Thoughts of a Freethinker

Anti abortionists and anti gays branches of Christianity are always pushing to have their ideas about religion put into laws. They want laws banning abortion and gay marriage, two ideas which originate in religion. They never seen to consider the consequences of inviting government into religion. It's as if they are telling themselves, "We are so holy. It's good for us to use government against our enemies. They will never have the opportunity to use government against us." Good luck with that. Christians in Scotland are so mad . The government is paying for a campaign against ideas held by many branches of Christianity. These Christians would have been better off just bragging about their own mighty moral standards and leaving everyone else to decide on theirs. The government is sponsoring ads addressed to people who are prejudiced against ethnic minorities, atheists and gays. The ads tell such people Scotland is a country that does not endorse prejudice. The...

The retired lead prosecutor in the investigation of sexual abuse in Pennsylvania's Catholic Churches had sexual abuse very close to him as a child. While he, himself, did not suffer from actual abuse the boys he grew up with did. They hated to see the end of a basketball game come because they did not know which would be selected by the Catholic coach. Some boys, he recalled, even began to shake. This took place in a Pennsylvania Catholic Grade School whose Principal was a priest. Boys complained to the priest about the coach. Nothing was done. The prosecutor says he now knows sexual abuse in Catholic schools and churches was going on in several places in Pennsylvania. A Grand Jury just released hundreds of pages of testimony. One of the ironies of theses stories is that there are Catholics who are angry this truth is coming out. When the prosecutor, still a practicing Catholic, released to the press the intention to investigate the Church he experienced hisses and catcalls...

There is currently a tweet going around the world by a young man who is filled with joy because his parents accepted fully his homosexual orientation. The parents followed the Jehovah Witness faith but eventually left it. The story is not all that unusual. I heard countless versions in my decades of advocating for gay rights. Unfortunately the stories do not always end happily like this one did. This is an important story because the young man reviews the psychological damage done by his parents and their church. A huge part of Christianity still preaches that homosexuality is a sin. There is bound to be a trail of psychological damage done by parents or preachers who tell gay young people this untruth. While Jehovah Witness might be considered an outlier within the Christian faith, its approach to homosexuality is not that unusual. The young man in the story was advised by officials in the faith the depression he was experiencing from his parents' rejection could be lifted...

One would think that when a Pope visits one of the faith's marque countries which has recently fallen off the wagon it would merit some special attention. But, the Pope's visit to Ireland a few months ago was quite brief. He hustled through the parades, listening sessions with abuse victims and visits with public office holders. Then back to Rome. As Fenten O'Tool of the Irish Times   put it, he left more of a mysterious man than before he came. Then recently, the U.S. Bishops held a conference where they wanted to address to problem of sexual abuse and implement reforms. Under consideration was lay member oversight and other measures. It was hoped the church would regain respect in the U. S. and there would be no more hiding of abusers by moving them from place to place. The Pope ruled Bishops could not offer solutions to the problem. Coming up is a world-wide confab of high ranking clergy from across the world. There has been speculation the Pope wants to introduce...

Some Jewish organizations have adopted a statement urging publications of the Bible and other prominent religious works  include a warning about anti-Semitic content. The new wave of violence against Jews needs to be addressed with some kind of tangible response, the groups say. Vice President Pence has further alarmed Jewish leaders by hosting a prayer by a leader in a group that claims to be Jewish but adheres to a Christian view of Jesus. The Bible's story of the crucifixion is one of the cruelest and manipulative in literature. The Romans are the problem early in the story. Then, slowly, it becomes not the Romans but the Jews. And, as the Jews are portrayed more and more the enemy, the regional Roman Ruler, Pontius Pilate, is portrayed as a sensitive ruler caught in a dilemma caused by the Jews. These portrayals of Pilate and the Jews is not corroborated with any other source. It appears manufactured for but one purpose, to demonize Jews. That there was a ruler named Pontiu...

I've read that what makes casino gambling so appealing is uncertainty. People don't know what lies ahead of them in the game so they go forward. About 2% of the population has some level of gambling addiction. It seems to me uncertainty about death is similar. If this uncertainty bothers a person maybe going forward into religion helps him. There is an old saying that doing something is always better than doing nothing. Casino gambling often involves rituals as does religion. I've read that people believe there odds go up if they gamble at certain times of the day. The uncertainty is a form of mystery. There is plenty of mystery in both religion and gambling. A couple of  mysteries are what happens after we die versus figuring out why sometimes people win big. Games of chance seem as old as humans as does religion. Churches are designed to encourage the mood or mystery wanted by religious leaders. We all know about the lights and noise in casinos and how it is de...

Climate change deniers often say today's warming and its problems are part of a natural cycle and not caused by human activity. A shortage of nitrogen in plants across the globe may be the result of excessive carbon caused by human activity. As has been said here before, the rate of global warming is unprecedented by any know evidence. The decline of nitrogen in plants and its effect on insect pollinators is something quite sobering. Pollination is necessary for our food supply. The extra sunlight available to plants cranks up their growing speed. This, in turn, uses up nitrogen. Lower nitrogen levels have been found in wild and volunteer plants, sometime thought of as "weeds." (As one horticulturalist said, there are no weeds. There are only plants in the wrong places.) The resistance to admitting there is man made global warming is a mystery to me. The stakes of it are so large our food and even national security are in play. Of course, in saying this probabl...