In today’s episode of Talk Heathen we have Johnny P. Angel joined by the one and only Katy Montgomerie who will ask callers questions to make them think in addition to giving us some fun facts about the animal kingdom.Our first caller is Kyle in IL who argues that if there is no religion, we can end up having bad ideas, and productivity goes down. This is because his son made up a religion and has abandoned Christianity, and can’t make money doing that. What is the difference between a 15 year old making up a religion and anyone else doing so? How do you determine which religion is the right one? We are not convinced that religion has anything to do with productivity. Is it necessary for a society to have a supernatural goal in order to succeed?Next is Ulrich in Mexico that wants to know how evolution results in being transgender.. Katy fires away with some examples in nature including an amazing crab fact. Often in meerkats, in order for the best survival of the genes, they need to work together. There are examples within the animal kingdom where the genes are not necessary to be passed on for survival. Gender identity is something that lots of animals have where the males and females act differently around each other. Some species often change sex such as clown fish. When this happens, the behavior changes happen first. 90% of all the sex that bonobos have is lesbian sex and this builds social bonds making them less likely to fight.Patrick in Fl asks why pantheism is laughable. He is exploring the possibility that the universe could be considered conscious and that it comes down to faith. He claims that atheists state that god does not exist. Just because we agree that the universe may have come from something, it does not mean that we believe in your god. Is there another reason we should believe other than faith? If a god exists, that god would know what it takes to convince us of that god’s existence. If your god is a natural god, then you should be able to use science to prove it. Why do you believe that the universe is god if we do not have evidence for it?Joe from PA claims that the earth did not just come out of nowhere and there has to be a god. We could have three possible world views, one is god created the earth, another is that a spell was cast a day before you were born by a wizard named Gary, and a third is that planets collided. Of these possibilities, how do you go about determining the right one? Why does a child being born make you think that god exists? Why did god create humans where we need air to breathe?Last caller is Alok from CA that wants to know if being LGBTQ is a choice. All human behavior is a mixture of nature and nurture. In this case it is largely nature. There is evidence in every culture and all throughout history. We have evidence that conversion therapy does not work. If it was a choice, then they should be allowed to choose that.That is all for today heathens, thank you for tuning in and always stay safe!
Today we have ObjectivelyDan joined by Johnny P. Angel who will work through topics of ontology, AI, binary systems, and 911 conspiracies.First caller is Noah in OK wants to know what the world would be like without religion and how to create change to prevent theocracy. We would have different kinds of magical thinking but we would not have dogmatic religious branded thinking. People would not be able to tell fairy tale stories that justify not liking other people. Get out there, vote, call representatives, vote with your dollar, get engaged, search what you can do to push back, give your creativity and get moving in a constructive way.Xeno in South Korea is next who wants to talk about ontology where an entity has to depend on another entity and therefore everything is divisible and has an origin point which is god. This is an oversimplification of what we know of the universe. When you use the word, “god” as the origin, you are sneaking in other qualities that are not within the definition. Why can’t this be called physics? Why would there not be a bigger origin point than god? If god has things that make him contingent on something else, then he is not the origin.Dean in CA is next, who is a creator of AI and argues that religion could be a factor in the creation of Artificial Intelligence(AI) and that some AIs have religious views now. Advanced chatbots will just say what you want to hear while religious algorithms can end up pushing people in certain directions. If we design an AI, do we program it with assumptions that god is not real? Think about what choices you make when programming and why.Alok in CA does not agree with the binary system of being convinced, and would rather attribute a percentage to his level of belief. If you are not sure, the classic label is agnostic. Some use belief scales to determine the strength of the belief. Just because we are not convinced that Thor exists, does not mean that Thor does not exist. Discovering the reason behind this belief is much more important than the label. Rather than alienating people who are not hardcore anti-theists we need to find the common goals we have in common.Marcia in NC is a 911 Truther and is questioning why certain key people were out of touch or new to the job when this happened. It is not an unnatural inclination to be skeptical of the events that occurred that day, however many of these claims are truly bananas. That does not mean there were no mistakes made within the chain of command. This is an excellent call for Truth Wanted.Gabe in KY is the final caller who argues that if we just snapped our fingers and got rid of religion, we would eventually be seeing the same problems. We agree, and human beings want to find ways to have magical thinking. If we teach people how to teach skeptically, religion will start to evaporate. Religion is a front of where social war is taking place.Thank you for tuning in! Please thank essential workers in all areas. We will see you next week!
In today’s episode of Talk Heathen, Secular Rarity is joined by Student Doctor Ben who will both discuss issues with callers ranging from antinatalization to messages from god.Michael in CA is our first caller who is a proponent of zero population growth and asks the hosts what they think is important about this topic. We know that if we continue to expand consumption, the ramifications will be bad. Is it moral to strive for zero population growth? If we knew the ideal number the population should be, how would we go about striving for that? How would we achieve minimizing bad outcomes when focussing on zero population growth? What policies would be put in place for this? If we could get rid of the negative consequences of population growth, yet still increase the population, would that be okay? Who gets to have children and who doesn’t?Josiah from MO wants to discuss ways to deal with people telling him that he was never a true Christian, once they find out he is an atheist. Ben ...
Welcome to Talk Heathen! Today we have ObjectivelyDan and MD Aware who will tackle the topic of abortion taking calls from people on both sides of the spectrum. First caller is Mark in MS who is believes in the resurrection, but is also in favor of pro-choice stemming from his experiences as an OBGYN. You have to put a value of person-hood on the fetus. MD asks him, “Where do you draw the line? How late a term of abortion would you be comfortable performing?” What deserves protection and rights? Viability outside the womb as a practical criteria has its limits. Charles, a Christian from OH, uses the “No True Scotsman” fallacy to attack the previous caller. He then proceeds to ask the hosts why they consider themselves atheists and what standard of evidence is needed for them to believe. We have not seen all the unique claims of Christianity to be true. You must be more specific than just saying the “Christian God”, and for every property you state, there must be justification ...
Welcome to Talk Heathen! Today host Katy Montgomerie is joined by the amazing Kenneth Leonard who will talk with callers who present a number of ideas to them for contemplation, and talk about wasp facts involving caterpillar AIDS. In light of Father’s Day, who was the worst dad in the Bible? Abraham? Lot? Noah? Jephthah? How about Yahweh himself?First up is Davan in NE who argues the soul could potentially exist partly because of having out of body experiences, even though rationally he attributes these experiences to a dream. The idea of the soul as originally brought out by the texts is valid is his stance. How can any given experience be evidence for a soul if we know these things happen in the brain? Why would we use the “soul” label? Does the soul have some other component that is not part of the brain or body?Next is Teo from Croatia who wants to talk about the possibility of a heathen experiencing a Christian god. Would you agree that it is possible for people to imagine things that are logical and make sense? How do we tell the difference between experiencing a god and our imagination? Is it possible to believe things on faith that are not true? How do you know you have had an experience with a god and if it is true? Why should anybody believe that a god has manifested anywhere? Could your same reasoning prove a genie? If you can’t prove something does not exist, does that mean you can prove that it does exist?Judy from IN has an insight that we are stardust because fluorine from another planet is connected to the fluoride in our body. Katy explains who things formed including large stars, nuclear fusion, and supernovas. Scientific claims need to be supported by evidence. Truth is valued differently in the scientific community than it is the Christian community. If we have a claim, we should be able to test that model.Tony in NY feels that atheism only works in the physical world and that money is a god that we worship. Does not believing in Santa Clause only work in the physical world? Money is real and has transactional value as currency. What is the evidence of there being a non-physical world? Why do you think that thoughts are not physical? What in money maps the claim that god exists? Is there anything that religion is essential for, and we could not achieve through secular means? As atheists, we are not saying religions do not exist. We are only saying it is possible to exist without religion.Chris in Scotland would like to know if it is possible to be moral without knowing how bad you can be. He wants to know if you can truly know the best without knowing the worst. Morals are not well defined. Without defining morals, this statement is as ridiculous as not running a marathon if you never had cancer. Can you climb Mt. Everest without making your bed?Thank you for joining us today and to the essential workers! We will see you next week!
Welcome to Talk Heathen where we have Jmike joined by ObjectivelyDan who will see what caller has evidence the gospels are historical. First caller is Devan in MI who describes proof as the handy work and god as the mechanic. How do you falsify this position? Why does it have to be the Christian god? We can all construct a hypothesis about anything, but it must allow for falsification. How would you know what a non-designed thing looks like? The gospels make particular claims about the world and the life of Jesus, and this is where we take issue. If this is hard to swallow, why do you believe it? What other stories like Joseph Smith and Muhammad can we consider to be plausible?Zach in NY is next, who used to be a follower of Sam Harris and wants to talk about free will. His position is that it is difficult to claim any kind of truth without it being grounded in faith and there are gaps and limitations in what atheists know as truth. When we think something is true, there is a justif...
Greetings! Today we have the talented duo of Johnny Angel and Kenneth Leonard who will patiently present questions to callers that cause deep thinking about how to determine what is true.First caller is Ernie from CA who has proof of Jesus. It is because the Bible, which has always been true, talks about giants and we can find fossils of giants all over the world. Then there is Nimrod, who is why we have continents and the earth no longer has Pangea. Where is the connection between all this and god? When is it time to believe something is true? Why is the Bible a reliable source of truth? How do you know what Jesus said about anything? Did you know that the Rig Veda has been around longer than the Bible? Next caller is Sasha from OR who is exploring Reiki and Astrology as spiritual practices. Love is when you are operating through your heart chakra. How do you define spirituality, the concept of love, chakras, and energy? Can these things be measured by any kind of scientific instruments? Why is the medical industry not making money off of Reiki? How do you tell the difference between feeling the effects of these things and something your brain is doing? What is the experimental design for proving these claims? How do you know something exists other than tradition?Mark from MS no longer believes some of the things in the bible such as the original sin, 6,000 year old earth, and the flood, but still considers himself a Christian. He believes in a creator but it should not be taught in schools. Why are you still a Christian? What does it mean for someone to be a Christian? If you don’t believe in original sin, what is the purpose of the crucifixion and resurrection? Why do you believe he died in front of his disciples? Is there independent extra-biblical evidence for this? What tools are we using to arrive at our conclusions? Drew from WA would like to know how to respond to friends when they get offended from being told that god isn’t real. We say that we don’t believe that god exists and ask for evidence. You want to produce a conversation, not a confrontation. If friends are using slurs or hurtful terms, you do not need to hang out with them. Look at some of Anthony Magnabosco’s work and Street Epistemology for ideas on how to address this. You do not owe anyone an explanation of who you are. Aelora in OR has a question about advice heard from witches on TikTok that is inducing abortion by taking different herbs. People who have taken this advice ended up in the hospital or dying. They want to know about this in light of Roe Vs. Wade. This is one of the effects that magical thinking has on the mind. There are people that are science educators who listen for this kind of stuff and make response videos. Look for doctors on TikTok such as MD Aware, that address this and tag them so that it can be effectively dealt with.That is it for the show! Keep up the good work and support of our essential workers. See you next week!
Explore with us how theists describe what they believe and why with Jmike and special guest ExXtian Erin! First caller is James in Canada who wants to talk about the utility of using philosophy as proof for god. If a perfectly syllogistic argument is presented that shows god is true, do we become theists? The hosts explain that sometimes people think that if they are a Christian, it will convince the audience better than scripture or facts will. Syllogistic arguments have just not been presented to us yet. Oftentimes words are used differently or incorrectly.Amanda in TX would like to talk about Christian forgiveness in cases of child abuse. Erin explains that the idea of being forced to forgive everyone is one way abusers escape accountability. There is no need to forgive everybody and encourage further victim blaming. It does not always help to be forced to move forward with something before you are ready. Anger is a valid emotion and tells us something to stay safe or prevent further harm. There are some things that we need to stay angry about. Bee in VA who has an acquaintance that does not want to talk about religion but brings up strong opinions on the LGBTQ community. This person has been told about what is in the Bible but has not read it. They are not accepting that sex and gender distinction is based on a text they have not even fully read. It helps to go through the person’s reasonings and discuss ideas. If what they believe is true, there should be nothing to fear with investigations. You will have to break this down granularly. Ask yourself what you want out of this friendship or if you are worried about this person. Avoid getting your friend on the defensive and try to figure out some good boundaries.Patrick in FL asserts that atheism is a leap of faith exactly the same as theism. He describes atheism as a rejection of any possibility of god. What do you think atheism is? Our distinction is that there is not sufficient evidence for god. We don’t reject the idea that there would ever be any evidence in the future. Which god do you believe in? If we do not believe there is an even number of atoms in the universe, does that mean that we believe there is an odd number of atoms? What is the evidence for the god you believe in? Michael in AZ asks what a prosperity minister would say if there was a news report of a more advanced extraterrestrial civilization contacting us. There are already teachings that are working these ideas into their doctrines. You can always hide god behind something in every case. He also asks if it is true that god wanted the first born of all the Egyptians to be killed before the mass Exodus. These are just stories and no reason to believe that these things happened.Thank you everyone for tuning in huge thanks to the essential workers. We appreciate you!
Today please join us to learn from Kenneth Leonard who is joined by the exceptional Katy Montgomerie. They will both work with callers who try to present evidence for god. First caller is Ruth in CA who has a message for Christians: Get out of the way and let us be people. You are taking us back to the dark ages and are afraid of losing your evangelical followers. Kenneth reminds us that the incentive for elected officials is not always to do the right thing, but to take advantage of peop’s rage against those who are different. Katy connects the dots between misogyny, the Bible, and the opposition to abortion. It is scary when people weaponize religion. Ruth finishes the call by thanking the hosts for providing an education for us.Dani in the UK asks Katy if it is easier to be trans in the UK than it is in the U.S. Katy informs us that most people are not wanting to take away trans rights and are not bigoted in the UK. She mentions that the U.S. has states with varying laws and attitudes regarding trans people. Even within states, things can vary and it is not even as simple as rural vs urban. Xeno from South Korea has scientific evidence for god. His evidence is mathematical and starts by asking the hosts to put a number on how much they know about the universe. Even if the hosts know virtually nothing, where is the evidence? Can we convict somebody of a crime by using evidence found with all the stuff that we don’t know? Science is the best method we know of to explain what is true. If you have another way to show if something is true, then you need to demonstrate that. How do we know that a frog wizard with colors is not the something that was the beginning of your god?Special guest Clara, president of the UTSA Secular Student Alliance (SSA) in San Antonio is our last caller. She got involved with the SSA in 2016 by noticing the students with the table and attending meetings. She slowly learned more and has been president since 2019. This is an important group because there are over 25 religious groups on campus, but this is the only secular group. The SSA has been around since 2013 and is there to support non religious students when they need help getting out of religion. The best way to learn about the organization or support is through the website. Lots of guest speakers have visited such as Anthony Magnabosco who practiced street epistemology at the school for a number of years.