Thoughts of a Freethinker

Many decades ago I visited Atlanta for the first time. I remember people watching in the downtown and noticing the confidence of black people there. They were successful and projected the aura of doing things their own way and blending to no one. I've been back to Atlanta countless times since then and wondered how it could be part of the conservative South. As anyone who follows politics knows, it now votes solidly for Democrats and has liberal mayors. The State of Georgia itself has voted for Democratic Party Presidents.  A state with one of the largest atheist groups is Alabama. I had a friend in theater at the University of  Alabama. Theater productions there included gay themes not acceptable in other parts of the state but were welcomed there.  One of the largest Unitarian Universalist churches in the country is in Bible Belt Tulsa, Oklahoma. That city suffered a huge race riot where the black business area was burned down and many killed. Tulsa is the home of Oral ...

I don't recall ever seeing a survey of Christians on the Shroud of Turin, but my guess is millions across the globe believe it is the actual garment the body of Jesus was wrapped in. One can read the long complicated history of the thing in Wikipedia . I was not aware the myth went back to around the 1200's. Even though a Pope back then declared it to be authentic the Catholic Church has backed off just a bit. Currently, its position is that it neither affirms nor denies its authenticity. The ruse is called "of Turin because it has been displayed in the City of Turin, Italy, for hundreds of years. Twice it was damage by fires and then repaired.  The history of evaluations outside of religion is lots of fun. The image is that of an entire body. Someone measured the arms and found them to be impossibly long. Others have done carbon dating and found it to be of the 12-1300's. What appears to be blood has been found to be fruit or vegetable dyes. The type of fabric was not...

One thing that does NOT sell newspapers or the modern version of newspapers, talk and news on our screens or trolling on the internet, is a script that reads, "No one has any idea why these things are happening." Better for selling ads and making money is, "Today we're going give you inside information. We'll to talk to experts and learn why these things are happening." An example is this essay. It seems to me most often there is no explanation. The exception is people with religious or political passions that have gone over the edge. Otherwise, it is next to impossible to explain why people go off the rails and kill numbers of other people. To pretend we can explain why these tragedies happen seems out of reach. Maybe it would be more helpful for the news media to admit this, even though it would not be as profitable as teasing the public into thinking an answer is coming. An early idea that seemed good to me at the time was to limit access to firearms. Tod...

Even though the total amount of money donated to religion is still huge, a survey found the average amount given by evangelicals continues to fall . If one were to choose a single variable that predicted the future success or failure of an organization, it has to be how much money it brings it. Money pays for preachers and church buildings. These are two large marketing variables. Without these, membership will fall. The old saying is, "It pays to advertise." I follow a site in the Lutheran Missouri Synod denomination. There preachers and professors at its seminaries talk about how to stop the dramatic downward trend. The denomination still has a large amount of money stashed away. But the discussions involve what it should do to reverse its decline in membership.  The denomination's dilemma, not much different I'm sure than similar denominations, is that its preachers are to do considerable academic work in order to be ordained. This, of course, is expensive if done ...

Re-ploughing old ground is what Christianity does. So, too, does the community of doubt . That there is scant evidence there ever was a Jesus continues to be raised.  Since way back, Jesus and his life was called "history" by believers and a "story" by skeptics. In either case it was a very successful public relations effort. Jesus remains a topic discussed endlessly. The more modern word for the Christian religion based on Jesus is "narrative." That is, in spite of critics, doubt and lack of evidence, the Christian narrative remains that there was a Jesus and words and ideas he actually used are repeated in the Bible. I don't remember a year when I read quotes from prominent Christians repeating what skeptics have said for years, "Jesus may not have been born on January 25th. But that does not matter." I would call this a new narrative. It would never have become this common were it not for skeptics raising doubts for years. The new narrativ...