Please hosts …. cut off the “life histories,” of these callers; nobody gives a shit! Just get to the reasons why they are deluded into “magical sky fairies” exist.
Just watching Forrest host with his typical maturity, wisdom, eloquence, endless patience, and radiant positivity makes me have hope for the future. Also, Sofia, great work! You are very intelligent, thoughtful, insightful, and you plus Forrest make a great team!!!
Forrest is the best host on this show. He is polite, kind and uplifting. I love how he geniunly appraoches the religious discussion with the intent to understand but then he discovers their just ignorant, so he tries to educate ajd enlighten them instead of being condescending. Only time i have ever seen someone piss him off was because they admitted they think its okay to kill someone for having a different belief and it was a Catholic too
I just love this pair. Sofia did a wonderful job. She was everything: knowledgeable, experienced, sharp, articulate, etc. She didn't talk down to the caller. Forrest never does.
Wow that first guy was genuinely horrifying. He acted so nice, then just casually dropped that he was gifted with prophecy and children with cancer are just cuckoo bird-like angels imitating babies for grieving parents. Its such a sleeper, and anyone could be that. Awful.
Charles: god answers my coincidence but he can’t stop the dad raping his 6 year old daughter and then 8 year old son. Congrats for your miracle Charles..u so special.
I was thinking "humans have this really bad habit of seeking patterns" at exactly the same time as Forrest said those exact words! Well, I'm convinced about miracles now!
Talk Heathen has bounced right back with it's best show in ages. Recently it had become dull but Sophia is a welcome addition and Forest of course is quite wonderful. I hope that these two will be on together again soon.
Im an atheist now, became atheist after being agnostic since for 50 years. I lost my family to Religion around 31 years old. I told my wife and kids. They all left me. So i need support now.
@@flunk_waffle8073 Though a tale as old as time, I'm never not pained to hear stories of people who once saw the beauty in one another discovering perhaps too late(?) that they have differing, incompatible values that shatter the love they once knew. I legitimately teared up a tad reading the above comment.
Way to make a cohesive, thoughtful, and provocative argument, @Tommy. I appreciate hearing from your side of the thought experiment in a way that engages my interest and intellect.
When I was a mechanic, someone came in with a flat tire. I took the tire off the rim, there was a piece of paper with my name on it inside. I'm still an atheist!
Wait! Is Charles actually Abe Simpson? His stories sound the same: "We can't bust heads like we used to. But we have our ways. One trick is to tell stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. 'Gimme five bees for a quarter,' you'd say. Now where were we...oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones..."
So had to make a quick comment. Thanks so much Forrest for the super simple definitions of theory and law. I teach 6th grade science and have struggled to find a simple definitions of those two concepts for my students. I will be using your expiations starting next year. Thanks again, from a fallen away Christian
So many "far fetched miracles" is correct, nail on the head, absolutely right, no questions needed, extremely far fetched. Amazing people can far fetch these heart warming ideas and leads them to nowhere. Amazoing miracles, that are far fetched, do people understand the term "far fetched". It means to take meaning from extremely unrelated places or concepts. Gr8! Peace ☮💜 The first caller took over 15 minutes meandering towards slight coincidence of very few anything, but seemed like he could go on for months. If people want to tell their life story while painting Jesus and Angels over them, that takes an entire life. I mean that TAKES an entire life. I guess there's no harm in describing your life in fairy tales, but what gets accomplished? What does a life like that then ssem? Who/What/Where/When/How and Why is that a life? It is to let your entire life happen like that, that is the doing.
Lol thats exactly was I was thinking. “So I tied an onion to my belt which was the fashion at the time, and went on ebay and found a photo of my grandfather in a car…”
Love Forrest and really enjoyed Sofia's contributions, but I'm with Charles here. I prayed to finally have my "Talk Heathen To Me" comment be recognized. ;) (I'm stupidly, embarrassingly excited to have the number one "Talk Heathen To Me" response this week. I've considered all of my responses I've submitted to qualify, though, admittedly.)
Wow Sofia is great. Great to have her aboard. These two are so witty and quick. They work really well together. I hope they will co-host together often.
Significantly "reduced" free will camp. Hey, I'll go to that camp. Where do they hike from, and are there public toilets? I love this delineation. I wish there was simply one word that described his entire description of the path to looking at the steps and web of previous ideas and feelings that come to this next point in thought. We need a word for this descriptor of "free will", let's make one. Gr8! Peace ☮💜
To the caller Steven, best of luck. I went through the near exact scenario you're about to go through sans the lgbtq. I'm a cis white heterosexual atheist male married with a child and I lived my whole life in cities up to 7 years ago when we moved to a rural wealthy conservative southern area. Major culture shock. It took me about 5 years to be 'ok' living here but if I'm being honest I don't like living here. It does have a surprising amount and variety of race, gender and belief systems but certainly not enough to feel comfortably empowered in the area having liberal beliefs. We make a good living but the lifestyle here is not what I would want. I think eventually we'll move away when it seems the right time. We've met some great people here and we've made a bit of a life here but maybe my best advice is to know what makes you happy outside of the environment you're in and focus on that. You may struggle to find your people and community for awhile but I'm sure eventually you'll find what you're looking for.
I think that wether we have free will or not there are things that are DEMONSTRABLY true about the nature of human beings ability to heal and change in genera, that makes it that IF we, as people, have a VESTED interest in reducing suffering and promoting objectively positive things (like kindness, understanding, tolerance and freedom ETC.) then the world would ABSOLUTELY be a way better place. The problem comes when people, IN MASS, believe in these prescribed principles passed down to them, that demonstrate negative personal and societal side effects, WITHOUT critically thinking “is this good? Are the principles I’ve been raised to believe in truly good? Or is fear and comfort forcing me to maintain this position?” ..I think critical thinking is the catalyst that begins to separate the people who don’t have free-will from the people that do ✨ that’s why education is so important. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
5:40 Charles - PA. Coincidences + Answered prayer sometimes = ? 25:30 Dre - TX. What is a theory? Is god a theory? Why are atheist's so mean? 38:50 Tommy - OR. Benefit of biblical history 1:04:38 Alex - MI. Do we have free will 1:17:34 Steven - AZ. LGBT person worried about moving to an overtly conservative place
Choices made now do affect things millions of years: If the past organism in our genome had turned right instead of left of catastrophe? None of us would be here because of that choice such a long time ago. Choices do affect all that is bound physically past the point in time. Gr8! Peace ☮💜
I grew up just north of the NY/PA boarder and was steeped in the evangelical culture. Steven I feel for you and hope you can find your tribe when you move.
I see my previous self in Tommy, and not only because we share a name. They seem benevolent and well-meaning, but are stuck in the loop of being tethered to Jesus' model. Indoctrination is powerful and takes more than one conversation to change. So many of us have been irreligious so long, that we may forget what it was like to truly believe. This person could well be a future atheist, but even if they never are, I recognize an ally when I see one.
Let me get this straight; Eve is is more trouble than Adam because she was duped by a hugely powerful supernatural entity? He’s in less trouble because she believed his own wife, who (like him) did not know right from wrong? There’s so much wrong with this stupid story.
Eve wasn't Adam's 2nd wife ^^🤭 @cypressgreen "eve was duped by a supernatural entity" Nope. The serpent was a simple beast of the field. It mentions this in Genesis multiple times. Christians later created other theologies and reconstructed the serpent to represent the leviathan as in the book of Revelations. The serpent was a simple snake, not a supernatural being called Satan. And, if u read the story, you'll find that Adam was right there with Eve the whole time as she was being told the truth by the snake. It was the god that lied. The snake told her the truth about the tree. Adam was just as guilty and even more so, but the writers of the story intended to create a story to blame women, devalue them, and create a fictional reason for intense child birth pains.
Genesis 3:1-6 (Read it. Not only can u see it specifically identifies the serpent as only a wild animal, and never Satan, but it also shows u Adam was "with her".) 3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Some people “cherry-pick” the bible, go along with the “good” parts, ignore the “bad” parts. If you are capable of recognizing something as good or bad, right or wrong, then what do you need the book for? Again, their sense of good and bad, or right and wrong, preceded and existed outside of their reading of the Bible.
☝🏾 THIS. Exactly this. After I lost my faith I felt rudderless -- until I realized that the things that attracted me to christianity (morals I cherry-picked to the *Nth* degree 🤦🏾♀️😅) were values that I could not only STILL hold, but ones could tweak and clarify without having to apologize or have fear over re-evaluating things. SO much less confusion and worry! 😊 I can call a spade a spade now, and refuse to sit on the fence when someone is persecuted for ridiculous reasons.
@@TreeHairedGingerAlegood points. And no child reads the bible for their morals. We are taught to not hurt people and to do right or wrong generally by our caregivers in early childhood. The neglect and attention a caregiver gives shapes our psychology. Same for the Sumerians as for us. The bible holds nothing that wasn't circulated at the time by other cultures who were more influential. The laws of Hammurabi were better and much older than the Jewish commandments. We humans create social rules for our societies, and then teach those rules to our children. When your mom or dad punished you or rewarded u concerning your behavior as a young child, I can bet they didn't usually mention God, Jesus, the bible or any other religious bs. The religious bs comes later and is used to manipulate minds already programmed to accept the bs and then claim that's where you get your morals and values. We all get our morals and values from our societal culture, caregivers, and life experiences. No gods or holy books needed. 🖖
When I was a kid I saw Jesus apparently ? I do remember the ceiling light went blurry and rainbow effect from almost suffocating from asthma . But my Mum and Nan were catholic and saw it as an apparition . I'd call it blacking out !
Said: The question really is do we have free will or is everything just a reaction to the thing that happened before it? This is an ongoing debate with all sorts of people. Um, and I, I'm definitely in the camp that we have a lot less free will than we think we do. That's simply because you can trace any action, you know, whatever I do in any moment, you can trace it back to: what neurons were firing at that moment to cause that what my blood sugar levels were like for the past hour what kind of mood I've been in for the past six hours what my week has been like (have I been really stressed at work or something like that?) how the last five years of my life have gone and what kind of mindset am I in right now what my emotional and intellectual journey is going to be like how I was raised as a child (what principles were I taught, how were my parents raised) what culture did we come from five thousand years ago that led to the kind of ideals that we have today all the way back to the evolution of Homo erectus And I'm like, what, what stone tool was made that made me make this decision today, you know? So, in terms of that, I'm definitely in the significantly reduced free will camp. Um, I've yet to really sit down and really hash out whether I'm a full-on proponent of like zero free will whatsoever. However, I will say that people that I respect intellectually and are way smarter than I'll ever be are on both sides of the aisle on this issue, and I've heard them both speak about it. I just extract and format text of the speaker if anybody else would like it? It really hit me as an elegant rant. Gr8! Peace ☮💜
I hate the idea that I have to play it humbly. I'm not superior simply for not believing: I simply care about truth while you don't, I challenge myself while you don't, I make an effort to believe right things while you don't. Does this make me better than you? Hell yeah, what's the point otherwise? You get to believe in fairy-land AND be treated like everyone else who actually gives a shit about reality?
Steven-I also live in Pennsylvania. There are pockets of normal people in Pennsylvania. You just have to find them. Lancaster/Pennsylvania Dutch area is mostly okay. I live in northern Pennsylvania now, in a small town near the border of New York. Between Corning and Binghamton NY. I know lots of Left leaning people and a handful of atheists. I was born in Montgomery County, not far from Lancaster. At the time I was growing up in the 70s, it was very democratic. I don’t know if it’s changed much. There are many beautiful things in Pennsylvania. But also a lot of depressed areas. I wish you all the best! Hope everything works out well! 💖
It seems to me perfectly clear that there is no free will. Not even the illusion of free will. We say we feel like we have free will but if I try to imagone what it would be like to not have control over what emptions I experience or what thoughts enter my brain, it would feel like what it feels like now.
We can only hope future humanity will look back and view these repetitive tiring debates as either entertainment or with despair as to how humans once wasted precious time.
@@pascalsimioli6777Don't forget putting angels in to impersonate terminally ill children when they are already dead in some fucked up child-corpse possession puppet show for some reason?
I’ve thought about it many times and I see no room for free will. Intellectually I firmly believe it’s impossible. However, I can’t see a way to apply that to my life. I can’t see a way to live my life without acting like free will exists. So my belief on free will is it’s extremely unlikely to exist, but it doesn’t matter if it exists or not. I continue to pretend to make my choices (or make choices if free will does exist and I just can’t see the mechanism). Also, I had lasic about 15 years ago. It was extremely terrifying for me, but it was brief (about 1 minute per eye). 2 weeks of unpleasant recover (no reading, dark room, etc), another 1-2 months of somewhat poor vision (like before when I didn’t wear my glasses, but I can’t wear my glasses to correct this). From this I have had over a decade of near 20/20 vision without dealing with contacts or glasses. Lasic is a great idea if you have vision that can benefit from correction. In theory it’s cool, but I did not enjoy the feel of having my eye peeled open and the extremely blurring caused in those few seconds.
Crazy coincidental things happen. I met 5 different ppl part of the same family through completely different means with nothing to do with the other family members. These things just happen sometimes.
Secular Rarity: "So you have an argument for God you say we have never heard before?" Caller : "yes, I do. So imagine you are walking along a beach..."
holy shit Charles so I'm sitting in my car listening to you tell stories while I'm eating a taco from Kalamazoo Michigan and this lady named Sheryl masterson atkins from Alberta canada comes up and starts talking to me but she's got a little bit of a lisp and so it's hard to understand or so I asked her to write things down and good thing I got a piece of paper here on the back of my bible, but it wasn't from the staples up in cashawktin Ohio on 2nd street, my dad used to wash their windows on Tuesdays, well every other Tuesday but not during the Civil rights movement......
The thought of angels using baby corpses as sock puppets ie terrifying and he somehow sees it as a good thing. Look I love to overthink things but sometimes... Let's just shoot the old man in the face.
I had a gray Honda Civic and I used to see those everywhere. Then I got an Orange Subaru XV and now I see them all the time and don't notice gray Honda Civics. Message from God? I don't think so!
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon/frequency illusion at play. Didn't know there was a name for this for most of my life. I'd tell my friends, "Hey, I know this sounds weird, but ever since I got my tattoo (it was my first; large arm tattoo), I feel like I'm suddenly noticing way more people with tattoos. What's with that, I wonder?"
"The Son of man and his angels shall gather all those that offend and throw them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" - Jesus (Matthew 13:41)
Wish I could get ahold of Steven, sounds like he's moving not so far from me. Wouldn't mind being a friend and to help him settle in and know where are the good places to go and tell him what it's like.
I really want to make an argument that I never came across before, against the morality argument of theists. They claim that morality codes comes from religion. And I want to agree with them. My argument is that although they come from religion, they did not start from religion. In fact, religion collected the moral code from human experiences throughout thousands of years and claimed to own such learnings. This applies to every moral claim including but not limited to prayers, fasting, allowed and forbidden foods, killing, adultery, stealing, homosexuality…..etc. and while religion fixed the reaction and punishment to such things, civilization continued to adjust its perspective to many of these codes
The pushback isn't that morality doesn't come from religion, the pushback is their assertion that morality comes from a supernatural diety. I don't think many people would argue against the notion of people having their morality guided by their religion.
Universe A: God exists Universe B: There is no God Would it be moral to throw a baby off a bridge in EITHER of these universes? NOOOOÒOOOOOOOOOOO! So God is not necessary for morality
If children live with criticism, They learn to condemn. If children live with hostility, They learn to fight. If children live with ridicule, They learn to be shy. If children live with shame, They learn to feel guilty. If children live with tolerance, They learn to be patient. If children live with encouragement, They learn confidence. If children live with praise, They learn to appreciate. If children live with fairness, They learn justice. If children live with security, They learn to have faith. If children live with approval, They learn to like themselves. If children live with acceptance and friendship, They learn to find love in the world. Dorothy Law Nolte
There is a Terry Pratchett book series called Nanny Ogg, her nephew is Shawn Ogg. I have had a couple of people who are fans of those books comment to me that I am famous (jokingly), but that doesn't mean that the character was modelled off me.
I think the closest colloquial usage of 'theory' to what it is in science, is in cases like: "Yes, Sir. In theory, the bridge should hold that weight."
The fundamental foundation of Christianity can be expressed without involving faith, they are in fact scientific and logical axioms, as the last axom, it refers to The Second Law of Thermodynamics. But faith is of course an additional benefit. The Absolute Truths (axioms) in Christianity: The words True and False are also in the same order, an expression of Good and Evil - The Earth is a place where both good and evil exist - Man learns the difference between good and evil because he can choose between them - Truth do not contradict truth and one truth can build on another, False can contradict False and contradicts Truth, and what one builds with False falls down - In order to build Truth on Truth (continuously and systematic), we must look up to something higher outside ourselves, and that higher is Jesus Christ.
Thanks for demonstrating that you need to lie for jesus when your child-abusing ‘god’ thing supposedly commands you not to lie. Why are you so contemptuous of the supposed commands of the thing you worship?
The best way to debate miracles or incredible coincidences is to point out the vast number of "anti-miracles" and non-coincidences that occur in far greater quantity. The people that push miracles conveniently leave out all the rest. It's like the case where someone survives a tornado and claims a miracle or their prayers were answered, omitting all the people that died and the horrific destruction all around them when many of those victims were praying just as hard or harder.
Forrest saying he's a MOSTLY heterosexual man makes me so happy to hear as a queer viewer,, even the slightest hint of lgbt representation especially in such a warm, casual way of mentioning it makes me so happy omg
It's refreshing and encouraging to hear. I think it's easier as an atheist to be less defensive about sexual orientation without the pressure of religious bigotry being a part of a person's worldview, although in some places the bigotry is so strong that I absolutely understand why some people still feel the need to hide any thoughts or feelings they have from the community they live in and I truly hope within my lifetime we will see an end to the hate and ignorance surrounding human sexuality.
From Ricky Gervais: “Apparently, God does everything, so I asked Him about when a tree branch fell on my neighbor’s car, last May 15. God looked up his day-planner and said, No that wasn’t me, on that day I was in Africa giving AIDS to babies”.
"Atheism is what happens when you read the bible. Christianity is what happens when somebody else reads it for you." - Bertrand Russell
So true 👍
Thanks
Dam! That’s so true.
Wow...that is profound.
Please hosts …. cut off the “life histories,” of these callers; nobody gives a shit!
Just get to the reasons why they are deluded into “magical sky fairies” exist.
Welcome to the show Sofia - great job.
Just watching Forrest host with his typical maturity, wisdom, eloquence, endless patience, and radiant positivity makes me have hope for the future. Also, Sofia, great work! You are very intelligent, thoughtful, insightful, and you plus Forrest make a great team!!!
Forrest is the best host on this show. He is polite, kind and uplifting. I love how he geniunly appraoches the religious discussion with the intent to understand but then he discovers their just ignorant, so he tries to educate ajd enlighten them instead of being condescending. Only time i have ever seen someone piss him off was because they admitted they think its okay to kill someone for having a different belief and it was a Catholic too
I just love this pair. Sofia did a wonderful job. She was everything: knowledgeable, experienced, sharp, articulate, etc. She didn't talk down to the caller. Forrest never does.
Wow that first guy was genuinely horrifying. He acted so nice, then just casually dropped that he was gifted with prophecy and children with cancer are just cuckoo bird-like angels imitating babies for grieving parents.
Its such a sleeper, and anyone could be that. Awful.
Right? I went from "Aw, this old dude is rambling about his crazy coincidence stories." To "Holy shot that's morbid" real fast
Charles: god answers my coincidence but he can’t stop the dad raping his 6 year old daughter and then 8 year old son. Congrats for your miracle Charles..u so special.
That sounds specific
@@Aryan-qv5qk
I get the point he was making but what the fuck? lmao
Sofia killed it! Have her on more!! :-D
She’s adorable
YYYYEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!
@@jeffstrongman3097Very. Also, Forrest seems like the most chill dude ever.
She’s great!
I was thinking "humans have this really bad habit of seeking patterns" at exactly the same time as Forrest said those exact words! Well, I'm convinced about miracles now!
Ok im sold. Gods real.
That's proof enough of the supernatural for me! Thanks!
Talk Heathen has bounced right back with it's best show in ages. Recently it had become dull but Sophia is a welcome addition and Forest of course is quite wonderful. I hope that these two will be on together again soon.
100 percent
YES!
Im an atheist now, became atheist after being agnostic since for 50 years. I lost my family to Religion around 31 years old. I told my wife and kids. They all left me. So i need support now.
Hey! I hope that things are going better for you? Did you manage to get some support?
@@flunk_waffle8073
Though a tale as old as time, I'm never not pained to hear stories of people who once saw the beauty in one another discovering perhaps too late(?) that they have differing, incompatible values that shatter the love they once knew. I legitimately teared up a tad reading the above comment.
I had a similar experience, though not as life changing as yours. I hope everything works out for you.
Religion really, really sucks 😢
Charles is the PERFECT Christian.
Describe the most horrific scenario his god permits and Charles will tell you it's all good.
Yes she was interesting
@@williammattes1991 I dare say they were *fascinating.*
Way to make a cohesive, thoughtful, and provocative argument, @Tommy. I appreciate hearing from your side of the thought experiment in a way that engages my interest and intellect.
When I was a mechanic, someone came in with a flat tire. I took the tire off the rim, there was a piece of paper with my name on it inside. I'm still an atheist!
When I was a someone, I took my flat tyre to be replaced. Coincidence, I don't think so, now let's bow our heads and pray.
Is your name Dunlop by any chance?
Wait! Is Charles actually Abe Simpson?
His stories sound the same:
"We can't bust heads like we used to. But we have our ways. One trick is to tell stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. 'Gimme five bees for a quarter,' you'd say. Now where were we...oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones..."
So had to make a quick comment. Thanks so much Forrest for the super simple definitions of theory and law. I teach 6th grade science and have struggled to find a simple definitions of those two concepts for my students. I will be using your expiations starting next year. Thanks again, from a fallen away Christian
I love these two hosts. This was a fantastic show.
agreed. good energy and vibes
Forrest is good wherever he goes.
Please come on again Sophia. Great discussions and entertaining to boot!
i love the first caller. he's such a nice sounding old man telling his long stories
Shame he's so misguided but whatever brings him comfort i suppose.
Need more callers like Dre - brought forth some great conversation.
So many "far fetched miracles" is correct, nail on the head, absolutely right, no questions needed, extremely far fetched. Amazing people can far fetch these heart warming ideas and leads them to nowhere. Amazoing miracles, that are far fetched, do people understand the term "far fetched". It means to take meaning from extremely unrelated places or concepts. Gr8! Peace ☮💜
The first caller took over 15 minutes meandering towards slight coincidence of very few anything, but seemed like he could go on for months. If people want to tell their life story while painting Jesus and Angels over them, that takes an entire life. I mean that TAKES an entire life. I guess there's no harm in describing your life in fairy tales, but what gets accomplished? What does a life like that then ssem? Who/What/Where/When/How and Why is that a life? It is to let your entire life happen like that, that is the doing.
Goddamn, Charles was like listening to Abe Simpson ramble on. He needs a blog.
Lol thats exactly was I was thinking. “So I tied an onion to my belt which was the fashion at the time, and went on ebay and found a photo of my grandfather in a car…”
@@chakuseki Give me three bee's for a quarter
This has been my favorite ACA episode in a loooong time. Positive. Vibes. Baby.
Love Forrest and really enjoyed Sofia's contributions, but I'm with Charles here. I prayed to finally have my "Talk Heathen To Me" comment be recognized. ;)
(I'm stupidly, embarrassingly excited to have the number one "Talk Heathen To Me" response this week. I've considered all of my responses I've submitted to qualify, though, admittedly.)
Old people in small towns are often blown away by connections to seemingly "random" people
Love, love Sofia. Please keep having her on!
Forrest, I absolutely love your explanations! You make learning fun and interesting. Never stop teaching. Welcome Sofia. You are a great addition.
My favorite part is Charles call is that he thought he was a bad person before, but is now a good person, then demonstrates that he's still a monster.
Wow Sofia is great. Great to have her aboard. These two are so witty and quick. They work really well together. I hope they will co-host together often.
Sofia was awesome. Loved the energy, intelligence and humour.
Plus she's easy on the eyes ❤
@@floppyseizure8615 CREEP! Jk lol
This whole nation should have teachers exactly like Volkai!
Such a positive show, it is always nice to hear nice people :)
Tommy: “So, yeah, uh, in my free time I like to be totally boring.”
Significantly "reduced" free will camp. Hey, I'll go to that camp. Where do they hike from, and are there public toilets? I love this delineation. I wish there was simply one word that described his entire description of the path to looking at the steps and web of previous ideas and feelings that come to this next point in thought. We need a word for this descriptor of "free will", let's make one. Gr8! Peace ☮💜
To the caller Steven, best of luck. I went through the near exact scenario you're about to go through sans the lgbtq. I'm a cis white heterosexual atheist male married with a child and I lived my whole life in cities up to 7 years ago when we moved to a rural wealthy conservative southern area. Major culture shock. It took me about 5 years to be 'ok' living here but if I'm being honest I don't like living here. It does have a surprising amount and variety of race, gender and belief systems but certainly not enough to feel comfortably empowered in the area having liberal beliefs. We make a good living but the lifestyle here is not what I would want. I think eventually we'll move away when it seems the right time. We've met some great people here and we've made a bit of a life here but maybe my best advice is to know what makes you happy outside of the environment you're in and focus on that. You may struggle to find your people and community for awhile but I'm sure eventually you'll find what you're looking for.
Fantastic show! Wonderful hosting pair! Great calls. I always love Forrest, and Sofia was a great addition! More please!
Oh wow, Charles really likes to 'cut a long story short' doesnt he. 🤣🤣
Haha, so true!
I think that, for Charles, the story is the important part. In reality, he's got nothing substantive.
I think that wether we have free will or not there are things that are DEMONSTRABLY true about the nature of human beings ability to heal and change in genera, that makes it that IF we, as people, have a VESTED interest in reducing suffering and promoting objectively positive things (like kindness, understanding, tolerance and freedom ETC.) then the world would ABSOLUTELY be a way better place.
The problem comes when people, IN MASS, believe in these prescribed principles passed down to them, that demonstrate negative personal and societal side effects, WITHOUT critically thinking “is this good? Are the principles I’ve been raised to believe in truly good? Or is fear and comfort forcing me to maintain this position?” ..I think critical thinking is the catalyst that begins to separate the people who don’t have free-will from the people that do ✨ that’s why education is so important.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
5:40 Charles - PA. Coincidences + Answered prayer sometimes = ?
25:30 Dre - TX. What is a theory? Is god a theory? Why are atheist's so mean?
38:50 Tommy - OR. Benefit of biblical history
1:04:38 Alex - MI. Do we have free will
1:17:34 Steven - AZ. LGBT person worried about moving to an overtly conservative place
THANK YOU for the time stamps.
Thanks mate
Thanks Polkarou!!
Intro was pure gold.
Great show. Welcome Sofia. You slotted right in!! Come back soon.
My 4 favorite examples of fantasy fiction:
1. Lord of the Rings
2. Chronicles of Narnia
3. Harry Potter
4. The Bible
The first 3 are real, and you cannot prove they’re not….therefore, they must be.
The 1st 3 definitely are real. I know...I saw the documentaries.
Tom Bombadil makes me happy. Why are you trying to steal my joy? Is it because you worship Sauron?
Surely 1 and 3 exist. Possibly even Narnia.
I wonder why the fourth never got a series. May be because the incoherent collection of stories.
I am really impressed by Sofia's insight.
Ultra relate to Forrest. Living in Indiana surrounded by corn and churches. His response to the loser flag is spot on to mine. Love it.
Choices made now do affect things millions of years: If the past organism in our genome had turned right instead of left of catastrophe? None of us would be here because of that choice such a long time ago. Choices do affect all that is bound physically past the point in time. Gr8! Peace ☮💜
Bring Sofia on more!!! She did so well
I grew up just north of the NY/PA boarder and was steeped in the evangelical culture. Steven I feel for you and hope you can find your tribe when you move.
I hope we get to see Sofia on again. Smart person.
Sofia is fabulous!!
Isn't she just? 👍👍👍👍👍
I see my previous self in Tommy, and not only because we share a name. They seem benevolent and well-meaning, but are stuck in the loop of being tethered to Jesus' model. Indoctrination is powerful and takes more than one conversation to change.
So many of us have been irreligious so long, that we may forget what it was like to truly believe. This person could well be a future atheist, but even if they never are, I recognize an ally when I see one.
Let me get this straight; Eve is is more trouble than Adam because she was duped by a hugely powerful supernatural entity? He’s in less trouble because she believed his own wife, who (like him) did not know right from wrong? There’s so much wrong with this stupid story.
Luckily it’s just a stupid story.
She was also Adams second wife look that up are not Wrongs promise 🤔
Eve wasn't Adam's 2nd wife ^^🤭
@cypressgreen "eve was duped by a supernatural entity"
Nope. The serpent was a simple beast of the field. It mentions this in Genesis multiple times. Christians later created other theologies and reconstructed the serpent to represent the leviathan as in the book of Revelations. The serpent was a simple snake, not a supernatural being called Satan. And, if u read the story, you'll find that Adam was right there with Eve the whole time as she was being told the truth by the snake. It was the god that lied. The snake told her the truth about the tree. Adam was just as guilty and even more so, but the writers of the story intended to create a story to blame women, devalue them, and create a fictional reason for intense child birth pains.
Genesis 3:1-6
(Read it. Not only can u see it specifically identifies the serpent as only a wild animal, and never Satan, but it also shows u Adam was "with her".)
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
When he said Timothy all dramatically I was like "Yo, what's up?"😂😂😂
Amazing work, Sofia.
Some people “cherry-pick” the bible, go along with the “good” parts, ignore the “bad” parts. If you are capable of recognizing something as good or bad, right or wrong, then what do you need the book for? Again, their sense of good and bad, or right and wrong, preceded and existed outside of their reading of the Bible.
☝🏾 THIS. Exactly this.
After I lost my faith I felt rudderless -- until I realized that the things that attracted me to christianity (morals I cherry-picked to the *Nth* degree 🤦🏾♀️😅) were values that I could not only STILL hold, but ones could tweak and clarify without having to apologize or have fear over re-evaluating things.
SO much less confusion and worry! 😊 I can call a spade a spade now, and refuse to sit on the fence when someone is persecuted for ridiculous reasons.
@@TreeHairedGingerAlegood points. And no child reads the bible for their morals. We are taught to not hurt people and to do right or wrong generally by our caregivers in early childhood. The neglect and attention a caregiver gives shapes our psychology. Same for the Sumerians as for us. The bible holds nothing that wasn't circulated at the time by other cultures who were more influential. The laws of Hammurabi were better and much older than the Jewish commandments. We humans create social rules for our societies, and then teach those rules to our children.
When your mom or dad punished you or rewarded u concerning your behavior as a young child, I can bet they didn't usually mention God, Jesus, the bible or any other religious bs.
The religious bs comes later and is used to manipulate minds already programmed to accept the bs and then claim that's where you get your morals and values. We all get our morals and values from our societal culture, caregivers, and life experiences. No gods or holy books needed. 🖖
I got some massive Grandpa Simpson vibes from the first guest.
Sofia is a great addition to the show
Funny that first caller knows how old everyone is 😂
Thank you for cutting him off😴
When I was a kid I saw Jesus apparently ?
I do remember the ceiling light went blurry and rainbow effect from almost suffocating from asthma .
But my Mum and Nan were catholic and saw it as an apparition .
I'd call it blacking out !
"I saw Jesus in a piece of burnt toast." -a true believer
"I saw Jesus when _smelling_ burnt toast!" -a true believer having a stroke
British mate
Said:
The question really is do we have free will or is everything just a reaction to the thing that happened before it? This is an ongoing debate with all sorts of people.
Um, and I, I'm definitely in the camp that we have a lot less free will than we think we do.
That's simply because you can trace any action, you know, whatever I do in any moment, you can trace it back to:
what neurons were firing at that moment to cause that
what my blood sugar levels were like for the past hour
what kind of mood I've been in for the past six hours
what my week has been like (have I been really stressed at work or something like that?)
how the last five years of my life have gone and what kind of mindset am I in right now
what my emotional and intellectual journey is going to be like
how I was raised as a child (what principles were I taught, how were my parents raised)
what culture did we come from five thousand years ago that led to the kind of ideals that we have today
all the way back to the evolution of Homo erectus
And I'm like, what, what stone tool was made that made me make this decision today, you know?
So, in terms of that, I'm definitely in the significantly reduced free will camp.
Um, I've yet to really sit down and really hash out whether I'm a full-on proponent of like zero free will whatsoever.
However, I will say that people that I respect intellectually and are way smarter than I'll ever be are on both sides of the aisle on this issue, and I've heard them both speak about it.
I just extract and format text of the speaker if anybody else would like it? It really hit me as an elegant rant. Gr8! Peace ☮💜
"Fuck you Steven!" 😂. I fuckin' died 🤣!
You aren't superior, but you hold a superior position when it comes to epistomologically honesty and critical thinking.
I hate the idea that I have to play it humbly. I'm not superior simply for not believing: I simply care about truth while you don't, I challenge myself while you don't, I make an effort to believe right things while you don't. Does this make me better than you? Hell yeah, what's the point otherwise? You get to believe in fairy-land AND be treated like everyone else who actually gives a shit about reality?
Steven-I also live in Pennsylvania. There are pockets of normal people in Pennsylvania. You just have to find them. Lancaster/Pennsylvania Dutch area is mostly okay. I live in northern Pennsylvania now, in a small town near the border of New York. Between Corning and Binghamton NY. I know lots of Left leaning people and a handful of atheists. I was born in Montgomery County, not far from Lancaster. At the time I was growing up in the 70s, it was very democratic. I don’t know if it’s changed much.
There are many beautiful things in Pennsylvania. But also a lot of depressed areas.
I wish you all the best! Hope everything works out well! 💖
It seems to me perfectly clear that there is no free will. Not even the illusion of free will. We say we feel like we have free will but if I try to imagone what it would be like to not have control over what emptions I experience or what thoughts enter my brain, it would feel like what it feels like now.
*Have a Wonderful Winter Solstice celebrating the rebirth of the Sun.*
*Let the Sunshine In...*
I alt-tabbed at around 2:15 and got a fucking heart attack when the audience screamed 🤣
Hey Sophia, thanks for calling out the Changeling argument
We can only hope future humanity will look back and view these repetitive tiring debates as either entertainment or with despair as to how humans once wasted precious time.
13:45 omg I LIVE in San luis obispo. This is such a miracle! God must exist! I am atheist no longer...
That opening was bitchin'!
Charles is just too easy to please. His god can save one person but not everyone.
His God his too busy putting people in streets with coincidental names to spend time avoiding Charles to become an addict. What a nice God.
@@pascalsimioli6777Don't forget putting angels in to impersonate terminally ill children when they are already dead in some fucked up child-corpse possession puppet show for some reason?
That first caller is quintessentially east coast old man. It's like listening to all my grandparents at once.
I’ve thought about it many times and I see no room for free will. Intellectually I firmly believe it’s impossible.
However, I can’t see a way to apply that to my life. I can’t see a way to live my life without acting like free will exists.
So my belief on free will is it’s extremely unlikely to exist, but it doesn’t matter if it exists or not. I continue to pretend to make my choices (or make choices if free will does exist and I just can’t see the mechanism).
Also, I had lasic about 15 years ago. It was extremely terrifying for me, but it was brief (about 1 minute per eye). 2 weeks of unpleasant recover (no reading, dark room, etc), another 1-2 months of somewhat poor vision (like before when I didn’t wear my glasses, but I can’t wear my glasses to correct this). From this I have had over a decade of near 20/20 vision without dealing with contacts or glasses. Lasic is a great idea if you have vision that can benefit from correction. In theory it’s cool, but I did not enjoy the feel of having my eye peeled open and the extremely blurring caused in those few seconds.
Im now 64 July 4th. I prayed 🙏 to keep my family but the prayers weren't answered.
Thanks!
Crazy coincidental things happen. I met 5 different ppl part of the same family through completely different means with nothing to do with the other family members. These things just happen sometimes.
Secular Rarity: "So you have an argument for God you say we have never heard before?"
Caller : "yes, I do. So imagine you are walking along a beach..."
holy shit Charles so I'm sitting in my car listening to you tell stories while I'm eating a taco from Kalamazoo Michigan and this lady named Sheryl masterson atkins from Alberta canada comes up and starts talking to me but she's got a little bit of a lisp and so it's hard to understand or so I asked her to write things down and good thing I got a piece of paper here on the back of my bible, but it wasn't from the staples up in cashawktin Ohio on 2nd street, my dad used to wash their windows on Tuesdays, well every other Tuesday but not during the Civil rights movement......
1) grandpa take photo with car
2) there are photo of grandpa with car
3) God
....well, guys, I'm a Christian now. Where da churches at? Woo woo
What other explanation do you need, grampa and god the 2 Gs XD
@@zemmym.9437 Right? All boxes, a-checked. Like Ronald Reagan said that one time "God, Grandpa, '68 Ford Ranger"
your grandpa was a G
Wow. I thought Charles was just a sweet old delusional guy until the kids with cancer part. What a monster...
The thought of angels using baby corpses as sock puppets ie terrifying and he somehow sees it as a good thing. Look I love to overthink things but sometimes... Let's just shoot the old man in the face.
How about that. I’m from S.L.O. and Sofia mentioned town that must mean something? Not! 😂
The first guy, he’s a graduate of the Grandpa Simpson school of storytelling. He does seem sweet, well-meaning.
I had a gray Honda Civic and I used to see those everywhere. Then I got an Orange Subaru XV and now I see them all the time and don't notice gray Honda Civics. Message from God? I don't think so!
You sure you’re not just seeing your own reflection in shop windows ?
@@post1305 no I'm not. Are you?
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon/frequency illusion at play. Didn't know there was a name for this for most of my life.
I'd tell my friends, "Hey, I know this sounds weird, but ever since I got my tattoo (it was my first; large arm tattoo), I feel like I'm suddenly noticing way more people with tattoos. What's with that, I wonder?"
Jeez that first story needed a Grampa Simpson Onion tied to my belt moment.
If I was in the Austin area and I had a chance to be in that audience, I'd park on the damn roof of the building... lol
"The Son of man and his angels shall gather all those that offend and throw them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" - Jesus
(Matthew 13:41)
Liked for the random bit about San Luis Obispo 😹
Wish I could get ahold of Steven, sounds like he's moving not so far from me. Wouldn't mind being a friend and to help him settle in and know where are the good places to go and tell him what it's like.
Free will is a cause that you should be willing to accept the effects of good or bad.....
I really want to make an argument that I never came across before, against the morality argument of theists. They claim that morality codes comes from religion. And I want to agree with them. My argument is that although they come from religion, they did not start from religion. In fact, religion collected the moral code from human experiences throughout thousands of years and claimed to own such learnings. This applies to every moral claim including but not limited to prayers, fasting, allowed and forbidden foods, killing, adultery, stealing, homosexuality…..etc. and while religion fixed the reaction and punishment to such things, civilization continued to adjust its perspective to many of these codes
The pushback isn't that morality doesn't come from religion, the pushback is their assertion that morality comes from a supernatural diety. I don't think many people would argue against the notion of people having their morality guided by their religion.
Universe A:
God exists
Universe B:
There is no God
Would it be moral to throw a baby off a bridge in EITHER of these universes?
NOOOOÒOOOOOOOOOOO!
So God is not necessary for morality
If children live with criticism,
They learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility,
They learn to fight.
If children live with ridicule,
They learn to be shy.
If children live with shame,
They learn to feel guilty.
If children live with tolerance,
They learn to be patient.
If children live with encouragement,
They learn confidence.
If children live with praise,
They learn to appreciate.
If children live with fairness,
They learn justice.
If children live with security,
They learn to have faith.
If children live with approval,
They learn to like themselves.
If children live with acceptance and friendship,
They learn to find love in the world.
Dorothy Law Nolte
Impressive intro
Wow, I got som much emotional damage from that first guy that an angel got behind the wheel in me for a while. Truly horrendous
My prayers are always answered. The answers are yes, no, or wait. No, sorry, that was my magic 8-ball.
There is a Terry Pratchett book series called Nanny Ogg, her nephew is Shawn Ogg. I have had a couple of people who are fans of those books comment to me that I am famous (jokingly), but that doesn't mean that the character was modelled off me.
The US Census shows 1506 Daviud Turneys in the entire collection. Not a lot but not a few either.
I think the closest colloquial usage of 'theory' to what it is in science, is in cases like: "Yes, Sir. In theory, the bridge should hold that weight."
That first dude is NOT going to get it.
Nope, he won’t. He’s lonely, found a community, has no idea how coincidence works, and now he’s fully bought in. Glad he’s happy.
The fundamental foundation of Christianity can be expressed without involving faith, they are in fact scientific and logical axioms, as the last axom, it refers to The Second Law of Thermodynamics. But faith is of course an additional benefit. The Absolute Truths (axioms) in Christianity: The words True and False are also in the same order, an expression of Good and Evil - The Earth is a place where both good and evil exist - Man learns the difference between good and evil because he can choose between them - Truth do not contradict truth and one truth can build on another, False can contradict False and contradicts Truth, and what one builds with False falls down - In order to build Truth on Truth (continuously and systematic), we must look up to something higher outside ourselves, and that higher is Jesus Christ.
Thanks for demonstrating that you need to lie for jesus when your child-abusing ‘god’ thing supposedly commands you not to lie. Why are you so contemptuous of the supposed commands of the thing you worship?
The best way to debate miracles or incredible coincidences is to point out the vast number of "anti-miracles" and non-coincidences that occur in far greater quantity. The people that push miracles conveniently leave out all the rest. It's like the case where someone survives a tornado and claims a miracle or their prayers were answered, omitting all the people that died and the horrific destruction all around them when many of those victims were praying just as hard or harder.
Forrest saying he's a MOSTLY heterosexual man makes me so happy to hear as a queer viewer,, even the slightest hint of lgbt representation especially in such a warm, casual way of mentioning it makes me so happy omg
It's refreshing and encouraging to hear. I think it's easier as an atheist to be less defensive about sexual orientation without the pressure of religious bigotry being a part of a person's worldview, although in some places the bigotry is so strong that I absolutely understand why some people still feel the need to hide any thoughts or feelings they have from the community they live in and I truly hope within my lifetime we will see an end to the hate and ignorance surrounding human sexuality.
Well Hello there Sofia!
You can talk heathen to me anytime!
From Ricky Gervais: “Apparently, God does everything, so I asked Him about when a tree branch fell on my neighbor’s car, last May 15. God looked up his day-planner and said, No that wasn’t me, on that day I was in Africa giving AIDS to babies”.