Thoughts of a Freethinker

Probably millions of times, preachers/priests stood before congregations and proclaimed their message from the Bible was the truth. Anything listeners heard elsewhere was not the truth. This has changed. The large portion of what is called the evangelical community, including lots of Catholics, now say ex President Trump's reelection was stolen from him by Biden. This claim is now the truth to these Christians--it originated with Trump, not the Bible. If it is not true the election was filled with fraud why should those of us not in the faith believe those in the faith who claim they are telling the truth about religion? A little self reflection by Trump supporters who remain in the faith would not be a bad thing. Churches and the faith are no longer competitive with Trump as marketers of truth. Trump has a monopoly and the faith is on the outside trying to get in the game. From what one reads, Trump is still raising lots of money. I wonder if any of the money he raises was previou...

A few hundred years ago, two Catholic Friars decided to save the world from witches. They wrote a manual on how to identify a person, mostly women, who is a witch. The book was used to kill thousands of women. This force, called Christianity, is a source of good against evil? Hardly. There are estimates hundreds to maybe thousands of European women, and a few men, were named witches and died horrific deaths. This was especially popular in the 1400's. This practice traveled with Christians to the U.S. We all know the center of witchcraft persecution was Plymouth, MA. Several years ago I toured a museum devoted to it in Plymouth. Part of witchcraft's appeal was a profit motive. People inside the circle who identified witches would immediately enter the person's home and take all of her belongings. These would be sold and the loot divided among the devout Christians engaged in this business. I suppose they said Jesus was pleased with them.  We can be glad of one thing in witch...

  When people say others want to do away with democracy in the U.S. it usually strikes me as over the top Chicken Little. We have a Constitution and tradition we shrug and that will carry the day regardless of who tries what. If we peek over into the dark side, however, we might not like what we see. Let's start with "suppose." Suppose voting rules could be made so restrictive a group with a narrow view of things who wanted to take over the government always, or usually, prevailed in elections.  Then, suppose, because of these restrictive voting opportunities legislatures in several states led to lawmakers selected by a minority of the public. Assume those representing the minority wanted to take over the government and select their own President and Congress also representing themselves but not the majority. The desired result for that minority who wanted eliminate majority rule, the hallmark of democracy, would be to not abide by the results of a national election. The ...

According to this link , a large number of evangelical preachers have resigned from their churches and have left the ministry. I want to say at the outset some may say my use of the term "evangelical" is inaccurate. The link used the term. It seems to refer to the Southern Baptist Convention and its fellow travelers. The problem according to those the link author spoke with is that churches become divided politically. One side wants to dominate the other. The pastor tries to talk about religion but the customers are not interested. One kind of church avoids the problem by treating the church as a concert venue. Contemporary Christian rock is the main menu. Sermons are short and about topics other than lessons from scripture. This is a safe route to go. The problem, one interviewee said, is that people coming to these churches find politics more interesting than Christianity. In today's current event, one set of politics involves no masks, no vaccinations and Trump is grea...

  JD Greear is the new head of the Southern Baptist Convention. He has a large church somewhere in the South and mucks around in SBC politics. SBC has been dealing with sex abuse, falling membership and extreme positions on abortion. Greear says it should stop talking about these divisions and just pray. This is the clever technique used throughout Christianity, to divert attention from the problem at hand by claiming to pray. This practice of mental fantasy is so common it is used by politicians and preachers alike. President Ford claimed he prayed before he pardoned President Nixon. He could claim it was God not himself who did the dirty deed.   It seems difficult to imagine one talking to something or someone when the truth its not real hangs over his/her head. I would think one's mind would drift to the grocery list or what's-for-dinner. JD Greear admits this. He says his mind wonders so he writes some que cards before hand to help remind himself the make believe exer...

The long story of the U.S. in Afghanistan is being wisely brought to a close by President Biden. He is the only President in a couple of decades who saw clearly what to do about that country, cut our loses and get out. There are people who understand a lot about Afghanistan. Rumsfeld and Bush charged in without consulting them. Bush thought some kind of revenge action was needed after 9/11. He could have resolved to ramp up our defenses and airline safety. Instead his instincts were to extract revenge. But extract it from who? The Afghan people had nothing to do with 9/11. Why should be start invading and drone targeting families who had been told to target by lying informants over there? Rumsfeld thought the country would reorganize itself and carry on as soon as we slaughtered Bin Laden and company. As the link points out, various religious and ethnic differences have been present since almost forever. It is so mountainous some tribes barely leave their area.  Information and the...

I suppose there were people planning to attend and they must wait for another opportunity. Those who believe they will need bullets and bombs to fight Satan are disappointed. While the link made fun of the group who offers conferences on physical warfare against Satan it is a real organization with people who believe there will be some kind of shoot-em-up battle. This conference was cancelled due to lack of registrants. Nevertheless, the cause goes on.  I don't know where attacks by Satan rank with other eminent attacks. We've had the mountain men awaiting attacks from the "government." There are those fearing attacks from outer space. The end of times prophets never have trouble selling that idea. Pastor Jim Bakker earns his living these days selling food us eat during the lockdown of the Armageddon. You can also buy the book, Preparing for Satan's War. Pope Francis sometimes refers to Satan as a real and eminent threat.  The battle against Satan has become so se...