Thoughts of a Freethinker

I hope readers with an interest is the general topic of religion will take very few minutes to watch this video . The young man in the video posts videos about complex issues. This one reviews why there are so many different disciplines that study and publish research in religion.  He points out many disciplines publish articles about religion including sociology, economics, psychology, history, anthropology, psychiatry and archeology as well as the "hard sciences" of health/medicine and physiology. I probably left out a few.   The video does not discuss the people who make up a Department of Religion in a university. Many such people in the field of religion argue constantly about what are the "true beliefs" of various religions. Years ago I was on a panel discussion in Fargo about religion that included a physician who is a Muslim. He told the audience anyone who says Islam preaches killing others, infidels, is not part of the legitimate faith called Islam. A few ...

Is this one of the "great moments in the history of the Catholic denomination" or just another hand off of the Pope's title? I think we'd all agree Francis has been refreshingly open minded and the sharks do not want another of those guys. Back a few decades there was a Pope John who said and did some liberal things, I can't remember what they were about, but the right wing won the position for several popes. This time it seems different . It isn't just about married and women priests, it's about falling numbers and less money. These are the most important issues. Without numbers and money it will not matter whether there are female priests or married priests, it's about no priests. When it comes to sending priests to far corners of the world to establish the faith it would ultimately be the same as every other denomination. For that matter, the same as every business. Some seed money is needed but in time each operation needs to raise its own money. A...

Someday, I'd like to run a national competition to decide the most ridiculous argument in Christianity. Yes, there are many, the existence of heaven and hell, the gods and spirits floating about and what is sin and what is not sin. But there is one that is a used as a powerful club to beat down the role of a class of humans. This one rises to the top for me. It is that in some sections of the faith only men can be clergy. I have a little side hobby of collecting the mythological excuses for the put-down of women. The put-down is skillfully done millions of women think it is a sound idea. I've heard several reasons for this discrimination. Here is the most recent . The post refers to some verse in Revelations that says communion is a wedding where Jesus is the groom and the church is his bride. I didn't read the silly article carefully but apparently since Jesus was male the priest serving the blood must also be a male. Explaining this takes some pages using fancy words from...

The Southern Baptist Convention is not a denomination like Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Methodist. I think it could best be described as an association of churches. Important work is done at a convention. The number of churches and members is so large it has become in many ways the face of Protestant Christianity. It is the largest "denomination" in Protestantism. It is losing 10% of its members each year. Its Executive Committee is meeting this week trying to make decision. Corralling the Southern Baptist Convention is like herding a flock of chickens. Most Southern Baptists want to know how many cases of sexual abuse involving clergy exist. The denomination refuses to divulge. There are financial scandals involving money from those in the pews. They remain unresolved. In anti-abortion there is a faction that thinks it can be erased from the country and is willing to see every woman who gets an abortion thrown in jail. Another faction wants the issue to be handled by...

I'm reading a book called When the Ice is Gone. It is about the ice cores drilled with primitive equipment in the l950's. Even today, it is dangerous and difficult to get to that spot. Getting equipment, fuel, housing and food to workers bordered on the impossible. Piece by piece the cores, maybe 4 inches in diameter, were exacted over a few years and shipped frozen to be stored and studies. The military did this as part of the cold war against Russia. The thinking was that fighter jets and other weapons based in Greenland could intercept Russian aircraft headed to the U.S.  The ice cores ended up in Colorado for several decades. After a while, scientists in the U.S. lost interest in the ice cores and they were almost thrown away. By a fluke of history, they were shipped back closer to where they came from, Denmark. By around 2020 many new scientists were working on global warming and the ice core came back to being very valuable.  When earth was finally reached after some yea...

The favorite phrase of Chirstian Bible readers is, "What this means is...." Since no license or credentials are needed to use this phrase it can be used by anyone for any purpose. One place of tension with the Christian community and non believers is also controversial among Christians. It is whether or not there should be laws against "sin." An author in Christianity Today thinks the Christian has an obligation to not only remove sin from her own life but pass laws that penalize "sin" in society. "Sin" that becomes some acceptable practice common in the culture is called "systematic sin." Christians have a obligation, the link says, to support laws against systematic sin. I've always speculated about why Christians cannot see that the culture keeps changing and making behaviors that were taboos acceptable. Since this seems to have been happening since even before Christianity why don't Christians, I've wondered, give up? Wh...

Trump firring federal employees and attempting to best every other national leader must be exhilarating for him. One wonders if there is ever a voice of doubt or caution in his mind or on the lips of anyone he talks to?   Everyone who has had a course or reads in the field of world history knows of the fallen empires. It seems military victories and I suppose other kinds of victories is an intoxication that is never satisfied. Among the many hours of discussion on television and publications everywhere is the small voice of caution. History seems to say a fall in inevitable.  Hitler's Germany and the Soviet Union are examples of empires in more recent history. To an amateur observer like myself their eventual fails were not unlike the Roman empire and others. They grew and took on more than they could control. They simply overreached. It is seldom brought up, but Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota voted against invading Iraq. Afterwards he said he was concerned about ove...

Just a few years ago there was a "house cleaning" at the very, I mean VERY, conservative Moody Bible Institute in downtown Chicago. I've read there are some fiscal problems at Moody that are being kicked down the road by selling some of its very valuable downtown Chicago property. Also in the Chicago region is Wheaton College, a stalwart of conservative religion, there are rumblings of liberal drift. Friends and relatives of mine have attended Wheaton. Now, its deep pocket donors are complaining liberal ideas come up in its classrooms and are not properly shut down. Complaints are coming in from alums, former students and donors. Wheaton's enrollment has been slowly declining. Put yourself in the shoes of a President of these or any other of the many conservative Christian higher ed places. Student enrollment is down and projections are gloomy. Several small colleges each year close or merge and try to stay afloat. Among many if your challenges is keeping faculty. To ...

Bush considered his program of aid to religious groups to be an innovation. Trump and his faithful soldiers of the right are turning on this, one of the best revenue sources ever invented by religions. It is Bush's Federal Government funding of "faith-based" charities. These charities are run by Protestants and Catholics alike. The Trump people toss them in with "deeps state" as corrupt "money launderers." The local Governor here faithfully repeated the "money laundering" Republican line but quickly walked it back.  Perhaps the activity of these religion-based organizations that press the "no woke" button of conservatives are the ones who settle new citizens. They line up housing, language training and jobs. I assume most community leaders and businesses that need workers support the work of these religious-based groups. I know personally of firms the grew to hundreds of workers by relying on newcomers to this country.  I've kno...

A friend I knew in politics in Fargo, ND where I was mayor for 16 years grew up poor and spent his teen years more or less "on the streets." This was long before abortion was made legal by Roe. He said abortions were common, "Everyone knew which doctors they could visit." These were the days of a neighborhood doctor with an office next to his house. Many hard-core opponents of abortion choose to believe, and have told me, there were almost no abortions during that period of many decades. There were half a dozen court cases and anti-abortion zealots choose to believe these were the only ones that took place.  The same game is being played as we speak. States with abortion bans claim there are no abortions while doctors who care for patients say abortions continue . Perhaps there are abortions that are identified on the paperwork as something else. How ever it is happening, there are doctors that know about it and are not telling. There is no enterprise more dishonest...

Since the beginning of time there has been criticism about the "next generation." I put that in quotes because I'm referring to not only young people at any given time but also people of all ages at any time who adopt ideas that do not conform to the prevailing ones at that moment in history.  My own version of "progress" happens when society at large begins to understand and pass from person to person and generation to generation some bit of knowledge about "reality." By "reality" I mean facts and/or inevitability. If humans writ large cannot accept facts or inevitability they will ultimately destroy themselves or destroy each other. One reality is that most humans like and/or need some interaction and help from other humans. Because of this we form groups beyond our own families. The expressed reason for the groups is usually not the real reason they form. They form because humans need a group. The reason given for any group will vary from ...

There are many versions of the Bible. The one called English Standard Version will now have 68 changes or edits from the one that preceded it. I can imagine a committee sat around a table where each person said, "No, you're wrong. What it really means is ..."   One change that interested me was from Exodus. It involves the creation of the universe. In the preceding version of this Bible it said, "...and on the ---- day God created heaven and earth." The new version will say "...created the heavens and ..." Does this mean the faith now teaches there is more than one "heaven?" Are several gods and each has a heaven? Or, did the original heaven fill up with souls and new ones had to be opened?  Maybe now there is a heaven for those whose last name starts with A-D, another for E-I and so on.  Or, could it be there are heavens based on the severity of sins. Those with no sins would, of course, get the best digs. Some people were sin lite, maybe on...

All the chest beating by Trump and his minions will not stop churches from hiding and abetting illegal migrants. Historically, churches have been able to stop feds at the door. Experience tells us this will continue.  There is a certain kind of irony here. Religion, especially the Christian branch, has received a pass on all kinds of issues not tolerated elsewhere. Branches of the faith want to discriminate, so they do. Slave holders said their religion allowed them to have slaves. During covid some churches defied orders not to meet.  The safety of gathering and plotting in churches has also been used against conservatives. Black people used churches as a safe place to plot against slavery and segregation and white society did not stop gatherings in churches. Now, the link author says illegal immigrants will be guarded against Trump officials by staying inside churches. Whether this will work is yet to be seen. But, the history of dong this is clear. This could happen to abor...

I'm reading a book, When the Ice is Gone  (2024) that goes into minute details about the famous ice cores exacted in Greenland. Ice cores have also been taken from other glaciers such as Antarctica. Greenland's are the one's the professor author knows most about so that is the subject of the book. A decade ago when I discussed climate change there was a band of commenters on this blog who said climate change and the information from the poles was nonsense. While I knew the carbon pollution was the cause of climate change I never understood how the conclusions were reached. This book lays the case out in detail. There is a lot of information about sawing ice cores I did not know. I thought taking out the cores was a relatively new idea with a new technology. Drilling down into glaciers has been going on at least from the 1950's. The glaciers were seen as assets during the cold war. The Defense Department wonder what kind of defense against Russia could be placed on the g...

  A Trump administrative official, who claims to be a devout Catholic, is returning fire to the Pope in what seems like an unprecedented style. Disagreeing with a Pope is not unusual but telling a Pope to run his own show and keep out of running the U.S. government is different. Readers know a large swath of Protestantism is also in the cross hairs of the Trump Administration. Some Protestant groups are suing over the immigration policy as well as LGBT+ issues and foreign and domestic aid cuts. One author says Trump is waging war on Christianity. Certainly, Trump and his circle have no use for criticism from religious groups. While the old political strategy of both Republicans and Democrats has been to pander to Christianity in every way possible, the new thing is to divide Christians into their various camps and harvest as many votes as possible. Biden turned his back on anti-abortion politics. Ultimately, I think Trump will do the same. He has never answered the question asked o...

In spite of the old guys, Trump and Netanyahu, telling the world Israel is right to kill large numbers of Palestinian civilians, young evangelical Christians see the news and disapprove . Netanyahu has said he realizes this but knows it is because young people have not had the proper education. We all know this conflict is complex and a solution is not on the horizon. It all began with a different "big solution" so long ago. That "big solution" was to move large numbers of Jews from Europe where they were killed in the holocaust and discriminated against to an area in the Middle East they claimed as their homeland. Jews had lived in the area now called Israel since ancient times but had not governed it. European Jews and Palestinians have been fighting ever since. Now Trump is proposing another "big solution," moving the Palestinians somewhere else. Big solutions favoring Israel have not worked in the past.  An interesting thought experiment, not practical...

Almost every day some preacher/Christian author  pontificates  on the word "culture." Mostly the message is the "culture" is bad. It is close to a synonym for sin. Conforming to the culture is bad, "correcting" the culture is good. I've never read a Christian definition of what is meant by "culture." I suspect no Christian author wants to be subjected to a definition because this would require more rigor than he/she wants to practice. Within sociology/anthropology where the word is used extensively there several similar definitions are used. One I think captures them is, The beliefs, norms, values and symbols that guide human behavior and social organization.  While this definition, also, is quite general and could mean different things to different people, it is different than the religious version because it is not in itself judgmental. My field of economics uses this definition to assign a basic motive of human behavior. You may disagree w...

I'm not an authority on the history of any of the world's religions including Christianity. That's why it is a surprise to read versions of where Christianity came from and the many places it has thrived and then died. The link provides a brief history of the faith before it entered Europe. We in the U.S., though we know the tales of Bethlehem and the Middle East, tend to think of Christianity as something that came from Europe with our white ancestors. Before it came to Europe it has large successes and large failure in the East including China, India and North Africa. The link is about the period around 1,000 CE.  The version of Christianity referred to is called Eastern Orthodox. Years ago there was a small congregation of this branch of the faith in Fargo. I think the current name is simply Orthodox.  Back in the Middle Ages the faith thrived and then was driven out or underground in various countries. I would encourage anyone interested to read the link. Islam came alo...

  Did Martin Luther have in mind a church called "herchurch" with clergy who carry the title of "witch" or "goddess"? Martin had no use for Jews so I doubt he would have any tolerance for this San Francisco Lutheran Church. He has been dead for 400 years so whatever he thought doesn't matter.  The church's website explains what it is all about. While most Christian churches could accurately carry the title "hischurch" because only males are allowed to be clergy, the title "herchurch" balances this gender issue. If some of the "hers" are trans, the balance is even better.  It appears the church remains in good standing with the branch of Lutherans that founded it over 100 years ago. This tolerance could be a good thing to stem the falling membership in churches and denominations. Herchurch represents the majority gender of Christianity. Unfortunately it is not the majority of clergy. My question is what does gender have...

Black activist celebrity, Jemar Tisby, spoke to students at Grove City College in Pennsylvania back in 2020. He told students that now is the time to stop prejudice against nonwhite races and non Christian religions. Grove City College is a mostly white college of about 2,500 students and reeks of Christianity. The speaker quoted the Bible several times admonishing students that to take no stand against wrong is itself wrong. This included Esther 4:12-14. The students and administrators who were present found Tisby's speech to be a call for action. Action, they felt, was upsetting the order in society that was more important than any wrongdoing. In later discussions Tisby's speech was labeled "woke." There is no room for "woke" at Grove City College. Apparently, a Christian education and becoming woke are opposites. A panel of respected people was named to vet future campus speakers so that no woke types will appear there again, I don't need to remind re...

There is one consistent theme of conservative Christianity, weaponize the faith to demonize and dump on groups members do not like. During slavery and segregation, it was black people. It has always been women. In recent decades it was gays and today it is trans. Even Trump sees opportunity is weaponizing the faith against trans people. Also inside the faith have been groups who see it as a weapon the lift up the marginalized. The Quakers seem like such a group. A leader in the Episcopalian denomination took on the Christian right by preaching that Jesus was all about welcoming and accepting the marginalized.   This is about, of course, the favorite phrase in Christianity, "What this means is..." The Episcopalian used it, segregationists used it and now anti trans use it. Why not, it's free. I wish Christianity were not such a market driven religion. Here in the U.S. preachers are at the mercy of those in the pews. Those in the pews pay the bills. If they want to hear tha...

The Church of England has seen several of its smaller schools that train preachers close. It is said that every remaining seminar in England is struggling financially. There are predictions half of the remaining schools will be closed in a few years. This is a trend in England and across the pond here in the U.S. I had a friend way back who graduated from the prestigious Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Enrollment there today is 200 students, down from 250 ten years ago.  The Church of England is now trying to attract students who have merely an interest in studying religion but have neither the money now the resolve to pursue degree leading to becoming an ordained preacher. Union Seminary in NYC has an online course for a Master's in Theology. As time moves on I can see people who have taken a few courses in religion taking on the job of unpaid part-time preacher in churches that can only maintain a building but not pay for any staff. There will be hand wringing by tra...

Every week there is news of a small college closing or merging. Like churches, the survival of small colleges is swimming upstream. Change is not working in favor of either higher education or churches. The economics of both is flawed. I've discussed here often the economics of churches. Those in the pews who supply the money to run the place need to feel they get something worth as much or more than what the pay. The faith, in my opinion has over promised what donors get for their money--the gods and the "guaranteed" afterlife is now viewed with skepticism. Fewer children per family has hurt also but a good product should sell anyway, and it is not. Something similar has happened in colleges (I'm using the word colleges instead of universities, it's easier to type). I'm not a scholar who studies or publishes about higher education but it's been close to me all my life. I've lived on or next to a campus for 60 years of my life.  When I was a professor ...

A new word is being used, "exvangelicals," to describe what has been popular among Christian liberals. Critics on the right say the preoccupation with the poor and with justice for all is not important compared to Jesus' death on the cross to settle our sins. "Real Christians" are preoccupied with the cross and sin. Liberals are exvangelicals it is said by those on the right because they just don't get the faith. But surprisingly, some studious Christians who see this flaw in the left of the faith also see a flaw in the right. The right, too, carries the term "exvangelicals." The right lost its credentials as part of "real Christianity" by deciding the faith is about low taxes, no regulation and incentivizing personal ambition. The cross and sin are not present on the right. Years ago, Trump was asked what sin he asks the almight for forgive. He was flummoxed.  The link correctly points out church attendance by the blue-collar demographic...

As astute academic recently reviewed why religious conservatives are SO angry that an Episcopalian Bishop recently lectured President Trump. The Bishop warned Trump that gay and trans people are very frightened. Conservatives are having a cow over this remark by the Bishop. The link explains their anger is based on the threat they see in an Episcopalian talking to a President about moral values. It is conservative Protestantism that is the National Religion, conservatives think, and, while Episcopalians held that position for most of modern U.S. history, Southern conservatives took it from them and do not want to give it back. The link author makes a point I had never really considered. He writes that the state religions of Europe helped to hold in check the various religious impulses that come and go. There will be religions trying to push their way into government, the argument says, so why not bring in a religion that referees the others? Episcopalians were the ones doing this earli...