Reading Time: 4 minutes Decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, just in the past few weeks, have profoundly changed life in our nation. These changes involve abortion, gun control, government funding of religion, and most recently, climate change regulation. All of these rulings were made with a 6-3 or 5-4 conservative majority. In effect, many aspects of our lives […]
Bert Bigelow
Posted inPolitics
Supreme Court forces taxpayers to fund religious education
Reading Time: 4 minutes “What a difference five years makes. In 2017, I feared that the Court was ‘lead[ing] us … to a place where separation of church and state is a constitutional slogan, not a constitutional commitment. Today, the Court leads us to a place where separation of church and state becomes a constitutional violation.” -Justice Sotomayor’s Dissent […]
Posted inLeaving Religion
Evolution of an atheist
Reading Time: 6 minutes Blaise Pascal, the famous 17th-century French philosopher and mathematician, had some advice for those who were undecided about the existence of God. In what has become known as “Pascal’s Wager,” he argued that, given a choice between believing or not believing in God, the wise decision is to believe that God exists. “If you gain, […]
Posted inThe Secular
SCOTUS and the city of Boston’s forced flag attack
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Supreme Court just ruled that the city of Boston must allow religious flags to be flown on flagpoles at city government buildings. The ruling is based on the premise that the city had created a “limited public forum” by allowing the flags of other nations or private organizations to be flown on the flagpoles, […]
Posted inThe Secular
A penny saved: Why are churches tax-exempt?
Reading Time: 9 minutes Growing up in a small town in Michigan in the middle of the twentieth century, I heard this proverb frequently, and it always puzzled me. In elementary school, I earned a weekly allowance by performing household chores like mowing the lawn and drying and putting away the dishes as my mother washed them. My income […]
Posted inFiction
Faith with a smile
Reading Time: 2 minutes Guest post by Bert Bigelow, a long-time contributor to A Tippling Philosopher. Sometimes dreams can be quite entertaining. Here is one I had recently. I was shopping for veggies at a local farmer’s market, and I noticed a guy who was watching me closely. In fact, he was staring at me. Now, I am not […]
Posted inFiction
A conversation with God
Reading Time: 4 minutes My jogging companion didn’t show up yesterday. He was suffering from muscle spasms in his back, and decided to take the day off. So, I was on my own for the daily five-mile walk. It was a gorgeous day…sunny, light breeze, a few wispy clouds, about 70 degrees. Just right to wear a sweatshirt and […]
Posted inReligion
What would Jesus literally do? That is the question.
Reading Time: 3 minutes This is an often-asked question by Christian believers. Usually, the answer they provide to their own question is a preachy sermon, extolling the wonderfulness of Jesus and the religion that is named after him. Or, it’s used to justify some action that an individual intends to take anyway. I stumbled upon a piece recently that […]
Posted inCulture
Entitlement: Will we ever return to a ‘we’ society?
Reading Time: 4 minutes I work out at a local gym almost every day. Today it was too much. Too much workout? No. Too much entitlement. When I walked in and looked at the exercise machine that I usually start with., it was unoccupied… Or so I thought. As I approached, I saw a towel draped across the seat. […]
Posted inEnvironment
‘Acts of God’ and the climate crisis: Who’s responsible?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Religious believers often invoke the name of the Almighty in their speech. Survivors of natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes thank God for protecting them…and apparently absolve Him of blame for failing to protect those who perished. They may justify that in their own mind by believing they were more righteous than the […]