May 30, 2025 • 32 mins
Welcome back to another episode with the "Bald Brothers".
In this episode, we wrap up our discussion of the question "Is there a God?" This episode discusses the belief that there is not a God through three arguments. These arguments are the argument from evil, the argument from non-belief and the argument from science.
These three arguments are all based upon the idea that in the absence of some concrete evidence, then there is no proof that there is a God.
Join us as we delve into the three arguments for the belief that there is not a God.
Please send your questions and comments to cirquedusoul444@gmail.com.
Help us to help others. Support our podcast and invest in someone's life. Send your support via CashApp to $cirquedusoul444.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Yeah, that's mind, body, soul.
We connected with the globe.
Yeah, that's mind, body, soultook some discipline, repetition
and some self-control.
We connected with the globe.
Yeah.
That's mind, body, soul.
Whoa.
Yeah.
That's mind, body, soul.
Hey.
Yeah.
That's Mind, body, soul tooksome discipline, repetition, and
some self control.
(00:26):
Welcome to Cirque to Soul, theonly uncut.
Unedited podcast that isdedicated to helping you to find
spiritual peace in your life.
Kim, we're wrapping up on thisidea of is there a God from the
agnostic and from the atheist'sperspective?
Yep.
Hello everybody.
(00:47):
Hope everybody had a great week.
Uh, like you said last week, wetalked about the belief in God
and we focused on what does itmean to be a atheist.
Over the past few weeks, we havediscussed the definition of an
agnostic and definition of anatheist.
So for a quick review, thedefinition of atheism is not an
(01:09):
affirmative belief that there isno God nor does it answer any
other question about what aperson believes.
It is simply a rejection of theassertion that there are guides.
Now, the definition of agnosticis that nothing is known.
Or it can be known of theexistence of God or of anything
beyond material phenomena.
(01:31):
Atheism and agnosticism aredistinct views regarding the
existence of a God or Gods, butthey are not mutually exclusive.
Atheism is the disbelief in ordenial of the existence of a God
or Gods.
While agnosticism is the viewthat the existence of a God or
(01:52):
Gods is not knowable.
A person can be both an atheistand an agnostic, meaning they
don't believe in any God or godsand believe that it's impossible
to know definitively if oneexists.
Okay, great.
That's, that's a, a great, uh,synopsis of what we've talked
about over the past few weeks.
(02:13):
And you know what, I think thatwe really covered the arguments
from, I call it the non-believerstandpoint, the agnostic and the
atheist.
There are a few more points thatnon-believers make that I think
we need to go over today.
And then after today we'll talkabout differences in religious
beliefs.
(02:33):
Okay, so continuing on from whatwe've already talked about,
there are three other argumentsthat I think that we probably
haven't covered, and we'll gothrough those now.
The first argument is theargument from evil.
This argument states that theexistence of evil and suffering
(02:55):
in human existence iscompatible, incompatible with
the belief in a good and lovingGod.
So if God is a supreme being,then he should be able to
prevent evil from happening,things like sickness and crime.
So what do you think?
Yeah, that's a heck of anargument.
Um,, I've often thought aboutthat myself.
(03:16):
Um.
Come on.
It's like, God, he could reallytake care of this if you really
wanted to.
Yeah.
But, I mean, it's probablybeyond our comprehension, our
understanding, I guess we havedifferent views on, why this is
allowed to happen.
And I just think that, uh, Godgives us all free will and
there's a verse in the Biblethat says, take care of your
(03:39):
temple.
Because if you don't take careof your temple, God will destroy
your temple.
And I'm just thinking that, ifyou don't take care of your
body, then the natural thing is,is for you to have sickness or
diseases or whatever, right?
So I think God just gives uschoices and some things are
just, I mean, like to be in acar wreck and it's not your
(03:59):
fault.
I don't know.
I, I, I don't know.
I, it's just we didn't do thaton purpose and.
That I just can't answer that.
I have no idea.
Well, let me relay something toyou.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, a few years ago I went to a,um, it was a no talk spiritual
retreat.
Mm-hmm.
No talk.
(04:19):
So for a whole week we didn'ttalk, but on the last day we
were, having a class with thismaster yogi and I, I asked the
question if God is all love.
Then why do bad things happen?
Mm-hmm.
And nobody, he said, he said,what makes you think that God is
(04:39):
all love?
He said, God is everything inhis mind.
Uh, our religion tells us thatGod is all love, but in the
reality, God is everything.
So everything that bad, that'sbad, that happens, what we call
bad is still part of God.
(05:00):
Wow.
That's, wow.
You know what, having said that,the Book of Job job was a good
guy.
Yes.
He followed God, but God allowedSatan to punish job, basically.
I mean, kill his kids.
I mean, made him sick.
Right.
So what this yogi said, I, itjust hit me.
(05:23):
I'm like, wow.
He, he's right.
Because God is in charge ofeverything.
Everything.
Right.
So, and poor job experienced it.
Right.
But in the Bible job wasrewarded also.
He just went this.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Now lemme tell you somethingelse that this yogi master said
to me.
Mm-hmm.
He said, our understanding ofwhat goes on in the world is so
(05:45):
small.
He said, as an example, take afamily that's uh, uh, in Europe
and they are taking a skiingvacation, and they're skiing.
Then there is a, a, a slot,where, uh, all the snow and
everything fell down and itkilled the family.
(06:05):
Mm-hmm.
He said, our human understandingwould be that, oh, it's such a
bad thing and it's a bad thingthat happened to them.
Mm-hmm.
And he said, suppose it was likethis, suppose 500 years ago, a
tree fell down and was frozenand it stopped up a bunch of
snow, and the snow piled up andpiled up and piled up back
behind it.
(06:27):
And so here we are 500, 600years later and we're having
global warming.
And so that tree, that was thebeginning of holding all this
snow back.
Mm-hmm.
It snapped.
Yeah.
And then all the snow fallsdown.
Right.
Our understanding is, well theywere, it was unfortunate, bad
(06:47):
things happened, but in thereality of the situation.
500, 600 years ago this eventhappened that held that snow
back and global warming, orwhatever you want to call it,
caused it to, to that, thattree, to unthaw and all the snow
fell down.
Right, right, right.
That's, that's a, that's prettygood.
Uh, you remember that movie, uh,was Benjamin Button or something
(07:10):
like that with, um, oh God, Iforgot the guy's, the actor's
name.
He was, he was living backwards.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right.
And yeah.
And, uh, when he, he met his,his girlfriend when she had an
accident.
Yep.
And she got ran over orsomething like that.
But anyway, they went over theprogression of time.
(07:32):
If she had just left one minuteone minute earlier, then this
would've happened, then thiswould've happened, then this
would've happened.
Right.
This would've happened.
It's just things, theprogression of time things
happen, which we don't, we'renot aware of.
Right.
And things happen, but onlything we see is the end result,
And we're like, oh, that's justnot right.
(07:53):
You know?
Yeah.
Not, not send the wholeprogression of life.
Right.
So, yeah, so we've talked aboutprogression now and things that
happen, but the reality of thesituation, and I, this is what I
believe, uh, and I said it alittle earlier, is that
everything that happens is underGod's purview.
In other words, is God's will.
(08:15):
Uh, and even the evil thingsthat happen, it's part of God's
will.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, it's hard to arguethat because, God is in control,
right?
God is in control.
I mean, we can't, we don't havethe power to stop something.
If it's progressing in life orwhatever, we just don't have
(08:36):
that power.
That's a God thing.
So I, I can't argue with that.
Right.
Well, you know what, this, thisis gonna tie into what we're
gonna talk about next week.
Uh, we talked about agnosticsand we talk about atheist.
The other two things that wehaven't talked about is the
deist, and that's someone whobelieves in a God or a supreme
being who created the universe,but he doesn't intervene in its
(09:00):
affairs.
He doesn't.
Doesn't do anything.
Mm-hmm.
And of course, the pantheist whobelieves that, uh, God created
the universe, but he plays anactive role in our lives.
Mm.
We talk about these things thatare happening.
I mean, it's either a, a Ds oror, or a Pantheist.
Yeah.
But wow.
Uh, yeah.
(09:21):
But we we're asking thequestions.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's, and I don't know theanswer to those questions to be
honest with you, Right.
It's just something to, to thinkabout, I guess, Okay.
E either that, or you just goalong and you just go with the
floor of life, right?
Yeah, yeah.
But then this is what we'regetting back to it.
That's what the atheist thinks.
That's what the, the agnosticsthink.
(09:42):
It's like, well, you can't proveit.
You know?
You don't know, and these thingshappen.
So what's to say?
There's a God.
Wow.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I get it.
I get it.
Uh, just, when you grow up inthe church and they teach you,
God is in control and that'swhat you grew up believing.
(10:03):
I guess, and it's hard to getaway from that.
I'm not saying you can't, andnot even saying should.
Right.
Uh, but, you kind of evolve alittle bit more and start
questioning things a little bit,so.
Mm-hmm.
Um, I, I, I get what they'resaying.
I just, I guess for mepersonally, I just, since
growing up in the church orwhatever, I just can't get over
(10:23):
the fact that I think God is incontrol of everything.
Right.
And again, we're not trying todown anybody's beliefs.
Correct.
We're just having a discussion,right.
Uh, so that we can open our, ourmind to thinking more than what
we've been taught.
Right?
And, helping people to find, apath, their path to, uh, a
(10:44):
meaningful life.
Right.
And that's why we, we, uh,welcome anybody that has any,
comment or whatever, because wemight be learning something from
you guys.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
So yeah, you have your own viewsof this, something we not have
considered.
So Yeah.
And we can have a conversationwithout arguing, fussing, or
fighting.
Let's, let's, let's talk, right?
(11:06):
Yes, definitely.
Okay.
Definitely.
Well, that was the firstargument.
Let's go into this secondargument.
Uh, the second argument is theargument from non-belief, and
I'm just gonna read this.
Mm-hmm.
This argument states that thereare many people that do not, or
have not heard of Christianityor any other religion.
Now they have not been exposedto any teaching or religious
(11:29):
dogma.
If God is real and wantseveryone to know about him, then
he would make himself.
More known throughout the world.
Hmm.
Well, uh, that's a good one too.
You, you remember that movie?
Oh God, yes.
(11:51):
You, you full of movies.
I am George Burns.
Yeah.
God, pick people, to, to go outand ready, that people know that
God is alive or whatever.
Right.
And I don't know why I thoughtabout that, but I did.
And, uh, so.
I don't know.
Maybe it's an ongoing, we alwayswant proof.
(12:11):
We want proof of God give us,come on God, give us proof.
Right?
Give us proof, but I think thatGod is just, uh, so much higher
than, I mean, well, we know thatso much higher than we are,
that, he wants everybody just tolive their life freely.
And if you, if you believe inGod, you do.
(12:32):
If you don't, you don't.
But.
He gives us that free will, thatfree choice.
So right.
Uh, if, if it someday everybodygets to know who God is, that's
great.
But I don't think God's gonnaforce God on anybody.
Okay.
Yeah.
Let me throw a monkey rich inhere.
And I keep saying every weeksomebody's gonna shoot us, but
(12:52):
just looking at this statement,uh, if God is real and wants
everyone to know about him, thenhe would make himself more known
throughout the world.
So here's a question.
There are people that live inremote parts of the world.
Mm-hmm.
Know nothing about religion andthere are others that, don't
partake in religion.
(13:13):
In our particular religion orwhat we were raised in, uh, the
Christian religion.
Mm-hmm.
We believe are, I will say, thereligion beliefs that you must
know Jesus to get into heaven.
Right.
These people that have noconcept of religion or anything
else.
So are they destined to go tohell or whatever?
(13:35):
Right, right, right.
Um, I know people probablybelieve that uhhuh me
personally, I don't believe thatbecause it's like we talked
about, I think at the very, ourvery first podcast, I think the
goal is to get to the top of themountain.
Yep.
But there's different paths toget to the top of the mountain
(13:56):
and so.
Um, and Lord, we can really getdeep here.
You're right.
I'm gonna have somebody shootingat me because, uh, heaven.
Whew.
Uh, I think heaven is, we canexperience heaven here on earth.
I believe that.
And I think heaven is just beenoneness with God.
(14:17):
And so, and even Jesus says,unless you become as little
child, you cannot enter thekingdom of heaven.
So even Christians, I knowpeople don't look at it like
that, but becoming like a littlechild means there's no hate in
your heart.
You have absolute faith.
You're pure and honest, and justlike a little child, you just
(14:42):
see love everywhere.
So any religion, I think if theybecome like that, they can
experience heaven.
What you're talking about isBuddhism.
That, I mean, that is thedefinition of, of, of what
Buddhism is in trying to becomeenlightened.
Yeah.
Which is, uh, if you are aChristian, I mean, people don't,
(15:06):
uh, at least in the westernworld here, we don't talk about
that.
No, we don't talk about that.
No, we don't.
About that.
No, we don't, we only thing wetalk about is there's a heaven
up there.
Right?
And, and God is gonna decidewho, who gets in and who doesn't
get in.
Uh, that's just where we grewup.
(15:26):
Right?
Um, so if you are, if, if youare your religion, if you're a
Christian and you feel like theonly way to get to heaven is you
have to be a Christian throughJesus, uh, I understand.
'cause that's what we grew up ontoo.
However.
I don't believe that anymore.
Right?
I just believe that, uh, you canexperience heaven if you, um,
(15:50):
there's a, the beatitudes thatblessed out the pure in heart
for they shall see God to who,what's pure in heart, a baby, a
child, that's when you see Godand experience heaven.
So I think anybody can do that.
I don't care what religion youare in.
Uh, any anybody can do it ifthey try.
If they try because they take,you are right and you know
(16:13):
you're right.
And when Jesus says, unlessyou're born again, yes.
By water and by spirit, yes.
The spirit is, you have toconnect to that God spirit.
Right.
To become born again.
I know when you know we're inchurch and.
We always say we're born againChristians and we get baptized.
Well, I think, uh, and that'sgreat.
(16:33):
That's great.
That's, that's absolutely great.
But they're born again, I thinkis different levels.
Mm-hmm.
And they're born again.
If you get to that top level ofpure, pure spirit, pure God,
pure Christ, then I think that'swhen you really experience the
kingdom of God.
Okay.
You know what?
Uh, later,, episodes we're gonnaget into this and I think a lot
(16:55):
of people don't know.
There's tales that, uh, Jesus inthe lost years mm-hmm.
That he traveled, to the Orientand he studied under Buddha.
Yes.
I already studied Buddhismbecause Buddha preceded Christ
by almost 500 years.
Yeah, right.
So I think that it's interestingand, we need to bring that out
(17:16):
so people understand that maybesome of the teachings of Christ
came from Buddha.
There's the, there's somethingon Facebook.
I should Facebook, if you lookit up, uh, not Facebook, but you
can go on the internet.
They have, uh, similar sayings.
Uh, between Buddha and Jesusthat basically almost the same
thing, right?
(17:36):
They mean the same thing, So,yeah.
Uh, there's a lot ofsimilarities there.
Right?
Right.
And I mean, I, I just think it'sinteresting, very interesting
that argument from non-belief,uh, because of, things that
happen, or that, if God wantedus to, to worship him, then he
should make himself known.
(17:58):
Yeah.
And the reality is I think he,he, she does make himself
herself known to us.
We just are, are getting fartherand farther away from trying to
understand what that means.
And a lot of that too is likeliving consciously.
Mm-hmm.
Uh,'cause there's God everywhereif you just pay attention, if
(18:18):
you just pay attention.
But weed.
Get caught up in life and, yeah.
So we don't pay attention.
The, in the movie that's, I'mbringing up a movie, getting
the, the movie color purple.
Yeah.
When they said they thinksometimes God gets, God gets
pissed if you walk by a purple.
What it was, what kind of flowerit was.
Right.
Whatever it was.
Yeah.
A lot.
And you don't notice it.
Right.
And you don't notice it, Yeah.
(18:39):
So, so we kind of, God is there,we just don't attention to it.
And so, uh, when they said be inthe world, but not of the world.
Boom.
There you go.
You're getting back to Buddhismagain.
You are, I mean, we, we've beentaught in the Christian
religion, but I think yourexperiences, my experiences have
(19:00):
led us to understand that, thereis, we're responsible also, we
have to find peace withinourselves and Right.
Display love, so Right.
And, and going back if youreally want to experience God
and see God and be a part ofGod, it took Budha six years.
Yes.
It took him six, it was it fiveor six years to meditate and
(19:21):
really get to that level.
Right.
It took him six years.
And I look at the Bible and evenyou talk about when Jesus went
into the.
Desert for 40 days, 40 nights.
Moses did the same thing up onthe mountain, right?
What do you think they weredoing?
Right?
Meditate and try to get thatrelationship with God, right?
So yeah, we, we're responsibletoo, right?
(19:44):
We are.
We are.
Yeah.
Okay.
Let's go over this thirdargument, okay?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
And this is the third and finalargument.
It's the argument from science.
This argument, there is nobelief in the idea of
supernatural beings or God.
Instead, it states that sciencehas disproved many of the claims
(20:04):
made by religion as an example.
We now know that the earth isround and not flat as Christians
once believed.
So I think this argument issaying as we learn more and more
and more, all the things thatChristians believe.
Are gonna be shown to be nottrue.
(20:26):
Oh, science are tricky.
Science.
Yes.
You know what?
Well, here's a even betterquestion.
Can science and religioncoexist?
Can, can they, I mean, canscience prove religion?
Right.
Right.
Okay.
You know what?
(20:46):
I have an answer.
Lemme go.
Let me, let me tell you this.
Okay.
Now I know that we think that welive in a very technology driven
time.
We're living in a time whenwe've seen some great
technological, technologicaladvances, but I still have to
believe that we're justscratching the surface.
(21:07):
We're just scratching thesurface As far as technology,
advances are concerned.
Mm-hmm.
I believe we still have thepotential to travel and to live
on other planets.
Uh, we still have the potentialto solve human diseases.
I think we have the potentialfor time travel.
We have, we've thought aboutthese things, but we haven't
(21:28):
mastered those yet.
So if we still have thepotential to conquer these
things, then it only makes senseto me that at some point in time
we still have the potential toscientifically prove the
existence of God.
Mm-hmm.
Now, I believe that in thefuture.
We will develop the technologyto prove that there's a God, or
(21:50):
maybe we become more in tunewith our inner feelings, our
inner being, and we discoverthat higher self.
So in the absence of technologyand our inability to connect
with the higher self, then Ithink we're still falling back
on what we call faith.
Hmm.
Okay.
So, uh, do you believe that, uh,we'll progress to that point?
(22:13):
That, uh, technology wise, wecan prove the existence of God?
And do you also believe that ashumans we will learn to tap into
our inner being?
We learn to become enlightenedand learn to contact, uh, and
live with God while on Earth, ora Mercury or Jupiter or some
other right planet look.
(22:35):
What I do believe is that atsome point in time that science
will be able to prove theexistence of God, or, a higher
being.
We can call it God, we can callit Alan.
I don't know.
Um.
Mm-hmm.
Now, I hate to be a negativeperson, but I don't know that
every human being will ever getto the point of being
enlightened.
(22:56):
And I, I'm using the wordenlightened again.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, in our world, I mean, now.
There's too many temptations forpeople to focus on finding God.
There has to be some kind of asevere or existential threat to
humankind and some sign forpeople to believe that, the
right path is to focus on beingenlightened.
(23:18):
Mm-hmm.
Uh, look at the divisions in oursocieties today.
How can something that's rightfor so many people be wrong for
another group of people?
Some people leaving, uh,slavery, some don't.
How, how do we have thoseopposites?
The same can also be said for, alack of food.
Some say that, we have to feedthose without, or others say
(23:40):
that it's up to each individualto fend for themselves.
There's so many varying thoughtsand who's to say what's right
and who's to say what's wrong.
Yeah, that is true.
You know what, uh, let me read afew Bible verses.
Um, I think it makes a strongcase for the existence of God.
Okay?
The first is from the Book ofTimothy, the verses one Timothy
(24:03):
three 16.
And it says, God is a mystery.
God is a mystery.
Okay?
Yeah.
So I think that, uh, this issaying that the existence, the
beginning of God is beyond ourunderstanding.
This was written hundreds ofyears ago, by the way.
Right, right.
Also in Isaiah 44, 6, it reads,I am the first and I am the
(24:24):
last.
Apart from me, there is no God.
And these two Bible verses arevery powerful.
These two Bible verses make astrong case for having faith.
I think.
I think that it tells us thatour understanding of God is like
a kindergartner.
I think we said that earliertoo.
Yep.
We did.
Uh, we don't have the capacityto understand.
(24:45):
It's kinda like being a child.
Wow.
We just said something aboutbeing a child.
Yep.
Right.
As a child, you know you havefaith and you believe that your
parents are gonna do the rightthing for you.
Yep.
All right.
As I said before, howfrustrating it must have been
for Jesus when Jesus was tryingto explain God to us.
(25:05):
You said that on the last coupleof, uh, episodes.
Yeah.
That, uh, it must have beenfrustrating for Jesus and, uh,
some of the other prophets, uh,to talk about something that we
didn't have the capacity tolearn.
Right.
So, but this is what I believe.
I believe that, faith is a majorpart, major part of our Western
religion, and it's a major partof my religion personally.
(25:29):
Now that faith defines thatthere is a God and it also
defines what God is.
And as we draw upon that faith,we use the Bible as a
foundation.
Now, I've said it before in mymind, the Bible does contradict
itself and that contradictioncan lead to some doubt.
I mean, it has led to doubt forme, but in the, in the whole
(25:54):
scheme of things, I think theBible is a guide for us.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, so, personally, I've had toomany examples or miracles in my
life to not believe in God.
So I choose to have this faithand, and believe in God.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(26:14):
Well, I'm kind of like you, likeyou, I consider myself to be a
logical person.
With the spiritual base.
When I ask these questions, Idon't wanna question anybody
else's faith.
We don't wanna do that.
You're own your own spiritualjourney, right?
And like, like you, Gary and me,I believe that each individual
has to find their own way.
They're on their own journey.
I, I agree.
(26:35):
I agree.
And you know what, we're, we'rerunning outta time here.
We have just a couple ofminutes, and I hate cutting this
off so short, but, this has beena good, a really good episode.
We, uh, talked about some of thearguments against the existence
of God, um, outside of that, ofthe agnostics and atheist.
(26:57):
Uh, next week we're gonna talkabout pantheism and what it
means.
I said that a little earlier andwe'll compare and contrast that
with agnostics and atheist andhopefully provide some insights
and some thoughts for ourlistening audience to consider
when they're, trying to createtheir purposeful life.
Excellent.
Excellent.
(27:17):
Can't wait.
Uh, this was a great session,Gary.
It really was.
Yeah, it was.
It got us thinking too.
So I'm looking forward to nextweek, but now we're right outta
time.
It's time for our favorite partof the podcast.
Alright.
We read a story from one of ourlisteners telling us about a
traumatic time in our lives andhow their faith helped them to
navigate this storm.
(27:38):
So today our story comes fromRachel.
Rachel writes.
I never imagined a life withoutJames.
He wasn't just my brother.
He was my best friend, the onewho stood beside me through
every hardship, the one whocould make me laugh even on my
worst days.
But a addiction changed him.
It turned him into someone Icouldn't recognize.
(28:01):
I watched helplessly as JamesSparrow first with harmless
experimentation.
Then with dependency, then withdesperation.
I begged, pleaded prayed, butaddiction was unforgiven and it
eventually took his life.
The day James died, my wholeworld collapsed.
Grief became my shadow.
(28:22):
The weight of loss press soheavily on me that I struggled
to breathe.
Nights were the worst silenthours filled with sobs and
regrets with memories of James'smile and the pain of knowing
that I would never see it, seeit again.
So for weeks, I didn't leave myapartment friends called.
I ignored him.
I stopped eating, stoppedspeaking, stopped believing
(28:43):
there was anything left in thisworld for me.
Until one evening, a familiarvoice whispered in my heart.
I'm still here, Ray.
It wasn't James.
It wasn't my own mind.
It was something deeper,something greater, something
that had been waiting for me inmy sorrow.
I reached for the Bible that hadbeen gathered in dust on my
(29:04):
bookshelf and flipped through ituntil I found Psalm 34 18.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are
crushed in spirit.
I held the book to my chest asif holding on onto it would
bring my brother back.
It didn't, but it did bringsomething else.
Comfort, strength, and hope.
Faith didn't erase my grief, butit carried me through it.
(29:26):
It whispered to me in the lonelyhours, reminded me that even
though James was gone, I wasn'talone.
It gave me the courage to rise,to breathe, to step outside into
the world again.
I joined a support group in mychurch with others who had lost
loved ones to addiction, and Iheard their stories.
I spoke about James, about hiskindness, about his struggle,
(29:47):
about how I had moved himfiercely and had lost him just
as fiercely how I loved himfiercely, sorry.
And instead of drowning insorrow, I found myself lifted by
the compassion of others whounderstood little by little
faith stitched together thepieces of my shattered heart.
It didn't erase the pain, but ittransformed it.
(30:08):
I decided to honor James byadvocating for those battling
addictions, sharing his story,so others might find hope.
Before it's too late, I'llalways miss him.
The ache will never fade, willnever fully fade.
But in the depths of my heart, Ihave found love, faith, and I
promised it.
One day I will see my brotheragain.
Wow.
(30:28):
Great story.
That's a great story.
Yeah, great story.
Yeah.
That, that addiction is nothingto be played with.
No, it's not.
So, so thank you Rachel, forsending your story.
You know, we hope that you havefound some peace and purpose in
your life.
We believe that your lived lifeexperiences someone's playbook
for dealing with the storms intheir lives.
Your story will help someone tofind the strength to deal with
(30:49):
the storms in their lives.
Okay, so this will close ourpodcast for today.
Thank everybody for joining ustoday on Cirque De Soul.
We hope that it sparks some newthoughts about the purpose of
life, and if you would like tosend us some questions for
discussion or if you would liketo send your story, please email
these to CDU soul444@gmail.com,C-I-R-Q-U-E-D-U-S-O-U
(31:16):
l444@gmail.com.
If you found value in today'sepisode, please share it with
somebody who might benefit fromit.
Don't forget to lack andsubscribe so you don't miss any
future episodes.
And as always, always rememberyour spiritual journey is
uniquely yours.
You are never alone like Rachel,there's always others to help
(31:38):
you through the storms in yourlife.
So I say take care of yourself,be kind to yourself and be kind
to the world around you.
And until the next time, have agreat day in paradise.
And trying his best to beat medown to the ground.
I'm praying for things to changeLord, and I need it to happen to
(32:04):
happen right away.
But you sit so quiet.
So as I myself and drop my, dropmy.
Yeah, that's mind, body, soul.
We connected with the globe.
Yeah, that's mind, body, soultook some discipline, repetition
and some self-control.
We connected with the globe.
Yeah.
That's mind, body, soul.
Whoa.
Yeah.
That's mind, body, soul.
Hey.
Yeah.
That's Mind, body, soul tooksome discipline, repetition, and
some self control.
(00:26):
Welcome to Cirque to Soul, theonly uncut.
Unedited podcast that isdedicated to helping you to find
spiritual peace in your life.
Kim, we're wrapping up on thisidea of is there a God from the
agnostic and from the atheist'sperspective?
Yep.
Hello everybody.
(00:47):
Hope everybody had a great week.
Uh, like you said last week, wetalked about the belief in God
and we focused on what does itmean to be a atheist.
Over the past few weeks, we havediscussed the definition of an
agnostic and definition of anatheist.
So for a quick review, thedefinition of atheism is not an
(01:09):
affirmative belief that there isno God nor does it answer any
other question about what aperson believes.
It is simply a rejection of theassertion that there are guides.
Now, the definition of agnosticis that nothing is known.
Or it can be known of theexistence of God or of anything
beyond material phenomena.
(01:31):
Atheism and agnosticism aredistinct views regarding the
existence of a God or Gods, butthey are not mutually exclusive.
Atheism is the disbelief in ordenial of the existence of a God
or Gods.
While agnosticism is the viewthat the existence of a God or
(01:52):
Gods is not knowable.
A person can be both an atheistand an agnostic, meaning they
don't believe in any God or godsand believe that it's impossible
to know definitively if oneexists.
Okay, great.
That's, that's a, a great, uh,synopsis of what we've talked
about over the past few weeks.
(02:13):
And you know what, I think thatwe really covered the arguments
from, I call it the non-believerstandpoint, the agnostic and the
atheist.
There are a few more points thatnon-believers make that I think
we need to go over today.
And then after today we'll talkabout differences in religious
beliefs.
(02:33):
Okay, so continuing on from whatwe've already talked about,
there are three other argumentsthat I think that we probably
haven't covered, and we'll gothrough those now.
The first argument is theargument from evil.
This argument states that theexistence of evil and suffering
(02:55):
in human existence iscompatible, incompatible with
the belief in a good and lovingGod.
So if God is a supreme being,then he should be able to
prevent evil from happening,things like sickness and crime.
So what do you think?
Yeah, that's a heck of anargument.
Um,, I've often thought aboutthat myself.
(03:16):
Um.
Come on.
It's like, God, he could reallytake care of this if you really
wanted to.
Yeah.
But, I mean, it's probablybeyond our comprehension, our
understanding, I guess we havedifferent views on, why this is
allowed to happen.
And I just think that, uh, Godgives us all free will and
there's a verse in the Biblethat says, take care of your
(03:39):
temple.
Because if you don't take careof your temple, God will destroy
your temple.
And I'm just thinking that, ifyou don't take care of your
body, then the natural thing is,is for you to have sickness or
diseases or whatever, right?
So I think God just gives uschoices and some things are
just, I mean, like to be in acar wreck and it's not your
(03:59):
fault.
I don't know.
I, I, I don't know.
I, it's just we didn't do thaton purpose and.
That I just can't answer that.
I have no idea.
Well, let me relay something toyou.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, a few years ago I went to a,um, it was a no talk spiritual
retreat.
Mm-hmm.
No talk.
(04:19):
So for a whole week we didn'ttalk, but on the last day we
were, having a class with thismaster yogi and I, I asked the
question if God is all love.
Then why do bad things happen?
Mm-hmm.
And nobody, he said, he said,what makes you think that God is
(04:39):
all love?
He said, God is everything inhis mind.
Uh, our religion tells us thatGod is all love, but in the
reality, God is everything.
So everything that bad, that'sbad, that happens, what we call
bad is still part of God.
(05:00):
Wow.
That's, wow.
You know what, having said that,the Book of Job job was a good
guy.
Yes.
He followed God, but God allowedSatan to punish job, basically.
I mean, kill his kids.
I mean, made him sick.
Right.
So what this yogi said, I, itjust hit me.
(05:23):
I'm like, wow.
He, he's right.
Because God is in charge ofeverything.
Everything.
Right.
So, and poor job experienced it.
Right.
But in the Bible job wasrewarded also.
He just went this.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Now lemme tell you somethingelse that this yogi master said
to me.
Mm-hmm.
He said, our understanding ofwhat goes on in the world is so
(05:45):
small.
He said, as an example, take afamily that's uh, uh, in Europe
and they are taking a skiingvacation, and they're skiing.
Then there is a, a, a slot,where, uh, all the snow and
everything fell down and itkilled the family.
(06:05):
Mm-hmm.
He said, our human understandingwould be that, oh, it's such a
bad thing and it's a bad thingthat happened to them.
Mm-hmm.
And he said, suppose it was likethis, suppose 500 years ago, a
tree fell down and was frozenand it stopped up a bunch of
snow, and the snow piled up andpiled up and piled up back
behind it.
(06:27):
And so here we are 500, 600years later and we're having
global warming.
And so that tree, that was thebeginning of holding all this
snow back.
Mm-hmm.
It snapped.
Yeah.
And then all the snow fallsdown.
Right.
Our understanding is, well theywere, it was unfortunate, bad
(06:47):
things happened, but in thereality of the situation.
500, 600 years ago this eventhappened that held that snow
back and global warming, orwhatever you want to call it,
caused it to, to that, thattree, to unthaw and all the snow
fell down.
Right, right, right.
That's, that's a, that's prettygood.
Uh, you remember that movie, uh,was Benjamin Button or something
(07:10):
like that with, um, oh God, Iforgot the guy's, the actor's
name.
He was, he was living backwards.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right.
And yeah.
And, uh, when he, he met his,his girlfriend when she had an
accident.
Yep.
And she got ran over orsomething like that.
But anyway, they went over theprogression of time.
(07:32):
If she had just left one minuteone minute earlier, then this
would've happened, then thiswould've happened, then this
would've happened.
Right.
This would've happened.
It's just things, theprogression of time things
happen, which we don't, we'renot aware of.
Right.
And things happen, but onlything we see is the end result,
And we're like, oh, that's justnot right.
(07:53):
You know?
Yeah.
Not, not send the wholeprogression of life.
Right.
So, yeah, so we've talked aboutprogression now and things that
happen, but the reality of thesituation, and I, this is what I
believe, uh, and I said it alittle earlier, is that
everything that happens is underGod's purview.
In other words, is God's will.
(08:15):
Uh, and even the evil thingsthat happen, it's part of God's
will.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, it's hard to arguethat because, God is in control,
right?
God is in control.
I mean, we can't, we don't havethe power to stop something.
If it's progressing in life orwhatever, we just don't have
(08:36):
that power.
That's a God thing.
So I, I can't argue with that.
Right.
Well, you know what, this, thisis gonna tie into what we're
gonna talk about next week.
Uh, we talked about agnosticsand we talk about atheist.
The other two things that wehaven't talked about is the
deist, and that's someone whobelieves in a God or a supreme
being who created the universe,but he doesn't intervene in its
(09:00):
affairs.
He doesn't.
Doesn't do anything.
Mm-hmm.
And of course, the pantheist whobelieves that, uh, God created
the universe, but he plays anactive role in our lives.
Mm.
We talk about these things thatare happening.
I mean, it's either a, a Ds oror, or a Pantheist.
Yeah.
But wow.
Uh, yeah.
(09:21):
But we we're asking thequestions.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's, and I don't know theanswer to those questions to be
honest with you, Right.
It's just something to, to thinkabout, I guess, Okay.
E either that, or you just goalong and you just go with the
floor of life, right?
Yeah, yeah.
But then this is what we'regetting back to it.
That's what the atheist thinks.
That's what the, the agnosticsthink.
(09:42):
It's like, well, you can't proveit.
You know?
You don't know, and these thingshappen.
So what's to say?
There's a God.
Wow.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I get it.
I get it.
Uh, just, when you grow up inthe church and they teach you,
God is in control and that'swhat you grew up believing.
(10:03):
I guess, and it's hard to getaway from that.
I'm not saying you can't, andnot even saying should.
Right.
Uh, but, you kind of evolve alittle bit more and start
questioning things a little bit,so.
Mm-hmm.
Um, I, I, I get what they'resaying.
I just, I guess for mepersonally, I just, since
growing up in the church orwhatever, I just can't get over
(10:23):
the fact that I think God is incontrol of everything.
Right.
And again, we're not trying todown anybody's beliefs.
Correct.
We're just having a discussion,right.
Uh, so that we can open our, ourmind to thinking more than what
we've been taught.
Right?
And, helping people to find, apath, their path to, uh, a
(10:44):
meaningful life.
Right.
And that's why we, we, uh,welcome anybody that has any,
comment or whatever, because wemight be learning something from
you guys.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
So yeah, you have your own viewsof this, something we not have
considered.
So Yeah.
And we can have a conversationwithout arguing, fussing, or
fighting.
Let's, let's, let's talk, right?
(11:06):
Yes, definitely.
Okay.
Definitely.
Well, that was the firstargument.
Let's go into this secondargument.
Uh, the second argument is theargument from non-belief, and
I'm just gonna read this.
Mm-hmm.
This argument states that thereare many people that do not, or
have not heard of Christianityor any other religion.
Now they have not been exposedto any teaching or religious
(11:29):
dogma.
If God is real and wantseveryone to know about him, then
he would make himself.
More known throughout the world.
Hmm.
Well, uh, that's a good one too.
You, you remember that movie?
Oh God, yes.
(11:51):
You, you full of movies.
I am George Burns.
Yeah.
God, pick people, to, to go outand ready, that people know that
God is alive or whatever.
Right.
And I don't know why I thoughtabout that, but I did.
And, uh, so.
I don't know.
Maybe it's an ongoing, we alwayswant proof.
(12:11):
We want proof of God give us,come on God, give us proof.
Right?
Give us proof, but I think thatGod is just, uh, so much higher
than, I mean, well, we know thatso much higher than we are,
that, he wants everybody just tolive their life freely.
And if you, if you believe inGod, you do.
(12:32):
If you don't, you don't.
But.
He gives us that free will, thatfree choice.
So right.
Uh, if, if it someday everybodygets to know who God is, that's
great.
But I don't think God's gonnaforce God on anybody.
Okay.
Yeah.
Let me throw a monkey rich inhere.
And I keep saying every weeksomebody's gonna shoot us, but
(12:52):
just looking at this statement,uh, if God is real and wants
everyone to know about him, thenhe would make himself more known
throughout the world.
So here's a question.
There are people that live inremote parts of the world.
Mm-hmm.
Know nothing about religion andthere are others that, don't
partake in religion.
(13:13):
In our particular religion orwhat we were raised in, uh, the
Christian religion.
Mm-hmm.
We believe are, I will say, thereligion beliefs that you must
know Jesus to get into heaven.
Right.
These people that have noconcept of religion or anything
else.
So are they destined to go tohell or whatever?
(13:35):
Right, right, right.
Um, I know people probablybelieve that uhhuh me
personally, I don't believe thatbecause it's like we talked
about, I think at the very, ourvery first podcast, I think the
goal is to get to the top of themountain.
Yep.
But there's different paths toget to the top of the mountain
(13:56):
and so.
Um, and Lord, we can really getdeep here.
You're right.
I'm gonna have somebody shootingat me because, uh, heaven.
Whew.
Uh, I think heaven is, we canexperience heaven here on earth.
I believe that.
And I think heaven is just beenoneness with God.
(14:17):
And so, and even Jesus says,unless you become as little
child, you cannot enter thekingdom of heaven.
So even Christians, I knowpeople don't look at it like
that, but becoming like a littlechild means there's no hate in
your heart.
You have absolute faith.
You're pure and honest, and justlike a little child, you just
(14:42):
see love everywhere.
So any religion, I think if theybecome like that, they can
experience heaven.
What you're talking about isBuddhism.
That, I mean, that is thedefinition of, of, of what
Buddhism is in trying to becomeenlightened.
Yeah.
Which is, uh, if you are aChristian, I mean, people don't,
(15:06):
uh, at least in the westernworld here, we don't talk about
that.
No, we don't talk about that.
No, we don't.
About that.
No, we don't, we only thing wetalk about is there's a heaven
up there.
Right?
And, and God is gonna decidewho, who gets in and who doesn't
get in.
Uh, that's just where we grewup.
(15:26):
Right?
Um, so if you are, if, if youare your religion, if you're a
Christian and you feel like theonly way to get to heaven is you
have to be a Christian throughJesus, uh, I understand.
'cause that's what we grew up ontoo.
However.
I don't believe that anymore.
Right?
I just believe that, uh, you canexperience heaven if you, um,
(15:50):
there's a, the beatitudes thatblessed out the pure in heart
for they shall see God to who,what's pure in heart, a baby, a
child, that's when you see Godand experience heaven.
So I think anybody can do that.
I don't care what religion youare in.
Uh, any anybody can do it ifthey try.
If they try because they take,you are right and you know
(16:13):
you're right.
And when Jesus says, unlessyou're born again, yes.
By water and by spirit, yes.
The spirit is, you have toconnect to that God spirit.
Right.
To become born again.
I know when you know we're inchurch and.
We always say we're born againChristians and we get baptized.
Well, I think, uh, and that'sgreat.
(16:33):
That's great.
That's, that's absolutely great.
But they're born again, I thinkis different levels.
Mm-hmm.
And they're born again.
If you get to that top level ofpure, pure spirit, pure God,
pure Christ, then I think that'swhen you really experience the
kingdom of God.
Okay.
You know what?
Uh, later,, episodes we're gonnaget into this and I think a lot
(16:55):
of people don't know.
There's tales that, uh, Jesus inthe lost years mm-hmm.
That he traveled, to the Orientand he studied under Buddha.
Yes.
I already studied Buddhismbecause Buddha preceded Christ
by almost 500 years.
Yeah, right.
So I think that it's interestingand, we need to bring that out
(17:16):
so people understand that maybesome of the teachings of Christ
came from Buddha.
There's the, there's somethingon Facebook.
I should Facebook, if you lookit up, uh, not Facebook, but you
can go on the internet.
They have, uh, similar sayings.
Uh, between Buddha and Jesusthat basically almost the same
thing, right?
(17:36):
They mean the same thing, So,yeah.
Uh, there's a lot ofsimilarities there.
Right?
Right.
And I mean, I, I just think it'sinteresting, very interesting
that argument from non-belief,uh, because of, things that
happen, or that, if God wantedus to, to worship him, then he
should make himself known.
(17:58):
Yeah.
And the reality is I think he,he, she does make himself
herself known to us.
We just are, are getting fartherand farther away from trying to
understand what that means.
And a lot of that too is likeliving consciously.
Mm-hmm.
Uh,'cause there's God everywhereif you just pay attention, if
(18:18):
you just pay attention.
But weed.
Get caught up in life and, yeah.
So we don't pay attention.
The, in the movie that's, I'mbringing up a movie, getting
the, the movie color purple.
Yeah.
When they said they thinksometimes God gets, God gets
pissed if you walk by a purple.
What it was, what kind of flowerit was.
Right.
Whatever it was.
Yeah.
A lot.
And you don't notice it.
Right.
And you don't notice it, Yeah.
(18:39):
So, so we kind of, God is there,we just don't attention to it.
And so, uh, when they said be inthe world, but not of the world.
Boom.
There you go.
You're getting back to Buddhismagain.
You are, I mean, we, we've beentaught in the Christian
religion, but I think yourexperiences, my experiences have
(19:00):
led us to understand that, thereis, we're responsible also, we
have to find peace withinourselves and Right.
Display love, so Right.
And, and going back if youreally want to experience God
and see God and be a part ofGod, it took Budha six years.
Yes.
It took him six, it was it fiveor six years to meditate and
(19:21):
really get to that level.
Right.
It took him six years.
And I look at the Bible and evenyou talk about when Jesus went
into the.
Desert for 40 days, 40 nights.
Moses did the same thing up onthe mountain, right?
What do you think they weredoing?
Right?
Meditate and try to get thatrelationship with God, right?
So yeah, we, we're responsibletoo, right?
(19:44):
We are.
We are.
Yeah.
Okay.
Let's go over this thirdargument, okay?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
And this is the third and finalargument.
It's the argument from science.
This argument, there is nobelief in the idea of
supernatural beings or God.
Instead, it states that sciencehas disproved many of the claims
(20:04):
made by religion as an example.
We now know that the earth isround and not flat as Christians
once believed.
So I think this argument issaying as we learn more and more
and more, all the things thatChristians believe.
Are gonna be shown to be nottrue.
(20:26):
Oh, science are tricky.
Science.
Yes.
You know what?
Well, here's a even betterquestion.
Can science and religioncoexist?
Can, can they, I mean, canscience prove religion?
Right.
Right.
Okay.
You know what?
(20:46):
I have an answer.
Lemme go.
Let me, let me tell you this.
Okay.
Now I know that we think that welive in a very technology driven
time.
We're living in a time whenwe've seen some great
technological, technologicaladvances, but I still have to
believe that we're justscratching the surface.
(21:07):
We're just scratching thesurface As far as technology,
advances are concerned.
Mm-hmm.
I believe we still have thepotential to travel and to live
on other planets.
Uh, we still have the potentialto solve human diseases.
I think we have the potentialfor time travel.
We have, we've thought aboutthese things, but we haven't
(21:28):
mastered those yet.
So if we still have thepotential to conquer these
things, then it only makes senseto me that at some point in time
we still have the potential toscientifically prove the
existence of God.
Mm-hmm.
Now, I believe that in thefuture.
We will develop the technologyto prove that there's a God, or
(21:50):
maybe we become more in tunewith our inner feelings, our
inner being, and we discoverthat higher self.
So in the absence of technologyand our inability to connect
with the higher self, then Ithink we're still falling back
on what we call faith.
Hmm.
Okay.
So, uh, do you believe that, uh,we'll progress to that point?
(22:13):
That, uh, technology wise, wecan prove the existence of God?
And do you also believe that ashumans we will learn to tap into
our inner being?
We learn to become enlightenedand learn to contact, uh, and
live with God while on Earth, ora Mercury or Jupiter or some
other right planet look.
(22:35):
What I do believe is that atsome point in time that science
will be able to prove theexistence of God, or, a higher
being.
We can call it God, we can callit Alan.
I don't know.
Um.
Mm-hmm.
Now, I hate to be a negativeperson, but I don't know that
every human being will ever getto the point of being
enlightened.
(22:56):
And I, I'm using the wordenlightened again.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, in our world, I mean, now.
There's too many temptations forpeople to focus on finding God.
There has to be some kind of asevere or existential threat to
humankind and some sign forpeople to believe that, the
right path is to focus on beingenlightened.
(23:18):
Mm-hmm.
Uh, look at the divisions in oursocieties today.
How can something that's rightfor so many people be wrong for
another group of people?
Some people leaving, uh,slavery, some don't.
How, how do we have thoseopposites?
The same can also be said for, alack of food.
Some say that, we have to feedthose without, or others say
(23:40):
that it's up to each individualto fend for themselves.
There's so many varying thoughtsand who's to say what's right
and who's to say what's wrong.
Yeah, that is true.
You know what, uh, let me read afew Bible verses.
Um, I think it makes a strongcase for the existence of God.
Okay?
The first is from the Book ofTimothy, the verses one Timothy
(24:03):
three 16.
And it says, God is a mystery.
God is a mystery.
Okay?
Yeah.
So I think that, uh, this issaying that the existence, the
beginning of God is beyond ourunderstanding.
This was written hundreds ofyears ago, by the way.
Right, right.
Also in Isaiah 44, 6, it reads,I am the first and I am the
(24:24):
last.
Apart from me, there is no God.
And these two Bible verses arevery powerful.
These two Bible verses make astrong case for having faith.
I think.
I think that it tells us thatour understanding of God is like
a kindergartner.
I think we said that earliertoo.
Yep.
We did.
Uh, we don't have the capacityto understand.
(24:45):
It's kinda like being a child.
Wow.
We just said something aboutbeing a child.
Yep.
Right.
As a child, you know you havefaith and you believe that your
parents are gonna do the rightthing for you.
Yep.
All right.
As I said before, howfrustrating it must have been
for Jesus when Jesus was tryingto explain God to us.
(25:05):
You said that on the last coupleof, uh, episodes.
Yeah.
That, uh, it must have beenfrustrating for Jesus and, uh,
some of the other prophets, uh,to talk about something that we
didn't have the capacity tolearn.
Right.
So, but this is what I believe.
I believe that, faith is a majorpart, major part of our Western
religion, and it's a major partof my religion personally.
(25:29):
Now that faith defines thatthere is a God and it also
defines what God is.
And as we draw upon that faith,we use the Bible as a
foundation.
Now, I've said it before in mymind, the Bible does contradict
itself and that contradictioncan lead to some doubt.
I mean, it has led to doubt forme, but in the, in the whole
(25:54):
scheme of things, I think theBible is a guide for us.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, so, personally, I've had toomany examples or miracles in my
life to not believe in God.
So I choose to have this faithand, and believe in God.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(26:14):
Well, I'm kind of like you, likeyou, I consider myself to be a
logical person.
With the spiritual base.
When I ask these questions, Idon't wanna question anybody
else's faith.
We don't wanna do that.
You're own your own spiritualjourney, right?
And like, like you, Gary and me,I believe that each individual
has to find their own way.
They're on their own journey.
I, I agree.
(26:35):
I agree.
And you know what, we're, we'rerunning outta time here.
We have just a couple ofminutes, and I hate cutting this
off so short, but, this has beena good, a really good episode.
We, uh, talked about some of thearguments against the existence
of God, um, outside of that, ofthe agnostics and atheist.
(26:57):
Uh, next week we're gonna talkabout pantheism and what it
means.
I said that a little earlier andwe'll compare and contrast that
with agnostics and atheist andhopefully provide some insights
and some thoughts for ourlistening audience to consider
when they're, trying to createtheir purposeful life.
Excellent.
Excellent.
(27:17):
Can't wait.
Uh, this was a great session,Gary.
It really was.
Yeah, it was.
It got us thinking too.
So I'm looking forward to nextweek, but now we're right outta
time.
It's time for our favorite partof the podcast.
Alright.
We read a story from one of ourlisteners telling us about a
traumatic time in our lives andhow their faith helped them to
navigate this storm.
(27:38):
So today our story comes fromRachel.
Rachel writes.
I never imagined a life withoutJames.
He wasn't just my brother.
He was my best friend, the onewho stood beside me through
every hardship, the one whocould make me laugh even on my
worst days.
But a addiction changed him.
It turned him into someone Icouldn't recognize.
(28:01):
I watched helplessly as JamesSparrow first with harmless
experimentation.
Then with dependency, then withdesperation.
I begged, pleaded prayed, butaddiction was unforgiven and it
eventually took his life.
The day James died, my wholeworld collapsed.
Grief became my shadow.
(28:22):
The weight of loss press soheavily on me that I struggled
to breathe.
Nights were the worst silenthours filled with sobs and
regrets with memories of James'smile and the pain of knowing
that I would never see it, seeit again.
So for weeks, I didn't leave myapartment friends called.
I ignored him.
I stopped eating, stoppedspeaking, stopped believing
(28:43):
there was anything left in thisworld for me.
Until one evening, a familiarvoice whispered in my heart.
I'm still here, Ray.
It wasn't James.
It wasn't my own mind.
It was something deeper,something greater, something
that had been waiting for me inmy sorrow.
I reached for the Bible that hadbeen gathered in dust on my
(29:04):
bookshelf and flipped through ituntil I found Psalm 34 18.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are
crushed in spirit.
I held the book to my chest asif holding on onto it would
bring my brother back.
It didn't, but it did bringsomething else.
Comfort, strength, and hope.
Faith didn't erase my grief, butit carried me through it.
(29:26):
It whispered to me in the lonelyhours, reminded me that even
though James was gone, I wasn'talone.
It gave me the courage to rise,to breathe, to step outside into
the world again.
I joined a support group in mychurch with others who had lost
loved ones to addiction, and Iheard their stories.
I spoke about James, about hiskindness, about his struggle,
(29:47):
about how I had moved himfiercely and had lost him just
as fiercely how I loved himfiercely, sorry.
And instead of drowning insorrow, I found myself lifted by
the compassion of others whounderstood little by little
faith stitched together thepieces of my shattered heart.
It didn't erase the pain, but ittransformed it.
(30:08):
I decided to honor James byadvocating for those battling
addictions, sharing his story,so others might find hope.
Before it's too late, I'llalways miss him.
The ache will never fade, willnever fully fade.
But in the depths of my heart, Ihave found love, faith, and I
promised it.
One day I will see my brotheragain.
Wow.
(30:28):
Great story.
That's a great story.
Yeah, great story.
Yeah.
That, that addiction is nothingto be played with.
No, it's not.
So, so thank you Rachel, forsending your story.
You know, we hope that you havefound some peace and purpose in
your life.
We believe that your lived lifeexperiences someone's playbook
for dealing with the storms intheir lives.
Your story will help someone tofind the strength to deal with
(30:49):
the storms in their lives.
Okay, so this will close ourpodcast for today.
Thank everybody for joining ustoday on Cirque De Soul.
We hope that it sparks some newthoughts about the purpose of
life, and if you would like tosend us some questions for
discussion or if you would liketo send your story, please email
these to CDU soul444@gmail.com,C-I-R-Q-U-E-D-U-S-O-U
(31:16):
l444@gmail.com.
If you found value in today'sepisode, please share it with
somebody who might benefit fromit.
Don't forget to lack andsubscribe so you don't miss any
future episodes.
And as always, always rememberyour spiritual journey is
uniquely yours.
You are never alone like Rachel,there's always others to help
(31:38):
you through the storms in yourlife.
So I say take care of yourself,be kind to yourself and be kind
to the world around you.
And until the next time, have agreat day in paradise.
And trying his best to beat medown to the ground.
I'm praying for things to changeLord, and I need it to happen to
(32:04):
happen right away.
But you sit so quiet.
So as I myself and drop my, dropmy.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2
Season Two Out Now! Law & Order: Criminal Justice System tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that have shaped how the most dangerous and influential criminals in America are prosecuted. In its second season, the series tackles the threat of terrorism in the United States. From the rise of extremist political groups in the 60s to domestic lone wolves in the modern day, we explore how organizations like the FBI and Joint Terrorism Take Force have evolved to fight back against a multitude of terrorist threats.