Oh the Humanity!

Yes that's the title of an old hymn, and when you hear the title, you think good things, right? Those faithful men! (What about the women?) But in this episode I call into question the honesty of faith, and discuss the consequences, and discuss The Clergy Project which helps transition people out of their "faith" into a life with no supernatural divinity. Just human beings like you and me.

This episode addresses how distractions have been used since the dawning of Christianity to take our eyes off of the core question: Is there really a God? Or more accurately, distractions have taken our eyes off of the fact that the God-factor is a made up story, but if we introduce enough side topics to keep the discussion going, such as gender equality, or homosexuals in the priesthood, we'll forget what the original topic was: that there is no God anyway.

I ask why it's considered honorable to declare truth about there being a God, but not to declare otherwise, and why or how such declarations can be made in the first place.

I review one of my earlier chapters where I object to the following question:  

“I asked an atheist once if he really truly believed that there was no God, and so therefore there was no morality and no absolute right or wrong or overarching purpose to life.”

In this episode i gloss over a couple of different chapters from my unpublished book. The first discusses how Christians seem to be experts at suffering, and I have an idea as to why. I also mention briefly another chapter Oops, Try Again, a phrase from the shell game. I discuss Christians and finances.

In the 7th chapter I wrote, I explored what people are free to write and say as a Christian person. Does it encourage others? Lift them up? Better their lives? What could a person write who doesn't believe in God anymore? Who is that going to help? I wrote on anyway for the sake of being honest with myself.

A brand new chapter is coming! Although it's as yet unfinished, it's close enough for jazz. I heard from a friend about how it's OK to alter your positions over time between agnosticism and atheism and pure faith etc. I appreciated that feedback, and was inspired to explore this topic of doubt by looking into the phrase Benefit of the Doubt, defined as:  “a concession that a person or statement must be regarded as correct or justified, if the contrary has not been proven.” And that leads to having to prove a negative, that there is no God.

OK, in this dangerous chapter I venture into the sacred "Jesus for the kids" topic. Adults may or may not believe, but it's for the kids! We need to keep them safe. And so, instead of Art camp, or Golf camp, there's VBS! Vacation Bible School.

Is it safe to come out and speak openly that there's no God? Who will be offended? And yes, that is the classic line from "Marathon Man" and is relevant to my current situation. Is it indeed safe to go tell it on the mountain that there is no God? I then mention a film I saw in which Muslim women should expect to be groped if walking down the street without a male companion, or not wearing proper Muslim attire.

In this quick one-off recording (not based on a chapter from my book at all), I challenge these two gentlemen to debate me as to why they still believe in God. Klavan was a well known atheist and now is not? How did he arrive at that? Shapiro was offended by someone's suggestion that he clearly had not done his homework on the subject. I'd say in his life he's dome more homework than most. But how do you get there to belief in God? And why? How does a great debater (Ben) and philosopher (Andrew) end up right back in the camp of a belief in a 3-letter word, or a 7-letter one, or a one-letter word not to be spoken out loud. Whatever.