Thoughts of a Freethinker

Data on religion in most of Europe is different than that in the U.S. because it involves tax records.  People can check if they want a bit of their tax money to go to a denomination. In the U.S. a lot of church numbers are provided voluntarily by denominations. In the case of Catholics in Germany, those choosing for the government to take their donation and turn it over to the church is declining at a million people every two years. Protestants are losing about 400,000 per year.  There are about 20 million Catholics in Germany and a similar number of Protestants.  All of Germany has about 85 million people. Loses of 5% every two years is slower than the loses in the U.S. of Southern Baptists which is 10% per year. Perhaps the Southern Baptist losses are not all loses to the faith because some churches merely vote to no longer affiliate. The actual losses may be 2 1/2 to 5%.   I recall watching Pat Robertson years ago when a listener asked, "Why do you have revivals in Africa and

A few years ago a guy in a coffee shop wanted to argue religion with me. His deal was that Christians were better than Jews. This is because Christians just admit the truth and let the chips fall where they may while Jews, I think he was referring to Jews as they were portrayed in the Bible, were always trying to cover up their wrongs or mistakes. I don't recall much else of the conversation except I wanted to get away from this know-nothing. I don't know of a better example of the practice of papering over problems with denial they exist than Christianity. In fact, the entire enterprise seems to be about hiding things. The God is hidden. And, so is the enemy, Satan. Heaven and hell are hidden. Every Sunday millions go the churches to hear clergy tell them again, "All that stuff exists, you just can't see it." The Catholic church has many rules all aimed at presenting itself as a unified institution. All the faithful are to regard the Pope as its authority on all

For many decades, someone who was known to be homosexual was charged by the U.S. military with a crime. There were 2,000 cases. The President has  pardoned them all.  I pulled down a book from my shelf, Honor Bound: A Gay American Fights for the Right to Serve His Country by Joseph Steffan. I knew Joe when he was briefly at NDSU getting a degree in economics. While his story is not about the pardon issued by President Biden, it reflects the terrible history of how gay people were treated in the military. Joe grew up in Warren, MN. He was an outstanding student and athlete and was admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy. He thrived there as well but days before he was to graduate and receive a commission a classmate told authorities Joe had confided to him he was gay. The navy cancelled his degree and he was ordered to immediately leave the Academy. He had invested four years of his life at the Academy but was forced out without any degree. A court ordered the Academy to issue him his degree

The conservative Christian Reformed Church does a lot of media work where I live. It is able to attract candidates for President to its political forums and its statements get in the news. More than anything else, it is anti-gay.  According to Wikipedia, the denomination has about 1,000 churches and 189,000 members. I assume this means it has a few large churches in larger cities and many tiny and declining ones in rural areas. The denomination is holding a conference just now and debating what to do about the "sinful" congregations who hold gay marriage ceremonies. Apparently, there are 20 congregations that are now or anticipate doing gay marriages and they are demanding denomination approval. Predictably, a large majority of those at the conference voted to uphold the prohibition.   Does it matter if 20 churches out of 1,000 leave? These 20 are probably urban churches, larger than the average size. They may represent 40 churches if we used average data. Total membership in

  Pope Francis seems to know his denomination has to change but wants the rate of change to be at a pace those in the pews can tolerate. Thus, we read the Pope decrees something kind of "liberal" followed by something considered "conservative." For example, he has decreed men and women who are same sex couples can be blessed but the wedding ceremony cannot be blessed. This was followed by a statement against trans. And so it goes on and on. Look for more of this during the rest of the Francis years.  Navigating all this requires skill by the Pope. One would surmise it also requires collaborators to bounce off ideas and draft language to be considered. The Pope's enemies said one man is the chief collaborator of liberal ideas and wants this Cardinal gone . I'm referring to Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez whose nick name is "Tucho."  The Pope did not recruit Fernandez until former Pope Benedict was dead. Only then did the Pope make what one U.S. pro

All the Forced Birth groups have to say something now when they are losing elections across the board and the number of abortions has gone up. If we were in their shoes we would see a bleak future where supporters are feeling disillusioned and wonder why they should donate money to a cause with no hope of success.  The Forced Birth groups seem to have agreed on a message . It is that "much work remains to be done." This is code language for "keep sending us money."   All of this goes back to the period before Roe was overturned. During those decades the people making money from Forced Birth donors wanted Roe overturned because it represented years of political activity and employment for them. They envisioned going from state to state achieving one victory at time over several years. Each victory would bring donations for the next. The gravy train would flow for a generation or more. Probably it never occurred to any of them there would be loss after loss instead of

Ever since Roe made abortion legal across the U.S. a big chuck of U.S. voters cared only about stopping abortions. It appears that number may have been about 30% to as high as 40%. Polling, and of course the seven recent elections, signaled a change. Now a climbing percentage of pro-choice voters have become single issue and single issue pro-life voters have declined.  The few times I have participated in a "voter telephone poll" which seemed legitimate, all the old polling techniques came up. There were questions like "Do you usually vote for Democrats or Republicans?", "Is the country going in the right direction or wrong direction?', etc. These questions do not get to the heart of feelings and change churning in U.S. society. The issue churning is about women's rights and religion in government.  A lot of big political theories center of employment, prosperity or inflation. The press like to discuss how candidates do in debates. Lots of articles are

That pious Christian Governor of Louisianna needs to spend less time fretting about putting the Ten Commandments in public schools and more time calling out actual "sin." He could stroll down Bourbon Street and take note of the sin he sees.   He could also read about the influence of the French on Louisianna and the freedom of religion that goes with that history. Christian governors sometimes get a little mixed up on history. For example, former Texas Governor "Ma" Ferguson is said to have declared about including Spanish in schools, "If the King's English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for the children of Texas." Reasons to justify placing the Ten Commandments on public property and reasons that allow removal keep. We a group of us started our effort to remove the Ten Commandments from City Hall property started an acceptable reason for removal was the location. If they were being displayed in a prominent place or were the foc

The ordinary primary care doctor's office where all of us going for physicals, flu and other run-of-the-mill medical problems are starting to include abortions with all their other services. This is a new development.  During the decades of Roe most hospitals and general medical practices did not do abortions because they knew they would be picketed or there would be other complications. While free standing women's medical practices that performed abortions were low cost and provided a huge number of abortions, these clinics also created the image that abortions were different from normal and ordinary medical services. This is the image Forced Birth operatives wanted. Now that abortions are being mixed in with all other services they are appearing to be nothing different or more important than flu and constipation. Forced Birth does not like this. The link points out that family practice doctors do not perform a high volume of abortions. Some do only two or three a day along wi

One of the most wonderful things about living a long time is that one gets to see more good changes. Yes, bad changes also but the good ones bring happiness, almost a sense of accomplishment even though it was due to others. There is gay marriage and atheists can safely walk the streets. A new one is bringing drag performers into Christian churches. Why would a church want this? Why would a performer want to go there? The explanations by both make perfect sense. If a church welcomes all kinds of people, why not drag performers?   We know drag performers were invited to public libraries for Saturday children's story hours. Since public money is involved in these community libraries, Bible thumpers frightened local elected people and we don't hear much about this anymore. The battle ground has moved into Christianity itself and right-wing Christians can do nothing about it. I've been around live theater all of my life. One of the most common things that comes up is the gender

Saying Moses is the origin of law in the U.S., Gov. Landry of Louisianna signed a law requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom in his state. This includes first grade.  The first joke in this is the Governor saying Moses started a world which followed "laws." Anyone who believes the tale of Moses does not understand the mythology of the Bible. Jews latched onto or made up the entire Moses story to bolster their own government authority or legitimacy. There is no information corroborating anything about Moses. We don't know where the Ten Commandments originally came from. We only know societies long before recorded history had rules the allowed societies to flourish. Societies did not allow wholesale robbery and murder. Any that did soon disappeared. What is happening in Louisianna is a rerun of the 1950's. Then, Cecil B. Demills, producer of the movie, The Ten Commandments, funded an effort to put the Ten Commandments in all homes. That effort wa

The Old Testament as well as the words attributed to Jesus return again and again to the implied phrase, "I'm a better Christian (Jew) than you. You are going to hell. I am going to heaven." A Bishop in the U.S. is making waves in the Christian press by saying Biden is a "salad bar Catholic." So far as I know, Biden has not talked back with public statements to the clergy who refuse to give him communion or who make public statement criticizing his faith like the one in the link. It might be good politics to tell the public he does not agree with religious crackpots like those Catholic clergy. The majority of voters certainly do not like such figures.  It's fun to remember the many times Catholic clergy, and even Catholic commenters of this little blog, have made light of the Protestant branch of Christianity. Catholics say they are glad they have chosen not to be a part of such a chaotic branch of the faith. What? Catholicism is not chaotic. When some clerg

We've discussed here countless times the question of when a human being begins its existence. By reviewing options from around the world we know many options are available. So far as we can tell, the earliest advocacy of some time other than birth was the "quickening." This was not advocated by a religion. It was promoted as an advertising gimmick by the emerging trained medical practice. This group was competing with the previous folk medicine and wanted to be known as science based. It had learned through autopsies the fetus developed over time.  The beginning of the notion a human being is present at conception was quite recent, 1869 . That was when the decree came down from the Catholic hierarchy. Before that, there was disagreement and various views were held by various factions. In one of his writings, Thomas Acquinas said the human was not present until it had gone through several stages. Other places he wrote other things.  In any event, the 1869 decision to place

The book How God Becomes Real  includes an experiment in which Christian evangelicals on three continents are asked the same questions, "Do you hear directly from God? If so, is it an audible voice? Does this voice come from outside your head or inside your head? Do you receive advice and direction or a more vague and general message?" The interviews were quite long and these questions were rephrased various times the verify the answers each person gave did not vary. This same methodology was used before this study and is still used. The interviews with Christian church members in Southern California, India and Africa. Answers were recorded and coded so they could be placed in categories and compared. The answers differed by large percentages. Respondents in the U.S. said the voice they heard was inside their heads. They were less certain they actually heard God and associated hearing voices with mental illness. They were certain they themselves were not mentally ill but knew

Conservative Christianity was against freeing slaves. Then was against equal racial integration. It's against women as pastors. Add to that opposition to abortion. Each of these condemnations cost it members and support. Now the popular press is  covering the rapid loss of women in Christianity. They are leaving faster than men. One would think there is a panic button in full view and the time to press is now.  The Southern Baptist Convention just adjourned after failing to put in place a forever prohibition against women pastors. A New York Times  article provided a little more context to the history and contemporary status of this. Of those who came to the convention and who held credentials to vote, two thirds were needed to put in place a forever ban on women pastors in the SBC. The vote failed.  The link tells of churches with women as pastors who are growing while other churches are closing. I don't see it possible that women pastors per se can reverse the downward trend

A few years ago an Aunt of mine, a widow, married a preacher widower while both were in their 90's. At the wedding dinner in their assisted living facility I sat at a table with some of the groom's grandsons. There were, of course, adults. One of them had an Arab name but I assumed, based on the Christian flavor of the event, he and all members of that family were evangelical Christians. Later I learned this young man is a Muslim and that his wife's grandfather, the groom preacher, was very wary of that marriage. According to a family story, he said at the time of the granddaughter's marriage, "Ok, let's give (Benny) a year to find Jesus. No more." That was years before I knew the couple. It can be argued that one of the very most important aspects of humans, an aspect that has killed millions over time, is this business of believing in one invisible being versus another or believing in none. Could it be that if we understood the stuff that goes through ou

A retired professor from Canada has posted a fascinating  article about how gender has been treated in the Christian community over the sands of time. It turns out the currently popular version of "God created only two genders" has not always been the standard or conventional wisdom within the faith. The current version fits the political agenda of current people in the media and behind the pulpit. Other versions fit the agendas of these people in other periods of time. The link author says the current two gender version of the faith goes back to the ancient Aristotle who thought of men and women having biological differences and their relationship was hierarchical. Acquinas in the 13th century tried to harmonize Aristotle's pagan beliefs with the Bible's story of Adam's rib becoming Eve.   Even during the Middle Ages Acquinas' thing about gender was on held be everyone wrote about philosophy, medicine and religion. Still in the Middle Ages a Roman doctor, Gal

The New York Times has plotted on an electronic  map the patterns of travel by women to have abortions. In a few cases, like North Dakota, laws against abortion had no effect because the only ND clinic moved a few minutes away in Minnesota. Across the South, however, huge numbers traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to Illinois and other states.  We know the cost of this travel was covered by a combination of the women patients and grants from organizations which raise funds for this purpose. I send money regularly to these organizations.  It's helpful to note the percentage of abortions that happen after travel to other states. Nationally, there were more abortions performed in 2023 than there were in 2022. It was a little over a million . This means about 17% of women who needed abortions traveled to other states. It has always been the observation of women who need abortions that they are determined to find them. Certainly, this seems to be the case since the overturn of Roe.

A youth  conference about the teaching of Zoroastrianism was held recently in England. According to the link, youth from several countries met for five days. They met and discussed how the faith could lead to happier people and a better world. I suppose there have been youth conferences of many kinds in recent years. Which of them will catch fire? Will any of the catch fire and expand into large numbers? There is no way to know. One can't predict, but it's appealing to expect long term human experiences with religion to continue. Christianity is not one of these. Paganism, with its gods that fit the needs of individuals and distinct groups seem like a good bet. Then, the sky gods of the Greeks with their human behaviors and back stories seem to have, at least to me, good odds of living on like they have for many thousands of years. Zoroastrianism originated in Iran and is one of the oldest recorded religions in the world. It dates back to 3,500 years ago. There remain disagreem

The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination, is about to implode. Implode, of course, means destroy from within. That's coming . A former head of the denomination warned that black churches in the denomination use the title "pastor" for both women and men. They will leave, he predicts, if they are prohibited from using the title as their cultures use it. We must remember the huge Southern Baptist Convention is made up of churches who affiliate with the group. Churches can drop membership and affiliate elsewhere of be independent. The Catholic Church is exactly the opposite, top down.  If the Southern Baptist Convention implodes over the issue of women as pastors, I think this will have a ripple effect on remaining denominations that exclude women. As it becomes more and more accepted, logical and economical for women to be clergy, the membership of remaining holdouts, Catholic and Lutheran Missouri Synod for example, will demand change and rising

Every December the Christian press is full of articles lamenting the commercialization of Christmas and use of the greeting, "Happy Holidays." It's humorous that some Christians suffer so much about the use of this cheerful greeting. Now is it June. This is the season for some Christians to complain about Pride Week. There are wall to wall articles "quoting scripture" about abomination and such. These are as funny as the anti "Happy Holidays" complaints. To begin with, it's obvious that if someone objects to Pride Week there is a good option. Don't celebrate it. The more interesting way to engage anti-gay people is to ask where in the Bible homosexuality is condemned. Oh yes, there is the man shall not lie with a man as with a woman. Exactly, what did writers mean by that. It does not say a thing about sexual relationships. The same with all the other scriptures used against gay people. They all require the preface, "What this means is...&

Magnificent churches in the U.S. are empty and will be torn down or repurposed. In every large and growing city in the U.S. I assume there are new churches under construction. A friend of mine in Fargo, ND, where we lived for 40 years told me he resigned from a planning committee of the Catholic diocese there because the planned church building was so extravagant. It is since been built.  Here is a story about the largest Hindu temple ever built which will be finished soon. A new and large Hindu temple was built recently about 25 minutes from where I now live in Iowa. What is this thing about church buildings? The book I'm reading written by an anthropologist explains this. It is not necessary to build a monument to atheism because atheists do not need constant reminders they are correct in their view there are no gods. Religions, however, need to constantly remind the faithful the god(s) they worship are real. This is because on one has ever seen them. The faithful need to attend

Yesterday, I discussed the book, How God Becomes Real . The author, an anthropologist, makes the good case believers perceive the unseen divine differently than they see other realities. The chair you are sitting on is seen differently than the being one prays to. Both are believed to "exist," but they are different. The result is that religions, which depend on people believing in the unseen, must have regularly repeated rituals and instructions reminding the believer the unseen is real. The author then explores how these rituals and instructions (sermons) affect people and the society in which they reside.  If one asks, "What is the worst thing that could happen to a believing group which would weaken its grip on its society?" I think we now know the answer. It would be some new development which crowded out the rituals and instruction required to maintain the presence of the unseen. This new development would have a constant presence reenforcing something differe

Re reading books I read some years ago always surprises me. Either I have forgotten some really good stuff or I read in it in a new and better context than the first time. Such a book is How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others, by anthropologist Tamya Marie Luhrmann. It was published in 2020 and I must have read it back then. I remember a bit of wisdom I heard on a regular radio program about people and life. It was, "We are what we think about." Perhaps it is accurate to say efforts to avoid harmful behavior is based on this concept. If you are an alcoholic, maybe hanging out with people who drink and talk about how much fun it is is not the easiest road to moving away from it (though this theory is not held by everyone). Treating an eating disorder involves training the mind to think in a different way.  Author Luhrmann says that most non religious people maintain the religious people believe "God exists." She criticizes her colleagues in a

While liberal leaning Christians and welcoming denominations are better for the country and for Christianity than right wing Christians, they must take some responsibility for our right wing Christian Supreme Court, the Roe overturn and threats against birth control. Probably preachers from the liberal/moderate denominations will criticize the right for its cruel advocacy, the entire Christian faith hold some responsibility for the strength of whacko Christianity.  A good article about this was published by American United for the Separation of Church and State. I have a hard copy but cannot seem to link it. The article illustrates the role of "moderate" Christianity by repeating the prayers of the Senate Chaplain. After the Jan. 6 attack, the Chaplain included in his prayer flowery language asking the Supreme Being to guide the Senate in upholding the Constitution, etc.  The problem with this kind of prayer is it places in the room an imaginary god. It is not, of course, som

When I was a Mayor, a preacher drove a couple of hours from a rural area to see me. His purpose was, first, to tell me tales of his side career in "intercessory prayer." He had saved a Governor's plane from crashing and some other tall tales, all saving the lives of politicians. He didn't seem to have tales of saving lives people not in the news. I was a person in the news back then. Eventually, he came to the purpose of his visit. He had seen a vision of a hole in MY heart and done "intercessory prayer." "Haven't you had a period of not feeling 100% recently?" he wanted to know. It was a little difficult getting him out of my office because he was so convinced he had saved my life and wanted me to thank him. Though it was tempting to play his game I did not. I've looked at stories of "intercessory prayer" with interest ever since.  This is  one today on Christian Post, an article explaining the difference between intercessory pra

I started following prosperity gospel preacher, Creflo Dollar, several years ago. He was interesting because of his last name was matched with his blatant appeals for money. His message was that God had blessed him because he  focused on his personal wealth and if you give him money you will enter the same club and God will make you rich like he is. His business is in Georgia. Watching him preach on my computer screen was fascinating because he made it seem so logical. I could not fault his message because, even though ridiculous, it was no more ridiculous than the rest of the Christian clergy who say, "Give me money. If you do I will see to it you go to heaven." With Catholics, it adds, "Tell me your sins at confession and I will fix things for you. (And give money, it can't hurt)." While the prosperity gospel is popular and preached by many, Creflo has a personality that makes him stand out. He made an appeal for a bigger jet and send Jesus would end the world

  So far as I can tell, the  increase in abortions is worldwide. Scotland is just one example. Anti-abortion is like a bucket that had leaks the moment it was made. There are so many ways around a ban any effort is doomed before it starts. I've come to think the reason anti-abortion is still attempted and fails time after time is that the lies Forced Birth members tell each other bring down all the efforts. The lie is that when abortions have been banned the number actually went to zero.  While there obviously are not good records of illegal abortions, all evidence points to large numbers. Forced Birth operatives argue with me every time I mention there is testimony and hospital records of infections that point to large numbers. It makes Force Birthers feel better to believe what they are doing by trying to pass laws against abortion actually stops some abortions. If numbers went on just as if there were not laws against abortion all their efforts that seem important to them are ac