Still Unbelievable!

Episode 156 - A lesson in fact checking

This short episode is going to be a lesson in fact checking. Fact checking takes time and, personally, I enjoy doing it, it helps my critical thinking stay sharp and I usually learn something on the way. It is genuinely satisfying to get to a result, even if I already knew what the result would be. Fact checking is also important because it helps us to validate things that we have been told. Fact checking should be considered the twin sister of skepticism, because being skeptical should also mean being prepared to put in effort to check the things we want (or don't want) to believe.

1) Five Mere Christians

https://www.jordanraynor.com/five-mere-christians

https://somersetuk.borrowbox.com/product/DRA_6616304/title/five-mere-christians

https://www.eden.co.uk/christian-books/the-church/christian-leadership/five-mere-christians-9780736991704/

2) Hannah More

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_More

https://www.hannahmoreletters.org/hannah-more/biography

3) the Hannah more quote - page 301

"We saw but one Bible in all the parish, and that was used to prop a flower-pot."

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Memoirs_of_the_Life_and_Correspondence_o/eeUDFO5UJVgC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=hannah+more&printsec=frontcover

4) a secondary source - suggests Cheddar

https://www.thomasgenweb.com/shipham_history_p146_147.jpg

5) Text of Charlotte M. Yonge on Hannah More

https://archive.org/stream/hannahmore00yon/hannahmore00yon_djvu.txt

6) map location - wrington

https://www.bing.com/maps/search?FORM=HDRSC6&style=r&q=Wrington%2C+England&ss=id.sid%3A%22d27d6233-be8d-7984-e8c2-951480a9b3cc%22&st=Wrington&sfa=England&cp=51.330758%7E-2.647284&lvl=11.3

7) map location - shipham

https://www.bing.com/maps/search?FORM=HDRSC6&style=r&q=Shipham%2C+England&ss=id.sid%3A%22def872f8-765b-714f-25e0-2f974167557d%22&st=Shipham&sfa=England&cp=51.297337%7E-2.715230&lvl=11.8

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To contact us, email: [email protected]

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Episode 154 - David from Graceful Atheist

Matthew chats with David from the Graceful Atheist podcast we talk about losing faith, maintaining relationships with christians and more....

1) https://gracefulatheist.com/podcast/

2) https://lifeunwasted.org/

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To contact us, email: [email protected]

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Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:

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J Warner Wallace reacts to TikTok atheists. Because we all know they are the worst!

For those that might not know, J Warner Wallace makes a big thing of his credentials as a cold case detective and he makes a big thing out of using his cold case methodologies for validating the existence of his god. We at Still Unbelievable!, along with many other atheists, are not impressed by his reasoning.

Here we will respond to his responses to atheists so that we can explain why he does not impress.

As usual, the link the original episode being responded to is link 1 in the show notes. You can find more of J Warner's content at cold case Christianity.

1) original podcast episode

https://coldcasechristianity.com/podcasts/podcasts-about-gods-existence/does-god-exist-a-cold-case-detective-reacts-to-tiktok-atheists-podcast/

2) Major Crime Investigation Manual

https://library.college.police.uk/docs/NPCC/Major-Crime-Investigation-Manual-Nov-2021.pdf

3) Methodology of a Murder Investigation

https://dspace.aab-edu.net/bitstream/handle/123456789/567/Mentor%20Shabani%20-METHODOLOGY%20OF%20THE%20MURDER%20INVESTIGATION.pdf

4) did the universe begin?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol7IWdtCS2Q

5) fine tuning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ-fj3lqJ6M

6) evolutionary flaws disprove design

https://www.titan.uio.no/english/2020/evolutionary-flaws-disprove-theory-intelligent-design.html

7) Friedmann equations

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedmann_equations

8) Paolo Saraceno

https://cortonafriends.org/paolo-saraceno/

9) abigenesis

https://biologyinsights.com/can-life-come-from-non-life-a-look-at-abiogenesis/?utm_source=copilot.com

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42004-026-01969-w?utm_source=copilot.com

https://www.disabled-world.com/disability/education/anthropology/abiogenesis.php

10) are viruses alive?

https://scienceinsights.org/are-viruses-dead-or-alive-the-debate-explained/?utm_source=copilot.com

11) DNA

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK6360/?report=reader&utm_source=copilot.com

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Still Unbelievable! book: https://amzn.eu/d/fmsN1Cw

Apostate book: https://amzn.eu/d/9RIUZYx

To contact us, email: [email protected]

our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonpress2901

Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:

https://hollykirstensongs.com/

https://hollykirsten.bandcamp.com/

Episode 152 - Matthew gives his deconversion story

In this episode, Matthew talks about his early life, the kind of Christianity he was brought up in, and what cause him to eventually leave.

In another episode he'll talk in more detail aby why he can't go back.

1) Confessions of a YEC blog

https://confessionsofayec.wordpress.com/

2) Graceful Atheist

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matthew-taylor-confessions-of-a-young-earth-creationist/id1456800368?i=1000442160645

https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/12/30/matthew-taylor-why-we-podcast/

3) Life unwasted

https://lifeunwasted.org/matthew-learning-to-stay-when-leaving-is-normal-s05e03/

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Still Unbelievable! book:

https://amzn.eu/d/fmsN1Cw

Apostate book:

https://apocryphilepress.com/book/apostate-stories-of-deconversion/

https://amzn.eu/d/9RIUZYx

To contact us, email: [email protected]

our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonpress2901

Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:

https://hollykirstensongs.com/

https://hollykirsten.bandcamp.com/

Episode 150 – Stand To reason still don't understand atheists

In this episode of Still Unbelievable! Matthew responds to an episode of the Stand to Reason podcast — where Amy and Greg tackle the terrifying phenomenon of… an atheist who says he doesn’t have a worldview.

Shocking stuff.

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1) the original podcast

https://podtail.com/podcast/-strask-with-greg-koukl/what-would-you-say-to-an-atheist-who-claims-to-lac/

https://podscripts.co/podcasts/strask/what-would-you-say-to-an-atheist-who-claims-to-lack-a-worldview

2) objective morality discussion

https://philosophy.acadiau.ca/tl_files/sites/philosophy/resources/documents/Maitzen_ABM.pdf?utm_source=copilot.com

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Still Unbelievable! book: https://amzn.eu/d/fmsN1Cw

Apostate book: https://amzn.eu/d/9RIUZYx

To contact us, email: [email protected]

our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonpress2901

Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:

https://hollykirstensongs.com/

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Episode 155 David and Matthew Current Events July updateMatthew is joined by David from Skeptics and Seekers for another roundup of what's been going on.https://skepticsandseekers.squarespace.com/

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Still Unbelievable! book:

https://amzn.eu/d/fmsN1Cw

Apostate book:

https://apocryphilepress.com/book/apostate-stories-of-deconversion/

https://amzn.eu/d/9RIUZYx

To contact us, email: [email protected]

our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonpress2901

Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:

https://hollykirstensongs.com/

https://hollykirsten.bandcamp.com/

Episode 149 – On Genuinely Seeking God

Also known as teenager God, who doesn’t want to come downstairs — apparently He loves you, but He’s not coming out of His room.

In this episode Matthew addresses one aspect of the hiddenness of the Christian god — specifically the claim that people only fail to find God because they never *truly* sought Him.

1. Sean McDowell’s original video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RvABkX8LnM

2. Greg Ganssle (Biola University)

https://www.biola.edu/directory/people/greg-ganssle

3. J.L. Schellenberg – Divine Hiddenness Argument (overview)

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/divine-hiddenness/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hBpZ-ystOg&list=PLKuMaHOvHA4qePAEaCyr77IieZRtuqEYm

4. works by Justin Barrett and Pascal Boyer

https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9fdfa5e2-249c-46fd-87da-0d13b60c3c37/files/m7e131b8b0742d6390becc105d9845469?utm_source=copilot.com

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/2153599X.2025.2474404?utm_source=copilot.com

In this Episode of Still Unbelievable, Matthew chats with David from Skeptics and Seekers, see link in the show notes.

David and Matthew are going to do a regular catchup to talk about current events and a lot of nonsense. This first chat is over 3 hours and covers politics, DNA, family ancestry, Matthew reveals that he's discovered a dark secret in his family, you have to listen to find out what that is, moving house, apologetics and a few other things.

As always, leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments or email [email protected].

Enjoy!

Skeptics and Seekers

https://skepticsandseekers.squarespace.com/

Matthew's DNA traits reveal video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qO8drPlx7w

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Still Unbelievable! book:

https://amzn.eu/d/fmsN1Cw

Apostate book:

https://amzn.eu/d/9RIUZYx

To contact us, email: [email protected]

our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonpress2901

Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:

https://hollykirstensongs.com/

https://hollykirsten.bandcamp.com/

EP148 - Tiffany Yecke Brooks - To Rebehold the Stars

In this episode Matthew is in conversation with Tiffany Yecke Brooks, author of To Rebehold the Stars — a book that doesn’t shy away from the hardest questions about faith, silence, identity, and the stories we tell ourselves about God. Tiffany invites us into a space where certainty dissolves, where divine silence feels indistinguishable from absence, and where the work of knowing one’s authentic self can be both unsettling and necessary.

She challenges us to interrogate our assumptions: about spirituality, about the body’s role in emotion and trauma, about whether mystical experiences require anything supernatural at all. This is a book that pushes us out of our comfort zones — not to destroy faith, but to examine it honestly. We're grateful to have Tiffany here to explore these tensions, and to talk about what it means to rebuild meaning when the old frameworks no longer hold.

1) To Rebehold the stars

https://www.eerdmans.com/9780802884367/to-rebehold-the-stars/

https://www.tiffanyyeckebrooks.com/books

2) 2014 Aalto University Study

https://www.aalto.fi/en/news/finnish-research-team-reveals-how-emotions-are-mapped-in-the-body

3) The Body Keeps The Score

https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/

https://www.simplypsychology.org/the-body-keeps-the-score-summary.html

4) Apocrypha

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocrypha

5) The Maccabees

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10216-maccabees-books-of

Still Unbelievable! book: https://amzn.eu/d/fmsN1Cw

Apostate book: https://amzn.eu/d/9RIUZYx

To contact us, email: [email protected]

our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonpress2901

Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:

https://hollykirstensongs.com/

https://hollykirsten.bandcamp.com/

Episode 147 James McGrath - Beyond Deconstruction.

In this episode of Still Unbelievable! Matthew is in conversation with James McGrath about his book, Beyond Deconstruction. James extolls us all to be kind and considerate when facing the deconstruction of cherished beliefs. In a world where the extremes are becoming more fractured and the calm middle seems to no longer exist, James reminds us that progress is only made when we actually stop and consider our fellow humans and appreciate beauty and the nuance of existence.

1) Beyond Deconstruction - Building a More Expansive Faith - James F. McGrath

https://www.eerdmans.com/9781467468817/beyond-deconstruction/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Deconstruction-Building-Expansive-Faith/dp/0802884598

2) James F. McGrath

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionprof/2025/03/are-you-losing-your-faith.html

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionprof/

https://blue.butler.edu/~jfmcgrat/

3) Walter Wink

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Wink

4) James with Alex on John the Baptist

https://youtu.be/WqkkfnlttOI?si=3xCBb_t5LIk8D6sw

5) YouTube Interview with James on Deconstruction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4lG6QtDF3Q

6) Ryan Burge, Scholar of Religion and Politics

https://www.drburge.com/

7) Deconstruction & Support Communities

- Recovering From Religion — https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org

- The Clergy Project — https://clergyproject.org

- Reclamation Collective — https://www.reclamationcollective.com

- Religious Trauma Institute — https://www.religioustraumainstitute.com

- The Liturgists Community — https://theliturgists.com

- Exvangelical (Podcast + Community) — https://exvangelicalpodcast.com

- Almost Heretical (Podcast + Discord) — https://almostheretical.com

- The Deconstructionists Podcast — https://thedeconstructionists.com

- Oasis Network (Secular community gatherings) — https://www.oasisnetwork.com

United Kingdom

- Humanists UK — [https://humanists.uk]

- Faith to Faithless (Humanists UK) — [https://faithtofaithless.com]

- The Sea of Faith Network — [https://www.sofn.org.uk]

United States

- Recovering From Religion — [https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org]

- The Clergy Project — [https://clergyproject.org]

- Oasis Network — [https://www.oasisnetwork.com]

- Reclamation Collective — [https://www.reclamationcollective.com]

- Religious Trauma Institute — [https://www.religioustraumainstitute.com]

Canada

- Centre for Inquiry Canada — [https://centreforinquiry.ca]

- Canadian Unitarian Council — [https://cuc.ca](https://cuc.ca)

- Local Humanist Groups (via Humanist Canada) — [https://www.humanistcanada.ca]

Australia

- Humanists Australia — [https://humanistsaustralia.org]

- Rationalist Society of Australia — `https://rationalist.com.au` - Atheist Foundation of Australia — `https://atheistfoundation.org.au`

Still Unbelievable! book: https://amzn.eu/d/fmsN1Cw

Apostate book: https://amzn.eu/d/9RIUZYx

To contact us, email: [email protected]

our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonpress2901

Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:

https://hollykirstensongs.com/

https://hollykirsten.bandcamp.com/