July 2023 – Page 4 – The Pencil-Driven Life

The winds of catastrophe are stirring

JAN 31, 2023

There are a confluence of dangerous events occurring that have the potential to trigger global catastrophe at the end of the lifespans of the generation that endured human civilization’s greatest one. They are nearly all gone. Eleven years from now, it is estimated that there will be less than 1,000 American veterans left out of 16 million that served in the Second World War. Today, there are slightly more than 100,000 alive from a war that killed 400,000 Americans, and defined an era that came to be known as the “American century.”

During it, the United States became the most powerful nation in world history, and the guarantor of the international order that emerged in the aftermath of the destruction of the Axis powers. Since then, the world has seen the greatest expansions of prosperity and freedom in the annals of human history. Though there remains great injustice and inequality there has never been a comparable 80 year period of progress — ever. The expansion of human rights and dignity, democracy, international cooperation coupled with stunning scientific, technological and medical advances are astonishing when judged against the sweep of human history. The pace of progress, change and the disruptions that come with it are continuing to quicken. They have have taken us to the brink of a new age of artificial intelligence and powerful machines that will be able to think, decide, act, and perhaps kill. We live in an era in which the genetic foundation of human beings can be altered in a laboratory, and where space will become a frontier for economic development and exploitation.

The United States has been a clumsy and unwise hegemon at times. It has blundered and made costly errors that include interference in the sovereign affairs of too many countries with a heavy hand and three tragic wars — in both Vietnam and Iraq, which were wars of choice, and one in Afghanistan, which was a war of necessity that drifted into an experiment, and then defeat.

Yet, for nearly 80 years the United States has played a singular role, despite all of its many flaws, in holding back an inexorable tide that has risen higher across each century of human existence. It is a tide of death and suffering caused by war.

There are two generations of Americans that have led the United States since 1961. Joe Biden is the only member of the “silent” generation to reach the White House and the first president in history to take back power from a younger generation — the “baby boomers,” whose parents were part of the generation born between 1901 and 1927.

Generationally, those Americans were part of a cohort that stands out. They are unique among the named generations that are inevitably shaped by the seismic events that define epochs of history, cultural transformations and war.

Their children are the “baby boomers,” who were defined by the 1960s, the Vietnam War, civil rights movement, peace movement, assassinations and Watergate. They were the largest generation in American history. The “millennial” generation eclipsed them in size and dwarf the younger generations named “Z” and “Alpha.” There is only one American generation that is called “greatest.”

The “greatest” generation was the name of a book that told the story of America’s oldest living generation by the legendary Tom Brokaw, NBC Nightly News anchor and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The name stuck. It became the moniker of an entire generation that included within their numbers plenty of arch segregationists. Yet, it fit because the events that defined their lifetimes included the greatest economic crisis in world history, the greatest war in world history, the greatest rebuilding in world history, the greatest economic expansion in world history and the most sustained era of global peace in world history. The Second World War remains the greatest catastrophe in human history. As an event, it stands at the edge of living experience and history. Soon there will be no eyewitnesses to the landing beaches, concentration camps, naval battles and air war left. There will be no living humans who are devoted to making sure there is no catastrophe that exceeds what happened to humanity in the 1930s and 1940s.

There are two facts of this moment that are indisputable.

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First, the United States is burdened for the first time since secession with a political party that is utterly, fundamentally, and absolutely incapable of governing. It is a hive of corruption, madness, malice, incompetence, grift, fraud and irredeemable dishonesty. It is led by a rogues’ gallery of unfit, self-interested, proudly ignorant, and despicable cowards, who have abandoned every previously stated principle and piety with acts of servility, cowardice, arrogance, duplicity and submission.

Second, the 15th century was deadlier than the 14th, as the 19th century was deadlier than the 18th, 17th and 16th. The momentum of human suffering and death was driven by the Industrial Revolution through the birth of the atomic age, and the dawn of an era in which mankind possessed the power to cause its own extinction and trigger its own Armageddon.

The 20th century cannot be forgotten because it was so lethal and demonstrated the savagery of which human beings are capable. It was a century of unequalled blood thirstiness and madness during which the greatest horrors and crimes ever recorded were committed. When it ended, two nuclear powers stood at the brink of destruction for 45 long years. They fought against each other in vicious proxy wars all over the world, but the deadly momentum of warfare that killed more people in the next war than the last was held back. Ultimately, the Soviet regime, built on the principles of totalitarianism, crumbled against the superior system led by the United States. There was even a book that proclaimed we had arrived at the “end of history.” Francis Fukuyama, its author, was celebrated and acclaimed. Today, it looks like a boast reminiscent of the arrogance of the White Star Line that played along with the hyped rhetoric that declared, “Not even God himself could sink this ship.” The collapse of the Berlin Wall was so sudden that it took on the trappings of the miraculous during the moment of excitement, liberation and possibility. Perhaps the most stunning achievement since its collapse might be the fact that for multiple living generations it seems like it never existed at all.

The first global war began in August of 1914. There was no comparable event in human history to which it was comparable. It killed 16 million people, and among them were 116,000 Americans in a spasm of violence between 1917-1918. The war destroyed the Austro-Hungarian empire, Ottoman empire, defeated and humiliated Imperial Germany, redrew the boundaries of the Middle East and Arabia and beggared the British and French empires. The horror of trench warfare and the protracted stalemate triggered a search for meaning in the cause within the democracies whose societies were being shattered by the losses. The cause became a “war to end all wars.” Nobody in the moment could imagine worse. How could they?

The next war would start slightly more than 20 years after the “war to end all wars” ended. The Second World War would kill more than 85 million people around the world. Most historians label its beginning as September 1, 1939, and end on September 2, 1945. The truth is that the killing began in the mid 1930s with aggression by fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan. The world looked away until it was too late.

When the Second World War ended, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, a highly decorated veteran of the First World War and the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, accepted the surrender of the Japanese Empire aboard the battleship USS Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay at the beginning of the atomic age. Unlike the unconditional surrender of Germany, which was done in private, the surrender of the Japanese was the most listened to global broadcast in history on that September day in 1945. MacArthur’s comments were divided into two parts, separated by the signing of the surrender documents by the defeated Japanese representatives and victorious Allies.

Here is what he said during the first part of the ceremony:

We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored.

The issues involving divergent ideals and ideologies have been determined on the battlefields of the world, and hence are not for our discussion or debate.

Nor is it for us here to meet, representing as we do a majority of the peoples of the earth, in a spirit of distrust, malice, or hatred.

But rather it is for us, both victors and vanquished, to rise to that higher dignity which alone befits the sacred purposes we are about to serve, committing all of our peoples unreservedly to faithful compliance with the undertakings they are here formally to assume.

It is my earnest hope, and indeed the hope of all mankind, that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past — a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance, and justice.

After the surrender document was signed MacArthur delivered an address that spoke to the realities of the new era during which mankind held the power of extinction over the entire planet.

Here is what he said:

Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has been won…

A new era is upon us. Even the lesson of victory itself brings with it profound concern, both for our future security and the survival of civilization. The destructiveness of the war potential, through progressive advances in scientific discovery, has in fact now reached a point which revises the traditional concepts of war.

Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn have failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. We have had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. We have had our last chance. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our matchless advances in science, art, literature and all material and cultural developments of the past two thousand years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.

There are few words that have ever been spoken that are more profound. They should be considered at a moment when public character has been disintegrated in a vat of MAGA acid, and one of America’s two political parties has been seized by an extremist cause that combines recklessness, stupidity, malice and dishonesty into an ideology of nothing that could cost everything.

There is a simple question that deserves contemplation. Is humanity’s most deadly event in front of us or behind us? Has the centuries-long escalation of violence come to its end, or will the 21st century become the deadliest of all?

The world is interconnected, and it seems to be spiraling.

The war in Ukraine is intensifying.

The Netanyahu extremist government in Israel has incited chaos, and provoked what might become a third intifada.

Military strikes were launched against Iran, which has become the principal supplier of weapons and drones to the beleaguered, yet lethal Russians.

The United States Marine Corps opened its first new base in 70 years with the establishment of Camp Blaz in Guam. Should war come with China over Taiwan, they will be the first American ground forces in the fight in much the way the 1st Marine Division was against the Japanese on Guadalcanal.

As reported by NBC News, a four-star US Air Force General has made clear in a memo the urgency for American forces that he thinks war might come in the Taiwan Straits in 2025.

Iranian warships are currently visiting Brazil.

More than 100,000 Americans will be killed by Mexican cartel-produced fentanyl in 2023.

There have been frivolous and corrupt eras before this one. They all ended. Most ended suddenly. Films and literature memorialize those last fleeting moments of peace before the storm that washes away the excess, and restores human memory about the meaning of war, death and suffering.

I believe that MacArthur is correct about the linkage between human survival and human character in an era in which there are weapons that could extinct civilization in the hands of people who don’t remember — and don’t appreciate — the greatest catastrophe in human history. We are at a dangerous hour. It is made more dangerous by the collapse of character across the whole of the elected leadership of the Republican Congress.

07/24/23 Biking & Listening

Biking is something else I both love and hate. It takes a lot of effort but does provide good exercise and most days over an hour to listen to a good book or podcast. I especially like having ridden.

Here’s my bike, a Rockhopper by Specialized. I purchased it November 2021 from Venture Out in Guntersville; Mike is top notch! So is the bike, and the ‘old’ man seat I salvaged from an old Walmart bike.

Here’s a link to today’s bike ride .

Something to consider if you’re not already cycling.

I encourage you to start riding a bike, no matter your age. Check out these groups:

Cycling for those aged 70+(opens in a new tab)

Solitary Cycling(opens in a new tab)

Remember,

I’m listening to Don’t Let Go by Harlan Coben

Amazon Abstract

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR AND CREATOR OF THE HIT NETFLIX DRAMA THE STRANGER

With unmatched suspense and emotional insight, Harlan Coben explores the big secrets and little lies that can destroy a relationship, a family, and even a town in this powerful new thriller.

Suburban New Jersey Detective Napoleon “Nap” Dumas hasn’t been the same since senior year of high school, when his twin brother Leo and Leo’s girlfriend Diana were found dead on the railroad tracks—and Maura, the girl Nap considered the love of his life, broke up with him and disappeared without explanation. For fifteen years, Nap has been searching, both for Maura and for the real reason behind his brother’s death. And now, it looks as though he may finally find what he’s been looking for.

When Maura’s fingerprints turn up in the rental car of a suspected murderer, Nap embarks on a quest for answers that only leads to more questions—about the woman he loved, about the childhood friends he thought he knew, about the abandoned military base near where he grew up, and mostly about Leo and Diana—whose deaths are darker and far more sinister than Nap ever dared imagine.

Here’s a few photos from along my pistol route:

What Would Convince Us Christianity is True?

Here’s the link to this article.

By John W. Loftus at 6/30/2023

We atheists are asked to imagine what would convince us that Christianity is true. The short answer is this: We need sufficient objective evidence that can transform the negligible amount of human testimony found in the Bible into verified eyewitness testimony. But it does not exist. Given the extraordinary nature of the miracle tales in the Bible, this requirement means the past has to be changed and that can’t be done. Let’s explore this.

Consider the Christian belief in the virgin-birthed deity. Just ask for the objective evidence. There is no objective evidence to corroborate the Virgin Mary’s story. We hear nothing about her wearing a misogynistic chastity belt to prove her virginity. No one checked for an intact hymen before she gave birth, either. After Jesus was born, Maury Povich wasn’t there with a DNA test to verify Joseph was not the baby daddy. We don’t even have first-hand testimonial evidence for it since the story is related to us by others, not by Mary or Joseph. At best, all we have is second-hand testimony by one person, Mary, as reported in two later anonymous gospels, or two people if we include Joseph, who was incredulously convinced Mary was a virgin because of a dream–yes, a dream (see Matthew 1:19-24).[1] We never get to independently cross-examine Mary and Joseph, or the people who knew them, which we would need to do since they may have a very good reason for lying (pregnancy out of wedlock, anyone?).

Now one might simply trust the anonymous Gospel writers who wrote down this miraculous tale, but why? How is it possible they could find out that a virgin named Mary gave birth to a deity? Think about how they would go about researching that. No reasonable investigation could take Mary’s word for it, or Joseph’s word. With regard to Joseph’s dream, Thomas Hobbes tells us, “For a man to say God hath spoken to him in a Dream, is no more than to say he dreamed that God spake to him; which is not of force to win belief from any man” (Leviathan, chap. 32.6). So the testimonial evidence is down to one person, Mary, which is still second-hand testimony at best. Why should we believe that testimony?

Christian believers accept ancient 2nd 3rd 4th 5th handed-down testimony to the virgin birth of Jesus, but they would never believe two people who claimed to see a virgin give birth to an incarnate god in today’s world!

On this fact, Christian believers are faced with a serious dilemma. If this is the kind of research that went into writing the Gospel of Matthew–by taking Mary’s word and Joseph’s dream as evidence–then we shouldn’t believe anything else we find in that Gospel without corroborating objective evidence. The lack of evidence for Mary’s story speaks directly to the credibility of the Gospel narrative as a whole. There’s no good reason to believe the virgin birth myth, so there’s no good reason to believe the resurrection myth either, since the claim of Jesus’ bodily resurrection is first told in that Gospel.[2]

In a recent online discussion fundamentalist apologist Lydia McGrew suggested I got it wrong. Her knee jerk reaction to me was that the author of Matthew’s gospel merely reported that Joseph’s dream convinced him Mary’s tale was true, and nothing more. But if so, why is Joseph’s dream included in Matthew’s gospel at all? It doesn’t do anything to lead reasonable people to accept Mary’s story, as her testimony would still stand alone without any support. It would be tantamount to showing that Joseph was incredulously convinced by less than what a reasonable person should accept. So what? It would also encourage readers to consider their own dreams as convincing on other issues.

So let us imagine what could have been…

If an overwhelming number of Jews in first-century Palestine had become Christians that would’ve helped. They believed in their God. They believed their God did miracles. They knew their Old Testament prophecies. They hoped for a Messiah/King based on these prophecies.[3] We’re even told they were beloved by their God! Yet the overwhelming majority of those first-century Jews did not believe Jesus was raised from the dead.[4] They were there and they didn’t believe. So why should we?

If I could go back in time to watch Jesus coming out of a tomb that would work. But I can’t travel back in time. If someone recently found some convincing objective evidence dating to the days of Jesus, that would work. But I can’t imagine what kind of evidence that could be. As I’ve argued, uncorroborated testimonial evidence alone wouldn’t work, so an authenticated handwritten letter from the mother of Jesus would be insufficient. If a cell phone was discovered and dated to the time of Jesus containing videos of him doing miracles, that would work. But this is just as unlikely as his resurrection. If Jesus, God, or Mary were to appear to me, that would work. But that has never happened even in my believing days, and there’s nothing I can do to make it happen either. Several atheists have suggested other scenarios that would work, but none of them have panned out.[5]

Believers will cry foul, complaining that the kind of objective evidence needed to believe cannot be found, as if we concocted this need precisely to deny miracles. But this is simply what reasonable people need. If that’s the case, then that’s the case. Bite the bullet. It’s not our fault it doesn’t exist. Once honest inquirers admit the objective evidence doesn’t exist, they should stop complaining and be honest about its absence. It’s that simple. Since reasonable people need this evidence, God is to be blamed for not providing it. Why would a God create us as reasonable people and then not provide what reasonable people need? Reasonable people should always think about these matters in accordance to the probabilities based on the strength of the objective evidence.

Believers will object that I haven’t stated any criteria for identifying what qualifies as extraordinary evidence for an extraordinary miraculous claim. But I know what does not count. Second-, third-, or fourth-hand hearsay testimony doesn’t count. Nor does circumstantial evidence. Nor does anecdotal evidence as reported in documents that are centuries later than the supposed events, which were copied by scribes and theologians who had no qualms about including forgeries. I also know that subjective feelings, private experiences, or inner voices don’t count as extraordinary evidence. Neither do claims that one’s writings are inspired, divinely communicated through dreams, or were seen in visions. That should be good enough. Chasing the definitional demand for specific criteria sidetracks us away from that which matters. Concrete suggestions matter. But if Christians want more they should learn to examine the miracle claims in the Bible from the perspective of a historian.[6]

If nothing else, a God who desired our belief could have waited until our present technological age to perform miracles, because people in this scientific age of ours need to see the evidence. If a God can send the savior Jesus in the first century, whose death supposedly atoned for our sins and atoned for all the sins of the people in the past, prior to his day, then that same God could have waited to send Jesus to die in the year 2023. Doing so would bring salvation to every person born before this year, too, which just adds twenty centuries of people to save.

In today’s world it would be easy to provide objective evidence of the Gospel miracles. Magicians and mentalists would watch Jesus to see if he could fool them, like what Penn & Teller do on their show. There would be thousands of cell phones that could document his birth, life, death, and resurrection. The raising of Lazarus out of his tomb would go viral. We could set up a watch party as Jesus was being put into his grave to document everything all weekend, especially his resurrection. We could ask the resurrected Jesus to tell us things that only the real Jesus could have known or said before he died. Photos could be compared. DNA tests could be conducted on the resurrected body of Jesus, which could prove his resurrection, if we first snatched the foreskin of the baby Jesus long before his death. Plus, everyone in the world could watch as his body ascended back into the heavenly sky above, from where it was believed he came down to earth.

Christian believers say their God wouldn’t make his existence that obvious. But if their God had wanted to save more people, as we read he did (2 Peter 3:9), then it’s obvious he should’ve waited until our modern era to do so. For the evidence could be massive. If nothing else, their God had all of this evidence available to him, but chose not to use any of it, even though with the addition of each unit of evidence, more people would be saved.

It’s equally obvious that if a perfectly good, omnipotent God wanted to be hidden, for some hidden reason, we should see some evidence of this. But outside the apologetical need to explain away the lack of objective evidence for faith, we don’t find it. For there are a number of events taking place daily in which such a God could alleviate horrendous suffering without being detected. God could’ve stopped the underwater earthquake that caused the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami before it happened, thus saving a quarter of a million lives. Then, with a perpetual miracle God could’ve kept it from ever happening in the future. If God did this, none of us would ever know that he did. Yet he didn’t do it. Since there are millions of clear instances like this one, where a theistic God didn’t alleviate horrendous suffering even though he could do so without being detected, we can reasonably conclude that a God who hides himself doesn’t exist. If nothing else, a God who doesn’t do anything about the most horrendous cases of suffering doesn’t do anything about the lesser cases of suffering either, or involve himself in our lives.[7]

In any case, imagining some nonexistent evidence that could convince us Mary gave birth to a divine son sired by a male god in the ancient superstitious world is a futile exercise, since we already know there’s no objective evidence for it. One might as well imagine what would convince us that Marshall Applewhite, of the Heaven’s Gate suicide cult, was telling the truth in 1997 that an extraterrestrial spacecraft following the comet Hale-Bopp was going to beam their souls up to it, if they would commit suicide with him. One might even go further to imagine what would convince us that he and his followers are flying around the universe today! Such an exercise would be utter tomfoolery, because faith is tomfoolery.

Anthropology professor James T. Houk has said, “Virtually anything and everything, no matter how absurd, inane, or ridiculous, has been believed or claimed to be true at one time or another by somebody, somewhere in the name of faith.”[8] This is exactly what we find when Christians believe on less than sufficient objective evidence.

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[1] Joseph’s dream is used in the Gospel of Matthew’s narrative to help explain why Mary was not put to death for dishonoring him because of adultery. There are five other dreams in this gospel account which were all intended to save someone’s life. So, Joseph’s dream was probably meant to save Mary’s life too (Matthew 1:19-23; 2:12; 2:19-23; & 27:19). Matthew J. Marohl shows in Joseph’s Dilemma: “Honor Killing” in the Birth Narrative of Matthew (Wipf & Stock Publisher, 2008), that “Joseph’s dilemma involves the possibility of an honor killing. If Joseph reveals that Mary is pregnant, she will be killed. If Joseph conceals Mary’s pregnancy, he will be opposing the law of the Lord. What is a ‘righteous’ man to do?” Marohl: “Early Christ-followers understood Joseph’s dilemma to involve an assumption of adultery and the subsequent possibility of the killing of Mary.” This was part of their culture. Honor killings were justified in both the Old and New Testaments. Jesus even agreed with the Mosaic Law (Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 20:9) against his opponents on behalf of honor killings of children who dishonored their parents (Mark 7:8-13). The tale of the woman caught in adultery, where Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of her accusers, doesn’t change what Jesus thinks of the law either (John 8; Matthew 5:18).

Don’t be surprised by the possibility of honor killings. Jesus affirmed their legitimacy. The Pharisees accused Jesus of being too lenient in his observance of the law. So Jesus counterpunches them in Mark 7:9-12: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God) then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother.” (NIV) Corban is an Aramaic word that refers to a sacrifice, oath, or gift to God. The Pharisees allowed for this loophole so someone could make an oath to offer a gift to the temple, like one would set up a trust fund, in order to avoid giving it for the care of one’s aging parents.

Jesus’ first scriptural quote to “Honor your father and mother” is one of the Ten Commandments. Jesus’ second scriptural quote that “Anyone who curses (literally dishonors) their father or mother is to be put to death”, is found in Ex. 21:17 and Lev. 20:9. Jesus says the Corban loophole sets aside these two commands of God. For such a son would be disobeying a direct command of God by dishonoring his parents, while the Pharisees would be disobeying God’s command by not putting him to death. Deuteronomy 21:18-21 elaborates (i.e., the second law): “If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death.”

In this Jesus is affirming the Old Testament law of honor killings by stoning, for only if both of the laws Jesus cites are to be obeyed can his analogy succeed, that the Pharisees have set aside the laws of God in order to observe their traditions. For more on the harms of Christianity see my anthology, Christianity is not Great (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2014).

[2] On the resurrection, see Loftus, The Case against Miracles (United Kingdom: Hypatia Press, 2019), chapter 17.

[3] To see how early Christian’s misused Old Testament prophecy, see Robert J. Miller’s excellent book, Helping Jesus Fulfill Prophecy (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2015).

[4] The most plausible estimate of the first-century Jewish population comes from a census of the Roman Empire during the reign of Claudius (48 CE) that counted nearly 7 million Jews. See the entry “Population” in Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 13. In Palestine there may have been as many as 2.5 million Jews. See Magen Broshi, “Estimating the Population of Ancient Jerusalem.” Biblical Archaeological Review Vol. 4, No. 2 (June 1978): 10-15. Despite these numbers, Catholic New Testament scholar David C. Sim shows that “Throughout the first century the total number of Jews in the Christian movement probably never exceeded 1,000.” See How Many Jews Became Christians in the First Century: The Failure of the Christian Mission to the Jews. Hervormde Teologiese Studies Vol. 61, No. 1/2 (2005): 417-440.

[5] Loftus, What Would Convince Atheists To Become Christians? The Definitive Answers! (April 4, 2017).

[6] See Bart D. Ehrman on the Historian and the Resurrection of Jesus.

[7] See my anthology, God and Horrendous Suffering for more.

[8] James T. Houk, The Illusion of Certainty (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2017), p. 16.

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John W. Loftus is a philosopher and counter-apologist credited with 12 critically acclaimed books, including The Case against Miracles, God and Horrendous Suffering, and Varieties of Jesus Mythicism. Please support DC by sharing our posts, or by subscribing, donating, or buying our books at Amazon. As an Amazon Associate John earns a small amount of money from any purchases made there. Buying anything through them helps fund the work here, and is greatly appreciated!

The Boaz Stranger–Chapter 6

Professor Stallings was sitting at his secretary’s desk facing the hallway when I exited the third-floor stairwell. He was on the phone, and I was ten minutes early. He motioned me inside and through a wooden arched doorway that led to his giant office in the corner.

I nodded and smiled and settled into a leather armchair facing the large metal desk that was at least fifty years old, likely present when he’d become an associate professor in the early seventies.

Bert Stallings, now approaching eighty-seven years old, was the heart and soul of Yale University’s Law School. He’d shared different aspects of his storied life with me ever since I’d arrived in 2000. He and his wife, Mary, now deceased, had frequently dined with Rachel and me at our home. Although he was an excellent teacher, his claim to fame (my phrase, not his) was his work on behalf of women’s rights. His most notable case was Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave women the exclusive right over their bodies. The Court held women had the unfettered right to have an abortion if it took place during the first trimester of the pregnancy. That forty-seven-year-old case was a world away from the current religious and political environment.

Recently, the Republican controlled Senate had confirmed a far-right winged woman to replace the heroic Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The new justice adamantly opposed a woman’s right to choose. Thankfully, there was Bert Stallings and his exceptionally talented team, who had the courage and humanism to fight the religious takeover of the highest court in the land. I was excited and honored Professor Stallings had asked me to take part. Although limited, it was an honor to play a small behind-the-scenes role in defending the right of every woman to choose what to do with her own body.

While waiting on Bert to end his phone call, I thought of Rachel and what I’d told her at the cemetery Saturday morning. It was only a tiny fib. “I’ve agreed to help Professor Stallings with the interviewing.” I had already made my decision, but it would be today before I officially agreed. Sometimes I split too many hairs. Rachel would understand what I had meant by “agreed.”

“Good morning, Lee, so nice to see you.” The man had the energy of a forty-year-old. His head full of gray hair declared he was much younger than three years shy of ninety. He patted me on the back and made his way into a chair equally old as his desk.

I smiled. My eyes glinted as the sun rose higher in the eastern sky. Bert always had the bank of windows along the outer wall open, even in the hottest weather. Today, it was in the upper forties with a stiff breeze. Papers fluttered at the right corner of his desk.

“I just talked to Connie Dalton. She’s open to your call. I told her it would be within a week.” Bert held a yellow sticky note across his desk. I leaned forward in my chair and took it. It contained Connie’s name and two phone numbers. The word “Montgomery” was at the bottom.

A week ago, Bert had called me to his office and provided a quick summary of what he was planning. He asked me to locate and interview as many women as I could, and not just any woman. Bert provided a written profile. The women had an abortion in the past ten years with a story that relayed the importance of late term procedures to end the life of their baby. Bert wanted me to assemble a bank of data that supported his position that not only was Roe v. Wade properly decided, in fact, it didn’t go far enough. Somehow, he knew there was a case to be made for certain abortions after the baby was beyond the first trimester in age.

“One question,” I said. Before I could ask, Bert’s secretary walked to his desk and laid a note in front of him.

“Sorry Lee, I need to take this call.” He scribbled something on the back of a card. “Send your reports to this email address.”

I stood, accepted his note, and gave an affirmative nod. Professor Stallings is a busy man.

***

I always feel guilty when I use over thirty minutes of my law school day on personal business. It’s not rational since, while at home, I often think of case or statutory law that applies to upcoming lessons.

Today, I didn’t have but two classes, so I added a heavy dose of guilt to my already gigantic pile. I spent at least four hours researching the current status of Alabama’s law dealing with the doctrine of eminent domain. At 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time, I phoned the Marshall County Circuit Clerk’s office and spoke with a soft-spoken woman named Edith. Of course, she didn’t know me from Eve’s hamster but was cordial, respectful, and eager to answer my questions.

Normally, a lawsuit isn’t necessary when a city or state invokes its intent to take property from private landowners. Even if they oppose the taking or believe the government agency isn’t offering fair market value, negotiations themselves resolve the issues. It’s only when the property owner refuses to sell that the government makes use of the court system’s power.

This was happening in the City of Boaz vs. Rob and Rosa Kern. My in-law’s adamant opposition (it was mostly Rob) had left the city no choice but to file a civil case: CV—2020—194837. I’d asked Edith to read the Case Action Summary. The city had filed its lawsuit on October 9th. A private investigator by the name of Buddy Hutton had served the Complaint and Summons on my in-laws the morning of the eleventh. Rob, without counsel, had responded less than a week later with a handwritten note adamantly, often rudely, opposing the City’s action. The Circuit Court Judge, Waymon Broadside, had ruled on October 18th that Rob’s filing would serve as the Defendant’s official Answer.

What surprised me was the Judge had set a hearing for a week from today, November the seventeenth. A further surprise came when Edith, acting as though she was my paralegal, relayed the judge had issued a tentative Order. I wasn’t familiar with the details of the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure, but this act seemed odd.

Edith, at my request, read the tentative Order. Basically, it said unless the Defendants could show cause why the City’s taking was illegal or its offer understated the property’s fair market value, the Court would grant the Plaintiff’s requested relief. In short, it would grant the City of Boaz fee simple ownership in the Thomas Avenue property known as the Hunt House upon payment of $500,000 to the Defendants. It was clear the only way to stop the ownership transfer was for Rob and Rosa to provide a valid reason (“show cause”). If they did, the Court would be in error to grant the City’s request.

With this information in hand, I left the law school at 5:00, skipped takeout from Bella’s, and drove home. I had two things I needed to do. The first was to call my in-laws with an update. Then, focus on the subject I had done my best all day to keep suppressed at the back of my mind: Rachel’s diaries.

07/23/23 Biking & Listening

Biking is something else I both love and hate. It takes a lot of effort but does provide good exercise and most days over an hour to listen to a good book or podcast. I especially like having ridden.

Here’s a link to today’s bike ride .

Something to consider if you’re not already cycling.

I encourage you to start riding a bike, no matter your age. Check out these groups:

Cycling for those aged 70+(opens in a new tab)

Solitary Cycling(opens in a new tab)

Remember,

I’m listening to Don’t Let Go by Harlan Coben

Amazon Abstract

Here’s a few photos from along my pistol route:

On Thanking God for Cruel Randomness, by Rob J. Hyndman

Here’s the link to this article. And, here’s the link to Hyndman’s website where you can read his book, Unbelievable, for free.

By John W. Loftus at 7/02/2023

What follows comes from an online book by Rob J. Hyndman, titled Unbelievable. He says of himself: “I was a Christian for nearly 30 years, and was well-known as a writer and Bible teacher within the Christadelphian community. I gave up Christianity when I no longer thought that there was sufficient evidence to support belief in the Bible. This is a personal memoir describing my journey of deconversion….In this book, I reflect on how I was fooled, and why I changed my mind.”

On Thanking God for Cruel Randomness

The practice of thanking God for safety and protection, for food and drink, for health and well-being, or for any other “blessings”, might appear to be a commendable habit, but it is actually deeply troubling because of what it implies.

A miraculously intervening God is an unjust capricious God, sparing some and saving others, apparently on a whim.

If God really was selecting people to protect on the basis of some bigger picture, then you would not expect the number of people who are killed in various ways to be subject to the rules of probability. However, I can predict with remarkable accuracy the road toll each year, the number of people who will be struck by lightning, the number of people who will be killed by shark attacks, and so on. Each of these causes of death has a certain rate of occurrence that is quite predictable.

It is not just the number of deaths that is predictable, it is the whole probability distribution of deaths that is predictable. If you know the average number of deaths by car accidents in a city, then it is possible to calculate all the percentiles for that city. For example, you can estimate the numbers of deaths that would be exceeded only once every ten years. When you do this for many cities, you find that the 1-in-10-year extremes are exceeded in approximately 10% of cities each year. This is exactly what you would expect if the world was random, but not what you would expect if anyone was in control.

Car accidents, diseases, and industrial accidents all follow the same probability distribution, known as the “Poisson distribution”. The Poisson probability distribution is based on the assumption that accidents happen randomly. It is simply not possible for tragedies to appear to follow the Poisson probability distribution while actually being controlled by God. Any interventions of God that interfere in the random processes would be detectable. If they are not detectable, then they are random and God is not involved.

If we accept that the world is random, and that bad things happen to everyone by chance, where does that leave God? Either he does not exist, or he has no power, or he does not care. Whichever of those answers you prefer, God does not deserve our thanks

Praise be

Here’s the link to this article.

STEVE SCHMIDT

JUL 22, 2023

Watching a woman stand up and ask Donald Trump how his religious faith has deepened since 2015 has settled the debate around whether there are in fact stupid questions. There are.

Here was Donald Trump’s answer to the following question: “How has your faith grown since you decided in 2015 to run for president, and who has mentored you in your faith journey? Remember before watching that he has been credibly accused of sexually assaulting 26 women, and was found liable of sexual abusing E. Jean Carrol and disparaging her.

There are a few things that stand out from Donald’s deluded answer, which are the following:

1. He made America great. This is the precise quote:

I’ve made America great. We can do it again. Right now, we are not a great country.

2. The FBI is attacking Catholics. This is the precise quote:

They made them like the enemy. It’s horrible. How could a Catholic ever vote for a Democrat or a guy like Biden again after the experience they’re going through?

3. His spiritual advisors are super grifters Pastor Paula White and Franklin Graham. This is the precise quote:

We are not a great country because of this…I‘ve gotten to know…evangelicals. I know so many people, and they feel so good about themselves and their families. They base it on religion, and they have never had that kind of an experience where I got to know so many…and Franklin Graham and Paula White, they are such incredible people.

No Virgin Mary, the thrice-married Paula White is a religious hustler without shame, reserve or boundaries. She speaks in tongues, and makes millions tax-free while doing it. Her schtick is amazing and insane:

Mesmerizing, isn’t she? So far as wack jobs go, Pastor Paula resides in the thin air where lunacy, cynicism, and hucksterism combine to assault the weak-minded, lost and vulnerable with an open air con that declares itself the word of God.

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Some years ago, Paula was spotted leaving a Rome hotel with tele-fraud and faith healer Benny Hinn. They denied a romantic relationship and their parishioners were assured that any time their shepherds spent on their knees was devotional. Here is Hinn’s schtick. Personally, I’ve always thought Ted Cruz or Trump should try the white suit. It would fit perfectly:

Franklin Graham dishonors his father’s legacy and memory with each faithless hour of his corrupted life and witness. He is a man who loves political power above all things, and has been a useful tool for the extremist political movement led by Trump.

Graham is a divider whose rants are pure bigotry, dressed up as the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s compare the two:

Here is Jesus and “The Sermon on the Mount:”

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

²And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

³“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

⁵“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

⁶“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

⁷“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

⁸“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

⁹“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons^[^a^] of God.

¹⁰“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Here is Franklin Graham:

Every Muslim that comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized — and they do their killing to honor their religion and Muhammad. During World War 2, we didn’t allow Japanese to immigrate to America, nor did we allow Germans. Why are we allowing Muslims now?

Here is a great summation from GLAAD about his anti gay bigotry.

Graham loves Donald Trump. In fact, he has repeatedly compared Christ to Trump, and blasted all criticism of Trump as demonic. Author Eric Metaxas, who “lamented those who question the idea that Trump was ordained for the presidency of God,” said the following in a Washington Post article from 2019:

The idea that Trump was heaven-sent has come with harsh criticism of those who do not support his leadership. In a conversation Thursday in which evangelist Franklin Graham suggested that criticism of Trump was coming from “a demonic power.”

These people are nuts and frauds, and they have well-earned the contempt of millions of Americans who see them as such. They are appalling people. It is no surprise that Donald Trump loves them back. They are each others’ golden calf.

Lastly, the idea that America was “made great” by Donald Trump is a narcissistic fantasy from Donald’s small and wretched imagination. It is the dogma of a disorderd mind made more needy by the endless sycophancy and corruption that feeds his brittle ego. He may believe it, but the truth is that the belief is a bad joke. He was the worst president in American history, and stands as a singular marker of national decay and rot.

Donald Trump is the greatest con man in American history. His answer showed you why. There is a name for the people who don’t understand what I’m talking about. They are called “marks.”

Don’t be a mark for hustlers like these.

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On the podcast this week, I sat down with Fred Guttenberg, who lost his daughter Jaime in the Parkland shooting, to share his disappointing interactions with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio. Here is a brief clip from that conversation, where he speaks about his experience with them as people, lessons he learned from his first foray into politics with DeSantis and Rubio, and what he would have done differently:

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/RCAbkIe35NY?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

If you’d like to listen to the full conversation, please consider becoming a premium podcast subscriber, which you can do here.

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The Boaz Stranger–Chapter 5

Lillian slept until 7:00. After peeing, she slipped on her housecoat and descended the stairs for coffee and a bowl of cereal. She’d forgotten Ray would be home. He had told her yesterday he was going to prepare the prime rib for tonight’s deacon dinner before going to his Main Street office. He was frying bacon when she entered the kitchen.

“Good morning. Want some eggs?” He knew she hated pork. He also knew she didn’t like chatter or any other noise so early.

“Cereal.” A one-word answer was sufficient. Then she changed her mind. “Can I borrow your car?”

“Which one?” The bacon was almost burnt.

“The SUV. You know I can’t drive a stick shift.” Ray’s 1972 Corvette was still in mint condition, stored in the detached garage next to the bay filled with a Honda four-wheeler, a John Deere Mule, and an assortment of other deer-hunting gear. He knew Lillian’s driving limitation but liked to make her talk.

“When will yours be ready?”

“Hopefully Friday.”

“You can. Be careful.” He was being extra generous, probably a little guilty about something. But he was right to caution Lillian. The Suburban was big and wide.

“Thanks. I will.”

Lillian filled a bowl with her favorite cereal, picking out a few raisins to eat while they were dry, and poured a half-glass of milk. She would wait for coffee until after her shower. Since Ray was in the breakfast nook, she retired to the dining room.

The separation didn’t last long. She was pouring her milk over the Raisin Bran when Ray entered carrying a Southwestern Omelet. “Mind if I join you?”

Since Ray pressed, Lillian figured this was as good a time as any. “Sit and let’s talk. I’m moving to the Corbett place.” This was a house and ten acres Ray had purchased after Betty and Tommy Corbett had moved to Nashville to finish out their days, closer to their two daughters and their families. For the past year, Ray’s renters had been prompt and dependable, but that had changed a week ago when he had taken the long route to the mayor’s house and saw a Ryder moving van backed up to the front porch. The law had been on Ray’s side given the eighteen months remaining on the lease, but Ray had chosen not to pursue the matter. He preferred staying out of court.

Now, with Lillian, he was defenseless, dependent solely on his charm. He chuckled to himself, realizing that card didn’t have a hand to play. Maybe the facts would work. “You know you lose everything if you file for divorce.”

“Ray, I know the prenup by heart.”

“It’s no different if you lure in a cohabitant.” That was an odd way to put it.

“We can negotiate some more. You owe me for what, three or is it now four affairs?” Ray’s weakness for the opposite sex was Lillian’s ACE. She’d played that hand perfectly in the middle of selling the pharmacy chain. She’d threatened to go public with Ray’s philandering. That wouldn’t have caused the sale to fail, but it would have caused a big hit to Ray’s reputation. He valued it nearly as much as his girlfriends. That’s when Lillian had insisted she receive $50,000 every time he had an affair. He’d quickly agreed, even suggesting an amendment to their prenup. In addition, Ray had promised to stop his philandering and swore to be truthful if, by chance, he ever strayed again.

“It’s three. I’ll pay you by the weekend.” Ray stood and as he returned with plate and cold food to the breakfast nook mumbled to himself, “there’s a point Lillian’s not worth the bother.”

Lillian knew it was four. She’d followed the old Reagan saw, ‘trust but verify.’ Thanks to local PI Connor Ford, she had the philanderer dead to rights, inclusive of audio, video, and stills, not to mention the receipts she’d found scattered about in Ray’s favorite hidey-holes.

***

By 10:00 AM, the weekly women’s Bible study had ended. Lillian attended every Tuesday morning, not for spiritual guidance but to get out of the house and to hear the local gossip.

She and Jane walked together to their cars. It was Jane’s way to check in, private and in person, on the reserved Lillian.

“Do you want to grab a cup of coffee?” Jane asked, reaching inside her purse for keys.

“Sorry, I have some errands to run, but thanks anyway.” Lillian fibbed. She loved the smart and sometime sassy old maid who knew the Bible better than the pastor. It was true Jane had never married, but she wasn’t old. In fact, she was the same age as Lillian, 66, and that was still young by today’s definition. Jane was tall and thin with piercing green eyes. She always wore a cross-cropped dark red wig that came a few years ago after two rounds of chemo. The two had been best friends from first grade through middle school, but it hadn’t always been smooth sailing. Lillian had never fully forgiven Jane for being disloyal when Rachel Kern moved to Boaz during the summer before ninth grade. Jane’s excuse for favoring Rachel during that eighteen-month period was God, or more accurately, God’s will. Nearly as important was Jane’s desire to please her Master.

“You know you can talk to me. When you’re not taking part, then you’re troubled.” Jane said, confusing Lillian. She rarely said anything during the Bible study. If she was going to talk fiction, she preferred the John Grisham type. “Oh, I forgot. I saw you and Ray last night in Guntersville.”

“Uh?” Lillian knew this wasn’t true and almost asked questions.

“I was driving south and had just crossed the bridge into downtown. You two were headed north. Huntsville? A late dinner?” Jane opened her Impala’s door and turned to Lillian, expecting an answer.

“Cotton Row.” Again, Lillian fibbed. “Have you ever been?” Jane would never eat at a place that served alcohol. “Later,” Lillian said with a smile, and walked to Ray’s Suburban.

***

Lillian dropped by Y-Mart for coffee. After showering and dressing, she’d chosen to ignore coffee and avoid another encounter with Ray, who was cleaning the kitchen when she exited the Lodge.

Two older teenage boys nearly ran her over as she entered the convenience store. They gawked at her from head to toe. Before the door closed behind her, she heard one of them say, “damn, now that’s a hot old lady.”

Lillian headed for the coffee station with mixed feelings. She knew she hadn’t aged as rapidly as many of her friends. Take Jane, for instance. Lillian’s dark brown hair was silky as ever. And the new bras she had found at Victoria’s Secret gave her boobs that younger look, lifted tight, firm in the imagination, from a distance. But pretty and sexy was vacuous, just thoughtless lust, not anything like genuine romance. Not that she knew anything about that, other than from the clues she picked up from her constant novel reading.

Three containers of Hazelnut creamer and four Splendas. Perfect. Lillian paid her bill and walked outside. The two boys were at the gas pumps. The hood raised on their old Chevrolet pickup. One was pouring in a quart of oil. That one, average height but lean and muscular, cocked his head at her and smiled. His dark hair, red and yellow flannel shirt, and work boots reminded Lillian of Lee Harding. Oh, to go back, to know what she knows now.

Lillian turned to suppress her imagination. She dug seventy-five cents from her pocketbook and bought today’s Sand Mountain Reporter. She walked to Ray’s Suburban, crawled in, almost spilling her coffee in the driver’s seat, and locked the door. An old habit.

She took a long draw on her sweet and nutty coffee before placing it in one of two cup holders behind the gear shifter. She unfolded the newspaper. On the front page, below the fold, was a color photo of Kyle Bennett with a related article titled “Reward Doubled.” Lillian knew it was Kyle’s tenth-grade class picture and not his ninth. She could tell by the red football jersey he was wearing. Red and not crimson. She remembered like it was yesterday. All the new football jerseys had arrived late, just days before the opening game with Guntersville. The delivery had caused quite a stir since the jerseys were red and not crimson and gray. With little choice, Coach Hicks had kept the red jerseys and created quite a stir, more so as the season went by with no change. A year later, Hicks redeemed himself at a preseason pep rally and bonfire by tossing the god-awful reds into the flames.

Lillian first scanned the article. She knew the story well. The city had never forgotten the missing teenager. Neither had his twin brother Kent, who now was offering half a million dollars for information that led to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Kyle’s disappearance and death. Even though the police didn’t have a shred of evidence that someone murdered Kyle, what other conclusion could a reasonable person draw?

The article summarized the story. Lee and Kyla Harding and their mother had seen Kyle just after the December 12th, 1969, Christmas parade. The police questioned all three, raising no suspicion. Lee and Kyla had said Kyle was going to the Young Supply Warehouse at the corner of Thomas Avenue and Brown Street to help dismantle the tenth graders’ float and to help Ray Archer return a borrowed PA system to First Baptist Church of Christ.

Ray had admitted Kyle and Lee Harding had promised to meet him at the warehouse and help with the PA system, but neither had shown up. Rachel Kern had alibied Ray’s whereabouts the entire evening until shortly before midnight. She helped him remove the PA System, including delivering it to the church in his pickup. Afterwards, the two drove to a secluded spot-on Cox Gap Road, a property owned by Ray’s father. There, they’d built a campfire and roasted some marshmallows, and spent two hours staring at the stars and the full moon.

Kent now lived in Houston and was a multi-millionaire. After receiving an aeronautical engineering degree from Auburn University in 1976, he spent ten years at NASA. Next was twenty years with Boeing in Seattle. In 2006, he had formed K2, Inc., a high-tech firm that manufactured satellites and drones for the U.S. military.

Lillian refolded the newspaper, took another draw of the still-steaming coffee, and headed east on Mill Avenue. She wanted to see Kyla. At the McVille and Beulah Road intersection, Lillian remembered that night. Lee, Kyle, and she had watched the parade through the windows upstairs at Fred Kings. Kyle was always quiet, but that night he was preoccupied. She and Lee had teased him, accused him of having a secret girlfriend, suggesting she was so ugly he didn’t have the courage to expose her. Now, Lillian pondered Kyle’s response to an off-color question Lee had asked while the Albertville High School cheerleaders and majorettes danced and twirled on the street below. “Courage can be deadly. Sometimes stupid and scared is the wiser path.”

Turning left into Kyla’s long driveway, Lillian pondered whether Kyle’s words had been his feeble attempt to ask for help.

07/22/23 Biking & Listening

Biking is something else I both love and hate. It takes a lot of effort but does provide good exercise and most days over an hour to listen to a good book or podcast. I especially like having ridden.

Here’s a link to today’s bike ride .

Something to consider if you’re not already cycling.

I encourage you to start riding a bike, no matter your age. Check out these groups:

Cycling for those aged 70+(opens in a new tab)

Solitary Cycling(opens in a new tab)

Remember,

I’m listening to Don’t Let Go by Harlan Coben

Amazon Abstract

Here’s a few photos from along my pistol route:

Religion and education: Let’s be perfectly clear

Here’s the link to this article.

Avatar photo by DARREN SHERKAT

APR 25, 2022

Religion and education: let's be perfectly clear / students studying — Shutterstock

Despite a long-time understanding among sociologists that certain forms of religious belief and identification undercut educational attainment, contrarian social scientists and religious apologists often argue that education and religion are completely compatible. Recent arguments by Ilana Horwitz and Ryan Burge go further to claim that religion may even enhance educational success.

Such arguments wither under basic scrutiny.

Reliably offered by cheerleaders of religion, this perspective sees religious belief, identification, and participation as nurturing intellectual development and educational attainment. Religion is seen as fostering conscientiousness, a striving for perfection, beliefs in a higher purpose, and connections to a faithful community.

In short, religious commitments are seen by advocates of religion as a prerequisite to achieving a meaningful and flourishing life.

The problem with this view is that it fails to contend with the nitty-gritty of religious life: Which religious identifications? What religious beliefs? Why religious participation? Situating educational outcomes in the context of American religion is crucial for understanding the results.

Educational attainment—especially higher education—has consistently been shown to increase apostasy and reduce subscription to core religious beliefs. For instance, I have used data from the Youth-Parent Socialization Panel Study (YPSPS) to show that college preparatory coursework in high school and attainment of a college degree lowers beliefs in the veracity of the Bible later in life and increases the likelihood of renouncing religious identification. Those studies used high-quality data and the analyses controlled for a variety of potentially confounding factors like ethnicity, gender, parental social status, region, and rural residence. The negative associations between educational attainment and religious factors are also evident in cross-sectional data on apostasy taken from the General Social Survey (GSS), and GSS data also show that educational attainment reduces certainty of beliefs about gods and increases the likelihood that people reject beliefs in gods.

As a non-Twitter user, I was amused to see a tweet by my former graduate student, Ryan Burge, promoting his new book on supposed myths about religion.

Burge tweeted the following: (click link to article to see Tweet).

I have not read 20 Myths. However, the “data” from the tweet are apparently from a large, online, non-random “panel study” used to do quick and dirty analyses.

I trust Dr. Burge is familiar with the Literary Digest fiasco, if not the Gaussian assumptions about the need for random samples to extrapolate to population parameters. In any case, I guess he didn’t take my statistics courses at Southern Illinois University. Huge fractions of Americans do not use the internet at all. Almost no normal (in the Gaussian sense) individual would agree to participate in such a panel. And online panels are notorious for producing low-quality data that have no hope of estimating true population parameters.

Table 1: Association between degree attainment and religious factors: 2000-2018 GSS

Degree	No Religious Identification	Apostate	Non-Theist	Bible is Fables	Bible Word of God	Religious Participation	Never Participate	% of Full Sample
Less than High school	16%	9%	11%	14%	54%	3.4	28%	13.9%
High School	17%	12%	18%	16%	36%	3.4	24%	50.9%
Junior College	17%	12%	19%	18%	30%	3.6	20%	7.8%
Bachelor’s Degree	19%	14%	26%	24%	20%	3.7	20%	17.6%
Graduate Degree	21%	16%	31%	34%	13%	3.7	20%	9.7%
N	26,662	26,402	17,779	21,397	21,397	26,473	26,473	26,662

In his tweet, Burge amplifies the centrality of “nones” but doesn’t try to ferret out the dynamic of how one’s education might influence that. Table 1 (above) presents data from the 2000-2018 GSS across a variety of identification and belief categories. First, Burge’s problematic data get the estimates dead wrong: There is a clear, almost linear positive relationship between degree attainment and non-identification with religion. While 16% of high school drop-outs are non-identifiers, the figure is 21% among those with a graduate degree.

The relationship is even stronger if you look at apostasy—people who reported having a religious identification at age 16 and now claim no religious identification. Only 6% of high school drop-outs are apostates, while 16% of people with graduate degrees relinquished religious identification. Comparing the distribution of nones and apostates is instructive. Among drop-outs, 56% of non-identifiers are apostates, while among those with graduate degrees 76% of nones were raised in some faith. This very much suggests that education plays a role in apostasy, even though many of the less educated are growing up without a faith commitment.

Burge’s problematic data get the estimates dead wrong: There is a clear, almost linear positive relationship between degree attainment and non-identification with religion.

Looking at the three belief items, the association is even more stark. Nearly a third of people with a graduate degree are non-theists (atheists, agnostics, or people who believe in a “higher power but not a god”) which is more than twice the total found among either high school graduates or drop-outs.

A similar difference is found for belief that the Bible is a book of fables. The least educated reject secular beliefs, while the most educated embrace them. While 34% of those with a graduate education believe the Bible is only a book of fables, only 16% of high school graduates and 14% of dropouts hold this view. Belief that the Bible is the literal word of God follows the opposite trajectory, with 54% of high school dropouts embracing literalism and only 20% of college graduates and 13% of those with graduate degrees. Ideally, one would have longitudinal data (as I did in my YPSPS papers) to show the influence of education more directly, but the association is very clear: higher education is associated with weaker religious beliefs and identifications.

The association is very clear: higher education is associated with weaker religious beliefs and identifications.

One place religious apologists can find solace is in the well-known positive association between social status and religious participation: religious participation is somewhat higher among those with at least some college education when compared to those with only a high school degree or none at all. Much of this is because higher fractions of the less educated don’t participate at all. Among respondents with no high school degree, 28% report never attending religious services, while among respondents with any type of college degree the figure is 20%. The less educated believe but don’t belong, while the more educated belong but don’t believe.

The explanation for this differential relationship between belief and belonging by social status is also well-established in the sociological literature. Religious participation is a social activity that requires time and resources. It grants people myriad social benefits through social capital formation, business networking, and the attainment of status in the community. High school dropouts and those who never went to college are unlikely to find such connections useful, and interactions with people who exceed their social status are unfulfilling and likely negative. The more educated also have more free time and fewer occupational impediments to religious activities. They don’t have to work at Walmart or Popeyes on Sunday. The more educated can afford wardrobes of appropriate attire to convey their status to the rest of the congregation. They are more likely to be married and to have well-behaved children who enjoy interacting with friends in the congregation.

It isn’t “religion” that brings the more educated into religious congregations, it’s the social rewards that religious groups can generate.

The less educated believe but don’t belong, while the more educated belong but don’t believe.

Social scientific research shows that education undermines religious commitments and that religious commitments also undercut education. Religious fundamentalists and those who identify with sectarian denominations dissuade their children from taking college preparatory coursework in high school and from going to college, and the effect of parental religiosity on children’s educational attainment is particularly negative for women. Young people who embrace fundamentalism and sectarian Protestant identifications are also less likely to attend college and to graduate if they do attend. When sectarians and fundamentalists attend college, they typically attend less prestigious schools and often choose the shelter of fundamentalist colleges which have minimal offerings and questionable curricula. In the end, this results in religious conservatives having less prestigious occupations, attaining lower levels of income, and ultimately accumulating less wealth over the life course.

Conservative religious commitments also undermine education through the political process, hamstringing education at every level for the entire society. Political movements rooted in sectarian Christianity undermine the teaching of everything from math to science to history. These movements use political power to influence textbooks, curricula, and personnel decisions in public educational institutions, and militate for the funding of religious schools and charter schools to the detriment of secular education. The vast network of conservative Christian alternative educational institutions help facilitate this, with the goal and result that Americans are less educated and less capable of sophisticated thought and scientific understanding.