In this episode of Breakfast with a Heathen, Mike answers real questions from listeners about debating religion, losing friendships, and navigating those awkward “bless your heart” moments. From being told you’re “taking scripture out of context” to realizing you never truly believed, this discussion explores how atheists and agnostics experience conversations with the faithful.
He also unpacks the emotional side—grief over lost friendships, the desire for belief, and the strange mix of humor and tension when religion lingers in daily life. This episode is for anyone who’s ever felt misunderstood for thinking differently or tired of being told to “understand the context.”
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Good morning and welcome to another episode of
Breakfast with the Heathen.
I am your favorite heathen, MikeSmithcall, and this is just my
Sunday morning chat show where Iuh just sort of rid myself of
the thoughts that I havecollected during the week.
Uh the uh the sort of lint ofthe universe collecting on the
cheap blue suit of my mind.
(00:29):
So uh sit back, grab yourself acup of coffee or some tea or
whatever it is that you startyour Sunday mornings with.
I'm gonna drink my coffee out ofmy Navy Dad cup that I've
mentioned before.
So hold on, let me take a sip.
This is an obligatory sip with alittle bit of slurp for the
sound.
I like to make the uh I like I'mmaking a commercial when I say
that.
(00:49):
It's always kind of silly to me,but if you're like, well, if
you're listening to this onlyand you're not seeing it, then
how do you really know I took asip of coffee from my Navy Dad
cup?
Unless I tell you that and showyou or listen.
I guess I'm not showing you, butI'm letting you hear it through
the sounds of the slurpinganyway.
(01:10):
So again, if you've ever beenhere, welcome.
Um, this is just a show that Ido again as I I get rid of some
of the uh thoughts that I've hadthroughout the week.
You know, I do a show um everyevery Wednesday, I do a mic drop
show.
And that's that is a little bitmore of a social commentary,
usually has a little bit more ofa bite, a little bit of a rant
sometimes.
Um, but this show is designed tobe just a very chill Sunday
(01:32):
morning show.
And if you're listening to thison Sunday mornings or maybe
you're driving into work in theearly part of the week, then
hopefully this is relaxing toyou.
Even the topics that I bring upsometimes that may get me riled
up on a different, uh, adifferent day or a different
time, I try to address them verycalmly and just uh talk through
(01:54):
them versus sort of go in depth.
Um, but if you look for ifyou're looking for a little bit
more in-depth, listen to my micdrops on um again.
I'm gonna start moving those toTuesday mornings because I I
find that a lot of people liketo listen to them, the podcast
version at least, uh, early inthe week.
So I was dropping them onWednesday, I'm gonna start
dropping on Tuesday.
But without any further ado, asthey say, let's go ahead and
(02:17):
take our, I'm gonna take thissecond question here.
Um so this is from AndrewDobson, 813.
So Andrew and I, he's a uhviewer um on my YouTube channel.
So Andrew and I had a little bitof a back and forth.
It was very respectful.
I'm not complaining about thatat all, but we had some
(02:40):
disagreements.
And I'm just gonna read you onething here.
Um, he took exception with myuse of the word atheism.
Now, my channel is calledAtheistville.
And as I set this up, let metell you that.
Um, it's called Atheistville.
I would say that I am anatheist, by and large, meaning
that everything I say and do andthink and act is based on the
(03:04):
idea that there is no God.
What I don't say is that thereis no God.
And I'm hoping I can make thatdistinction clear, meaning I
don't think there is one, Idon't act as if there is one, I
don't expect to find one, um,all that sort of thing.
So, in a practical sense, I amatheist.
(03:27):
But in an intellectually honestway, I guess I'm agnostic,
meaning I can't know thatthere's not a God.
I just don't, I don't, uh, Idon't think there is, and I
don't take any actions thatwould that would allude to that
effect, right?
Um, but I can't know it by thesame point I make this, and it's
not to be snarky, but by thesame token, I can't know that
(03:48):
there's not a Lochness monster.
I can't know that there's not aBigfoot, you know?
I those are things I can't know.
Do I believe there's a Bigfoot?
No.
Do I believe there's a Lochnessmonster?
No.
Do I believe there's a God?
No.
And the reason I say all that isbecause none of those have been
proven to me.
Will I allow a certainpercentage to say that possibly
(04:10):
those things exist?
Sure.
I mean, again, lots of thingsare possible in the world.
Probable and possible aredifferent.
So the way I take and againstructure my life is as if
there's no God.
But I'm willing to see theevidence, and thus far in my 55
years, I've not seen anyevidence that convinces me
otherwise.
(04:31):
But this person tookexceptionally.
Thank you.
Thank you, Andrew, for callingme, sir.
Absence of belief, sir, isagnosti agnosticism, not
atheism.
Atheism requires belief withoutevidence that no God exists.
Modern atheism sadly containedfar too much sloppy thinking.
(04:54):
Okay.
Andrew, Andrew, Andrew, Andrew.
Okay.
So the word atheism is reallynot as defined as some people
think that it is.
And even then, depending on whoyou're talking to and what their
agenda is, they will skew thatdefinition anyways.
And I went on to tell him, Isaid, you look, man, that the
(05:15):
word atheism isn't quite asdefined as you think.
Meaning, um, the term has hadactually different meanings,
meaning, uh, could it, I've saidthe little word meaning like 17
times in that sentence.
Um, it could mean absolutelythat you, and he's saying it
requires belief without evidencethat no god exists.
(05:36):
Meaning, I say I believe no godexists.
And I think I'd said thatearlier, but I I I sort of uh
put a little bit of a caveatthere.
I believe no God exists in thesense that I don't think about
it.
I don't assume a God's there.
I'm not worried aboutinteracting with a God.
So, in a practical and sort ofpragmatic view, I don't believe
(06:00):
a God exists.
But as I said, I will allow thatthere are a lot of things that
exist in the world that I don'tknow about, have not been shown
to me, or have not been provento me.
Where he sort of went awry inour next conversation was this
idea that atheism is onlydefined as that one thing, that
(06:20):
you absolutely believe there isno God.
And that's not true.
It's just not how atheism hasbeen defined over the centuries.
And modern atheism and modernatheists mostly, mostly, you
can't say 100% anything, mostmodern atheists will say pretty
much what I just said.
Their life is structured aroundthe fact that they don't think
(06:41):
there's a God because it's notbeen proven.
So they don't operate with anyassumption that there is a God.
But almost all atheists I'vespoken to are absolutely willing
to look at the evidence.
Now, the evidence has got to besomething different than we've
seen the last 55 years, or youknow, again, in my case, 55
years.
If you're gonna show me a Bibleum passage, save your save your
(07:05):
breath because I've seen themall, I've heard them all.
I'm rejecting the Bible uh justout of hand.
So that's not gonna work withus.
Absence of that, we're gonnalive our lives as if there is no
God.
If you want to call thatagnostic, fine.
If you want to call thatatheism, fine.
It actually doesn't reallymatter to me the semantics.
(07:26):
I'm not trying to win a courtcase here.
I'm just I'm making the pointhere that my life is based on
there being no God.
So Andrew Dobson, 18 or 813.
Um, again, we had a friendlyconversation.
Oh, you're coming at fromdifferent perspectives, but
that's fine.
But yeah, if you if if you're ifyou're a believer, you're trying
(07:47):
to catch an atheist, you know,catch him, you know, gotcha
moment.
That I got you, and you'retrying to say, no, you're really
agnostic.
I don't really know what pointyou're trying to make.
Okay, so you call me agnostic.
All right, I can live with that.
But okay.
As as they say, you can call meanything you want, just don't
call me late for dinner.
I don't really care if you callme agnostic or atheist.
(08:07):
I think the words are veryinterchangeable nowadays in
terms of how people perceive it.
And again, it's much more of anuanced uh semantics, but all
right, if that makes AndrewDobson feel better, that he
thinks I really am an agnosticand not truly an atheist.
I don't know what the agenda is.
I don't know why he cares, butall right, Andrew, that's fine.
(08:29):
I can live with that.
Ah, took another sip of mycoffee here.
All right, let's see what elsewe got in here.
Um this is a good questionbecause I've um I've used this
analogy before.
I think I may have used thisanalogy on this show.
I can't remember.
But this person says, Doesanyone else feel like they woke
up from the Matrix?
Yeah, and he says, I'm a19-year-old, I'm 19 years old.
(08:49):
I don't think I've ever reallybelieved in it.
But last year was a real uh wasa year I really woke up.
One day I really I literallywoke up from my bed and said,
God isn't real.
And then he goes on to sort ofexplain that.
And if you've ever seen themovie, uh The Matrix, I'm not
spoiling it, it's like a30-year-old movie at this point.
So um if you think this is aspoiler, I guess stop now.
(09:10):
But come on, you've had plentyof time to watch that movie.
But there's a scene in the moviewhere um the uh character uh
Morpheus offers Neo, which is uhKeanu Reeves' character, uh two
pills, a blue pill and a redpill.
And one is essentially keeps himasleep in the Matrix, which is a
world that's been concocted andthey believe certain things, and
(09:32):
there's all these sort ofthings.
And the other pill wakes him upfrom all that and he sees life
how it really is.
So this person, again, he's 19,so uh good for you, man, for
watching a video that's uh youknow 10 years older than you
are, uh, or thereabouts.
I can't remember exactly whenthat movie came out, but it was
a long time ago.
Um, he feels like he woke upfrom the Matrix.
(09:53):
And I have heard people saythat, and I think I've used that
analogy before because there's apoint where you believe and you
think, and all the sort ofstories you've heard all your
life, you know, the Noah's Arkand the talking snake, and a guy
living in a long weekend in thebelly of a whale, and Lot's
wife, and the stories getcrazier and crazier as you kind
of dig deeper into them.
And then at some point, if youhave stopped believing, all that
(10:17):
seems like, wow, I was living ina completely made-up world, a
world in which a God oversaweverything I did, a world in
which um my grandparents werewatching me from heaven, you
know, a world in which Godwatched who I slept with and how
I slept with him.
Um and at some point, if you'rean atheist or an agnostic even,
(10:38):
and you've given up the beliefin that existing, in a sense
that I, like I mentionedearlier, I don't believe that
God is watching me because Idon't believe there's really a
God.
Prove me wrong, that's fine.
But right now, I am not worriedabout going to sleep tonight and
laying with my wife and maybemessing around and having a good
time.
I'm not worried about a Godwatching that.
(11:00):
I'm not worried about my foursets of or my two sets of
grandparents watching thateither, which is always creepy
when you think about it, becauseyou're you're they always say
your grandparents are watchingyou from heaven.
Really?
Do they ever look away?
Because that's kind of strange.
But nonetheless, I'm not worriedabout any of that.
So I'm I I am sort of woken up,I guess, out of the Matrix,
(11:20):
right?
The world that I was living inat one point is not the world
that I live in now.
And for the people that havesort of just made that switch,
yeah, it can very much feel likeThe Matrix.
It's a great movie, by the way.
Now I'm gonna go watch it.
I haven't watched it in years,but I've seen it a dozen times
at least.
Um, go back and actually watchit.
If you've not watched it, youhaven't watched it in a long
time, especially if you're um ifyou've made that deconstruction
(11:44):
where you've come out ofreligion and you're back down.
Watch it again.
There's a lot of um symbologythere.
Is that the right word?
Symbology?
You know what I'm trying to say.
There's a lot of that in there,symbolic language.
I'll put it that way until Imake sure I'm using the right
word.
But there's all but there's alot symbolism.
Thank you.
That's the word I'm looking for.
There's a lot of symbolism.
I don't know where I gotsymbology.
(12:04):
Let's just cut that out.
There's a lot of symbolism inthat movie, and it's very, very
interesting.
It's a really, really well-mademovie.
Even if you're not a sci-fiperson, it's really well made,
and there's a lot of somesymbolism in it, and there's a
lot of meaning structured andweaven.
Uh, geez, my words are woven.
I think I need more coffee.
(12:25):
My goodness.
There's a lot of meaning woventhroughout the script.
So uh go back and watch that.
That's the matrix.
The matrix two is okay, thematrix three is just not worth
watching, but but maybe if youwant to finish the trilogy,
that's fine.
Let's see here.
This is from OK Hat, 3793.
I think that would be uh aReddit person.
Says for context, I was having adebate with an evangelical
(12:47):
Christian.
Well, that's probably your firstmistake right there.
And I was quoting both the oldand new testament for my
argument, but she keptresponding with, you're just
cherry-picking quotes.
You have to understand thecontext.
Okay, well, and he goes on tocontinue that that thought.
The idea of the context is ait's age old when you start to
(13:08):
argue.
And this is why I said at thebeginning if you're having a
debate with an evangelicalChristian, if you want to do it,
knock yourself out.
But I I've come to theconclusion that it's a waste of
time for everybody.
And it's really one of thereasons I don't do debates on my
channel.
A lot of people will come to ourlive streams or they'll respond
in the comments to this show.
Maybe not this show as much,because it's a very low-key
(13:30):
show, but my mic drops andcertainly the live streams,
people will come on live andthey'll start typing fast and
furious with whatever theirperspective is.
And they'll demand sometimes.
I literally had them demand, putme on.
I want to debate this.
Get your own channel, man.
I'm sorry, because the debatesin that sort of fiery rhetoric
(13:51):
are just not very interesting tome because they never really
lead anywhere.
Will somebody out there in thelistening audience or the
viewing audience on YouTube,will they maybe change their
perspective?
Maybe.
And I guess as a broadcast inthe truest sense, broadly
speaking, I'm going out to a lotof people here.
I mean, more than four peopleworldwide, listen to this.
(14:15):
But you get the point.
Someone out there might changetheir mind.
But in the meantime, it's just alot of shouting, if you will,
even if it's not truly raisingour voices, it's the same type
of thing.
Someone trying to top the otherperson and make their points and
get a sound bite, and it justdoesn't go anywhere.
But you know, if the personyou're talking to um is willing
(14:37):
to discuss, then that's fine.
The debate just not going to goanywhere.
But let me get back to thisother point about the context.
Context is a double-edged swordbecause you can, in fact, cherry
pick the Bible and you can saythings out of context, and it
can make it sound even worse.
(14:59):
Unfortunately, you can takepieces out of the Bible and say
them exactly how they wereintended, and it sounds really
bad.
I mean, it's really bad.
In fact, I did a uh a mic drop,was it last week, week before
last?
On uh Pete Hegseth had posted avideo on his Instagram of him um
in front of a bunch of soldiersor sailors um doing the Lord's
(15:22):
Prayer.
And it was overrun or overlaidwith a bunch of military um
imagery, planes and bombs, andsoldiers and guns and all the
sort of military macho man sortof stuff.
Well, I have no problem with themacho man stuff.
I I love the military.
My son is in the military.
I am no, I am no problem withthe military whatsoever.
(15:46):
But when you overlay that overtop of the Lord's Prayer and you
make this point that they aresomehow together, that this
department of war, which is howhe ended that video, that the
department of war and the Lord'sPrayer should somehow go
together.
Well, that is taking it out ofcontext.
In that case, Pete Higgseth tookthe Lord's Prayer out of context
(16:07):
because the Lord's Prayer is inthe Sermon on the Mount, in the
same sermon that says, Blessedare the peacemakers, right?
Um, it's kind of hard to say,have Jesus say, Blessed are the
peacemakers, and then you endyour with your uh your uh video
with the Department of War.
Okay, that's taking out ofcontext, right?
The context was this is apeaceful message.
(16:30):
This isn't part of the Sermon onthe Mount.
This whole thing was about peaceand humility.
Um, that is not how it wastaken.
So when Christians and believersin general, we talk about
Christianity mostly, because Ilive in America and grew up as a
Christian, when they say you'vetaken it out of context, you
gotta sometimes ask them,really?
Well, what was the actualcontext?
(16:51):
And if they try to explain it ina way that is not in the Bible,
well, they're taking it out ofcontext.
Explain to me what was said inthe Bible.
Explain to me if you were goingto say it out of context.
Okay, well, tell me this sectionand why this section was said,
and point to me what chapter,what verse did this come from,
and what chapters and verses ledup to it that tells you what
(17:14):
this means.
And very often you'll, well,first of all, you get a lot of
blank stares because they don'tknow.
A lot of people that claim theyknow, they don't know.
But also what starts to happenis interpretation.
Well, this is what he reallymeant.
We have a president like that,where it's like, okay, well, he
said these words, but this iswhat he really meant.
(17:35):
He's 79 years old.
He should be able to say what hereally means right now.
I'm not reading his his histranscripts 2,000 years from
now.
I'm talking about right now.
The guy just said it live on TV.
There's not a whole lot ofexplanation needs to be done.
He I just heard him say it.
That's it.
And we know enough about the manto know what he means, when he
says what he means.
You know, the Bible's maybe alittle bit more wishy-washy than
(17:58):
that, but at the same time, showme where it says this, show me
why you think it means this.
Maybe we can agree on that.
But often that's just not thecase.
The outer context is a simpleway of deflecting by saying, no,
no, no, when when they saidslavery was good and you could
only you could beat a slave umand just don't kill them.
(18:18):
And if you do, there's a smallprice to be paid.
What they really meant is X, Y,and Z.
Like, no, what they really meantis you could beat a human being,
and you're not supposed to killhim, but if you do, there's a
small punishment.
That out of context, all youwant, because that is the
context.
All right.
That's a good topic for a Sundaymorning, isn't it?
All right.
Uh, let's see here.
(18:39):
What's another one?
This is a good question.
In fact, I'm gonna have this onone of our live streams because
we've got a couple gentlemen onthe live stream, Scott and Mike,
both that identify as bi.
And I always like to run some ofthese questions by them because
they have a differentperspective than say I do.
Both of them are married towomen, uh, but they both
identify as bi, which is totallyfine.
(19:00):
But this person, um, I thinkthis is also our Reddit post,
says Christianity will never becompatible with LGBTQ uh values.
And so this person says, this isthe sad truth that I've learned.
I don't want to come off acrossas angry, but I feel that it's
the sad truth of the matter.
Christianity, no matter howaffirming it pretends to be,
will never be an ally to peoplelike us, meaning LGBTQ.
(19:25):
I I agree with that.
I don't know how, and I knowpeople that are uh within the
LGBTQ uh community that do go tochurch, and I can't really get
that.
I just don't understand it.
It seems to be well, it seems tobe like a lot of things in
religion and Christianity,again, where it's a pick and
(19:48):
choose, but boy, that's a bigone.
That's a big one to sort ofoverlook, right?
Because you know, sometimes inthat very church, they will hold
up that same Bible at some pointand read um the passage where
man shall not lie with a man,and they will have a whole
sermon about why homosexualityis a sin and you are going to
(20:09):
hell.
And I just feel for that personwho's LGBTQ and sitting, you
know, in the third pew going,Well, I they're talking about
me.
And how do you how do youreconcile it when you're sitting
right there?
And you know, you look aroundand the entire congregation is
nodding their head or they'rethey're yeah, or Amen, or praise
Jesus, or whatever they'redoing, um, in affirmation of the
(20:32):
the minister, the priest, thepastor, whatever who says this,
they're holding up the book.
There's only one book inChristianity, it's that book.
They're holding up that book,and don't tell me it's out of
context because we've spentdecades telling us that is the
context, that you are going tohell if you are gay.
You know, you can slice it anyway you want, but we we know
(20:52):
that that is exactly whatvirtually all of them say.
There are some obviously thatdon't necessarily go that far,
but come on, let's not be naive,right?
So, how do the LGBTQ people goto church and ignore all that?
It's it's interesting to me.
I I I really don't I need to getsomeone on the show.
(21:16):
I've got several friends that goto uh various churches, probably
not some of the hardcore ones,probably not Southern Baptists
and things of this nature, but Ithink Methodists is tends to be
pretty common with LGBTQ.
Um Episcopal, I know, has gaypeople in the church in terms of
the and clergy.
So I need to find someone likethat and have a good
(21:37):
conversation with them becauseI'd really like to know.
Maybe I'll do that as a livestream.
So if you're one of thosepeople, let me know.
I and I'm I'm being genuinelyand very honest.
I would love to have theconversation with you.
And again, as I said earlier,this is not a debate.
I genuinely just would like toknow.
And if you've got a perspectiveon that, I I absolutely promise
I would have you on and we wouldhave a respectful conversation
(21:58):
based on me purely wanting tounderstand you better because I
don't really get it.
And I'm willing to have my mindum broadened by your perspective
on that.
So yeah, let me know about that.
I'm now very curious about this.
So here's a good one.
Do you really believe intestimonies?
This is the people that claimthey have seen Jesus in their
dreams or felt the presence.
(22:19):
I do not.
I just flat out do not.
I just do not believe thosetestimonies.
And I think the reason I do notbelieve it is because so many of
them are just absolutely fake.
Uh you know, we've caught notwe, like I haven't caught them,
but we have seen this, the uh,you know, the evangelical or
evangelist, uh good gracious, mywords again today.
(22:42):
The uh evangelist or preacher,TV preacher kind of guy.
Um, do we believe anything thosepeople say?
I mean, I certainly don't, butobviously millions of people do
because they send these guystens of millions of dollars, and
they believe that they've beentalked to by Jesus.
And Jesus told them they need toget a Bentley or a Rolls-Royce.
There's been a thing recentlywhere a guy pulled up, I want to
(23:02):
say it was a Bentley orRolls-Royce, he pulled it into
the church.
Come on, man.
These other people that say,Well, Jesus spoke to me, man,
when people say Jesus spoke tome, it seems a lot like just
intuition and just judgment andgood decisions.
You made a decision to quit lawschool and go into medical
school.
(23:23):
Okay, did Jesus tell you that?
Did God tell you that?
Or you just think, well, I don'treally like being a lawyer, it's
not interesting.
But I like to touch, I like to,you know, help people and feel
like I'm having an effect ontheir lives outside of the
courtroom.
All right.
Well, that's the same decisionlots of people make.
Or I decided not to go tocollege and I decided to become
a you know a plumber.
Okay.
That's nothing to do with Jesus,man.
(23:44):
You know, I I just yeah, thetestimonials, I I can't, I just
can't get behind them.
I really can't.
Obviously, I don't believe inGod, so the fact that you're
telling me that God told yousomething isn't really gonna
connect with me.
But I just feel like a lot ofthat is um I don't know if
wishful thinking is the rightterm, but I think there's an uh
(24:09):
I don't remember the words I'mlooking for.
They attribute those feelings toGod.
It's almost like a God in thegaps, which again, I did a uh a
mic drop on the God of the gaps.
It's almost like God in thegaps.
Like, I don't know why I'mcoming to this conclusion, but I
think it's the right way for mylife to go.
So it must be God leading methat direction.
It could be God leading yourdirection, or it could simply be
(24:29):
you kind of measured it out andyou said, That's that's my best
decision.
I I did a just a very pros andcons set of the matrix and said,
you know, there's more checks onthe pro side, and that's the
person I'm gonna marry now, orthat's the path for my career,
or I'm gonna move to this newcity.
You say it's God, I say you justmade a good decision based on
your experiences and yourdesires and your needs in life.
(24:52):
Um, but as a testimonial, no.
Now, when you get to the bigtestimonials, like, oh, I saw
Jesus.
Nah, I don't think you did.
I just don't think you did.
You can tell me you did.
That's fine.
We could, I don't care.
If you think you did, and thatmakes you feel better, all
right, knock yourself out.
I don't believe you, but that'sfine.
That's totally okay.
(25:12):
All right, what's the next one?
Infinite Drink 1426.
I always wonder where peoplecome up with these names.
Infinite Drink 1426.
Okay.
I don't know if he's infinitelydrunk, he's infinitely drinking,
he has habitual thirst.
I just don't know.
Infinite drink 1426.
I think there's a Redditor aswell.
(25:33):
Uh, does anyone here wish theybelieved in God?
And he says, I recently lost afriend that could kept pushing
faith on me and going about howeveryone should be should at
least believe in God.
And I'm still a closetedagnostic, but to be honest, I
guess she took my lack ofreligious fanaticism as a sign
that I no longer believe in myreligion.
But the way she talked about herfaith is magical and her
(25:56):
feelings are safety and peaceand all, I sort of wish I felt
that.
Yeah, I get that.
I get that.
I think I've talked about thaton here as well.
I think there is some comfort inbelieving in God.
To call back to my very firstquestion, I think we talked
about The Matrix.
Yeah, if you saw the movie, youknow that there's a character in
them in the movie.
Again, spoiler, there's acharacter in the movie who wants
(26:17):
to go back to the matrix becauselife was good in the matrix.
And in fact, they say, I want tobe someone famous, like an actor
or something, you know?
Yeah.
I mean, if you have a decentlife and everything's working
out well for you, and and youthink it's because of God, or
you have good health, or you'resomeone you knew came through a
health scare or whatever, andyou think it's all because of
God and that makes you feelbetter.
(26:37):
All right, knock yourself out.
Is that comforting?
Sure, absolutely.
I've mentioned it before.
Would it be nice to see mygrandparents when I die?
Of course it would be.
Those were lovely, lovely peoplethat I loved.
I would love to see them again.
That would be very comfortingand encouraging, especially as I
get later in my life and thinkthat, okay, I'm on my last days,
(26:59):
even if that means years, butI'm still on the way out.
And I know that I'm gonna dieand go see these people again.
Or I'm not gonna miss out on myfamily, my children, my wife, or
whatever the case may be.
I'm not gonna miss out because Iget to watch them from heaven.
That's gotta be supercomforting.
The fact that I don't believeany of it, it's not necessarily
(27:20):
discomforting to me, but I cansee why until you come to that
realization and you sort ofwrestle with it and you come to
that, you sort of resignyourself to say, oh no, those
are not true.
Those are just, you know,they're they're nice thoughts,
but they're not true.
You know, it's like fantasy interms of like, uh, what if we
(27:40):
won the lottery?
That's great.
Take 10 minutes and think aboutwhat you would do.
And after that, realize you'renot gonna win the lottery and
you gotta go to work tomorrow,right?
Sort of the same thing with me.
It'd be nice to think abouthaving$200 million or whatever
the lotto is gonna pay me, and Icould have a jet and a Ferrari
and live on the beach and blah,blah, blah, blah.
That'd be very, very nice.
And then I realized, well, it'snot happening, and I just need
(28:04):
to work and I need to save mymoney, and it means I need to
compromise and I need to buy aless expensive watch or whatever
the case may be.
Same thing with the God.
It would be much nicer tobelieve he's there and he's
comforting and he's looking forme and he's looking out for me,
he's making good decisions forme.
I just don't believe it'shappening.
I really just don't.
But again, I've always said ifthat helps you and it makes you
(28:26):
get through the day, that'sfine.
All right, next question.
Again, and I think a Redditor,Roughbag 8209.
Roughbag?
Okay.
I'm not even gonna I'm not evengonna dig into that one.
Roughbag 8209.
If you knew that God was real,would you worship?
Um no.
(28:48):
I don't think I would.
Let me see what else he says.
Is there uh faith for me feelslike jumping off a high cliff,
but not knowing if there's waterat the bottom of it or not?
Yeah, that's that's kind of agood apt description there.
Uh a sense of why would I dothat, but also would it be fun
to swim?
But if I knew for sure there'swater, then I'd swim for a bit,
but not forever.
It kind of goes on hererambling.
(29:09):
Um, but let's get back to thismain title of his question.
If you knew God was real, wouldyou worship?
I don't think so, because I giveyou two answers on that.
One, as I've said, I've said, Ithink on this show, maybe even
said this last week.
I think that if suddenly we allwoke up tomorrow and there was
(29:30):
just absolute irrefutable proofthat God exists.
Instead of the 2,000 years agoin a small part of the Middle
East that God supposedly showedhimself, God actually went
worldwide.
He broadcast himself like a uh,you know, a uh Taylor Swift
video.
You know, everybody on thisplanet suddenly saw, and again,
(29:53):
with irrefutable, that there wasno doubt that they just saw God.
And we all shared theexperience.
So we all believe.
Now we all believe there's aGod.
I think the second thoughtafter, wow, and this is amazing
and maybe scary and the wholethat wrapped up.
The second thought I thinkbillions of people would come to
is, oh goodness, this is not atall the God that I thought we
(30:17):
had.
This is not the Christian God.
This is not the Hindu God.
This is not the Mormon God.
This is not the whatever I'mleaving out.
Uh I say Hindu, uh, whatever.
Doesn't matter.
Whatever your religion is, it'snot that God.
I I am 100% guaranteed andbelieve that if there is a God,
that God will look nothing likethe God of the man-made
(30:40):
religions.
So that's my first thought onthat.
And if that's the case, thenwhat exactly am I worshiping?
Because that means that God hasrequired none of that from me.
That God has not asked me toworship it.
Now, again, I guess if I wake uptomorrow and there's a God in
the sky and he's talking to usand he says worship me, I gotta
(31:02):
wrestle with what that evenmeans.
But let's put that aside.
Just the mere fact that I'veproven that there was a God,
does that mean I need to worshipthat being?
Yeah, I don't really know why.
I don't really know why.
Here's why I would, under threatof death.
I I have nothing necessary tothank them for.
(31:23):
Right?
I my parents made me, my parentsraised me, my wife and kids
sustained me in terms of my deedand desire to go on and
experience life.
Um the planet as it is, youknow, would I maybe thank them?
I guess, but would I worshipthem?
No.
Again, why would I?
(31:45):
If worship though is like youneed to worship me or I'm going
to kill you, which is what theChristian God says.
Um again, not taken out ofcontext, because as we all know,
was it the first four of the uhTen Commandments is basically
worship me or you're gonna go tohell.
So uh we already kind of havethat.
(32:05):
It's I would label that ascoercion, but okay, we can get
into the semantics of that.
But no, I I have no desire toworship.
Um, and I would be terrible atit because I have a disdain for
authority.
So I would be terrible atworshiping a god that just
suddenly showed up out of theblue and said, Oh, here I am, by
the way.
And again, it wouldn't be aChristian god, it wouldn't be a
(32:26):
Hindu god, it wouldn't be uh anyother gods that have been formed
of the 3,000 or what I mean, andthere's like tens of thousands
of actual gods over the courseof human history.
It wouldn't be any of that god.
I just I can guarantee you, I'mmaking I'm putting my foot down
right now.
There would not be that god.
Um, oh, here's a question foryou, the listening audience.
(32:46):
Um, this person says, this isum, I work at an Arby's.
The way it was written, I had tospell it out here.
I work at an Arby's.
All right, man, I love theArby's, I love Arby's.
Um, yeah, I actually get Arby'severy once in a while when I see
one, I'm like, I haven't been toArby's in a long time.
I like their sandwiches.
Um, but I but I digress.
(33:08):
This is is revoking your churchmembership always so
complicated?
And the reason I say I'm this isfor you, the listeners, is that
a thing?
I didn't know that was a thing.
Don't you just stop showing up?
It's like a gym membership, ordo you have to like go in and
cancel your membership of thechurch?
Because this person says, as thetitle says, I'm trying to revoke
(33:29):
my church membership, not uh notjust because I'm having problems
with beliefs, but also because Idon't see or um see why or how a
church membership is biblical.
Okay, but I thought you juststopped going.
Now, maybe they're trying tomake a point to take me off the
rolls.
Good luck with that.
That's I mean, maybe like takingme off of some sort of mailing
(33:50):
list.
It's never gonna happen.
Do I care that I'm still ontheir list as a member?
I don't.
As an atheist, you know, as anatheist as sort of in my my
phase of atheism, I don't care.
Put me down.
If that helps you recruitsomeone that says, you know,
we've got 3,000 members versus2,990, whatever.
Knock yourself out.
(34:10):
Am I ever going to attend yourchurch?
No.
Am I are you wasting a stamp ifyou send me something?
Yes, you are.
I had a I got a uh letter in themail, I don't know, two, three
years ago, I guess.
I'm still living in Californiafrom a um, what do you call it?
Uh Jehovah's Witness.
It was a handwritten letter.
It was actually addressed to theprevious tenant in that
building.
Um, but I got it, it washandwritten.
(34:31):
I was like, what is this?
Like, but I could tell it waslike, because it said like uh it
was a Spanish name if Iremember.
But say it was like JoseGonzalez, or current residence,
but it was handwritten.
Like you could tell it wasphysically handwritten, not just
printed to look like it wasphysically handwritten.
So I was like, all right, well,I'm a current resident, let me
open it.
Um, and they had Jose's name andhis address, and this is a
(34:53):
Jehovah's Witness, which I justpictured this person in
essentially like some sort ofself-imposed sweatshop cranking
out handwritten letters, and Iof course attached one of those
little watchtower tracks withit.
Dude, take Jose and me off ofyour list.
You're you're wasting your stampand your five, ten minutes or
whatever it took you to writethat out and your little tract.
(35:15):
Does that work for anybody?
It seems like the biggest wasteof time, but whatever.
But yeah, I just don't know.
Tell me if that's true.
Tell me in the comments isrevoking your membership from
church, is that actually acomplicated process?
I did not even know that waspossibly a thing.
I literally just thought youstopped showing up.
That's what I did.
But I was episcopal.
Maybe maybe they're not reallystrong on that.
(35:37):
Um I will tell you now I stoppedgoing, and this is the 80s,
right?
So maybe things are differentnow, but we didn't really tithe.
I think tithing is a thing inthe Episcopal Church.
We gave money at the offeringplate.
So our tithing was when weshowed up, right?
Um, there was nobody, uh, weweren't on a mailing list.
There was no ACH withdrawalsfrom our checking account or you
(35:59):
know, credit card with likeAmazon.
I mean, you just show up and youput your$5 or whatever it was,
my parents did, in the offeringplate and you moved on, right?
Maybe nowadays, though,everything's much more
high-tech, right?
Maybe you have to sign up forsome sort of subscription
service to God.
And getting out of that is apain.
Okay, I could see that being thecase.
I would be sort of outraged, butI could see it being the case.
(36:23):
All right, here's another one.
Um, this is actually a differentone because this is um this is
from Positive Vibes Only, 95.
My Christian friend keepsdisrespecting my Hindu faith.
Should I end this friendship?
I'm a Hindu woman from India,and I wasn't very religious
growing up, but in the last fewyears I've become more
spiritual.
I read the Bhagavad Gita, Ithink I say that correct.
(36:45):
I always mess that word up, andfollow Dharmic teachings.
But I also um respect allreligions and believe we can
learn from each other.
I've met a white woman fromTexas, she's a Christian, talks
about her faith constantly.
At first I didn't mind, but soonevery conversation started
ending up about the Bible.
When we first met in 2020, I wasat my lowest going through a
breakup and struggling at work.
I was emotionally vulnerable,and she told me about my
(37:06):
suffering would end if Iaccepted by accepted the Bible
and followed God.
And you can see where this went.
Um, and to this person, I say,Welcome to the club.
I mean, you're I I swear I'm notmaking this up.
This, you know, again, positivevibes only 95.
You can go to Reddit and lookthis person up.
Um, it sounds like uh soundslike a stereotype.
(37:30):
You met a woman in Texas who wasa apparently very evangelical
Christian, and they couldn'tstop telling you that all your
problems be solved if you wouldjust go to church and accept
Jesus.
Welcome to the club, Mrs.
Uh, whoever, positive vibes.
Um, yeah, that so my Christianfriend keeps disrespecting my
(37:50):
Hindu faith.
Should I end this friendship?
Well, I wouldn't know, sorry ifI would end it, but I would push
back on it because that's notgonna get better.
I obviously know that you're adifferent religion.
This is where it drives meinsane.
As an atheist, we get thisconstantly and we're kind of
prepared for it.
So we know it, and we've beendown the road a thousand times.
(38:11):
Everyone's always saying we'regonna go to hell and we're
sinners and they want to saveour soul or various combinations
of all that.
Again, as atheists, we knowthat's going to happen.
This person as a Hindu may nothave experienced that before,
but you're in Texas around anevangelical Christian.
You just gotta buckle up becausethis is what's going to happen.
(38:34):
You are, and I don't mean thisin a disparaging way, but maybe
I do.
You're behind enemy lines,right?
You're a Hindu in Texas.
You're you're you're on aminority on that one, right?
And a person like this person isdescribing will not stop
themselves.
They are convinced that you arelistening to a false God, and it
(38:58):
is their job, their mainfunction in life to stop you
from doing that and convert totheir God.
And it is insufferable.
Uh this person is let notletting you, first of all, it's
at work, but that's a wholedifferent conversation.
But just leave alone.
I as I've said, you're listeningto this channel because you want
(39:20):
to.
Whether you agree with me ornot, you're listening to it
because you want to.
You're never going to find me ona street corner with a bullhorn
telling you to become anatheist.
You will never find that if youdo come up and tell me I'm a
hypocrite, but you're not goingto do it.
I'm I'm in no fear and danger ofbeing told that because I won't
do it.
I am not trying to convert.
(39:40):
You won't see me going door todoor with a book from Richard
Dawkins trying to read to them.
Um, you'll never see me going toa courthouse, you know, and
trying to get a law passed thatsays, you know, it says right
here in this ChristopherHitchens book that yada, yada,
yada.
But that is not the way it workswith many, many, many
(40:02):
Christians.
Not all Christians, obviously,because a lot of Christians just
don't care.
They just want to live theirlives, raise their kids, you
know, love their spouses.
They don't care.
But unfortunately, there are fartoo many who make it their
life's mission to convert everyperson they see to their God,
and specifically their God.
And I say that meaning not theChristian God, I mean their God,
(40:22):
the one that attends theirchurch, which means they believe
what they believe at theirchurch, which is not necessarily
what they believe in the nextChristian church, which in Texas
is on the next block.
So, yeah, or down south at all.
I was telling uh someone on ourlive stream the other day, my
friend Scott was on it with me.
And he and I live about a welived about a mile and a half
from each other in Florida.
We counted between that mile anda half, there were seven
(40:45):
churches, Christian churches inthat mile and a half.
So uh yeah, yeah.
When you're surrounded by allsides, so to speak, um, you're
you're behind enemy lines there,and you're going to be try to be
converted to their version.
Why do they need seven churchesin a mile and a half?
It's because that's sevendifferent versions.
(41:05):
And someone from each one ofthose churches is going to try
to convince you that theirversion is right.
And being a Hindu, you're reallyfar outside of it.
You're not even Christian.
So you're really far.
Not as far as me, because Idon't believe at all, but you're
pretty far out.
So again, should you lose themas a drop them as a friend?
No, not necessarily.
(41:26):
But tell them, you know, listen,I appreciate that you believe in
Christian God.
I believe it.
I mean, I get it, I understandyou do.
I believe in a Hindu God.
That should be full stop.
It probably won't be, but itshould be full stop.
That should be enough for thatperson to stop.
I'm gonna guess, unfortunately,for uh positive vibes only 95.
I'm going to guess that yourChristian friend is not gonna
(41:47):
drop it there.
In fact, if you push back, theymight take offense.
I'm um I'm calling it now.
I don't know what the over orunder is on that, but uh, I'm
calling it.
Unfortunately, I just I've beenthere, it's the way it works.
Oh, let's see here.
What's another one?
Passive aggressive triggers.
Have a blessed day.
So that's their is it me or ishave a blessed day always used
(42:11):
by Christians as a passiveaggressive dig because it feels
that way to me.
Um, no, I don't think that itis.
I understand where you're comingfrom, but no, I don't think it
is.
I think I and I'm gonna maybeI'm being um overly optimistic
here, but I do believe, and I'vesaid this many times, the
average everyday person,Christian or not, is just a good
(42:34):
person trying to get throughtheir life.
They really are.
It doesn't matter what religionthey are, it doesn't matter if
they have no religion, theypretty much get up every day and
again, they want their kids tobe better and they want to love
their spouse and their spouseloved them, they want to feel as
few amounts of aches and painsas they possibly can and have
some level of comfort, and thenthey expect to die.
(42:56):
It's you know, play it out outhowever you want, but that's
what most of us want.
So when someone says a blessedday, um that's not necessarily a
snarky response.
So atheists that think that,stop thinking that.
Just stop thinking that becausedon't look at everything as a
fight.
Not everybody's out to get you.
A lot of people are.
I understand why you might thinkthat, because again, as
(43:16):
atheists, we kind of get it fromall sides.
Every religion doesn't likeatheists.
Muslims don't like Christians,Christians don't like Muslims,
uh, Muslims all the time, butthey both don't like atheists.
It's like they share that.
You know, they could want tofight each other left and right,
but when it comes to theatheists, they're gonna turn
their sights on us, right?
Because there are two sides ofthe same coin.
We're a completely differentcoin.
(43:37):
So that line at have a blessedday, I think they just mean it
as a have you know good luck,have a great day.
It's all the same.
Can it be said with some levelof snark?
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah, it can definitely besaid with some snark.
Um, I liken it to the way thatif you're from the south or if
(43:58):
you're not from the south, youcertainly have to understand
this.
When someone says, uh, no, I'llbless your heart, yeah.
That's not good.
Usually there's uh there'ssomething not good behind that.
So uh when they say the samething, have a blessed day, yeah,
that's kind of what that meanssometimes, but not all the time.
I think it's genuine that meanshave a good day.
They just use the word blessed.
No different than I guess if anatheist says bless you with when
(44:19):
you sneeze.
I I don't really say thatanymore.
I haven't said that in decades.
I always say gesuntite justbecause, for no particular
reason.
Um, but if I said have uh youknow, if I said uh bless you, I
don't really mean bless you byGod.
I just it's a it's a phrase,it's just part of vernacular,
right?
Say something we say.
All right, so here's a good one.
Um, I don't have an exact answerfor this, but the question the
(44:41):
person asked, what is what wasthe exact moment you lost your
faith?
Particularly if you're aChristian.
I just I'm just curious becauseI hear people say that they are
deconstructing their faith andsome demolish it.
Um so the second part of theirthing about they're
deconstructing, it sounds like ajourney, right?
They're deconstructing theirfaith uh and some demolish it
(45:03):
means they get rid of ittotally.
I don't know that most peoplethat I know, most atheists that
I know, had an exact moment.
Usually, though, there was alight switch.
There was something they gotflickered on that they said,
wait a second.
But for most of us, we werelaid, we were raised in a
(45:24):
Christian religion and aChristian household generally,
sometimes very strongly andsometimes very casually, like I
was as Episcopal.
We were very casual about it.
But nonetheless, I stillbelieved.
My parents believed, mygrandparents believed, everybody
believed.
I went to church on Sundays, soyou know, I was indoctrinated
from baby, right?
Was there an exact moment that Istopped believing?
(45:48):
No, there was an exact momentthat I still remember quite well
that just made me think, wait asecond, that doesn't, that
doesn't, that's not right.
And I think I don't know if I'vesaid this on this call before,
but there is a um um I alwaysforget the name.
I think it's Danae, a um uhGreek mythology.
(46:08):
There's a character named Danae.
Um, and that person was lockedin a tower.
She's a obviously she was lockedin a tower, a golden tower, if I
remember correctly, but I may beconflating stories here.
She was locked in a tower forwhatever transgression
transgression she had.
And Zeus uh materialized througha golden sun ray, if I'm
(46:29):
remembering correctly.
It's been eighth grade.
I'm I forgot to mention that.
This was eighth grade, so I wasvery young.
What is that, 12?
I don't even know.
13.
But anyway, so Zeus materializesinto the tower, impregnates her,
sprinkles out, you know, howeverhe does, and she ultimately
gives birth to Zeus's child, whoI can't remember who that would
be in Greek mythology.
(46:50):
But I remember very well ineighth, eighth grade, Mr.
Isaac was my teacher at StantonCollege Preparatory School in
Jacksonville, Florida.
Um, but I remember thinking,wait a second.
So Zeus, God, got a woman, avirgin, pregnant, and then that
virgin gave birth to his child.
(47:13):
Boy, where have I heard thatstory?
It sounds really familiar.
And this was again when I waseighth grade, so whatever age I
am at that point.
And that really was just sort ofmy first light bulb.
It was like, oh, wait a second.
And I, and the other thing, I'llgive myself a little credit
here, pat myself on the back alittle bit, was I remember
thinking, you know, whatever daythis was of the week, thinking,
(47:34):
wait a second, we're learningabout Greek mythology, which I
found very interesting.
But it's these are stories,right?
Everybody in this class isreading this and and the
teachers instructing us, andwe're all saying, Oh, this is
really fun stories.
Look at these stories that thesepeople wrote about what they
thought at the time were gods.
But now, you know, thousands ofyears later, we think of them as
(47:55):
cute stories and fun stories andvery interesting stories that
have absolutely no bearing onour life whatsoever.
Because, you know, these arejust Greek mythology stories.
They're not they're not true byany means, right?
But four days from now orwhatever, on Sunday, I'm gonna
go to a building and we're allgonna sit in that building and
we're gonna talk about Jesus,the son of a god, the son of a
(48:19):
virgin that God impregnated andhad his son, Jesus.
And that absolutely happened.
That's true, that's 100% true.
The Greek mythology stuff,that's just a funny story that
predates Jesus.
But this one, this virgin givingbirth, that actually happened.
And I remember thinking at thattime, boy, that that seems a
(48:39):
little suspicious to me.
I don't know that this I'm notsure I buy this.
This seems a little convenientthat this story is the same that
predates the one I'm about tohear about on Sunday, but I'm
supposed to disregard this oneand yet take the absolute other
one as absolute truth.
And in fact, if I question it,I'm a sinner for even doing so.
(49:02):
That was the exact moment that Istarted to change my
perspective.
And at that point, like a lot ofatheists I know, it's like a dog
with a bone.
When you get that first bit ofreasoning, it's like, wait a
second.
I don't know if you rememberthis.
When you were a kid, we probablyhave all done this.
(49:23):
You ever find your Christmaspresents before Christmas?
And then it's a mad hunt throughthe house to figure out what's
going on.
Why are your Christmas presentshidden in the attic or in the
back of your dad's closet or youknow, wherever they may be?
Um, and you and that's thebeginning of the end in terms of
Santa Claus, right?
Because you know that's notright.
(49:44):
I remember one year I got alittle pool table.
It was a little like a kid'spool table.
I don't know how old I was,probably 10, 12 in that range.
And I found it in my parents' uhcloset, I think.
And um as a typical 80s Gen Xkind of kid, I would come home
from school and my parents areboth at work, right?
So I had hours to myself.
I would take this thing out ofthe box every day and play with
(50:07):
it.
Like play pool on this littlepool table in my living room.
And I put it all back in the boxand package it back up because
it wasn't wrapped yet at thispoint, right?
Didn't have a Santa Clauswrapping on it.
It was just a, you know,something they got from Sears
warehouse.
Um, and I put it all backtogether.
And then, of course, onChristmas Day, I was like, oh my
gosh, thank you so much, mom anddad.
(50:28):
I have pool table.
What?
Even though I've been playing, Iwas probably pretty good at that
point, like a damn pool shark onmy little uh my little uh
clandestine pool table thingthat I had set up every day.
But it's the same thing.
Once I realized that, uh it wasit was out, right?
I mean, I you know, I think bythis point I already didn't
believe in Christmas, but or uhSanta Claus, but it's the same
(50:50):
thing, right?
Once you realize it, it's over.
The beginning is over, right?
The beginning of the end, Iguess it's it's over.
Same thing with withChristianity.
So that's where it does go.
So there's very few of us havean exact and all-encompassing
moment.
There's a moment that starts itand triggers it.
And then it's, as this personsaid, a deconstruction.
There's there's a series ofthings because you think, well,
(51:11):
wait a second.
Well, if if the virgin birthdoesn't make any sense, you
know, I'm starting to believethat maybe you can't live in the
belly of a whale for three days.
And that seems a bit suspicious,right?
Or wait a second, why wouldthere be a need for a talking
snake?
And if you're God and you'vecreated two creatures that's job
(51:32):
is basically to do nothing butworship you, why would you even
allow a snake in the garden?
And if they had neverexperienced anything negative or
bad, how would they know thatlying or um you know, lying was
bad and talking to the snake wasbad because they don't have a
sense of right and wrong?
It just you know it starts toall fall apart, right?
(51:53):
Sodom and Gomorrah.
What I heard the other day thata lot of people think Sodom and
Gomorrah were sisters.
I I never heard that, but Iokay, yeah.
I that surprised me, but yetdidn't surprise me.
Uh so uh, but yeah, it's theexact sort of thing.
There's a point where it startsto trigger and then it starts to
fall apart after that.
(52:14):
So um yeah, that's my story ofwhen my exact moment, the
beginning of the end, started.
Was that uh Mr.
Isaac's eighth grade, uh he wasmy English teacher.
Very nice man.
I like that guy a lot.
He used to call me Clip becauseI carried my papers on a
clipboard.
I don't know why.
I guess I was trained to be awarehouse supervisor.
I have no idea why I did that,but he called me clip.
(52:35):
He was a very nice guy.
Um, I think that's about it.
We've been right at about anhour, 50 something minutes into
it.
Um real quick, just uh again,this is the show that I do on
Sunday mornings, or again, ifyou're listening to this early
in the week and you're drivingto work, hopefully you uh it was
soothing enough that it it keptyou calm on your commute to work
if you were having to fightthrough traffic.
It's very cold here Sundaymorning.
(52:56):
I think we're supposed to get upto a high of like 30 something.
Winter has definitely set in onum here in Chicago.
My wife and I were out thisweekend and it was a little
chilly.
I I was like, oh, I should havebrought my gloves.
It was a little chilly.
So um, so I hope you enjoyedthis.
Um, and again, I always ask you,just go ahead and then uh reach
out to me if you have anyquestions or you want to ask me
(53:19):
about why I thought something orsaid something, I'm happy to
answer those questions.
Also, look for me.
I had to write this down in mylittle post-it note here.
Um, I do have a mic drop comingout uh this Tuesday.
I look for those from now on.
They'll come out on Tuesdays,usually instead of Wednesdays,
but that's a mic drop.
That's my solo one.
Uh, and that comes out on video,on YouTube, on audio, here on
(53:41):
whatever podcast um platformyou're listening to.
And I also generally put out anarticle as well on these mic
drops because again, a littlebit more of a social commentary.
Um, you are also welcome to joinour live streams.
Watch the YouTube channel forthat and check the live little,
there's a little sort of tabacross the top of the page
that's atheistville.com.
(54:01):
Um well, atheistville.com, Ishould say that is the website,
but atheistville on YouTube.
Check on the live tab on there.
If we set a live up, we alwayshave that up for a week or two
ahead of time so you have timeto sort of build it into your
calendar.
And we would love to have youparticipate.
Um, send us a question, uh, popin live and let us know your
thoughts.
And also, if you're the kind ofperson who would like to maybe
(54:23):
participate in one of those, umI'm I'm happy to talk to you
about that.
I the more people the better.
You know, I'm not trying tochange anybody's minds, but if
you've been through thisdeconstruction or you're going
through the process now and youmaybe have some advice for other
people, that's how we do thoseshows.
Jump in.
Those are the unholy roundtablesthat we call them.
Uh, we'd love to have youparticipate.
(54:45):
Again, either as a guest or as aviewer, either way.
So, anyways, hope that you havea good rest of your Sunday.
Until we talk again, take care.
Good morning and welcome to another episode of
Breakfast with the Heathen.
I am your favorite heathen, MikeSmithcall, and this is just my
Sunday morning chat show where Iuh just sort of rid myself of
the thoughts that I havecollected during the week.
Uh the uh the sort of lint ofthe universe collecting on the
cheap blue suit of my mind.
(00:29):
So uh sit back, grab yourself acup of coffee or some tea or
whatever it is that you startyour Sunday mornings with.
I'm gonna drink my coffee out ofmy Navy Dad cup that I've
mentioned before.
So hold on, let me take a sip.
This is an obligatory sip with alittle bit of slurp for the
sound.
I like to make the uh I like I'mmaking a commercial when I say
that.
(00:49):
It's always kind of silly to me,but if you're like, well, if
you're listening to this onlyand you're not seeing it, then
how do you really know I took asip of coffee from my Navy Dad
cup?
Unless I tell you that and showyou or listen.
I guess I'm not showing you, butI'm letting you hear it through
the sounds of the slurpinganyway.
(01:10):
So again, if you've ever beenhere, welcome.
Um, this is just a show that Ido again as I I get rid of some
of the uh thoughts that I've hadthroughout the week.
You know, I do a show um everyevery Wednesday, I do a mic drop
show.
And that's that is a little bitmore of a social commentary,
usually has a little bit more ofa bite, a little bit of a rant
sometimes.
Um, but this show is designed tobe just a very chill Sunday
(01:32):
morning show.
And if you're listening to thison Sunday mornings or maybe
you're driving into work in theearly part of the week, then
hopefully this is relaxing toyou.
Even the topics that I bring upsometimes that may get me riled
up on a different, uh, adifferent day or a different
time, I try to address them verycalmly and just uh talk through
(01:54):
them versus sort of go in depth.
Um, but if you look for ifyou're looking for a little bit
more in-depth, listen to my micdrops on um again.
I'm gonna start moving those toTuesday mornings because I I
find that a lot of people liketo listen to them, the podcast
version at least, uh, early inthe week.
So I was dropping them onWednesday, I'm gonna start
dropping on Tuesday.
But without any further ado, asthey say, let's go ahead and
(02:17):
take our, I'm gonna take thissecond question here.
Um so this is from AndrewDobson, 813.
So Andrew and I, he's a uhviewer um on my YouTube channel.
So Andrew and I had a little bitof a back and forth.
It was very respectful.
I'm not complaining about thatat all, but we had some
(02:40):
disagreements.
And I'm just gonna read you onething here.
Um, he took exception with myuse of the word atheism.
Now, my channel is calledAtheistville.
And as I set this up, let metell you that.
Um, it's called Atheistville.
I would say that I am anatheist, by and large, meaning
that everything I say and do andthink and act is based on the
(03:04):
idea that there is no God.
What I don't say is that thereis no God.
And I'm hoping I can make thatdistinction clear, meaning I
don't think there is one, Idon't act as if there is one, I
don't expect to find one, um,all that sort of thing.
So, in a practical sense, I amatheist.
(03:27):
But in an intellectually honestway, I guess I'm agnostic,
meaning I can't know thatthere's not a God.
I just don't, I don't, uh, Idon't think there is, and I
don't take any actions thatwould that would allude to that
effect, right?
Um, but I can't know it by thesame point I make this, and it's
not to be snarky, but by thesame token, I can't know that
(03:48):
there's not a Lochness monster.
I can't know that there's not aBigfoot, you know?
I those are things I can't know.
Do I believe there's a Bigfoot?
No.
Do I believe there's a Lochnessmonster?
No.
Do I believe there's a God?
No.
And the reason I say all that isbecause none of those have been
proven to me.
Will I allow a certainpercentage to say that possibly
(04:10):
those things exist?
Sure.
I mean, again, lots of thingsare possible in the world.
Probable and possible aredifferent.
So the way I take and againstructure my life is as if
there's no God.
But I'm willing to see theevidence, and thus far in my 55
years, I've not seen anyevidence that convinces me
otherwise.
(04:31):
But this person tookexceptionally.
Thank you.
Thank you, Andrew, for callingme, sir.
Absence of belief, sir, isagnosti agnosticism, not
atheism.
Atheism requires belief withoutevidence that no God exists.
Modern atheism sadly containedfar too much sloppy thinking.
(04:54):
Okay.
Andrew, Andrew, Andrew, Andrew.
Okay.
So the word atheism is reallynot as defined as some people
think that it is.
And even then, depending on whoyou're talking to and what their
agenda is, they will skew thatdefinition anyways.
And I went on to tell him, Isaid, you look, man, that the
(05:15):
word atheism isn't quite asdefined as you think.
Meaning, um, the term has hadactually different meanings,
meaning, uh, could it, I've saidthe little word meaning like 17
times in that sentence.
Um, it could mean absolutelythat you, and he's saying it
requires belief without evidencethat no god exists.
(05:36):
Meaning, I say I believe no godexists.
And I think I'd said thatearlier, but I I I sort of uh
put a little bit of a caveatthere.
I believe no God exists in thesense that I don't think about
it.
I don't assume a God's there.
I'm not worried aboutinteracting with a God.
So, in a practical and sort ofpragmatic view, I don't believe
(06:00):
a God exists.
But as I said, I will allow thatthere are a lot of things that
exist in the world that I don'tknow about, have not been shown
to me, or have not been provento me.
Where he sort of went awry inour next conversation was this
idea that atheism is onlydefined as that one thing, that
(06:20):
you absolutely believe there isno God.
And that's not true.
It's just not how atheism hasbeen defined over the centuries.
And modern atheism and modernatheists mostly, mostly, you
can't say 100% anything, mostmodern atheists will say pretty
much what I just said.
Their life is structured aroundthe fact that they don't think
(06:41):
there's a God because it's notbeen proven.
So they don't operate with anyassumption that there is a God.
But almost all atheists I'vespoken to are absolutely willing
to look at the evidence.
Now, the evidence has got to besomething different than we've
seen the last 55 years, or youknow, again, in my case, 55
years.
If you're gonna show me a Bibleum passage, save your save your
(07:05):
breath because I've seen themall, I've heard them all.
I'm rejecting the Bible uh justout of hand.
So that's not gonna work withus.
Absence of that, we're gonnalive our lives as if there is no
God.
If you want to call thatagnostic, fine.
If you want to call thatatheism, fine.
It actually doesn't reallymatter to me the semantics.
(07:26):
I'm not trying to win a courtcase here.
I'm just I'm making the pointhere that my life is based on
there being no God.
So Andrew Dobson, 18 or 813.
Um, again, we had a friendlyconversation.
Oh, you're coming at fromdifferent perspectives, but
that's fine.
But yeah, if you if if you're ifyou're a believer, you're trying
(07:47):
to catch an atheist, you know,catch him, you know, gotcha
moment.
That I got you, and you'retrying to say, no, you're really
agnostic.
I don't really know what pointyou're trying to make.
Okay, so you call me agnostic.
All right, I can live with that.
But okay.
As as they say, you can call meanything you want, just don't
call me late for dinner.
I don't really care if you callme agnostic or atheist.
(08:07):
I think the words are veryinterchangeable nowadays in
terms of how people perceive it.
And again, it's much more of anuanced uh semantics, but all
right, if that makes AndrewDobson feel better, that he
thinks I really am an agnosticand not truly an atheist.
I don't know what the agenda is.
I don't know why he cares, butall right, Andrew, that's fine.
(08:29):
I can live with that.
Ah, took another sip of mycoffee here.
All right, let's see what elsewe got in here.
Um this is a good questionbecause I've um I've used this
analogy before.
I think I may have used thisanalogy on this show.
I can't remember.
But this person says, Doesanyone else feel like they woke
up from the Matrix?
Yeah, and he says, I'm a19-year-old, I'm 19 years old.
(08:49):
I don't think I've ever reallybelieved in it.
But last year was a real uh wasa year I really woke up.
One day I really I literallywoke up from my bed and said,
God isn't real.
And then he goes on to sort ofexplain that.
And if you've ever seen themovie, uh The Matrix, I'm not
spoiling it, it's like a30-year-old movie at this point.
So um if you think this is aspoiler, I guess stop now.
(09:10):
But come on, you've had plentyof time to watch that movie.
But there's a scene in the moviewhere um the uh character uh
Morpheus offers Neo, which is uhKeanu Reeves' character, uh two
pills, a blue pill and a redpill.
And one is essentially keeps himasleep in the Matrix, which is a
world that's been concocted andthey believe certain things, and
(09:32):
there's all these sort ofthings.
And the other pill wakes him upfrom all that and he sees life
how it really is.
So this person, again, he's 19,so uh good for you, man, for
watching a video that's uh youknow 10 years older than you
are, uh, or thereabouts.
I can't remember exactly whenthat movie came out, but it was
a long time ago.
Um, he feels like he woke upfrom the Matrix.
(09:53):
And I have heard people saythat, and I think I've used that
analogy before because there's apoint where you believe and you
think, and all the sort ofstories you've heard all your
life, you know, the Noah's Arkand the talking snake, and a guy
living in a long weekend in thebelly of a whale, and Lot's
wife, and the stories getcrazier and crazier as you kind
of dig deeper into them.
And then at some point, if youhave stopped believing, all that
(10:17):
seems like, wow, I was living ina completely made-up world, a
world in which a God oversaweverything I did, a world in
which um my grandparents werewatching me from heaven, you
know, a world in which Godwatched who I slept with and how
I slept with him.
Um and at some point, if you'rean atheist or an agnostic even,
(10:38):
and you've given up the beliefin that existing, in a sense
that I, like I mentionedearlier, I don't believe that
God is watching me because Idon't believe there's really a
God.
Prove me wrong, that's fine.
But right now, I am not worriedabout going to sleep tonight and
laying with my wife and maybemessing around and having a good
time.
I'm not worried about a Godwatching that.
(11:00):
I'm not worried about my foursets of or my two sets of
grandparents watching thateither, which is always creepy
when you think about it, becauseyou're you're they always say
your grandparents are watchingyou from heaven.
Really?
Do they ever look away?
Because that's kind of strange.
But nonetheless, I'm not worriedabout any of that.
So I'm I I am sort of woken up,I guess, out of the Matrix,
(11:20):
right?
The world that I was living inat one point is not the world
that I live in now.
And for the people that havesort of just made that switch,
yeah, it can very much feel likeThe Matrix.
It's a great movie, by the way.
Now I'm gonna go watch it.
I haven't watched it in years,but I've seen it a dozen times
at least.
Um, go back and actually watchit.
If you've not watched it, youhaven't watched it in a long
time, especially if you're um ifyou've made that deconstruction
(11:44):
where you've come out ofreligion and you're back down.
Watch it again.
There's a lot of um symbologythere.
Is that the right word?
Symbology?
You know what I'm trying to say.
There's a lot of that in there,symbolic language.
I'll put it that way until Imake sure I'm using the right
word.
But there's all but there's alot symbolism.
Thank you.
That's the word I'm looking for.
There's a lot of symbolism.
I don't know where I gotsymbology.
(12:04):
Let's just cut that out.
There's a lot of symbolism inthat movie, and it's very, very
interesting.
It's a really, really well-mademovie.
Even if you're not a sci-fiperson, it's really well made,
and there's a lot of somesymbolism in it, and there's a
lot of meaning structured andweaven.
Uh, geez, my words are woven.
I think I need more coffee.
(12:25):
My goodness.
There's a lot of meaning woventhroughout the script.
So uh go back and watch that.
That's the matrix.
The matrix two is okay, thematrix three is just not worth
watching, but but maybe if youwant to finish the trilogy,
that's fine.
Let's see here.
This is from OK Hat, 3793.
I think that would be uh aReddit person.
Says for context, I was having adebate with an evangelical
(12:47):
Christian.
Well, that's probably your firstmistake right there.
And I was quoting both the oldand new testament for my
argument, but she keptresponding with, you're just
cherry-picking quotes.
You have to understand thecontext.
Okay, well, and he goes on tocontinue that that thought.
The idea of the context is ait's age old when you start to
(13:08):
argue.
And this is why I said at thebeginning if you're having a
debate with an evangelicalChristian, if you want to do it,
knock yourself out.
But I I've come to theconclusion that it's a waste of
time for everybody.
And it's really one of thereasons I don't do debates on my
channel.
A lot of people will come to ourlive streams or they'll respond
in the comments to this show.
Maybe not this show as much,because it's a very low-key
(13:30):
show, but my mic drops andcertainly the live streams,
people will come on live andthey'll start typing fast and
furious with whatever theirperspective is.
And they'll demand sometimes.
I literally had them demand, putme on.
I want to debate this.
Get your own channel, man.
I'm sorry, because the debatesin that sort of fiery rhetoric
(13:51):
are just not very interesting tome because they never really
lead anywhere.
Will somebody out there in thelistening audience or the
viewing audience on YouTube,will they maybe change their
perspective?
Maybe.
And I guess as a broadcast inthe truest sense, broadly
speaking, I'm going out to a lotof people here.
I mean, more than four peopleworldwide, listen to this.
(14:15):
But you get the point.
Someone out there might changetheir mind.
But in the meantime, it's just alot of shouting, if you will,
even if it's not truly raisingour voices, it's the same type
of thing.
Someone trying to top the otherperson and make their points and
get a sound bite, and it justdoesn't go anywhere.
But you know, if the personyou're talking to um is willing
(14:37):
to discuss, then that's fine.
The debate just not going to goanywhere.
But let me get back to thisother point about the context.
Context is a double-edged swordbecause you can, in fact, cherry
pick the Bible and you can saythings out of context, and it
can make it sound even worse.
(14:59):
Unfortunately, you can takepieces out of the Bible and say
them exactly how they wereintended, and it sounds really
bad.
I mean, it's really bad.
In fact, I did a uh a mic drop,was it last week, week before
last?
On uh Pete Hegseth had posted avideo on his Instagram of him um
in front of a bunch of soldiersor sailors um doing the Lord's
(15:22):
Prayer.
And it was overrun or overlaidwith a bunch of military um
imagery, planes and bombs, andsoldiers and guns and all the
sort of military macho man sortof stuff.
Well, I have no problem with themacho man stuff.
I I love the military.
My son is in the military.
I am no, I am no problem withthe military whatsoever.
(15:46):
But when you overlay that overtop of the Lord's Prayer and you
make this point that they aresomehow together, that this
department of war, which is howhe ended that video, that the
department of war and the Lord'sPrayer should somehow go
together.
Well, that is taking it out ofcontext.
In that case, Pete Higgseth tookthe Lord's Prayer out of context
(16:07):
because the Lord's Prayer is inthe Sermon on the Mount, in the
same sermon that says, Blessedare the peacemakers, right?
Um, it's kind of hard to say,have Jesus say, Blessed are the
peacemakers, and then you endyour with your uh your uh video
with the Department of War.
Okay, that's taking out ofcontext, right?
The context was this is apeaceful message.
(16:30):
This isn't part of the Sermon onthe Mount.
This whole thing was about peaceand humility.
Um, that is not how it wastaken.
So when Christians and believersin general, we talk about
Christianity mostly, because Ilive in America and grew up as a
Christian, when they say you'vetaken it out of context, you
gotta sometimes ask them,really?
Well, what was the actualcontext?
(16:51):
And if they try to explain it ina way that is not in the Bible,
well, they're taking it out ofcontext.
Explain to me what was said inthe Bible.
Explain to me if you were goingto say it out of context.
Okay, well, tell me this sectionand why this section was said,
and point to me what chapter,what verse did this come from,
and what chapters and verses ledup to it that tells you what
(17:14):
this means.
And very often you'll, well,first of all, you get a lot of
blank stares because they don'tknow.
A lot of people that claim theyknow, they don't know.
But also what starts to happenis interpretation.
Well, this is what he reallymeant.
We have a president like that,where it's like, okay, well, he
said these words, but this iswhat he really meant.
(17:35):
He's 79 years old.
He should be able to say what hereally means right now.
I'm not reading his his histranscripts 2,000 years from
now.
I'm talking about right now.
The guy just said it live on TV.
There's not a whole lot ofexplanation needs to be done.
He I just heard him say it.
That's it.
And we know enough about the manto know what he means, when he
says what he means.
You know, the Bible's maybe alittle bit more wishy-washy than
(17:58):
that, but at the same time, showme where it says this, show me
why you think it means this.
Maybe we can agree on that.
But often that's just not thecase.
The outer context is a simpleway of deflecting by saying, no,
no, no, when when they saidslavery was good and you could
only you could beat a slave umand just don't kill them.
(18:18):
And if you do, there's a smallprice to be paid.
What they really meant is X, Y,and Z.
Like, no, what they really meantis you could beat a human being,
and you're not supposed to killhim, but if you do, there's a
small punishment.
That out of context, all youwant, because that is the
context.
All right.
That's a good topic for a Sundaymorning, isn't it?
All right.
Uh, let's see here.
(18:39):
What's another one?
This is a good question.
In fact, I'm gonna have this onone of our live streams because
we've got a couple gentlemen onthe live stream, Scott and Mike,
both that identify as bi.
And I always like to run some ofthese questions by them because
they have a differentperspective than say I do.
Both of them are married towomen, uh, but they both
identify as bi, which is totallyfine.
(19:00):
But this person, um, I thinkthis is also our Reddit post,
says Christianity will never becompatible with LGBTQ uh values.
And so this person says, this isthe sad truth that I've learned.
I don't want to come off acrossas angry, but I feel that it's
the sad truth of the matter.
Christianity, no matter howaffirming it pretends to be,
will never be an ally to peoplelike us, meaning LGBTQ.
(19:25):
I I agree with that.
I don't know how, and I knowpeople that are uh within the
LGBTQ uh community that do go tochurch, and I can't really get
that.
I just don't understand it.
It seems to be well, it seems tobe like a lot of things in
religion and Christianity,again, where it's a pick and
(19:48):
choose, but boy, that's a bigone.
That's a big one to sort ofoverlook, right?
Because you know, sometimes inthat very church, they will hold
up that same Bible at some pointand read um the passage where
man shall not lie with a man,and they will have a whole
sermon about why homosexualityis a sin and you are going to
(20:09):
hell.
And I just feel for that personwho's LGBTQ and sitting, you
know, in the third pew going,Well, I they're talking about
me.
And how do you how do youreconcile it when you're sitting
right there?
And you know, you look aroundand the entire congregation is
nodding their head or they'rethey're yeah, or Amen, or praise
Jesus, or whatever they'redoing, um, in affirmation of the
(20:32):
the minister, the priest, thepastor, whatever who says this,
they're holding up the book.
There's only one book inChristianity, it's that book.
They're holding up that book,and don't tell me it's out of
context because we've spentdecades telling us that is the
context, that you are going tohell if you are gay.
You know, you can slice it anyway you want, but we we know
(20:52):
that that is exactly whatvirtually all of them say.
There are some obviously thatdon't necessarily go that far,
but come on, let's not be naive,right?
So, how do the LGBTQ people goto church and ignore all that?
It's it's interesting to me.
I I I really don't I need to getsomeone on the show.
(21:16):
I've got several friends that goto uh various churches, probably
not some of the hardcore ones,probably not Southern Baptists
and things of this nature, but Ithink Methodists is tends to be
pretty common with LGBTQ.
Um Episcopal, I know, has gaypeople in the church in terms of
the and clergy.
So I need to find someone likethat and have a good
(21:37):
conversation with them becauseI'd really like to know.
Maybe I'll do that as a livestream.
So if you're one of thosepeople, let me know.
I and I'm I'm being genuinelyand very honest.
I would love to have theconversation with you.
And again, as I said earlier,this is not a debate.
I genuinely just would like toknow.
And if you've got a perspectiveon that, I I absolutely promise
I would have you on and we wouldhave a respectful conversation
(21:58):
based on me purely wanting tounderstand you better because I
don't really get it.
And I'm willing to have my mindum broadened by your perspective
on that.
So yeah, let me know about that.
I'm now very curious about this.
So here's a good one.
Do you really believe intestimonies?
This is the people that claimthey have seen Jesus in their
dreams or felt the presence.
(22:19):
I do not.
I just flat out do not.
I just do not believe thosetestimonies.
And I think the reason I do notbelieve it is because so many of
them are just absolutely fake.
Uh you know, we've caught notwe, like I haven't caught them,
but we have seen this, the uh,you know, the evangelical or
evangelist, uh good gracious, mywords again today.
(22:42):
The uh evangelist or preacher,TV preacher kind of guy.
Um, do we believe anything thosepeople say?
I mean, I certainly don't, butobviously millions of people do
because they send these guystens of millions of dollars, and
they believe that they've beentalked to by Jesus.
And Jesus told them they need toget a Bentley or a Rolls-Royce.
There's been a thing recentlywhere a guy pulled up, I want to
(23:02):
say it was a Bentley orRolls-Royce, he pulled it into
the church.
Come on, man.
These other people that say,Well, Jesus spoke to me, man,
when people say Jesus spoke tome, it seems a lot like just
intuition and just judgment andgood decisions.
You made a decision to quit lawschool and go into medical
school.
(23:23):
Okay, did Jesus tell you that?
Did God tell you that?
Or you just think, well, I don'treally like being a lawyer, it's
not interesting.
But I like to touch, I like to,you know, help people and feel
like I'm having an effect ontheir lives outside of the
courtroom.
All right.
Well, that's the same decisionlots of people make.
Or I decided not to go tocollege and I decided to become
a you know a plumber.
Okay.
That's nothing to do with Jesus,man.
(23:44):
You know, I I just yeah, thetestimonials, I I can't, I just
can't get behind them.
I really can't.
Obviously, I don't believe inGod, so the fact that you're
telling me that God told yousomething isn't really gonna
connect with me.
But I just feel like a lot ofthat is um I don't know if
wishful thinking is the rightterm, but I think there's an uh
(24:09):
I don't remember the words I'mlooking for.
They attribute those feelings toGod.
It's almost like a God in thegaps, which again, I did a uh a
mic drop on the God of the gaps.
It's almost like God in thegaps.
Like, I don't know why I'mcoming to this conclusion, but I
think it's the right way for mylife to go.
So it must be God leading methat direction.
It could be God leading yourdirection, or it could simply be
(24:29):
you kind of measured it out andyou said, That's that's my best
decision.
I I did a just a very pros andcons set of the matrix and said,
you know, there's more checks onthe pro side, and that's the
person I'm gonna marry now, orthat's the path for my career,
or I'm gonna move to this newcity.
You say it's God, I say you justmade a good decision based on
your experiences and yourdesires and your needs in life.
(24:52):
Um, but as a testimonial, no.
Now, when you get to the bigtestimonials, like, oh, I saw
Jesus.
Nah, I don't think you did.
I just don't think you did.
You can tell me you did.
That's fine.
We could, I don't care.
If you think you did, and thatmakes you feel better, all
right, knock yourself out.
I don't believe you, but that'sfine.
That's totally okay.
(25:12):
All right, what's the next one?
Infinite Drink 1426.
I always wonder where peoplecome up with these names.
Infinite Drink 1426.
Okay.
I don't know if he's infinitelydrunk, he's infinitely drinking,
he has habitual thirst.
I just don't know.
Infinite drink 1426.
I think there's a Redditor aswell.
(25:33):
Uh, does anyone here wish theybelieved in God?
And he says, I recently lost afriend that could kept pushing
faith on me and going about howeveryone should be should at
least believe in God.
And I'm still a closetedagnostic, but to be honest, I
guess she took my lack ofreligious fanaticism as a sign
that I no longer believe in myreligion.
But the way she talked about herfaith is magical and her
(25:56):
feelings are safety and peaceand all, I sort of wish I felt
that.
Yeah, I get that.
I get that.
I think I've talked about thaton here as well.
I think there is some comfort inbelieving in God.
To call back to my very firstquestion, I think we talked
about The Matrix.
Yeah, if you saw the movie, youknow that there's a character in
them in the movie.
Again, spoiler, there's acharacter in the movie who wants
(26:17):
to go back to the matrix becauselife was good in the matrix.
And in fact, they say, I want tobe someone famous, like an actor
or something, you know?
Yeah.
I mean, if you have a decentlife and everything's working
out well for you, and and youthink it's because of God, or
you have good health, or you'resomeone you knew came through a
health scare or whatever, andyou think it's all because of
God and that makes you feelbetter.
(26:37):
All right, knock yourself out.
Is that comforting?
Sure, absolutely.
I've mentioned it before.
Would it be nice to see mygrandparents when I die?
Of course it would be.
Those were lovely, lovely peoplethat I loved.
I would love to see them again.
That would be very comfortingand encouraging, especially as I
get later in my life and thinkthat, okay, I'm on my last days,
(26:59):
even if that means years, butI'm still on the way out.
And I know that I'm gonna dieand go see these people again.
Or I'm not gonna miss out on myfamily, my children, my wife, or
whatever the case may be.
I'm not gonna miss out because Iget to watch them from heaven.
That's gotta be supercomforting.
The fact that I don't believeany of it, it's not necessarily
(27:20):
discomforting to me, but I cansee why until you come to that
realization and you sort ofwrestle with it and you come to
that, you sort of resignyourself to say, oh no, those
are not true.
Those are just, you know,they're they're nice thoughts,
but they're not true.
You know, it's like fantasy interms of like, uh, what if we
(27:40):
won the lottery?
That's great.
Take 10 minutes and think aboutwhat you would do.
And after that, realize you'renot gonna win the lottery and
you gotta go to work tomorrow,right?
Sort of the same thing with me.
It'd be nice to think abouthaving$200 million or whatever
the lotto is gonna pay me, and Icould have a jet and a Ferrari
and live on the beach and blah,blah, blah, blah.
That'd be very, very nice.
And then I realized, well, it'snot happening, and I just need
(28:04):
to work and I need to save mymoney, and it means I need to
compromise and I need to buy aless expensive watch or whatever
the case may be.
Same thing with the God.
It would be much nicer tobelieve he's there and he's
comforting and he's looking forme and he's looking out for me,
he's making good decisions forme.
I just don't believe it'shappening.
I really just don't.
But again, I've always said ifthat helps you and it makes you
(28:26):
get through the day, that'sfine.
All right, next question.
Again, and I think a Redditor,Roughbag 8209.
Roughbag?
Okay.
I'm not even gonna I'm not evengonna dig into that one.
Roughbag 8209.
If you knew that God was real,would you worship?
Um no.
(28:48):
I don't think I would.
Let me see what else he says.
Is there uh faith for me feelslike jumping off a high cliff,
but not knowing if there's waterat the bottom of it or not?
Yeah, that's that's kind of agood apt description there.
Uh a sense of why would I dothat, but also would it be fun
to swim?
But if I knew for sure there'swater, then I'd swim for a bit,
but not forever.
It kind of goes on hererambling.
(29:09):
Um, but let's get back to thismain title of his question.
If you knew God was real, wouldyou worship?
I don't think so, because I giveyou two answers on that.
One, as I've said, I've said, Ithink on this show, maybe even
said this last week.
I think that if suddenly we allwoke up tomorrow and there was
(29:30):
just absolute irrefutable proofthat God exists.
Instead of the 2,000 years agoin a small part of the Middle
East that God supposedly showedhimself, God actually went
worldwide.
He broadcast himself like a uh,you know, a uh Taylor Swift
video.
You know, everybody on thisplanet suddenly saw, and again,
(29:53):
with irrefutable, that there wasno doubt that they just saw God.
And we all shared theexperience.
So we all believe.
Now we all believe there's aGod.
I think the second thoughtafter, wow, and this is amazing
and maybe scary and the wholethat wrapped up.
The second thought I thinkbillions of people would come to
is, oh goodness, this is not atall the God that I thought we
(30:17):
had.
This is not the Christian God.
This is not the Hindu God.
This is not the Mormon God.
This is not the whatever I'mleaving out.
Uh I say Hindu, uh, whatever.
Doesn't matter.
Whatever your religion is, it'snot that God.
I I am 100% guaranteed andbelieve that if there is a God,
that God will look nothing likethe God of the man-made
(30:40):
religions.
So that's my first thought onthat.
And if that's the case, thenwhat exactly am I worshiping?
Because that means that God hasrequired none of that from me.
That God has not asked me toworship it.
Now, again, I guess if I wake uptomorrow and there's a God in
the sky and he's talking to usand he says worship me, I gotta
(31:02):
wrestle with what that evenmeans.
But let's put that aside.
Just the mere fact that I'veproven that there was a God,
does that mean I need to worshipthat being?
Yeah, I don't really know why.
I don't really know why.
Here's why I would, under threatof death.
I I have nothing necessary tothank them for.
(31:23):
Right?
I my parents made me, my parentsraised me, my wife and kids
sustained me in terms of my deedand desire to go on and
experience life.
Um the planet as it is, youknow, would I maybe thank them?
I guess, but would I worshipthem?
No.
Again, why would I?
(31:45):
If worship though is like youneed to worship me or I'm going
to kill you, which is what theChristian God says.
Um again, not taken out ofcontext, because as we all know,
was it the first four of the uhTen Commandments is basically
worship me or you're gonna go tohell.
So uh we already kind of havethat.
(32:05):
It's I would label that ascoercion, but okay, we can get
into the semantics of that.
But no, I I have no desire toworship.
Um, and I would be terrible atit because I have a disdain for
authority.
So I would be terrible atworshiping a god that just
suddenly showed up out of theblue and said, Oh, here I am, by
the way.
And again, it wouldn't be aChristian god, it wouldn't be a
(32:26):
Hindu god, it wouldn't be uh anyother gods that have been formed
of the 3,000 or what I mean, andthere's like tens of thousands
of actual gods over the courseof human history.
It wouldn't be any of that god.
I just I can guarantee you, I'mmaking I'm putting my foot down
right now.
There would not be that god.
Um, oh, here's a question foryou, the listening audience.
(32:46):
Um, this person says, this isum, I work at an Arby's.
The way it was written, I had tospell it out here.
I work at an Arby's.
All right, man, I love theArby's, I love Arby's.
Um, yeah, I actually get Arby'severy once in a while when I see
one, I'm like, I haven't been toArby's in a long time.
I like their sandwiches.
Um, but I but I digress.
(33:08):
This is is revoking your churchmembership always so
complicated?
And the reason I say I'm this isfor you, the listeners, is that
a thing?
I didn't know that was a thing.
Don't you just stop showing up?
It's like a gym membership, ordo you have to like go in and
cancel your membership of thechurch?
Because this person says, as thetitle says, I'm trying to revoke
(33:29):
my church membership, not uh notjust because I'm having problems
with beliefs, but also because Idon't see or um see why or how a
church membership is biblical.
Okay, but I thought you juststopped going.
Now, maybe they're trying tomake a point to take me off the
rolls.
Good luck with that.
That's I mean, maybe like takingme off of some sort of mailing
(33:50):
list.
It's never gonna happen.
Do I care that I'm still ontheir list as a member?
I don't.
As an atheist, you know, as anatheist as sort of in my my
phase of atheism, I don't care.
Put me down.
If that helps you recruitsomeone that says, you know,
we've got 3,000 members versus2,990, whatever.
Knock yourself out.
(34:10):
Am I ever going to attend yourchurch?
No.
Am I are you wasting a stamp ifyou send me something?
Yes, you are.
I had a I got a uh letter in themail, I don't know, two, three
years ago, I guess.
I'm still living in Californiafrom a um, what do you call it?
Uh Jehovah's Witness.
It was a handwritten letter.
It was actually addressed to theprevious tenant in that
building.
Um, but I got it, it washandwritten.
(34:31):
I was like, what is this?
Like, but I could tell it waslike, because it said like uh it
was a Spanish name if Iremember.
But say it was like JoseGonzalez, or current residence,
but it was handwritten.
Like you could tell it wasphysically handwritten, not just
printed to look like it wasphysically handwritten.
So I was like, all right, well,I'm a current resident, let me
open it.
Um, and they had Jose's name andhis address, and this is a
(34:53):
Jehovah's Witness, which I justpictured this person in
essentially like some sort ofself-imposed sweatshop cranking
out handwritten letters, and Iof course attached one of those
little watchtower tracks withit.
Dude, take Jose and me off ofyour list.
You're you're wasting your stampand your five, ten minutes or
whatever it took you to writethat out and your little tract.
(35:15):
Does that work for anybody?
It seems like the biggest wasteof time, but whatever.
But yeah, I just don't know.
Tell me if that's true.
Tell me in the comments isrevoking your membership from
church, is that actually acomplicated process?
I did not even know that waspossibly a thing.
I literally just thought youstopped showing up.
That's what I did.
But I was episcopal.
Maybe maybe they're not reallystrong on that.
(35:37):
Um I will tell you now I stoppedgoing, and this is the 80s,
right?
So maybe things are differentnow, but we didn't really tithe.
I think tithing is a thing inthe Episcopal Church.
We gave money at the offeringplate.
So our tithing was when weshowed up, right?
Um, there was nobody, uh, weweren't on a mailing list.
There was no ACH withdrawalsfrom our checking account or you
(35:59):
know, credit card with likeAmazon.
I mean, you just show up and youput your$5 or whatever it was,
my parents did, in the offeringplate and you moved on, right?
Maybe nowadays, though,everything's much more
high-tech, right?
Maybe you have to sign up forsome sort of subscription
service to God.
And getting out of that is apain.
Okay, I could see that being thecase.
I would be sort of outraged, butI could see it being the case.
(36:23):
All right, here's another one.
Um, this is actually a differentone because this is um this is
from Positive Vibes Only, 95.
My Christian friend keepsdisrespecting my Hindu faith.
Should I end this friendship?
I'm a Hindu woman from India,and I wasn't very religious
growing up, but in the last fewyears I've become more
spiritual.
I read the Bhagavad Gita, Ithink I say that correct.
(36:45):
I always mess that word up, andfollow Dharmic teachings.
But I also um respect allreligions and believe we can
learn from each other.
I've met a white woman fromTexas, she's a Christian, talks
about her faith constantly.
At first I didn't mind, but soonevery conversation started
ending up about the Bible.
When we first met in 2020, I wasat my lowest going through a
breakup and struggling at work.
I was emotionally vulnerable,and she told me about my
(37:06):
suffering would end if Iaccepted by accepted the Bible
and followed God.
And you can see where this went.
Um, and to this person, I say,Welcome to the club.
I mean, you're I I swear I'm notmaking this up.
This, you know, again, positivevibes only 95.
You can go to Reddit and lookthis person up.
Um, it sounds like uh soundslike a stereotype.
(37:30):
You met a woman in Texas who wasa apparently very evangelical
Christian, and they couldn'tstop telling you that all your
problems be solved if you wouldjust go to church and accept
Jesus.
Welcome to the club, Mrs.
Uh, whoever, positive vibes.
Um, yeah, that so my Christianfriend keeps disrespecting my
(37:50):
Hindu faith.
Should I end this friendship?
Well, I wouldn't know, sorry ifI would end it, but I would push
back on it because that's notgonna get better.
I obviously know that you're adifferent religion.
This is where it drives meinsane.
As an atheist, we get thisconstantly and we're kind of
prepared for it.
So we know it, and we've beendown the road a thousand times.
(38:11):
Everyone's always saying we'regonna go to hell and we're
sinners and they want to saveour soul or various combinations
of all that.
Again, as atheists, we knowthat's going to happen.
This person as a Hindu may nothave experienced that before,
but you're in Texas around anevangelical Christian.
You just gotta buckle up becausethis is what's going to happen.
(38:34):
You are, and I don't mean thisin a disparaging way, but maybe
I do.
You're behind enemy lines,right?
You're a Hindu in Texas.
You're you're you're on aminority on that one, right?
And a person like this person isdescribing will not stop
themselves.
They are convinced that you arelistening to a false God, and it
(38:58):
is their job, their mainfunction in life to stop you
from doing that and convert totheir God.
And it is insufferable.
Uh this person is let notletting you, first of all, it's
at work, but that's a wholedifferent conversation.
But just leave alone.
I as I've said, you're listeningto this channel because you want
(39:20):
to.
Whether you agree with me ornot, you're listening to it
because you want to.
You're never going to find me ona street corner with a bullhorn
telling you to become anatheist.
You will never find that if youdo come up and tell me I'm a
hypocrite, but you're not goingto do it.
I'm I'm in no fear and danger ofbeing told that because I won't
do it.
I am not trying to convert.
(39:40):
You won't see me going door todoor with a book from Richard
Dawkins trying to read to them.
Um, you'll never see me going toa courthouse, you know, and
trying to get a law passed thatsays, you know, it says right
here in this ChristopherHitchens book that yada, yada,
yada.
But that is not the way it workswith many, many, many
(40:02):
Christians.
Not all Christians, obviously,because a lot of Christians just
don't care.
They just want to live theirlives, raise their kids, you
know, love their spouses.
They don't care.
But unfortunately, there are fartoo many who make it their
life's mission to convert everyperson they see to their God,
and specifically their God.
And I say that meaning not theChristian God, I mean their God,
(40:22):
the one that attends theirchurch, which means they believe
what they believe at theirchurch, which is not necessarily
what they believe in the nextChristian church, which in Texas
is on the next block.
So, yeah, or down south at all.
I was telling uh someone on ourlive stream the other day, my
friend Scott was on it with me.
And he and I live about a welived about a mile and a half
from each other in Florida.
We counted between that mile anda half, there were seven
(40:45):
churches, Christian churches inthat mile and a half.
So uh yeah, yeah.
When you're surrounded by allsides, so to speak, um, you're
you're behind enemy lines there,and you're going to be try to be
converted to their version.
Why do they need seven churchesin a mile and a half?
It's because that's sevendifferent versions.
(41:05):
And someone from each one ofthose churches is going to try
to convince you that theirversion is right.
And being a Hindu, you're reallyfar outside of it.
You're not even Christian.
So you're really far.
Not as far as me, because Idon't believe at all, but you're
pretty far out.
So again, should you lose themas a drop them as a friend?
No, not necessarily.
(41:26):
But tell them, you know, listen,I appreciate that you believe in
Christian God.
I believe it.
I mean, I get it, I understandyou do.
I believe in a Hindu God.
That should be full stop.
It probably won't be, but itshould be full stop.
That should be enough for thatperson to stop.
I'm gonna guess, unfortunately,for uh positive vibes only 95.
I'm going to guess that yourChristian friend is not gonna
(41:47):
drop it there.
In fact, if you push back, theymight take offense.
I'm um I'm calling it now.
I don't know what the over orunder is on that, but uh, I'm
calling it.
Unfortunately, I just I've beenthere, it's the way it works.
Oh, let's see here.
What's another one?
Passive aggressive triggers.
Have a blessed day.
So that's their is it me or ishave a blessed day always used
(42:11):
by Christians as a passiveaggressive dig because it feels
that way to me.
Um, no, I don't think that itis.
I understand where you're comingfrom, but no, I don't think it
is.
I think I and I'm gonna maybeI'm being um overly optimistic
here, but I do believe, and I'vesaid this many times, the
average everyday person,Christian or not, is just a good
(42:34):
person trying to get throughtheir life.
They really are.
It doesn't matter what religionthey are, it doesn't matter if
they have no religion, theypretty much get up every day and
again, they want their kids tobe better and they want to love
their spouse and their spouseloved them, they want to feel as
few amounts of aches and painsas they possibly can and have
some level of comfort, and thenthey expect to die.
(42:56):
It's you know, play it out outhowever you want, but that's
what most of us want.
So when someone says a blessedday, um that's not necessarily a
snarky response.
So atheists that think that,stop thinking that.
Just stop thinking that becausedon't look at everything as a
fight.
Not everybody's out to get you.
A lot of people are.
I understand why you might thinkthat, because again, as
(43:16):
atheists, we kind of get it fromall sides.
Every religion doesn't likeatheists.
Muslims don't like Christians,Christians don't like Muslims,
uh, Muslims all the time, butthey both don't like atheists.
It's like they share that.
You know, they could want tofight each other left and right,
but when it comes to theatheists, they're gonna turn
their sights on us, right?
Because there are two sides ofthe same coin.
We're a completely differentcoin.
(43:37):
So that line at have a blessedday, I think they just mean it
as a have you know good luck,have a great day.
It's all the same.
Can it be said with some levelof snark?
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah, it can definitely besaid with some snark.
Um, I liken it to the way thatif you're from the south or if
(43:58):
you're not from the south, youcertainly have to understand
this.
When someone says, uh, no, I'llbless your heart, yeah.
That's not good.
Usually there's uh there'ssomething not good behind that.
So uh when they say the samething, have a blessed day, yeah,
that's kind of what that meanssometimes, but not all the time.
I think it's genuine that meanshave a good day.
They just use the word blessed.
No different than I guess if anatheist says bless you with when
(44:19):
you sneeze.
I I don't really say thatanymore.
I haven't said that in decades.
I always say gesuntite justbecause, for no particular
reason.
Um, but if I said have uh youknow, if I said uh bless you, I
don't really mean bless you byGod.
I just it's a it's a phrase,it's just part of vernacular,
right?
Say something we say.
All right, so here's a good one.
Um, I don't have an exact answerfor this, but the question the
(44:41):
person asked, what is what wasthe exact moment you lost your
faith?
Particularly if you're aChristian.
I just I'm just curious becauseI hear people say that they are
deconstructing their faith andsome demolish it.
Um so the second part of theirthing about they're
deconstructing, it sounds like ajourney, right?
They're deconstructing theirfaith uh and some demolish it
(45:03):
means they get rid of ittotally.
I don't know that most peoplethat I know, most atheists that
I know, had an exact moment.
Usually, though, there was alight switch.
There was something they gotflickered on that they said,
wait a second.
But for most of us, we werelaid, we were raised in a
(45:24):
Christian religion and aChristian household generally,
sometimes very strongly andsometimes very casually, like I
was as Episcopal.
We were very casual about it.
But nonetheless, I stillbelieved.
My parents believed, mygrandparents believed, everybody
believed.
I went to church on Sundays, soyou know, I was indoctrinated
from baby, right?
Was there an exact moment that Istopped believing?
(45:48):
No, there was an exact momentthat I still remember quite well
that just made me think, wait asecond, that doesn't, that
doesn't, that's not right.
And I think I don't know if I'vesaid this on this call before,
but there is a um um I alwaysforget the name.
I think it's Danae, a um uhGreek mythology.
(46:08):
There's a character named Danae.
Um, and that person was lockedin a tower.
She's a obviously she was lockedin a tower, a golden tower, if I
remember correctly, but I may beconflating stories here.
She was locked in a tower forwhatever transgression
transgression she had.
And Zeus uh materialized througha golden sun ray, if I'm
(46:29):
remembering correctly.
It's been eighth grade.
I'm I forgot to mention that.
This was eighth grade, so I wasvery young.
What is that, 12?
I don't even know.
13.
But anyway, so Zeus materializesinto the tower, impregnates her,
sprinkles out, you know, howeverhe does, and she ultimately
gives birth to Zeus's child, whoI can't remember who that would
be in Greek mythology.
(46:50):
But I remember very well ineighth, eighth grade, Mr.
Isaac was my teacher at StantonCollege Preparatory School in
Jacksonville, Florida.
Um, but I remember thinking,wait a second.
So Zeus, God, got a woman, avirgin, pregnant, and then that
virgin gave birth to his child.
(47:13):
Boy, where have I heard thatstory?
It sounds really familiar.
And this was again when I waseighth grade, so whatever age I
am at that point.
And that really was just sort ofmy first light bulb.
It was like, oh, wait a second.
And I, and the other thing, I'llgive myself a little credit
here, pat myself on the back alittle bit, was I remember
thinking, you know, whatever daythis was of the week, thinking,
(47:34):
wait a second, we're learningabout Greek mythology, which I
found very interesting.
But it's these are stories,right?
Everybody in this class isreading this and and the
teachers instructing us, andwe're all saying, Oh, this is
really fun stories.
Look at these stories that thesepeople wrote about what they
thought at the time were gods.
But now, you know, thousands ofyears later, we think of them as
(47:55):
cute stories and fun stories andvery interesting stories that
have absolutely no bearing onour life whatsoever.
Because, you know, these arejust Greek mythology stories.
They're not they're not true byany means, right?
But four days from now orwhatever, on Sunday, I'm gonna
go to a building and we're allgonna sit in that building and
we're gonna talk about Jesus,the son of a god, the son of a
(48:19):
virgin that God impregnated andhad his son, Jesus.
And that absolutely happened.
That's true, that's 100% true.
The Greek mythology stuff,that's just a funny story that
predates Jesus.
But this one, this virgin givingbirth, that actually happened.
And I remember thinking at thattime, boy, that that seems a
(48:39):
little suspicious to me.
I don't know that this I'm notsure I buy this.
This seems a little convenientthat this story is the same that
predates the one I'm about tohear about on Sunday, but I'm
supposed to disregard this oneand yet take the absolute other
one as absolute truth.
And in fact, if I question it,I'm a sinner for even doing so.
(49:02):
That was the exact moment that Istarted to change my
perspective.
And at that point, like a lot ofatheists I know, it's like a dog
with a bone.
When you get that first bit ofreasoning, it's like, wait a
second.
I don't know if you rememberthis.
When you were a kid, we probablyhave all done this.
(49:23):
You ever find your Christmaspresents before Christmas?
And then it's a mad hunt throughthe house to figure out what's
going on.
Why are your Christmas presentshidden in the attic or in the
back of your dad's closet or youknow, wherever they may be?
Um, and you and that's thebeginning of the end in terms of
Santa Claus, right?
Because you know that's notright.
(49:44):
I remember one year I got alittle pool table.
It was a little like a kid'spool table.
I don't know how old I was,probably 10, 12 in that range.
And I found it in my parents' uhcloset, I think.
And um as a typical 80s Gen Xkind of kid, I would come home
from school and my parents areboth at work, right?
So I had hours to myself.
I would take this thing out ofthe box every day and play with
(50:07):
it.
Like play pool on this littlepool table in my living room.
And I put it all back in the boxand package it back up because
it wasn't wrapped yet at thispoint, right?
Didn't have a Santa Clauswrapping on it.
It was just a, you know,something they got from Sears
warehouse.
Um, and I put it all backtogether.
And then, of course, onChristmas Day, I was like, oh my
gosh, thank you so much, mom anddad.
(50:28):
I have pool table.
What?
Even though I've been playing, Iwas probably pretty good at that
point, like a damn pool shark onmy little uh my little uh
clandestine pool table thingthat I had set up every day.
But it's the same thing.
Once I realized that, uh it wasit was out, right?
I mean, I you know, I think bythis point I already didn't
believe in Christmas, but or uhSanta Claus, but it's the same
(50:50):
thing, right?
Once you realize it, it's over.
The beginning is over, right?
The beginning of the end, Iguess it's it's over.
Same thing with withChristianity.
So that's where it does go.
So there's very few of us havean exact and all-encompassing
moment.
There's a moment that starts itand triggers it.
And then it's, as this personsaid, a deconstruction.
There's there's a series ofthings because you think, well,
(51:11):
wait a second.
Well, if if the virgin birthdoesn't make any sense, you
know, I'm starting to believethat maybe you can't live in the
belly of a whale for three days.
And that seems a bit suspicious,right?
Or wait a second, why wouldthere be a need for a talking
snake?
And if you're God and you'vecreated two creatures that's job
(51:32):
is basically to do nothing butworship you, why would you even
allow a snake in the garden?
And if they had neverexperienced anything negative or
bad, how would they know thatlying or um you know, lying was
bad and talking to the snake wasbad because they don't have a
sense of right and wrong?
It just you know it starts toall fall apart, right?
(51:53):
Sodom and Gomorrah.
What I heard the other day thata lot of people think Sodom and
Gomorrah were sisters.
I I never heard that, but Iokay, yeah.
I that surprised me, but yetdidn't surprise me.
Uh so uh, but yeah, it's theexact sort of thing.
There's a point where it startsto trigger and then it starts to
fall apart after that.
(52:14):
So um yeah, that's my story ofwhen my exact moment, the
beginning of the end, started.
Was that uh Mr.
Isaac's eighth grade, uh he wasmy English teacher.
Very nice man.
I like that guy a lot.
He used to call me Clip becauseI carried my papers on a
clipboard.
I don't know why.
I guess I was trained to be awarehouse supervisor.
I have no idea why I did that,but he called me clip.
(52:35):
He was a very nice guy.
Um, I think that's about it.
We've been right at about anhour, 50 something minutes into
it.
Um real quick, just uh again,this is the show that I do on
Sunday mornings, or again, ifyou're listening to this early
in the week and you're drivingto work, hopefully you uh it was
soothing enough that it it keptyou calm on your commute to work
if you were having to fightthrough traffic.
It's very cold here Sundaymorning.
(52:56):
I think we're supposed to get upto a high of like 30 something.
Winter has definitely set in onum here in Chicago.
My wife and I were out thisweekend and it was a little
chilly.
I I was like, oh, I should havebrought my gloves.
It was a little chilly.
So um, so I hope you enjoyedthis.
Um, and again, I always ask you,just go ahead and then uh reach
out to me if you have anyquestions or you want to ask me
(53:19):
about why I thought something orsaid something, I'm happy to
answer those questions.
Also, look for me.
I had to write this down in mylittle post-it note here.
Um, I do have a mic drop comingout uh this Tuesday.
I look for those from now on.
They'll come out on Tuesdays,usually instead of Wednesdays,
but that's a mic drop.
That's my solo one.
Uh, and that comes out on video,on YouTube, on audio, here on
(53:41):
whatever podcast um platformyou're listening to.
And I also generally put out anarticle as well on these mic
drops because again, a littlebit more of a social commentary.
Um, you are also welcome to joinour live streams.
Watch the YouTube channel forthat and check the live little,
there's a little sort of tabacross the top of the page
that's atheistville.com.
(54:01):
Um well, atheistville.com, Ishould say that is the website,
but atheistville on YouTube.
Check on the live tab on there.
If we set a live up, we alwayshave that up for a week or two
ahead of time so you have timeto sort of build it into your
calendar.
And we would love to have youparticipate.
Um, send us a question, uh, popin live and let us know your
thoughts.
And also, if you're the kind ofperson who would like to maybe
(54:23):
participate in one of those, umI'm I'm happy to talk to you
about that.
I the more people the better.
You know, I'm not trying tochange anybody's minds, but if
you've been through thisdeconstruction or you're going
through the process now and youmaybe have some advice for other
people, that's how we do thoseshows.
Jump in.
Those are the unholy roundtablesthat we call them.
Uh, we'd love to have youparticipate.
(54:45):
Again, either as a guest or as aviewer, either way.
So, anyways, hope that you havea good rest of your Sunday.
Until we talk again, take care.
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