 Fine, say Thor Ragnarok like Thor just came down and he's legit for he's just a slayer He's gonna like check out these boys And he does a lightning thing. He's like by the way on Thor Check out my video games in my movies. I think you guys are doing a good job How you doing my name's time Jacob Jacob wonderful name so normally what I do is I set up a Hey, I'm time. Nice to meet you So I normally set up a table in like parks or whatever in Lexington and What happens those it's science says let's shut up whatever you want, right? Sometimes a lot of religious people come up to me and they'll talk to me or try to something on the religion And I'll ask questions about how they got to their you know faith and the foundation behind it You know by the time we get back up from that foundation. They're a little bit less confident. Yeah about the position Yeah, a little straight epistemology exactly Okay, so you already know Are you an atheist? Yeah, I never get a chance to talk to other atheists. I'm an atheist myself People how I've met or really apprehensive that use an a word and so I thought this is a good opportunity to just have a chance to talk with people like Minded individuals see if the method works as well, which might be tried something like that out. That's fine Jacob five minutes And if you want to talk longer, that's fine with me too. So how did you become an atheist if you don't know you ask them? years and years of looking Back into the history of the church and how the Bible was formed I'm all good. We're all good. Okay. Yeah, I grew up Catholic Even thought about going into the priesthood at one point in time really within a year and a half two years But yeah after you know, I got to a point where I Really wanted to look into what I was getting myself into and then that's actually what turned the tables Did you say you actually like maybe study the Bible? That was a big step for me as well Yeah, like when I started I felt like I didn't have as much faith in the book Because I was beginning to learn about ethics and college and stuff and my actual systems and not just like a list of rules Yeah, and when I went back to the Bible, I'm like whoa Now that I'm looking at this critically a lot of this stuff isn't holding up But was that it for you or was there anything else that like Oh, well, it wasn't like that. I mean it was a period of time it took Yeah, I started questioning it, you know But like I said within a couple years I'd gone from one to going to the priesthood to I don't want anything to do with this Okay, then it took a long time for me to actually come out and say it I didn't even say anything to my family until a couple years ago and I was like Let's see from 18 to 40 roughly so 22 years it took me to To get to the point where I could actually tell my folks that I was don't feel bad I've only been an atheist for like maybe about three years four years now And it took me about a good year before I can have that conversation with my mom Just be completely comfortable with that. Thankfully. She also switched out of religion as well She jumped into a jungle witness program though But when she was out when she was like doing that job, I was like hey, mama I'm also out to not going to be a jungle witness, but you know respect that stuff was crazy. Wasn't it? Yeah, and I'm Wondering right now. I think a lot of these would be interested in Deeply held beliefs that atheists have I think there's a lot of parallels like I'm noticing you haven't gone around killing people now that you What's keeping you from doing that like where do you get your moral scoops from if you don't have a religious belief? just Since that we all live together. We all got to work together Need to look out for each other. So I mean going around and you know killing people or you know treating other people bad I mean, that's not good for humanity You know if people would actually read the Bible they would see that The God of the Bible actually condones a lot of the main things Besides the Genocide certain all that kind of stuff that he's supposed to be such a loving God, but that's not the case at all I guess they try to Explain away or just kind of like oh that's old testament or you know, whatever You know Jesus supposed to change all that well If you read it, yeah, it was Matthew Jesus said Change the laws You also I think Jesus even comes back and says what Caesar's is Caesar's what's God's God's He's not changing any of those old testament laws, right? Yeah, I'm wondering though What if it was another God that was out there that just didn't have as good publicity and he was like no Yeah, treat other people well be good in the community Well, where is where is this God then? I mean, I don't remember if it was honor our Matthew honey one said that That God that doesn't present itself in some meaningful way is the same as being nonexistent. So You know, if that's the case then where is that God or even the God of the Bible? I mean, there's no You know, there's still no evidence to believe If you did have evidence would you believe in a God like that not necessarily worship or follow that God that at least believe that God exists I guess we're gonna have to figure out what that evidence would be Same Scientific say there was a reliable scientific method that was discovered maybe a couple of years from now The test is super natural they're able to determine a agent that corresponded pretty well to like some holy books Ultimate agent, but it's not a question of whether you would worship it. It's just would you now be more like, oh, okay We'll find say Thor Ragnarok like Thor just came down and he's legit for me. He's just a slayer He's gonna like check out these voices and he does a lightning thing. He's like by the way on Thor Check out my video games in my movies. I think you guys are doing a good job Going back to Asgard now see you later and he's and he'll come back and you can call him whatever you want And he does like shows or three just filled in Would you at least believe in the God then but not necessarily like worship them or would you like go through the whole process like crap? I gotta bring out my Nordic history book now and start reading up on Odin and stuff Well, I guess I worry more about that if and when it ever happens Yeah, I'll cross that bridge when it gets there, but until then until such evidence is presented then I'm not gonna waste my time worrying about it. Let me throw something out at you One last rear pen gentle question. What would make you worship a guy at this point? Do you have any criteria that would make you Are you saying you're absolutely never gonna do that again or is there anything that would make you be like, okay? I understand. Thank you for explaining that to me I still think it would depend on the God And it's for what kind of God it is. I mean, but even then, you know, let's present it for what heaven's supposed to be Sure, you know, why would you want to spend the eternity, you know worshiping? You know constantly, you know, what this one God has always done and been free and blah blah blah and give me I mean, why would you want to spend eternity doing that? Sure, I'd still want to exist, you know, in some form, you know, and be able to enjoy whatever there is It costs the servitude to Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure I thought we were and I was talking about this before like the quality of being worshiped Of the quality of wanting to be worshiped is nothing that anyone That was worthy of worship would want So I would think like I it's hard for me to think of a scenario where Someone's so good that they want to be worshiped like that seems to be a completely Diametrically of those sort of quality. So anyone who's like, I'm so good and worship me is either not as good as They're claiming to be because they're like, I want you to love me more than anyone else and like dedicate your life Like no one was actually good As far as I can see But it's hard for me to come up with any other characteristics of a God that is worshiping That's also present. And I know I don't have evidence to support that right? I guess one last thing So Logically, you're able to come to terms with the fact that there's no guy What about like the emotional aspects you have any fear that you're dealing with any guilt or and you were talking about like coming Out to your parents about this idea. Was there what was that apprehension is based on? Yeah, I say there was some apprehension about that with my family because I mean they're all religious and my dad Since he's retired has become super religious and actually we don't even speak to each other anymore Wow, I mean whenever I told him that I was atheists whenever it finally got to that point. Yeah, so no spot so We haven't spoken since you know, and that's on his choice. Sure I still consider him as my father, you know, but he doesn't want anything to do with me So, you know if his God is you know that important that this family doesn't mean anything more than Change Even though it's entirely on him It still affects you. It does. You know, I mean emotionally. I mean, you know, it is my father. Yeah, you know But yeah, it's his choice I'm sad It's kind of that between us, but it's not my fault What would you say to someone who's like listening to that like well, all you have to do is just believe again It's not that simple. I know Do you think it's possible to choose what you believe and I know I've asked him questions I said it'd be the last one, but is it It's not possible to choose what you want to believe in a sense like once you're trying to be convinced that something is true and Without the evidence you can't get to that same place That's such a heavy thing though. I'm sorry to hear It's been a few years now. So yeah, it's It's I would say it's easier to deal with but I just I don't know. I try not to worry about it as much. Sure. So do you think he's having the same Mental Girls we're gonna go and get started. I'm afraid I'm scared. I can't I can't open up to my son Because I have all this way on me. I think the love between the father and son should be able to like You think so, you know, I mean we weren't real close most of the time anyway, okay Yeah, I don't know what's going through his head anymore. Okay, honestly, okay, but it sounds like you've got a good head on your shoulders right now Yeah, I'm happy. Yeah, I mean, I don't need to worse. We've got to be happy And do good things for other people. I mean, you know, I still go out and you and we help at the homeless shelters and A lot of people appreciate that And I do a Hand out. I have a I run a group back home too. Okay Yeah, we do a lot of you know social good. What's the name of the group? I can plug in Tri-state area Area yeah ATC skeptics, okay ATC skeptics Thank you so much for all the work that we did You