Monthly Archives: November 2011

It has  started already, the complaints that stores are advertising “holiday sales” instead of “Christmas sales”.  Or, people saying “Happy Holiday” instead of “Merry Christmas”. These complaints ignore a few basic facts.  First, there is no reliable information the Jesus of the … Continue reading →

We talked yesterday about how the god each person carries in his/her mind is unique, conforming to the kind of god that person needs.  A kindly god or a punitive one, whatever helps. Something similar is happening in Bibles.  Bible publishers … Continue reading →

The blog about Reagan’s “Trust but Verify” brought an interesting discussion. I appreciate everyone who participated.  The lack of verification is essential to a successful religion. Occasionally, someone thinks a successful god can be a real person.  Rev. Sun Yun … Continue reading →

The history of the religious versus nonreligious message is a long one, and certainly it’s not over.  But, its twists and turns are facinating, indeed. Few would know this today, but in the 1920′s and earlier in the U. S., … Continue reading →

“Trust But Verify” was a phrase made famous by President Ronald Reagan.  It gave him  the politcal breathing space he needed to make arms deals with the Soviet Union while retaining his hawkish political persona. There are three big questions skeptics ask … Continue reading →

The famous Crystal Cathedral, a giant glass walled archetechual wonder, went backrupt and was sold. It came down because competing sets the ultimate Christian “truth”. There were two factions within the family of the founder, Robert Schuler.  We learn this from one of the family … Continue reading →

Family rituals are nice. Secular families, like religious ones, need rituals in their lives to bond and grow in their understanding of their world.  I’ll tell you about a wonderful Thanksgiving Day ritual for secular families. It starts with the family sitting in a circle.  Everyone … Continue reading →

This is a paraphrase of a sentence discussing the late Cardinal Avery Dulles who, “warned that a ‘thoughtless optimism’ about salvation had become a serious problem.”  I found it in a wonderful article by J. Peter Nixon at USCatholic.org. In … Continue reading →

I’ve mentioned here that what is considered to be “sin” changes in the Christian church.  There is no universal standard, it’s just what fits the culture and conventional wisdom of the time. The same thing  applies to “church music”.  What … Continue reading →

It’s discouraging to read from time to time the comment, “Hitler was an atheist.”  The implication is that an atheist would organize the mass murder of Jews, but a Christian would not. Hilter never said he was an atheist.  He … Continue reading →