Flawed Theology

CW/TW: This episode contains discussion about sexuality, child sexual abuse, and other topics related to human sexuality. 

In this week's episode, Phil and Susie talk with Janis.  Janis is a long time friend of Phil’s from his days at moderately progressive Baptist Church in VA, where we both lived.  Janis was married to someone who was affiliated with the worship team and went through a very difficult discovery in her marriage, which led her down a pretty incredible life path.  She is a bona fide badass who is an flight medic/ EMT and was a medic and competitor on the TV series, Naked and Afraid.  We discuss Janis' faith background, her marriage experience, mental health, purity culture, and how she views faith and god now.  We hope that you find her story interesting, relevant, and powerful for you on your journey.  

Stay tuned to the end for some really foolish outtakes!! 

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In this episode, Phil and Susie discuss how the volume and intensity of animal suffering in the world serves as evidence to disprove theism, especially the version of theism that purports a loving, omniscient, and omnipotent deity.  Is animal suffering and the theory of evolution evidence against the existence of a loving God?  We expand on the problem of evil that extends beyond human suffering into the animal world.  

Show Notes and Links:

• https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53549936

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In this episode, Phil and Susie talk with Alex, who is is a recently deconverted Mormon and his story is truly fascinating!! We named this episode the way we did because Alex actually was a "high priest" in the Church of Mormon.  If you ever wanted to know anything about Mormonism, you will learn a lot in this episode. Alex shares about his life growing up in the LDS church, the "shelf" items that finally led to his deconversion, some fascinating ways that Mormonism is similar to mainstream evangelical Xtianity a whole lot more! Plus a fun trivia segment where we ask Alex "Is this really Mormon?" Be sure to listen all the way to the end!! It's a good one! 

Show References:

"A Letter to my Wife":  https://www.letterformywife.com/the-letter  

CES Letter: https://cesletter.org/CES-Letter.pdf 

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In this episode, Phil and Susie discuss the concept “If god Were real”.  We will discuss all the ways that we would expect a truly true God to reveal itself and how they would act.  We will compare how it would be if God were real or if God were created by humans and then how God is presented in Christianity and see what lines up.  We will also discuss an epistemological question that could be useful when engaging believers—what could God do better?

Based on a post of Susie's: https://www.flawedtheology.com/2021/11/if-god-were-real.html 

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Prayer is a quintessential part of Xtian doctrine and is a mainstay of the life of the believer.  Phil and Susie will delve into what prayer is, if it actually works, why and how people use the concept of prayer to give their faith more value/ meaning/ reality.  Based a bit off of Susie’s blog post “Does Prayer Work?” which was the first post I ever read of hers.  https://www.flawedtheology.com/2021/11/does-prayer-work.html  We will discuss what “does it work” means and how we view prayer now, on the other side of faith versus how we viewed it before.  

Show Notes and Links:

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/yes-no-wait 

https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/prayer/why-we-pray.html 

https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/prayer/how-to-pray.html 

https://www.flawedtheology.com/2021/11/does-prayer-work.html 

https://get.tithe.ly/blog/how-many-times-is-prayer-mentioned-in-the-bible 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2802370/

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In this extremely passionate episode, Phil and Susie talk with Robert Peoples, Founder and CEO of Affinis Humanity.  Affinis Humanity is a non-profit organization strategizing to alleviate religious discrimination for secular communities in education, business, and government. Since establishing Affinis Humanity in 2016, Robert has highlighted the problematic woes of racism, women's rights, homophobia, and their connection with societal religiosity.  They have a unique focus on Government and Education.

We talk with Robert about his faith background, how and why he started Affinis, the dangers of christian nationalism, theocracy, and fascism to our society.  He explores the connection between christianity and racism and if humanism could actually be the most beneficial way to live and full and meaningful life.  This is probably the most fun Phil and Susie have had during an interview and Robert's genuineness and passion for making the world a better place really shines through.  

You can find Robert on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/affinishumanity/ and on his website https://linktr.ee/affinis_humanity 

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In this week's episode, Phil and Susie talk about the concept of “magical thinking” and how it is used by believers to explain things that they just don’t understand or to explain away things that they can’t logically defend.  The common explanation for explaining the unexplainable for the believer is the “providence” or “sovereignty” of God, meaning God’s overarching plan for the universe and by extrapolation, one’s entire life.  Phil and Susie ask, "Does God really have a plan? Is it a good one? What happens when people question the plan and what happens when we discover that there isn’t one?"  

Show Notes and Links:

• https://valerietarico.com/2018/10/02/why-people-believe-in-miracles-and-other-kinds-of-magic/ 

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In this episode, we have our first international guest, Aaron from Australia.  Phil and Susie talk with Aaron about a wide variety of topics, including his faith background, childhood, and significant life events, some differences between Xtianity in Australia vs. the US, music, Hillsong, and worship leading.  We also dig into how deconversion happened for him and a bit about grieving the loss of faith and how Xtianity shortcuts the grief process.  It's a really enlightening and honest look at what it's like to give your whole life to a belief system and the courage it takes to take back that life for yourself.  We hope you enjoy!

Phil's blog: https://philqmusings.wordpress.com/ 

Susie's blog: https://www.flawedtheology.com/  

Join our Facebook group, Dangerous Questions: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dangerousquestions 

Visit us at https://www.flawedtheologypodcast.com 

TW/CW: discussion about abuse, general

In this episode, Phil and Susie discuss that the idea that Xtianity is not a “religion, but a relationship” is flawed, but if believers want to maintain that it is a relationship, it’s certainly not a healthy one.  We will discuss the ways the “relationship” that God has with his followers has numerous similarities to a human abusive relationship.  This will hopefully be information to help you decide if the things you believe are harmful to your life or not.

We also highlight a really special "Good Human of the Week".  Kristen from the Kitten Sanctuary talks with us about all things kitten rescue and how she and her organization do all the work with no help from any deity.  

https://www.facebook.com/kristensfosterkittens 

Show Notes and Links:

https://www.thehotline.org/identify-abuse/domestic-abuse-warning-signs/ 

https://philqmusings.wordpress.com/2021/09/20/its-not-religion-its-a-relationship/ 

https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/gkq7f5/tifu_by_admitting_to_my_coworkers_that_my_wife/

https://www.gotquestions.org/born-sinners.html

https://www.thehotline.org/identify-abuse/domestic-abuse-warning-signs/

https://www.openbible.info/topics/being_friends_with_non_christians 

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/essays/is-the-christian-relationship-with-god-healthy/ 

George Carlin on religion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPOfurmrjxo 

Deuteronomy 28 

Resources for human domestic violence

https://www.thehotline.org/get-help/   

In this episode, Phil and Susie talk about the origins of morality and if it's possible to be "good without God".  We dig into the definitions of morality and discuss if morality is objective or subjective.  We have both of our new segments in this episode, Flawed Theology and a truly inspiring Good Human of the Week story.  

Show Notes and Links

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religion-morality/

https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/morality/what-is-objective-morality-what-can-it-teach-us/ 

Join our Facebook group, Dangerous Questions at facebook.com/groups/dangerousquestions

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