In today’s episode of Truth Wanted, Objectively Dan is joined by Christy Powell and Forrest Valkai. The team works through calls involving mentally escaping a cult, chromosomal fusion, bugs on Mars, and the great vegan debate. 

Tony in IL is an ex-cult member whose ex-cult leader died in 2020 after catching Covid. What made you determine this group was a cult and what was the thought process like? How are you feeling about everything now and how is it sitting with your emotions? What did it feel like to go from where you were to where you are now?

Gabe in TX asks if the fusing of two chromosomes can be used to disprove Adam and Eve. Forrest explains that Chromosome 2 is the fusion of two chromosomes. The one difference that you notice between humans and chimps is we have 23 chromosomes and they have 24. This is not compatible with the Adam and Eve story, but creationists will say it was a poetic story and continue to be dishonest about these things. These are different ideas that need their own independent evidence; evolution is not the thing to use as proof against creation.

Daniel in Canada believes there are bugs on Mars because there is photographic evidence that proves it. We are all guilty of wanting to believe something. Wanting to believe something and believing something are two different things. It is agreed that other life forms probably exist, however to say that life is nearby is a stretch. Would you agree that the main motivation for NASA is knowledge and in order to do that they need funding, and therefore it would be advantageous to go public with their findings? Why would we not want to be mentally prepared and why would we not want our military prepared? How are we at more risk of aliens harming us by knowing about them? If there is a civilization on Mars, there must be resources there. And guess who would want to mine things on Mars if there are resources there!

Chase in the USA has some thoughts on being vegan and explains how animals are killed when they are young for our consumption. Why and how does it matter what age the animal is? How do we define our relationship with these animals? It raises the question of the ethics of raising a creature for the ultimate destruction of the creature.  Dan explains that these types of questions are what led him to be vegan. Why is it that we have this cultural bias of hierarchy of animals? How can we expand our circle of compassion? Our cultural preference for the sheer amount of meat that we consume is excessive. It is difficult to contrast the link of life to the quality of life when it comes to the age of the animal. If we were to produce and distribute the meat more humanely, we may not have the challenges we have today. What do you think about the issues associated with the amount of land it takes to produce some grains, and the areas of the world where there are food deserts? In developing nations, it is non-meat options that are accessible. 

Thank you for tuning in this week! Prompt of the week is: What's an untrue thing that people say all the time? 

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