God or Nothing: Why Modernity Worships the Self [ Pt. 2 ]

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:28):
Oh yeah, what's up everybody, Welcome back.
It's actual live podcast and ourweekly special live stream
series, Meaning Making One O 1, where we consider all things
going on in the world today and how we may be that change we
wish to see to help solve this meaning crisis and help usher in

(00:49):
an awakening from it. I'm sure all of you out there
are feeling that pervasive senseof meaning lessness in the
world. It's hard to find a sense of
belonging and purpose in the world today.
It seems that we've lost touch with a sense of the sacred.
And today, with the help of theologian David Bentley Heart,

(01:10):
we're going to consider how we may recapitulate our
understanding of a relationship with the divine to help change
this world from the inside out. How can we be that change we
wish to see, fam? And you know, we here, we're
just some normal guys, you know,we're just a couple laymen, so
to speak. Oh, if you haven't noticed from
like the the the botched intros I've been doing there's.

(01:33):
Some bugs and gremlins to work out, but you know what?
We're doing the thing and we're learning as we grow.
We invite you guys to come alongwith us and let's see what we
can do together. It's definitely a lot easier to
understand some of these really complex, challenging topics with
the help of a friend, and we hope to be that for you guys as

(01:56):
well. So feel free to take part in the
conversation. We are live on Facebook, Twitch
X as well as Rumble and YouTube multi streaming, and so feel
free to throw it on your thoughts and questions wherever
you may be. I might not be able to see you
on rumble because I haven't figured out a way to integrate

(02:16):
that as of yet. But guys, we will make sure that
we do at least reply to whatevercomments you make on the videos
in the next episode. But if you want to take part in
the conversation today, jump on YouTube or twitch or Facebook or
X, wherever you may be and throwdown your thoughts and questions
and statements or feelings, opinions, whatever you got.
You know, if you're welcome to call us out too.
We can figure these and out together.

(02:39):
So that's it, fam. So let's go ahead and let me
just give you guys a quick idea of what we're about to get into.
We're going to be studying a lecture that David Bentley Hart
gave or actually an essay that David Bentley Hart gave or
shared. And it's quite complex.
It's really challenging read formyself, but it's also just so

(03:00):
intriguing. His his vocabulary is
incredible. And instead of it being annoying
that I had to look up so many words, it was actually exciting.
So I really enjoyed the the the process of learning from what
David Bentley heart has to offerin this world where everybody
from 8 ancient Pagans to, you know, ancient pagans embracing

(03:22):
life's noble yet tragic cycle offate and sacrifice to modern new
age seekers curating their own self focused spiritual vibes as
feel good accessories, so to speak.
In a world where everybody from the pagans to the New age are
grappling with the same restlesshunger for meaning, David
Bentley Hart argues that these paths, while offering glimpses

(03:45):
of beauty or inner peace, ultimately fall a little bit
short. The old ways trap us in endless
resignation to chaos without anytrue redemption, any true
potential for redemption, and today's eclectic vibes devolve
into shallow self worship that isolates rather than connects us
as people. Drawing on thinkers who see

(04:06):
archetypes pointing to a deeper order emerging from chaos, who
view ancient myths as shadows ofa fact that became real, whose
mystical dive into divine union,and whose contemplative call to
transcend ego through relationalsurrender.
Heart points to Christianity's revelation of an all loving God

(04:28):
as the unique fulfillment embodied in the Logos.
Not just as a cosmic reason or abstract word, but as the
personal eternal Word of God itself made flesh in Christ.
Who bridges our finite mess withinfinite love through
vulnerability on the cross and triumphant resurrection.

(04:53):
This is an incredible myth, perhaps the greatest myth
humanity has ever told. And there's a deep underlying
truth to it that is even deeper than literal truth can speak
alone. We need to speak and understand
things through stories, because stories are how we map out how
things can happen, all the different repercussions of
potential choices for the individual and for large

(05:15):
communities. So we need story to understand
life, how to interact with each other, and not just what life is
made of, as science can do, but how to be in life is what
spirituality, what religion grants us.
So this isn't a cold doctrine ordetached philosophy, but a
living invitation to transform suffering into purpose of that

(05:41):
myths and to lived truth in existential voids.
Those holes in our souls that we're trying to fill with all
of, you know, the junk food, thejunk TV, the distractions,
everything that we're trying to do distract ourselves from the
suffering that we're constantly feeling.
These things are always imperfect fillers.
You know, they're like artificial fillers that don't

(06:01):
actually give us the sustenance that we need to fill that void
truly. So the void is always left open
After we have that little prick of enjoyment from scrolling and
finding an interesting video fora second, we're right back into
the suffering and meaninglessness again.
So what is something that is pervasive, that is lasting?
That's what we're looking for, an an intimate dialogue with the

(06:23):
source of all being, offering even nihilists A defiant stand
against nothingness, atheists a rational yet relational ground
for existence, and secularists Ameaningful ethic beyond mere
choice and spiritual Wanderers, even a home where every longing
finds its echo and eternities embrace.

(06:45):
That is the subject of the essaythat we're going to dive into
today, guys. And we're going to break this
thing down paragraph by paragraph because David Bentley
Heart is indeed an incredibly challenging writer, but also
quite the enlightening writer. So here we go guys.
Thank you so much for tuning in today.

(07:06):
Hope you all are doing well out there.
Let's just jump right in. I found an audio reading of
David Bentley Heart's lecture, Christ and Nothing, and it's so
well done. I think this is going to help us
a lot in understanding this essay.
So let's go ahead and jump in. Without further ado, here we go.

(07:30):
Christ and Nothing by David Bentley Hart October 2003 As
modern men and women, to the degree that we are modern, we
believe in nothing. This is not to say, I hasten to
add, that we do not believe in anything.
I mean rather that we hold an unshakable, if often
unconscious, faith in the nothing or in nothingness as

(07:52):
such. It is this in which we place our
trust, upon which we venture oursouls, and onto which we project
the values by which we measure the meaningfulness of our lives.
Or, to phrase the matter more simply and starkly, our religion
is one of very comfortable nihilism.
This may seem a somewhat apocalyptic note to sound, at
least without any warning or emollient prelude, but I believe

(08:14):
I'm saying nothing. Not almost tediously obvious.
We live in an age whose chief moral value has been determined
by overwhelming consensus to be the absolute liberty of personal
volition, the power of each of us to choose what he or she
believes, wants, needs, or must possess.
Our culturally most persuasive models of human freedom are

(08:36):
unambiguously voluntarist and ina rather debased and degraded
way, Promethean. The will we believe is sovereign
because unpremised, free becausespontaneous, And this is the
highest good. And a society that believes this
must at least implicitly embraceand subtly advocate a very
particular moral metaphysics, the unreality of any value

(08:56):
higher than choice, or of any transcendent good, ordering
desire towards a higher end. Desire is free to propose,
seize, accept, or reject want ornot want, but not to obey.
Society must thus be secured against the intrusions of the
good or of God, so that its citizens may determine their own
lives by the choices they make from a universe of morally

(09:18):
indifferent but variably desirable ends, unencumbered by
any prior grammar of obligation or value.
In America, we call this the Wall of separation.
Hence the liberties that permit one to purchase lavender bed
clothes, to gaze fervently at pornography, to become a
Unitarian, to market popular celebrations of brutal violence,
or to destroy one's unborn childare all equally intrinsically

(09:41):
good, because all are expressions of an inalienable
freedom of choice. But of course, if the will
determines itself only in and through such choices, free from
any prevenient natural order, then it too is in itself
nothing. And so, at the end of modernity,
each of us who is true to the time stands facing not God or
the gods or the good beyond beings, but an abyss over which

(10:06):
presides the empty, inviolable authority of the individual will
whose impulses and decisions aretheir own moral index.
OK. So you guys might be seeing what
I mean. Now.
Talk about complex. SO in the first paragraph, we
see him talking about how modernpeople shaped by today's culture

(10:27):
don't believe in anything solid like God or higher transcendent
truths. Instead, they put their faith in
nothingness really at the idea that life has no intrinsic
deeper meaning. And this is thus like a religion
of nihilism. And we measure life's worth by
what we want, not by any greaterpurpose, right?

(10:50):
Yeah, and he mentioned the idea that, you know, the free will
and what is good as what is spontaneous, right?
This, you know, I can do whatever I want whenever I want.
And if you keep that from me, you're a horrible, evil person.
Because the best thing for a person to be able to do is be
able to do whatever they want, whenever they want,
spontaneously. Right.

(11:11):
Yeah. But that's not necessarily true
because sometimes what we want is not good for us.
No. And that's where, you know, a
little bit of temperance and like, yeah, control controlling
yourself. And you know, like, like
religions are not good. Religions do have, you know,
codes of ethics that if you liveby will train you to be more
mindful and and a little bit better at controlling your

(11:36):
demons. But yeah, that idea of the
spontaneity as freedom, right? You know, it's like, well, but
are you really free to choose orare you just being pulled by a
whim and not really in control of it?
You know, like it's a like a, like a compulsive issue, right?
You know, like, well, like addictions and stuff like that.
Those are compulsive issues as well.

(11:57):
Right. If we're able to determine
what's good or bad, then, you know, you can certainly argue
that it's a perfectly, you know,worthwhile survival technique to
employ things such as lying, stealing, cheating and robbing
people. I mean, that will help you
survive and. Maybe short term?

(12:18):
Short term, but I mean, you know, you could definitely argue
for that in a world where there is no greater ultimate sense of
meaning. This is why we need these
transcendent ideals. Yeah.
And, and, you know, in either situation, whether your morals
are from God or your morals are from man, you're still able to

(12:38):
decide what is, you know, right and wrong and good and bad.
But it's a question of where does that ability come from,
right? Does it come from something
transcendent or does it come from humans because we are so
wise and perfect creatures that came out of, you know, the
chaos, which I don't think it is.
Humans are not intrinsically quote UN quote good creatures or

(13:00):
just not look at look at 2 year olds.
They're horrible little, you know, mean hitting, biting,
scratching creatures. You got to get socialized to get
that out. Right now we're we're socialized
good creatures that are not actually like, I don't believe
humans are intrinsically good. I think humans living and being
alive and having the chance to do this is intrinsically.
Good. The great potential.

(13:20):
And also humans, our existence and our creation is good, but I
don't think by our nature we aregood.
Oh no, just like, you know, a kitten or a puppy that isn't
raised around 11 environments can.
Yeah, but puppy dogs are different.
We bred them to be just like ultimately good.
Oh, didn't that's. That is actually a really
interesting side note though, because dogs are like the best

(13:41):
of us. They really are the best of us,
and they actually tells us something really special about
ourselves, that we were able to transfer the best of ourselves
into another animal. Now, we haven't been able to
live up to it on the level that dogs have, but they are
subservient to us. Well, we should be doing that
with, you know, our kids, not not genetically speaking and
breeding speaking. I mean, just like relationally

(14:02):
doing that with our kids, makingthem the best part portions of
ourselves, right, or the next generation, you know, and that
is something that's socialized into you kind of like, you know,
the the ultimate moral coming from quote UN quote God, right?
Yes, through religion and traditional practices that gets
trained into you and socialized into you, right?

(14:23):
You know kids, if you don't, youknow, particularly young boys,
if you don't socialize them by the time they're four and they
don't become socialized, they'regoing to have a lot of problems
in. Life yeah, so we need these so
we. Need to be socialized and we
need to be socialized pretty early in our life, right?
And and and according. To an ultimate good that's
greater than all of us. And yeah, yeah, so moralized in
this. You know, that sounds horrible.

(14:43):
We're expecting the kids to liveup to the same ideals that we
live by, and we are subjugating ourselves to a higher will.
Well, so to speak. And if we're doing it right.
Others of us, they're instillingin their kids what they believe,
which is the, you know, just followed the selfish self.
The ultimate narcissism, I think.
Yeah, and, and you know, you can, you can see it and it's

(15:05):
sometimes not or most times it'sprobably not intentional.
It's not like the parents going out of their way to be like, oh,
I want them to be selfish, self-centered little people.
It's just by their actions, right.
So, you know, like if you look at if you look at Christianity,
it gives you the best example ofthe best human.
The ultimate archetype. Yeah, yeah, of of.

(15:28):
The type of goodness. Exactly.
So even even if you're not a Christian, you don't believe it,
still look at that. And that's what that is.
It's it's the, you know. We know this.
Jesus. God.
Perfect archetype on Earth and something to shoot for, even
though we'll never get there, right?
Yeah, yeah, because Jesus, was it almost like a perfect being.

(15:49):
Well, in fact, he. Was well, he was the perfect.
Being, you know, and so that, yeah, that is like you said,
something that we'll never be able to reach, but that's
something that we have infinite room to grow towards now.
So we can always get better as individuals and as a species.
So we have that transcended ultimate ideal.
I love that. So to to further summarize the

(16:09):
second paragraph that we were just going over here, let me
bring that back up. There we go.
So there's this big chunky paragraph here.
The focus on personal freedom asthe ultimate good means society
values individual choice above everything else.
To put succinctly what we were just discussing, in fact, people

(16:31):
think they're free when they canchoose anything, whether it's
buying stuff, following a religion, or making life and
death decisions without being tied to any higher moral moral
rules. It's like we're determining the
morality on our own, but this leaves us with nothing but an
empty will, staring in to a voidwhere no God or greater good
exists. We need that greater good to
Orient by. Yeah, and you mentioned very

(16:53):
early on it wasn't just a Portori.
What could? I don't have my glasses on.
Yeah, sure. Yep, this is it right here.
Hold on, I'm going to put on my ugly.
Glasses. Yeah, put on your glasses.

(17:13):
Hold on, spontaneous. No, no, it was further up.
It was more of relational. OK, so yeah, here.
Well, anyway, it was it was the idea of your, your morals and

(17:37):
ideals being a, I'm going to saya participatory relationship.
How to explain it? Well, anyway, now, hey, go back
and listen to this thing yourself and you'll see what I
mean. But it's you got to do it.
Basically, you got to you got towalk the talk as as, as we would

(18:01):
say in short, in order to be morally good, you have to walk
the morally good. You just can't talk about it,
think about it, or just have them as these separate ideals
that you can pick and choose from.
You got to do it. Yeah, yeah.
So and from we got a commenter here, Tom rocks how we doing.
What's up, Tom? Are we lads?

(18:22):
Hope we're doing good. We're doing good.
So David strips Christianity to an ethic.
No, no, not necessarily. I'm just trying to hold room for
people that aren't necessarily on the Christian bandwagon.
Or even the religious. And trying to explain it in a
way that's neutral. I know how that could seem like,
you know, a bit blasphemous, butI, I feel it's important to do.

(18:43):
We're trying to open the door toeveryone we possibly can with
these. Discussions, but but you're see,
the The thing is, is, well, OK, there there's a similarity
because an ethic is like an ethic is a written, agreed upon
thing that maybe not necessarilywritten, but agreed upon set of
behaviors that you're going to participate in according to a

(19:04):
moral value. I think Christianity points to
something higher than a just an ethic and there's certain
there's a Christian ethic that you can have, but that's not the
whole thing. The Christianity would be the
religion, the relationship between the people walking this
path and then there that worships and walks the path of
God and Jesus. Jesus.

(19:27):
Yeah, I know. Not just an ethic, but ethics,
you know, agreements are important.
I don't know. I'm not the best at explaining
myself. But something like that, you
know, there is a moral ethic that is very Christian that
comes from our God. Right.
And in the Bible, there's, it's,there's instructions on how to

(19:50):
walk the walk. And also in our traditions, you
know, because Christianity has, has done numerous evolutions and
revolutions and schisms and, andall that.
So there has been changes from the old days of, you know, just
after Jesus walked on the earth,you know.
Right. So for sure, I don't constantly

(20:10):
recapitulating our understandingof this relationship.
Yeah. Thank you for the comment, Dom.
Or or. Sorry, my name's David Soph.
I might have took that as me. Is this guy's name David as
well? Oh yeah, it actually is David
Bentley Hart. Well.
Maybe yet again, so I don't know.
No, I don't think he does. David does consider himself a

(20:31):
Christian, a follower of the wayof that one who walked from
Nazareth. But he also is, is making, I
think just as you were saying, an argument that's trying to
include as many vantage points and not push away from any, but
to actually make a less theological argument and more so
an actual pragmatic argument even.

(20:52):
Sorry about that whole explanation, but I think it
might apply within this. He's just more eloquent than I
am. Man, he's more eloquent than
both of us put together. Dude, yeah, just got, you know,
I, I barely got through high school English, so I'm lucky I
could read in West Virginia. Speaking of sentimental

(21:14):
Barbarians, So let's go ahead and jump back on in, guys.
Here we go. This is not to say that,
sentimental Barbarians that we are, we do not still invite
moral and religious constraints upon our actions.
None but the most demonic, demented, or adolescent among us
genuinely desires to live in a world purged of visible

(21:35):
boundaries and hospitable shelters.
Thus, this man may elect not to buy a particular vehicle because
he considers himself an environmentalist.
Or this woman may choose not to have an abortion midway through
her second trimester because thefetus at that point in its
gestation seems to her too fullyformed and she personally would
feel wrong about terminating it.But this merely illustrates my

(21:59):
point. We take as given the
individual's right not merely toobey or defy the moral law, but
to choose which moral standards to adopt, which values to
uphold, which fashion of piety to wear, and with what
accessories. So that's.
Not ethics or achievements. Apologies there.
So yeah, I think what he's saying there is a an individual

(22:25):
making their own ethics, making their own behaviors of agreement
according to their own choice ofmorality.
Yeah, ironically and ironically,even though we love our freedom
so much that we are trying to determine our own morality, we
still want have some want of moral and religious like
boundaries to feel safe. For example, someone might

(22:46):
choose not to buy a gas guzzlingcar because they care about the
environment. Or a woman might decide against
an abortion because it feels wrong to her.
These choices show we're not totally lawless, but we're still
but our our ideas are still based on personal feelings, not
universal truths. So the argument that David
Bentley Hart is making here is for universal truths, which I

(23:08):
think does go beyond ethics. Yeah, well, because it, it, it,
I, I could break it down like this.
This is the way I understand it is morals are what you think of
right or wrong. Your ethics are how you behave
within those ideas of what's right and wrong, you know,
because you can have business ethics statements that state
this is what we think is right and wrong and this is the

(23:28):
behavior that we're going to do according to that, right?
That's the way it was kind of explained to me and that's kind
of the way I go. Go about thinking about it,
right? You know, it could be wrong, but
it's kind of working out. So I'm going to go with it.
If you guys got better words please let me know.
Yeah, if anyone's got a better explanation of the difference
between morality and ethics thatwould that would be awesome.

(23:49):
I. Think they're, they're both
involved with each other, but they're distinct things, right?
Just like religion and faith, they're involved with each
other, but they're distinct things.
Let's let's see. Yeah, let, let, let.

(24:09):
Morals and ethics difference often used interchangeably but
have distinct differences. Morals refer to person's
internal sense of right and wrong influenced by their
upbringing, cultural culture, religion, and personal
experiences. It's more subjective.
It can vary across individuals and cultures.
On the other hand, ethics are the standards of behavior
established by a community, professional society.

(24:31):
So there, there you go, a littlebit more more objective.
Provide a framework for acceptable conduct within a
specific context. OK, that's helpful.
Yeah, we'll keep that handy. All right, I'm not a complete
idiot. I'm just a half wet.
Maybe we've become more whole. Yeah, yeah, man, that would be

(24:53):
like a funny, little like humorous skit.
You know, the the religion of the half wits.
They're like, maybe we come whole.
All right, fam, let's go ahead and let's continue.
Here we go, jumping back in. Betty, to where and with what

(25:13):
accessories? Even our ethics are achievements
of will, and the same is true ofthose custom fitted
spiritualities, New age, occult,pantheist, Wiccan or what have
you, by which many of us now divert ourselves from the
quotidian dreariness of our lives.
These gods of the boutique can come from anywhere.
Native North American religion, the Indian subcontinent, some

(25:37):
pre Raphaelite Grove shrouded inCeltic twilight, cunning
purveyors of otherwise worthlessquartz pages drawn at random
from Robert Graves, Aldous Huxley, Carl Jung or that
redoubtable old Arian Joseph Campbell.
But where such gods inevitably come to rest are not so much
divine hierarchies as ornamentalA taja, where their principal

(25:57):
offices to provide symbolic representations of the dreamier
sides of their voter is personalities.
The triviality of this sort of devotion, it's want of dogma or
discipline, it's tendency to find its divinities not in
glades and grottoes but in gift shops, make it obvious that this
is no reversion to pre Christianpolytheism.

(26:19):
It is rather a thoroughly modernreligion whose burlesque gods
command neither reverence nor dread nor love nor belief.
They are no more than the masks worn by that same spontaneity of
will that is the one unrivalled demiurge who rules this age and
alone bids its spirits come and go.
Wow. Which brings OK.
Wow, wow, wow, wow. Go ahead homie.

(26:40):
Well, we were talking about thiswas it?
Was it last week? But, you know, wearing, you
know, religions and things kind of like, you know, a fetish or a
badge or. Yeah, like an accessory.
Yeah, an accessory accessorizing, you know, like
the people who wear the chain with the cross, but you know.
Buffet Spirituality. You know, you, you ask them
about, you know, yeah, you ask them, you know, what's your

(27:02):
favorite Bible verse? Some of them be able to, you
know, say 1. But really it's like, OK, well,
what's that mean? And in context, what's that mean
to you? And how do you try to hold to
that a little bit more like, well, you know, yeah, I didn't
really get into it to think about.
That do you know, we typically just proclaim the belief, you
know, and that's that's the trick.
I think that it really is about following the way of being

(27:23):
rather than just merely proclaiming 1's belief.
That gets you, well, you're, youknow, that gets you there.
You're. Doing it, you're not just
wearing it or talking about doing it, you're doing it.
Well, that's why church is supposed to be a communion, so
we can practice it together. We can hold each other
accountable, measure ourselves according to, you know, the same
standards and. Well, and it would.

(27:45):
You know, it helps inoculate ourselves from the self
indulgent nihilism of I can you know, I can design the moral
value. When you're in a group of people
that all share the same moral value, it's a lot harder to get
away with the well, I can just make up my mind any which way.
It's the glue that holds a Society of guns.

(28:06):
And there's the, you know, the shame that comes from failing
your community or going outside your community.
But then also there's the, well,you know, anything better.
Is there a tradition of anythingbetter that can really help you?
Because there's not, there's nota tradition of picking and
choosing that's long, that works.
That's just taking, you know, little pins to put on yourself

(28:27):
of all the different religions and philosophies and stuff like
that. It's like you kind of have to do
it for long enough to know. You have to do it for long
enough to know what you're doing, right, You know, to know
that it is that that you are doing.
And if that is not what you're doing, that's fine.
But you got to know what you're doing and where you're getting
your morals and make it, you know, I don't like this word,

(28:47):
but concrete. Yeah, tangible.
You know and real in your life. You participated with it in your
life. Yeah, to form that participatory
relationship with it. Yeah.
And that's where it's, you know,like trying to explain say, like
a a religious or even like psychedelic experience.
Well, you kind of have to have done it or we're doing it to

(29:10):
understand. It to understand what someone to
really understand you know, we can tell you about.
The pretty colors and the visualvisuals or the seeing God or you
know, whatever. But like until you've like done
it and had something similar enough and then talked about it
with other people enough and then felt your own practice of
it, you don't really know so. Great analogy I heard once where
you can have learned everything there is to know about driving

(29:31):
the car by reading about it and people telling you everything
they know about the experience and what it feels like to drive
a car. But you don't know until you are
actually in the driver's seat feeling the car respond to you.
Do you know how a car actually feels to drive?
Or you can know everything thereis to know about Mexico without
ever having been there. But it's not going to be the
same as once you go to Mexico, you smell the environment,

(29:52):
you're around the people, you'rehearing everything you're
feeling that you're immersed in it.
So there's there's a very big difference there in in the way
that we can interpret reality. So even our spiritual beliefs,
like New Age practices or picking and choosing gods from
different cultures are just waysto express ourselves.

(30:13):
And these aren't serious religions with rules or deep
meaning. They're just like decorations
for our personalities, decorations bought from gift
shops, showing how our culture worships individual choice.
Above all, this has been an incredibly detrimental for us.
We see the rising sense of meaninglessness, the rampant,

(30:34):
the growth of division in our cultures, the societal breakdown
that is ongoing and occurring, the distrust and all the
prevailing systems of authority that we used to Orient by.
Yeah, and you know, it is, it issad too, because, you know, how
do you tell somebody like, you know, when your friends is going

(30:55):
off into these, you know, self worship, woo woo cults?
And how do you tell them like, hey, you know, that's not really
a good idea without like guilt tripping more, you know, them
feeling like you're angry at them or maybe maybe you are.
Maybe you're really close to this person.
You're angry that they're destroying themselves.
But I think we've all had friends that have gone like off

(31:16):
the deep end in one of these woowoo directions and it just
totally turned them into somebody else that wasn't them.
You know, The thing is, is what you believe and what you
participate directly changes you.
Absolutely. You know, so you can become a
different you by what you engagewith.
That's why it's, you know, I understand the hesitancy of

(31:38):
heresy in religions because whatyou do changes things, and what
you do with a lot of people changes the world.
Yeah, there's something deep andsacred.
Profound. Yeah, something deep.
Very careful. There's something very profound
here that we don't want to get ruined.
So we don't want anybody to touch anything.
But we still do need to be able to interpret and revivify our

(31:59):
understanding as of of these ancient spiritual traditions as
our cultures continue to evolve because we are recapitulating
our understanding of that relationship with the divine
constantly. And the the old cultural motifs
and ways of being are not today what they were, you know, 2000

(32:20):
years ago. So.
They're not the same they were two decades ago.
Even that, you know, you're right, you know?
Yeah. Much, much less, you know, the
time before the. Great wars.
I think our understanding of Godis growing up along with us.
Yeah. And it's, you know, God is the
infinite in the eternal of the omnipresent.
If it's always has been and always will be, there's always

(32:42):
going to be more to understand and more to know.
So we're never going to be done with that process.
I think that's beautiful. I think that's OK.
That gives me a lot more hope than like, either there's just
going to be nothing or you're going to go to heaven or hell
depending on how good you were, or you just go to heaven and
they're it's just, you're just sitting there on with Thrones on

(33:02):
robes, doing nothing but baskingin the light of God.
Yeah, that would be great for a bit.
But you know, I, I think the nature of humans, we're doers,
We do things, we have a purpose that we are trying to fulfill.
And I don't know if that stops even close in the light of the
glory of God. I think there's something else
that we got to do and infinitelygot to do.

(33:26):
You know, well, there's infinitely room for us to be
more than we are currently beingbecause the the, the great
misunderstanding is that we think we are the doer, whereas
we have a doer. Consciousness has a doer that it
gets to act through. So every one of us gets to act
through these egos, these personages, these images that we
project out into the world. But we're not the image.

(33:47):
We are what operates through that image.
We are the consciousness. We're.
Doing beings we're not. Yeah, right.
We're human beings, yeah. We do.
We do the thing. We're not just human doers, we
are human beings, and if we're doing from a place of having
mode only, then we're really missing the mark.
We're we're not going to be hitting the target of being
truly, fully present with each moment for that old archery term

(34:09):
sin to miss the mark, to be off a little bit, a little silent
comes into play. But I don't think there's
anything that that humans do that isn't doing.
You're sitting there at peace while you're doing something.
You're sitting there at peace or?
You're being, yeah, but being iseven deeper than that.
You're. You're communing with the light
of God because. You can be with.
You can be patient and loving while you're doing something.
No, no, it's interesting It yeah.

(34:30):
So like, and I don't necessarilymean doing in the sense of like,
you know, doing something and fidgeting doing, but like a
participatory state. We are act, we are actors on a
world stage. Yeah, we are participating in
something here. And I, and I do believe that God
causes us to. Actionable as well.
To Co create with them. Yeah, yes, absolutely.
Absolutely made in his image and.
That's what we're looking for isactionable hope.

(34:51):
We're not just looking for some naive kind of hope for the
future. We want something that we can
actually act on and take part inand do together.
And I do barely believe that thegreatest way to change this
world is to change it from the inside out by ourselves actually
living up to those ideals we wish.
We wish to see the rest of the world living up to.
So by by embodying a way or the way of being that Christ

(35:16):
exhibited, we can create that kind of more loving world that
we are looking for. So, yeah, so there we go.
So we're now on to paragraph 5 of this incredible essay.
Let's jump back in fam. Here we go.
The urge who rules this age and alone bids its spirits come and
go. Which brings me at last to my

(35:39):
topic. I am the Lord thy God, says the
first commandment. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. For Israel this was first and
foremost a demand of fidelity bywhich God bound His people to
Himself, even if in later years it became also a proclamation to
the nations. To Christians, however, the

(36:00):
commandment came through, and sowas indissolubly bound to
Christ. As such, it was not simply a
prohibition of foreign cults, but a call to arms, an assault
upon the antique order of the heavens, a declaration of war
upon the gods. All the world was to be
evangelized and baptized, all idols torn down, all worship

(36:21):
given over to the one God who inthese latter days had sent his
Son into the world for our salvation.
It was a long and sometimes terrible conflict, occasionally
exacting a fearful price in martyr's blood, but it was by
any just estimate of victory. The temples of Zeus and Isis
alike were finally deserted. Both the peon and the dithiram

(36:43):
cease to be sung, altars were bereft of their sacrifices, the
sybils fell silent, and ultimately all the glory,
nobility, and cruelty of the ancient world lay supine at the
feet of Christ the Conqueror. OK so this is where we start
getting really deep. When he's talking about idols or
having no other gods before me, he's talking about those

(37:05):
flippant whims and desires of ours where we put our own
self-interest. The question to ask.
Above everything else. Why would God make that
proclamation? I am your God.
There's no other gods of of me and and then tell us not to
worship them. Like, why is it just because
God's collecting people and, youknow, it's this, you know, God's

(37:26):
battling gods? Or is it you combat the
fractured and sometimes whim driven nature of the old gods
and trying to bring humanity together as a whole in love as
opposed to having, you know, a God for this, a God for this, a
local God here, a local God there, this thing over there,

(37:46):
this, you know, and you know, the pessimists would say that
that, well, they're the first globalists, right?
They want to, you know, make theglobe, you know, cuz like Jews
don't want everybody to become Jews.
That's not their thing. No, Christians want everybody to
become Christians, right? Or are going to try.
Yeah. And and we'll love you even if
you're not. But you know that's that's
that's the calling, right? I want to at least inspire

(38:08):
everyone to follow the way of that one.
Yeah, called Christ, but it it'sa rescue mission.
Yeah, right. That's that's the thing, you
know. Yeah, yeah, right.
Right. To rescue us from our
narcissism, from our selfishness, from our our pool
of the base or instincts. Our very fractured nature that
you know that that ego. Driven narcissistic nature that

(38:30):
that comes in when we're operated by operating by eyes of
fear, as Bill Hicks once said, as opposed to eyes of love.
And wasn't his Socrates, you know that he got in a lot of
trouble for basically saying, well, if the gods are to be
gods, they have to be perfect instead of flawed creatures?
And that's what the old gods were.
They were very fickle. In their nature, even, you know,
even in the Roman American gods,well, even early, I guess before

(38:57):
the Jews were the Jews, you know, they had their God and
other people had their God and there was competing gods.
And then Yahweh telling his people to go completely massacre
these other people that were burning babies at the altar, you
know, at altars and stuff like that.
And, and, and doing all that crazy stuff and then eventually
growing and to full on monotheism.

(39:20):
Grandest God, and then grandest God sacrificing himself and his
and his Son at the same time. For you, and what we have to do
is try and get to that God beyond God, that God beyond the
conceptions of God that we've come up with in the past to to
really start getting even close to that absolute source.
I think it'll probably keep going and.

(39:42):
It's going to keep going. We just need to make sure it
goes in the, you know, right direction.
I think love gives us a great way to Orient who might say
right. I hope it goes in the best
direction. Unconditional love, like Jesus
exhibited. I believe it's the way it
simplifies things drastically. When you're willing to be
unconditional, that means you'rewilling to take any kind of
thing in and love it all. Even if you don't choose it all,

(40:03):
you can love it all and understand where it's coming
from. You're willing to be more
considerate, which means you're willing to consider different
perspectives. Yeah, and it doesn't mean you.
Have to put yourself in more other people's shoes.
It doesn't mean you have to likeit not like them.
You know, you, you don't, you don't have to like your, you
know, sibling. No, but you love them it
certainly. Widens your awareness.
You know your consciousness of of reality and you can

(40:24):
understand where other people are coming from, what their
values are that they Orient by. Yeah.
So moving on guys. Yeah, jumping on to paragraph 6.
Now let's rock'n'roll. Nor for early Christians was
this mere metaphor. When a Gentile convert stood in
the baptistery on Easter's Eve, and before descending naked into

(40:47):
the waters, turned to the West to renounce the devil and the
devil's ministers, he was rejecting and in fact reviling
the gods in bondage to whom he had languished all his life.
And when he turned to the East to confess Christ, he was
entrusting himself to the invincible hero who had
plundered hell of its captives, overthrown death, subdued the
powers of the air, and been raised the Lord of history.

(41:10):
Life for the early Church was spiritual warfare, and no
baptized Christian could doubt how great a transformation of
the self in the world it was to consent to serve no other God
than him whom Christ revealed. We are still at war, of course,
but the situation of the Church has materially altered, and I
suspect that by comparison to the burden the first Commandment

(41:33):
lays upon us today, the defeat of the ancient pantheon and the
elemental spirits and the demonslurking behind them will prove
to have been sublimely easy. For, as I say, we moderns
believe in nothing, the nothingness of the will
miraculously giving itself form by mastering the nothingness of
the world. The gods at least, were real, if

(41:56):
distorted intimations of the mysterium tremendum, and so
could inspire something like holy dread or occasionally holy
love. They were brutes, obviously, but
often also benign despots, and all of us, I think, in those
secret corners of our souls where we are.
All monarchists can appreciate agood despot if he is
sufficiently dashing and mysterious and able to strike an

(42:18):
attractive balance between capricious Roth and serene
benevolence. Certainly the Olympians had
panache and a terrible beauty whose disappearance from the
world was a bereavement to obdurately devout pagans.
Moreover, in their very objectivity and supremacy over
their worshippers, the gods gavethe church enemies with whom it
could come to grips. Perhaps they were just so many

(42:40):
gaudy veils and ornate brocades drawn across the abyss of night,
death, and nature. But they had distinct shapes and
established cults, and when the mysteries were abandoned, so
were they. Getting dense now.
Yeah, and when he's talking about spiritual warfare, it's
not like fighting, you know, fighting and killing each other.
It's, well, it's, it's, it's thewar of the spirits within you,

(43:06):
you know, the, the ones that youwere subjugated to before and
then now this one that sacrificed himself for you, went
to hell to free you from the shackles of your, your
oppressors, you know? Presented quite a revolution to
the world. Oh, sure.
And yet again, participating in the freeing yourself of the

(43:27):
guilt. Yeah.
I'm a shame, you know? Yeah, you know, I guess British
gods create British experience for their worshippers.
You. Know, Yeah.
So the early Christians saw converting to Christianity as a
dramatic shift, like we were just pointing out, like joining

(43:48):
a spiritual war. In fact, when someone was
baptized, they rejected the old gods, seen as almost demonic,
and embraced Jesus as the ultimate victor over evil and
death. And this was a huge change, a
huge revolution, both personallyand for the world that people
lived in, in this in this time. And then the next paragraph,
that really challenging paragraph here.

(44:10):
Today Christians face a tougher challenge yet than faith, than
fighting ancient gods, because modern people now believe in
really effectively nothingness, the idea that only our own will
matters. Unlike the Old Gods, which at
least felt real and inspired a sense of awe, this belief in
nothing is harder to fight because it's shapeless, hiding

(44:31):
in our obsession with personal freedom.
Which seems like such a good thing, you know?
But limitless personal freedom? That means Joe Schmo down the
street might as well go rob, lie, cheat and steal to make
ends meet, because that's a perfectly viable survival.
You know, method of survival. Yeah, and I don't think you can

(44:53):
fight nothing, right. He really can't.
Yeah, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, punching free
air, right? You can't do that.
Yeah. But you can do things to pull
people away from the mall of nothing, right?
And that's not like, you know, Hey, you, you're gonna come to
church and do this with me. It's through inspiration.

(45:14):
It's to wake people up and, and,you know, have them look and be
like, wow, like, you know, I don't know what it is, but
something's working out for thisperson and they've really gotten
their life together. Particularly when you see
dramatic changes in people who've, you know, seen the light
and they actually like it fixes a lot of the really messed up
stuff in their life. It's like.
And that's just naturally there must be.
Something, something, yeah, inspiration is, I think, how you

(45:36):
combat nothing. And what's more inspiring than
God allowing us to kill him for us?
Wow. And then going to hell and
conquering that and then coming back.
Through the ultimate human suffering.
To say I know what it's like, I'm going to put an expression
of myself, my son, so to speak, but myself in human form through

(45:57):
the ultimate suffering imaginable for any human being
in history. And all we're asked to do is
just sacrifice. Sacrifice our hedonism and our
self-centered pleasure seeking. Or, you know, compulsiveness.
For for something as beautiful as love.
Yeah, you know that that was a much bigger sacrifice than what
we do. Satrinanda.
And, and actually stop the sacrifices.

(46:18):
So imagine, you know, you're poor and you're not able to
actually really give much to your God and you go there to
worship. And then you see all the things
that other people with more money than you can give.
And you all you've got is just, you know, half a half a loaf of
crusty stale bread. Oh, Jesus took rusty stale bread
and split it up and somehow magically fed a lot of people

(46:41):
with it. You know, it's a miracle,
miraculous. It's also A and a if it actually
happened, it was like the best odd meme.
It's like an A super deep allegory happening in real life.
Yeah. Or something so much even deeper
because it wasn't about others, you know, 5000 people that were
starving. Yeah, it's not just like.
No, you could do miracles, yeah.Yeah, no, it's.

(47:03):
But yeah, inspiring he. Could provide a sustenance that
was truly fulfilling. Oh so so the point about, you
know, the individual who doesn'treally have much and is shameful
over that sacrificing to a brutish God?
This is a totally inverse relationship, the most worthy
thing in the universe and all ofthe cosmos and everything
outside of that sacrificed everything for you, yeah.

(47:26):
Sacrificed itself for us. And that's the greatest
inspiration. It isn't just like, oh hey, we
owe him. What a flip of the script.
Yeah, yeah. It's a complete inversion.
Yeah, We don't have to sacrificechildren or cattle to appease
this thing anymore. It's it's actually it.
It will sacrifice itself for us.And it just wants us to be more
loving. Yeah.
And also, you know, if you, if you have a Community Church,

(47:49):
it's good to give back. If you can't do it monetarily,
at least you can you could, you could find something for
yourself to do to help your community and help, you know,
help your people one way or another.
Everybody can do, everybody can do something great that helps
somebody. You're able to do it even if
it's just being you. Amen.
The best you you can be. All right, fam, let's Trump back

(48:11):
in. Here we go.
How, though, to make war on nothingness, on the abyss itself
denuded of its mythic allure? It seems to me much easier to
convince a man that he is in thrall to demons and offer him
manumission, than to convince him that he is a slave to
himself and prisoner to his own will.
Here is a God more elusive, protein and indomitable than

(48:34):
either Apollo or Dionysus. And whether he manifests himself
in some demonic titanism of the will, like the mass delirium of
the Third Reich, or simply in the mesmeric banality of
consumer culture, his throne hasbeen set in the very hearts of
those he enslaves. And it is this God, I think,
against whom the first commandment calls us now to

(48:55):
struggle. Yes, yes.
Yes, yes, yes, dude, yeah. Wielded.
I love. That I think that's what we
would call Satan. And I've, I've said this before,
that the ego. The lesser Angel of our nature.
Yeah, if you were to, you know, the universe into a dual
universe, the ego would be in the realm of what we'd call

(49:16):
saving the separation, the self,this, you know, the, the
selfish, the the separated. Thing.
Right. So you know that this is Satan
that well, well, look at it, youknow, like look what, you know,
communism, all forms of socialism, even, you know, the,
you know, kings and, and Queens and emperors getting too big for
their britches and destroying the world.

(49:37):
Like we went through two world wars and then we fought a bunch
of other world wars and we're still fighting wars with each
other and it's getting more and more sophisticated.
And we've created, we've createdhell on Earth many, many times.
It's actually worse than hell because only guilty people are
in hell. There's innocent people in war.
And we keep doing it right. And it we'd, the way we wage war

(50:00):
right now is not a, is not just,you know, while there's some
people fighting because of theirreligion, but it's, it's not the
conquest of religion over another religion.
It's actually a lot of petty, petty individuals with a lot of
power trying to scheme and scheme and scheme to the point
where they're even turning countries against each other.
And then their people are just becoming sick because they're

(50:21):
just looking at themselves and scheming, scheming, scheming,
because this is what has been taught to be normal and good.
You should go seek your bliss and go get your degree so you
can have a little bit up on somebody else and go, you know.
Everything's appealing to our self-interest.
You see this in the commercials too.
Like you want to get those to readers and keep them to
yourself? You know who wants to share?

(50:42):
And then at the end, of course, they have to go.
Yeah, but here you go. Yeah, but Oh my goodness.
Yeah. And I'm not trying to complain
or nothing, but it's, it's, it'sreal where we're at.
Like, yeah. That's a concern.
Yeah, how we went through valid concern.
Like just where the hell are we almost 100 years ago to world
wars? That the most horrific thing

(51:06):
humans have seen ever? Yeah.
You know, you want to talk aboutmustard gas going across the
field and fostering gas and all that stuff and being in a
literal like barbed wire coveredhell hole.
The reasons we started having wakes and funerals at funeral
parlors instead of in our own living rooms, yeah, you know, is
because of how horrifically thisfigure, people were coming back

(51:29):
from World War One from the gas exposure.
Yeah. But you know, but The thing is,
yet again, you know, we have this God Jesus who died, went to
hell, crushed the head of the serpent and came back.
So there's there's hope of freeing us from this self
worship that leads to the most horrific things humans can
possibly do. Because an enlightened human

(51:49):
being, the ultimately enlightened human being, made
the ultimate sacrifice. Yeah, and you know, well, look
at, you know, like serial killers and and stuff like that.
You know, they tend to be sociopathic psychopaths, right?
They only care about themselves and and gratifying that thing
that gives them the most thrill.You know, it's all different

(52:11):
depending on the, you know, we're all kind of.
Getting dragged down that same road.
And so here's here's a quick summary again of that last
paragraph. The fight against modern
nothingness is tricky because Christianity itself accidentally
helped create it. By defeating the old gods and
changing the world, Christianityaccidentally cleared the way for

(52:32):
today's nihilism, where people reject all higher truths.
This makes the first commandments call to reject the
other gods even more urgent. Now we're talking about the gods
of narcissism, of self-interest,of our whims.
We kind of forgot about those gods and, and lost the faith,
the active faces to them and participation with them.

(52:53):
You know, the, the, the greed, the self centeredness, the other
things. And so we lost their faces, but
they're still, they're still lurking.
And then when we lose the face for God, now the lurking beasts.
Come forth. And come and.
Get you right and they can ravage.
And I, and I'm not crapping on pagans or anything like that.

(53:15):
I'm, I'm really not. But if you look into a lot of,
you know, well, depending on thePagan rituals, but I've been to
a lot of Pagan rituals and I've participated in a lot of Pagan
rituals. And when there are prayers for
things and you're doing things, it's it, it tends to be selfish
desire things, which is fine, you know, you know, family,

(53:38):
looking after my family and other stuff like that.
But it's a very baser, you know?It's either that or they're
borrowing from the Christian ethic.
We're wishing for the good of 1 and all and things like that.
Or. There too, and that's a very
Christian. And I'm talking about the
shallow Pagan thing, not like the people who are truly like
trying to get back down to something.
You know that. That's some primordial sacred
and. Real now I don't believe we can

(53:59):
get back to Eden. I think we've already been
kicked. We're we're constantly exiting
Eden and. We can't even do the old Pagan
isn't right anymore because we're not in those times or
places and. There's nobody alive left alive
or a tradition left alive to inform us.
So all we're left with it now ismaybe there were the benevolent,
you know, benevolent gods or thebenevolent morals that were in
there. But it's really easy to be

(54:20):
overtaken by the demons and the devils that are in there as
well, right? The self-interest, because you
need the ultimate. You need the ultimate unifying
ideal that that is above all things and all gods.
Yeah. And you know, I think, I think
you know, the demons and the devils and the baser things of
you are, are they serve a purpose.

(54:41):
You know they hook into you and then once you truly get rid of
them, they pull all that crap off you with them as you shed,
as you shed them. You know, it's not just working
on behalf of God, you know? Yeah.
Well, you know, if God created everything, God created the
lesser gods too that we worshipped.
Let's not forget that. Yeah, you need the opposites for
existence to work at all. So you're going to need hot and
cold to be able to have temperature, going to need happy

(55:02):
to have, we're sad to have happy.
It's the bitterness of light. Make the sweet time sweeter.
Light and dark. So, you know, I don't think that
there was, so to speak, a perfect in Eden in the very
beginning. No, but I think that's an ideal.
That's an idea of being closer to teaching story, and at one
with nature. Before.
That's what we mean by. Shifting us out of nature.
And you know, the Adam and Eve story is about human

(55:23):
civilization and growth and development.
That's, forgive me for being a heretic Christian here, but
that's what they're talking about, right?
That's what I feel in my heart of hearts.
And then I believe that when I read Genesis, that's what I'm
seeing. Yeah, I think we got a little
bit literalist along the way when we're trying to argue with
science as it was coming up in the 1700s, and we made a big
mistake and starting to treat these stories as something to be

(55:45):
taken literally, you know, because they're not saying what
the world is, They're saying howto be, you know, you don't need
to compete with science. Well, maybe it maybe out of.
Portion These are incredibly powerful, deep teaching stories
that are talking about deeper truths that can be conveyed with
mere simple gestures and sentences alone.
You have to tell them through story.
Well, perhaps maybe in our earlier stages of development

(56:09):
before we got, you know, super scientific and what's real and
what's not. You could take the Adam and Eve
story as literally and it would function just as.
Well, it would still function. As far as a story to get you
there and fine, but now where we're at, it comes to odds.
It's like, well, obviously. No, we know for sure.
Didn't come from just two people.
We're actually an admixture of afew different hominids that

(56:32):
weren't Homo sapiens sapiens as well as Homo sapiens.
And we can actually look at the bones and we're finding stuff
that's way older than 6000 yearsold.
And it wasn't because God is a precious trickster that just put
him down here to test our faith.That's sorry that's God didn't
put dinosaur bones here to test our faith people.
Or maybe he did. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm going

(56:54):
to hell for it. But I don't think so.
I think God created evolution, man.
I think God is sophisticated. The most complicated language
that replicates itself in infinitely different ways.
Come on. Yeah, you can create that, but
God, it's it's. Brilliant beyond measure.
So it's it's beautiful. I think it's a testament to God.
So. Yeah.
So how how to make a war on nothingness, Right.
Yeah. And on the abyss itself, on

(57:15):
emptiness. Yeah, and then you, well, you
inspire and you rescue. You fill it with the love, man,
Yeah. I've been talking to mini
screen. Well, at least you guys could
read it a lot more. Right.
Yeah, I. Get to talk and I forget to
press the buttons. So let's, I think maybe we have
time to do one more paragraph and then we'll go ahead and
we'll jump to the good news. OK.

(57:38):
We're at about an hour now I believe.
Yeah, just about. Yeah, what's up everybody in the
chat, thank you for tuning. And if you have any thoughts or
questions, feel free to share them.
We'll make sure we cover them before the cast.
If you got any good news, put down the chat, we can always use
more good news. Heck yeah.
Absolutely. All righty.
Jumping back to David Bentley hearts essay Christ and nothing.

(57:58):
Here we go. However, a complication even to
this, as Christians we are glad to assert that the commandment
to have no other God when alliedto the Gospel, liberated us from
the divine onsion regime, or that this same commandment must
be proclaimed again if modern persons are to be rescued from
the superstitions of our age. But there is another, more

(58:22):
uncomfortable assertion we should also be willing to make,
that humanity could not have passed from the devotions of
antiquity to those of modernity but for the force of
Christianity in history. And so, as a matter of
historical fact, Christianity, with its cry of no other God, is
in part responsible for the nihilism of our culture.

(58:42):
The Gospel shook the ancient world to its foundations, indeed
tore down the heavens, and so helped to bring us to the ruin
of the present moment. The word nihilism has a complex
history in modern philosophy, but I use it in a sense largely
determined by Nietzsche and Heidegger, both of whom not only
diagnosed modernity as nihilism but saw Christianity as
complicit in its genesis. Both, it seems to me, were

(59:05):
penetratingly correct in some respects, if disastrously wrong
in most, and both raised questions that we Christians
ignore at our peril. Nietzsche's case is the cruder
of the two, if in some ways the more perspicacious.
For him, modernity is simply thefinal phase of the disease
called Christianity, whereas thegenius of the Greeks, so his

(59:25):
story goes, was to gaze without illusion into the chaos and
terror of the world and respond not with fear or resignation,
but with affirmation and supremeartistry.
They were able to do this only on account of their nobility,
which means they're ruthless willingness to discriminate
between the good, that is, the strength, exuberance, bravery,
generosity, and harshness of thearistocratic spirit, and the

(59:48):
bad, the weakness, stability, timorousness, and vindictive
resentfulness of the slavish mind.
And this same standard noble wisdom, for want of a better
term, was the foundation and mortar of Roman civilization.
Christian. OK, well so as far as the part
where OK, so Christianity being responsible for bringing us into

(01:00:11):
modernity and then eventually collapsing in a nihilism, you
can see it like this. Christianity killed off the old
gods and then we killed the onlyGod.
And what are we left with ourselves, Right.
And I don't mean like literally,like, you know, God went
anywhere, but, you know, startedkilling off our relationship

(01:00:32):
with that source. And now and though it was, I
believe, necessary for Christianity to happen for our
species to get where we are now,which is pretty cool.
We can go to the moon. We can do a lot of really good
things and not just blow ourselves up, right?
And, you know, look at modern medicine.
If it was, I'm sorry, you know, if it wasn't for modern
Christianity and their university system.

(01:00:54):
Wouldn't have had their. Mouse and all that.
Yeah, we wouldn't have modern medicine now, mind you.
We'd have, you know, healers andother people.
So the deep search for truth inspired universal teaching
schools. Well, the scientific revolution
that kind of destroyed our faithcame from Christianity.
So yeah. And then when we as societies
that decided to kill our relationship with God and it

(01:01:16):
happened in stages, like one of the stages would be, you know,
the move to SEC secular governments, right?
You know, keeping all religion, morality out of, you know, the
government. You know, there's the government
and the physical stuff, and thenthere's the woo woo.
Yeah, it can inspire the government, but it can't rule
over governance. Yeah.
So we have to. There's that which is so.
People can have a freedom of styles of worship.

(01:01:38):
Yeah. And then a lot of trauma.
So these are all necessary growing pains, it feels like.
Well, as long as we can go back and revivify and maybe the
second coming of Christ again, you know what I mean?
Instead of just a, you know, guyfloating out of the sky with a
sword, you know, a sort of a tongue, you know, glowing down
from the sky. Maybe that's more of, you know,

(01:02:01):
using our wisdom, using our tongue, the harsh.
Judgment of karma is going to come back on us also, I think is
what the sword signifies. Well, that and also the power of
speaking and communicating. And now we have, you know, we
could talk our loyal viewers. I don't know where you are in
the world, but I guarantee you that you're not all located
within hearing distance from me,but I can still communicate with

(01:02:24):
you. That's a pretty powerful.
Tom and the symbol of the holy sword is also a symbol of
cutting through the veils of ourillusions.
Yeah, yeah. So there's a yet again, we so we
have to real live as Christians.I think that's our that's our
responsibility. Yeah, resurrect.

(01:02:44):
So instead of, you know this, you know, condemning people who
don't follow us and our our way or refusing to talk about all
the other thing, you know, otherbeliefs and ideas in the world
that are also still pointing to the same thing and and and and
and just boxing ourselves. And instead of doing that, we
need to inspire. We need to let that ultimate
source of love itself live through US and awaken through

(01:03:07):
US. Yeah.
And go out, go out into the world and do that to the extent
that you can, right? Right.
Yeah. And I think that's what missions
are supposed to be, you know, not just the nice thing to go to
some other country and, you know, build a well or something
like that and then proselytize just to spread the face the
faith as a as not spreading the faith to conquer the demons or

(01:03:30):
the other faiths, but spreading the faith in inspiration,
showing a better way for humans to be.
Because they're again and. If it is truly a better way,
people will naturally pick up onit and God will come alive
again. The 2nd, 2nd coming of Christ,
essentially. So operating from love rather
than fear. Yeah, again, I may be wrong
about this. As far as you know, when it

(01:03:51):
comes to revelations and all that, all that stuff.
I may be wrong. I don't know.
I've admitted before I'm a heretic.
I get it. And I've mentioned before I'm,
I'm willing to go to hell if I'mwrong because I think this work
is very, very important. And it need, we need to talk
about this. We need to evolve our
relationship with God because we've been evolving our

(01:04:12):
relationship with ourselves and against God for a while now.
And it sucks and it's getting pretty hairy out there.
Folks. I don't know if you've noticed
this world all around the world seems to be in quite a bit of
chaos. Yeah, you know, it's still good.
Life is still good and you know your day to.
Duty is still there everywhere you look.
There, there is still good everywhere, even in the middle

(01:04:33):
of war. I think that's still.
Taking grace, there's people there can be good even though
we're not. It's a miracle that we haven't
launched nuke the nukes that we have for over a half century at
this point, and they're all there on the.
Hair. No, but aliens disabled the man.
It's the aliens. We're always looking for some
secret knowledge to feel like we've got a handle, aren't we?
Well, isn't that the allure of the, you know, the Hermetic, the

(01:04:56):
Hermetic cults, you know that we've got this sealed up
knowledge and we know about knowledge.
You know, we can cue you in for,you know, 10 donations OF119999.
Yeah, you can know what the the stupid goyum the dumb mess is.
The cattle don't know you can bea part of the elite.
And we'll teach you these funny little hand shapes that don't
really actually do anything. Like this is for everybody.

(01:05:18):
Yeah, right. That's the big difference.
Wow, that that's that's the mostdangerous cult.
It pulls everybody in. Well then it's not a cult if it
pulls everybody in, definitionally speaking.
Right now, it can be. Practice cultishly.
It can definitely be. Well, very early on, poorly
employed, there's very early. On people, that was, yeah.
It was the cult of Jesus, right?You know those guys, the
followers, the anointing one, the.

(01:05:39):
Followers of the way, Yeah, so. Yeah, it it can be.
And there's definitely quite a few denominations of culty
Christianity. Sure.
And just. Just like, you know, Islam and
same thing with Judaism, they'vegot their culty practices.
Same thing with the pagans, they've got their same thing,
you know, it's. People live failing to live up
to even the ideals of the very thing they profess continues to

(01:06:00):
occur. So philosophers like Nietzsche
and Heidegger saw modernity's emptiness as tied to
Christianity, and in this they seem to be correct.
Nietzsche thought Christianity weakened noble values, leading
to weak comfortis or conformist culture.
Heidegger saw it as part of a long Western trend of forgetting
the mystery of existence, reducing everything to control

(01:06:22):
and technology. Both partly blame Christianity
for today's nihilism, and David Bentley Hart agrees with
Nietzsche and Heidegger to an extent, but says that they
missed the real reason Christianity Christianity led to
modernity's nihilism. Christianity didn't cause
emptiness by being weak. It was so powerful that it

(01:06:43):
exposed the flaws and ancient beliefs, tearing down their
illusions and leaving us with noshelter except faith in Christ
or nothing at all. It gave gave us the power to
expose the flaws even in the ancient and modern
interpretations of Christianity in the institutional church.
And we really pulled the rug outfrom underneath ourselves here.

(01:07:06):
But I think that that is anotherpart of the growth process, that
now we get to practice the art of love, not against these old
fickle gods in the face of theseold fickle gods, but in the face
of this pervading nothingness that is coming at us like Go
Mork in the Never Ending story. Yeah, and we've.
Lost hope. And that's why those that want
power can gain more control by appealing to our baser

(01:07:30):
instincts. Well, I think Nietzsche got a
touch of that baser instinct pulled into because I think the
reason why I may be wrong with my interpretation of Nietzsche
and the reason why I thought Christianity was weak is because
it aimed to bring the weak, the downtrodden, the broken,
everybody into this fold. Whereas you know, the, the, you

(01:07:51):
know, the old Greek idea was, you know, exuberance, being
virile, being strong, having a strong will, being able to
decide what's right and what's wrong and be very for, you know,
being have, have force in what you do.
Whereas Christianity was, you know, just a bunch of weak
people, weak minded people that just wanted to be comforted.

(01:08:11):
You know, you comfort the sick and the, the invalids and all
that stuff. But what Christianity was
actually doing was making a muchstronger hole out of even the
weak portions. It wasn't just to exclude
everybody who isn't the strongest, because that's not
very strong. You know, you need.

(01:08:34):
Well, for this to work as humanity, we do need to also
embrace our weakest links as well.
Because we're not a freaking chain.
You know, we're not just this chain.
You remove the weak links and you got the strongest chain
where we're an infinitely complex web of spider, you know,
spider silk, right? Where there's, there's really

(01:08:55):
strong chains and there's weak chains and they all support each
other and give shape to each other.
You know, the, the hero, the hero isn't just, you know,
shaped because he's a hero and he does these heroic things.
He's he's shaped by the eyes of the people he's doing the things
for, right? You know, Hercules had to go,
you know, you know, he had to goto, you know, all these

(01:09:17):
different places and do all these tasks and he was tasked
with all these things to do it for these people and conquer
these things, you know, and the monsters within himself to
become the hero. He So he's shaped by the very
weak people that aren't heroic. Just like, you know, you got the
strong strands of your spider web and then the weaker ones.
They all go around and they all serve the purpose and it works

(01:09:37):
together. Wow.
That's what that's what humanityis.
If you look at our genetic history or freaking spider web
across the planet too, so great enough physically as well as
spiritually and socially, we're kind of that's kind of what
Christianity is and it's a very strong web.
If it's only made out of this, this suspension parts of the
web, well, it wouldn't be very good.
It wouldn't be able to catch thefood.

(01:09:57):
It wouldn't, you know, like, butanyway, yeah.
So I, I think Nietzsche was wrong that Christianity is weak
because it was just, you know, the downtrotted people and we've
become lazy and all that stuff. Where I think Christianity
failed, right, where I really think it failed is, you know,
it's, it's schisms. It's what humans do.

(01:10:19):
We get, we get too big for our britches and then we start doing
stuff that's, you know, not the greatest.
And then we break apart because people disagree or somebody
decides to try something new. And instead of being in
communication with each other, we just shut each other off, you
know, you know, the, the Orthodox and the Catholics were

(01:10:40):
one church at one point in time.It split.
You know, the Catholics in the Protestants were one church at
one time and it split. Then all the denominations down,
the infinite amount of denominations at this one time
were all originally started with, you know, one guy and a
bunch of his pals that decided to follow him on this huge
adventure, you know, so. And we allowed ourselves to get

(01:11:06):
taken over the freaking nihilists.
And not we as Christians, but wejust in general, like as people,
we, we've gotten taken over by nihilists and it's infectious.
Yeah. It's like, oh, look at me, I'm
not. I'm inspirational because
nothing bothers me. Yeah.
I use a little bit of stoicism so I don't immediately show my
emotions, but you know, I mean, you don't got to worry about

(01:11:27):
that. Oh, that guy's so cool.
Look at me. He doesn't care.
He's got the the hair swoop and the whatever.
That guy's cool. Yeah, that.
Calls back really well to that courageous kind of brazen, noble
ISM of the noble Romans, so to speak, where David Bentley heart
states the genius of the Greeks,So Nietzsche's story or

(01:11:51):
interpretation goes, was to gazewithout illusion into the chaos
and terror of the world and respond not with fear of
resignation, but with affirmation and supreme
artistry. They were able to do this only
on account of their nobility, which means they're ruthless
willingness to discriminate between the good, that is, the
strength, exuberance, bravery, just generosity and harshness of

(01:12:13):
the aristocratic spirit and the bad, which to them was weakness,
stability, timorousness, and of course vindictive resentfulness
of the slavish mind. So that standard for noble
wisdom or want of a better term was the foundation of mortar of
Roman civilization. Of course, those nobles were
only able to be the way they were because they had slaves and

(01:12:35):
servants, and Christianity is coming along and saying that
even the slave is worthwhile. Well, The thing is so.
It's a it's completely turned the world upside down.
Well, valuing the. Despotic kings were now held to
a higher standard. They couldn't establish the
standard themselves. And The thing is, is, is you
know that belief that you know the good is, you know the

(01:12:55):
strong. All those definition words that
I can't remember. Sorry guys, I'm tired.
I've been in the sun, but that works for there's a small amount
of very willful people that are willing to push, but it doesn't
work well for everybody. No, it's not very uniting

(01:13:16):
because it's kind of like you have it and you're good or you
don't and you're just scum. Now, resentfulness is bad.
We all can get in that. But that doesn't mean you hate
the resentful person. You actually just show them a
better way than being resentful,Right.
And while it went out, how did this weird little, you know,
death cult, you know, worsham this, you know, poor dude from

(01:13:39):
Nazareth go all the way around the world, you know, well,
basically took over, took over Rome and Rome took over a lot of
the world and then went even went even further than Rome.
You know, there's, there's, I'd,I'd bet you there's, there's,
there's Christians on every continent, even Antarctica.

(01:14:00):
You know, some of the scientistsmight be Christians or at least,
you know, raised within the Judeo-christian framework, you
know, upbringing, at least in the West, you know, Yeah.
They're everywhere. It's pervasive, you know.
Yeah, and and it. But we kind of dropped the ball
spread for a reason. And we kind of need to pick the
ball back up and real live God. We need to continue, yeah, we

(01:14:21):
need to continue to revivify andresurrect and further expound.
No further describe further enact this ideal of
unconditional lovingness towardseverything and everyone.
Even if we disagree, we still can hold love in our hearts and
that changes the game completely.

(01:14:44):
So let's do some good news, fam.It's the good news roundup.
We do this every single weeks. There's enough bad news in the
world. We could be talking about
Epstein or Iran or this or that,but we're not quite a political
podcast. You know, we get into it
sometimes we dabble, but we're really trying to focus on what
is going to actually help us navigate these chaotic times

(01:15:07):
most effectively. And we do barely believe, as we
say, that most effective way to change this world is to change
it from the inside out by changing ourselves and being
that change we wish to see. So anyways, some good news for
the week. Personally, This is cool. 10 out
of 10 patients with congenital deafness have hearing restored

(01:15:29):
in children's gene therapy trialThat's incredible. 10 out of 10
A trial investigating the potential for a gene therapy to
correct congenital deafness in children and young adults saw
all 10 participants gain auditory ability and allowed
them to hear the sound of falling rain or their mother's
voice for the first time ever. The younger patients, especially

(01:15:52):
those between the ages of five and eight, responded best to the
treatment. One of the participants, A7 year
old girl, quickly recovered almost all of her hearing and
was able to hold daily conversations with her mother
four months afterwards. Roughly 200,000 people worldwide
are deaf due to a mutation in a gene called OTOF, which was the

(01:16:14):
target of the therapy. These mutations cause a
deficiency of the protein auto. However, you say that
Ottoferlin. Ottoferlin, which plays a
critical part in transmitting auditory signals from the ear to
the brain. The gene therapy also involved
using a synthetic adeno associated virus to deliver a

(01:16:34):
functional version of the OTO web gene to the inner ear via a
single injection through a membrane at the base of the
cochlea called the round window.That's so cool.
Hearing improved in all 10 patients from ages 1 to 24, and
the treatment was well tolerated.
This is and here is from the study published in journal
Nature Medicine. This is a huge step forward in

(01:16:57):
the genetic treatment of deafness, one that can be life
changing for children and adults, says Mali Duan, a
consultant and docent at the Department of Clinical Science.
I don't know how you say that Word docent or docent at the
Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology in
Sweden, whatever that is. And one of the studies,
corresponding authors, OK, so onand so forth.

(01:17:20):
That's so exciting. That's so cool.
Yeah, and interesting technology, gene therapies
distributed by viruses as carriers for replacement genes
for defective genes. Now we have to be careful though
because we don't want to create some crazy like super mutant
virus stuff. Yeah, these these things are all

(01:17:40):
double edged swords. Yeah, right.
Yeah, so this is cool. I like this solitary rescuer
leads 165 children to safety during recent Texas floods.
The. Rescue swimmer.
Yeah, yeah, man. And and and yeah.
And this guy was the most humble, too.

(01:18:01):
You know, he didn't take any bragging rights or nothing.
He, he, he should look up the interview with him 100.
And 65 people, man, they should make a movie about this.
A little known Coast Guard officer has been hailed as a
hero after rescuing 165 people from the Texas Hill Country
floods. Eddie officer and rescue swimmer
Scott Ruskin, a native of New Jersey, was on the scene when

(01:18:22):
the Guadalupe River rose dramatically, causing flooding
after 5 to 11 inches of rain fell in a very short amount of
time. It was his first rescue mission,
but he he must have remained calm and reactive as he
responded to search and rescue calls at Camp Mystic, a girls
summer camp right in the path offlooding.
This was such a tragic story. All those poor, poor girls and

(01:18:43):
families flying to the camp and the helicopter.
Ruskin said he saw a huge crowd of about 200 kids at a campsite.
We were like, cool, that's wherewe're going to go and get out as
many people as we can, Ruskin told Fox.
Later interviewed by CNN, Ruskinsaid the conditions for flying
produced by Tropical Storm Berrywere some of the worst he's ever
seen, and the pilot needed four attempts before he could even

(01:19:04):
land the helicopter. My God, there was no other way
to get them out, said Ruskin. Bridges were gone, roadways were
gone. The water was coming up too high
for boat rescue, cell service was bad, radio reception was bad
on my calm, so I really didn't have any communication with the
outside for about 3 hours. Despite not knowing what was
going on around him, he remainedfocused and LED 165 people,

(01:19:27):
mostly children, in groups of 10to 15 to Army helicopters which
would airlift them to high ground.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem called
him an American hero in a post on X.
Though like all good heroes, Ruskin said he was just doing
his job, one that anyone could have done.
And you know, it's funny how like people will do that.
We'll jump in front of a bus to rescue a perfect stranger.

(01:19:49):
Well, that's that's that's the good news that shines through
US. Even though we're not
biologically speaking program tobe good, there's something much
deeper that shines through. That we are biologically
programmed to have the capacity for love, and as soon as that is
opened within us, it shines. Well, and it's also duty too,
you know, like. And it shines out effortlessly.
A person jumps in front of the bus without thinking or trying,

(01:20:09):
or lifts the car off of the person.
Yeah, and I think this was actually this, this guy's first
rodeo too. So it wasn't like he's had a
whole bunch of experience. He was just trained up to do
this thing. And then his first point to go
rescue people, he just went ahead and did it.
Oh, yeah. You know, it's but the sense of
duty, you know it. So in the interview I saw with

(01:20:31):
him, though, you could tell you,you know, he was proud of being
in the Coast Guard and the responsibilities of duties,
being in there, being a protector, being able to
actually do good. And we downplay duty a lot in
this is in society now, like, well, how dare you say I have a
duty to do something? It's like, well, First off,
duty, like a duty to do something is empowering.
It's not oppressive if it's onlyimpressive if you're lazy and

(01:20:52):
self-centered. Yeah, it's it's it's very
powerful if you're not. Absolutely, yeah.
That's why we of course, in a system of self governance, have
the duty to watch this government like Hawks and well,
try and keep ourselves from becoming partisan to the point
that we can no longer be objective and see beyond our own
inherent. Biases.
Well, if we're going to be anything like a democracy or a

(01:21:13):
Republic or something where the citizenry has a say, we, we have
a duty, power and responsibilityto inform ourselves, keep our
anger under control, not be so compulsive with things.
And then also when something is truly wrong, express it.
And then you express it in a healthy way that actually will
make a change, not just, you know, to.

(01:21:34):
Start a conversation. Stuff and make a riot and you
know, like, do stuff. Like that to start a
conversation on what can we do to solve this together rather
than just win an argument, Yeah,you know, win a debate.
Oh, and don't forget people. You can talk to your state
representatives and your federalrepresentatives.
So if you're that type of person, go ahead, you know,
write them a bunch of emails anda bunch of physical notes.

(01:21:55):
Nasty ones, but. They do still have a lot more
influence, especially over our local politics, than we give.
Credit. Well, now with social media, you
just blow them up on X and a bunch of people blowing them up
on X and then bada Bing bada boom.
We are far more powerful. Oh yeah, Then we, yeah, we got
this special device together. Cell phone that we can really
interact. Yeah, so here's something.

(01:22:17):
At long last, lint finishes replacing 11,000 lead pipes,
concluding activists decade longeffort to secure clean water.
So hey, that's one city down. If there were one place in
America where you decline a glass of tap water, it would be
Flint, right? Wrong.
I still would. Decade after lead contaminated
water was found to be in the Michigan city's water system,

(01:22:40):
the legal battle to replace leadwater pipes is nearly finished.
Home service by lead water lineshave which have not been
replaced are either vacant, abandoned or owned by the
citizens who opted out of the free change to copper lines
mandated in the 2017 court settlement.
The Flint water crisis, of course, beginning in 2014 after
lead contaminated drinking waterwas found to be leaching out

(01:23:03):
from aging pipes into homes citywide, American Civil
Liberties Union and National Natural Resources Defense
Council, with the help of other activists and nonprofits, have
released statements on the recent progress celebrating the
milestone. Hey, it's good to see the
American Civil Liberties Union still doing actual good work
like it used to. Among the causes of the crisis,
the statements mentioned cost cutting measures and improper

(01:23:25):
water treatment, and that the state didn't require treatment
to prevent corrosion after a state appointed emergency
manager switched the water supply to the Flint River.
There's no safe level of lead exposure.
Of course, each nanogram causes harm.
In addition to long known risks,such as damage to children's
brains and certain cancers, there's also significant
evidence that exposure to lead is linked to numerous

(01:23:47):
cardiovascular diseases, including stroke and heart
attack. So the coalition mobilized the
citizenry and filed A lawsuit. And it friggin worked.
Good news. And bug them enough.
The one thing that kind of considers me not to be a Debbie
Downer or nothing about that, but yeah, a lot of abandoned
buildings and other stuff that they didn't change the pipes.
Well, if you have pressure problems and and water goes out,

(01:24:10):
you you can have back flows and stuff.
So I wonder what the God. I wonder if they're like sealed
off so that off, you know, like like because if they're not and
they're just left there and it'slike, well, it's not running and
nobody's dealing with that's a. Really good question.
Well, because they tell you likeafter your water goes out like
for a while you need to boil your water before you drink it
because of those you know back flows because.
The back flows. And nasty stuff can get in and

(01:24:33):
wow, yeah. So I hope the right people
asking the right question. Yeah, well, that's the thing,
you know, my, my, my step into local politics and trying to
fight against massive corporations stealing their
water or, you know, putting industrial sized manufacturing
facilities in Jefferson County, West Virginia kind of went like

(01:24:54):
this. There's a few people that did a
lot of work to get information out there.
And then there's a lot of peoplethat bombed onto a cause and,
and just got emotional and not enough people actually coming up
with proper plans to offer to, you know, to make change happen.

(01:25:16):
A lot of fighting, a lot of infighting, a lot of not knowing
what you know they're talking about.
So when you do talk about it, you make the cause the cause
look foolish, or you lose the argument with your
representatives. You can't just demonize.
You can't just take partisan takes you.
You really have to go a. Lot deeper and open an actual
dialogue. Yeah.
And you need to make sure that the effects are going to be what

(01:25:37):
they are. And like now with the Rockwell
that's here, one thing that kindof irritates me is I hear people
complain about it, but it's like, well, there were sensors
by the schools and the surrounding area to make sure
that these certain compounds that they don't want going out
into the atmosphere aren't in higher than what is allowed by
the regulations that were put inplace.

(01:25:57):
Like has anybody checked those to make sure that they're not?
That's a good question. And the main issue, would that
kick the whole thing off? And this is what is really effed
up about the Rockwall. The public notice happened on a
Friday night right before midnight before a week and so
that people would not have chance to respond and then it
was voted on the next Monday morning or.
Halfway. And the public had no idea.

(01:26:18):
And in the magazine that nobody reads, yeah, yeah, the spirit of
Jefferson County or whatever that was, there was something
with this mountain pure water water plant where they want to
suck up Jefferson County's water, but they're going to put
it on basically a brown site. It hasn't been declared a brown
site, but it was an old, oh, what's that company that makes
all the, like, DuPont? No, not DuPont, but makes all

(01:26:39):
the mask 33M an old defunct 3 M facility as a bloom of a bunch
of really nasty stuff that you don't want.
But the other thing is we live in a car topography in the
eastern Panhandle. So like if you take water out,
you get sinkholes lot of sense up.
Also if you poison one part you don't know where it's going to
go because it's super complicated and other stuff and

(01:27:02):
people weren't told about it until until palms were greased
and you know everything was going on.
Hey, what do you know, we did get into politics.
Well, yeah, but I guess I guess what I'm saying is they're very
complicated. You need to keep yourself
informed. And actually the same thing goes
with your faith and your practices as well.
You need to be diligent and you need to get in it.
That's your duty. You need to participate with it
because you can't just free rideon any of these systems, whether

(01:27:24):
it's spiritual, government. Well, your computer systems, you
know, you got to make sure that you participate with them
properly and don't go clicking on random stuff.
You know, remember when you had to watch out for pop ups and you
go to try to like click on the exit out of the site that had
too many pop ups coming up, but then right at that moment a pop
up would come right up, right upover that spot.

(01:27:45):
And it was. Oh my.
God, you know, so participate, It'd be great spend a little
less time arguing and demonizingthe other and more time talking
and postulating and you know, and you know, sometime arguing,
but you know, there's good arguing.
I've had friends where we just enjoy yelling at each other
sometimes, you know, just get back.
Rest your soul, Mr. Bill. But I loved yelling with you.

(01:28:09):
We used to have some howlers too.
All righty. So I think we'll save the story
of the magpie for next episode. This one is so cool, though,
guys, I can't wait to share it with you.
This is a hilarious, really inspiring kind of little.
It's it's miraculous. It's it's an it's an intriguing
story. So next week in the good news

(01:28:30):
roundup, we got something out special for you guys.
Thank you guys so much for tuning in once again to this
episode of meaning making one O 1, where we make sense of this
world together here on actual live podcast.
I've been Chris. I've been DJ.
Thank you guys so much for tuning in.
We'll see you next time. Peace out fam.

(01:28:51):
Let's dance our way on out of here.
Eventually I have a button that does that, but for now we have
to do it old school style. Where is my magic folder with?
There it is. There it is.
Here we go. Let's go.
Let's dance. Oh.
Yeah, love you guys. Actual I That's right, two of
them, but not spelled. I spelled EYE.

(01:29:15):
That's not the name.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}God or Nothing: Why Modernity Worships the Self [ Pt. 2 ]

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

All Episodes

God or Nothing: Why Modernity Worships the Self [ Pt. 2 ]

Stuff You Should Know