Thoughts of a Freethinker

James Talarico's Presbyterian pastor told a prospective church member in a private conversation; Christians should be careful which translations to rely on when reading the Bible. In a recording, made without the permission of the pastor, he used the words "stupid stuff." No one says he said this from the pulpit. He should have--every preacher should say it. Just to remind, James Talarico is running for the Senate in Texas. If we put on our polite hat, we would say it is disrespectful to refer to the tenets of the faith, any faith, as stupid stuff. But if we considered that a major reason people leave the faith is they can no longer believe the far-fetched tales it features. Maybe the most helpful thing one can suggest to those in the faith is to remind them of this doubt. The faith could be taught without featuring stories that are beyond the pale. Liberal branches do this. James Talarico, a seminary student, has said at various times the Bible does not condemn abortion ...

A few years ago I attended a friend's funeral in a Protestant denomination that does not allow women pastors. The male pastor had had a stroke and was limited in what he could do. He did speak but a woman carried the service forward. I don't know what her position was or is today. The "work around" worked fine.  Today there is a growing shortage of Catholic priests. Some Protestant denominations that require male preachers need part-time but credentialed men are not available. What to do? The logical thing is to double the pool of people available to be priests/preachers. Out of that much larger pool could come the very few that might want to do this work or have economic circumstances that allow them to do clergy work part-time. The larger the pool the more likely some star will emerge to help save a church. The Catholic Church is inching it way toward women as clergy. Women are taking over higher level management positions.  Those who condemn the idea of women as cl...

We all know there are a gazillion surveys and interviews going on at any one moment. From these books and articles are published. I think it's correct to say doing survey work at either the professional level with random sampling or doing amateur work with volunteer survey are both cheaper and easier than it was in past times. Publishing or publicizing the results is also easier than in the past. There is a popular thing in our culture now also about knowing what's behind the door. We want to know, not just what happened, but why. I myself am deeper into this than many others. All of us need to remember there are things going on we cannot understand or will not understand until a long time from now.   A woman journalist just published a book about women leaving the Christian faith. Surely there is no variable in the faith more important than that. Many studies have found mothers have more than fathers in influence over the direction the child takes in faith. It is also true th...

My late brother explained to me various aspects of being a doctor. One was that when a tragedy happens, especially when it ends in a death, survivors feel they must blame someone. That is, random bad luck does not fill emotional need of the moment. The doctor's job is to listen to these explanations usually without arguing. I don't claim to have powerful insight into humans, but I have license like everyone else to toss in my two cents. Perhaps we all need someone or something to blame for every bad thing that happens whether it is about someone close to us or society at large. When something we don't like comes along, we need a universal and safe villain. It can't be ourselves, that would be painful. But it can't be someone we know either because then there is obligation to link cause and effect. So, we humans scan the invisible horizon and grab whatever is available. We find Satan or something else invisible.  Reading the link, written by what seems a self-promoti...

The Rutherford Institute in an old name in political and legal disputes. It's former leader claims it was established to defend the rights of all religious people in all religions. He now says he disapproves of Rutherford's current work to defend only right-wing Christianity and right-wing political causes. One should not allow the camel's nose to get under the tent. Back when it started, Rutherford defended all religions. Today, we know, right-wing groups defend only Christianity and demonize other religions. If you would like the freedom to be a Muslim, don't depend on Rutherford for help. You are on your own. The ignorance of religious groups, be it anti-abortion, anti-gay or anti Muslim, is astounding. It's leaders cannot understand they need allies. The fewer the allies and the more enemies the lower the changes for success. Right wing religion, Catholic or Southern Baptist, would have more members if they embraced gay people and women who have had or need abor...

There are few women who have unimaginable wealth neither seek nor are given wide publicity. A study of their foundations and what is known of their interests, however, reveal forces of change.  A couple of the best know women who are big players in philanthropic generosity are Malinda French Gates and McKenzie Scott. Their wealth came from Microsoft and Amazon respectively. Looking at the list of places they have given money one can see social change at work. A lot of money goes for women's health and promoting opportunities for low-income people. While we can't say for certain these patterns are different than they would have been for men, I think most would agree their interests and patterns are different than most ultra wealthy men. I've always been interested to know if there are "back channel" donations and, if so, where they go. Specifically, I've wondered if there are private donations from billionaire women to funds that pay for poor young women to tra...

I try not to bore readers with stories of being the mayor of the largest city in a small state. It was so long ago, who cares? Today, however, I will mention that several times individuals made appointments to see me for the specific purpose of praying for me.  As I recall, the visits had a pattern. The visitor thought he/she was the only person who had pondered the need to come in and pray for me. It was like the weight of my own salvation was their individual responsibility. They saw themselves at the center of events that would determine my ultimate fate in eternity. The visits would begin with visitors thanking me for the appointment and me thanking them for coming in. Eventually, I would try the line, "And what would you like to visit about today?" That would bring up the sins I was committing or were going on in the community that I should stop. Of course, my liberal views on abortion and gay rights were relevant. There was a legal porn store, shows at the city-owned au...

A woman in New York State was told her five-year-old son was required to be vaccinated. The mother refused, not on the basis of evidence about the effectiveness of vaccinations, but on a religious theory. Vaccinations, she told the court, violate God's plan.  God made humans to be separate from animals. Vaccinations take fluids of animals and mixes them with the blood of humans. Because God set humans aside and made them different from animals this violated the woman's religious rights.  This is a peculiar religious theory. First, humans were originally animals and then became something else through evolution. Second, humans have eaten animals since day one. To eat animals, even eating them raw, does not seem to violate her rule. I wonder if the woman has ever eaten a rare steak. Drinking milk from animals or eating their eggs doesn't seem to violate God's rules. On a hot day, a human who rides a horse bareback sweats, so does the horse. This mixing of fluids outside th...

A columnist noted that 9/11 sparked a craving for revenge. We started down a path of Afghanistan, Iraq and now Iran. Now, our prices are going higher. We have a President who is bat$hit and a Congress running for cover. The link says we need to refocus on the "common good." Yes, but what is that? Every politician including Presidents thinks it can master the concept of the "common good." The best example I can think of that represented what a majority of voters agreed was the common good was World War II. There were dissenters but Germany and Japan were generally seen as villains and the country's interests were served by armed force. Korea worked OK but ultimately the "common good" was redefined from eliminating North Korea to drawing a line on a map and saying the common good is served by the North staying on its side. That's where it was before the war started. Then came Vietnam where Democrats and Republicans both preached the common good of de...

Is prejudice in human brains there because of evolution? That is, was it helpful for survival somewhere deep in history? Or is it there because it is the easiest explanation for some problem? Whatever, it seems like it has always been there and is something we all should work harder to eliminate.  Christianity, at least some people who self-identify as Christians, can be the first to point fingers and hate. The faith was used to justify slavery, segregation and condemnation of interracial marriage. Certainly, Christianity did not invent this. From what we know of "prehistory", this kind of thinking was in the human brain before Christianity arrived. Some in the faith just glopped on to it. I know atheists who buy into myths about people different than themselves. A portion of humans enjoy myths that point figures of hate at people who are different.  One group facing prejudice today in the U.S. are people of the Islamic faith. Islam has been practiced in this country since it...

Evidence keeps piling up about the unreliable claims made about the Bible. As it slips in importance and believability, its defenders get more aggressive in their claims . The link runs through the old series of arguments. The ancients, it says, gave their writing to scribes who copied and recopied it by the thousands. All of the surviving copies written by scribes agree on a few things telling us the entire faith is mostly in agreement.   This is not really true. The writing in the Bible does not agree across the book. There were new ideas over the time the Bible was written. It is not necessary to know much about the Bible because it says so many different things and is interpreted in so many ways. Some of the various messages in the Bible are from interpretations from one language into another. This is often complicated by changes in the languages themselves from ancient times to the present.  There have been best sellers in recent decades written about Alexander Hamil...

What gets published and what not is always a surprise. A headlined article today was a formula to a Republican victory in the upcoming Midterms. The first thing Republicans need to do, according to the Republican author, is to stop the rise in the cost of living. Republicans have the Presidency, House and Senate. They could do that and win the Midterms. Readers know what that would entail. It would be the complete humiliation of Trump. Republican lawmakers are too timid to do that. To end the rising prices of fuel and food all oil shipments need to roll around the world. This includes the Strait. It might involve paying Iran for safe passage. Iran's uranium needs to remain with Iran. Tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada need to be dropped so goods coming into our country are cheaper. They would drop their tariffs and we could sell grain, software and services to them. Restrictions on workers coming into the country need to be lowered so we have an adequate supply of workers.  These ...

Readers are welcome to correct my understanding of AI. Seeing it work, I see it as a way to summarize lots of information and present it in a way that has been predetermined by those who program the reading and summary. Wikipedia was/is similar in that readers can edit what appears and monitors can correct of challenge what is written. The difference is that Wikipedia posts were written, hopefully, by individuals and not by a computer.  It was fascinating to me to read an analysis of AI on a Christian site, Christian Post. The link is a discussion of a survey which, apparently, asked various parts of Christianity whether they used AI to interpret the Bible. Included were preachers who were asked if the approved or disapproved of those in the pews asking AI their questions about the Bible. A majority of the preachers did not approve of using AI to learn about the Bible. They are afraid the interpretation provided by this computerized summary of published views will be incorrect. A m...

Trump is already sending some cabinet members to the Middle West to improve his polling. The local paper which covers most of the state of Iowa posted an article asking what I've wondered, why should rural Iowans, or rural Midwesterners, vote for Trump? There is a pattern of imposing tangible losses and offering in exchange abstract and unmeasurable benefits. The reporter asked several Republican operatives what the message is from Trump and his Republican messengers. What all the local Republicans said was the message is not clear. The tariffs on Chinese goods caused U.S. farmers to lose much of the Chinese market. The "unfair" Chinese trade terms prior to Trump has\d no harmful effect on rural America. Trump's efforts to "correct" the terms of trade has done tangible harm. Precisely the same pattern has been seen with Iran. That Iran owns some uranium has the abstract threat of a nuclear weapon. This weapon is of little to no threat in the U.S. Middle West...

There was a headline article in the heugh Iowa paper today about the damage done by Trump's tariffs. Unfortunately, it was mostly about small businesses who import products and not about low farm prices and high farm costs which are even more important. Trump, as readers know, carried states like Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota 60-40. Trump voters in these states need to heed the advice of the late columnist Ann Landers, "Wake up and smell the coffee."  There has been a pattern in U.S. trade policy Since trade policy is largely under the control of U.S. Presidents, it is important they understand the basics. The basics are that countries have unique weather, soil and people that make it advantageous to produce some things and import others. This is counterintuitive because our instinct is to believe it is better if we product stuff ourselves instead of pay others. Republican Presidents come from an ideology that markets generally make better decisions than governments...

For the decade I've been reading Christian sites, books about religion and entertaining myself by writing this blog, I've become convinced the Christian left would survive the downward drift of religion longer than the right. If history repeats itself, neither will last forever. A new unexpected development is  several "mainline" preachers running for high political offices and polling well. While predicting the outcome of elections has been embarrassing for me and many others, I think some of these mainline preachers will win. When they do it will energize, perhaps only a little, the view that Christianity is not exclusively gay bashing, anti women and anti abortion. The term "real Christian" or "genuine Christian" will broaden to include something besides the right wing. One of the pleasant recollections of my many years as a mayor was sitting at head tables of conferences and banquets waiting to give a welcome from the city. Often, a pastor was ...

Where is the line that gives a each divorced parent the same right to child's religious instruction? This case is fascinating .  The mother is a devout member of a Calvery Christian church. The couple has a daughter who is now either a teenager or nearly so. While the article does not reveal much about the charges and counter charges a commenter writes that the father says the mother has taken the girl to church for services several hours a week. The child complained of being frightened by threats of fire and hell for non believers and had physical problems because of that. The father's lawyer had retained a sociologist who studied religions. The sociologist labeled that church a cult. The court's decision was that since the mother's religion is a cult, the father's decisions about the girl's religious instruction must prevail. That is, the court ruled in favor of the father and against the mother. Of the thousands of divorces that happen every year, there must ...

I suppose since the first imaginary god was invented someone advised another person, "I believe in a god. See how happy I am. If you believed in a god, no make that my god, you would be happy too." That advice never stops and I suppose never will. The link provides us with the most recent of a gazillion surveys which show religious people are happier than those without religion. We have to ask about the old correlation versus causation question: If two things happen at the same time, does this mean one caused the other." Maybe happy people are prone to like religion. Or maybe religious people learn they are supposed to say they are happy. I've heard it said, not true so far as I know, that the less one knows the happier he is. Old people like me tend to get a little cranky. One thing I have less and less tolerance for is advice that our country would be better off if more people were Christians. A person cannot be a Christian, Hindu or Jew unless the person believes ...

Tons of stuff is written about "higher education." I put the term in quotes because what it actually refers to is quite imprecise. Changes are killing institutions. Why so many are closing and/or contracting can be explained somewhat by demographics and but even more by economics. Most days, an article is published in a conservative source blaming the problem higher ed is having on "woke." This is the myth that liberals run universities and their goal is to convert students to be liberals in social and economic policies. Since parents and their children are not attending university as much as they did in the past. The example cited often is a recent article about Syracuse University which, while well known, is struggling to survive.  The conservative link should be versed in a conservative understanding of reality. That reality is the marketplace. Buyers of higher ed want the best deal they can find. Sellers of higher ed want to maximize their profit, both the profi...

  We have almost no information about humans from our first existence about 300,000 years ago. Because of this hole in our knowledge, religions fill in with their own self-serving history. They want us to give money and bow down to the history they have invented about the origin of the universe and of humans. The spoken and written word only came along only in the recent part of our 300,000 year history so religions can play their game. Readers know there are some bits of writing that survived or later authors discussed what they had read. But the trail about what humans thought, what they talked about or their intellectual life in general gets thin 10,000 years ago. That is why there is a group of scholars from around the world who have a passion to find and study cave art. Whatever is drawn in a cave, of course, came from the mind of the artist. A drawing is a form of writing and reveals something about the artist and the people he/she hung out with. When I started this blog the ...