Thoughts of a Freethinker

Women are leaving their Christian churches in large numbers. Why wouldn't they? They have been treated as second class for centuries. Where they are going we cannot be certain. An "answer" came on line today . Christians will argue women are treated as equals to men in the faith. There do not explanations of how to reconcile with the Bible. For example, why did the story tellers in Genesis start the story of humans with God making Adam from clay (and giving him life by blowing into is nostrils)? That is, if Adam and Eve were "equals," God would have made each out of clay. I guess God was short on time, flipped a coin and men won. Then, as I enjoy writing about periodically, it was Eve, not Adam, who first put a finger in God's eye and ate the apple. They she persuaded the less intelligent Adam to eat it which, not understanding the situation, ate the apple. They did not "both sin" as some Christians claim. One sinned then persuaded the other. Women...

I've never seen a list of the plethora of religious demands in the workplace. It's not all Christianity . Religions from around the world have landed here and many make demands to be accommodated at work.  For some Muslims , it's accommodations to pray five times a day . For anti-abortion pharmacists it's to not fill prescriptions for abortion medicines. There is refusing to take work shifts on some day of the week. There preachers who refuse to perform weddings for gay couples. With women finding work they enjoy in fields where women did not formerly work , a demand I had not heard of is being discussed, refusing to work with a woman when no one else is present . This includes electricians climbing, drilling holes, stringing wire and setting up boxes for homes.  I can't put myself into the heads of people who have these passions about religion. It's not hard to see, however, the cost placed on the rest of society when some demand extra accommodations. Others h...

Mixed in with the articles talking about the "murder of unborn babies" has been, just recently, a couple of long posts by well know figures pointing out the failure of the entire anti-abortion political machine. All the billions of dollars donated and politicians elected has made no dent in the number of abortions.  The new topic is the falling birth rate and problems that go with that. This, of course, is not "murder of babies" or pictures of babies and has little to no political juice. The link points out what has been obvious to so many others, abortion is not a simple thing. Implied is another truth, saying it is "murder" never had much cache and has none today. Decades ago, the smartest person in the room said liberal women will have abortions so their numbers as a political group will fall. Women who do not have abortions will grow into a political force that will eventually ban all abortions. This simple prediction has not come to pass. Neither has ...

Pope Francis was the master of public relations and manipulation. That he came to Rome from Argentina and a life of parish work made him an outsider to the inner circle that ran things under Pope Benedict.  The wealthy German Catholic church has told the Vatican for years the German public expects that denomination to approve gay marriage. The German Catholic Church gets money collected by the government and needs to be somewhat in line with popular political positions. From all of this came the Francis decision that married gay people could be "blessed" by a priest. The marriage ceremony could not be "blessed." Somewhere in a past time the marriage ceremony became a  "sacrament." One could have expected the difference between blessing two married men and their marriage ceremony would quickly become hazy and this, apparently, is what is happening . I gather people believe priests are blessing such marriage ceremonies.  Rome and U.S. Catholics can wring the...

Every week articles appear by Christians laying out the reasons people leave the faith. They blame it on parents, preachers, the desire to sin and other "mistakes." It's always the fault of someone or something Christians don't like. There are reputable trying studies to figure this out.  According to a referred study (which I forgot to link and now cannot find) there are three principal causes. One is a studies and logical conclusion. Another is an inability to envision the deity which is invisible and another that someone they respected left and got them curious. Surveys do not find many who left because of logically lining up what is claimed in the faith with what exists in the real world. In my own circle of nonbelievers I find this is the most common reason people raised in a believer's world leave the faith.  The second, that some people do not have the ability of see in their minds the invisible god or spirit is one that is fascinating. If religion depends ...

For centuries, humans have studied and debated mythologies. In general, I suppose, the most common conclusion has been that "My god is real, your god is a myth." Interest in this is so intense there is an International Association of Comparative Mythology. There is a wonderful article attempting to plot the various theories of mythology in the Oct. 20, 2025 issue of The New Yorker.  For at least 100 years there have been scholars who think they discovered the original myths that later became Greek Gods and the Bible. So far, no theory about where or why myths appear has held up over time. I've written my own ideas about where various stories from the Bible came from. There are many stories and gods recorded from seemingly reliable sources that then later appear in the Bible. Three days comes up in older stories and then appears in various Bible stories. The dead hero who comes back to life is also a common one. That they were in earlier stories is not absolute proof that ...

  For years, several Christian pundits , both Catholic and Protestant , have crowed about coming growth of the faith, especially in China . With its vast population, one can see a small percentage of converts there would add big numbers. Now we are seeing this was and remains a mirage. China's leader has declared Christianity must preach (both in person and on line) a message in line with the message of his Party.  I'm not understanding the logic of spending money from collection plates on missionaries in China if the effort pays for Chinese Communist political messaging. Of course, those in the pews are told their money is saving souls. There is no way to compare times past with times present, but the impression one gets is that of murder and prosecution of Christians in many areas. I suppose there is also murder of other religions that is not covered by our media but the impression is there are lots of Christian victims.  There have been news stories for several ye...