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...