In today’s episode of Truth Wanted, Objectively Dan and Justin Frechette work through questions of rationality before digging deep into the ethics of Jesus and his tantrums. 

Michelle in NY asks the hosts about Carl Marx’s perception of religion being the opium of the masses. Dan comments that it may have been that religion was a way to quail the working class. Justin makes the parallel between opiates being addicting and the difficulties of leaving religion. The caller then asks a second question: Can we believe things rationally even though they may be unfalsifiable? Dan explains that exploring whether we can know things by reason alone will shed light on the answer to the question. Justin mentions that the awareness of something being unfalsifiable is a start for many people. 

Maykel in the Netherlands, answers affirmatively to the poll question of Jesus being good, and uses scripture to back up his belief. We can’t find a single reason why doing things like creating food for the masses was not good, however, why did Jesus not do that all the time? There are weaknesses in the idea that Jesus was the universal good. For example, why did he not correct all the horrible practices commanded in the Old Testament? How is Jesus superior to other people who have proposed ethical ways of living? He did some things that were questionable like throwing a tantrum and whipping a bunch of people. And cursing that fig tree was beyond uncool because the tree was just being a tree and figs were not even in season. When Jesus has a bad day, it is not fun to be on the other end of him losing his temper. Jesus was not the first to have the Son of God claim, and he certainly won’t be the last. Dig deeper into your Bible and read all the stories to fully understand and form an opinion on the atrocities. What conditions would have to be met for something in the Bible to not be true? How many things in the Bible can not be true before we discount the entire Bible?

Jon in Canada, asks if Jesus would be a socialist. Jesus had a lot of progressive ideas, but we can’t really say that he was a socialist because he did what he wanted and he, unfortunately, would have been a Christian Nationalist. 

Thank you for tuning in this week! Kelley Laughlin, our back up host joins us to close out the show and remind us of the question of the week: If you would re-write the Bible, what would it say? See you all next week and remember to always keep wanting the truth. 

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