Everyone's Agnostic Podcast

Guest: Hemant Mehta.  Author, blogger, and atheist activist. Hemant is a bridgebuilder.  We survey his journey from childhood to now, including his religious background of Jainism, how his emergence as a Youtube sensation started, and what he’s working on now. 

This show was taped on March 17th, 2015. 

Credits:

"Towering Mountain of Ignorance" introduction by Hank Green https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3v3S82TuxU

"Never Know" by Jack Johnson

“Look Back In” by Moby

 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAtheistVoice

“I Sold My Soul on Ebay” by Hemant Mehta

Guest: Kathy Escobar, author of “Faith Shift: Finding Your Way Forward when Everything You Believe is Falling Apart.” She is co-pastor of the refuge, an eclectic faith community in north denver, and mother of 5. She’s an advocate for friends in hard places, a trained spiritual director, teacher and facilitater of events, workshops, and groups. 

I see Kathy as one of those who deconstructed her faith down to the bare bones and kept some of the bones specifically, Jesus.  Bob and I have intermingle these progressive Christian guests with those who have completely deconstructed everything because we suspect our listeners (and most Americans) are somewhere in this continuum between fundamentalist Christian asshole and atheist asshole. 

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher and most podcast platforms.  If you’re feeling grateful for our podcast, Patreon.com is like a tip jar for our work.  

This show was taped on March 14th, 2015. 

Credits:

"Towering Mountain of Ignorance" introduction by Hank Green https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3v3S82TuxU

"Never Know" by Jack Johnson

“Breathe” by Blue Stone

http://kathyescobar.com/

http://therefugeonline.org/

We round up some of the best examples of what’s available in atheist media.  We discuss 5 short selections from atheist youtubes and podcasts, including pieces from Mr. Deity and Richard Dawkins, Noah Lugeons of The Scathing Atheist podcast, youtuber Qualia Soup, TJ Kinkaid, aka The Amazing Atheist, and we close with an excerpt from Christopher Hitchens’  last public speech on earth.  

This show was taped on March 4th, 2015. 

Credits:

"Towering Mountain of Ignorance" introduction by Hank Green https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3v3S82TuxU

"Never Know" by Jack Johnson

“Auratune” off Master Plan by Dave Weckl

“Mr. Deity and the Atheist” featuring Brian Keith Dalton and Richard Dawkins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUFK0SrbaZs

Noah Lugeons, The Scathing Atheist Podcast, Episode 103, the Diatribe: Post-Secular 

http://scathingatheist.com/2015/02/05/episode-103-show-notes/

QualiaSoup “Lack of Beliefs in Gods”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNDZb0KtJDk

TheAmazingAtheist, TJ Kincaid, “Atheists Are Just As Bad.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n8d_KCUtrs

The End ~Christopher Hitchens, by Scientific Unity 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yr5OLePNlI

The edited portion of Hitchen’s speech transcribed:

I’m not as I was.  Something I urgently felt I ought to do or say…and one mustn’t repine or give in to self pity about that, but at this present moment I have to say, I feel very envious of someone who is young and actively starting out in this argument.  Just think of the extraordinary things that are happening to us. Go, for example, to the Smithsonian museum (I hope you’ve done this) to the new hall of human origins-- magnicificanty curated in a new exhibition--which shows, among other things, the branch, or branches along which perhaps three, certainly three, maybe four if you count Indonesia, humanoid, shall we say, anthropoid species died out not very long ago, within mearuable distance of 75,000 years or so.  Possibly destroyed by us, possibly not, we don’t know.  We know they decorated their graves.  We think they probably had language ability.  We don't know if they had souls (I'm sorry I cant help you there).  But I so envy those who could glimpse...I've only mentioned three or four of the things that have magnetized and charmed and gratified me to think about in the recent past, and how much I hope that each of you form some such ambition this evening and carries it forward.  In the meantime, we had the same job we always had, to say as thinking people and as humans that there are no final solutions, there is no absolute truth, there is no supreme leader, there is no totalitarian solution, that says if you would just give up your freedom of inquiry, if you would just give up, if you would simply abandon your critical faculties the world of idiotic bliss can be yours but we have to begin by repudiating all such claims.  Grand rabbis, chief ayatollahs, infallible popes, the peddlers of surrogate and mutant, quasi-political religion and worship. The Dear Leader, the Great Leader, we have no need for any of this.  And looking at them and their record and the pathos of their supporters, I realize that it is they who are the grand imposters.  And my own imposture this evening was mild by comparison.  Thank you very much.  –Christopher Hitchens, 2011

Guest: Dr. Marlene Winell , author of “Leaving the Fold,” and founder of journeyfree.org.  Marlene was the daughter of Christian missionaries in China with the Assemblies of God.  She left Christianity later in life due to the sexism, the notion of original sin, the dichotomy of saved and damned, and the broken promises within scripture.  She now counsels people and leads retreats for those damaged by religion.  She calls it Religious Trauma Syndrome or RTS.  

Leaving one's religion can be a difficult, painful and lonely pilgrimage, but the payoffs are great.  As Marlene writes in her book, “…there was no turning back. The mental and emotional doors to the future had been opened. The honesty and gut-level confrontation with my humanness - the good, the bad, and the ugly - was delicious.”  

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 Credits:

Our guest is Fred Rich, author of the dystopian novel, “Christian Nation.” Fred is a polymath, who studied politics and policy at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School and pursued graduate work in moral philosophy as a Keasbey Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. He practiced law for the past 30 years.  Newly retired, he splits his time between Manhattan and New York’s Hudson Valley where he is working on a non-fiction book about environmental politics, and several other novels.

Although this book, Christian Nation, is fiction, it does not stretch reality, it is not a conspiracy theory, it lays out exactly how, through legitimate legal means, America could become a Christian Theocracy.  The wall of separation is vulnerable. In the spirit of Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, one of America's foremost lawyers lays out in chilling detail what such a future might look like: constitutional protections dismantled; all aspects of life dominated by an authoritarian law called "The Blessing," enforced by a reconfigured Internet known as the "Purity Web." Those who defy this system, among them the narrator, live on the edges of society, sustained by the belief that democracy will rise to triumph over such tyrannical oppression.

This show was taped on February 21st, 2015. 

Credits:  "Towering Mountain of Ignorance" introduction by Hank Green https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3v3S82TuxU

"Never Know" by Jack Johnson

Youtube trailer for the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxrkXdnlzks

“Ashielf Pi” by E.S. Posthumus

“This Land is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie

Literature referenced:  

It Can’t Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis

The Plot Against America, Philip Roth

The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

Republican Gomorrah, Max Blumenthal

Kingdom Coming, Michelle Goldberg

American Fascists, Chris Hedges

Empire of Illusion, Chris Hedges

American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips

At the Smithville Methodist Church, Stephen Dunn

Author Jim Henderson has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fox Television, and This American Life with Ira Glass. He’s a former pastor now spiritual anthropologist. His books include Evangelism Without Additives, The Outsider Interviews, The Resignation of Eve, and his latest, Question Mark about spiritual pride and the downfall of Mark Driscoll.  

Jim prescribes what he calls “otherlyness.”  1) be interested in others, 2) stay in the room with difference, and 3) stop comparing your best with the worst of others.  Jim’s mission is, in his own words, to Take Jesus Public, and once again Cass finds himself talking to a Christian with whom he gets along really well.  Unfortunately Bob was out of town and had to miss this taping. This show was taped on February 14th, 2015.

Credits: 

"Towering Mountain of Ignorance" introduction by Hank Green https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3v3S82TuxU

"Never Know" by Jack Johnson

All other music by Jim Henderson

Books discussed:

“To Change the World” by James Davison Hunter

“Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software” by Steven Johnson

“The Shack” William P. Young

Our guest is Ryan Bell, the Year Without God pastor.  His experiement proved fatal to his faith but Ryan holds onto the good and embarks on a new journy, like many of us have, reconstructing his own "how now shall I live."  A 7th Day Adventist pastor for 20 years, Ryan could no longer harmonize his reality with his religion.  We also talk about the President's prayer breakfast and the mutual exclusivity of love and power.  

Moving from the NE 10 years ago, Wendy had a head-on collision with the Christian dominance of the South and she hasn't recovered yet.  Hear her story, told with honesty and New Jersey vernacular.   

Tony was raised in the Church of Christ here in Tennessee.  He was moved by signs and wonders to Charismatic Pentacostalism.  But it all imploded and life spiraled downward.  When he returned years later to ministry, it was all about Love and helping those in need.  He's a good ole Southern boy with a big heart!