Welcome to the nonprofit. We scour the Internet searching for proof of deities and
the supernatural. Despite not finding information to convince us of the existence of any
god, We're here to tell you what we have found. So buckle up
because the show is starting now. Hello, Hello, Hello, and welcome
back to another episode of the Nonprofits, the show where we discuss news and
topics of the day from a skeptical humanist perspective. My name is Cynthia,
and today I am joined by some fellow infidels, blasphemers, heathens, and
nonbelievers. Starting to my far left. I would like to introduce our local
pagan on the panel, Miss helling Green. How are you, darling?
I am wonderful. Hello everybody, Hello Internet, and just so you know,
magic existing your heart. Let's be fined right now. It's great.
Well, next up is another fellow blasphema, and I'm so happy that we're
finally working together. Hello, mister Jimmy Junior. How are you? Hello,
Cynthia, Hello, panel, it's great to be here. How are
you guys doing? I hope well, I'm doing great and really excited.
Let's get this show on the road. That's right. I love it.
I love it. And last, but definitely not least, is our special
guest for this day. We have a new face, the Cross Examiner.
Hello, how are you today. I'm doing great. I'm really excited to
be here. I've watched ACA comment for years excuse me, content for years,
and I am super excited to be working with all of you. You
know, we're excited to be working with you as well. I was just
saying to the panel in the background that you know sometimes said when we're doing
some of these shows, especially when we're talking about the law, I'm like,
I need lawyer, I need a lawyer, and everyone commented says,
no one ever. So I am really happy that you're here. And won't
you just tell us this a little bit about yourself? Sure? Sure,
Well I'm an atheist and I'm an attorney, some would say a recovering attorney.
I don't practice as much anymore, but I've started a podcast and I'm
looking to volunteer my time to help examine the intersection of religion and government.
And I thought what a better way to volunteer than to offer to help out
here. And you know what, and we are very grateful that you had
decided to do that, and I'm so excited to hear your take on these
articles. So with that being said, guys, you're ready to get into
it, let's do it all right, all right now, before we actually
get into what, I have stuff to say, like, this is a
show of the product. This is actually a show that is a product of
the Atheist Community of Austin, a five or one C three nonprofit organization dedicated
to the promoting of atheism, critical thinking, secular humanism, and the separation
of religion and government. And today we're going to talk about some things.
In our first segment, we want to talk about Texas wanting chaplains in public
schools. Next segment, we have a wt F Florida, Florida teachers beside
designed beside, I cannot say that name, but they're really upset about these
draconian laws as going on in Florida. Next up, we have Columbia,
Columbus drag queens rather thanking their haters. And finally we're going to wrap it
up with a strange but true with a new theory that may explain our existence.
And as with all of our shows, links to today's topics and the
news, we discuss are available in a description below, and as a reminder
that if you want to come into the show prepared, you can check out
the nonprofit spacebook fan page every Friday night for a list of the article's head
of time. And with that being said, we're going to go ahead and
take it to segment number one and the cross Examiner. This is all you
great, thank you. So first we're dealing with an article entitled Texas plan
to put Chaplains in public schools is latest move to inject Christianity. It's published
in the Dallas News by Talia Richmond and Ali Morris on May eleventh, twenty
three. The article actually covers three different bills. One is hiring chaplains,
one is mandating ten Commandments in the schools, and finally the third one is
mandating a prayer period or Bible reading or other religious text reading in the schools.
So I was wondering what people's take on this was. Obviously, I
look at all three of these and think before this current court, these would
all be an easy, no brain unconstitutional. But now after the decision last
year that got rid of what's called the Lemon test that the conservatives hated,
we have to re examine this. So what are your thoughts, Jimmy,
Yeah, thank you. Initially, my thought is that we're going backwards in
texts again and the so called Party of Freedom and Small Government once proving,
once again proving their agenda to the country by seeking to enact these laws.
I don't have to tell you that this is a violation of the constitutional principle
where we shouldn't be experiencing a state sponsored religion. I almost wonder, though,
if there are some loopholes here for this argument to potentially be exploited by
the religious extremist conservatives. And I also wonder if there's precedence in the United
States military, consider the chaplain Corps, which is literally paid to be a
source of religion as well as a counselor to those experiencing some kind of mental
health crises or needing mental health assistance. So as first excuse me, first
off, as far as the loophole is concerned, and I'm glad that we
have the cross Examiner here to kind of bounce these ideas off of. But
Texas is not technically the state, it's the government, so the same rules
should apply. But in a strict constructionist view of the Constitution. What the
Constitution actually refers to is the federal government in the country. I'm not actually
sure if we've heard this argument before, but that kind of just pops to
my mind. I do know that under the fourteenth Amendment, equal protection under
the law, no one religion can be advanced or inhibited by the government.
So for any of these kind of Christian values to seek seep into the schools,
it really opens up a door for other religions as well. Right,
so this might be an ideal time for the Satanic Church or maybe some other
pagan religions, etc. To kind of try and put their own chaplains in
place. I know in the military we only have and I say we because
I am an active member of the military. I maintain an affiliation. I
was in the military for thirteen and a half years before it made my recent
transition back into academia and I'm starting a new job teaching at the collegiate level.
But I do have some experience with chaplains, and I do know that
there are only four religions represented in the Chaplain Corps, so they kind of
alienate a lot of others, and I think maybe there is an intent to
to prop up one religion here by schools in Texas and alienate others, And
so these are kind of my initial thoughts. There's the argument of legal precedents,
you know that that's kind of the one I'm making. And I always
chuckle when I hear chaplain and health professionals kind of being conflated into the same
thing, because I think anyone and I'm maybe a little harsh here, but
uh, you know, this is kind of the place for it. Anyone
who is actively indoctrinated to thinking that two penguins waddled from Antartica to get on
a five hundred footboat in the Middle East that could hold eight million animal species
is probably not in the right frame of mind to give me mental health advice,
you know. And then if you believe that it's okay that God raped
a teenager so she could give birth to his son and that he would later
murder him, you know, I don't I don't understand how healthcare and chat
and chaplaincy really kind of cross. But anyway, there are some arguments here
that I have, Uh, you know, one, these children are nothing
but pawns to grow a religious base for people who want to use Christianity to
seize and retain power, offering solutions to weak and vulnerable and exchange for money
and support. I think that's pretty typical of how religion is successful. I
think that they use children to do that. I think it's unconstitutional, plan
and simple. Lawmakers in Texas are fully aware but do not care. The
Republican Party, I think, just as corrupt is probably the Catholic Church,
and they're they're using each other, or Christian institutions in general, kind of
using each other to prop each other up and support each other's interests. And
then kind of a radical theory I have, but I really at this point
don't think there's any reason why churches shouldn't be paying taxes. Uh, they've
already kind of infiltrated our government, right. I think that they're kind of
the argument that churches, you know, if their tax can you know,
support political candidates and influence our government is kind of a weak one. So
anyway, I think already there those are my initial thoughts. Thanks for my
little spiel, giving me my spield, Helen any thoughts on everything I just
said or anything I just said. I mean, it is one of those
things that those of us that have to experience these things are very passionate about.
Like I live in Florida, and I'm again reminded like Texas and Florida
are in this weird dick wagon contest going on of who can be the theocracy
first, and I'm just over here going like, woll constitution, y'all.
Constitution yall. So it's a little frustrating when you're experienced it firsthand, and
and also too, like I want to point out that I'm an atheist.
I think all religion is silly. All of it's silly, but I do
want to recognize that if you introduce one religion into into any form of government,
whether whether it's a school, veterans affairs building, whatever it is,
that's supposed to at that separation, as soon as someone that walks in from
a different religion or non religious or just a secular person, they're going to
feel isolated, they're going to feel differentiated, and they're going to adjust themselves
in certain ways to get the things that need to happen done, or it
gives people they're like, oh, I have special privilege now and to treat
people as others. And that's my major concern with this and we luckily we
found out before we were recording that this didn't pass. And I think that's
really really great. But it was because of technical errors. It wasn't because
this isn't it's absolutely unconstitutional. But I'm glad that there's been a little,
you know, a little little chink in the systems so other secular groups can
maybe you know, get some legal stuff going on and maybe prevent this from
going in any further because you know they're going to reintroduce it, you know
they are, so it would be nice that we had a little bit more
time. What do you think about that, Cynthia, Yeah, I think
that they probably will, but I'm really curious to, you know, get
the cross examiners take on this, because like we paid him the big bucks
to be here being a lawyer at all, so as much as you guys
got money. So yeah, all right, So, um, first to
issue a correction, the mild correction. I think the bill that didn't clear
was the Ten Commandments one, which, right, like very important as far
as the uh chaplains go. I think Jimmy, your insight was spot on.
Uh. There's three historical areas that the Supreme Court has allowed government to
pay for chaplains that is in the military, that is in prisons, and
that is in legislatures. And they've argued the reason they gave and none of
those we were under the were viewed under the Lemon test, which they got
rid of last year, so that logic's probably is still going to hold.
And with soldiers and prisoners, of the court said, hey, we're uprooting
these people from their communities and they will be denied of these services, so
it makes sense to do this. And with soldiers and legislative chaplains, they
said, we've been paying for that since before the constitution, so obviously it
was okay with the founders. So that's the logic that's that was applied there.
We can differentiate this Texas bill. Students aren't soldiers, they're not prisoners,
they're not legislators, they have not been uprooted from their community. They
have access to religious services. As they say, you can't swing a dead
cat in Texas without hitting a church, right, So also children, Yeah,
and more to Jimmy's point, children are more impressionable than soldiers and legislators
and prisoners. They are less likely to object to inappropriate instruction and due to
laws mandating participation in school their captive audience. You know they're right for the
picking, so to speak. So a side note, Historically, the Supreme
Court in many cases has cited an event before the Constitution was even created where
Virginia tried to pass a law to pay for Christian teachers and who but Madison
and Jefferson rose up against that bill and wrote extensive documents. Madison wrote his
famous memorial and Remonstrance against religious assessments, and Jefferson pushed for a bill that
was called the Bill Establishing Religious Freedom, and the Supreme Court, over time
and time again, starting as far back as eighteen seventy nine, have cited
that as to why we don't pay for religious instruction, which, let's face
it, that's what's going to happen with these chaplains. One last point on
this. Australia started this back in twenty eleven and it's been a disaster.
You get everything you expect. You get complaints that chaplains are proselytizing. Aplains
are distributing literature saying that condoms don't work and being gay is bad. They
even had a professor say a student came to her and said that she talked
to a chaplain who had about her eating disorder, and the chaplain said,
well, you're just hungry, hungry for the Lord. So that's what Texas
is trying to do. It should be a home run. But this chord,
of course, is a mystery to everybody. So we're all watching this.
What are your thoughts to Cynthiana final thoughts? First off, I'm like
infuriated that they want to tell a little a little person, um that you're
hungry for the Lord, so don't eat them chips that slapped them with the
baggage. But um, yeah, I want to keep my violence to myself.
But you know, UM, there was a couple of things actually,
um that I um, I had I had saw in the article that you
know, was intriguing to me. Um, specifically, UM, a couple
of well, actually, there was a couple of our quotes that disturbed me.
One of the ones was the scale of transformation and spiritual renewal resulting from
the school chaplain program might be described as revival. The website reads, millions
of young people and adults in their lives are going to be one to the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. And disciples in the name of Jesus. Discipleship involves
training to win and disciples others. You know, I would really love to
ask the person who actually came up with this particular you know, bang on
thought pattern or is there any empirical evidence that shows a school chaplain or this
back put God back in schools? Actually stop? I don't know mass shootings
anybody. Thought and prayers, Cynthia, thoughts and prayers. One important fact
about this law, and I will read it for you. The last sentence
of the first section of the law says, quote a chaplain employed by or
volunteering, because you can volunteer under this chapter, is not required to be
certified by the state Board for educator certification. So they don't even have to
know how to teach. They don't know about mental health, and they don't
know how to have to know how to teach. So I that's another issue
that I have with this because like I believe, like when I was just
reading, oh, actually this is like. The third quote that really disturbed
me was from a representative goal Hefner, who is a Republican from Mount Pleasant,
said, the plan is going is about giving school districts every tool that
we can in the toolbox to combat mental health problems and other crises. And
again, if you don't have to necessarily have psychiatric training or trained to be
a school counselor or trained to even teach, how are you giving any tool
in the toolbox for these specific people to be able to combat mental health problems
and other crises. Can someone answer that question for me? Ask Texas M
I love, I love. They're probably making it worse. I mean,
giving giving resources to students who are struggling uh that will not help them or
are not trained to help them, can could potentially make their their uh,
their polite exacerbated, you know. And so that's that's kind of a dangerous
move in my opinion, to put non professionals in the in the realm of
children and call it mental health. Yeah, I agree. I UM,
I was the same, Incent didn't um. If you don't mind, Cross,
I would love you to give us some final thoughts on this. Um.
Oh absolutely, you know, I UM. I was. I was
a teacher once in my life. I don't have many many occupations, and
I just know that like the schools, the school that I was teaching that
was an alternative school, this is like the last time for these children to
shine, and we had and I know that for me specifically, it was
a hell of a time being there because in some cases I knew that what
these children needed was a bit more, was more trained professionals, especially when
it came to therapy, like and also school counselors. And because like a
lot of these kids were wards of the state. They were they experienced violence
and crises in their lives. They you know, some of them, some
of them had parents that were in prison. There's different things of that nature
that you know, they were coming into the school system already traumatized. So
a lot of times this is a supposed to be a safe space for them
where they're able to you know, not only learn, but be able to
speak with licensed professionals to help me help them work through their issues that they're
dealing with, whether they're environmental or also internal. And and to think that
any UM professional who would call them, you know, that's a chaplain only
UM credibility or was just I've been ordained, minister. I took some classes
about Bible reading. Is the quote is the qualification that we're going with.
And and of course, like even though like Jimmy, you mentioned that the
military only has like poor religions represented, and I'm pretty sure the majority of
them is Judeo Christians. Um, you know we okay, Bank, how
did I guess that? And I know nothing about the military, so for
my dad was in it. So I'm just thinking that we see overwhelmingly,
especially with this whole push about getting actual the Ten Commandments into classroom, that
the represented religion is going to be Christian. Let's just keep it above and
and and I and I that they would even the stink of and as you
guys pointed out that you know, chaplains are in prisons and military are around
adults, they've already you know, can choose whatever religion that they want to
be. But you know, children are impressional, and that's the that's the
that's the part that really makes me just so disgusted. Um, And I'm
going to be quiet now, and if you would, the cross examiner,
please, you know, give us some of your final thoughts about this,
and then we'll go ahead and move on. Sure, I'll just respond to
a couple of things you said, because you're all spot on. So the
most recent thing about you asking what percent of the counselors or the chaplains would
be Christian, which let's look at Australia ninety seven percent jees ninety seven percent,
and the Australian Christian population represents sixty four percent of their population. So
again, we know what's going to happen. This is what you're going to
hear. Lots of arguments from the politicians said, oh, this is nondenominational
and they're just there to we know why they're doing this. Okay, um,
But to Helen's and your point about the impressionability of kids, I wrote
up a little experiment that I might have done if we got into depth on
the period of prayer bill, but I decided not to do it, and
now I'm going to do it again because it's odd unto you. So we
know that the Lemon tests that went away last year was a test about the
First Amendment, the establishment clause and the free exercise clause, and the supposed
tention between those two clauses. But there's another clause of the Constitution that Jimmy
mentioned, which is the fourteenth Amendment, the Equal Protection Amendment. There's papers
out there from a lot of professors saying lawyers aren't using that argument enough,
and they need to start doing it. And it's going to be definitely applicable
in the period of prayer bill that they're trying to do, where you can
opt out if you want. But back in nineteen forty eight, the court
struck down a very similar law where you could opt out, and they did
it on First Amendment grounds. But I'm viewing it as this is separate but
equal two point zero. This is Brown versus Board of Education. So what
I'd like to end on is just read the operative sentence is from Brown versus
Board of Education, but replace the words concerning race with words concerning religion and
see how that holds up. And I hope, I hope the Texas courts
are listening. I'm going to write their opinion for them right now. So
I'm just going to read that real quickly. This is what the court said
in Brown versus Boards of Education. To separate children from others of similar age
and qualifications solely because of their religious beliefs generates a feeling of inferiority as to
their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way
unlikely ever to be undone. This effect of this separation on their educational opportunities
was well stated by a finding in the Kansas case that they're reviewing, where
they said segregation of religious and atheist children in public schools has a detrimental effect
on the atheist children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of
the law, for the policy of separating the religious from the irreligious is usually
interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the irreligious group. A sense of the inferiority
affects the motivation of the child to learn. Segregation with the same from the
law therefore as a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of irreligious children
and to deprive them of some of the benefits that they would receive in a
secular school system. That's what Texas courts should say to this, you know,
talk Supreme Court Brown versus Board of Education to me adment. That's all
I'm talking about every day. That that was great, and thank you so
much, Panel, and also especially if to you cross examiner for actually bringing
that into this conversation. It would be really nice if I don't know,
courts would go by President that was already set about a lot of these things
years and years ago. But I digress, and I'm going to digress to
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by unholy eat it. And with that being said, let us go to
segment numeral. Do no or doso that's not the word. Don't just take
us into God is being silly, but go ahead take us into the second
So so um, this article um is a great article by the Guardian.
I'm written by Stephen Greenhouse on May thirteenth of twenty twenty three, and this
is an article about the point of intimidation floor. Did you just be sieged
by draconian laws? Now? I suggest you read this article because not only
does it affect us in the state of Florida, this could this is going
around on a lot of other states in the country. So this is a
very important point. We have to talk about how these laws are directly affecting
the people there are the front line. So I'm going to take this to
Jimmy since he's my fellow Floridian and I would like to get get his opinion
on what's happening in our state. Well, I'm gonna try and off on
this one, you know, like I did on the last one, because
reading these articles, it's really easy to get overwhelmed with like just discussed more
more attacks on the children. And you know, it's obvious that the government
in Florida think that children are an easy target to kind of push their religious
agenda. And it's something that we should all be very well aware and combatting
to the max extent that we can. Uh, you know, calling what
teachers are doing in schools today woe is really just kind of the pot calling
the kettle black or excuse me, not woke, My bad calling it grooming.
Um, you know, the religious institutions are the experts on grooming,
right, uh, And to get children to believe horribly grotesque concepts, to
include keeping or remaining silent when they're experience sexual abuse is the ultimate grooming,
right, and we know that the church historically has been a really big perpetrator
of that, probably the biggest. And so I think the Santis and company,
you know, are not really kind of being honest with what they're trying
to achieve. There's there's a lot to unpack here. It's it's the religious
undertones that are trying to seek into the schools again, but it's also you
know, the people on the right trying to suppress what is being taught in
schools by calling it woke when it's really just history. Right. It's something
that we all need to be aware of, and there's no point in trying
to curtail our curriculum to maintain this kind of Southern pride, this Southern ego.
So you know, those are my initial thoughts. Wanted to see what
the Cross Examiner had to say about that. I agree with you. I
think what struck me when I read this is the reliance by the conservative movement,
the Christian nationalist fascist movement that's taking over this country on what we would
call in the legal profession to be polite, counter factual evidence, like you
know, evidence that's not exactly agree with them. They just lie about that's
what they do. When the story said that when Santa de Santas signed the
Don't Say Woke Bill, as it's called, he said, quote, no
one should be instructed to feel shamed because of their race. That is not
happening. There's zero evidence presented anywhere that there's any teachers saying you should feel
ashamed of your race because of your heritage. None. What is actually happening
is that schools are teaching the plain facts of history, and those facts are
not the rosy shining city on a heel story that the conservatives were told when
they're growing up, and that makes them feel bad and to crib from a
few good men. They can't handle the truth. You who are the snowflakes?
Now right? That's that's the kin. You know what else is in
happening, trans people are not coming for your kids. What is happening is
pastors and priests are We just had a report yesterday out of Illinois, thousands
of kids were molested by the Catholic church in Illinois. Last month Baltimore six
hundred more more kids. You know what else isn't happening. Young kids are
not getting transition surgery. What is happening is Christian parents are sending their gay
children to the torture that is known as conversion therapy. Now, all of
these things, what they sell you is not what's happening. It's just like
there are no elections being stolen. What is happening. In Texas, Lieutenant
Governor Dan Patrick had to pay out twenty five thousand dollars to a Democrat after
he offered reward for evidence of election tampering, and the Democrats said, here
you go. The Republicans are doing it. So yeah, they just lie,
cheat and steal. And the amount that they get away with is quite
stunning. Quite frankly, I understand totally if if teachers want to get out
of Florida, I would if I were them, But it might create this
positive feedback loop of well education decreases. Now you have a generation of kids
who don't appreciate critical thinking, so they support more of these bills, so
you have fewer teachers, etc. Etc. So that's that's my take on
And I'm sure you have something to say, Cynthia. Yeah. Actually to
just I'm solve to you the point that the last point that you made,
UM, I did happen to look in the article when we talked about UM,
they actually have a teacher shortage. If I believe that, if I'm
trying to see specifically, I believe that it's over five out if I'm not
mistaken. Yeah, they have like a teacher. They have the teacher the
shortage UM right now. And it's kind of crazy that you have. And
and a lot of these teachers were talking specifically about how they're not really sure
how to teach certain things because they're concerned that they'll be doomed. What they
say will be to woke or or it will be you know, I may
say gay. Um, like if if a student comes to me and says,
I have these particular feelings that I am, you know that I'm attracted
to you know, the same sex that I am. You know I we
can't talk about that, even though that I would hope that of a person
that you trust would be an authority position would be like a teacher to talk
about these particular things with them, but that UM, but they can't because
they might get into trouble or if um one of the things that UM I
was even reading specifically when we're looking at UM don't stop the don't say them
you know, stop woke Bille and UM. And as you mentioned Graham,
the whole thing about you know, no child should be should be ashamed to
be of their race. But if you are purposely taking African American history out
of high school classes, um, or you have to teach in a certain
way where we can mention Jim Crow, where we're just going to gloss over
it in the way that the Daughters of the Confederacy wanted to do it when
we presented those McGraw hill book books back in the day. And you are
teaching another racial group that they're right event to the entire American experiment and the
recently I wanted to talk about specifically what of what when it comes to Florida.
Oh yeah, and this is this is what I want to say.
Previously, Yes, they are forty eighth in teachers pay, and they are
suffering from a shoulder to over four five thousand, three hundred teachers. So
these people are already overworked and underpaid, and now you want to put a
bit on what they teach as well, and that's insane. But you know,
the main people that they are attacking with these particular draconian laws. And
thank you for saying besieged. I could not say besieged to save my life
beside like, oh my god, I went to college and but you know,
but one of the things that I um that I and I keep saying
this every time that I see yet another horrible thing coming out of Florida,
is that the main people that are under attacking Florida are LGQ people, women
and black. And I'm not being an alarmist. This is what the laws
that have come out are saying to you. If you are a woman,
there is a six week ban on abortion in your state. And also in
an article, one of the teachers pointed out that a student starts their period
and it's not sure what to do. She couldn't possibly talk to them about
it because the bullshit stop walk law if you are black. The Santists announced
that his administration has abruptly ban high school students from enrolling in the college level
of course about African American history, and according to news reports, the Governor's
Education Agency has disallowed public student school students from enrolling in a new advanced place
in the African American Studies course, claiming that it lacks educational value. In
its rejection letter, the agency also claimed that the course runs inexpectedly, inexpectably.
I went to college trary to Florida, my gosh um. Okay,
So they're saying that begging the question of what contra a contrariness, contrariness,
contrariness state officials have in mind. By the way, begging the question is
a logical faun So. And another bill, Senate Bill ninety requires people to
apply This is another issue that we're having in Florida concerning voting. Okay,
because in twenty twenty, in the twenty twenty elections, Florida Republicans have passed
a voting bill saying that it will make this set that says that um,
it will require for people to apply to vote by mail more often and sets
new limits on drop boxes. And another Senate Bill five twenty four increases the
and creates new penalties for voter registration organizer organizations for things like turning in forms
late. And notably, the law creates a new policing unit focus on voting
crimes, so if they suspect that you criminally voted, the police can come
and scoop you up and take you to jail. Jim Crow much. You
know we talked about the issues with the Don't Say, Don't Say Gay bill.
It bands classroom instruction on gender identification and sexual orientation to all grades.
And under the original Parental Rights in Education law, which was signed into law
last year, instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation were banned for K through
third grade students, but teachers in grades fourth through twelve were allowed to offer
this kind of instruction if there were deemed development inappropriate. But now that law
has expanded and approved in March of this year, that all public school students
will be banned from learning about these topics unless required by existing state standards or
as part of a reproductive health instruction that students can opt out of. And
according to the director of Communications for the Apartment of Education, he said quote,
today's state board action reaffirms that Florida's commitment to uphold parental rights and keep
indoctrination out of our school. And as Jimmy and Grant and Cross Examiner has
pointed out, who is doing the grooming, who was doing the indoctrination.
When you are putting laws out like this, you are doing the indoctrination government
in Florida. It's not the other way around. And one more thing that
I'm going to mention and then I'm going to give it to Helen and We're
going to grow close out, is that there is a big heated debate because
the NAACP has signed on with other organizations to actually put out a travel advisory
for people who happen to be black and people who happened to the LGBTQ.
They said, go go to Florida. If you can go somewhere else,
go there. Specifically, in the tribal advisory, it says that you are
not valued. And I've heard all types of stinking, weird things that was
happening from the right. I even heard some things like from from other black
folks, like this is silly, the NAACP is irrelevant, et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera. And I mean, regardless of that, I
mean it's showing in the law that this you're not valued. And with that,
I'm going to lay my cross down on the cross. Kild you go
ahead and bring up your your cross and examine. Absolutely. I just had
a tiny comment to interject when you started talking about the hostility that Florida is
showing to people of color. We had news today that Amanda Gorman's poem who
Is. She's the Poet Laureate of the United States of America and she gave
that moving poem reading during Biden's inauguration. That poem has been banned from Florida
elementary schools as of today. Telling Lee the person who wrote the request to
have it banned the citizen their request was filled with spelling errors and grammatical errors,
and said that the poem was written by Oprah Winfrey. And they've also,
of course, requested that other poems be banned and they were by who
black female authors. So that's Florida for you. Uh. I know Helen
has been waiting to say a lot, so I thought i'd pass it over
to her. I'm gonna let Jimmy give a spicy take, real fastened.
Then I'm gonna go because I have a lot to say. Okay, all
right. Uh. Well, something something that I think is important here is
that, um, the Conservatives in this state, and not just in this
state, but maintain power by keeping their bass stupid and I'm gonna, I'm
gonna, you know, just be blunt about that, um, for every
white person who supports them, uh, realizes that they are inherently racist,
maybe through no choice of their own, and that they do live in a
society that has flourished from the inferiorization of women, minorities, mostly African Americans.
That's another vote loss for the Conservatives, right, So what better to
do than demonize the people that challenge them, um, you know, by
by calling them woke, this kind of derogatory term for people who actually want
to be awakened. And so I think what we're seeing here is just a
power coup, you know, and trying to keep their base uneducated means more
power for them. So that's kind of my my conclusion on that note.
So, as someone that lives in Satan's butthole, it's very hot and spicy
and spotty here, I think you to clarify that we're right, because you
know, that could be fun. Well, it would be fun if this
was a King for me, but I feel a lot of heat and pressure
as a queer person and as someone that is an atheist, and for someone
that thinks that guess will. I don't think things like teaching the reality of
history two children is a bad thing, because I've said this before on the
show. I learned all about this stuff. I won I was going through
the school system, and I grew up not to be a jerk face.
So I'm just gonna say it now. I do have two kids that graduated.
My son graduated in twenty nineteen, my oldest graduated, and I'm getting
my days confused. I'm okay, So my oldest graduated in twenty nineteen and
my son graduated in twenty twenty one. Now I'm very happy for this,
because if they were in the school system right now, I wouldn't want them
in the school system. I have friends that have young children here and they're
debating either moving or homeschooling, or trying to find a way for them to
get a proper education with tutors or something else, because if they're put into
the school system, but they're going to learn that, you know, white
people are fine and we never did anything wrong. And I also want to
point out something about, um, what's being taught in these school what curriculum
is approved. Japanese American studies is approved, that got signed, that got
signed as a law by Santis show, So I want to point that out.
This isn't just you know, like general racism and general bigotry. This
is selective because I'm going to remind people good when they say woke and they
use it as a slur as they're talking about LGBTQ people and they're talking about
black people, those are the people they're talking about. And if you are
a core person living in my state, I have friends they are trying to
figure out how they're going to get what they're going to do. I have
friends that are terrified and need to move out. I'm sis presenting. I'm
I'm very lucky. I can hide a lot of people can't. So I
have a I'm just very very concerned living here and I don't know what the
future holds, and I can't help feel that anxiety. So I know that
Jimmy wanted to say one more thing real fast, and can we please move
on. I don't want to be here anymore. I'm in stage. I
don't have anything. Let's move on. Yeah please, yeah, let's we
are all triggered right now. Out of Florida, right yeah, you know,
I listen. One of my best one of my really good girlfriends,
lives in Florida and I call her every day, like, girl, don't
you want to move? Any who? Speaking of moving, if you can
arrange to be in Austin on Sunday, I believe June twenty fifth, consider
joining us in the studio audience at the ACA Free Thought Library for a live
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very very tidy. I don't even know if it's a lot. It's more
like a like a like a drive through with a little area in the back,
put a card part whatever. So anyway, so yeah, get there
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dot cc slash a XPTV to join in the fun. And with that being
said, let us go into a step in the right direction. Step in
the right direction. Yeah, step in the right direction with step step step
in in the right direction. Yeah. And I love blah blah blah blah
blah blah, love the story and it is coming to you from the come
Alumbus Dispatch by m Amelia Robinson entitled Columbus drag queens to Nazis, thank you
very much for your hate protests raise big money. So what's this is?
Basically what happened, guys. This is this is the gist of it.
So in the Columbus Dispatch it actually talks about a fundraising event whose goal was
to raise five thousand dollars but turned into sixty five thousand dollars because some neo
Nazis decided to protest it. And I am personally going to set up a
fundraiser specifically for me to see if neo Nazis protested, so that I can
exceed my monitory get my goal. Kidding. Moving on, Well, during
the Columbus conversation why Drag, local artists Corey Williams organized a drag brunch fundraiser
for LGBTQT LGBTQ youth center called Kaleidoscope, and the goal was five thousand dollars,
and well, the local Nazi group got a wind of it and people
wanted to have fun and raise money for a good cause by inserting their two
cents when no one asked them to, And what ended up happening is is
that one of those Haiti ne caters people not only gave to the fundraise through
they met their goals and exceeded them. And it's just such a great,
great, great, great, great, great great great story. And I
know that Helen, you were really bummed at our last story, being a
Floridian and all, So please go ahead and take it. Take this this,
this, this baton, and run with it. Gemmi yum, yummy.
That's so delicious. It's so beautifully delicious, a little bit of victory.
And I just love that these neo Nazi mofos were like, we're gonna
show up and we're gonna protest and we're gonna say, like, bring down
the drag queens. And the community was like, f that, here's a
bunch of money. We're gonna give you more and more money, which I'm
just it just gives me that little sigh of relief. Um. Now,
I've had I've had previous conversations with people that when I say that you need
you need to have a balanced news diet, like because there's a lot of
doom and gloom and when your stories like this, you're you're reminded that there
are good people in the world that all this BS that's going around, they're
like, fuck that, and they're going to do something about it. And
that's the only way this happens, and the only way you can feel inspired
to do something is when you hear stories of people in your local community or
even in your locals in your state or other places the country. There are
wherever you are in the world that are like, we're not going to put
up with this BS, and you stand up for what's right, and the
fact that the Deo Nazis ate it and it worked so much non in their
favor, it's just it just makes me. It makes me. I'm just
like, you know what, I'm like. You know, there's a civil
lining to this ship cloud. So, Jimmy, how do you feel about
this story? I know, I'm very happy. Yeah, it's a little
bit sweet in the end. I'm happy. I'm a little depressed though,
that we still have coward Neo Nazis showing up to kind of ruin the fun.
You know, my message to this group would be one, you're failing.
I mean, there was only a dozen or so of you. Nobody
wants to join your cause, right And two you're a bunch of cowards.
You're afraid to show your faces because you don't want your community to see who
you really are, and you don't want to be associated with the very cause
that you claim to support. And so it's just it's not working in your
favor. These people LGBTQ members wanted to raise five thousand, and they raised
sixty five thousand because of you idiots trying to ruin the fun. I'm a
little confused, right, Why does the LGBTQ community fall into the crosshairs of
a white supremacist group. I don't know how that really trans transcribes. If
you're a white supremacist group, then why why hate on a group that is
not of a specific race. These are people that are just looking to hate
somebody. And you know nationalism, Christian nationalism, sure, kay, yeah,
Christian nationalism and racism go well together, you know all that to say,
While, I while it is bittersweet, and I am I am ashamed,
are not ashamed, but you know a little depressed about that. You
know. I like hearing the feel good story. I like the fact that,
um, you know, the the gentleman speaking in the video associated with
this article, Lester Singleton, stated, you know, in the nineteen eighties
when he was a young man, he never thought he'd be where he is
today and now approaching his sixty second birthday. Uh, he's been embraced by
an entire community. I just think that's a wonderful thing. Uh. I
want to close out, you know, my points just by asking this gang
too, like, do they think that their own Neo Nazi members in prisons
across America and not engaging in homosexual sex? Because I'm sure that they are.
I mean, there's uh, you know, what do you have to
say about that. I don't know. I have no problem with it.
Hey, you know, sleep with who you want to sleep with, but
don't start coming down on a community that you know makes up a large portion
of your numbers. Um, whether they want to admit it or not.
So uh yeah, I mean, and Neo and Dassis do have some homoerotic
stuff going on, So you know, I'm just saying, you know,
it's that's it's not sexy, it's just homo erotic and weird. And also,
according according to the leader of the Proud Boys, he also said that
they do have gay members as well. Well, it's all the leather really.
Okay, I'm gonna all right, listen, I'm gonna say this right
now. If you are in a minority group, do not join your oppressor.
Please don't do that. It's it's not going to end well for you.
Do not join your oppressor. I have do I have a T shirt
that says that do not enjoy join your oppressor. Yeah, don't do it.
Badly, very bad. Yeah, optimistic, we're moving in the right
direction. Yes, we are talk about talk about moving in the right direction.
The cross examiner or can I call you crossy for sure? However you
want you start to talk. So yeah, I think what this made me
realize is I'm old. And the reason that made me realize that is back
when I was sort of becoming more and more active in the atheist movement,
there was only one group I could think of that would travel distances to show
up in protest at an event, and that was the Westboro Baptist Church.
You may remember them. They actually traveled from Kansas to my home state of
Maryland to protest my high school because it was named after Walt Whitman, a
famous gay poet from the eighteen hundreds. That was enough for them to come
out and protest, and I would tell my parents back then about this and
they would not believe me. Now today, when Nazis or the clan or
the Maga fascists come out and scream hatred at people, we just call that
a Florida Tuesday, Right, That's that's just I guess. I guess that's
one thing that the Internet has done for conservative consumers is they've given them a
choice in their hate groups. So back then, though, the effect was
always the same as what we're seeing now. What you've all pointed out that
it would draw attention to the object of their hate and that community would gain
support. They I don't know if they're dumb or they're just this gets us
attention. So I don't care that I'm supporting who the evil gay people by
doing it. They just keep doing it. It's got to be some version
of the streisand effect. Maybe some we got we gotta come up with the
name vote for it. But I mean, sixty five thousand dollars they did.
The math is one thousand, three hundred percent increase over their planned five
thousand dollars. So maybe the Nazis should be selling this as a service,
right, This one simple trick could increase your revenue by you know, by
thirteen hundred percent. So at least Trump and the fascist Christian movement has done
one service to us, and that's made them feel comfortable enough to come out
despite as Jimmy points out, they often will wear masks, so at least
we can identify who these people are. So I think these are to wrap
up. These are the cases that are tough when you see them doing it.
They're a test of your belief in the First Amendment. But unfortunately for
them, we really do believe in the First Amendment. They would want to
take away speech rights from others, but we fight to give them those rights.
So I think that's that's another reason to be happy about this is long
term. This confirms my faith in the in in the Bill of Rights.
I think everybody's talked to you have anything, Cynthia, You know, I
just wanted to just say that I just love the story because it shows that
not everyone is a suage by hate. In some cases, people do more
just to spite their haters, and we need more of this to combat to
some of the tyranny that us coming from the government entities to other martialized group.
And I would even say to the event organizer at the drag brunch,
to Corey and his orders, I say a hearty right on and into the
neo Nazis that decided to come out and protest this event, what are your
issues with drag queens. Drag queens are fun, Drag queens are funny.
Drag queens are sickening when they do lip syncs. Drag queens can help you
with your wardrobe and your makeup. I get tips every week from watching Rue
Falls drag Queen, and I think that a lot of us who wear makeup
can as well. And they are cool people. And I always enjoyed going
to a drag show. And maybe, just maybe, if you attended one,
you wouldn't be so quick to protest one, because you'll be too busy
having fun, have some fun, have some fun, have some fun.
You have some fun, have some fun. And you know, I just
um, I was telling my partner, I said, I just got my
hair just so I can do this right. Hair flip yes, hair flip
yes, you know exactly, just like if you feel well, you know
a folk. We're going to be rounded it out towards our final, our
final strange but truth. But before we do that, I just want to
tell you that you too can become a member of this channel for as a
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our benevolent overlords that we also have a store. If you didn't know,
you know, a matter of fact, I think that Jimmy, you found
the store. Oh I found the store. Okay, very good emerge.
Yeah, yeah, that's the logo of the Flagship Show. I believe it
is the logo of the Flagship Show of the of the AA. And so
you can shop because like these are like the last little ham dingers that you
can guys get so boachr head and make sure you go to tiny dot cc
slash merch Aca. That's tiny dot c c slash merch Aca and you can
get all your favorite items like T shirts, hoodies and coffee mug and you
can also check out our other shows as well. So we're just saying this
right now by our shit. It's good shit. Yeah, Jimmy got on
good ship anyway. The problem was I didn't have stuff the logo too.
It's too powerful of a logo. Your camera didn't handle it right. Yeah,
it's like bamna, speaking of being up in your face. Let's let's
let's talk about um, let's talk about the universe and the theories as radically
in our face with this strange but true true all right, this one's for
me. Cool. Yes, So a radical new theory about the origin of
the universe may help explain our existence. Written by Alexander Masters, this is
a book review on Thomas Hertog's On the Origin of Time, an account of
his time with Stephen Hawking and some of the theories that would go to explain
the universe. Um, I don't really this is this is kind of a
sneaky ploy by by the author to kind of insert some other things under the
guise of a book review. But I'm gonna let somebody else take it away
before I give my spiel on it. Uh what do you think, cross
examiner? Um, well, I had trouble every once in a while you
have these experiences where you get involved in like reading a Christian apologetics book or
something, or listening to a video, and it's very hard to finish.
It's just so hard. And that's what I felt like reading this, because
I agree that you could just it reeked with this equivocation and oh, well
they said this, and so that's a little gap where I can insert God.
So my first problem with it is that he described it as this brand
new theory. The book is new. The theory was published twenty years ago,
so this is not new. It's very interesting, but it all it
really does is take quantum mechanics, of which I know very little, as
I think it was Feineman who said, if you think you understand quantum mechanics,
you don't understand quantum mechanics. But I do know that this theory basically
just says, well, if that's true, then the entire universe must obey
those rules. So when the universe is created, we had all of these
possibilities, all the ways the universe could get to the present, and as
soon as it interacts with something I gets a deserved it's going to collapse that
wave form into what we have now, and he, this author of this
article, is trying to make that into some mystical this is why we have
God, this is why there's fine tuning, when in reality, it's just
he's just making this big argument about the anthropic principle, like, oh,
you know, just like Douglas Adams says, you know, when a puddle
becomes sentient and wakes up and says, Wow, what a cool whole I'm
in. Wow, it's specifically made for me. It must be made for
me. That's what this author is trying to do. And it's painfully obvious
that he doesn't care about the actual reality or actually teaching the science. He's
got an agenda, So Helen take it away. I'm sure you've got a
lot to say on this as well. So I want to read this quote
from the article that kind of stood up to me. I'd expect to liken.
God has mentioned uber Alice. Alice, he looms over the shortline of
science, cavalier provoking, planpoyant statements, a mark of the end of critical
thought. Not easy to admit dismiss. A few excellentphusis believe in him.
Many have done their most extreme work, their best and worse by trying to
explode him. Um no, this is my problem with this. Um is
he Thomas Hurdach the person that wrote this article. I'm aware that science doesn't
make claims it can't support, because that was it was actually Alex Masters.
Oh did he say that. I'm sorry, that's my then I misquoted.
I apologize. I am not a scholar. Don't take anything you got my
people, You're good because I couldn't even slay besieged, like I went to
college, Cynthia, right, But like, but this is the thing that
like people, it sounds deep and it sounds profound, but it's just a
properbial skeleton. But there's nothing there. It's a nothing burger. Like I'm
like, I'm gonna it's like, you know, you're trying to prop things
up with like bubble gun on toothpicks. You know, it's not going to
stand. And and that was really frustrating to me about this article because I
read it three times looking for science, like some new theoretical research about the
origins of the universe, and I got bunk. And I want to warn
people that opinion pieces are not science. Scientific reading is a bore. I
will tell you that I've done it. It's not. But that gets us
to the closest understanding of how things work. And with people are good science
educators, they're able to explain those theories to the layman and ways that are
interesting and waits for them that is straightforward and easy to understand. As I'm
gonna quote Michael Scott explain it to me like I'm five, and that's the
goal. And this article was a lot of gobblely cook that I did not
understand. And I'm hoping maybe Jimmy felt the same way. So I don't
feel maybe I don't feel as dumb or maybe I'm onto something like I feel
like something went over my head. Did you wanna Um? Yeah, because
you had Yeah, you had like actually like real shit to say. So
I'm just gonna say my fake shit, you know, and then you go
with the real shit because I was confused. Oh, thank you, thank
you. I try, um, you know, so a few things.
Um. So when I was reading this article, I was actually hoping to
get a more accessible breakdown of talkings theory, Like if you're like listening to
like Neil de Grassi Tyson right, like he has a way to actually like
explain things like explay like I'm five um so and and still actually put science
in it and you can go, oh, that makes sense. Or like
when I go to the planetarium and I learned about a um egg shaped planet
in the Kelpium Belt, which is right here in our solar system, and
I was like, wow, right, but I didn't get that. I
didn't get that, y'all. I was. I was sad because, first
off, one of my issues that I had with this is that, you
know, he brings up the multiverse, and I was like, okay,
so are we talking about Marvel movies right now? I mean like I don't
know. I you know, in a minute, I'm like, where's Tony
Starkey's about to pop out? Like all right, man? And so that
was my first issue. My second issue was the title Thomas Hertog describes his
collaboration with the late Stephen Hawking in searching for a solution to the ancient metaphysical
problem emphasis on metaphysical and I am sorry, but why are we applying metaphysics
to something that should just be physics? I don't know, I mean,
glastly, the metaphysics normally deals with the fundamental nature of reality, including the
first principles of being existent, identity, and change in space and time causing
a back the necessity of possibility. But I guess it is a point of
personal contention because metaphysical to me is normally associated and conflated with from spirituality.
So you know, from a person who knows people who went to metaphysical churches
and they talk about metaphysical stuff, and you know, the metaphysics of God.
I'm just like just and and I think that my next issue specifically with
this with this was the side rant about Wheeler's game. Did you all read
about that? I get that he was trying to use it as a metaphor
to his best to explain what her talk meant about observation. And I personally
feel if you were just going to use a metaphor without you explaining it,
playing with with your family and how was a disaster. And I am the
queen of digression. We already saw this on the show, but I prefer
to not have that in my literature. Just this. Can we stay on
topic and I'm just gonna say this and then and Jimmy, you can take
it and give us a wrap up. All in all, I fail to
find the radical new theory remarkable. And as you just pointed outcross examiner,
this is not a radical new theory. I mean it's not a new theory.
It came out twenty years ago, so they knew, you know,
I mean, I know my car is used and my car is less time
than this theory. So guess what. It's a U theory. It's not
a new theory, and where's a radicalness about it? And I guess that
that's my thing? Oh, my final issue. And then Jimmy, you
can take it. He cav On talking about the Catholic priests that actually debunked
Einstein, Like, yeah, this Catholic priest like debunked Einstein's issue about expand
the expansion of the universe. He actually pointed it out that it does expanding.
Einstein said, no, what's fixed, and so we know that he
was wrong. Therefore, God take that atheist and take this. Jim Well,
I don't even know why I'm on the show. Now there we go,
we prove God. Here we go by all we're all unemployed. Now
yeah, cross examiner, are you said you have a quick thing you wanted
to say, and then I'm gonna beat this guy up while I wrap up
this this show. Okay, yeah, I think the sentiment I had after
finishing it is this is why scientists should never use the word God when they
describe what their work is. The famous misunderstood quote by Einstein of God doesn't
play dice with the universe when he didn't like the idea of of quantum mechanics
and it was blowing his mind, and that's been taken out a context for
decades ever since. Then will be you know, oh, Einstein believe in
God, and Hawking references God in a sort of the complexity of the universe
type. These people who write these articles dishonestly will take those quotes and do
what we see in this article, make it about their God instead of about
the physics. Her TG made it very clear his quote was quantum mechanics forbids
a single history. That's it. That's the only thing that really this theory
says is if you take quantum mechanics, if every particle has to have this
this uh probabilistic history, then the universe has a probabilistic history. And it's
only when we start to come to the present that we can say, okay,
we collapse the way for him. When we say this is how we
got here, it's it's at its core simple. I don't understand everything,
but when you read her Dog's writing, when you read Hawking's writing, they
do make it simple. This guy intentionally made it complex. Back to you,
Jimmy. So this is this is consistent with what Christians or religious individuals
want to challenge scientific theories will do. They will find a way to sync
their hooks in and then they will ride the coattails until they have an opening
to introduce their theory. So not did I read a few articles other articles
by Alexander Masters where he uses the same examples of the Catholic priest or of
other people and cherry picks them to kind of continue to make his point.
My kinda lapp would only give me about a hundred pages of this book,
so I read I don't know, like seventy five of them. I tried
to scan through them real quick. Stephen Hawking doesn't mention God. Stephen Hawking
says that he can understand why people might consider the universe god like if you
consider the chaos in which it started and then the order in how it currently
exists. So in taking those words out of context. We have Alexander Masters
who comes and injects his own theories using God to kind of create an equality
between creationism and the scientific theories that are supported by evidence. And that's all
this book review is. So it starts off kind of talking about a lot
of assumptions and conditions about the universe and tries to place creationism equally among different
scientific theories that explain how we got to where we are. And this kind
of reminds me of those episodes on maybe news shows or interviews where you have
the biochemist and the atheist and the biologist, and then you have the priest
all sitting at the same table in their garb, and these people have to
look at this priest at eye level as if he's accomplished the kind of work
and research and commitment that they have, and they have to treat him with
some kind of sincerity. And I think that's what Alexander Masters is doing.
Somebody who has a Christian agenda, who saw that Stephen Hawking used the word
God, and there's his opening to go and you know, put his own
agenda to the test and see if it sticks. It's pretty consistent across all
of his work. I would I would encourage others to kind of look more
into it, but this is a common tactic. I think that we see
a lot and so that's kind of kind of where I came out. I
didn't really find any shocking new theory. I think I saw somebody who was
desperate to include God and science, and you know, he fell short,
didn't meet the mark. Helen, did you have a couple more points that
you want to do. Yeah, this kind of so as the as the
former pagan on the panel, M there is there is a theory known as
a means air quotes people theory that m magic comes from like this cautiousness or
energy that's in the universe and this is what this is what this reminded me
of, that there's some kind of energy that has brought forth the universe and
you know, there's some kind of He didn't use the word intelligence, but
I got that vibe. You know, it's the metaphysical of the gaps argument,
you know. And I got that feeling again because I was like,
Oh, somebody's trying to put things in that they don't understand so it'll make
sense. And I got and I'm not being critical, you know. And
I that's this And that's the thing that scares me about when people write these
opinion pieces, because they instead of just doing an interview and asking the person
questions or going through the book with like a critical mind and then like maybe
get a committee together to talk about the book and you know, get some
feedback on it and that sort of thing that didn't happen here. He was
just like, Okay, I think this makes sense, and I'm going to
put my own spin on it as a writer and try to make the average
person think that I'm saying profound things and it isn't. So I want just
to stress my audience, the audience that just because something sounds good doesn't mean
it is good, you know. And I think that's something that we have
to be aware of. Yeah. Yeah, that's the only that was my
major concern with this. Yeah, just even going back to your point,
Helen about you know, about the emergence of the universe being caused by a
collective consciousness. It's that makes me all weirded out because we don't have any
evidence that the consciousness is a part of is aware away from our brain.
This this is a this is a property of our mind, and our mind
is a property of our brain. So because you know when we when we
out, the consciousness is too. And you know how I know that because
last time I check dead, people don't talk. So and I'm just like
just like afraid that this is something that, um, we're trying to do
like some weird in viewing metaphysical explanation for a radical theory, which really is
not even a theory. It's more so like an opinion because Jesus, at
least that's what I got from it. Yes, the Jeevus, you know,
um, yeah, okay, so you know when the cross examinar,
I'm gonna give you one minute to bring your garle okay until we Yeah,
I think I think everybody is right on the mark. I could say that
there are Christians who do it the right way. You know this guy's doing
it the wrong way. I'm gonna start with my conclus allusion worked to the
beginning. But for example, my current series I'm focusing on my podcast is
all about faith healing, and part of what I investigate is does prayer actually
work? Well, there's this organization you may have heard called the Templeton Foundation,
a Christian organization that sponsored the largest study on prayer. You know what
they did, hands off, We want to know they do it right.
They're just looking for hand prints and God. But they ran the study and
you know what, the study showed not effective, and they were honest about
it. Juxtaposed that against this author or the people at Answers in Genesis,
they've got an I'm sorry trigger warning. I've been watching the MAI podcasts and
I mean exorcism. I apologize that was that was a rookie mistake. That's
juxtaposed against somebody else. But you get my point. This guy in this
article is doing that. He's starting at his conclusion, working backwards instead of
the honest wave. Okay, let's work forward. And if I have to
play out of the gaps, I will. That's the honest way of approaching
it. And you know what else is honest, guys, let me tell
you what's on. What's honest is joining our fans social media outlets. That's
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Don't you agree? Oh my goodness, so much fun. Episode should
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I hope this is one of many. You know, you will always
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