Thoughts of a Freethinker

I don't need to tell readers the death of Jimmy Carter has brought an avalanche of media attention. So much of it is not interesting to me--was he a successful President, why was he defeated, what did he do after his Presidency, etc.  I was so invested in him these issues are old ground. I chatted briefly with him and my wife and I spent several hours in Plains, GA and the Carter Center a few years ago. What is interesting ground to replough is his religion and his devotion to it. I've restated several times that Protestants were in favor of abortion rights prior to the Roe decision decades ago making it legal. This included Carter's church, the Southern Baptist Convention. Then his denomination changed its position, but Carter did not. He grew up in the rural countryside surrounded by black families and their children. They were his playmates, welcomed to the Carter home by his mother.  Later, when he took over the family's business of buying and processing peanuts, th...

In spite of some Christians saying "This is impossible" there are clergy willing to go inside clinics and offer Christian blessings. These are not Satanists, but credentialed Christian clergy.  While this seems unusual today, it is not unusual when considered over time. We have discussed here many times that nearly the entire Protestant faith endorsed abortion rights before the Roe v Wade decision. Anti-abortion was considered a Catholic thing, not part of traditional Protestsm. A study of the effectiveness of propaganda would have to rank the broad conversion within Protestantism to anti-abortion as an astounding success. Theologically, however, there is nothing there. God finds a way to bless just about everything. I was raised in a no alcohol church. It was the only church in our town and there was no tavern. Beer was at the top of the sin list like trans is today. I did not drink in college because it stuck with me the any alcohol was a really terrible thing. Eventually, ...

  I'm reading a book about how information is passed along among humans. Part of the message stems from a Supreme Court Judge many decades ago who ruled in favor of free speech. The Judge declared, "More information is better than less information. Good and factual information crowds out false and misleading information." The author of the book I'm reading says it is naive to believe good information crowds out false or bad information. Often just the opposite has occurred.  A couple of examples not mentioned in the book come to mind. One was called "The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" promoted by President Johnson. President Johnson used an attack in the Gulf of Tonkin to justify diving into what became the Vietnam War. The Resolution said there was an attack on a U.S. ship and the President was given authority to take action against any country which attacked a U.S. vessel. No attack had taken place, all made up. We now know bad information prevailed for decade...

  While "the talk of the town" these past many decades has been about computer technology including artificial intelligence, what I find equally exciting is evidence about human lives and human ways of organizing themselves, including new technologies, while leaving no written records. In the last few years, parts of dugout canoes have been found in Michigan and Minnesota. These mean large trees were felled and formed into canoes with sharpened stone tools. Steel was other places but not here. It is evidence there were settlements that existed for considerable periods of time and were organized and skilled.  From the material found it is evident locals had experience and knowledge about the wood from different species of trees. I have split elm for firewood and know it to have strong fibers. Native knew this, too, and used it in their canoes.  Several of the canoe parts have been found where rivers meet. Later, these became to sites for cities because of the commerce goin...

The old word, "agnosticism" to me covers the wide range of people who wonder about something, anything, beyond what can be seen. It seems to cover all the kinds of things people carry in their minds to explain what may be beyond the reach of understanding. However, the term "agnosticism" has gone out of style and to some extent replaced by the word "spiritual." Even the word "spiritual" is not preferred by some who have figured out a way to navigate their own personal journey through life. There is nothing wrong with making up new ways or words to deal with the unknown or not understood. For myself, it's easier to fall back on old words. The link is about a young mother who left Mormonism and Christianity but wants something to replace it.  Paraphrasing the link, her form of agnosticism includes a "box", I guess in could be literal or imaginary, and one puts all one's religious deceased ancestors in the box. The box is treated w...

The King's belief all major faiths have much in common and his long standing concern about the environment is causing a ruckus . Conservative Christians posted on a Christian site that King Charles, head of the Church of England, does not understand Christianity.  It seems to me the King, like the Pope, realizes the public is not very interested in theology and certainly not interested in a wrestling match about which branch is "right." Members of the public, if they have any interest in Christianity at all, want to believe it is a general force for good and are sick of self serving pompous blowhards. Many of us would say the King's generalization about "good" in Christianity and in other faiths is an inaccurate generalization. Nevertheless, taking down a notch the arrogance of some parts of Christianity is a good first step. History and pre history tell us many of the belief and rituals of various religions were passed down from far distant humans. This is ...

The Attorney General of Michigan is working with the Diocese of Lansing to unravel 70 years of sexual abuse. According to the report , some cases were horrific. There are 56 named abusers. Among them 48 priests. Every other month I receive a publication from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. This organization, in Madison, WI, is the largest atheist organization in the world. The publication has pages of tiny print listing charges and convictions of clergy. An alarming thing is the frequency of youth pastors who are caught abusing young people. In the Protestant denomination these are usually not ordained clergy but young males. Perhaps the job of "youth pastor" is low paying and not supervised in some churches as it should be. It is obvious Catholic Clergy in past times were not watched carefully either, This included Bishops who transferred accused priests from one parish to another instead of turning the issue over to law enforcement.  There is an irony in the way Chris...

"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" requires some adjustment  for gender inclusion or cultural explanation for why it is men and excludes women. The same with the various carols that proclaim Christianity is the only truth and Jesus the only messiah and others. To say change is on the way is an understatement.  "O Come, O Come Emanual" is followed by reference to "captive Israel." Some Church of England church goers said this could have a political application to the war between Hammas and Israel. Carols that carry on about how the real messiah has finally arrived are offensive to church goers who also attend Jewish churches or have close friends and family who are Jewish. "Why a song that insults the Jews?" is the question.  When one thinks about it, the religious songs, and the overall message, of Christmas are about, "Finally, we won and those other schmucks lost. Once we had this Jesus baby they were done."  I looked at some lyrics I foun...

Relying heavily on the Bible as the basis for the Christian faith was troubling to many from the git go. As the centuries move on it gets more troubling. Wouldn't it be better for the faith to say something like, "We have an inner belief there is something bigger than what we can see with our own eyes. We don't know for sure what that is, but we have rituals and ceremonies we perform because we enjoy them?" If this was the narrative of all Christianity the opportunity for ridicule would be reduced.  This comes up now because of the Christian season. Maybe it's ok to let children believe there is a Santa while they are really young. Parents enjoy that too. Maybe, also, it's ok for children to think there was a Jesus in a manger while they are tiny tots. Both of these, however, should eventually pass into childhood memories. The Jesus story has no more going for it than the Santa one. Lots of people who study this stuff, even Christians, now say if there was a J...

  Here is news too fun to ignore. A school district in Texas has pulled the Bible from its shelves because it contains sexually explicit material. Atheists have been laughing for years about banning books with sexual material but defending, even requiring, the Bible. I wonder what will happen in Oklahoma where the state Superintendent of Schools is trying to require classroom use of the Bible? A large part of the Christian faith has part of its brain missing. That is the part that would logically conclude that any special treatment of Christianity will inevitably bring about a demand from some other religion. Christian operatives have been lucky so far. Established non Christian religions in the U.S. have measured the grief, terrible treatment and misery they will see directed at them is they both the whistle on Christianity's belligerent and pushy authoritative moves. They have decided, so far, eye rolls about Christians who takes more "religious freedom" for themselves ...

At least once a week a Christian site features a person or a group that claims it can keep young people in the church. Gifts, entertainment, singing and hip preaching are supposed to do the job. There are examples of success.  Statistics on young people do not show such success, however. They show a continual and constant decline in the percentage of children who stay in church. The percentage of people into their early 20's leaving the church is larger than it ever has been in history.  While I did not have the experience of leaving the faith at a very young age, people who comment here and those I have known tell of a similar experience. It is the experience of gradually realizing the tenets of the faith do not make sense. Belief that many invisible beings exist are not required in other parts of their lives. Belief invisible places like heaven and hell exist are not required either. It doesn't seem lots of pizza will change that. We have to remember a small army of people m...

There is lots of hand wringing about what Democrats should do after the last election. Mostly, punditry talks about getting the "Christian vote" back. I don't think that is really an option for Democrats. The Christain demographic is getting smaller, and the secular one is growing. Nones, no organized religion, are among the largest percentage voters in the country. Long ago when I was a mayor I was in the press and on TV frequently. On occasion, someone disagreeing with me would say something absolutely and provably false. Reporters would repeat to me what the other person had said and want me to argue. When exasperated, I would tell the reporter to determine who was telling the truth. It was foolish of me to demand this. A successful story was one where two parties were carrying on an emotionally charged argument. Resolving the argument in favor of one or the other killed the emotion needed to draw viewers and sell ads. The same thing has been done with religion. Relig...

Every year for decades there have been news stories explaining that Christian managers moved "Jesus' birth" to the time of Winter Solstice. Way back in pre history times, thousands of years before Christianity, ancients celebrated the Winter Solstice. The celebration was so universal Christian operatives decided to capitalize on it and moved Christmas to the time of Winter Solstice. This history has eroded the effectiveness of the "Christmas Story" so much that a group of Catholics in Madison, WI, purchased a billboard promote history and debunk correct history. They are claiming the Christian myth is correct and those since the beginning of humans who record the shortest day of the year are wrong. One told a reporter Christians, not atheists, own Christmas. No, atheists, Pagans and a gazillion unknown gods and religions own the time of the year called Christmas. It is owned by solstice. Christmas is but an afterthought. I'll admit it's an after thought ...

This is the one-year anniversary of the Pope's approval for priests to bless individuals in same sex relationships. It theoretically prohibits the priest from blessing a same sex marriage. This site asked dioceses across the country how priests are handling this new rule. Many Bishops did not respond. Of those that did the most common reply was the rule is not discussed and no records are kept about how often priest bless couples. One of the rules is a blessing must be "spontaneous" and not part of a priest's official schedule. That is quite humorous. I remember watching an interview with a priest months ago who was asked, "Are you performing blessing in accordance with the regulations. "Oh yes, quite often."  he said. "I have one this afternoon." It was on his schedule which is not permitted by the Pope's regulations. One Bishop responded to the question by explaining priests make daily decisions on matters in their parishes or community....

For most of my life I have lived either in Iowa or North Dakota next to Minnesota. Now I can reflect on the differences between Minnesota and where I now live, Iowa. The stark difference showed up this week, a week when holiday displays appeared in state Capitols around the country. A decade or two ago, some Christians got the idea they should merge government and religion by hosting Christain displays in their state capitols. A monied Christian paid for professionally produced manger scenes. This, I suppose they thought, would reinforce the false notion this is a Christian country.  In a few years, the Freedom From Religion Foundation produced a cardboard parody of the manger scene for display in state capitols and offered it to locals in all states. This parody is set up and displayed across the country. I've gone to this capitol building a few minutes from where I live several years for the annual ribbon cutting. I'm sure many in politics do not like our scene but permission...

For some reason, the various Jesuses are not discussed much in the Christian press. It takes the secular press to explain the differences. Author Eric Lane wrote about his experience of moving from one area of the U.S. where one version of Jesus prevailed to another with a very different Jesus. It's worth reviewing the whole Jesus thing we find in the Bible. First of all, no one in the Bible claims to have talked to or even saw the living Jesus. Yet, there are pages and pages of "quotes" of Jesus. The modern way of talking about this lack of credibility is to say, "We in Christianity have a tradition of claiming to know what Jesus said." It's much nicer to say it that way instead of telling the truth. The truth is many people made up many pages of Jesus quotes and falsely claimed they knew Jesus said these things. Author said the area where he first lived taught that the real Jesus was the one portrayed by the Sermon on the Mount. This Jesus was big on pr...

David French, who writes about religion and politics in the New York Times, posted a great article today about the "Me Too" movement. The "Me Too" movement was about women who heard of male celebrity sex abuse and stood up to say it happened to "Me Too." Now the "Me Too" has shown up in churches and in huge denominations like the Catholic Church and Southern Baptist Convention. "Me Too" has become "Church Too." I can't count the number of times Catholics on this site have complained about me singling out that denomination for criticism about child and adult sexual abuse. It's everywhere, they point out correctly, why pick on us? That it's everywhere, including in the Catholic and Southern Baptist Convention, is exactly my point. Why should the country look to the Christian faith for "moral guidance" if it is no better than any other part of society? Accusing "Hollywood" of causing moral decay ha...

It's entertaining, for me at least, to try tp see inside the minds of ancient Greeks during the pre Christian period and then try to follow what happened in those minds when Christianity came along. A small army of people have made a living trying to figure this out and I'm but a novice. Still, no license is required so I can dabble in it as well.  I've read many tomes that discuss Paul of the Bible. According to the Bible he was a Greek Jew of which there were many. Many writers, mostly skeptics, go over what he was supposed to have written in the Bible and find it peculiar. While Jesus was supposed to have lived and died only a few decades before Paul, Paul seemed not a all interested in this real person, Jesus. He was supposed to have traveled where Jesus lived but did not learn about the ground level life of Jesus. That is because, some pundits write, Paul's mind was still in the period of invisible and sky Greek gods. The real-life Jesus was less important than the...

Sometime, I'd like to list all the issues we argue about but will never be resolved. The big one being, is there a god or gods? Narrower issues will not be resolved either like which books must be banned from children's libraries and which allowed. Here are topics that cannot appear in some districts: A child with parents of the same gender, a child with same sex attractions and a child who is transitioning from one gender to another. A couple of generations ago books with parents of two races were banned. Any book with something good to say about socialism or communism were probably banned.  There is a fascinating story just now in the news about a third-grade teacher who is being punished by her district for the books she uses and is fighting back. The teacher pointed out that the school district allows instructional materials considered controversial are allowed even though there are complaints if the materials do not advocate something controversial and are useful in teachi...

The size of the population, including children, who find themselves of a gender different than that on their birth certificate, has not changed by even one since Trump's election. The number will not change. Those in that group will only need to navigate the obstacles in front of them. There will be people who help them, teachers, pastors, parents and friends. Even a few in the evangelical community recognize Trump's victory will not change the number of trans people. As President John Adams said in a famous trial where he was the defense attorney for enemy British soldiers, "Facts are sticky things." When an individual has concluded he/she is of a different gender than the one on a birth certificate there is almost never a reversal. The birth certificate, we must remember, is the opinion of the doctor. The baby, and later adult, was not consulted. I remember decades ago when a very conservative religious young man was elected to the Fargo City Commission (similar to ...

A lot of the Bible is based on dreams and visions. Paul is treated by Christians as someone who "knows the rules of the faith." The writing attributed to Paul is believed to be the voice of God or Jesus. The reason Paul claims to be an authority in the faith is that he talked to Jesus numerous times after Jesus was dead. The most referred to time was in a "vision." While Paul or someone later added a sentence in the Bible that many were with Paul to verify the appearance of Jesus there are no names or testimony of any of them. Under the circumstances is it possible, I will say probable, Paul or someone later made up this tale. It is incredulous millions believe such a vision/dream involved the actual Jesus speaking to Paul. How can millions of people believe such nonsense? About a thousand years ago, French Jesuits were intent on coming to this continent and converting the Iroquois to Catholic Christianity. The Iroquois nation was a group of six tribes in some of no...

In recent years the press has covered a series of Catholic dioceses in large cities which have reduced the number of parishes by consolidating them. This has closed at least a few hundred parish congregations and their churches.  Every article about these consolidations has included stories of closing what locals call active strong parishes. An interesting article in the Catholic Reporter is by a Catholic lay person who visited all the 40 plus parishes closing in the Diocese of Baltimore. He considered his own parish financially strong with good membership and financial numbers. While there were some parishes he visited that were obviously weak there were also several which were as strong as his own. All of those strong ones thought they would avoid the guillotine. None of them did. Nearly all Christian churches have majority senior citizens. When a neighborhood church closes it is not always possible for these older people to attend somewhere else.    Since sta...

I don't see any way to completely undo the harm done to those who inhabited North, Central and South America before the Europeans arrived, but we can do a better job of explaining who they were and how they bettered the lives of we Europeans. They were sophisticated societies who developed methods to govern themselves and lived well. As this generation of those groups comes of age they are searching for new ways of teaching the history of life on this continent before the European invasions. They are marketing tours and seminars for interested people of tribal history as experienced by members themselves. While I never experienced this myself, a few of my academic colleagues told of students who had an explanation of why native people are often poor. "They are poor because God is punishing them. They had the chance to 'develop their land' and they did not." There were about 37 million people in the Americas when Columbus arrived in 1492. They had been here for tho...

I'm not sure that statistically, churches are unsafe places. However, they are marketed as places where people can go to find "answers" and "peace." Because they market themselves in this way it is a headline story when clergy sexually abuse children or when a crazed gun owner shoots people in a church.  I have not heard of a church with a metal detector. In fact, many churches allow members to carry guns into church. There are overnight field trips with youth and pastors and priests. All of this is raising questions even within the religious community about the safety of churches.  A pattern that one can see in some pedophiles is efforts the find circumstances where they can abuse children. I would guess positions in churches working with young people offer opportunity. Certainly, the problem is not limited to churches, but churches are perhaps less supervised than some other institutions. On the Christian site, Chrisian Post, there are several new stories each...

There was a news item in the Christian press that Bible sales are rising . There is speculation in the article as to why this has happened in recent years. One explanation offered up is the clever new designs and skilled marketing. Another is that people are troubled and looking for purpose. In the Bible, this pundit said, is "purpose." The article does not present data on how many Bibles are purchased in bulk by religious organizations and handed out free. These Bibles given out free have nothing to do with "finding purpose in life." The Giddeons gave out free New Testaments of the streets of the University where I taught and the trash bins a few hundred feet away were crammed with them. Whatever the reason Bible sales have increased it has not been reflected in increased numbers of Christian and Jews. It makes me suspicious of the claim people find purpose in their lives by reading the Bible. Since I cannot understand anymore the appeal of gods and religions, it i...

The Christian world is in turmoil just like the non religious world. As Pope Francis approaches retirement or his ultimate death who will replace him and what will be the direction of the post Francis church? Today there was an announcement of additional Cardinals, those high ranking clergy who will meet in secret to choose a new Pope when the time comes. The link notes new Cardinals have been named in many parts of the world not before represented. Pope Francis has now appointed 80% of the Cardinals that will choose his successor. When a Cardinal reaches his 80th Birthday he goes off the Cardinals that will choose the new Pope. This means Pope Francis will choose even more as time moves on.  The Vatican has some kind hiring freeze and no raises. Retirees pay for their housing, an old perk gone. I read that international gatherings are shorter than they use to be. Some formerly Vatican expenses have been off loaded to dioceses.  While Vatican money is tight, there is some big ...

Catholic Bishops are in support of a Tennesse law that comes down hard on the rights of trans children and adults. The brief filed on behalf of Bishops carries on about how the Bishops and fellow travelers should not have to go to court repeatedly to ensure Biblical rules are put into law. That the rights of others might be walked upon by what the Bishops' demand never mentioned. Heterosexual people mostly cannot understand completely homosexual attractions. Homosexual people cannot understand completely hetero. Surely with trans we are dealing with the same thing, the unexplainable. Conservative have made up this medical theory that if trans people, especially children, are prevented from deciding for themselves their gender they will be better off. Apparently, if the government decided all the Bible-thumping men in Congress are actually women the lives of these men (now women in stilettos) would be improved. This would be all the truer if some Bible verses were recited. It remain...

Sometimes one has to conclude Christian activists were out of the room when brains were passed out. They lobbied for a state law in Ohio forcing schools to give students passes to leave for "religious instruction." Of course, the religious instruction would always be Christian, they thought. Those atheists managing the Satanic Temple saw an opening right away. They requested and received the right to have students released for their own "religious instruction."  Since the founders of the Satanic Temple do not believe an actual "Satan" exists, I assume kids will receive instruction in liberal thinking but not the worship of Satan per se. Such topics and equal rights and social justice are more likely. In any event the students will be the better for it. My theory is many Christians, those in Oklahoma who demand the Bible be taught in public schools and those in other states who want students released from productive time in school to go to their church for ...

An article in the Salt Lake City newspaper reviewed two books on the effects of religion on individuals. One book, written by secular academics, concluded leaving religion behind was not harmful. The other, written from the point of view of Mormonism, concluded religious people are happier. There was also discussion about "finding purpose in life" and similar topics.  The book written by academics predicted the decline in religion will continue while the other book said it's possible religion could come back. The latter agreed is might not. In reality, there is no way to know what the future will bring. The current trend is for a decline in the current form of Christianity--people increasingly are not identifying with faiths or denominations.  While speculation about the future of religion is, to some degree, a fool's errand, it's fun to dabble in it. What I don't understand is how could people who have left the faith buy back into it? I know there are widely ...

I've been reading summaries of after-life concepts in the period of 10,000 or so years BCE. The authors I'm reading studied the archaeological results of what appear to have been royal burials. Various parts of the world treated the dead differently and the same areas changed royal burials over time. Some royals (I'm using the term "royals" here even though it is not always known who the dead were or why they were buried in splendor) were buried with slaves who were killed to serve them in their afterlife.  A lot of the study is in Egypt where the dry climate preserved things. In some places, royals were buried with their bodies adorned with jewels and make up. In other places the bodies were not adored but expensive and rare objects like jewels and gold plus food were near the bodies. Sometimes many other bodies, sometimes young people, were lying next to the royal. Sometimes there were dozens of bodies in the ceremony. Implied is that those killed at the death o...

I don't happen to know, or know if anyone else knows, how many times someone has claimed to have found "Noah's Ark." It seems to me I have read about new ones a dozen times or more. Every time it is a different pile of wood at a different place. Now we have a new one. It would be fun to know how many people make a living from sites called "The Real Noah's Ark."  We have a big enterprise in the U.S. called Ark Encounter . This replica from a Biblical description was built for tourists with lots of public money. The religious message public money helps to spread is that there really was such a boat. I'd like to visit the Ark Encounter to see pictures, or depictions, of the millions of people, all sinners, as they were drowning.  The water was high for only some months. That means it had to recede. Where did it go if the entire earth was covered with water? One reader on this site explained God used a big straw to suck it back to heaven. Whatever happen...