Thoughts of a Freethinker

An amateur philosopher recently reviewed the efforts of the super-rich to find longer lives than the rest of us chumps. I've read the average age of death in the U.S. has been falling just a bit after rising for decade. But branches of science charge ahead with research on longevity. The rich now live longer than the poor. We can expect if there is progress in longevity the rich will live even longer and the poor have even shorter lives. It's entertaining to wonder where Christianity falls in this debate about longevity. According to the tenets of the faith the big prize it offers is death, not life. Everyday somewhere it is repeated that the faith must cling to the Resurrection because without it people cannot be sold the idea their tithe buys a happy life for an eternity. That's a better deal than Trump's "The Art of the Deal." I wonder who is now paying for research on longevity. If the poor will not benefit. If they are paying they are being robbed. It sho

On websites , and I'm sure in private conversations between Christians every day, there is concern about how much "religious freedom" they will have as their numbers decline. The link discusses a case won by a Christian group to allow teachers to pray while on break in front of the school's U.S. flag. The school had incorrectly said its policy of not endorsing any religious view made the flagpole prayers a violation. The school lost in court. The link was about how this prohibition to where and when people can express and show off their religious beliefs will become more common and how terrible that will be.  There was a song in the 1960's called "Walk a Mile in My Shoes." It's an old saying as well. It might be useful for Christians to look at the life of non Christians around them, maybe their close friends and family member, and find out what it is like to not be a Christian. They would learn how it will be when their own numbers get smaller and s

A Catholic pundit who is not clergy wrote a piece recently trying to envision how the denomination can navigate the next decade or two. Apparently, he makes his living writing about the Catholic church. He sees Catholics longing for the past where the loved local priest gave a homely that all is well and the local Bishop wished the priest and all in the diocese well. Now, the link author says, everyone sees a denomination continually wracked by sexual scandal and one closing and selling hundreds of locations. What should be done? The past cannot be reclaimed, he writes. A new Pope is coming and his main task will be cleaning up the denomination's finances and vetting as best as can be done new priests. By doing this, the link author says, people can at least feel comfortable about the present while acknowledging the terrible past.  I looked at the comments for quite a while. It was like eavesdropping on a private conversation. Comments on this, almost exclusively Catholic, site was

Every once in a while, someone posts a comment here or I read the same thinking in a published article. The thinking is that the Bible gave humans "morality" and an atheist society will have none. It is an idea so far-fetched you can't see it from here.  Humans have been here for about 300,000 years. Christianity for 2,000 years. To include Judaism we can add 5,000 or so more years. Whenever humans stopped roaming about finding food and started staying in one place growing their own food the one god showed up. One, instead of several gods, was easier for the rulers. Being the best friend of one god is more efficient than trying to pull that off for several.  So, where did the morality of humans come from before the recent appearance of God and the Bible? As discussed here many times before, the morality of humans came from humans. They learned they could not murder and steal from family and clan members at will and organize into successful families and clans. They needed

Week after week there are articles in the Christian press about the breakup of the United Methodist Church. Anyone following Christian events knows this splintering off in denominations has happened to several others, both with foreign branches and within the U.S. The latest headline was about the Asian Methodist branch cutting itself off from the original organization, the United Methodist Church.  People in the pews have been shoveling out money to fund missionaries for some centuries. There have been two of them in my own family's history. Even though churches marketing themselves as Christian still remain all over the world, the end of missionaries seems not far off. As some younger policy oriented preachers in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod point out frequently the U.S. needs to start new churches and stop its decline more than other countries.  As the Methodist Church breaks up world wide we see the impact of culture. Instead of Western religious culture changing in these

There are things about the court and legal system that are hard for me to understand. How can a court, a judge or jury, know precisely what is in the mind of a person or a group of people? I think it is accurate that people who claim to hold Christian beliefs are considered honorable and truthful. They are never, so far as I know, are considered opportunistic or self-serving. The views of liberals, however, have not been referred to as "sincerely held beliefs." Liberals recently have started making a claim in court that the right to an abortion is part of their "religious freedom." Will these liberal views be given the same level of importance as anti-abortion views?   I know court cases turn on what is in the minds of people. There is the "meeting of the minds" in contracts. There is premeditated and crimes of passion. When these mind concepts get into religion, however, it seems like the bucket's got a hole in it. Courts, especially conservative judg

Every year there are many people who claim to have seen Mary and Jesus in broken windows and pieces of toast. Seeing Mary and Jesus is so popular you can now buy a toaster that shows them every morning at breakfast.  Decades ago, there was a policy statement from the Vatican every claim of seeing Jesus and Mary had to be investigated. Then Catholic employees had to write up a report and publish it. The church was not to discourage worship of the toast or broken windows. How many millions of dollars have been collected from the faithful to pay for this nonsense? Finally, Pope Francis is sponsoring a new policy on these sightings. What will it be? A rational policy, one that used Catholic clergy's time wisely, would be one that said, "Clergy and staff will not inspect or judge broken windows or pieces of toast." That may not be an option for Rome, however. It needs to hold onto even the most bizarre and whacko branches of the denomination. With other contentious issues, the

Whether it is Paganism or other ancient faiths, there are often reports of growth. The current populations of these faiths is so small some growth, even rapid growth, does not change their influence very much. National Geographic recently claimed the growth of Zoroastrianism is exponential. There is a subscription fire wall so I cannot link you to the article.  Zoroastrianism is thought to be one of the oldest religions in the world. That is has survived so many thousands of years of competition makes it remarkable. When one reads a little about, one can see it follows the story line of many successful religions, including Christianity. Zoro is the hero god. Zoro has an arch enemy and the battle continues. When Pope repeats, as he often does, that Satan is "real," he should add, "Satan is not like that fake villain in Zoroastrianism. Yeah, they battle Ahura Mazda over there but that nothing compared to Satan." Zoroastrianism seems to be on all continents. Like all r

The Vatican has two positions on children. One is to have more of them. The other is to avoid having children if it requires science and technology. Sometimes the high and mighty in the world, like Catholic male clergy, get their comeuppance. It happened with Gallello, but Rome learned nothing. It seems incapable of learning anything. The Vatican ban on invitro fertilization is treated by the majority of Catholics the same way they treat artificial birth control and abortion are treated. There is a collective response, "The Church is ridiculous." If these Catholics go to confession probably they don't fess up about these issues. It's no one's business but their own. Certainly, it is not the business of any unmarried clergy.  Century after century, the Vatican is blindsided by new technology and by updated thinking by the public. It seems like the current Pope takes a longer view of things than previous Popes and than many current clergy and lay people. The curren

Recently, DeSantis announced Satanists could not have after school programs in Florida. Christians can, Satanists cannot. DeSantis always hooks his line to Christian Nationalism. It is a prize getting smaller by the day.  He and others tout the "School Chaplain" program. That is an open invitation to Satanists, Pagans and anything else that comes along. Advocates of Christianity should not be surprised if one day they are the minority and other religions the majorities. Advocating for Christianity risks having the entire world see it is being rejected. Wouldn't it be smarter to keep a low profile and create the impression you are more popular than you are actually? Time moves on in religion like in everything else. I remember hearing my Grandfather telling his daughter-in-law, my mother, "Bibles in the U.S. are a lot different than Bibles were back in Sweden." I don't know what he meant but, to him, the faith had changed from what he knew as a child. I assum

In the next year or so, 14 states will be voting on abortion rights. Perhaps not all of them will approve, but if current political trends continue, the majority will win rights to abortion. Once in a while advocates for forcing pregnant women to give birth display show a little insight into their problem. This one explains that one problem has been assuming the U.S. culture has not changed since decades ago when Roe was passed.  The link author explains the gender equality which bloomed in the 60's made it less likely either men or women wanted men to continue causing pregnancies but suffering no consequences. More than ever before the spacing of births was important, actually imperative, to couples. If political operatives for Forced Birth do not understand this, they are on a hopeless quest. The second observation in the link is that of messaging. The abortion rights argument of "My body" is a simple but forceful message and Forced Birth has no answer. Forced Birth alw

While there must be stories like this all over the world, the specific downsizing of the Baltimore, MD Catholic Parish is almost breathtaking. A decade ago, some secular pundits predicted the decline in Christian membership and participation would not be a linear one, a straight line, but the line would curve down accelerating in decline. Baltimore looks like it is experiencing the latter. Like dioceses across the U.S. it has taken bankruptcy.   The number of parishes is falling from 61 to 21. The number of places of worship will soon be reduced from 56 to 26. There were once 250,000 Catholics in the Baltimore parish, now 40,000. The huge old churches of the Catholic Church and those of many Protestant churches will eventually stand empty. Since they are not paying property taxes, those buildings need to be torn down or repurposed as tax paying and productive properties. There are so many of these churches now there are firms that specialize in remodeling them for other uses. These bui

As the pool of Christian voters gets smaller, Republicans are reacting by making the pool smaller. While this will cause them to lose, it makes them feel better. Christian Republicans are in a death spiral and don't really care. After all, they are right and the majority are wrong. One never knows about politics/religion, but it seems like a good period for secularism and liberal thinking. The right needs to stop the bolder coming down the mountain at them but they move closer to its path. How can more draconian rules against abortion do anything but super charge women's rights advocates? I'm not sure this is of any interest to anyone except me but I enjoy poking around denominations' webpages to watch internal meetings and presentations. I suppose candid discussion is like dirty laundry and kept out of sight to a large degree. Yet, it's possible to find some dirty laundry.  I can't stop looking at a video series presented by a couple of preachers in the denomin

According to polling in Poland, about one woman out of every three has had an abortion. This, in a country that  bans nearly all abortions. Where and how they get abortions is a lesson for all countries and politicians and religious leaders. When women anywhere in the world want abortions, they get them. Because Poland's laws against abortion are so draconian, those who get abortions need be quite discreet. There are testimonials of armature abortions. Countries where abortion is legal does not require the distance such travel requires in the U.S. There are estimates of abortion in Poland.   There is a stirring in the political sector of Poland to loosen up the severe anti-abortion laws. The Catholic clergy, of course, will have none of that and there are anti-abortion demonstrations in the streets. The pattern that seems most often repeated is eventually to beat down anti-abortion laws. Poland's three-party coalition is split on the issue. The most powerful elected body is old

In the 90's, comedian Mike Myers played a character on Saturday Night Live in drag. The regular skit today would be a parody the "The View." The Myers character was a stereotypical Jewish woman with a heavy New York Accent. Whenever there was a pause of difficult issue his character would say to the audience, "Talk among yourselves." For some reason it was a big laugh line. "Talk among yourselves" is the strategy of Pope Francis. I suppose any Pope at any time in history has dealt with bitter factions in the denomination. Many feel it is the Pope's task to come down on one side or the other of disagreements and that would forever be the teaching of the Catholic Church. The Pope seems to see that as a dead street for Catholicism. Why push out factions that want to stay in the church and argue? The better route, as he sees it, is to forge on into the future in disagreement. While it has been reported countless times over many years, another poll has

A Christan site recently carried a declaration of war  against liberal thinking, especially against any recognition or celebration of trans people. The link author treats the random happenstance of trans day falling on Easter Sunday as a major insult to Christians. So much is being made of this. I'm reading a book by a trans woman who was a man until the age of 60. She reviews her entire life as a man who, in his/her mind, was a woman. Having known several people who transitioned, I know there are many different stories and experiences. In every case there is one thing similar, weighing the dire consequences in their personal and professional lives of going forward with a change in gender identity. It is never done lightly. The book is, I Heard Her Call My Name, by Lucy Stante.   It's apparent humans have been doing gender transition since there have been humans. Native Americans celebrated the non-gendered people in their midst as having "Two Spirits." People with Tw

Those who follow the politics of Christianity know a split has been occurring in the huge world-wide United Methodist. In my understanding, events unfolded something like this: Several years back there was support and opposition to its ministers performing gay marriages or being gay themselves. For a long time a standoff continued leaving the matter unresolved. U.S. conservatives then left the denomination taking about 1/4th of the denomination's members. This left liberals with a majority to proceed approving gay marriages. But, the African churches seethed; they hate gay marriage. Now they are talking of leaving. True to the pattern in Christianity, African Methodist church leaders are not agreeing on whether to leave or stay.  Smart money would bet the African Methodist church will eventually split into factions over something or other. The same will occur in the U. S. in both the breakoff conservative denomination and the liberal one that is now the original denomination. Why d

It had to happen. And it did in 2016. A new political party formed which has anti-abortion as its lead   platform issue. Its platform is sprinkled with other left-sounding issues, Christian values, racial justice, social justice, etc. The party's name is the American Solidarity Part y. If this idea continues to get national publicity, and Trump and other Republicans slip and slide away from a total ban on abortion, it could grow into something significant.  One can bet the Republican Party feels it can rely on anti-abortion Christians to ultimately vote for Trump. Democrats have no place for them so what choice do they have, is Republican thinking. Many, like the founders of American Solidarity, feel too obligated with good citizenship to not vote. By forming this party, they can vote and feel they are getting even with Trump, Inc. for letting them down. This new Party has a certain intellectual property Republicans lost long ago. If one wants government to outlaw abortion and gay

When I was a farm boy I remember my mother coming home from a Bible study and she was not happy. "I don't like that Paul in the Bible," she said. It was years later I realized she was referring to writing attributed to Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:34 which says women should be silent in the church. This passage, like all in the Bible, is subject to the favorite Christian sentence which starts, "What this means is...." The end of the sentence always is about what the speaker himself/herself wants it to mean. In many denominations women are not allowed to stand behind the pulpit and preach. In the denomination of my youth, Evangelical Mission Covenant, a vote was taken a decade of two ago which gave women the right to be preachers. I understand the majority of seminary students are now women. However, churches most often hire men so most still have male preachers and women who spent lots of money to become credentialed preachers are left to do something else with thei

With Arizona's Supreme Court decision to outlaw all abortion, the book is closing on Trump's trick of separating himself from the crazies. New York Times columnist, Ross Douthat, who opposes abortion, pointed to the progress of abortion rights that comes with Donald Trump. Speculating on "what might have been" is, I hope, a harmless hobby. Whether harmless or harmful, it's fun. The speculation I'm thinking of is that of the Catholic Church. As I understand its history, abortion was not a big deal until relatively recently in its history. Before abortion there were other long forgotten sins. But, along came the right political and economic conditions to be opposed to abortion. Somewhere along the line, the sin of abortions was established at conception. That was the beginning of what ultimately will be that defeated Forced Birth. Establishing is sin as any moment after conception made it all or nothing. What if the religious gurus had said, as they did centurie

Yesterday, a department of the Vatican released a condemnation of gender change surgery. It said the surgery harmed "human dignity." The first celebrity, Christine Jorgenson, had the surgery. Christine had dignity.   For goodness sakes, what is "human dignity?" It seems to be if a human cannot live happily with the gender he/she was assigned at birth, "dignity" is achieved, not harmed, by dressing and having surgery that moves one to the correct identity.  I'm reading a book just now, "I Heard Her Call My Name; A Memoir of Transition" by Lucy Sante. Her name until she was in her sixties was Lue. She told of being alone as a child and dressing up as a girl and looking at her(him)self in the mirror. She thought if only she could tell people she is a girl they would think her pretty. The book described the decades of delay she choose before finally announcing her late-life gender change.  When I was on the national board of Parents and Friends o

Trump has been saying he will announce his position on abortion and both sides will find it "beautiful." He said his decision would come after a meeting of the two sides where they would come to a compromise and this would be his position. Today we learned of his beautiful position . It is for some states to have very liberal access to abortion and other states to ban it. As any rational observer of abortion politics would have predicted, all sides have now people very mad at Trump.  Readers here know that if abortion is murder there is no logic to permitting states to decide its legality. If it is not murder, there is no reason for any state to pass laws that restrict it. Either there is a line in the sand or there is no line. I don't know where Biden was on abortion during the Obama years. Did he understand he would have to come down 100% on side or the other? Bernie Sanders did not understand. When he was competing with Hillary for the nomination he often said that if

Much of the history or homeschooling comes from the desire of religious parents to keep their children in the family's faith. It has become more and more popular, however, for many reasons. Some parents find they quality can be better than what their local public school has to offer. There are children who are badly treated in schools and other circumstances.  An article I intended to use as a link but lost discussed his own experience as a home-schooled child. Academically, he did well and went to college. He realized in adulthood he had not experienced as much interaction with a variety of people as had his contemporaries who attended public schools. His concern, however, was with the unregulated aspect of homeschooling. There are few enforced standards. It has become largely a feral industry. Apart from the effect this will have on individuals, will its growth affect the skill level across a spectrum of society? It appears to me there is no politically successful way to regulate

I've seen only three pieces of analysis about the future or Christianity and the denominations it contains. One was by a pastor in the Missouri Synod. He used a similar study from the Lutheran Church of America. Now, for the first time, a projection has been published by a Catholic in a publication for a Catholic audience. It's inevitable staff in all denominations have done these projections in their back offices. Few are out in public.     Any projections have to choose which assumption they will make, will that line into the future be a straight line (linear), will it bend downward accelerating the decline or bend upward reversing the decline (curvilinear)? The assumption always chosen is for a straight line but is remains only an assumption. Then there is the quality of the current data used to project into the future. For churches, is it the number of people coming to church, the church membership rolls or, as in the case of Catholics, the number who have been baptized? Th

  Columbus returned a hero after his 1492 landing in the U.S. Almost immediately, Spain and the Catholic Church outfitted him to return. But the return trip was a bigger operation with several ships and lots of priests who came to convert the native heathens. It was during this period Catholic issued the Doctrine of Discovery, a document which declares white people superior to all others and the Christian faith is needed by all mankind. Some historians find the Doctrine of Discovery embedded in today's white Christian Nationalism. The notion white people and Christianity are superior to all others took root and has never been abandoned. Today's white supremacy and the budget various Christian denominations have for "missionary" work to reenforce each other. I can recall from my childhood the enthusiasm church goers had for giving money to missionaries. This was and remains "important work" and causes grief wherever it takes place. As a publication I have say

This title was on a news scroll and I could not stop myself from clicking to look at it. It is not really 17 reasons but merely half a dozen or so that have been discussed here several times. They include the public's increasing realization science does not confirm what is in the Bible. Fellowship from using the computer is preferred over that in church is noted plus preacher scandals and so on. What is interesting, however, is that while the explanations for the decline are known in the secular world, they remain largely unknown or ignored in punditry by religious writers. This week in the world of Christian punditry there were several articles about sin. That sin is on the rise was  screamed loudly. The one I linked to says our country's morals are in free fall. Is listed several news accounts that have nothing to do with the level of moral values in the U.S. For example, that Easter happened to fall on a predetermined date of Trans Visibility Day had nothing whatsoever to do

In a book that is to be published today in Spanish, Pope Francis recalled a meeting that included several angry Bishops and Pope Benedict. The Bishops were angry with Francis. Benedict defended Francis. All of this is in response to conservatives who repeat every day, "This never would have happened under Benedict." Popes have been backing down and shifting positions starting with the time of Galileo. You will recall Popes had repeated for centuries that the sun moved over the earth. Galileo proved them wrong. Yet, to this day there is not an official Rome document that says, "Popes were wrong." Instead they say, "Mistakes were made" etc.  According to Francis, Benedict said gay people should be allowed civil marriage and the church should not condemn civil marriage. This even though the marriage was not recognized as a marriage within the church.  All of this is, of course, much to do about nothing. It does not matter one twit what the Catholic Church'

It always amusing to read a Christian pundit's version of why people leave the faith or stay in the faith but accept new ideas as not sinful. It's a process that has been going on I suppose since the beginning of "sin." The cause-and-effect of social change is something studied carefully in academic settings. Those studying this subject, however, often run into a brick wall when they present to the public what they have found. The average person thinks he/she also is an expert. Conventional wisdom is strong competition to academic scholarship. The link is an example of conventional wisdom hiding in religious punditry. The writer explains the "causes" of same-sex marriage acceptance. The "problem" began, he writes with an increase in divorces. This "damaged" respect for marriage. Lack of respect for marriage later helped bring on approval of same-sex marriage. What nonsense.  The increase in the divorce rate came when people found they nee

I discuss often here the polling data which shows that, according to polls, those who claim to be "nones" (consider themselves not part of any religious group) continue to grow while those who affiliate with religious groups continues to fall. I've concluded this polling technique is biased in favor of Christianity. This is because the three non Christian groups, nones, atheists and agnostics are considered separate groups when, in reality, they are more likely one group. So far as I can tell, there is no group or organization which calls itself the "Nones." So, who are they and where did they come from? The answer is "Nones" are a creation of the polling companies themselves. When respondents refuse to identify as atheists, agnostic or Christian (or other religions) the are offers an alternative category to check. ThAT is where "nones" were created. That is to say, Christians identify because of views they more or less share with others. Ath