 Yeah, hello and welcome to the digital pre-thought radio hour and W ozio radio 103.9 LP FM here in Knoxville, Tennessee We're recording this on Sunday morning February 18th 2024 I'm Larry Rhodes or DJ doubter 5 and as usual we have a co-host wombat on the line with us. Hello. I'm back aim for the eyes Always or do the three stooges finger poke. There you go Our guest today is dread pirate Higgs welcome Nanoo Nanoo Nanoo Nanoo Nanoo Digital free thought radio hours to talk radio show about atheism free thought rational thought humanism and the sciences and Conversely, we'll also talk about religion religious faith Posteriorism God holy books and superstition and if you get the feeling you're the only non-believer in your town Well, you're just not I guarantee it here in Knoxville in the middle of the Bible belt We have a group of 1100 of us where the atheist society of Knoxville or ASK We'll tell you more about us after the mid-show break. So be sure to stick around Wombat what's our topic today? Yeah, we got some listener comments and also why is it? Why does it seem like? Atheists seem to know the Bible better than Christians. That's the leading topic, but I don't want here to start fires I'm here to eat noodles and who better to lead us through a path of al dente than our own dread pirate Higgs Our newly lord who art in a colander el don't a be thy noodles Thy blood be rum my sauce be yum with meat as it is with vegetables Give us this day our garlic bread and for girls are cussing as we forgive those who cuss against us and Leave us not into peat-o-wism But deliver us some carbs for nine or the meatballs and the noodles and the grog Okay guys, I've been Since the beginning of like February I had a board on my wall that I would keep track of like my weight my Waste, you know, and then additional things like did I take my proper medications that I take my prescription meds? I take like a cross to opal did I work out and did I eat like a Reasonable amount of calories just to like make sure like all health wise is good I also have like a watch like tracks my health But I also have this new column that I started this year Which is just like my mood like how do I feel when I wake up in the morning? And I give myself a rating from like zero to ten ten being the highest they were being like Oh my gosh, that's just stay home today. I'm not in a safe place. I'm gonna have to call my mom I have been consistently throughout this entire month Recognizing a fact that when I wake up I'm just super positive because I've been at tens throughout the entire year all the way since I basically started the board And I've been thinking of like, you know, what about drawbacks like for example, I'm expected to get my car delivered to me I was hoping I can get delivered on Saturday but it's gonna turn out to be Monday and I'm like is that enough to take me down from a ten It's like no cuz I work this out. I still found a good deal. Well, what if I had problems at work? It's like no problems at work is why I get to go to work. I love solving problems. That's what my whole job is all about Okay, well, what if someone says something rude to me? It's like, I'm not gonna let someone else's comments Take me down. I still feel good And I don't know like I just feel good that I have a reasonable control of how I Manage my own feelings and emotions that I wish a lot of other people would realize too that the way how you feel about things is entirely how in your control You can't control what happens to you that you can control how you respond to it Exactly and that just fills me up with so much more power. I think if anything We're gonna be talking about a lot of about religious stuff today But if you remember that even if you are religious I think that could be a former control for yourself because the silliest thing that happens to me when I go to A gym is I'll hear people talk about like, you know, AI's are taking over thing They're gonna take everyone's job and and blah blah blah and then they'll point to me It's like Tarown that watch you have is just tracking you down and it's gonna have GPS What I'll say back to them is like well, Jesus will save me I say that fluently because I think they they already know that I'm an atheist But instead they'll take it literally like well, hallelujah, then they just turn around and act like there wasn't a problem at all I'm just like wait AI still out here How did that Point to your watch, but they don't realize they got a phone in their pocket Every step of the way to right if they didn't walk past four surveillance cameras just to get into that building, right? You know and when I was at the TED Talks a couple years ago who Bill Gates was actually a speaker there and There were protesters outside, you know, this was still in the pandemic mode And protesters were outside protesting you know Bill Gates and and the fact that He's supposed to have put tracking devices in the vaccines, right and He's on stage. He he just kind of quips What am I gonna do with all that information when they got the phones already? You know what I mean? Very true Hey, I just warning label on my On my TV controller who talked to me What does it say? You got to tell us Very cool, I had to blow up the screen all the full screen for it just to read it But yeah, this is my favorite part of the show. I just love checking in on everybody dread. It looks like you're back home No, no No, no, I'm having You know, what otherwise might be welcome as a day off When I'm up north 1300 kilometers from home. I do not like days off. I like to be working Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. Well, I mean in your current environment. Is this not more? So these is not your homestead. You're still on duty. Yeah, this is a staff house. I'm in right now. Wow It looks so it looks so comfy. It looks so comfy. It's a house. I mean, it's a pretty nice place Okay, you know, my dog's not here. My wife's not here. Got it. And for radio listeners This is also done on zoom. So we put it on YouTube. So we do have visuals Right. All right. We got this if you guys want to see us. You're more than welcome to Larry, how you been? Oh fine. Not much going on here and just working and waiting for spring Day last savings time starts in less than a month. It's the first weekend in or the 6th of March So it's right around the corner. Yeah, absolutely. We just need some warm water to go with it, right? Because it's still below freezing where I'm at right now about seven degrees below Celsius Uh, Larry, what's your conquest and video games look like? What what are you playing? Oh I've been playing battlefield three and then battlefield four But you'll be happy to know that I finally got a grand theft auto and started playing it I've never played it before. This is the first time through Wow, it's a lot of stuff going on in there Amazing It's very true a lot a lot of stuff is going on there. I have I used to live in california And my last major city that lived in california was los angeles And I hated it there because there's a point when you you don't realize it until someone says something and then you see it everywhere Which is everywhere around you's pavement when you look up you see cement when you look down you see cement when you look into the distance You see cement and you're like, where's the grass? Oh my gosh Yeah, they're playing trees a lot of palm trees, but they're all like manufactured places They've got a hole that they made in the concrete for the tree to grow right. It's it's pretty bad Like if you want to have been there, but from what I understand So there's a lot of gta 5 is concrete Yeah, there's a lot of goes on forever There's a lot of sand some cactuses maybe some tumbleweeds And if you want to see greenery you have to go to a grocery store into like the the green proto section And it was driving me nuts and when I installed grand theft out. I got the game for free. I installed it I put it up from like game Epic games right epic game store gave it to me. I installed it I threw up the game and the first thing that happens once you like finish the tutorials You're just this black guy standing on the streets of la and I'm hearing the same sounds and I'm seeing the same This is I'm like uninstall. I can't do it anymore. I'm done Yeah, and if you get in the car, you know, it's all the same news, you know about traumatizing gangs and Bloodshed and all you know all that stuff. Well, that's classic america. That's what we that's why we live here. Anyway We had a comment at the beginning of the show saying that There's why there's some sort of strange occurrence between atheists and the bible compared to their knowledge at versus religious people Larry, would you mind touching on that a little bit and then? Well, I I Usually go out I have for a long time many times go out to parks in the city and I'm an old guy So I sit down and I put up an ask an atheist A placard and people walk by that. Yeah, they can sit down and talk to me I I've even done it on campus before I'm 73 and I've retired a couple times and each time I retired I didn't work for like a year and a half and before I started again So it was a lot of fun to do that and engage people in conversation And think one of the things that struck me was that they don't know the bible very well Right, they'll come up and tell me, you know the most popular Verses like jesus loves you and he wants you to be in heaven or you know, all this other good stuff that they Their preacher has told them But when I started telling them about what's actually in the bible that You know leviticus and deuteronomy are just full of commandments. It's not just 10 commandments in the bible And matter of fact, there's more than one set of 10 commandments in the bible. That shocks them But one place in In deuteronomy it says that if you don't obey these commandments and everything in this book God will bring you so low that you will have to eat your own children. They said that's not in there Yeah, it's in there and I have a theory of this as a white atheist know the bible better than Then believers is that once they know they used to be believers most I'd say 95 of all atheists used to be believers And I think that they have studied the bible so much when they were in believers that they they Came to the point where they understood it's not real and that it's just a coercive device Something to keep you in line make you feel guilty so that you'll sit in a pew and give them money and That's that's my theory on So many people especially People who go to who want to be preachers and go to seminary They learn this stuff they know it Now when they come out the other end of seminary, they're either going to be a Like a religious scholar and a secular one at that there's a lot of those out there Or they'll go ahead and be a preacher knowing the truth and not telling their their congregation And so many of those end up in The clergy project Which is a good thing by the way Yep Anyway, look up the clergy project if you have any questions the leader of the the leader of the clergy project is actually A member of the church of the flying spaghetti monster of British Columbia Yeah, oh really? What's his name? I'll go off top of my head, but When you join it's whoever the leader is because he invited me to they were having a Yeah a seminar You know some gathering in that backcouver Are people who don't know the uh the clergy project is A group of X Preachers who got together, you know once they lost their faith and became atheists They realized that they didn't really have a whole lot of saleable skills to be able to lead the priesthood And get into Secular society and have jobs and all that yeah, so they started a training program Good preachers who are stuck in the clergy And don't and can't come out because they would lose their job their family their friends Who once once they find out that they're no longer believers? They should go into sales like any pastor There's a lot of uh, I mean they're good at writing because they write their own Sermons that could become writers or columnists or uh, you know bloggers for that matter. Um, they're good at administration There are a lot of things that they develop skills for in the priesthood that can be transitioned over to secular Absolutely to something useful, right? And like potentially harmful dread. I have a question for you. Um, do you think it's more likely for people to Be more aware of and more educated about why they don't believe something than To be in any way educated about what they do believe And what I mean by that is if you have a religious person who very much knows why they aren't Islamic like a Christian person who's not Islamic or is not apostropharian But cannot at the same level of detail explain why they're a Christian Right. Yeah. Yeah, no for sure. I think uh, the more you learn about Yeah, the the more you learn about religion clearly the more Aware you are of the inconsistencies and the contradictions and hypocrisies and all the rest of it that are in there um, and I mean, I've I've come to the point where I actually Honestly pity Many people and certainly my own family members Who are devout Christians? just just for their ignorance You know, essentially there you go. That's the probability Yeah, they're they're victims. I mean they were thinking They were taught from their earliest childhood that what People believe about Christianity is the truth and never allowed really to question it I think it's interesting because I've heard so my mom's from the virgin islands virgin islands has different cadre of religions including voodoo And when you say voodoo around christians, they were like, oh my gosh That is one of the worst of the worst things you could be like a practitioner of voodoo because voodoo has things like talking animals and witches and and unexplained supernatural events and people coming back from the dead Yeah, yeah zombies, right and I'm like, well, look at christianity christianity has talking animals talking doves talking bushes Talking serpents in the very first chapter. It has people coming back from the dead It has witches. There's the witch of ender first samuel 28 You got unexplained supernatural events. Jesus literally walks into a party and is like is that A water let's turn it to wine van van van. Who needs fish sandwiches? You got a fish sandwich You got a fish like he's literally doing magic in front of people He Moses literally goes to the pharaoh and says like you see this walking stick I bet you think this is just a normal walking stick. Don't you I'm going to throw it on the floor. It's now a snake Like the whole setup of everything is just magic tricks that you would get from voodoo But in the in the context of well, that's okay because it's christianity I find that to be hypocritical uh as dred would say or at least ignorant of the fact that a lot of the reasons Why people don't like other religions is in the religion that they follow as well and um another point of hypocrisy That's my side bias, right? Yes Absolutely and christian is always talking about how bad witchcraft is But if you think about it, um prayer is stylized words Talking to a being from another dimension another, you know, other worldly being Asking them to do your bidding in this world. That's witchcraft right there right So we talk a lot about head covers like when you refer to islam You one of the first things people would say from like christian or like a western mindset as well You know, they uh, they uh, what is it oppress their women with head coverings, right? And the funny turnaround is is like have you never heard of a nun like this? There's these things in christian Catholicism called nuns where they have to wear head covers as well It's explain why they have to and uh head covering for christian women is not it's it's not a it's actually It's prescribed in the bible prescribed on the head Right, but just because we aren't doing it as often because where a lot of us are protested in this country Doesn't necessarily mean that it wasn't something that was explicitly asked for so It's just a point of ignorance and hypocrisy that guides a lot of people into like Why they follow the religion and why they attack religions that aren't theirs Right. Um, I have an example when I was in high school. We had a exchange student from africa Uh, uh, she came in and she knew how to use the dictionary Her english wasn't as good as ours But she knew where almost every word in the dictionary was because she had to use the dictionary She was very familiar with how that worked And I remember there was a contest that our teacher our english teacher did to like help Show that she was like yeah, our english is struggling But she knows english and we had like this english test where it's like find a word in the dictionary First person it gets it gets like candy or like a ticket for something and so like my word was like messenger and I'd have to be like Okay, that starts with an m abcdfghll I mean, okay, so it's after l flipping through it and like what's the next letter and messenger e abcde Okay, so I got to go over the ease and I'm like I gotta do this for every letter. There's too many letters in messenger meanwhile Uh, susan that was her name. She's like literally like Thumbs through the book and then like just flips Turns two pages to the left messenger. She knew where almost every letter was I'm like, how does she know Where all these letters are it's like because she uses the she has not an intuitive understanding of english She has a technical understanding of english. She knows how to use the tools to get her the information She wants she's not just doing it through intuition and while intuition feels good because it's nice to have that confirmation It's no substitute for a technical understanding of a subject And there's a lot of people walking around with intuitive understandings of things that they care very much about Including the religion, but it's nowhere near on the same level as a technical understanding And I think what makes a difference for an atheist compared to like Uh, uh, a born a person who was born atheist never had a chance to have religion versus one who was religious and came out of it Is that they develop that technical understanding of Knowing true things understanding false things having a standard of evidence Realizing what they're being taught isn't accurate and as larry as you said It's just a bunch of false hope to make you feel guilty so you can give somebody money When you have that technical understanding It's way better than the intuitive one in my opinion and that's why you typically have People who are like not only do they have that technical understanding But they want to share that technical understanding with other people and be like hey listen This thing that you're practicing this thing that you're following is harmful Let me let me educate you And what gets me is that they they listen to the preacher and just Blindly follow whatever he says like they're he he will tell them You know sunday after sunday that there's not a single contradiction in the bible, right? Although we know for fact there are yeah, you know that god is the source of all love In anti anti god is hate or evil and it says in the bible that god creates you good and evil It's just one thing after another that if you actually take a look at the bible with a critical eye You'll discover all these things, but most people don't and i i've got the skeptics annotated Bible, uh, which is it's a fabulous resource. Uh, it has all the contradictions all the all the You know Bad things violence and yeah all the violence all the and Yeah, it's a it's a great resource Yeah skeptics annotated bible, right? That would be my answer for why it seems like atheists know more than bibles because they have a technical understanding of that religion And not an and we used to have the the other kind I mean we used to be believers and we used to buy a hook line and sinker until we've learned so much about it That we can no longer support Blind belief and you know the scary thing is sometimes when people Leave religion they go back into it because they value just that intuitive comfort of Having something that they feel like they can have confidence in or they share it with another individual that they love And they do it for them That i've seen that a lot or they had such a low appreciation of a standard of evidence that they just fell right back into another religion Maybe they leave christianity and join a cult. Maybe they join the coal of jade or a basket weaving Just go spiritual how many people Late christianity is i'm not christian, but i'm spiritual. I'm not Spiritual i'm not christian, but i'm a taylor swift man. Whatever it takes whatever pictures of people They needed some people need to believe in things they had a hole, but it's not a replacement for being right, you know like for truth for evidence critical thinking And the cool thing about a technical understanding of religion doesn't necessarily confirm that you're right It just means that you have a good standard of evidence for what you're willing to accept as true And if it's is true, it doesn't matter how high you raise that standard because true things will pass through it So you might as well have the highest standard possible why lower your standard can come to some belief of something Um, I got a listener question Uh, I actually have sort of a listener comment. I want to go through real quick I don't know if you guys are familiar with the show peppa pig, but we've had which peppa pig peppa pig Well, you don't have kids dread Oh, you'd have kids you have kids But you don't have to like literal children because it's a really popular franchise Called peppa pig. It's like a poorly drawn pig who with a british accent. She's very cute She has a family and her town is interesting because they're all different animals And by being different animals it should have coded as different races, but they all work with each other They even have like gay families as well in the show. It's a show for kids and there's gay There's gay couples in the show. There's kids that are raccoons. There's kids that are pandas And it's like it's all good. Everybody's here working with each other. We're all happy We're all working out and shows are typically like five minutes long. It's like you can feel like 30 of them in this one episode but basically Christians won't let their kids watch peppa pig That's what I label this as this is from witches at otaku which because we've been talking about witches But I'm over at my aunt and uncle's friend's place for bible study, of course And they're all heavily christian their kids normally sit downstairs to watch tv and as they were looking for something to watch They stumbled across peppa pig only for them to freak out because apparently they're not allowed to watch peppa pig Because there's a gay couple in it. No wonder their kids are bigots I feel bad for younger children who have to grow up in this environment. Are you guys familiar with any other similar circumstances? well I don't have a lot of friends that are in similar circumstances, but I have uh Relations And it's uncle's cousins who are living in families like that because they follow the religion so closely and they don't Um, it's just it's shameful that they let that pre predispose their opinions about other people Dredd, do you have a prejudice it? Um, well, I I don't know. I mean most of my uh, most of my family are all Pretty hard. Well a couple of them are pretty hardcore christians so they uh, certainly like to limit their exposure to non-christian Stuff as a matter of reinforcing the brand, right? Right. So, um, yeah. Yeah, no, I uh And I'm unfortunately I have I had to unfollow them on uh, facebook because It's a soapbox. They regularly stand on Despite their christian beliefs and it's just tiresome. Yeah, yeah, I can imagine It's always good to know that the option exists I remember when I first heard that like gay couples were a thing when I was in california. I heard on an npr broadcast. They're like it was during 2004 or 2008 I forgot but it was a time when legal marriage for gay couples was allowed for like a brief period of time before I had to go to The supreme court and remember getting out of my my mom's car when she dropped me off at school And I heard yeah, there's two women that married each other and I'm like, oh, I didn't know that was I didn't know that was one of the options and I just went to school Didn't bother me But like for the rest of my day at school I was just like books Homework blah blah blah and then I came back like a couple months later and people are like We're angry about those two women that got married. I'm like wait that thing that happened so long ago Like what that didn't change anything like why are you guys even so angry now? But I if you were set up if you were set up with like a fire starter somebody who said No, this is a problem and we need to be upset about it right now Then I can imagine myself freaking out about stuff like that because I was never given an opportunity To just assess that this wasn't a big issue on my own larry. What do you think? Yeah, I agree. I once I was reading something in school that Brought up the fall of rome and it didn't really go into any detail But when I got home, I asked my mom about I said rome was around for a long time What made it finally fall and she said homosexuality and sin I mean, that's what she was taught. That's how she understood. So what are you going to do? Oh, it's it's time to take a break. Yeah, we need to do that and come back here in a second This is the digital free thought radio hour and w o zio radio 103.9 LP FM here in Knoxville, Tennessee. We'll be right back after this short break Hello and welcome back to the second half of the digital free thought radio hour I'm daughter five and we're on w o zio radio 103.9 LP FM here in Knoxville, Tennessee Let's take just a moment to talk about the atheist society of Knoxville ASK was founded in 2002. We're in our 22nd year now We have over 1,100 members We have weekly in-person meetings every Tuesday evening in Knoxville's old city at Barley's taproom in pizzeria Look for us inside at the high top tables or if it's pretty weather outside on the deck You can find us online on facebook meetup.com Or just visit the website at KnoxvilleAtheist.org By the way, if you don't live in Knoxville, you should still go to meet up and do a search for an atheist group in your town Don't find one All right, wombat, where do we put it? Where do we want to pick up? We're going through listener comments. This guy for apparent reasons wants to be anonymous But thank you for reaching out. This is him. It's his question. Should I lie about being an atheist? Here's his story I'm from an Islamic country Saudi Arabia I told my friends that the Quran the Islam holy book as he explains has Mistakes and they decided to cut me off and gave me a phone number of a religious person hoping he will change my mind Should I lie and say I'm convinced that I was wrong or just leave them behind? At first I told myself if they were my real friends, they wouldn't care about my religion or lack thereof But then I remembered that people here literally being raised to are being literally being raised to hate atheism So it's not entirely their fault. It's just how they were raised What do you think I should do? Yeah, that's that's uh, that's a tough question. I mean particularly in a Muslim dominant country like Saudi Arabia And and the fact that uh, apostasy is punishable by death Um, you don't want to place yourself in unnecessary danger So, you know, it depends on how You know, how, you know, how much danger you feel you are in Uh, with respect to stating what you truly believe So either you stop associating with people who hold those beliefs um to spare yourself, uh You know, unnecessary danger or you leave the country and and go somewhere else As far as myself, I openly state that I'm a pastor farion And that gives me all kinds of trouble But um, you know, it's just a matter of being true to myself I'm not going to be killed because I'm not a Christian So I don't have to worry about that. But um, you know other people certainly are in That are much more prone to A retribution or punishment for apostasy So it depends on where you are man. Yeah, so it's almost as if you're putting the safety first Yeah, safety first for sure. Well said from a paramedic, right? Yeah, there you go Larry, what do you think? Oh, definitely if you're in a situation where it could be harmful Physically harmful to you or your family Um, I would think twice and three times about coming out of the atheist closet Even though I think that we really need to do so because the more people that come out the more uh The more we won't be ruled by ghosts from the past the preachers from the past Remember the bible was written by the preachers of those days And we still live under their structures So we need to come out. We need to Let people know that we're no longer believers But if it if it's something that like you're a teenager and you want to come out But you know that if you do your family family going to throw you out in the street Don't come out your time will come later on when you get a job and you have your own house That's when you can come out Please take it with a grain of salt and think about it Yeah, I also say you don't have to pick it's not a one or the other so all in or out you can find Uh more moderate circles of friends to to engage with and confide in there's online circles That you'll have access to as well as I assume you have the internet since you contacted Um, but also you don't have to be friends with the The friends who would be critical of not accepting the real you and you can like start to You can shift your your circles of support Toward something that's more comfortable for you until you're in a safer place where you can Ultimately come out not only that but I found that Universities school systems tend to be the places where there are luminaries who are exposed to a lot of different new ideas tend to be really really good at Finding and attracting people who have your same mindset And when I was before I started college I didn't realize how many people thought like me or how many options there were to be Until I was in a a place where there's just a lot of different people coming in left and right And I valued that as part of my upbringing just being in a place where people cared about critical thinking and working together You can you can find that too. So if you're thinking about careers along with this, I would recommend Something in the sciences and that might even be your ticket to get out of Saudi Arabia and maybe get a postdoc in somewhere a bit more lenient in maybe in europe or america or wherever. Absolutely right Okay, here's the next one larry. I'm I want everyone's eyes on larry if you're watching the show I you cannot roll your eyes larry. Are you sure about this? You're not going to roll your eyes when I ask this question You're ready for this one. All right What is the point of life if you don't believe? Your purpose in life is a role of your own type of thing You come up with your own purpose of life. You can and you can change it as often as you want to Life is full of different things that you can Prioritize or not And like if you're a kid, of course education would be your your highest priority learning and building your Keeping your body healthy and and it's strong Once you get into middle age, you know, you want to maybe prioritize your career or not It's up to you. You may want to be an explorer. You may want to be someone who just walks the earth. It's up to you Don't let anybody else dictate what you need to do with your life Yeah, well said. Well, especially a church Well, you know in and uh Uh-oh dread is pause. He's more likely gonna go through the system. But I agree, you know man, how much would it suck to be put in a I don't know why it's appealing For for people to think that they have an agenda and a destiny pre-written for them as soon as they start breathing, right? I can't imagine like no one loves being told what to do Like if you go and say like hey your bedtime's at 10 35 tonight And you're gonna eat one potato for breakfast and you're gonna eat mcdonald's Like hey, don't tell me what to do. I want to do it. It's like no when you drive to work You're gonna make you're gonna go at this limitation speed and you're gonna make a turn signal at this point It's like stop telling me what to do. It's like well, that's what you assume God is doing for you right now that he had the whole script and you're going when it's actually a preacher But it's actually a preacher when it's actually the clergy Because they want you to do things that benefit them Yes, yes, and whatever happened to freedom like whatever happened to be able to decide your own path like every movie That has like an encouraging Young plucky underdog character that we all root for is about someone trying to set their own path set their own destinies and and come to some sort of Validation on their own terms. That's the world that we live in right now. We can figure out our own purpose We can figure out our own Vocations our own hobbies of things that we love the people that we love we or not love you can do whatever you want It's the greatest thing ever. It's it's reality And remember you don't have to be an actual slave to be a mental slave I mean if people can control your mind, then they can eventually control your body Not all chains or physical area is what we would say, right? Yes indeed So it's really important for people to realize that when you are in control of your own path your own agenda Now, yes, there comes a Account sequence with that which is accountability You're not responsible for the bad things that might happen to you or the bad things that you might cause But you're also responsible for the good things too if you won that football game because you trained you don't have to thank God for it. That's you you trained you figure that out. Good job. Good job. McCombs. You've won another Super Bowl Like hey You didn't have to kiss it and be like, oh god again. This is like no, you know who trained you They got paid a lot of money too, but uh, I think one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen was there was um, uh, a soccer game Uh, uh football with your feet dread. I'm just helping you out. So I For Canadians, I don't know if you have soccer up there, but they have a Soccer game penalty kickoff session where there's five goals that they have to kick on both sides and then Whoever blocks the whichever goalie blocks the most hits Um that that team wins and a block a goalie blocked more or less every single hit He was so happy he ran to his team and his team was running up to him and he's like no, no No, no, no, no, I don't want to hug you. I don't want to jump on you I want to hug that guy the coach that helped him learn how to be a good defensive goalie And they hugged each other and I'm like this guy knows who helped him He didn't was he didn't like yeah, thank you god. Thank you god. I got this. That's that's god looking down on me He was like no, I'm gonna I'm gonna thank the guy who actually spent some time to train me after work and when he's did his interviews He's like that guy trained me how to do that. I'm like this guy's cool Uh, but yeah, you have control of your destiny. You also are accountable for your own actions they come hand in hand, but that also means you get to own your own successes and Your own feelings or at least you have the responsibility to do so Dred, you had uh blocked out. I wanted to get your feedback. What do you think of the idea of? What's the point of living if you don't believe I think that's what was the main question Yeah, what is the point of life if you don't believe dred? Well, yeah again, uh, I think the larger you expand your circle the more World comes in right when when your life is limited to a book or a belief Um, you have circumscribe your world in a very small space Um, and and that's you know part and parcel to what we were talking about with respect to learning about the bible The more you learn about the bible the more you enlarge your understanding and the more you enlarge your understanding more of the world Is included in your in your thinking and the less dependent you are on You know these small things for meaning in your life, right? That's kind of what I look at it. I mean, you know, you just I mean people stop learning, you know, they read the bible and they say, okay, I that's the answer. I found it That's all there is to it and they stop thinking and they stop Yeah On the flip side though dred the sun is just peeking. It's beautiful It's always nice seeing the sun rises on your video feeds Dred on the flip side though, could you and i'm devil's advocate here Could you not say that well, what if my point is I don't want to learn I just want to be comfort in in the shadow of god for my entire life and What's what's I've got uh, I got a family member Who uh, he made this post On facebook and I've got it up here Uh, and so I I posted in his comments there. I posted a picture of Uh, a jesus doll and it was jesus and streetwear. Yeah, yeah, just just a little comedy, right? And uh, and he writes and he puts in a thing here He says blessed are you when people insult you persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me I was like, how is that even appropriate? I mean come on Right, the people are just so silly about this thing, right? They just take them so seriously That uh, they there's no room for Any anything that uh makes a counterpoint to what they have to say. They're just not interested Right, and it's it's sad. It's really sad Larry Do you have a comment? Okay, no, it's just I mean, I mean, I guess a person could choose Uh Religion as their purpose if they do it themselves and say I know like I said, I I realize that the contradictions in the bible I I realize that they're over the religions. There may be other gods But I choose to follow this one just for comfort or because I want to get in with my friends or my family I mean you choose your own purpose, but realize Who it's benefiting right? I mean if you do it because you want comfort that's fine I mean, yep I don't think I would want to give up my mental individuality just for comfort But some people are but the other arm that comes with that is your actions have consequences Whether you choose to recognize that or not you can take a world philosophy where you're like my actions only belong to my god And that's it right now. I don't have to care about it You can have that mindset, but your actions do affect other people whether you see it or not Especially if you have children, I mean are you gonna take responsibility for sending them off in this direction? Yeah, and taking away their purpose their choice of purpose. I mean Think about it. Let's go back to like Or even voting for your voting for your leadership voting for your political masters, right? Right or Supreme Court justices You know, yeah religion has that effect Or having the decency to just wash your hands and stay away from people If you're sick or don't come to work if you're coughing and disease with covid or even God forbid wear a face mask so that you don't get other people infected Like there are some really basic things that you could do when you live in a society with other people That may not think the same way that you think, you know, like we come up with rules of conduct to make quality of lives collectively better and it's not it's it's not a right to harm other people Unnecessarily it's like in fact a duty and an obligation to reduce that need to reduce that needless harm as much as you can If you're going to live in a society that cares about quality of life. I also feel like A good example of this is you know, we like to think of ourselves as like independent islands But we in fact are not like I dreads Life affects my life. My life affects Larry's life. Larry his actions his legacy will affect me as well We're basically sharing a kiddie pool All three of us are sitting in a kiddie pool with more or less everybody else in the world, right exactly don't steal my thunder I was saying like what if the chi came in and he's like, you know, I don't feel like getting up and using the bathroom I'm just gonna pee right here We're like, why are you doing it's like well my religious belief Is that I could pee wherever I was like you are affecting everybody Even if you are convinced that you're not your actions are hurting everybody and we we collectively don't want you to pee in this Kiddie pool That's what we're saying to people who have that low standard of evidence. You're holding all of us back scientifically Right, societally ethically, especially when you vote people like that into office politically And we have the power to hold people back and their beliefs and their and the science And and education There's a higher quality of life for you to get to And you can find a point a higher degree of point in that but you can at least not affect us If you want to just go to the bathroom and then come back to the kiddie pool and just sit by yourself You could do that But don't make our lives collectively worse, you know, like Pick your actions wisely and understand that your actions have consequences on other people Wherever you choose to recognize them or not And one of my points in life is to be aware of that take responsibility for it and try to leave this world in a way That's better than where I entered it like that collective effort I feel like is worthwhile to me is rewarding to me is one of the reasons why I keep me myself 10s in the morning Because I just love being able to contribute to that Um Any other comments before we get to the next one? Okay, all right. This one is a rant. My neighbors have seven children so far speaking of affecting other people without realizing it So, um, I'm sorry for this rant. I'm just angry Um, we basically they live in a beautiful home that uh, this couple lives in a beautiful home that they're ready to retire in However, their neighbors are now up to seven kids with the oldest being 10 years old They're only in their mid 30s and so plenty of the childbearing years are still left Uh, this couple only has two kids which are both already grown and they've already get Are already preparing to move out They're hoping to live in peace in their in their current neighborhood and in that same dream home into their retirement However, their neighbors are making so much noise Uh, and they make enough money because their kids go to a private catholic school They just don't understand why religiously. They are so Invested in making so many kids They're they're thinking about things like it doesn't seem a little selfish It's a drain on our system and their carbon footprint as a family is ridiculous I realize that it's a religious thing for them, but I just don't get it. How is that any kind of life? How can you say Go out to dinner as a family go to a movie go to disney. I guess you just don't it's just one more thing about religion That makes me angry. My husband has uh, ban and wants to play live music. Maybe he should start playing satanic stuff That's an idea so The idea that like, you know Even in your own home if you think you are not affecting anyone Just the virtue of the fact that you're making so many kids making so much waste, you know and um He's using so much resources from the society Right. He says his wife always looks exhausted. The husband doesn't look like she or Doesn't like her talking to any of the neighbors and keeps her isolated from us. Um It's it's things that happen man, and this is this It's a machine, you know, like is that wife leaving up to her purpose. Was that the purpose that you know, she could have Reached out to her. What's the one given to her by religion is the husband being a good husband, you know, like Uh, it's a situation. No comments on that one beyond that. Okay. How do you respond to Theists asking for prayer this question comes from issue of 747 about 13 weeks ago A friend of mine wanted to ask this question on their behalf that person's religious How do you respond when a theist genuinely requests prayer while in a state of crisis? Take for example, someone who requests prayer for a special needs child because some medical complications have arisen How do you provide comfort in a situation like that without detracting from the person Who is actually in need of some level of support and while not lying and telling them that you will Pray for them. Larry. What do you think? Well, if they're actually in need of some kind of support give it to them But I I mean actual support say I don't pray. I don't believe in prayer. I don't think it does any good What can I do to help? That's good. What physical thing can I do to help you? And that will go a lot farther than a prayer. Yeah Yeah, shows better I bring a spaghetti dinner Okay, I mean that helps that's more helpful than a prayer. Honestly. Yeah Yeah carbs Yeah, I'd get some linguine but like honestly like to show commitment and be like, hey, listen I don't pray. I'm being honest with you. But tell me what I can actually do Tell me what some prayers. Yeah, do not help Yeah, like is this a place where I can donate money to do you need time? Do you need a babysitter? Do you need a break? Uh, do you want us like just go out and have like good time with the kid like raise the spirits up like Can I make something for the kid? Good. Like we can figure out something that's actual rather than spiritual, you know And I I like that idea looks like dreads frozen up again poor connection guy, but it's all good How about one last question before we go into this? How do you feel about banned books? Open-ended question. Larry, what do you think? Well, I think in the market of ideas, no books should be banned They may come with warning labels or whatever. I mean, if it's a really harsh topic like Marquis de Sade's books, you know that I wouldn't recommend that for for younger children, but There are age-appropriate books. There are Adult type books But nothing should be out of the marketplace Once you start What is it uh Banning ideas, which is basically what you're doing with banning books as you're banning ideas Then the people who uh What would defend those or even work against them the conversation doesn't happen and we need those conversations Yeah, I would say In a public space No, no ideas or books should be banned But in a private space you can set the terms for however you want So like if bam is wrong doesn't want to sell a book that involves green peas You know like if that one's like we just don't like books about green peas They have a right based on their terms of service to say our marketplace is closed against books of xyz And I would be upset if something came in and said no you have to do green peas It's like no, we're a bit. We're a private company. Don't tell us what to do like I can respect that as well Uh, what do you let me I saw you raise your hand and that and that's where a religion really comes It really gets my goat they tend to whatever Their religious beliefs are fine. Have them, you know control your home That's you know, raise your children the way you want to you have no right to raise other people's children Right or take away books from other people's families. Correct. It is it is not your right right need to Curb it Yeah, dread. We're talking about like how do you feel about ban books? That was the open question The idea is larry had mentioned that he doesn't want anything to be any books or ideas to be banned I I wanted to see if we share the same level of nuance that in a public format Yes, there shouldn't be anything banned ideas or or book or media wise from a public forum power from a private forums like private Private marketplaces Or or stores they get to control what they want to sell and what they want to showcase Because that's their right as a private institution and they shouldn't be forced to do something Aside from that in the same way that christians can't force people who aren't christian to have their Express their religious views. We can't force private institutions to sell ideas that they don't want to sell Like I can respect that liberty as well And so it's good It's a good idea for us to not confuse the two because it's still the same We're still saying freedoms of the public, but you're not forcing people to To to do something if they if they are acting or holding a private institution That's that's their right as a private body or state Um, I what do you think about that dread and what do you think about the idea of books being banned? well You know, I suppose if If an institution is getting public funding and they can't reserve the right to limit You know the expression of ideas or beliefs With respect to banned books, I think their backfire effect actually comes into effect More regularly. Yep, because you know people say a book is banned. What do they want to do? They want to read it. Yeah, the rebellions find it and now with the internet, of course You can find anything So if you want to read of mice and men, you know, despite the fact that it's banned You know you have access to it, right? Good point. Yeah, it's the same thing with prayer. It's one of the reasons why I'm worried about praying for people when they know I'm praying for them because Scientifically we've actually shown that there's a backfire effect there too That it's actually worse off for them to pray for people. So like without explaining all that science I'll just like that study. Yeah. Yeah, that was a big cohort. That was like 10,000 people or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely It's interesting. So yeah, banning books only tends to make them more notorious and that's your own secret advertising But I would say if you are getting publicly funded, then you don't have the privilege You shouldn't have the privilege to ban and if you're a private if you're a publicly funded institution like a school institution You can't say, oh, well, we're not going to teach books that don't teach evolution It's like, no, you have a you have an obligation to do so. This is in the public forum. Well, what about Christian Science now now that's the part where in my opinion, I feel like there's no place for religion in a science class And it's like if you want to teach if you want to teach religion Open up a religious class and then have a textbook for them in that class where it's all about religion for churches report Right, right, right. But if you're going to have a biology class, you got to teach biology, right? That's that would be my my only opinion as a as a scientist. There's no there's no controversy Yeah, there's no controversy there I we'd like to imagine this controversy and everything but there really isn't in that case Uh, we have like four more questions, but we're out of time Larry Yeah There was one more one other comment that I somebody posed to me this week on facebook Oh, I got a question for you. Well, go for it. Go for it. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Larry you can't prove God doesn't exist I can't prove the leprechauns don't exist or fairies. Are you gonna believe in them? I mean, we're gonna stop Yeah, okay the question the question I I got was uh, I mean on the internet was should we allow teachers to Teach their kids about God And of course my answer was Which God You know, we have all kinds of different religions in school And if you give one God some time you're gonna have to give all the gods some time And then it becomes a major waste of time correct and and You know, if you want to teach him about God Do it in your home. Yeah, I mean that's a place for or your church Great not in school where the point is education I'm totally for that. In fact, I would say I'd be more willing to have creator gods mentioned in in Biology books if you're just willing to refer to every 50,000 God claims and say well Zeus did it this way Bra did it that way Every biology book like this big, you know, just like add an extra dictionary and just like and these are all the if you Do it evenly because the trees But it yeah, yeah, think of the Sun God think of this guy, but don't just pick your one Christian Above all other gods and stink that into our book. That's unforgivable. I meant trees and pages. I mean all those pages Do them all or don't do them all at all. That would be my thing. Yeah The biology book that has all gods mentioned as a creator would be literally as thick as my arm or even anyway We're at the end of the show Dredd, do you have anything you would like to plug for we should check out? Yeah, just my youtube channel My latest creation was on the implements of joy those being the fork in the spoon for eating spaghetti I post these short vignettes under five minutes on my youtube channel mind pirate m-i-n-d-p-y-r-a-t-e Yeah, yeah Yeah, and I appreciate it so all right for me you can Hopefully by next week when we call in if you're going to check out anything check me out next week to see if the whole Online buying a car system worked if it did I'll report back Because it should be here this monday and we'll see if it's in one piece if right if I got completely tricked And it's just a hamster in a wheel being like no, this is what you bought. This is what you bought You bought a hamster in a wheel I didn't buy a hamster in the wheel. Anyway, that's my my three cents. Check me out next week. Larry. What do you got? Well, my content can be found at digital free thought dot com Be sure to click on the blog button for our radio show archives Atheist songs and many articles on the subject of atheism You can find my book atheism what's it all about on amazon Remember everybody is going to somebody else's hell the time to worry about is when they prove that heavens and hells and souls Are real until then don't sweat it. Enjoy your life and we'll see you next wednesday night at 7 o'clock here on w o zero radio Say bye everybody Bye And that's a wrap that's a good show everybody good rap