a Freethinker

Culture has changed since day one. Also, since day one, there have been leaders trying to stop the culture from changing. Pat Buchanan, a right wing Catholic, writer and politician, said in a speech in 1992 The agenda that Clinton & Clinton would impose on America – abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units – that’s change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America needs. …[M]y friends, we must take back our cities, and take back our culture, and take back our country. That speech could be paraphrased as "stop all change and stop it now." If we paraphrased many of the Republican candidates for the Presidency right now the same speech is repeated, "My state is where woke comes to die." Crowds cheer. Change continues. It always will. The link author is a social science professor who moonlights as an American Baptist preacher. American Baptists are not Southe...

When only one of five children stay with the faith of their parents, it stands to reason that in a few decades that will dictate the size of the faith. The largest Lutheran denomination projected its own size in its own study recently and confirmed the 80% decline. Other denominations, especially the biggies, Southern Baptists and Catholics, are more reluctant to face their grim future. Finally, I found a Catholic columnist who wrote somewhat candidly about the future of the U.S. Catholic Church.  Instead of projecting numbers like the Lutherans, he chose to discuss the problems of providing priests when a.) there are fewer of them and b.) church members are spread across wider geographical areas. He, like the Lutherans I have monitored, stressed the need for lay members to perform more duties than ever before. The problem with that is that over time, clergy have served their own interests by raising the bar needed to perform certain ceremonies. Clergy could demand higher pay after...

Water and auto traffic congestion are two topics we economists really like to dabble in. They are the perfect examples of "The Tragedy of the Commons." The Tragedy of the Commons is a concept recognized in Europe centuries ago. It happened went farmers lived in villages for support and protection but their animals fed in a commonly owned area. Over time, every farmer tried to increase his/her wealth by increasing his/her herd size. Why not? The cost of grass was pushed onto someone else. The inevitable result was overgrazing and a shortage of food.  In democracies the temptation to cause the Tragedy of the Commons is so strong it happens regularly. Even though some people, those who understand economics and human behavior, see it coming it is not avoidable. It is almost inevitable. To be popular politically, elected officials need to hide scarcity and the higher prices that go with it. When new housing is needed, it can be located near jobs and shopping so people would not ne...

For many decades the size of ancient skulls has been mapped. From the size and shape of these skulls it is believed the parts of brains available to humans in ancient times can be estimated . Abstract thoughts, such as the existence of invisible beings, became a skill when brains developed to allow it. Gods are such abstract patterns of thought.  The part of the brain needed for abstract thought such as the existence of gods is the pariental lobe. Pariental lobes started appearing about 200,000 years ago. There is evidence of human like beings long before that. The belief is, then, that gods started to appear only 200,000 years ago. The article about this in Psychology Today  lists many of the gods which have been recorded: Other gods have come and gone, such as Biema, Chwezi, Dakgipa, Enuunap, Fundongthing, Hokshi Tagob, Ijwala, Lata, Mbori, Pab Dummat, Ra, Tirawa, Vervecator, Messor, Insitor, Vodu, Xi-He, and Zeus, to name a few of the thousands of gods that have been studi...

I know denominations based in the Midwest have always been big in sending missionaries to other countries. Southern Baptists also send them. Catholics spill money around the globe trying to make converts.  The Anglican Archbishop points out the model or narrative of Western Christian groups sending white missionaries to start churches and hold large rallies is very outdated. When a Christian group says, "We're coming to convert your people to a real religion which will save their souls" the host country hears, "We're coming to Westernize your country, change your government, mine your minerals and enrich ourselves." Countries no longer see missionaries as "friends." I've read there are loud complaints in the Southern Baptist Convention about paying for its missionary program. It sends three or more employees to countries to establish one church--often without success. I've been watching You Tube videos by preachers in the Lutheran Missouri ...

In a blog here recently I discussed the interesting data (at least I found it interesting, maybe no one else did) showing that Christian church membership is increasing among mid-career and upper middle-class people. I pointed out how logical this is because people enjoy the company of those most like themselves and some people's careers are helped by contacts who can make a difference.  Social scientists try to measure how powerful is this desire to stay within one's own socio-economic circle. Someone studied recently how often people in the wealthiest classes encountered people who are in the lowest classes. The two seldom interact. One has to assume those in both groups feel uncomfortable crossing the lines. The study involved restaurant chains. There only a few restaurant chains where people of both ends of the economic spectrum "rub elbows." These include Olive Garden, IHOP and a few others. For nearly all others, economic classes do not mix. Having attended many...

Joel Osteen, super wealthy mega church preacher, tells audiences, "Jesus wants you to prosper." That summarizes what is called in Christianity the Prosperity Gospel. It is optimistic, empowering and uplifting. Contrast that with what I understand to be the traditional gospel narrative, "You were born a sinner. Sinners go to hell when they die. There is but one hope for you. We have arbitrarily picked one of the many gods worshipped by humans over 200,000 years. The one we happened to have chosen will forgive your sins, but first you have to promise you are on his team and grovel." The prosperity gospel message is simple and upbeat. The traditional gospel is complicated and a downer. It's not rocket science to understand why the prosperity growing in popularity and the traditional declining.    If we look at church attendance from the view of the academic discipline of economics, it is an investment of time each week. The value one receives, or perceives, from go...

The farm where I grew up was the "home place" where my father and his many brothers and sisters also grew up. Since my grandparents still lived nearby we had a constant stream of aunts, uncles and cousins who lived in large cities in other states returning "home" for visits. I recall a conversation with an uncle who was a doctor on the east coast. We were talking about the city nearby with about 25,000 people and the large number of churches there. This uncle said, "Why so many churches? Why don't they hire a preacher with something to say and have one big successful church?" He did not understand the Christian faith survives, thrives, on being able to look down, not only on atheists and other world religions, but on each other. Each church in that city survived by thinking itself better than the others. This trait lives on and will remain so long as there is a Christian faith.  Today there is a lot of introspection because of the support within Christ...

One of those in the Trump circle indicted on jury tampering is a retired Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) preacher. His excuse that he was just trying to help out the juror comes as quite hallow. The head of the Denomination appeared on a You Tube complaining the State of Illinois is terrible because its legislature passed laws making it easier to get an abortion there. A LCMS preacher getting arrested for going whacko over some political matter would not be worth noting were is not for the bragging LCMS does about its "policy" of keeping out of politics. I've heard LCMS people say that about themselves often and always wondered if it was the same bullshit that comes from nearly all other branches of Christianity. Might it be, I wondered, LCMS has a backdoor political operation it tries to keep hidden. Indeed it does. The latest edition of, Church & State, a publication of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, included an in depth report on mon...

Maybe it has always been true, things change as history chugs along. It just seems like things are changing faster. I refer often here to how many gray-haired people there are in churches today. This signals, of course, churches that will die off. What's surprising, however, is that in a study of counties in the U.S., the counties with older populations are less  Christian than counties with younger populations.  This might be good news for Christianity. Not the case. There are very few counties with growing populations of young people. Where these exist, they are not growing with white Protestant and Catholic populations. They are other races and various other religious traditions. I'm sure all of us have experienced a surprise at the way some other group thinks and acts. I was not familiar with a group often called The Law of Attraction. The speakers/gurus associated with this group are named Abraham-Hicks, a married couple. Their speaking events and luxury cruises sell out....

The Trump/Christian political phenomenon has been explained as the need for an authoritarian figure in the psych of one slice of society. Probably every society has groups that want an authoritarian dictator.  The current copy of Skeptic magazine is not on line yet but I have my hard copy, It explained some at least part of why things that are so clearly not true are believed by so many. The article was a review of academic journal peer reviewed works. I learned the term, "bullshit" is not a borderline profanity or term of poor taste but one that has been rather clearly defined and measured as the propaganda tool. The term "liar" is defined in this field of propaganda literature to mean someone who knows the truth but claims something different is true to achieve his own ends. The term "bullshit" applied when the speaker or writer has little to no interest in what the truth is but says things that advance his cause without reflecting on whether what is sai...

Let's look at the institutions who have tied their futures to an idea only 17% of the public endorses: The Republican Presidency, entire Republican Party, Catholic Church, Southern Baptists, Lutheran Missouri Synod and several other Protestant denominations. Only 17% of the public believes abortion rights should be abolished. Any institution which holds this view can only count on this small percentage of the public for support. This explains why most Christian denominations are predicted to be about 80% smaller in a few decades than they are now. These institutions are in deep water, can't swim and have a weight permanently pulling them under. I know that forced birth believers who read this blog cannot change their views for the good of their denomination. The religion notion that one fertilized egg "has a soul" and is a human being with all the rights there of has fogged their brains so badly there is no clear reasoning in site. It is impossible for them to help th...

When a lesbian couple reached 80 years they decided they needed more care than they could handle themselves. They had lived for decades in an area of Michigan and had a circle of other aging friends. When they began inquiring about assisted living in their community and near their friends the facilities would not promise good attitudes by either other residents or staff. They could not guarantee the couple could live together just as heterosexual couples live. The couple had to search nationwide and eventually moved 200 miles to a place that met their needs.  This is one of those places one has to ask, "What good is religion?" A least a portion of Christianity preaches "The Good Samaritan," helping the wounded man along the road who is of a different ethnic background. There are hundreds of denomination sponsored assisted living and nursing homes. I suppose many are arranged so couples can live together until one of them needs bedside care. How many will welcome, al...

There are Christians at the forefront of defending democracy. Then there were those Christians using violence to invade the Capital. A preacher was indicted along with Trump trying to cheat in the Georgia election of 2020 and take votes that were for Biden and make them for Trump. From commenters here and remarks one reads in the press, I am certain there are many who oppose abortion who also believe the country would be better under a dictator who stopped abortions than under an elected President who allows them. When one reads there are millions who will vote for Trump it follows that many of those would prefer Trump take the Presidency even if not elected. The importance in 2016 of appointing anti-abortion judges underscores this.  Pence thinks he has a powerful answer to Trumpies by saying, "My obligation was to follow the Constitution. That's why I refused to name my own, or Trump's own, electoral college." Trump supporters scoff at this. They ask how could Pence...

It's almost comical that anti-abortion operatives think they can threaten to withhold endorsements from Republican candidates and gain ground politically. Anti-gay groups did this for decades and look where it got them. Gay marriages are on the front page. There are rational operatives within the abortion cult. One is taunting those who have a pure anti-abortion stance and ridiculing the view that getting nothing is better than a more accommodating view and getting 60%. Of course, so much of the various anti-abortion groups believe the others practice heresy. In fact, it does not make much sense to claim abortion is murder and then support various circumstances where abortion is legal. Once one falls into the false religious notion that one cell is a human being it will never be possible to have a rational view of abortion. It also will make the political movement a hapless failure. For anti-abortion groups to think they can black mail Republican candidates shows their lack of clea...

To me, the path of prohibition is the path we can expect for abortion. The two are strikingly similar. Both fired up emotional appeals. With prohibition, it was to save the family from drunk fathers. Plus, it was make us all more prosperous by not missing work because of drink. Alcohol was evil. No denomination was more outspoken against alcohol than the Methodists. Before prohibition, three Presidents addressed the national Methodist convention. It was smart politics to be for prohibition. It has been "smart politics" to be against abortion. However, Methodist success was its own undoing. The denomination did well talking about a world without alcohol. When it achieved the success it sought, prohibition, it was tossed out of the political mix. No President ever agreed   to address the national convention of Methodists after prohibition was defeated.  President Rosevelt raised a glass to celebrate the end of Prohibition. In the aftermath of an abortion-rights victory in Ohio,...

An anti-abortion operative  claims it was the Ohio GOP that didn't spend enough money on an anti-abortion vote. A couple days ago a big-wig Republican blamed the anti-abortion groups for "not being organized." They both spent tons of money and, I assume, had an army of people knocking on doors.  The time has come to wonder about the importance of "being organized" or "allocating more money." I've read political consultants tried to identify what kind of candidate or issue wins the election. One I read provided a simple explanation, "It starts with the candidate." She meant the candidate has to have history or a personality that is what the public is attracted to at that particular moment in time. Republican Ted Cruz once said about elections, "First win the argument. Then you will win the election."  Politics is a form of art, not a science. Have you ever looked at a popular, maybe famous, painting and thought to yourself, ...

No matter which fantasy they are chasing, anti gay, anti abortion, sin, an afterlife or an ultimately "correct" reading of the Bible, Christians assume other humans cannot see the holes in Christian logic. This inability is helping the decline in Christianity. Of course, its happening to all religions. Christian pundits are forever saying, "Those lost in their youth will return," "there will be a revival," "people have had a bad experience in their church" and "the faith fills a longing that is always there." A common one is "life has become so busy church is crowded out." Study after study , and my own experience, show that none of these is the main reason for the decline in Christianity. The main cause is a growing use of intellect. People think and reason their way out of the faith. Unless Christians can see they are behind the eight ball in their explanation of their faith they will forever be unable to understand its decl...

A regular columnist on Christian Post wrote this week that his church consulting business has never had so many requests for help. He said most churches asking for help now will be closed within five years. He discusses traits of churches that are in trouble. The first one he lists is "lack of evangelism." He means lack of recruiting new members. To stay constant each small church needs to recruit five new members each year. I suspect that with the pool of people open to joining any church getting smaller each year and all churches competing for members five is a number out of reach for most. Any church can try to steal members from another church but other churches can steal its members. It's a zero-sum game. A common theme of churches about to close is turnover of preachers. There is a view held widely in these churches a new pastor is out there somewhere that will bring in members. This reflects the myth there is a silver bullet that will save their church. The most co...

I knew ND Gov. Doug Burgum as a student decades ago and visited with him since many times. Now I live in Iowa and went to hear him give his Republican Party campaign-for-president stump speech. Afterwards I found him and his wife. He said, "My econ prof." and we had a nice visit. His stump speech had what I thought to be a coded message, "Vote for me. I'm not bonkers like the other people running."

Recollections fill an old guy's brain. One is a beautiful young woman from the South. It was the early 1960's. Racial integration was a fire ball of controversy. President Kennedy and later Johnson led the charge for racial equality. The young woman asked the other students, "Doesn't Kennedy realize he and the Democrats just lost the entire South?" They did. Now they are winning it back. Another was Senator Bob Dole a few years later. Southern states were rapidly switching from the prejudice of old Democratic Party to the new prejudice of the Republican Party. Dole said, "We Republicans welcome people of all persuasions into our Party." He should have understood why the founding fathers did not allow government to embrace a religion. They the froth and ferment of religion pushes everyone else out of the room. Those Dole invited in took over the room and pushed everyone else out. The most recent Republican Platform (no platform was adopted in 2020) reeked...

Since we all die, we all have an interest in the religion and culture that goes with death. The funeral industry reports that about half of deaths today are followed by cremation instead of the corpse display and funeral service. This is the result , they say, of fewer people going to church.  Surely it must involve, as well, people comparing the price to the product. Embloming, moving the corpse from to place to another and staffing a ceremony are labor intensive and more expensive than alternatives. Why not merely buy what is needed and not anything more? Both the funeral industry and clergy are right there ready to tell you what is needed. It is their services. They can quote you chapter and verse from the Bible explaining why you must go expensive.  While driving once, I heard a retired funeral director explain the funeral industry's psychological explanation of why the embalmed body must be displayed. It is necessary, he said, so the loved ones can accept with the reality...

Political celeb Steve Bannon has a podcast and invited the defrocked priest, Steve Pavone, head of Priests for Life, to come on and talk about the fiasco for right to life in Ohio. Right to life lost big there a couple of days ago. Bannon warned Pavone right to life "had better get organized because right now it is a drag on us." He warned that big donors would go elsewhere.  They both have problems. Pavone was defrocked because he used his fund-raising muscle against his Catholic Church. Bannon has a problem because he thinks it Pavone's fault Republicans are in a pickle. The Party is in a pickle because it invited right-to-life into the festivities and they dropped a turd into the punch bowl. It would have been better if Republicans had asked, "How will we get votes from people after we took away their rights?"  Bannon said right to life needed to be "better organized." Organization will not change anything. Republicans need to become the limited gov...

The vote yesterday in Ohio indirectly supporting abortion rights means one thing: Anti- abortion is the enemy of the Republican Party, not its friend. Republicans should concentration on impeaching anti-abortion instead of President Biden. Abortion rights will be approved next year in Ohio. An election will be held then. But the vote for a state Constitutional approval of abortion rights will also the day of the election of our next President and a U.S. Senator.  On election day next year a huge number of Ohio electoral college votes will be at stake. Who will win these votes next year? Because the abortion rights issue will be on the ballot, and because it will swell the turnout of women and liberal men, the odds improve for President Biden over Trump. The odds will also improve the odds of the incumbent Democrat Senator. This, even though Trump has carried Ohio twice. The reason for these improved odds is because an abortion rights measure on the ballot will change who turns...

While there are younger clergy preaching the old stuff, I think the majority of clergy over 60 is unaware there is little audience left for the Old Time Religion. That is, clergy who are certain absolutely they, and they alone, understand what the Bible's ancient words and stories mean and that newer interpretations are the work of the "antichrist." For reasons I do not understand, Christian Post often carries articles about this guy and what he is saying. He is a 72 year old mega church preacher who thinks anyone's views but his is headed for bad afterlife. His lack of understanding modern society is a lesson in what happens when one the door opens and he has to leave his land of make believe. I understand preachers/priests need to cater to the over 60 gray hairs in the pews. The future of the faith, of course, is not them. Someone needs to come up with a message that serves the over 60 church members but has some appeal to young cohorts as well. They, after the mess...

In the 1970's, before Roe and when abortion was illegal in many states, there was the Jane group in Chicago. It provided thousands of abortions under the nose of law enforcement. A phone number was passed from doctor to doctor, preacher to preacher, health care, etc. The message was "call Jane." The phone was answered, "This is Jane." There was no "Jane" of course but the name and the unofficial organization thrived for several years. It was closed when Roe made abortions legal. Probably several versions of Jane exist today in states that have heavy abortion restrictions. Most of the Janes, I assume, distribute pills for medical abortions. The link is about a woman in Ohio who acquired the medicine and self-administered her abortion . There have been cases of women being prosecuted for self-administrated abortion. Like the Jane group, women are learning how to navigate pill distribution and self-administered abortions under the noses of law enforcement...

The New York Times reviewed a new 700-page book which plots the rise of Christianity from the time of about 200 CE. The review does not seem to have a pay wall so hopefully you can read it if you wish. Our most popular historical narrative of the growth of Christianity is that a shiny light prevailed over darkness. Darkness, of course, was whatever gods or religions, like Paganism, people might have enjoyed before Christianity. The author thinks now is a good time to reexamine the narrative of "light over darkness" now when Christianity is on the wane. I suppose it could be asked was Christianity ever "the light" and if so, is darkness returning. Or is there something emerging that is even lighter than Christianity. The twists and turns of history are reexamined. The book sounds like endless details of history and is called by the reviewer a heavy read. One detail this book author addresses is the "conversion" of Constantine in the 200's. He suspects C...

This Bishop's ploy illustrates how far leaders in the faith are missing the mark. To think this ancient writing with what modern thinking finds are absurd stories and conclusions converts people is a good indication of a losing cause. There is one thing worth noting in the story about sending out all these Bibles. The Bishop notes that by the age of 20 only 20% of young people hold onto the faith. This number of 20% was quoted by a prominent young preacher in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. If one is speculating on the future of the faith this provides a window. Taking 20% for about three generations brings the numbers in nearly all denominations down to 20% of their current numbers. Most denominations have been bleeding numbers for several years. The 20% applies to the current size, not the larger size of the 1970's. For example, the Missouri Synod now claims about 1.8 million members. In a few decades it will be 360,000 or about half the size of today's small Evangeli...

 When the secularization of the U.S. and Europe is discussed some Christians immediately conclude we are headed to be a Russia. Sometimes they use Hitler. Hitler talked up Christianity and the Pope at the time never criticized him unless Catholic properties were harmed. The Pope was asked to condemn Hitler's treatment of the Jews but he never really did that.  A secular country can be one which became secular by the choice of the public, not the choice of a dictator. There are several good examples. Japan is one. Scandanavian countries another. There are several characteristics of secular countries that make them better than religious ones. Democracy was able to end slavery even though a big part of it justification was religion. Women have forged past the old suppression of the Bible to obtain voting and career rights. Women now play a big role in political life. Our country is better off because democracy has brought in participation of different genders, races and cultures....

Greene has run out the oldest con in the Christian playbook. It goes by slightly different names, "God Has a Plan," "Pray" and "Prayer Works." Instead of doing something about a problem it is easier to "pray." We have Governors in drought states praying for rain. On the eve of elections Pat Robertson urged prayer for Republicans. Terminally ill patients pray for recovery. I have known Christians who went bankrupt and said it was good because "God has a plan for me." Now Trump appears in deep du du and, instead of saying "Admit you are both wrong and stupid and take consequences" some Christians make matters worse by continuing to say things that are not true or blame political opponents who had no part of the scandal. Greene and the cast of characters that have endorsed Trump's lie about the 2020 election seem to have no clue that voiding an election could be done against them if the tables are turned. Their thinking is as...