WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:04.519 Hello, and welcome to my podcast. This is an audio version of my 2 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:09.160 videos available to make listening to my stuff in the background easier than YouTube makes 3 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:13.679 it. But since my videos are primarily made for YouTube, there may be 4 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:18.160 occasional references to visual materials. If you'd like this podcast ad free, you 5 00:00:18.199 --> 00:00:22.760 can join us on Patreon at patreon dot com slash Vice Rhino. Please enjoy. 6 00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:28.719 Hello and welcome to my channel, Vice Rhino. Here today, I'm 7 00:00:28.760 --> 00:00:33.600 headed into chapter five of Pastor Dickey's The Problems with Atheism book. Click the 8 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:36.359 card in the corner and watch this series as a playlist if you miss the 9 00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:40.280 previous chapters. This is the dark chapter, which may as well just be 10 00:00:40.359 --> 00:00:44.719 called Godwin's Law, but typical of Dickey's verbosity, it is instead titled The 11 00:00:44.840 --> 00:00:49.280 Atheists Cannot Escape the dilemma that his worldview is responsible for so much in humanity 12 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:53.280 to man. Anyway, if you're following along with the bingo board, I'm 13 00:00:53.359 --> 00:00:57.679 just going to go ahead and preemptively take the stalin slash MoU slash Hitler slash 14 00:00:57.719 --> 00:01:02.159 etc. Where atheists square, because that's pretty much all this chapter is. 15 00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:06.840 This might end up being a shorter installment in this series, because there's only 16 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:10.959 so many ways that I can say those guys are not representative of atheism as 17 00:01:10.959 --> 00:01:12.840 a whole, and if you think that they are, then you have to 18 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:17.439 come to grips with the fact that your worldview has caused at least as much 19 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:21.560 in humanity to man as atheism, and to a significantly greater degree if we 20 00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:25.159 assume that the stories in the Bible are true. So, with our bingo 21 00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:29.200 game for this chapter finished before we even begin, let's get onto the video. 22 00:01:29.719 --> 00:01:32.920 But first, I'm actually going to be issuing a content warning for this 23 00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:36.280 one. I don't get into graphic descriptions, but I do talk about some 24 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:38.760 stuff that might be upsetting to some people, mostly Jeffrey Dahmer related. I'll 25 00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:42.760 put chapters in this video to make that part easy to skip. So with 26 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:52.680 that out of the way, let's go. The chapter opens with the statement 27 00:01:52.840 --> 00:01:57.120 the rise of Darwinian atheism in the twentieth century led to the rise of Stalinism, 28 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:00.680 Nazism, and to talitarianism. This is a statement that is not entirely 29 00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:05.280 false, but it is oversimplified to such a great degree that it may as 30 00:02:05.319 --> 00:02:07.319 well be false. If we look to the writings of people like Marx and 31 00:02:07.360 --> 00:02:10.560 Engles, we say, a nuanced view of religion. Yes, they called 32 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:14.879 it the opiate of the people and the sigh of the oppressed creature, but 33 00:02:14.919 --> 00:02:17.159 they also called it the heart of a heartless world. They saw religion as 34 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:22.199 something that had satisfactorily been shown to be false by the intellectuals and philosophers of 35 00:02:22.199 --> 00:02:24.960 the eighteenth century, and those who remain religious did so not as a matter 36 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:30.240 of intellect, but of social need. So there is no need under Marxism 37 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:32.639 to persecute religion or to fight against it. It will die on its own 38 00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:37.360 when it ceases to be necessary. And there is actually something to this. 39 00:02:37.719 --> 00:02:40.319 The Marxist view does also lack nuance, though to a lesser degree than Pastor 40 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:45.159 Dickie. But not only is there a correlation between religion and poverty, with 41 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:49.360 more impoverished areas tending to be more religious, but there's also evidence to suggest 42 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:53.719 that some causality is there. That is, that high levels of religiosity can, 43 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:57.719 if not directly cause poverty, at least contribute to it. For example, 44 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:00.560 it is well established that higher levels of uation lead to a decrease in 45 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:05.879 poverty and a general increase in economic output, but In some religious cultures, 46 00:03:05.879 --> 00:03:08.879 people are encouraged to get married and have kids fairly young, something that can 47 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:13.479 get in the way of an education. And often in these religious cultures it 48 00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:17.039 is taught that your economic position is predetermined by God or the gods at your 49 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:21.879 birth. These religions promote the status quo by promising more in the afterlife than 50 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:24.240 you could ever hope to obtain in this life. So be a good little 51 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:29.120 worker, be slaving away and whatever destitution you find yourself in, and you'll 52 00:03:29.159 --> 00:03:32.599 be rewarded with a solid gold mansion after you die. Such ideas are way 53 00:03:32.599 --> 00:03:37.439 more emotionally appealing to people who have no hope in this life than to those 54 00:03:37.479 --> 00:03:40.439 who already live relatively good lives. Of course, like I said, this 55 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:45.759 view lacks nuance. Even if religion contributes to keeping people in poverty, it 56 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:50.360 is not solely responsible. And contrary to Marx's opinion, I highly doubt that 57 00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:53.840 religion would just up and vanish if earthly society became a utopia. So that's 58 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:58.960 Marx. But Dickie mentioned Stalinism. What of that? Well, the thing 59 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:02.120 is Marx never really laid out an actual system of government in his writings, 60 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:06.240 so the governments that arose using the name communism were born of the desire to 61 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:10.919 enact the principles found in Marx's writings, but had to kind of figure out 62 00:04:10.919 --> 00:04:14.719 the whole governance thing on their own, and specific to Russia, not a 63 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:18.040 whole lot changed for most people when the government transitioned from Czarist to Communist. 64 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:23.160 There was a civil war that lasted several years after the initial revolution that put 65 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:26.839 Lenin in power, in which both Communists and the White Guard and alliance of 66 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:30.920 Czarists, right wingers and anti communist left wingers used terrorism to further their goals, 67 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:35.720 which did a bunch of damage to Russia's already weakened agricultural and economic systems. 68 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:40.399 Stalin throughout the whole thing was a high ranking general. He was the 69 00:04:40.439 --> 00:04:44.399 one that suggested the execution of the Czarist government officials and royal family to Lenin. 70 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:47.959 Stalin was bloodthirsty, power hungry, and opportunistic to a degree that even 71 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:54.279 Lenin dictated instructions warning of his dangerous disposition and advising that he be removed from 72 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:58.160 power. Lennon died shortly after leaving those instructions, and Stalin was able to 73 00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:00.879 suppress them, remaining in a position of power and gradually getting rid of anybody 74 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:04.439 in the Communist Party who opposed him. Now, this does not exonerate Lenin 75 00:05:04.519 --> 00:05:09.639 from wrongdoing. Like there's this misconception about communism that Lenin was the good one 76 00:05:09.639 --> 00:05:13.480 in Stalin was the bad one. But Lenin was perfectly willing to use Stalin's 77 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:16.399 ambition as long as it benefited him. My point here is that it was 78 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:21.120 not atheism that drove the Communist revolution. It was dissatisfaction with the status quo. 79 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:26.279 People were angry about having poor working conditions and low wages. People were 80 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:29.879 starving to death. Well, the czars were throwing lavish parties in their palace. 81 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:33.000 People were fed up. Communism promised food, peace, and prosperity. 82 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:36.680 It didn't deliver on those promises, but the people who lived through that time 83 00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:40.720 had no way of knowing how badly it would go. They still had she 84 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:44.240 working conditions and low wages. They were still starving while those on the top 85 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:47.240 were feasting. And none of it had anything to do with atheism, except 86 00:05:47.279 --> 00:05:53.040 maybe tangentially a Stalin did certainly oppose the church and did persecute all religions, 87 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:56.439 but that was not because of a push for atheism. That was because he 88 00:05:56.480 --> 00:06:00.040 saw organized religion as competition. He wanted people to worship the government. He 89 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:04.600 understood how religion was used to control the masses and wanted that control to belong 90 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:10.639 to the government and by proxy hymn. It's not atheism that caused the tragedies 91 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:14.680 of the communist regime's rule of terror. It was desired to maintain power and 92 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:17.759 control. Now, with that in mind, shall we compare it to religion? 93 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:21.879 How many have died as a direct result of religion trying to maintain or 94 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:26.879 even expand their power and control. Yes, the Crusades had an overall lower 95 00:06:26.920 --> 00:06:29.839 death toll, about five million, compared to the one hundred million that died 96 00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:31.839 to communism. But when we look at it as the proportion of the total 97 00:06:31.879 --> 00:06:35.879 population, I actually have no idea because I'm not a statistician and calculating the 98 00:06:35.879 --> 00:06:40.879 average percentage of a population to be killed in the Crusades every year over a 99 00:06:40.920 --> 00:06:43.920 period of two hundred years, as opposed to the average percentage of a population 100 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:46.959 killed by Communism over a period of about eighty years, when the population of 101 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:50.199 the world was growing significantly faster during the eighty year period than it was during 102 00:06:50.199 --> 00:06:55.040 the two hundred year period is just beyond my skill level. But my point 103 00:06:55.079 --> 00:06:59.800 remains by proportion of the population, religion had a massive death toll as well, 104 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:01.920 And if we go back to pretending that the stories in the Bible literally 105 00:07:01.959 --> 00:07:05.959 happened, then we wind up with a malevolent god who killed greater than ninety 106 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:10.800 nine point nine nine percent of the world population in one fell swoop, a 107 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:15.120 feat that no governmental regime, no matter how brutal, has ever accomplished. 108 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:17.959 So yeah, in terms of absolute numbers, Communism might win the brutality Olympics, 109 00:07:18.120 --> 00:07:21.759 but that's mainly because the rise of communism happen to coincide with a massive 110 00:07:21.879 --> 00:07:26.680 rise and world population, as well as the rapid development of new technologies that 111 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:29.879 were capable of killing people much more efficiently than the swords, spears, and 112 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.279 arrows of the Crusades. I imagine it would be a different story if either 113 00:07:32.279 --> 00:07:36.560 the Christians or Muslims had access to tanks, automatic weapons, and massive bombs, 114 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:42.439 both nuclear and otherwise during the Crusades. All this to say that it's 115 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:46.199 people. People do bad things to other people in the pursuit of power and 116 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:50.000 wealth. Sometimes they use religion as their tool to keep the general populace in 117 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:55.680 line. Sometimes they use political ideologies, sometimes they use fear and intimidation. 118 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:59.079 Most often they use a combination of the three. Anyway, remember when I 119 00:07:59.079 --> 00:08:01.439 said this was going to be a short video. Yeah, we're literally one 120 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:05.720 sentence into the chapter so far. But hey, I put a bunch of 121 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:09.199 nuance into this claim. That should mostly clear it up. So maybe I 122 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:13.360 can skip past a bunch of the but also Hitler. But also, wait, 123 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:16.920 no, all we got is communists and Hitler type stuff, and keep 124 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:20.720 that in mind. For atheism, they have communist governments and Hitler. For 125 00:08:20.839 --> 00:08:24.839 Christianity, we have the crusades, the Inquisition, the residential schools, the 126 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:30.480 domestic terrorism, the financial mismanagement, the sexual abuse of both children and adults, 127 00:08:30.759 --> 00:08:37.399 and more, all spanning decades to centuries to probably realistically millennia. Oh 128 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:39.480 yeah, they have to fudge past the Hitler stuff too, because like, 129 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:43.879 well, he might have been an atheist. Privately I don't think he was, 130 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:46.720 but he could have been. He didn't use atheism to accomplish those ends. 131 00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:50.720 He used Christianity. Anyway, Just get past a bunch of stuff that 132 00:08:50.759 --> 00:08:54.679 I've already dealt with to get to the second page of the chapter, we 133 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:58.960 get him saying that while the Bible teaches the sanctity of all human life and 134 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:01.679 teaches that all men are made in the image of God, atheism creates the 135 00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:07.559 basis and rational sick to devalue human life. Aside from the fact that he's 136 00:09:07.639 --> 00:09:11.039 excluding women from having been made in the image of God, with his choice 137 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:16.159 of language here, it is worth mentioning that God commanded and committed many genocides 138 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:20.080 in the Bible. This is incompatible with the idea that all human life is 139 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:24.679 sacred. If all human life is sacred, then genocide should be the absolute 140 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:30.159 worst sin you could possibly commit. And yet God doesn't seem to consider genocide 141 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:33.679 to be a sin. Kill all the Canaanites, Kill all the men, 142 00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:37.639 women, and children who live in Jericho, Kill all the Amalekites. Hell, 143 00:09:37.919 --> 00:09:41.240 just kill all the humans except for Noah and his immediate family. But 144 00:09:41.559 --> 00:09:46.399 yeah, the guy that commanded all of those atrocities surely thought that human life 145 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:50.840 was sanctified and precious because men were made in his image. He then states 146 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:54.720 that because of the influence of atheism, we now have to wrestle with international 147 00:09:54.759 --> 00:10:00.440 problems of population elimination, abortion, and euthanasia, prostitution, pornography, the 148 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:03.919 sex slave trade, and illegal drugs. Now first and foremost, figure out 149 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:07.679 what you want to do with your commas there. Like that was really hard 150 00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:11.120 for me to read because it just didn't make any sense, and I emphasized 151 00:10:11.159 --> 00:10:13.879 it in a weird way because of how it's written, Like there was an 152 00:10:13.879 --> 00:10:18.559 attempt at an Oxford comma just before euthanasia, which got abandoned as he just 153 00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:22.639 continued the list only to end it without the Oxford comma. I definitely prefer 154 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:24.639 the Oxford comma, but I understand that it's just a convention. It's not 155 00:10:24.679 --> 00:10:28.159 worth a sick tag just for not using it. But you can't use an 156 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:31.720 Oxford comma in the middle of the list and then remember that you have more 157 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:35.440 items on the list just to make it one list. Now, all of 158 00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:39.120 that aside, do you honestly think that none of these things were issues without 159 00:10:39.240 --> 00:10:43.320 atheism? Sure a number of them are things that atheists generally don't consider inherently 160 00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:48.919 bad porn and sex work, for instance, But what's with the population elimination? 161 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:52.279 Won is Dicky a conspiracy theorist who thinks that the evil atheists are trying 162 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:58.000 to cull the world population for some unknown reason. The only evidence for such 163 00:10:58.039 --> 00:11:01.879 a plot is on the Georgia Guidestone, which are supposed to be principles to 164 00:11:01.879 --> 00:11:05.080 build a society on after we mostly wipe ourselves out with war, environmental destruction, 165 00:11:05.159 --> 00:11:09.879 or whatever. So the one about keeping the population to five hundred million 166 00:11:09.240 --> 00:11:13.840 is meant for a population that has already been seriously reduced. It's not advocating 167 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:18.919 that we actively engage in population reduction in order to get there, but all 168 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:22.759 that's kind of beside the point, because the vast majority of atheists don't take 169 00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:26.480 the Georgia Guidestone seriously anyway. Abortion is a matter of bodily autonomy more than 170 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:30.879 that of atheism. On top of that, the only mention of abortion in 171 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:33.759 the Bible is either when soldiers slice open the wombs of pregnant women in an 172 00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:37.480 act of violence that is sometimes directly commanded by God, or the test for 173 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:41.200 unfaithfulness, in which a priest will prepare a potion, and if God himself 174 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:45.720 steps in and aborts the baby after the woman has taken the potion, then 175 00:11:45.799 --> 00:11:50.960 she was unfaithful to her husband. So abortion is sometimes commanded by God and 176 00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:54.799 sometimes performed directly by God, but is never condemned. The sex slave trade 177 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:58.600 is again something that is indorsed by the Bible. Exodus twenty one, verses 178 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:03.759 seventh eleven explains how a Hebrew man can sell his daughter into sex slavery if 179 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:07.200 he wants to. Deuteronomy twenty verses ten through fourteen explain how to take sex 180 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:11.360 slaves after conquering a city. Numbers thirty one, verses seventeenth through eighteen has 181 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:16.000 Moses commanding soldiers to kill all the boys, men, and women who are 182 00:12:16.039 --> 00:12:20.440 not virgins, while taking the young virgin girls as sex slaves. But in 183 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:24.120 my experience, atheists are pretty unanimous in their hatred of sex slavery and human 184 00:12:24.159 --> 00:12:28.240 trafficking. Now, really, if we want to compare the morals of atheism 185 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:31.480 to the morals of religious people, here's a fun little experiment that you guys 186 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:35.720 can try. Find an atheist organization and google its name followed by the word 187 00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:39.320 scandal. Do you know what you'll find? Generally speaking, there will either 188 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:43.000 be nothing, or there will be someone who lost their position of authority as 189 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:48.440 a consequence of their bad actions. American atheist scandal silverman fired for sexual misconduct. 190 00:12:48.679 --> 00:12:54.360 Atheists of Florida scandal nothing American Humanist Association Dawkins retroactively losing an award for 191 00:12:54.399 --> 00:13:00.360 being transphobic. But pick a Christian denomination, and before you even start looking, 192 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:03.039 you already know exactly what you're going to find. A bunch of scandals 193 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:07.279 surrounding not only the sexual abuse of children, but of the church actively working 194 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:11.440 to keep the scandals under wraps and protecting the perpetrators of the abuse from having 195 00:13:11.480 --> 00:13:16.000 to face any sorts of consequences. Southern Baptist scandal, a two hundred page 196 00:13:16.039 --> 00:13:20.759 report outlining hundreds of church leaders sexually abusing children, with the churches covering it 197 00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:24.159 up. Catholic church scandal. Play the same game again, but pick any 198 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:28.639 random diocese. We all know that story. Lutheran The Evangelical Lutheran Church had 199 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:33.759 a scandal where a guy who hadn't even been ordained yet was known to have 200 00:13:33.799 --> 00:13:37.240 had a history of inappropriate conduct with boys. Church officials covered it up and 201 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:41.200 ordained him anyways. Then they moved him to a new church. When it 202 00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:45.399 became apparent that he had a chronic problem with exposing himself to boys in bathrooms, 203 00:13:45.399 --> 00:13:48.679 they didn't warn the new congregation of his behavior. And now they owe 204 00:13:48.679 --> 00:13:52.960 tens of millions of dollars in damages to his victims. So yeah, if 205 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:56.480 you want to claim to be judging atheism based on the consequences of an atheist 206 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:00.440 worldview, then it seems that Christianity has a lot more to answer for than 207 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:03.879 atheism. Those who are taught that there is no God, no moral absolutes, 208 00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:07.240 and no final judgment day coming are being given freedom to become human monsters, 209 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:11.840 says the man advocating for an organization known for protecting child rapists and avoiding 210 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:16.519 taxes whenever possible. He does acknowledge at this point that not every atheist is 211 00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:20.039 as wicked as can be, and while I do agree with that, I 212 00:14:20.039 --> 00:14:24.440 would ask why he disagrees with the Bible. Psalm fourteen one says the fool 213 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:28.600 says in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt, they do 214 00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:33.159 abominable deeds. There is none who does good. That is pretty clearly saying 215 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:37.000 that those who say that there is no God are incapable of doing good. 216 00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:39.799 So I wonder why Dickie is okay with ignoring that part of the Bible, 217 00:14:41.240 --> 00:14:43.360 especially given that he doesn't seem to have a problem quoting the first half of 218 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:46.759 that verse. The next bit is a fairly lengthy quote from an article on 219 00:14:46.799 --> 00:14:52.759 why atheism and evolution caused the column Mine shooting, followed by another lengthy quote 220 00:14:52.759 --> 00:14:54.960 from the same article, but this time about one of the three total school 221 00:14:54.960 --> 00:15:00.159 shootings that Finland has ever experienced. Notably, the article that Dicky is quot 222 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:03.720 doesn't seem to recognize the difference between an example and a causal relationship. The 223 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:07.840 Columbine bit is of course used as an example of the shooters believing that they 224 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:11.080 were more highly evolved, and then the section on the Finnish shooting starts with 225 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:16.080 the statement another example of this type of relationship between atheism and immoral behavior comes 226 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:20.200 from Finland. The obvious conclusion that they want us to draw here is that 227 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:24.919 atheism causes school shootings. But if that were true, then you'd expect Finland, 228 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:30.039 a country with roughly similar proportions of Christians and unaffiliated people as the United 229 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:35.200 States, to have roughly similar proportions of school shootings. But Finland has had 230 00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:39.559 three school shootings, not three this year, three total. The US has 231 00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:45.200 had nineteen so far this year, so that doesn't track. There's also the 232 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:48.440 fact that atheists are underrepresented in prison. In the entirety of the United States 233 00:15:48.440 --> 00:15:52.960 federal prison system, there are a total of one hundred and forty three inmates 234 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:56.919 that are atheists, with an additional sixty three being secular humanists. This adds 235 00:15:56.960 --> 00:16:00.720 up to a whopping zero point one percent of the population. Given that atheists 236 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:04.519 makeup about four percent of the general population, we'd expect them to make up 237 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:10.080 more than four percent of the prison population if atheists actually have a greater proclivity 238 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:12.840 for living a life of crime and violence. Of course, these numbers should 239 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:17.720 be taken with a grain assault. Despite being illegal to discriminate against someone based 240 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:21.879 on the religious beliefs or lack thereof, there are well known benefits to being 241 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:25.840 religious well in prison. In addition to having extra free time to associate with 242 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:29.720 fellow believers, judges, prison guards, and parole boards are more likely to 243 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:32.919 see you in a more favorable light if you are known to be religious. 244 00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:36.919 So these numbers aren't exactly a clincher for this argument. But I mean, 245 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:40.240 in Dickie's mind, we're already talking about people who believe in God but are 246 00:16:40.279 --> 00:16:42.679 so angry at him that they pretend to not believe in him in order to 247 00:16:42.759 --> 00:16:47.440 live immoral lives. And I can't really see such a person being willing to 248 00:16:47.480 --> 00:16:51.759 take on the Christian label in order to escape certain aspects of punishment, given 249 00:16:51.799 --> 00:16:55.320 that they actively reject it, knowing that that reject and will lead to an 250 00:16:55.440 --> 00:17:00.320 ultimate punishment. So you either have to accept that atheists really don't believe even 251 00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:03.960 God, unlike what Romans one twenty says, or you have to accept that 252 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:07.000 Christians are more likely to be criminals than atheists. After that lengthy quote, 253 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:11.799 he brings up Nietzsche again, this time calling him the architect of the God 254 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:15.559 is Dead movement, which is not actually a thing, at least not that 255 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:18.839 I could find. There is something called Death of God theology, which is 256 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:22.880 actually a largely Christian theological movement from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. 257 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:26.160 There were several versions of it, but my favorite is the one that actually 258 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:30.480 manages to make the Trinity makes sense. God the Father was negated and effectively 259 00:17:30.519 --> 00:17:33.279 died when Jesus came unto the scene, and jesus death in this version is 260 00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:37.960 actually a sacrifice, as that is literally the death of that form of God, 261 00:17:37.079 --> 00:17:41.599 with the Holy Spirit being brought into being to take over after Jesus death. 262 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:45.759 Dickie goes on to call Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini students of Nietzsche, 263 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:49.039 which I find interesting given that Stalin labeled Nietzsche the philosopher of fascism. 264 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:53.160 But that's beside the point, as we now immediately transition to another story of 265 00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:57.160 a school related killing. This time it was of a robbery gone wrong where 266 00:17:57.240 --> 00:18:00.519 two kids attempted to rob a couple of professors, with the plan being to 267 00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:03.240 threaten them into giving them their pin numbers. Yes, I know, it's 268 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:07.680 a tautology, sucket. The way they got into the house was by pretending 269 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:11.240 to be students doing research for a school survey. The killing started when the 270 00:18:11.240 --> 00:18:15.200 professor chastised one of them for not being better prepared with his research questions, 271 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:18.160 resulting in the kid getting angry and stabbing him. But what I find most 272 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:22.319 interesting about this particular story is how Dickie ties it into the topic. He 273 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:26.440 claims that these two young students named Robert and Jim read some Nietzsche and then 274 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:30.519 went on a murder rampage, confessing afterward that Nietzsche had convinced them that God 275 00:18:30.599 --> 00:18:36.000 is dead and no moral values. Existed in previous stories of shootings or killings. 276 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:38.920 Dickie has not shied away from using the full names for anyone in the 277 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:44.559 story. This time, though, it's Robert and Jim killing two beloved Dartmouth 278 00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:48.359 professors. This is a bit suspicious, especially since when you look it up, 279 00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:52.000 not only does James go by James and not Jim, but there is 280 00:18:52.079 --> 00:18:55.839 no mention of Nietzsche or a philosophical moral discussion at the trial, just a 281 00:18:55.880 --> 00:18:59.960 typical robbery gone wrong kind of story, which makes me think that Dickie obscure 282 00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:03.920 the information just enough to make it harder to research, but not enough to 283 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:07.559 be representing a completely fictitious event, though really, with how he represented it, 284 00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:11.359 it basically is completely fictitious. At this point, I'd normally call this 285 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:15.079 the moment or I'm coomfortable saying that Dickie is lying rather than just being ignorant. 286 00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:18.480 But honestly, with him, it wouldn't surprise me if he were under 287 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:22.400 the impression that every word he wrote in this book is true. But he's 288 00:19:22.440 --> 00:19:26.680 just copying bad information without properly vetting or attributing it. But I mean, 289 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:30.400 that's a kind of dishonesty on its own. So either way, Dickie is 290 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:33.480 being dishonest, and yes, you can apply this opinion retroactively to the previous 291 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:37.839 chapters. After he's done blaming atheism for individual murders and shootings, where at 292 00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:41.559 best it was only tangentially related, and at worst it wasn't even a factor 293 00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:45.039 to begin with, he turns to the writings of Aldus Huxley in order to 294 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:49.000 support the statement that many of those who embraced atheism did so because of their 295 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:52.720 desire to live immoral lives without guilt. To achieve this, they had to 296 00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:56.079 kill God and deny the word of God in order to sin without guilt. 297 00:19:56.759 --> 00:20:00.599 I'll get to the Huxley quote in a moment, but first I would just 298 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:03.599 like to point out that the ability to behave immorally without guilt is something that 299 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:08.400 Christianity accomplishes by offering a system of forgiveness by proxy. Did you do something 300 00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:12.319 that hurts someone else? Sure, feel guilty about it, but then confess 301 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:15.759 that sin to the Lord and rest easy in the knowledge that He has forgiven 302 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:21.279 you and has washed your sins away. Remember Jeffrey Dahmer interesting detail about his 303 00:20:21.319 --> 00:20:23.440 story that has often left out when apologists use him as an example of what 304 00:20:23.480 --> 00:20:27.839 atheism causes people to do is that before he converted to Christianity, in prison 305 00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:32.440 while being arrested, he said, for what I did, I should be 306 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:36.119 dead. In later interviews after his conversion to Christianity, he said, if 307 00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:38.480 a person doesn't think there's a God to be accountable to, what's the point 308 00:20:38.519 --> 00:20:42.519 in trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges, Which is 309 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:45.440 a typical type of thing to hear from apologists. So if I had to 310 00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:48.799 guess, I'd say that this was a thought that he retroactively applied to his 311 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:52.880 life, rather than something that he actively thought well committing his crimes. But 312 00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:57.720 my point is before he became a Christian he admitted to feeling guilty for what 313 00:20:57.759 --> 00:21:02.039 he had done. After he became a Christian, he was able to release 314 00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:04.839 his guilt without ever requiring that the friends and families of his victims forgive him, 315 00:21:06.119 --> 00:21:08.720 stating I have accepted him as my Lord and Savior, and I believe 316 00:21:08.759 --> 00:21:11.880 that I, as well as everyone else, will be accountable to him. 317 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:15.880 In other words, he doesn't need to feel guilty anymore. He will be 318 00:21:15.880 --> 00:21:21.920 held accountable to God, which in pretty much every Christian denomination I'm familiar with 319 00:21:22.200 --> 00:21:25.960 means that he gets to go and enjoy eternal paradise, but his heavenly mansion 320 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:27.720 will be a bit smaller than others because of his sins in this life. 321 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:32.359 If Christianity is true, he got to live out the last years of his 322 00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:37.200 life guilt free and is now enjoying eternal bliss, while several of his victims 323 00:21:37.240 --> 00:21:41.160 are no doubt being eternally tortured for the crime of having died without accepting Jesus 324 00:21:41.160 --> 00:21:44.720 as their Lord and savior. Some of them were kids. One of his 325 00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:48.319 fourteen year old victims was on the run from an abuse of stepfather. Does 326 00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:52.480 a kid trying to get out of a dangerous home situation deserve eternal torture from 327 00:21:52.519 --> 00:21:56.160 being desperate enough to accept fifty bucks in exchange for some nude pictures? Does 328 00:21:56.240 --> 00:22:00.200 Dahmer deserve eternal paradise because he apologized to Jesus for sending that kid to eternal 329 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:04.720 torture. Christianity has this weird double edged sword where it weaponizes guilt against good 330 00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:10.319 people for harmless things like masturbating, but then absolves the guilt of horrible people 331 00:22:10.359 --> 00:22:12.720 with nothing more than an apology to Jesus. The more heinous the crime, 332 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:17.759 the more emphasis there is on freedom from guilt, with the harmless stuff being 333 00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:21.200 exaggerated in order to keep people feeling like they need to go to church and 334 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:25.160 more importantly, tithe in order to not be guilty anymore. This is why 335 00:22:25.279 --> 00:22:29.480 churches have such a problem with sexual predators in their ranks. Their system could 336 00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:33.599 not be better designed to entice immoral people into positions of authority. Then they 337 00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:37.920 get to abuse their authority to do their immoral things, and when they get 338 00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:41.519 caught, they appeal to the forgiving nature of the religion. We're all fallen 339 00:22:41.640 --> 00:22:45.359 humans in need of God's grace. I am ultimately answerable to God, so 340 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:48.480 no need to involve the secular authorities or anything that would only damage the church's 341 00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:52.400 reputation. Of course, the apologetic answer to Dahmer's confession that he felt guilt 342 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:56.880 before he was a Christian is simply that this is because no matter how hard 343 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:00.400 the atheist denies God, God's moral laws cannot be ignored. The problem here 344 00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:04.400 is that this just undercuts the very reason that atheists are said to be denying 345 00:23:04.440 --> 00:23:08.079 God rather than actually not believing in God. Not only does such an attitude 346 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:11.880 leave the atheists looking like petulant children who know that they'll face consequences for their 347 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:15.960 actions, but think that pretending that they won't face those consequences will somehow let 348 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:21.319 them live guilt free. But since they feel guilty anyway, what is even 349 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:25.759 the purpose of pretending that the consequences don't exist? Do Christians think that atheists 350 00:23:25.799 --> 00:23:29.039 are no better than the four year old who boldly proclaims that he owns the 351 00:23:29.079 --> 00:23:32.160 house now so he doesn't have to go on time out. If that's how 352 00:23:32.200 --> 00:23:34.680 you truly see atheists, then I hate to break this to you, but 353 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:38.839 you're actually the one who is in denial. You deny that the atheists is 354 00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:42.799 being truthful when they tell you what happens in their own inner life because you 355 00:23:42.839 --> 00:23:45.599 want to hold onto the idea that the Bible is the word of God, 356 00:23:45.880 --> 00:23:49.319 and the Word of God says that atheists are petulant four year olds, so 357 00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:52.480 that must be the case no matter what they say. Now, this is 358 00:23:52.519 --> 00:23:57.119 not me just engaging in two koqua. This is Christians obviously being in denial 359 00:23:57.240 --> 00:24:03.200 because they literally have to deny what countless atheists have already told them about their 360 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:06.720 own inner lives. In order to hold on to their beliefs. And while 361 00:24:06.759 --> 00:24:10.039 you can say that countless Christians have told atheists that they are just suppressing the 362 00:24:10.039 --> 00:24:14.119 truth in unrighteousness, it is a fact that an atheist is a better authority 363 00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:17.200 on what goes on inside their own head than a letter that was written to 364 00:24:17.240 --> 00:24:21.759 a specific congregation in Rome that was facing specific issues with that portion of the 365 00:24:21.839 --> 00:24:26.720 letter basically explaining the hedonistic behaviors common in Rome and in treating the Roman Christians 366 00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:30.960 to avoid those same behaviors. Actually, read through the first couple of chapters 367 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:33.759 of the Book of Romans sometime ignore the headings and chapter divisions. Those were 368 00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:38.319 not in the original text. It was just one long letter without those divisions. 369 00:24:38.359 --> 00:24:41.799 There it is clear that the message Paul was sending was geared towards the 370 00:24:41.880 --> 00:24:47.799 Roman Christians who are preaching against the hedonistic behaviors of Rome while still engaging in 371 00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:52.039 them themselves, so that they are without excuse. Line in Romans one twenty 372 00:24:52.279 --> 00:24:56.440 actually looks like it's being directed at Christians who are engaging in the dishonorable passions 373 00:24:56.440 --> 00:24:59.839 and the lusts of their hearts and whatnot, Given that chapter two starts with 374 00:25:00.200 --> 00:25:03.319 therefore you have no excuse, o man, every one of you who judges, 375 00:25:03.480 --> 00:25:07.359 for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you, the 376 00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:11.160 judge, practice the very same things. And then it continues on a tirade 377 00:25:11.160 --> 00:25:15.240 against hypocritical Christians. He even goes on to say that when the Gentiles do 378 00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:18.359 what the law requires, even though they do not have the law, this 379 00:25:18.440 --> 00:25:22.920 shows that the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience bears witness, 380 00:25:22.920 --> 00:25:26.759 and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when God 381 00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:30.880 judges the secrets of men. He's not talking about Christian gentiles here. He's 382 00:25:30.920 --> 00:25:36.680 talking about everyone who is not born Jewish and saying that their consciences can give 383 00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:41.000 them an excuse on judgment day. But of course, apologists don't generally like 384 00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:45.279 contexts. They like to take verses as individual and complete thoughts, even though 385 00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:48.680 the authors of the various books of the Bible were not generally writing that way. 386 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:51.960 With a few exceptions, like the Book of Proverbs. Paul did not 387 00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:55.119 separate the chapters of his letter to the Romans. He didn't put in the 388 00:25:55.160 --> 00:25:59.519 headings in various places to separate the chapters into subcategories. He just wrote one 389 00:25:59.640 --> 00:26:03.240 letter, and when you read it through without stopping where your daily devotional says 390 00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:07.319 to stop, it looks like Romans one was an admonition against Christians who were 391 00:26:07.319 --> 00:26:11.480 behaving unrighteously. I could very well be wrong here, but even if I 392 00:26:11.559 --> 00:26:15.200 am, it is abundantly clear that Romans one eighteen through twenty three is not 393 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:18.920 a passage that is meant to be taken in isolation and does not mean what 394 00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:23.680 apologists say it means when they do isolate it. So anyway, Huxley, 395 00:26:23.880 --> 00:26:29.039 remember Huxley. Dickie quotes a lengthy segment of a chapter from Huxley's Ends and 396 00:26:29.079 --> 00:26:33.480 Means where Huxley states that the philosophy of meaninglessness was how he and his contemporaries 397 00:26:33.640 --> 00:26:37.599 justified indulging in sexual freedom. Of course, this quote is found in the 398 00:26:37.640 --> 00:26:41.160 middle of a chapter where Huxley explains why he considers such a philosophy to be 399 00:26:41.200 --> 00:26:44.759 wrong, saying things like it was the manifestly poisonous nature of the fruits that 400 00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:48.480 forced me to reconsider the philosophical tree on which they had grown. And a 401 00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:52.920 philosophy of meaninglessness is accepted only at the suggestion of the passions and is persisted 402 00:26:52.920 --> 00:26:56.480 in only by those whose heredity and upbringing make it possible for them to live 403 00:26:56.519 --> 00:27:00.240 as though the world were at least partially meaningful. Worth mentioning here is that 404 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:04.319 Dickie introduces Huxley as a famous atheist. Huxley was not an atheist. He 405 00:27:04.359 --> 00:27:08.640 was an agnostic and was quite spiritual. This whole chapter is filled with him 406 00:27:08.720 --> 00:27:12.079 arguing for a deeper meaning to the world, and he uses things like art 407 00:27:12.079 --> 00:27:15.680 and music and the transcendent seeming experiences that they can bring on, as well 408 00:27:15.720 --> 00:27:19.880 as religious experiences as evidence for this deeper meaning. He was inducted into the 409 00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:25.960 Vedanta Society of Southern California, an organization formed to study, practice and spread 410 00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:30.359 the Hindu philosophical tradition of Vedanta. The dude was not an atheist and was 411 00:27:30.519 --> 00:27:33.640 using his admission about why he engaged in the philosophy of meaninglessness for basically the 412 00:27:33.680 --> 00:27:37.880 same purpose that Dickie is here to cast dispersion on anyone who doesn't believe in 413 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:41.480 a deeper meaning to the universe. But hey, Dickie gave Huxley a long 414 00:27:41.599 --> 00:27:45.400 quote, so I'll do a longish one too. Examples of reversion to barbarism 415 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:51.079 through mere ignorance are unhappily abundant in the history of Christianity. The early Christians 416 00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:55.000 made the enormous mistake of burdening themselves with the Old Testament, which contains, 417 00:27:55.079 --> 00:27:59.039 along with much fine poetry and sound morality, the history of the cruelties and 418 00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:02.960 treacheries of age people fighting for a place in the sun under the protection of 419 00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:07.759 its anthropomorphic tribal deity. Christian theologians did their best to civilize and moralize this 420 00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:11.640 tribal deity, but inspired in every line dictated by God himself, the Old 421 00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:17.599 Testament was always there to refute them. Ancient ignorance has been sanctified as revelation 422 00:28:18.359 --> 00:28:22.039 that seems relevant to this chapter. We now move on to Christopher Hitchens and 423 00:28:22.119 --> 00:28:26.000 his book God Is Not Great, with Dicky saying Throughout this book, Hitchens 424 00:28:26.039 --> 00:28:30.359 repeatedly attacked the Christian view of morality and decency. It is clear that Hitchins 425 00:28:30.359 --> 00:28:33.759 wanted to liberate mankind from the standards and laws of God's Holy Word that prohibits 426 00:28:33.799 --> 00:28:37.839 sexual impurity. While I haven't read it in a long time, and certainly 427 00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:44.160 Hitchens did advocate for sexual liberation from Christian puritanicalism, I don't recall that book 428 00:28:44.240 --> 00:28:45.920 really having a whole lot to do with sex. It was mostly about the 429 00:28:45.960 --> 00:28:49.920 hainous and immoral acts carried out by believers, with explanations about how they use 430 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:53.680 their religion to justify those acts, with the underlying message that a belief in 431 00:28:53.720 --> 00:28:59.440 God is always detrimental. Whether you agree with that conclusion or not is irrelevant 432 00:28:59.480 --> 00:29:02.160 here, so not going to get into it. My point is mainly that 433 00:29:02.200 --> 00:29:06.000 Dickie is representing that book as though it is a long winded screed complaining that 434 00:29:06.079 --> 00:29:10.240 Christians should let people have more sex and nothing else. He finishes his chapter 435 00:29:10.279 --> 00:29:14.279 by listing a bunch of Bible verses that give what he calls universal principles and 436 00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:18.000 laws, most of which seem superficially to be good to the modern reader, 437 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:21.599 things like Micah six eight. What does the Lord require of you but to 438 00:29:21.680 --> 00:29:25.440 do justly, love, mercy, and to walk humbly with your God Ephesians 439 00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:29.680 five two. Walk in love as Christ also loved us and Ephesians four thirty 440 00:29:29.680 --> 00:29:33.200 two. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just 441 00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:36.680 as God in Christ also forgave you. And sure, if we ignore the 442 00:29:36.680 --> 00:29:40.480 bits about having to walk with God as being a moral principle. It's all 443 00:29:40.599 --> 00:29:44.240 fine and good, I guess, but this book has been an exercise in 444 00:29:44.359 --> 00:29:48.440 hatred towards atheists. Where is the love your enemies? Bless those who curse 445 00:29:48.480 --> 00:29:51.079 you, do good to those who hate you, Pray for those who spightfully 446 00:29:51.160 --> 00:29:53.039 use you and persecute you. I mean, he listed that one too, 447 00:29:53.079 --> 00:29:56.759 but he doesn't seem to practice that one, or any of these for that 448 00:29:56.839 --> 00:30:00.200 matter. He seems rather to delight in the idea of atheists getting what's coming 449 00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:03.640 to them. The final moral principles he gives are just the ten commandments, 450 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:07.200 the first three of which are to not have any other gods before Yahweh, 451 00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:11.039 don't make graven images, and don't take God's name in vain. None of 452 00:30:11.039 --> 00:30:15.319 those are inherently moral commands. It essentially just amounts Dickie saying be the same 453 00:30:15.319 --> 00:30:19.799 religion as me. Commandment four is to keep the Sabbath day holy. So 454 00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:25.359 we're four for four on commandments that not only are not inherently moral but basically 455 00:30:25.440 --> 00:30:30.000 add up to suck. God's five is to honor your mother and father. 456 00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:33.400 But this one is hardly a universal I don't think even Dickie would want it 457 00:30:33.400 --> 00:30:37.079 to be applied universally. I doubt very much that he would agree that a 458 00:30:37.160 --> 00:30:41.839 Muslim child should honor their father and mother by remaining Muslim. Six is thou 459 00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:45.880 shalt not kill. We needed to get through half of the commandments before we 460 00:30:45.880 --> 00:30:49.359 get to one that is actually a good moral principle, though notably, Christians 461 00:30:49.359 --> 00:30:55.039 of Pastor Dicky's persuasion are often pro death penalty, pro military, pro police 462 00:30:55.079 --> 00:30:57.799 being able to use lethal force, indiscriminately, pro gun and so on. 463 00:30:59.279 --> 00:31:02.119 Of course, they get around this by pointing out that the word translated as 464 00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:06.519 kill here usually carries a connotation of murder rather than just killing, so it 465 00:31:06.559 --> 00:31:08.960 should be thou shalt not murder. And when the government, the military, 466 00:31:08.960 --> 00:31:14.279 the police, and people defending themselves kill, that's lawful killing, not murder, 467 00:31:14.319 --> 00:31:17.960 so it's okay. But then those same people will turn around and refer 468 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:22.839 to abortion as baby murdering, even when it is lawful, so some consistency 469 00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:26.519 would be nice here. Anyway. Six is a potentially good commandment, but 470 00:31:26.640 --> 00:31:30.920 lacks nuance, so it's subject to manipulation by motivated reasoning. Seven is to 471 00:31:30.039 --> 00:31:33.960 not commit adultery, with the modern definition of adultery sure, I can agree 472 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:38.839 that this one is good, but the biblical definition of adultery is essentially exclusive 473 00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:42.920 to a woman cheating on her husband. The men are apparently free to sleep 474 00:31:42.920 --> 00:31:45.359 around, and we can see this play out in the story of the Woman 475 00:31:45.400 --> 00:31:49.000 Caught an Adultery and John. They say that she was caught in the act 476 00:31:49.079 --> 00:31:52.880 of adultery, and yet they only brought the woman before Jesus. The man 477 00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:56.720 she was with apparently got off scott free. Eight is Thou shalt not steal, 478 00:31:56.799 --> 00:32:00.400 which is generally a rule I can agree with, but I'm not going 479 00:32:00.440 --> 00:32:04.160 to turn someone in if I see them stealing food or baby supplies. Nine 480 00:32:04.319 --> 00:32:07.359 is thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, But interestingly, Dickie 481 00:32:07.359 --> 00:32:12.720 abbreviated it to thou shalt not lie, which is it itself a lie. 482 00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:16.440 The commandment was about giving testimony in a legal setting regarding your neighbor, essentially, 483 00:32:16.599 --> 00:32:20.720 don't lie when you're on the witness stand. To misrepresent it as an 484 00:32:20.759 --> 00:32:25.279 admonition against lying when it is not is amusingly perfectly fine given the actual ninth 485 00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:30.119 commandment, but is strictly forbidden given the version that Dickie is presenting, But 486 00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:31.839 of a catch twenty two. If you ask me, if I lie about 487 00:32:31.880 --> 00:32:35.920 it and say it's a commandment not to lie, I'll be breaking my own 488 00:32:35.960 --> 00:32:39.119 commandment. But if I don't, then there's not really an explicit condemnation of 489 00:32:39.160 --> 00:32:43.000 the act of lying in the Bible. Well, okay, I mean there 490 00:32:43.160 --> 00:32:45.200 is in a lot of places, but it'd be missing from the big ten 491 00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:51.160 and they're already in desperate need of bolstering. And the tenth and final commandment 492 00:32:51.279 --> 00:32:55.799 is to not covet don't want things, which again is very interesting coming from 493 00:32:55.799 --> 00:33:00.440 Dickie. From my own personal experience with the man, which if you aren't 494 00:33:00.440 --> 00:33:04.200 familiar, he was essentially the official pastor of the multilevel marketing thing that I 495 00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:07.359 was in. But from that experience I know that he is very much pro 496 00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:14.359 capitalism. The fundamental driving force of capitalism is covetousness. I want more, 497 00:33:14.640 --> 00:33:17.319 so I will work more to make more money to buy more things. Even 498 00:33:17.359 --> 00:33:22.440 in the ridiculously naive rose colored glasses view where capitalism is based entirely on empathy, 499 00:33:22.799 --> 00:33:27.559 the market punishes bad actors, and the most successful entrepreneurs are the ones 500 00:33:27.559 --> 00:33:30.960 with enough empathy to recognize and meet the needs of their customers. Capitalism is 501 00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:36.519 still based on wanting more. Here, the entrepreneur who meets their customers needs 502 00:33:36.759 --> 00:33:39.920 does so because they want more money to buy more stuff. The one who 503 00:33:39.920 --> 00:33:44.160 fails to meet their customers needs ends up with a failed business, which is 504 00:33:44.160 --> 00:33:46.680 considered to be a failure for its lack of ability to provide money for the 505 00:33:46.720 --> 00:33:51.960 owner to buy the stuff that they want. We have a whole ass economic 506 00:33:52.039 --> 00:33:55.119 system that stands in violation of the Tenth Commandment, an economic system that Dicky 507 00:33:55.319 --> 00:34:00.960 vigorously defends, and yet he also calls the tenth Commandment a universal principle or 508 00:34:00.039 --> 00:34:05.880 law. He ends by asking the question what universal principles and laws can atheism 509 00:34:05.920 --> 00:34:08.119 give us? And yeah, he's actually got us here, because atheism is 510 00:34:08.119 --> 00:34:12.199 simply saying no as an answer to the question do you believe in God? 511 00:34:12.559 --> 00:34:16.039 It doesn't actually provide any principles. It can certainly be something that informs your 512 00:34:16.039 --> 00:34:20.719 principles. I don't believe in forgiveness by proxy, So when I've done something 513 00:34:20.760 --> 00:34:23.440 to hurt someone, I would consider making amends with that person directly to be 514 00:34:23.519 --> 00:34:28.800 the right thing to do. Now, Secular humanism is a moral framework that 515 00:34:28.880 --> 00:34:31.280 is informed by empathy rather than divine command I don't want to say informed by 516 00:34:31.280 --> 00:34:36.159 atheism here, because there are highly religious people who are also secular humanists. 517 00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:38.679 But they've come up with several principles that beat the snot out of the Ten 518 00:34:38.719 --> 00:34:43.440 Commandments, and they do so without even endorsing slavery. Like the Ten Commandments 519 00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:47.920 does things like securing justice and fairness in society, eliminating discrimination and intolerance, 520 00:34:49.119 --> 00:34:52.920 promoting altruism, integrity, honesty of responsibility, etc. So that's it for 521 00:34:53.000 --> 00:34:57.239 today. Today's Common to the Day comes to us from Sean Meyer, who 522 00:34:57.239 --> 00:35:00.760 says about Matt Powell saying the sun burns different than fire on Earth because the 523 00:35:00.760 --> 00:35:02.639 air and space is different than the air. Here, may I just say, 524 00:35:02.679 --> 00:35:06.679 when Matt Powell said air in space, I suppose he was referring to 525 00:35:06.679 --> 00:35:09.480 the hydrogen gas that is found in space, followed by him explaining that hydrogen 526 00:35:09.639 --> 00:35:13.719 is everywhere in space. I can see why you might think that's what he 527 00:35:13.760 --> 00:35:15.440 said from the clip that I played, and I don't need much of an 528 00:35:15.440 --> 00:35:20.079 excuse to play them ontag or so let's just hear it. But in space, 529 00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:24.000 wouldn't it be a different scenario based on the fact that the space and 530 00:35:24.079 --> 00:35:28.400 the air in the space is much different than the air we have here. 531 00:35:28.719 --> 00:35:31.239 That out of his mouth go burning lamps and sparks, the fire leap out. 532 00:35:31.239 --> 00:35:37.079 The dinosaurs they discovered have the dragons they've discovered have chambers in the back 533 00:35:37.079 --> 00:35:37.960 of their head. It's where they can breathe fire. But that's just a 534 00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:40.360 couple of things. I mean, if it's about survival of the fittest, 535 00:35:40.400 --> 00:35:45.960 and we evolved from African Americans into other Americans, what about the African Americans 536 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:50.119 that are still alive today. Well, I don't see anything wrong with quote 537 00:35:50.119 --> 00:35:52.360 mining. I believe if we study history, you know, the Confederates were 538 00:35:52.360 --> 00:35:57.719 able to shoot parod actyls t rex. They had short, stubby arms, 539 00:35:58.440 --> 00:36:00.920 and apparently now the chicken is able to do a handstand with those arms. 540 00:36:01.119 --> 00:36:06.159 Think about this. We have more in common genetically in certain areas with a 541 00:36:06.199 --> 00:36:09.599 gorilla than with an ape. Yet they say genetically we evolve from apes. 542 00:36:09.639 --> 00:36:13.400 We can tell based on genetics. Honestly, John, I don't know a 543 00:36:13.440 --> 00:36:16.280 ton of technical terms. I'm very simple when it comes to science. I 544 00:36:16.360 --> 00:36:21.199 just enjoy simple science. So yeah, out of context, you don't know 545 00:36:21.239 --> 00:36:23.519 that he's talking about why the sun can burn, but in context, that 546 00:36:23.599 --> 00:36:28.599 was actually him explaining that we can't know how the sun burns because fire would 547 00:36:28.599 --> 00:36:31.280 work differently in space because the air is different. Sean, I know you're 548 00:36:31.280 --> 00:36:35.760 a Young Earth creationist who's embarrassed by Matt Powell's tupidity, so I'll give you 549 00:36:35.800 --> 00:36:38.519 this tip. If you're looking at anything that Matt Powell is put out, 550 00:36:38.920 --> 00:36:43.719 not only is he always wrong, but he is always wrong in a way 551 00:36:43.719 --> 00:36:45.880 that is even more wrong than you thought it was possible to even be. 552 00:36:46.360 --> 00:36:50.360 Thanks for watching. I'll be back next Friday with more, but if you 553 00:36:50.400 --> 00:36:52.159 need to get your Rhino fix in before then, I live stream with service 554 00:36:52.199 --> 00:36:55.239 every Wednesday at eight thirty Eastern on my other channel, The Watering Hole. 555 00:36:55.599 --> 00:36:59.840 Thanks to Tim Robertson for being my Patreon and sponsorship's manager, and special thing 556 00:37:00.159 --> 00:37:02.639 is always to my patrons, Thrash, a GI builder, and all the 557 00:37:02.760 --> 00:37:07.320 rest who are the videos that I introduce as probably being short before proceeding to 558 00:37:07.360 --> 00:37:12.760 make the longest video in the series. That is my channel. If you'd 559 00:37:12.760 --> 00:37:15.679 like me to constantly guess wrong about things that are hypothetically completely under my control, 560 00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:19.360 you can join us on Patreon for as little as a dollar per week 561 00:37:19.360 --> 00:37:22.559 over at Patreon dot com, slash vice Rhino, or by supporting the channel 562 00:37:22.559 --> 00:37:23.840 in one of the other methods that can be found at links dot vice rhino 563 00:37:23.880 --> 00:37:27.800 dot com, which is also where you'll find links to my other projects. 564 00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:30.840 If for whatever reason you want to send me stuff my pelbox addresses in the 565 00:37:30.840 --> 00:38:04.239 description, See you next time. If atheists actually had a greater If atheists 566 00:38:04.280 --> 00:38:14.599 actually have a greater proclivity proclivity. The word is proclivity, proclivity, not 567 00:38:14.719 --> 00:38:20.119 an amateur clivity, a proclivity. Really, don't believe. Fuck off your 568 00:38:20.199 --> 00:38:23.519 un Do not disturb. Why are you disturbing? Killing two beloved Dartmouth professor, 569 00:38:23.679 --> 00:38:30.320 killing two beloved Dartmouth, Dartmouth, Dartmouth, dart Mouth, dart Mouth,