Thoughts of a Freethinker

  Economics is often referred to as "the dismal science." I always thought that was because it preached there are limited resources and when we use some for one purpose there are fewer left for some other purpose. This simple idea almost seems almost self-evident. It has been criticized by clergy because the Bible says "the Lord will provide."                    A popular definition of fascism is a society where the rich own the economy and use their might to dominate politics and pass laws benefiting themselves. Since most (not all) of economics favors using markets to decide who buys what and who works and earns one place while others work and earn elsewhere liberal people sometimes accuse economics of being fascists. You can  read  a rebuttal of this in the link. Economics has always opposed fascism. It is the opposite of competition and of using the talents across the broad sweep of society. Economics has a link to the...

The shofar is a curved horn of a goat or other animal that has been processed to make a sound when a human blows into it. It is discussed often in the Bible. Currently, conservative politicians use it or refer to it as a symbol of political battle. You can buy one on Amazon. So far as I can tell, the only information about the shofar comes from religious sources. The trumpet, not as old, was used to send instructions to troops during battle. Not a religious use, as I understand. It  would be helpful if lots of them were found and it was possible to figure out what they were used for. If the shofar sound carries better than the human voice or drums, why would it not have been used in prehistoric times for practical and daily communication? If the trumpet was used to direct troops why would not the shofar, thousands of years older, have been used for communication? It seems to me the religious use would have been a later adaptation.   That said, I admit to finding symbols u...

Several years ago I was at a national atheist's convention where the leader said, "We atheists are much bigger than the 6% published number. We claim the "nones" too. They are often 'spiritual' but not 'religious.'" At the time I thought his claim was a little over the top. It turns out it may not have been. Almost every day Christian writers claim religion has not declined. Instead, the word "spirituality", they claim is a synonym, is used. A Christian professor today challenged that notion. He wrote that a person who claims to be spiritual is much different than one who claims to be religious. They are not interchangeable.  The reason the link author believes people who claim to be spiritual and different from those who claim to be religious is because of another questionnaire response. When each is asked a follow up question, "How important is this to you?" the religious said very important while spiritual beliefs were not ...

Giving young people tasks that make them feel good about themselves is part of good parenting, teaching and mentoring. In Christianity, however, it includes a scheme to keep them from leaving the faith. Readers all know the program. Summer camps, youth conferences and youth socials.  Some years ago the "mission trip" showed up. Kids and their parents would round up enough money to go to some country for a few days and "help poor people." I suppose there were already missionaries there to arrange for accommodations and come up with some task that was not difficult. I've heard painting was often the choice. I always wondered why so much money was spent on these "mission trips", who paid the overhead and what the locals in the country really thought of them. A U. S. doctor who works in such a country wrote a candid piece advising U.S. churches and parents to pull back on these excursions.   The doctor advised churches in the U.S. to put some thought into ...

  Members of a church in Kentucky is checking out from a public library books they find objectional and not returning them. From their point of view, the Commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Steal" does not apply when it is stealing a book about teenagers who are same sex attracted. The link is from the Christian site, Chirstian Post. In the link, a woman is quoted as say she found a book in her local school library giving instruction to a six year old on how to perform oral sex. Neither the person quoted nor Christina Post said what book she was referring to. I looked at the long article in the Kentucky newspaper from nearby and it did not have her quote now, of course, any reference to such a book. Perhaps the crazy woman who told this exclusively to Christian Post saw a picture of a child licking an ice cream cone and concluded it was training for oral sex. There is no other information. It seems like the woman was lying. But that, along with stealing books, is not a sin if it...

  It was delightful to read humorist Dave Schilling's essay on Trump's current preoccupation with getting into heaven. Trump has speculated on the criteria for making the grade and on the process that precedes selection. We have already seen how he proceeds when he wants an award or to be ranked appropriately. We saw this, are still seeing this, on the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump believes he is entitled to this honor. Some years have gone by when supporters nominated him but he has never come close to receiving it. He works hard at understanding the system for the award and, thinking he understands it, tries to manage it. When Trump has not received the Nobel Peace Prize his response seems to be, "Wait a minute here. I know people. I don't have to take this sh-t." He has been calling up world leaders telling them they need to call Nobel and get the award arranged.  Another strategy he has often used is to sue. In the link, Schilling says he might go to this option if...

The link author, a Seventh Day Adventist,  understands  why so many of us are skeptical of the Bible as a historical account. He admits religion is mostly made up in the mind but thinks that does not detract from its truthfulness and importance. He recounts a lecture given many years ago by a man who was a native aboriginal in Australia. He was a boy when the very first white people ever found his tribe and visited. He told of his sister running to tell him a large stone was moving along the ground. Devilish looking people showed up in the village. The large stone was an automobile. The devilish humans were the first white people they had ever seen. The link author, defending Christianity, says the moving stone was the truth as the little girl saw it. I suppose we could conclude also that when Paul of the Bible had a vision of visiting with Jesus long after Jesus was dead and learned from Jesus the basics of Christianity this gave Paul the credentials to the world's authority ...

James Dobson, who had a long running radio program followed by organizations that preached hate and promoted converting from homosexuality through prayer and Christian pressure, has died . Many who hate gays will celebrate his life. Many whom he tried to destroy have survived even though wounded. Mixed in with prejudice against gay people were absolute lies. The lies were in interpretations of the Bible but also claims that people who were gay had been "cured." He lied that gay people are immoral and the he himself was not. I wonder how many thousands of parents rejected their gay children because they were told by Dobson this is what they should do. Among his earlier wisdom was advocating not just spanking children but beating them until they stopped crying. The irony is he is regarded as a promoter of "family values." Everything he said and did seemed destined to destroy families.  Dobson's wealth is estimated at over $10 million. One of his most well known ef...

Since way back, Mormon women have been required to wear undergarments that, in turn, required them to wear tops with sleeves. No bare upper arms nor shoulders. Now, a more revealing undergarment has been approved and Mormon women are allowed to wear tank tops. It has caused various big reactions. Of course, some women and men are delighted. Some who prefer to be seen as suffering and obedient members are angry. Another set is angry they were forced for some many years when they were young to wear absurd articles of clothing and suddenly it's OK to wear something nice when they are too old to do so. Why was the change made? In usual Mormon manner, there is no explanation. It has not been explained who made the change and what thinking or discussion is behind it. Silence. In the Mormon denomination, silence is the rule. The amount of transparency is close to zero. Every time a new Prophet is named God sends him a different set of rules than the previous Prophet received. Why does thi...

The money made telling the imaginary story of the Rapture has supported an army of preachers, authors and pundits. Every year or two someone has become famous by stating the year or day the Rapture will happen. When it did not, the money collected was not returned. Now, a popular preacher is lampooning those who predict the date of the Rapture. But he sees $ in talking it up anyway. Why should we believe Jesus will float down and his faves will float up with him? Because, the link author says, it gives people "hope." Hope? Hope for what? As time moves along the "what" is guaranteed in the Bible gets a little more vague. Back a few years, the dead body needed to be buried complete because otherwise how would one's relatives recognize the person in heaven? Now that's no longer a thing. Apparently now every soul has a bar code so you will know which souls singing in heaven are your dead relatives. Which reminds me to ask, do the souls singing in heaven have sep...

Over the past few years, Egypt has tried out different programs to stop young people from leaving the faiths of the country. Christianity, Islam and others have been prominent int the country for a long time. Leaders recently announced a new "war against atheism." It is to recruit other young people to publicly endorse religions, monitor social media and sponsor public promotions. All of these have been done before. Youth just keep leaving. Egyptian youth, especially from rural areas, who leave religion have a rough go of it. They are often shunned by family and their social circle. Getting along in life without this support has headwinds in every direction.  Way on the other side of the world, here, an article appeared today that was like others that come along every week. This one was about the annual survey done by the American Bible Society. The survey found the same thing it found last year. The percentage of young people who read the Bible, identify as believers and are...

It's often said the defeat of Germany, and the humiliation that followed, led to the rise of Hitler. There is a narrative also that defeat of the South in the U.S. gave rise to the Bible Belt. I can't remember the last time I heard any news person, preacher or politician utter the phrase, "The Southern way of life." I heard it often a few decades back. What did it mean? My interpretation was it meant white people could rightfully not send their children to schools where there were black children. Interracial marriage was not "The Southern way of life." In short, practicing racial segregation and discriminating against black people was "The Southern way of life." According to the link, "The Southern way of life", if the phrase was used before the Civil War, did not include the notion of a Bible Belt. The South was about segregation and slavery.  From evidence available today, church membership and attendance was lower in the South than in ...

I've always thought atheists and nones will not be the big forces in separating religion from government. Today, parts of Christianity are bull dozing their way back into government. So called religious liberty or religious freedom are being used to limit both religious liberty and freedom.. Why secular people like me complain, it falls mostly on deaf ears. "What right do you have to complain about too much religion when you don't have any. You are not in this conversation." The bigger forces have never taken out their guns. These are other religions, especially religions that have a chip on their shoulders.  I've visited with Hindus who are of both the push-against-the-Christian dominance and the keep-our-heads-down so no one knows we're here. Both are OK. We secular people, however, benefit most from Hindus who want to push back. I've known a couple of Hindu men who scoffed at Christianity. Mostly, their deal is that Hinduism was here long before Christi...

While I have enjoyed every visit I've made to the State of Oklahoma, I have to say it has an element in its politics that is just plain loony. Currently, that is a State Superintendent, Ryan Walters, has ordered all schools to teach the Bible. When American Atheists and the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent letters to school districts across Oklahoma warning them this was in violation of the U. S. Constitution and they should ignore the order, the Secretary of Education sued. He lost . Will he now get on to the docket of the U.S. Supreme Court and get the case reversed? Could happen. One of many problems the State Superintendent faces is that Oklahoma law gives local schools the exclusive power to decide curriculum. The State Superintendent does not have the power to enforce his own directive. Walters also required school districts to order the number of Bibles to equal the number of students. When districts said they did not have such money he got it from big money donors. He ...

Every reader has had his own experience with stimulants or intoxication. Maybe it was you yourself or people close to you. I had an experience that is perhaps a little different than many people.  A couple of decades ago my wife and I visited the country of Bangladesh. It remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Our friends/hosts there were natives who had spent time in Fargo, ND where we lived then. One of the several experiences our hosts provided us was a trip into the country where they chatted with several groups of rural people. Several were rural young women. The conversations were about the small loans they had received from a nonprofit. But I was distracted by the red around their mouths from chewing beetle nuts. Why did they have this habit, I wondered. It turns out beetle nuts or beetle juice has been enjoyed by locals in that part of the world for at least 4,000 years. Beer has been made for much longer. Smoking cigarettes is the beetle juice of western societ...

I suppose white missionaries went to Africa well over 100 years ago and Christians there are 3rd, 4th or 5th generation. Before Christian missionaries began converting locals other religious beliefs were already there. As Christianity moved in the old culture that fueled the previous religions remained. Ever since Christians thought they had the upper hand hammering down on the local culture the truth has reared its head. The original culture is still there.  There seems to be a slow realization in the U.S. religious community that using money collected from the pews is not bringing Christianity to those cultures quite as planned. Both those people converted and those born to native Christian parents are a branch of the faith different than the one back here. The original branch of the Presbyterian denomination recently closed down it entire missionary enterprise. Southern Baptists reduced the size of its operation. Watching videos of Lutheran Missouri Synod I see expressed often ...

I'm far from an expert on history, but I enjoy learning about the Roman Empire. I've read a couple of books that try to explain how it became so successful and why it fell eventually. Today in National Geographic is a summary of those who argue the environment and disease played to big role in both its success and failure. During its long history there was some change in the earth's orientation to the sun. This has happened several times and may be happening now. This causes food production to rise in some areas and fall in others. When "Paul" of the Bible walked around starting churches were those he converted open minded because of theological arguments or because crops were failing. The Bible says people were waiting for another leader. More likely crops were not good and they blamed it on the Pagan gods. Maybe this new god would bring better crops. The more we learn about movements of people from place to place over hundreds of thousands of years before record...

Frank Pavone, founder and chief of Priests for Life, posted an appeal to followers that they demand the new pope reinstate his credentials as a priest. He was defrocked by Pope Francis. Now he cannot do mass, funerals or weddings or present himself in any way as a priest representing the Catholic corporation. I suspect he wants his priest credential back because it helps him raise money. He may well be experiencing the same drop off of donations I suspect is happening to Tony at the Family Research Council.  Pavone was a priest when he started Priests for Life. As it grew, high up officials in the Catholic denomination began asking for information about Priests for Life. Pavone gave high officials the bird. I'm thinking he said something like, "Elvis is the King of Rock and Roll. I'm the King of Anti Abortion. You can't demand anything of me." Why did officials want to see Pavone's books? Why did they care? I'm guessing Pavone asked supporters in dioceses ...

I'm reading a book called Apocalypse . The book plots huge changes in human behavior that happened in response to apocalypses. As archeologists continue to discover more human history we now know there were humans living in many places before there were many feet of ice. The Red River Valley of the North is an example. They had to move. The black plague wiped out over half the population in Europe. There were floods and droughts where people had to change diets and move on.  Preceding each of these apocalypses generations lived with the anticipation things would remain as they were forever. If there was some memory passed down from generations before those events were probably not considered important to life at that moment in time. Lots of things in today's Christianity are climate dependent. There is no planning that some apocalypse might happen.  One of them is the abundance of food and housing. When I have mentioned the wisdom of limiting population growth or even reducing...

I recently reviewed something from my life of many decades as a practicing Christian followed by many decades of being an atheist (yes, I'm an old guy). It was the list of things in religion that were and remain unverified. I can't list every one of them here but we've all heard the same ones. There are invisible beings, God wrote the Bible, there is a life when we are dead, there are agreed upon rules of sexuality, the Bible says things that aren't in the Bible, we are here from creation, there was no evolution, etc. All of these have always been preceded by the words, "This is the truth."  If there were a candid training program for Christian clergy, one unit would be entitled "How to make things seem real when probably they are not." Recently, I've noticed a new one. Almost every day just now some preacher is telling an audience, "There is today a spiritual hunger among people and we will soon see a huge revival." I've seen this ...

I don't necessarily recommend everyone read the long link . I read it to see if there was something, anything, that allowed a skeptic of religion, all religions, a place to land.  In the typical style of academics, the author accurately describes where Christians are right now. Then he teases he will end with a powerful escape from Christianity's current problem of decline.  His solution is that Christians will have to live in a secular society. They should not bend in all matters to the current culture, he says. But they need to realize they will have little or no impact on it. To me, is solution is the same as the Saturday Night grandmother in drag who concluded "Talk Amongst Yourselves." The single most important issue in all of Christianity is SIN. All the pointy headed professors together pontificating on fine points in the faith have to face up to this truth. Today, one of the best examples ever was right there on the front page of Christian Post. A preacher sai...

The three-pronged political group of anti-abortion, anti-gay and pro Christian keeps up a steady patter of new positive developments. The futility of their causes is put out of sight, though it probably is not out of mind. Today the case is being made that it has become cool for well educated people to become active members of Christianity.  During the last couple of years, data on church attendance has suggested churches with above average income have been doing better than churches with members of below average income. One would expect educational levels to be higher with higher incomes. While there is no studied conclusion about why this has been happening, one can guess it has explanations that include some non religious. It could be people with above average incomes do not have to work Sundays or nights when services are held. Meeting and socializing with others in your peer group may be more important in careers in this group than in lower incomes. We know that asking people ...

On my bookshelf is God is Not One by Professor Stephen Pethero. It was published several years ago and is only mentioned in today's religious discussions occasionally. Yet, it contains a powerful bit of truth that is still sited . It is that the religions of the world each have different gods and each god has fans that hate the other gods. The old parody remains, "My god is real, your god is not. Bang-bang you're dead." The link points out that if someone says, "All religions are climbing the same mountain. They are just scaling different sides," that person is saying he/she knows each religion as well as those who practice each one. Those in the respective religions will argue with such a person. It turns out believing all religions have something in common is, by itself, a separate religion.  We continue to hear the phrase "Judeo Christian religion." Is there such a thing? No, according to many who study religion intensely. If Jews do not believe...

The Mormon "way" has always been silence and secrecy. One would think a denomination which lives off of donations from the pews would be open with those in the pews about how much money has been accumulated and what it is used for. Nope. The denomination has always had an uphill battle using Joeseph Smith and later Brigham Young as its "holy" people. These men were assigned holy status as prophets and interpreters of what God wants and the writers of rules. The problem with these two men was they had too many wives.  To deal with what is obviously flim flam the Mormon church has now published for the first time a folksy question and answer publication. Widely asked questions and challenges are stated and equally conversational answers are published. To me, it makes the Morom problem even worse. The publication lists various things that are unexplainable. Like with the rest of conservative Christianity, when there is no way so support what someone once said, it was ...

Many readers here are too young to know about "The Jesus People." When they came along I was a little too old and cautious to understand them. They were a branch of the anti Vietnam War time, the hippies and marijuana. I would say their "theology" was that Jesus was for peace and being non judgmental. Rebellious young people at the time saw themselves in this way.  The link claims the Jesus People grew older and their theology found its way into the mainstream of Christianity. He claims further, it injected a new direction of enthusiasm that was needed at the time. He doesn't give an explanation of where and how this happened and I don't know how he can make this claim. It is true that numbers provided by churches of membership and attendance rose for a decade after the Vietnam war. By the time young people of the Vietnam period reached their 50's numbers were falling. If new and fresh enthusiasm were a part of the Jesus People is faded in a decade or tw...

Trump's outright dismissal of a bureaucrat who published economic data may be just the tip of a terrible and destructive iceberg. It is that Trump loyalists, or critics who are scared, have already began altering economic data to make the economy look good when it is not. According to a well known academic blogger, Heather Cox Richardson, researchers who follow government data closely think numbers from the past 12 months have understated unemployment and overstated economic growth. This would be consistent with Trump's refusal to accept the election results of 2020. Trump's mind seems to block out as wrong any information he does not like. I think that for a long time he really believed he had won in 2020. It may well be that he was convinced raising tariffs would flood the government with money from countries paying the tariffs lowering taxes in the U.S. and driving up prosperity. When it did not happen, and the opposite happened, his mind simply had no ability to believe...

In order to survive, anti abortion groups need to keep alive the notion they can stop all abortions. If they admitted the truth, which is that the number of abortions being done today will remain the same for the future, who would give money to them? Thus Tony Perkins, who makes his living at the Family Alliance, organized a publicity stunt to have many preachers sign a letter he wrote to President Trump. It asks the President to use the Postal Service to stop the mailing of abortion pills to citizens in the U.S. Religion is so full of scams. In fact, it is nothing but scams. As readers here know, anyone can invent a god and make up promises attributed to that god. How about a life after you are dead that goes on for an eternity and is luxury?  The financial success of marketing what a god has supposedly promised is not lost on groups that join the club but sell something a little different. Back during slavery the promise was there will always and forever be slavery. You bought th...