Truth Wanted

Truth Wanted is hosted by ObjectivelyDan and today and he is joined by Jordan Holmes. and they get right into the discussion-
Is the Corona virus is a conspiracy? Is Carry Cassidy a quack? How serious is Alex Jones - really? There's much nonsense out there. Lets talk about conspiracies and frauds!
Then- on to the callers!
Malachi grew up in a sect. How do people fall for nonsense like Alex Jones?
Puck is just beginning as an 'out' atheist. What's the difference between a charismatic leader and a cult. Jordan: escalation. Dan: BITE model for academic criteria.
Yo is a repeat caller. Heard that some studies claim intercessory prayer to work for ill people. Do they?
Josh has a friend in the military who believes all conspiracy theories, so how should he talk about that?
Christine wonders what the hosts think about Covid-19 and anti-vaxxers.
David is 3rd time caller and studied history of religion and Christianity. What's the origin of monotheism?
Dan from WA serves word salad on chaos magic v. ceremonial magic. Does it work!?

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Greetings Truth Wanted fans! In our home edition of Truth Wanted, we are joined by Unholy Sara. It’s going to be a great show!
Let’s get to calls. The first caller is David from New Jersey. He wants to talk about COVID-19 from the UK government’s website. He claims to have found some shady statements that have changed their declassification and status of the virus from a High consequence infectious disease (HCID) to a lower classification, he attempts to make this fit into his hoax narrative. From the gov.uk website he so much wanted to talk about: “the designation cleared the way for broader treatment options, as COVID-19 cases could now be treated at ordinary hospitals and not just at the few specialty infectious disease centers.” The website goes on to say that the UK government still regards it as highly transmissible and recommends social distancing and other precautions. He additionally talks about our first amendment right of the freedom of assembly. Does the order to not gather more than ten people a violation of our first amendment right? Does it make sense to close down the economy for a virus that supposedly is safer than the flu?
Next up, Julie, in opposition of our first caller, has evidence for COVID-19! Wanting to protect our public, especially the vulnerable, she’s willing to advocate for our medical experts. When lives are at risk, we have to be safe.
The following caller Matt Dillahunty from Austin! A question for our hosts, related to Netflix’s “Tiger King.” Based on a documentary, how do we rationally draw conclusions from what the documentary implies?
The next caller in the queue is Lynne from Michigan who has a neighbor sick with Covid-19. Unfortunately, her call dropped due to technical issues.
Next up, Nick in Massachusetts believes that deism is rational. They discuss the simulation hypothesis, and how much of that hypothesis that informs Nick’s belief? Are there other things that lead Nick to a creator? We can create simulation (ie videogames), is there reason to think we are also in a simulation?
Afterwards we have Gary in Colorado. How do we evaluate claims? Can you portray the same story accurately in more that one way? Gary wishes to discuss how different perspectives and narratives will lead people different directions. Rather than just looking at one side or another, Gary suggests looking for some middle ground.
Our final call! We have Dean in North Carolina, wanting to talk about the many varying degrees of confidence held in beliefs. Is the method of street epistemology completely arbitrary? If it is arbitrary, could you say that the scale really has more to do with a psychological commitment? Final question from Dean, what is the point of identifying that scale?

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SHOW NOTES
Today’s episode is hosted by ObjectivelyDan and Jim Barrows, co-host of NonProphets and The Atheist Experience! Jim is a local member of the ACA, so Dan and Phil mention something people may forget: the ACA is a local community with events and people who hang out in Austin!

Our first caller, Sean in Oklahoma, seems to have a surprisingly common confusion about what the word “homeopathy” means, so Dan and Jim clarify that homeopathy is not the whole category of natural remedies to illnesses and ailments: rather, homeopathy is super-diluted “medication” based on a “like cures like” idea that only came shortly before we understood how vaccines actually work.

Malachi in Ohio presents some potential risks of eating meat and dairy. He brings up a common thought that milk is actually too nutrient rich for humans to reasonably consume, since it’s basically growth food for baby cows, amongst other things.

Joshua in Virginia calls in to talk about the coronavirus, but gets quickly side tracked down a conversation about whether a scientific study is propaganda if it’s true...but misleading.

Friend of the show Neil the 604 Atheist calls in after a short discussion on research and sources to ask about Jim’s de-conversion story! (Hint: The Price Is Right is involved.)

We’ve talked a bit about sources and information on today’s show, and Amanda has a specific question: How do I deal with family and friends who only trust one source of information because the number of sources in the modern age is so overwhelming?

That’s our show! If you’d like to donate monthly, you can visit us over at https://www.patreon.com/truthwanted, chat with other fans at https://tiny.cc/acadiscord, and check out our merch at https://bit.ly/aenmerch!

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Truth Wanted 03.06 2020-02-28 with ObjectivelyDan & Phil Ferguson

SHOW TIME-STAMPS
00:00:00 Introduction
00:10:09 Is the Coronavirus Causing a Stock Market Crash?
00:21:49 William - AUS: I’m Christian because I Don’t Know Any Other Religion
00:33:34 Lin - MI: I Thought I Saw a UFO
00:40:48 Julie - ID: Differences Between Jehovah's Witness & Buddhist Afterlife Ideas
00:54:57 Ed - OH: Should My Daughter Get a Bond or a CD? Also UFOs and Quartz
01:00:09 Stan - PA: The Danger of Religion When Dealing with Crisis Situations
01:08:29 Fred - BE: Similarities Between Religion & Love of...Gas Cars?
01:15:22 Sean - TX: Simulation Theory and the Bostrom Argument
01:29:44 Outro!

SHOW NOTES
Today’s co-host is a rare occurrence here at Truth Wanted: a repeat guest! Phil Ferguson is host of the cleverly titled “Phil Ferguson Show” (a title only to be rivaled by an atheist show called, like, The Atheist Experience).

Phil’s area of expertise involves economics. The coronavirus has caused quite a stir the world over in the past month, and some are saying it’s causing a stock market crash. Dan asks Phil if it’s true that the virus is affecting the stock market, and Phil explains some of the thought behind this.

Caller William in Australia asks what we do on this show and elaborates on what his Christian beliefs look like. Things get interesting when William says he uses science to validate his beliefs, but doesn’t think Christianity and science fit together. Then we talk about the coronavirus again inexplicably!

Lin in Michigan has called before, and today she brings us her memory of an experience where she thought she saw a UFO! (She later learned what the source of the lights was. No aliens, unfortunately.)

We get an interesting call from Julie in Idaho who asks a seemingly odd question of two atheist skeptics: What are your thoughts on the afterlife? Julie is an ex-JW who is now exploring other religions, especially Buddhism. Dan and Phil offer some advice about ex-JW resources and give a perspective on the afterlife Julie probably hasn’t heard.

We get a caller (Ed) who asks a question that’s specifically in Phil’s wheelhouse: should his daughter who has $10k get a CD or a bond? What follows are words I only slightly understand. Then Ed gives us a cool potential explanation for UFOs or spiritual orbs, which I’m...also unsure how to explain. Thanks for confusing me, Ed!

Why is it that religions cause issues when we’re dealing with huge crises? Stan wants to know the same thing. (He didn’t say he’s our biggest fan, but his name is Stan.)

Our Belgian caller Fred asks if Dan and Phil feel that there is anything nearing a religious adoration of clinging to their gas cars over electric vehicles. He offers a few of the arguments he’s heard about this topic as well.

To end the night, we go to the incredibly simple topic of...simulation theory! (The Matrix 3 sucked!) Sean gives us something called “the Bostrom argument” with just a dash of Elon Musk’s ideas...did someone say electric cars?

That’s the show today! Find Phil’s “The Phil Ferguson Show” on your favorite podcast app! Find Dan at @ObjectivelyDan on Instagram and Twitter, Truth Wanted is on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/truthwanted , and ACA merch is available at https://bit.ly/aenmerch!

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SHOW TIME-STAMPS

00:00:00 Introduction
00:13:41 River - MI: How do we know logic is true? (Doubting Skepticism & Laws of Logic)
00:28:33 Doug - FL: Was the Bible Made Up to Discourage People from Human Sacrifice?
00:37:30 Woo is Me (A Brief Discussion on Woo-ey Beliefs)
00:42:25 Tom - UK: My Country Isn't Religious, but We Have a Lot of Woo Beliefs
00:48:44 Fred - ID: Weird Mormon Stories Derived from Their Mythology
00:57:31 Bobby - CA: Life Extension Research
01:11:49 Nathan - TX: Spirituality, Conspiracy Theories, & Schizo-Effective Disorders
01:21:07 Jeremy - IA: Is/Ought Gap...Why is it an issue?
01:40:10 Outro

SHOW NOTES
You know what’s fun about Truth Wanted? We always have new and different guests! Today, we have Rebecca Fox. She’s an illustrator, animator, podcaster, and all around awesome human being. Rebecca recently worked with a few atheist content creators, including our young Dan (or Yung Dan as he’s known in the “rap game”) and his grandmaster Anthony Magnabosco, to create a Twitter survey about atheists and their deconversions, then making a video about the responses. (That video can be found here at Anthony Magnabosco’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EMyPABdCHc.)

River in Michigan shares an issue that’s bound to sound familiar to a lot of skeptically-minded people: He’s doubting the very foundations of knowledge, including the Laws of Logic. It’s an interesting question precisely because we have no answer. What do?

Doug in Florida has a potentially interesting thought about why stories like Abraham sacrificing his son and the entire sacrifice motif of Jesus might exist: The stories are intended to show human sacrifice as reprehensible to discourage a society of people who were already sacrificing humans. (The society is made of people doing human sacrifice, why do any of them care? Why would a story about human sacrifice bother people engaging in human sacrifice?) Dan has some interesting counter-points to this based on Jewish ideas about the Old Testament.

Following Doug’s calls, Rebecca & Dan get into a short discussion about woo and “spirituality” from acupuncture to tarot cards!

Tom in the UK continues a bit of the conversation about woo by chiming in to agree with Rebecca: the UK has lost a lot of standard religions, but has become infested with woo. Then after Dan & Rebecca discuss further, we realize Tom seems to have dropped. You win some, you lose some. Moving on!

Fred in Idaho has a decent interest and knowledge of Mormon mythology, and tells us some of the hilarious tales people spin about how some of these strange Mormon stories fit with their real lives-like 3 men in white suits magically fixing a car with no tools! This gets into the more interesting side of why people tell these tales-is it because they believe these stories or that they like telling the tale?

Bobby in California calls in to ask what we think of Life Extension Research. Bobby claims to be attaining a Masters degree in fields related to Life Extension Research, and offers some information about the research he’s aware of.

Nathan in Texas (Hey! We’ve been there before!) describes his own schizo-effective disorder, saying that he started to become more susceptible to spirituality and conspiracy theories after he developed the schizo-effective disorders.

Jeremy in Iowa follows up on a previous call about secular moral frameworks to talk about the is/ought gap, and why he thinks it’s actually not an issue.

That’s our show, folks! Follow Dan on Twitter (@ObjectivelyDan), e-mail the show ([email protected]), and check out our merch at bit.ly/aenmerch! Rebecca Fox’s Instagram and Twitter are @rebeccaonpaper, and her podcast is The Seeker & The Skeptic.

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14:11
Stan in Philadeplphia Defending gold-diggers. It's behaviors between two consenting adults. "Money is more important than muscles." What about if the relationship becomes a dependency? Is it exploitation? It can introduce various forms of abuse, like financial abuse. One of the examples is getting one's education paid for by gold-digging. What happens in a gold-digging relationship when the power dynamic shifts? What happens when the financier loses access to money? Stan says, "No one can consent to abuse." Being lonely and getting into gold-digging relationships should be allowed without judgment. But, money is inherently coercive, which is a risk. There are different types of relationships, not everything is about love. Historically, marriages were about property. Don't go into gold-digging if you really need the money, because the power dynamic may be skewed.
32:16

32:40
Harry in Yakima, Washington. Transition from new age to atheism
Wife lost her faith and began to look into new age stuff. Dr. Daryl Ray suggested giving her time to grieve her faith. And it worked. She began to learn about atheism and ask questions. And they wanted to share about how they've grown together. The transition from new age to atheism.(36:24). There are many people who lose their friends and family when their faith changes or is lost. How long did the transition take? 10 years. She left the church in 2018 and took over a year. How has their family reacted? The family rejected her, but they are geographically far away. So, they've created a small community of atheists.
41:33

42:01
Derick from Alabama. Cults. Teaches a class about conspiracy theories and uses Truth Wanted clips. Will be talking about cults and how people are drawn in. Visit Telltales channel. Being born into one is a cause. Being targeted by good liars. Multi-Level-Marketing schemes are a good example of a persuasive cult. Lies by omission. Love bombing by a cult community who make you feel loved and special. The cult will isolate the new member from their friends and family. Doctrine is fed to the new member in very small doses. If outsiders say that you're in a cult, believe it.
55:06

Start time ?
Paul in Georgia. Life changing heart attacks. Transitioning to Atheism because of his heart troubles. He prayed to God for help and his prayers were not answered.
End time ?

1:15:22
Truth Wanted 03.04 with ObjectivelyDan & Nervardia-Oriax in Pennsylvania-Occult Chaos Magick
Oriax in Pennsylvania. The Occult. Chaos Magick. Practitioners try various techniques and then they share the results with the community. ObjectivelyDan asks for talismans to see if he can practice Chaos Magick. Oriax used the Occult to get him out of a cult.
End time ?

1:24:54
Aaron from Seattle, Washington. Tolpas. Aaron in Seattle, WA. Talks about Tolpas. He feels they are psychological rather than physical manifestations. Making a Tolpa is the act of role-playing, similar to playing Dungeons and Dragons. Novelists who write the same character has created a type of accidental Tolpa.
1:36:25

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SHOW TIME-STAMPS

00:00:00 Introduction
00:06:27 Dan’s Weird Job Interview Discussion
00:14:29 What are Christian Apologetics?
00:16:53 Caller: Matt - MD
00:35:43 Merch & Hosts Struggle with Clothes
00:37:33 Caller: Ian - AL
00:56:51 Caller: Dean Meadows - NC
01:17:04 Caller: Jeremy - IA
SHOW NOTES

Jen Aldrich joins us, replacing planned guest Sci-Man Dan who will appear in a later show. Jen hosts the new ACA reboot show Godless Bitches 3.0! (It’s a lot of fun.) Jen reveals an upcoming personal project where she’ll cover a range of non-atheist topics with other atheists, which sounds pretty neat to me.

Dan tells a story of a weird encounter before a job interview wherein someone asks if he’s a Christian...spoiler: the conversation partner isn’t very polite. Also, Jen is verbally assaulted for wearing a symbol someone doesn’t like. How reasonable! She also ends up on a date where the guy tells her he’s afraid she’ll go to hell. Wonderful first date talk, this is bound to go well for him.

Dan and Jen get into a discussion on Christian apologetics history and get into a few apologetic arguments.

Our first caller, Matt, explains that he thinks the left/right political spectrum isn’t valid and is mostly arbitrary. He may have a point to some extent, but there is a utility to be found here! Matt asks what makes something left or right fundamentally, or are we applying these labels arbitrarily after the fact? Jen gives an explanation of where this comes from, and we get into a conversation about how parties can change their left/right alliance, which happens more frequently than you might think. We cover a lot of ground on this call, including false narratives and the general tone of today’s politics being quite divided.

Dan and Jen have a quick talk about NEW TRUTH WANTED MERCH available at bit.ly/aenmerch, and how they struggle with clothes. Adulting is hard sometimes.

Caller Ian hooks us in with an “out there” topic: he believes that humans (later clarified to be all living things) all share the same consciousness, because, “How could we not share the same consciousness?” Or, is it the same nature of consciousness? Definitions seem to be an immediate issue...this will be a fun call! After the call, Jen and Dan get into their pasts with Eastern philosophies and “woo.”

The amazing Dean Meadows returns to ask how we can navigate consciousness without a belief in the supernatural, as there seems to be something strange about the connection between minds and bodies. Dan explains consciousness having clear physical roots, and we have a springboard for an interesting call. (Dean Meadows is a friend of our shows who studies apologetics and calls into Truth Wanted and Talk Heathen frequently. Check those calls out if you liked this one.)

After some brief discussion on telecommunication infrastructure, Jeremy presents a case for an “objective filter for measuring morality from a secular perspective.” Dan sees it as possible to build an objective moral framework, but is interested in what should compel him to follow that (philosophically, of course...Dan won’t be out doing horrible things tomorrow, we promise!). Jeremy thinks religions remove people’s bodily autonomy and sovereignty, but what if someone doesn’t want bodily sovereignty? Hm… This is getting deep.

Dan ends the show with a bad joke that leads to fun sound effects with new tech stuff! YAY!

Faithless Forum is upcoming, with dates TBA (likely in June). We have merch at bit.ly/aenmerch, and you can support the show at patreon.com/truthwanted, where you can pay for access to the show ad free! Dan is on Twitter @ObjectivelyDan, and Jen is on Twitter @JenDragonQueen.

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