Thoughts of a Freethinker

Over and over again I read columnists who believe forced birth is an idea that will recover from its current disfavor. The moral case of laws against abortion is so strong they believe future events will drive it back into favor. There is an unstated message, "Keep sending money to prolife groups so their employees do not have to seek useful work." I've always wanted to peruse the net to make a guesstimate on how many people make a living doing forced birth politics. The link author is more honest than most. He acknowledged forced birth expected that once Roe fell states would one by one adopt no abortion legislation but that exactly the opposite has happened. He notes that the excuse forced birth gives for the losses is lack of money but this doesn't pass the smell test. A good message wins even with less money. I wonder what more money would have given forced birth? It would have allowed them to say over and over a human life exists when one cell is fertilized. This...

Watching the case filed by several Jewish women move forward is both fascinating and exasperating. It is fascinating because it puts a finger in the eye of decisions which say, "Abortion is against my religion." These women are saying the Jewish faith determines life begins at birth any law which says otherwise limits our right to an abortion.  I had not realized this, but U.S. Catholic Bishops feared this kind of case a decade ago. They did not like the Freedom of Religion Act because they recognized religion could be used in favor of abortion rights. Now what they feared is coming to the courts. The Freedom of Religion Act passed with support from both Parties.  Any cases or arguments in the past that used religion to justify abortion rights has been dismissed out of hand. Is there any good reason why it might be different now? Probably not. That is exasperating. Supreme Court decisions about abortion have always been a bit, if not completely, arbitrary. The original Roe de...

The huge population in China is slowly getting smaller. There are fewer marriages and babies. It's leader has ruled that China must become a country where women marry and produce more children. Women are responding with defiance , not marrying nor having children.   Many of us in the West have a stereotypical view of China and other countries ruled by what we call "dictators." Usually, these leaders held an election but there was only one viable candidate. We assume these governments control every aspect of individual lives, where each person works and lives, etc. The truth is more complicated. Even dictators worry about public opinion. They need to please their armies and political circles.  While some women in China remain in unhappy marriages and soldier on, an increasing number refuse. The prosperity of the last couple of decades in China brought large numbers of women to university. They are now in professional careers. Marriages in China still bring with them the vi...

From coast to coast, well maybe not so much in the deep South, groups with a different religious view than Christians are taking advantage of Christmas displays to make their presence known. A couple of times I've been at the State Capital close to me here in Des Moines, IA, for the presentation of an atheists' holiday display next to the manger scene. I understand other non-Christian groups are also displaying their presence. And, why not? If Christians insist on using public property to evangelize others might as well also. An interesting group now emerging at this time of year are the Satanists. A U. S. House member from Northern Wisconsin expressed outrage in the national media a few days ago because a Satanist group put of a Satan tree in a Railroad Museum in Green Bay. How dare they, he said. He has children and now will not bring them to see the decorations at the museum.  My guess it more groups will crowd in on Winter Solstice displays like Christmas until there is a f...

What is the importance of " a life" or "one life?" Statistically, the average length of life indicates the attention paid to individuals' health. Increasing the health of individuals extends their average age. If everyone who claims to be "prolife," especially politicians, we would see more people using the health care profession and following what it advises. The U.S. ranks low in life longevity. At least some resources that should go to extend average life statistics goes to fighting abortion.  We can start with health care related to pregnancies. The care of pregnant women in the U.S. is a sorry story. Politicians are far more interested in fetuses than the women who carry them. Forcing women to give birth raises the probability of death to the woman.  Two economists recently published a book about the U.S. healthcare system. They pointed out there currently is enough money spent in the system to pay for free "entry level" care for every c...

Back about a decade ago on this blog, the comment pages were crowded with sarcastic and dismissive comments about Antartica. At that time, and even now to a certain extent, there were doubts about whether climate change was actually happening. One of the tricks national conservative columnists were making back then was stating that snow depth on Antartica was increasing. If it was increasing, the climate was cooling, not warming they said. This bit of evidence was a slam dunk they thought. They made jokes about it. In my blog back then I referred to scientists who explained the deeper snow in Antartica was, in fact, evidence of warming. The snow was heavier there because the water was warmer, pumping more moisture into the air which consolidated and fell as snow. These scientists had been tracking the water temperature and monitoring the underside of the Antarctic ice shelf. That ice shelf is called the Thwaites. Thwaites has been renamed "The Doomsday Glacier." Thwaites is s...

A preacher in Indiana, who is also a President of a small Christian college, was taken to the woodshed recently for inviting a young man with long hair present a lecture in favor of creationism. The preacher wrote a long apology to those who were offended. Apparently, the young presenter had shortened his hair so as not to offend but did not shorten it enough.  Those who complained referred, among other parts of the Bible, to Paul who criticized men who dressed as women. Goodness, I hate to think what the members of that church would think of me--I arranged for several senior citizens in my building to attend a DRAG BRUCH here in the downtown. They were apprehensive never having been to a drag show before. They had such fun I've been thanked many times for since. Whatever the sin was to attend a drag brunch, it was worth the risk to those I invited.  Some decades ago a relative of mine complained that her sons wanted to wear their hair long like all their friends. This relativ...

The results of a study were released recently that highlighted disagreements inside the world of Catholic clergy. It showed laity is more liberal than priests and that priests don't trust their Bishops. These disagreements reveal the reason the Pope is insisting on an on-going Synod. Disagreements need to either be resolved or papered over.  Because of my career in economics, I cannot read about these differences and not wonder where self interest fits in. For example, if you were a priest, what would be your view of the laity? The programmed "correct" answer it you should see the laity as people you are to serve and please. But, how could any priest not forget what he himself sacrificed to be a priest. "I gave up a career and family to do this. What did you in the pews give up? Brunch at the Country Club? You owe me, not visa versa. And there is this other thing I worry about. What's going to become of me if there isn't enough money to keep this place going?...

The trail of a scandal inside the Catholic Church has been going on for a long time. It involved huge amounts of money taken from church goers and squandered in ways almost incomprehensible. The Vatican Court hearing the case says it will issue a ruling in mid December. It is uncertain whether this will be the end of the matter or if much will remain unresolved. The link author thinks the story has other revelations coming.  Religion and money certainly have a bad history together. If I were a wagering person I would bet that the Mormon church eventually will see some huge scandals about money. News reports say it has, not hundreds of millions stashed away, but billions. If Mormon officials are humans that money will corrupt their thinking and some will be used for seedy purposes. The Mormons seem more even secretive than Catholics.    It is often repeated that religion and religious groups are the most unregulated institutions in our country. Of course, the argument is m...

I've discussed the split the Methodist denomination many times here. The same narrative of what happened to that denomination continues: Christian sites continue give headlines to groups of Methodist Churches that leave the denomination to affiliate elsewhere. That over 2/3rds of Methodist churches have stayed is never mentioned. The future of Christianity is told in the 2/3rds that stay, not the 1/3 that is leaving. The death of Rosalynn Carter reminds us of movement among factions of Christianity. In the year 2000 the Carters left one church in the small city of Plains, GA and joined another. The one, Plains Baptist Church, they left is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention which has a long history of hate, prejudice against women, gays and black people. I think a majority of churches will leave the Southern Baptist Convention but that may not be considered as big a story the majority of Methodists staying.   That said, things are not all that bright for more moder...

Bill Gates has so much money he can say or do whatever he wants. He is interesting to me because he seems mostly to have left behind what made him famous in his life, gaming technology to make lots of money. Warren Buffet, for example, could also so anything he wants but he still goes to work at the same office gaming the stock market. I suppose he has no other interest. Buffet is like most retired people, they do not move on. Gates, on the other hand, is different. He has many interests and keeps looking for new answers to big problems. He does not think the strategy from inside the environmental community will solve the problem. Only by developing technology that captures carbon can we slow climate change .  Gates has benchmarks for the climate change goals. Going back several years, I recall scientists predicted various possible temperature rises. They thought the rise might be between one degree F and three degrees. Three degrees would be catastrophic. The only good news, I rec...

The dropping numbers of churches and church goers is a big transformation of U.S. life. Anyone following history and current events knows even the most stately and admired people and institutions have a shelf life and are replaced with something else given enough time. I've read that when Christianity began to be known in the Roman Empire, the reaction of the establishment, Pagan leaders, scoffed at the silly religion.  My father was one of the early college graduates who made a living at regular farming. He grew up in a time when knowledge and skill with horses was a most valued asset. Being able to look at how horse walked, a peek at the teeth and its muscle tone quickly told a prospective buyer the economic worth of the animal. Buying, raising and using horses was one of the most established industries of its time. We all know Henry Ford played a role in ending the shelf life of the horse industry. We all know the retail mall is a dying institution just like the downtown shoppin...

So many in the religious community have dim lights it must be tough after dark. One group that must stumble into things after sunset are conservative religious state legislators. One in Missouri said he sponsored a bill outlawing abortion because, "My religion finds a human being is born at the moment of conception." He made this statement arguing to pass the bill. It passed. The reason given for the bill was  religious. Just what is needed to get it overturned.  Now another group of religious people, clergy included, have passed the fire walls for getting into Federal Court. They  argue just the opposite, that their religion teaches life begins at birth. If one religious argument is allowed, why not a thousand others. The latter argument for abortion rights is based on religion. I've been in Federal Court at least two times in my life and know there are technical twists and turns that can take place. On the simple level I don't understand how one religious view can ...

In recent decades, the public's view that religion in one's life contributed to her good morality has gone from a 2/3rds support to a 2/3rds nonsupport. According to polling , the majority in the U.S. no longer believes that if a person is religious, she is more likely to possess high moral standards. It conforms to a billboard used many times by atheists across the country which says, "Are You Good Without God?" (Technically, of course, it should have used the word "gods.") Readers know well the endorsement by millions of Christians of Trump who lies, cheats and does not pay what he owes. What we tend to forget is that leaders such as Pat Robinson condemned Bill Clinton as immoral for his sexual misconduct and then endorsed Trump. This defines hypocrisy.  Every other month I receive my copy of,  Freethought, published by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. It always has four or five pages of tiny print under the heading, "White Collar Crime." Th...

I remember the first time as a child I realized God is a belief passed on from one generation to the next. An emotional visiting evangelist at our small-town church explained that children need to be taught there is a God because without this when the current generation dies God will go to the grave with them. As a farm boy it had never occurred to me there were people who did not believe or that there ever could be such people. Now, many decades later, I see preachers on You Tube telling us God is not just something in our heads, it is something outside our heads. I saw a Lutheran one recently saying it made him angry to hear people say God is only something people carry around in their heads.   There are two ways to understand the God-in-your-head idea. One is to realize that each time you encounter a funeral procession on the street, there is a four in five chance the casket has someone who believed there is a God. At the hospital birthing ward full of babies, only one in f...

These days there are many attempts by analysts who see through Trump and try to understand why people are attracted to him. Documented proof is available that he lies about everything including the amount of his wealth, what he did while in office and the 2020 election. It seems likely he will be convicted of one or more of current outstanding charges. The question is asked, "Why can't people recognize he is a nothing but a con artist?" The link concludes a broad cross section of the public are conned by Trump and others simple because they do not question or evaluate vulnerability within themselves. We humans are vulnerable to con in ideas as well as personalities. False notions are presented and some of us will latch onto them. We can start will gods and spirits. Every reader will have her own belief about these--that they do or do not exist. While no one sees these gods or spirits there is a popular explanation as to why some believe they exist. It is because there is ...

Father Flanigan's iconic Boy's Town is located right next to Iowa so probably many Iowa children have been housed there. In recent decades it has accepted both boys and girls. Unfortunately, it has had on its staff people with backgrounds of child molestation. Today's headlines in Iowa are about cases of abuse. Some convictions had taken place, other allegations remain pending. There have been 12 cases of alleged rape and over 100 cases of physical abuse. Yet, it is an institution that has been so successful at presenting itself as a magnificent institution it has excelled at fund raising. It has so much money it does not reveal the amount. Like "Priests for Life," another organization of questionable integrity, Boys Town used a Catholic front name, "Father Flanagan" to help raise money. The scandals surrounding Boy's Town are not only abuse, they include paying huge sums to fundraisers.  Among the famous alums of Boy's Town was the legendary bas...

There is much hand wringing amongst House Republicans these days. They cannot agree on how to stop government nor stop the growing support for abortions and LGBT+ rights. The Republican party was caught unprepared by the political swing toward gay and abortion rights and now is struggling to catch up. But, its old instincts are so ingrained it struggles to make a correction. This was seen recently in a bitter exchange between two Republicans, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Jason Smith of Missouri. They were over something or other when Smith called Gaetz a liar. An angry Gaetz responded saying Smith is "living a lie." That phrase, "living a lie" is tossed often at closeted gay people. When it was tossed at Smith everyone knew what was all about. First, it was about Smith not being married like most Republican men and women. There was another aspect of Smith knowns by all who follow House politics. It was trips Smith took to gay resorts with another single man from t...

David French, a Republican, published a good analysis about abortion rights and the self created and impossible dilemma Republican politicians have created for themselves. The Party has set itself up so that Republican women and men vote for abortion rights and feel they are voting for Party principles. It involves the two big words, libertarianism and libertinism.  I'll take a stab at defining the two words. Libertarianism is about everyone having rights. In the case of abortion, it would advocate the fetus has rights and the woman has rights. It makes for long debates as to which has the most rights. Libertinism is about me and my rights. As French points out, Donald Trump is the ultimate libertine. He is completely selfish and cares not one twit about anyone else. His view of what the Republican Party is all about, libertinism, has come to take over much of the Party.  How does this affect abortion rights politics? I would explain it this way. Let's take a young couple,...

Priests and Bishops obsessed with either anti-abortion or anti-gay are being fired by the Pope. The most recent is Bishop Strickland of east Texas who has constantly criticized the Pope for not coming down harder of abortion and gays. It is a masterpiece to observe the Pope's method of keeping theology of anti gay and abortion in place while stopping clergy from talking about them. If one asked the Pope, "Why do you do things is this way, hanging onto outmoded and harmful theological views while stopping clergy from mentioning them?" I think he would reply, "Hey, it has worked in the past, it will work now." One would have to agree this slight of hand has worked in the past and probably will work again. Protestants aren't quite as dishonest. When there is a big kerfuffle, the mad branch just takes its marbles and goes somewhere else to play. The Methodists are doing that just now and soon both sides will feel they are preaching the true gospel. I suppose nea...

It was refreshing to read a prominent Christian columnist agree with what I have been writing here since forever. Mark Silk wrote that the insistence to pass laws against abortion will take down the Republican majority. He says correctly those who insist on continuing the fight to pass forced birth laws are engaging in a kind of spiritual warfare. Another term that has been used for a set of people who cannot stop themselves from frothing from the mouth in support of a hopeless project is "cult." Is it fair to call forced birth zealots a "cult?" Putting spiritual warfare together with the term "cult," we have spiritual warfare based on a religious view which sees, or perhaps feels, the presence of a human being at the moment of conception. That there is no basis for this view does not affect in any way the conviction their religious view is the only correct view. What have we seen in cults?  I can recall two famous cults. One was called "Heaven's ...

The Catholic Bishops of Ohio issued a joint statement after losing badly to abortion rights. Their statement covered to old material that has been proven, election after election, to be unsuccessful. They shed crocodile tears over fetuses which they call "children." Apparently, having a vague notion their defeat had something to do with women they spent some of their press release bragging about their help given poor women during pregnancy and with raising children.  An old adage in politics is, "The concession speech is the beginning of the next election." That is, a concession speech should lay out the themes needed to win the next election and maybe a trap for the winner to walk into. A bad concession speech is, "You voted for that jerk. You should have voted for me." The Bishops did the latter. Paraphrasing, they said, "You voted to kill babies. Shame on you." An example of a good concession speech was given by a Mayoral candidate who lost in...

A scholar has pieced together artifacts, inscriptions, coins and other physical evidence to explain how the various pieces of writing that came to be known as the Old Testament came together. The review is interesting and no doubt the book itself is even better. I've ordered the book.  We all know there are no original copies of the written work that makes up either the Old or New Testaments. As the decades go by, new bits of archeological evidence show up.  The link author's case is that the Old Testament is not a piece of writing about a unified people who were united by one god. To the contrary the writing of the period was an effort to unify a fighting dysphoria in order to survive. Different groups had been raided, chased and defeated over and over were written about as if they were one people when they were several. This effort to be a "people" rather than a country was the point.  The unknown writers took from available written texts or folklore stories about K...

My entertainment tonight was watching forced birth go down in defeat in Ohio, 56% to 44%. Abortion rights are now a Constitutional right in Ohio. Forced birth tried to trick voters twice, once with a procedural vote to stop this vote and again by rewording tonight's ballot to confuse voters. Neither worked. Crime doesn't pay.

Every day, on every continent, innocent people are singled out for simply being different and killed. Christians are among them in some countries. In the U.S. trans people are killed every day for being trans. In some countries, the government itself can legally kill atheists and homosexuals as well as others.  November is the month to Pray for the Persecuted Church. This has been designated by a group which focuses on persecuted Christians worldwide. Christians should not be persecuted anywhere. Neither, however, should Christians stand by quietly and watch others being persecuted. I've not heard that Christian missionaries in Africa are taking a strong stand against killing homosexuals. The link instructs Christians to pray for other Christians. It would be refreshing to hear a call for prayers that atheists and homosexuals not be killed.  While there is no standard measurement I know of for determining the most persecuted group in the world, atheists and homosexuals seem mo...

We have reviewed before growth in the Wiccans. The most popular Halloween costume is the witch. There are real witches. Another group meeting in small groups across the country are what we can call the psychedelics. They do not call themselves atheists. Instead, they believe there is a spiritual experience in the use of psychedelic drugs. This group is separate from Native Americans who say use of peyote is a spiritual experience.   While I'm not an expert in drugs and their effect on the mind, it does not seem different than what is found in the Bible. The Bible is full of people, including Paul, who had out of body experiences. So far as I can tell, these experiences are treated by most of the faith as historical events. Paul claims to have talked to Jesus several times long after Jesus was dead. Is anyone else old enough to remember the term from the 60's, "Far out, man." Paul talking to the dead Jesus is Far Out. These churches have a variety of religious experie...

If ever there was proof the Catholic Church, or any other denomination in Christianity, has a lock on good morals and justice it is the history of slavery in building Catholic churches. I'll leave aside for now the "Biblical" case for slavery made by Baptists, and perhaps Catholics, of the time. When I see Bishops pontificating on the immorality of abortion it is so fake as to be laughable. The views of Catholic clergy at any point in time is not based on insight into morality but on cultural values and what they perceive as self-interest at that time. There was debate among the Jesuits around Washington DC about the morality of owning their slaves. Early on, in the 1800's, the strongest internal questions were raised. The Jesuits were determined to put Catholicism into the U.S. and the business opportunities from building Georgetown with cheap labor calcified slavery into the Jesuit operation.  One of the big business deals done by the Jesuits was in 1832. A total of...

One of the easiest tasks in the world is to be a scripture-quoting Republican politician. He/She can find something somewhere in the Bible to justify whatever whacko idea she has found that gets votes. The new House Speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson uses scripture as a political tool. Thanks to the internet , it is possible to poke hole in such self-righteous phonies.  Johnson wanted the public to think he was the God-annointed Speaker. He quoted from an isolated sentence in the Bible attributed to Paul. It says leaders (like Johnson) are raised up by God for their offices. I didn't hear him say God picked Obama and Biden. Maybe that was just an accidental omission. Right after Johnson said God had raised him up to be Speaker, he riffed on about too much government help to the public including the poor. Paul in the Bible advocated taking care of the poor--Johnson had not read past the "raising up" sentence. Johnson has lots of friends in the shady business of Christianity. Ther...

Watching the world change on the big screen of life is a gift that keeps on giving. About six weeks ago a student group which invites a variety of presenters hosted an event with a Satanic group, the Satanic Temple. The Satanic Temple does not actually believe in the existence of a Satan or a God and is atheist. It does object to religion in government and in other public spaces. The Satan part is satire. Another of its positions is a belief the abortion is a religious ritual and should be a right protected under religious freedom.  The link author, a graduate of Georgetown University writes it is wrong the Georgetown administrators to allow the Satanic Temple on campus. His reasoning is that the administration has turned down various requests to organize an abortion rights group on campus and turned down a presentation by an abortion rights group. He quotes Pope Benedict's edict that Catholic universities cannot advance views contrary to Catholic beliefs. The Satanic Temple, howev...

An author who just wrote a book where he passionately made the case "God is real" was appalled to learn in his own polling over a majority of senior citizens have doubts about the existence of the sovereign God of the Bible. He expected this from the majority of young people, not the old.  His Christian Post article promoting his book went on to say, "The spiritual needs of older Americans is not being met." He added his opinion, stated as if it were fact, that this generation of older Americans have been subjected to more uncertainty and stress than previous ones and that is why they are declining to believe the tenets of Christianity. This is nonsense. My parents and grandparents lived through WWII and the great depression. I'm in my 80's and the historical events of my generation have been easy-peasy compared to theirs. Older Americans do not doubt the existence of a god because "their spiritual needs have been unmet" or because they have lived ...

I never had much interest in hearing about communicating and worshipping with dead people. Several years ago a friend told of trying to exchange predetermined messages with her dead boy friend. It didn't work for her.  My interest in this phenomenon increased a little recently. A close relative's spouse died. The surviving spouse, who is not especially religious, now tells me during every visit what the deceased spouse has been up to and what the deceased approves of. I don't comment on this news because, first, the survivor is dealing with a lot and apparently this helps. Second, I might learn how it can be an intelligent and non-religious person can come to believe such a thing is reality.  It seems to me the "communication" my relative is having with the dead spouse is different than the ancient "Day of the Dead," "All Souls Day" or "Veterans Day." These may be like the Celtic practice discussed in the link. Ancient Celtic traditio...