This week, Point of Inquiry welcomes actor, comedian, and former Jehovah's Witness, Jerry Minor. Minor has been a cast member and writer on Saturday Night Live and appeared on HBO's Mr. Show and various other television and film spots throughout his career. He joins Jim Underdown to dive into his life during and after being a Jehovah’s Witness. They also get into how the Jehovah's Witness religion drove Minor to attempt suicide, the different Christianity sects and how Minor views them as cults, and how his past faith has shaped his career as a comedian and entertainer. Together with friend, Tony Ortega, Underdown and Minor host their own podcast,  The Cult Awareness Podcast, where they explore the latest in cult news. Please share this episode either through a tweet, email, facebook, postcard, or letter with friends and family. Your support helps the show and we appreciate it.

Jerry Minor - From Jehovah’s Witness to Comedian

Point of Inquiry is the Center for Inquiry's flagship podcast, where the brightest minds of our time sound off on all the things you're not supposed to talk about at the dinner table: science, religion, and politics.

Guests have included Brian Greene, Susan Jacoby, Richard Dawkins, Ann Druyan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Eugenie Scott, Adam Savage, Bill Nye, and Francis Collins.

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Almost 30 percent of the U.S. population is religiously unaffiliated, but only a fraction of those so-called "Nones" identify as atheist or agnostic. Fewer still feel comfortable revealing to the people in their lives that they don't believe in God. Kate Cohen was one of those people. Though she had determined that God was a human-made fiction from a young age, the challenges of navigating social pressures and familial expectations led her to "play along" with God and religion well into adulthood. But then she had children of her own, and something changed. She decided to stop pretending to believe. On this episode, Free Inquiry Editor Paul Fidalgo talks to Cohen about her new book, We of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending to Believe (And Maybe You Should Too). It's the story of her evolution from closeted atheist to truth-teller that illustrates the rewards of honesty, as well as a call to action for fellow nonbelievers to embrace the truth, both for their own sake and the country’s. Kate Cohen is a columnist for the Washington Post, and a chapter from her new book is excerpted in the February/March 2024 issue of Free Inquiry magazine.   

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Members of Gen X and older grew up in an America in which being religious was the default and atheism was, as best, on the fringes. A lot has changed in the last couple of decades, and for many Millennials and members of Gen Z, being nonreligious is really no big deal. Folks in younger generations are accustomed to living among people of various religious and ethnic backgrounds, and as the percentage of Nones (the religiously unaffiliated) has risen, relatively few young Americans feel the need to explicitly identify as a nonbeliever. So what does that mean for atheism and building a secular humanist community?   Sarah An Myers is a regular contributor to Free Inquiry magazine, as well as Psychology Today and other publications. She has been giving a lot of thought to these questions, and in this conversation with Free Inquiry editor Paul Fidalgo, she discusses what secular humanism might be able to offer those who don't jibe with traditional religion but are tolerant and curious about other forms of spirituality. Can a community of the rational embrace a little irrationality?   You can read Sarah An Myers’ work at Free Inquiry here. 

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Point of Inquiry

Jerry Minor - From Jehovah’s Witness to Comedian

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