Our Founder and Our Flounder

"These are the times that try men's souls," Paine wrote then, and it's true again. Thomas Paine probably won't be highlighted in the ceremonies around the 250th, but he should be. As we try to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country's founding, let's remember this founding father, especially in light of our current embarrassing and dangerous plight. His nickname was Common Sense. His plain-talk pamphlet "Common Sense," published just six months prior to the 4th of July, 1776, sparked the momentum of sporadic rebellions…

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Good?

What is or isn't good? We all evaluate this. Keep in mind your own take on this as I share mine. I'll briefly share the basis for my take on what is good as a way of considering recent violations, domestically and internationally, of what I deem good. What is good is at the core of my unusual humanistic, naturalistic, deistic religion, this website, and our times. If you're not interested in such philosophy, skip this first section. Those who read the sidebar here at…

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Stand Up

“Stand up, Bradley,” my mother used to say to me.  I slouched, my head hung forward.  I was a “lazy breather,” inhaling through my mouth.  At age 8, I felt timid, afraid.  Finally, at age 80, I’m standing up.  When I think of it, I tighten my lower belly, pull back my shoulders, and try to walk symmetrically.  Such a posture change helped rescue my hips from being replaced, and I feel more confident.  Thanks, Mom! Not that I am easily confident.  External forces –…

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Words and The Word

“I know words,” claimed Donald Trump.  “I have the best words.” Does he?  His words aren’t fair or intelligent, but they are effective.  He does “The Weave,” mixing exaggerated boasts and insults into a random collage of repeated words.  “His speeches are pitched as if to nine-year-olds at a fourth-grade level,” wrote the UK's Guardian.   “You come away from a Trump speech with a feeling, not an argument." “I love the poorly educated,” he shrewdly boasted.  His lies can work better than truths.  “A lie…

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The Problem of Religion and the Promise of Creation

Have you noticed that the three great monotheistic religions of the world are also the three great problem makers in the world? Is God the problem? Does God want these vast forces to wage war with the others? We’re told lately that society has gotten too secular, too wayward, and that we should return to our religions and have more faith. But should we? Haven’t religions often been the source of problems – from stifling knowledge to torturing non-believers? Haven’t religions insisted on preposterous claims…

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From Dysfunctional to Funfunctional

It ain’t necessarily so, no it ain’t necessarily so. The things that you’re liable to read in the Bible It ain’t necessarily so.   Mathusala lived nine hundred years, yea, Mathusala lived nine hundred years. But who calls that livin’ when no gal will give in to No man what’s nine hundred years.   I’m glad to be in a religious tradition where both aspects of this naughty song can be sung in church: the Bible might not be true, and a sex joke.  Both…

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