Freethinker’s Scripture

A view from our daily walk in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

New Church, New Scripture

My series of Ingersoll “Meditations” in the North American Review: A Church of the Future, Without God A New, Secular Scripture

Should the Bible Be Banned?

I’m completely against the banning of books. Free thought and free speech are “secular sacreds” for me. However. . .If ANY books are banned, or we are greatly discouraged from reading them, maybe the Bible should be at the top of the list. (I’ve also been thinking of this after watching President Trumpery “swear” on […]

Was Jesus Wrong? An Honest Look at the Sermon on the Mount

I “followed” the Rabbi of Nazareth for many years. We had hundreds of conversations (all one-sided of course). I knew all about him since I read and studied the auto-biography he didn’t write (have to think about that one). Speaking of that auto-bio. . .I saw a reference to the Mountain Message (aka, “sermon on […]

Bible Lunar-sea

I feel somewhat sorry for this old Chaplain, but I’m more interested in his legacy of. . .well, just read. Moon Bibles “A chaplain to many astronauts, [Presbyterian Minister, John] Stout had made it his mission to get Bibles to the moon. When microfiche versions of the King James Bible made it to the lunar […]

One Verse that Defines, then Ends, All Religion

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12) We know that the person who said this was not a Christian (you know that, right?). But I’m wondering if even his “followers” missed this one. I’m serious. “The Law and the […]

Scripture for Seculars

This essay was just published in Realization, the newsletter sent to members of the The Clergy Project online community (I am one of the 600 members of TCP). The Bible of Nature: A Scripture for Seculars The Editor of Realization wrote: THANKS TO CHRIS HIGHLAND for allowing us to publish his new essay. While we […]

Doing Good to Be Seen?

This is not surprising, but still disturbing. A survey of how religious and non-religious people handle morality in daily life. This one line caught my attention: The only differences between the religious and non-religious people included how they felt about and described moral acts. Religious people were more likely to express pride over performing moral […]

Images from Nature’s Scripture

Secular means radically rooted in the natural world. Here is a small selection of photographs from my homeland. Natural Bible

The Only Scripture (and God) We Need

“John Muir’s Stormy Sermons are to be taken quite literally as a gospel. He meant that Nature was the only church where his religion could be practiced. Go indoors on Sunday and listen to the preacher tell you about the Scriptures? That was absurd. Better to go outdoors and listen to the Scriptures which are […]