Speaker 1: Understand the thinking atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,
an idea.
Speaker 2: The population of atheists this country is going through.
Speaker 1: The rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If
I tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth,
not because.
Speaker 2: I put my hand on a book and made a.
Speaker 1: Wish and working together for a more rational world.
Speaker 2: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness.
Truth Fusian wisdom will come to you that way.
Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the
Thinking Atheist podcast hosted by Seth Andrews.
Speaker 2: Okay, So the entire nation is on alert or be
and much of the world is on alert for political
reasons as the bombs are dropping and the chaos continues
to ramp up. And on top of that, I'm here
in Oklahoma. We are on alert for a different reason
because it is again tornado season. Now it's always funny
to see Native Oklahomas and people who just moved here
and the different attitudes because the people who just moved here.
When the sky turns green and everything gets really still
and it's kind of humid in about eighty three degrees
and you can just smell it like something's going down.
There's gonna be a funnel at some point that drops
out of the sky. The new person is like, oh
my god, what do we do? Where do we go?
They freak out, But the person who was born here,
we're out in the yard with our phone video up
looking for rotation. We think it's awesome. I mean not
in the sense that there is destruction of property, loss
of life, but I mean as far as the awesomeness
of nature to be able to see something like that.
And it used to be so rare to capture a
tornado on video because we didn't have funds, we didn't
have cameras when I was growing up. It was extremely
rare for someone who happened to have, you know, an
sd VHS video camera pointed in the direction of a tornado. Now,
no matter where it drops, somebody's getting footage, probably in
four K, and you're going to see it on television nationwide.
So I'm that guy. You know, the radar turns purple,
and the meteorologist is telling us what's going on. You know,
he's going here and here's the damage path, blah blah blah.
And I'm out front in the yard and I'm looking,
just trying to see it. The storm shelters open, Natalie's ready,
the dogs are ready. We have to go find Kat.
But he goes in the storm shelter with us. But
I'm not yet. I'm out there and it's really exhilarating.
But my favorite part, my favorite part of being in
Oklahoma in tornado season is every year I get to
learn the names of small towns in this state that
I'd never before knew existed. Peppered throughout Oklahoma are these
little one horse towns, like an intersection, a stoplight, a
gas station, maybe a tiny courthouse, and one police officer
who's like sitting in his car at a speed trap
because that's all there is to do. There's a shit
ton of these little towns. And so the meteorologist is like,
all right, we've got rotation over here in southwest Oklahoma.
Looks like it's moving this direction now. If you're in
the if you're in the region of and these are
actual names of towns. If you're in the region of Greasy, Oklahoma,
there's a place called Greasy. It's named after a creek
near the town. There's a town in the southeastern part
of Oklahoma, called Frogville bow Legs, Oklahoma. It's named after
a Native American chief of the Seminole tribe, Chief Billy
bow Legs. So you can go to bow Legs, Oklahoma.
There's bug Tussle, Oklahoma. We've got rotation. Looks like there's
a twister on the ground. If you're in the neighborhood
of bug Tussle, you better take shelter. I'm watching television.
I am just mesmerized. Slap out Oklahoma, hooker Oklahoma. Okay,
like okay, so it's okay, Okay. There's a town with
a three letter name initials I X L Oklahoma. I
don't know what they stand for. What the hell? Slaughterville
hog Shooter. That's my favorite so far of all the
years I've been watching. I just wait every March April
May for Travis Meyer. Our meteorologists use the word hogshooter.
It's almost like a bingo game. A check off hogshooter,
got hogshooter, bug Tussele, We've got non cookie town, Frogville bingo.
That's me. Another awesome part of storm season and watching
the weather guys on television is that we have storm trackers.
We have all of these storm chasers. They get in
their cars and vans and trucks. They are trained and
they will follow their radar and all the meteorology information
that they've got, and they will go and take audio
and video, and they'll call in to talk to the
meteorologist at the TV station for updates. And they have
helped to save a lot of lives. Okay, so I'm
not trying to diminish them. But when there's nothing to
talk about, when there's no actual report, and yet Travis
Meyer or whoever goes to them anyway, let's talk to
He's out here near Stillwater, Oklahoma. Ron. What are you
see it out there? Well, trave, we see clouds and
we've got a few sprinkles of rain, and there's a
tiny bit of wind about ten fifteen miles an hour,
and the roads are wet, and so is the car.
Back to you, Trave, Thanks so much for the update.
I'm sorry. Why did you go to ron? If an
ef three bursts out of the sky, that's when we
go to Ron. If baseball size hail plummet's out of
the sky, that's when we go to run. Let's head
out to Ricky. Ricky's down south of Moore, Oklahoma, we've
got some action on the radar, Ricky, what do you
see it? Well, we've got a little gray in the sky.
I'm sure I saw a raccoon or some other small
creatures scatter across Highway thirty. You know, they say animals
might have an intuition about whether or not shit's gonna
go down. They don't say shit. And actually, you know
what a guy did say shit? It was last year.
It was last year. And let's go out to so
and so. I remember the storm chaser's name, but they're
live on television and he's cruising along down the highway.
He's got his traffic cam pointed out through the windshield
and he's given his report traverer looking at this, we're
heading this direction whatever, and a big ass piece of hail,
like a golf ball sized piece of hail drops out
of the sky and smashes his windshield. Boom, and he
says what we would say, He goes, shit. Oh, Travis
was Oh, we're very very sorry about that. We're well
sorry to our viewers about that. Where oh, we we
understand he was. He was surprised and one of those
but we we do, we do appreciate so much his
his input. Sorry, sorry about that. And I'm like Jesus Christ.
How naive and proude do we have to be as
a culture? What would anybody say? I don't care. If
you're a kid, you're twelve years old. A golf ball
sized piece of hail strikes your windshield and cracks it
as you're doing sixty miles an hour on Highway thirty seven,
you say, shit, it's a release. It's natural. I think
it's even healthy. And speaking of swear words, man, I'm
all over the place this morning, Lucky you, I'm all
over the place. What the hell is up with these
social media sites that are striking anything with a swear
word or what is considered a controversial word. You know,
it's not like we don't know what the words are.
But now, when you and I are scrolling Facebook or
blue Sky or whether it's YouTube, and you're titling something,
if you use a let's say you type shit in
for some reason instead of the ie, you do an
exclamation point so that your comment is not suppressed by
an algorithm because you were not being offensive with profanity. Well,
who doesn't look at that and still see shit? And
it goes beyond profanity. If you talk about any controversial subject,
you talk about abuse, Heaven forbid, you have to address rape.
I understand this is an extremely controversial thing. But if
you strike out the A and you put I don't know,
a hash sign or something, people still see the word.
We're all adults here, We're talking about an adult issue.
What the hell is going on? I was talking to
Forrest Valcai, and he was saying that people who address
serious issues like suicide, if you use that word somehow,
the algorithm might push you out of the conversation. You
might even get a content strike. And so people are
now saying things like they on a lived themselves. I'm sorry,
I just it's like you want to come back to
something lighter, You want to laugh. When it comes to
censorship or over dubbing language, most TV movies these days
they allow the occasional shit. I think bitch can be said, certainly,
Damn's been around forever. Hell is the easy one. But
to watch television editors clumsily cover swear words with replacements
is almost a spectator's sport. And I think the best
one is from a movie called Snakes on a Plane.
Samuel L. Jackson, who was known for his f bombs.
There's this scene where they've got a plane full of
venomous snakes at thirty nine thousand feet and he decides
it we're sick of getting bit and killed and we're
gonna do something about it. So he says something like
I am sick and tired of these motherfucking snakes on
this motherfucking plane. And the funny part about it is
is right before he says the line, he pulls a
pistol out of his pants and holds it up. He said,
I'm tired of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane.
And then once he says the line, he sticks the
gun back in his pants, like you need to Brandon,
you got to show everybody the gun to give the line. Well,
you know what, let me play the clip. Let me
play the clip. This is the version that everyday network
television played for the country.
Speaker 3: I have had it with these monkey fighting snakes on
this Monday to Friday play.
Speaker 2: Now, I think the people who were preparing the film
for television broadcast. I'm guessing he recorded the audio separately
around the time of the film of the movie, knowing
it would eventually go out to the public on network.
I think they knew it was folly. I think they
knew this is folly. You're not going to cover this
with anything that looks legit, and so they just decided
to throw spaghetti against the wall and just go crazy
with it. I'm sick and tired of these monkey fighting
snakes on this Monday to Friday plane. And here's a
little backstory, talk about taking some bunny trails. You just
caught me on a day. But okay, So when the
film was being shot, they were going for a PG
thirteen rating. Well. PG thirteen is problematic when it comes
to the F word. So you can apparently say it
once or twice if it doesn't relate to sex, but
if you are saying it's sexually, that automatically kicks you
into an R rating. So for marketing reasons, the producers
wanted Snakes on a Plane to be PG thirteen and
they're like, uh, you know, we can't have that line.
Samuel L. Jackson's like, no, I've got to say the
word motherfucker in this movie. There's motherfucking snakes all over
this plane. And they're like, we can't do that. So
they wrap the film. They test the movie, and it
turns out they decide they need it to have a
motherfucker in it and release it as an R film,
and they had to go back and reshoot it just
so Samuel L. Jackson could swear more. I hated the movie.
It wasn't I just don't want But the overdub is awesome.
How did I get to where I've gotten? Oh my goodness,
back to back to what's happening all around the planet
right now. I was talking to my lovely wife. She
has the biggest heart, and for the longest time, you know,
she was like, you know, some of these people are
such good people who've supported Trump. They're just wrong and
you know they've been brainwashed and they're in a disinformation
bubble and we just need to try to engage, and
you know, there's got to be a way to reach them.
So optimistic, so kind, so good. She is out of
Fox to give the less specially the last six months
have altered both of us. But Natalie is done. She's like,
I'm done. I'm done with these people. There's no excuse.
Ignorance is not an excuse. I don't care what network
they've been watching. I don't care what newsfeed or algorithm.
I don't give a shit. There is no excuse for
not seeing who he is, hearing what he says, and
watching what he does. I'm done. She's like, we need
to just go out and shame these people. I'm gonna
shame them. I'm gonna call them out if you're on
my Facebook feed, and if you're gonna go defend Ice
after they shoot Renee Good in the face three times,
Alex Preddy in the back ten times, you're gonna defend Ice,
I'm gonna freaking shame you. I'm gonna say these people
had a name, these people had lives, They were protesting legally.
This is an outrage. It's a secret police, a domestic
terrorist organization. How could you the Epstein files? Oh my god,
how dare you support a man who so obviously raped
children and was part of a sex trafficking ring and
was one of the best buddies of the planet's most
notorious pedophile. She's gonna shame them. She's done. Done. It's
been interesting to watch, and honestly I wouldn't tangle with her.
She'll mess you up. She's like, I'm sick and tired
of these motherfucking magas on this motherfucking plane. That's what
she would say. I am sick and tired of these
monkey fighting magas on this Monday to a plane, That's
what she would say. And I think a lot of
people feel that I've changed. There's scar tissue on my heart.
I try to be optimistic. I was talking to Fish
Stark and there is what's his name, a comedian and activist,
is it Steve hoff Setter? Let me look this up, Hofstetter,
Steve hoff Stetter, And he said something that has gotten
me to think there are a lot of people who
were like I will never, ever, ever, ever forgive Trump
voters for where they brought us. And I have felt
that in my heart right or wrong, good or bad,
rational or irrational. I know it's an emotional response. I
have felt that, how in the world do I give
you any space after the damage you have wrought on
the rest of us. But he said something that I
think I buy and it's actually helped me. Let me
pull that video clip up and let me play it
for you. I'll come back and comment and then we'll
get to your calls. Okay.
Speaker 4: There have been many people publicly regretting their vote for
Donald Trump, and I understand the instinct to tell those
people to go fuck themselves. For those of us who
have been sounding the alarm about his Trump First platform
for over a decade, I get it. It is frustrating
to see the same people who put us in this
situation expecting to be welcomed back with open arms. There
is a kind part of me that wants to say
great to have you, welcome to the resistance. There's also
a strategic part of me, and the strategic part of
me wants to do everything I can to not push
them into voting for Jadie Vance or Tom Cotton or
Ted Kruz or whatever me first fascist shit bag that
the GOP runs next. But there is another part of
me that understands this instinct to shut them out for
what they've done. You don't just get to ruin the
world and then say sawe and be welcomed back to
civilized aciety. You don't get to destroy the public institutions.
It took centuries to build to ruin the lives of
hundreds of thousands of immigrants just for the color of
their skin, to enrich blillionaires at the expense of hard
working Americans. The same podcasters that helped elect Donald Trump
are now talking about the damage he's done from ice
and tariffs and covering up Epstein, and so much of
me wants to tell them to go fuck themselves to
the harm that they've caused. Many years ago, I was
a guest on Joe Rogan's show, Andrew Schultz credited my
work for why he focused on growing his YouTube, and
the one that hurts the most, I counted Theovaugh among
my close friends. I haven't spoken to any of them
in many years, and it is so difficult not to
reach back out just to scream at them for how
irresponsibly they've used their platforms. But the kind part of
me and the strategic part of me is still there.
So here is what I will say to them and
any Republican politician or pundit or person who finally realized
what the rest of us have known for years that
Donald Trump is and always will be a selfish con
man who is simply looking out for Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Do the work.
Speaker 4: If you're actually sorry for your vote or how you
used your platform and the harm that it's caused, what
are you going to do to fix it? Because saying
that you're sorry is not enough. You have to put
the work in to fix this, because it is going
to be a lot of work. If you're actually sorry,
get in the trenches with the rest of us. Support
local programs that help the people that you've hurt. Platform
the candidates that will help us rebuild the institutions that
we've lost. Community, organize, show up, and when you do that,
we will know that you actually mean what you say.
But if you don't, then you can go fuck yourself.
Speaker 2: I think that makes a lot of sense. All right, Fine,
you were brainwashed, you were wrong, you were essentially part
of a hate group, but you crawled your way out
and you realize now you're wrong, you were wrong, and
you did great damage. Well that's the first part of
the conversation. And at that point you still don't get
any quarter. What are you going to do about it?
Get your ass out there and sound that alarm and
pound that drum and ring that bell and say I
was wrong and this is an atrocity, and other people
need to hear my voice. They need to go into
maga circles and they need to have hard conversation. They
need to contact their elected officials, They need to join
us on the front lines of the marches. They need
to be as loud and public as possible. Show me
there's an entire culture of people who were kind of
quiet quitting Donald Trump. Have you noticed they're not really
saying anything. They just got kind of quiet. The yard
signs disappeared, maybe they peeled the bumper sticker off the car.
They yet it's Trump, but they're sitting in the shadows,
or they're sitting on their hands, And I'm like, you
don't get quarter from me. If you have true remorse,
if you regret your decision, if you know damage is
being done, you got about ten seconds to get your
ass next to me, shoulder to shoulder, on the front lines,
and prove that you give a damn. Otherwise I don't
give a damn about you. That's where I have come.
Is that too much? Is it not enough? Oh? I know,
opinions going to vary, and I would be curious to
hear what your opinions are. We will take your calls
in just a moment. Hang on, you've heard me babbel
for twenty minutes. Now. I would like to hear what
our callers wish to talk about. As we go to
the phones. Kayla dialing in looks like from my relative location, Kayla,
are you there?
Speaker 5: I sure, I Ane, It's good to talk to you.
Speaker 2: What's going on, Kayla.
Speaker 5: I'm tired. I'm tired. Seth. Yeah, I'm tired of Trump,
I'm tired of Maga. I'm tired of everything going to shit.
I'm tired of everyone around me being a supporter and
just so blindly following it. I'm just I'm exhausted.
Speaker 2: Back in the day, did you have this thought, this
will be a deal breaker, that's going to be a
bridge too far, this is beyond the pales, certainly, that
will wake them up. Did you think at some point
there would be a moment for sure?
Speaker 5: For sure, especially coming from a family where we know
people close to us and our family and friends that
have been sexually abused or assaulted. We have friends that
are not white, and you know, like we we tried
to be loving people. I was raised to be a
loving person that color doesn't matter and doesn't matter if
you're a man or a woman, where we should all
be treated equal and with love and respect. And yet
it doesn't matter what proof comes up, It doesn't matter
who's been hurt they still just the kool aid is
so strong they just refuse to see any of it.
Oh yeah, when the Democrats did this. Yes, unfortunately how religious?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 5: Growing up, I was in the church quite a bit
and it was more with my mom's side, But as
I got older, my dad kind of drank the kool
aid too, And they're turning into really really hardcore like
Bible thumpers. And I don't get it, Like, I just
don't understand it.
Speaker 2: Do they know about you and what your opinion is?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's the thing that really bothers me. They do there,
or at least they know to a degree I've gotten nowhere.
I just feel like I can't even have that conversation
because I get so worked up and I can't deal
with just their tactics of oh well, what about this,
or oh well, let me make up this fact or
let me use this made up fact. I don't know.
It's crazy.
Speaker 2: There are thousands of people in this audience who are
feeling exactly what you're feeling. Have you been tempted to retreat,
to sort of physically pull away? I know, emotionally it's got.
Speaker 6: To be that way.
Speaker 5: Well, and that's the other thing you know, my relationship
with you know, my parents especially and my father just
had in recent years really improved, and now it's like,
now there's this new wedge or this wedge that has
been worsening for the past several years because of this
political and ideological divide, and it's made my relationship with
my family members that are closest to me. It's made
our relationship so shallow because they're so little that we
can talk about.
Speaker 2: It's also hard when you don't respect them. How do
you respect somebody who supports a pedophile and a grifter
and a con and a manchild and all those things.
Speaker 5: You know, absolutely, it makes it such a hot and
cold back and forth struggle to try to nurture my
relationship with them as it was improving. But now I've
got this new, awful tumor on our relationship, just stressing
it because our beliefs and our feelings about things are
so vastly different, which again just blows me away, because
I mean, they raised me, and I don't want to
be like I turned out fine, but I feel like
I turned out pretty okay. Yeah, but yet they've made
this regression in how they view the world and how
they see people and it is it's really disgusting. It's scary.
Speaker 2: I hope you survive. It's a low bar.
Speaker 5: I do too. I do too, I hope. I just
like I don't have any answers or anything. I just
want to know I'm not alone.
Speaker 2: You are absolutely not alone, and I think many share
your frustration and you can vent here. This is a
place where you can express yourself freely, maybe in ways
that you don't feel liberated enough to do. And you know,
in terms of mom and dad, it's okay. We got
your back here. So thank you for calling. It's nice
to talk to.
Speaker 5: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: All Right, We'll see you soon.
Speaker 1: Ight.
Speaker 2: There was this article by The Nation magazine. It released
in February on the twentieth of February of this year,
titled magas Reaction to the Epstein Files reveals total moral collapse.
The subtitles as the rights moral charade was always going
to be undone by the Trump of it all. Let
me read the first couple of paragraphs of the article
for you. Every segment of the Trump backing right wing America,
first nationalist Trump loyalists and rank and file MAGA activists
has unsubscribed from the idea that there is any such
thing as right and wrong, much less that wrongdoing should
result in consequences, and in fact there's no behavior. Trump's
GOPCS has too wrong to vote for, and late July
twenty twenty five, almost half a Republican said they would
keep voting for Trump even if he were officially implicated
in Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking activities. Crime is legal where
right wingers are concerned, however heinous the crime is, at
least for themselves. The right still has morals for days
when it comes to black folks, immigrants, and trans people.
Its moral code has always been selected and conditional, rigorously enforced,
and mercilessly punitive toward outsiders and others, but generally indifferent
to even the worst acts by those on the right
side of whiteness and power. Willhoyd's law, coined by music
composer Frank Wilhoyt in a now famous twenty eighteen comment
on a political science blog, neatly captures this truth quote.
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition. There must be in
groups whom the law protects but does not bind alongside
out groups. Whom the law binds but does not protect,
and now it's ditching even its in group protections. The
article goes on and on, and then the rest of
it is under a paywall. And as much as I
do like the nation, I am subscribed to enough publications
and I quite frankly can't keep up, so I'll just
leave it there. I do the same thing with my
television streaming services. Have you noticed. I actually called last
year to the cable satellite company and I'm like, okay, well,
what if I was to put like a receiver TVO
unit and get two actual satellite outlets in my house
to get all the hundreds and hundreds of channels that
I know I'm not gonna watch. Because I thought, well,
I'm starting to subscribe to all these different services, and
they're like, no problem, and I forgot what it came
to a month. It's like ninety dollars a month. Uh well, okay,
Now if you want the unit, the DVR unit, well
that's going to be another whatever. And then if you
want this package that actually gives you the channels you're
looking for, tennis channel, et cetera, Oh, that's a bigger package.
So now you're looking at one hundred and forty one
hundred and fifty a month, and I'm like, I'm sorry,
do you just tell me I'm supposed to pay two
thousand dollars a year for television, and the kicker on
top of having to pay for it all is we're
still watching a shit ton of ads. Well wait a minute,
am I paying for the programming or not? And so
instead it's sort of a death by a thousand cuts.
I got Netflex and I can told Hulu Disney because
screw those people. I got the Peacock Network. I'm subscribed
to Shutter because I like horror movies. I don't know,
there's maybe one or two others, So you figure what
fifteen sixteen a month per I don't know why I
went off on that tangent I just did. I've got
is it Rion or Rain? Dialing in from seven to
four zero? How do I pronounce your name?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 2: It's Rain, Hey, Rain, Thanks for calling? What do you
want to talk about?
Speaker 7: So the original topic was do you believe? Because I've
kind of heard this theory about it around a little bit. Essentially,
the Bible was just kind of created to essentially create
the patriarchy and uphold it, but I kind of wanted
to extend that to just kind of maybe it's to
excuse terrible behavior in general?
Speaker 2: Was Bible created to support the patriarchy and does it
now just serve as an excuse for bad behavior in general?
I'm restating the question to make sure I understand.
Speaker 7: Yeah, basically just kind of essentially was it created to
excuse shitty behavior essentially?
Speaker 2: Well, I can't speak to motivation as to why the
Bible books were written. I mean, there's so much over
so many years and years and hundreds of years, and
we do know that the Bible is imbued with patriarchy, right,
there is very much a diminishing of women into second
class citizenship or worse. So, whatever the other agendas were,
misogyny was certainly a big part of it. Have I
seen people use the Bible as an excuse to do
good yep? Have I seen them use the Bible as
an excuse to be shitty? Yep. So I can't totally
speak to motivation in regard to the authors or the believers.
I think it's situational, person by person. What do you think.
Speaker 7: I think it's very possible. I'm kind of in the
same boat, like, yeah, you could definitely use it that way.
I kind of see it as a tool, a hammer
as a tool. You can use it for good, you
can use it to kill a person. But I have
kind of heard the theory, and I was just kind
of reaching out and trying to see if there's maybe
anybody else that's kind of heard that theory before and
has any evidence like for or against, because it does
make an intriguing theory, but thus far there doesn't seem
to be any concrete evidence for or against it.
Speaker 2: So, I mean, it is the question that the end
zone for the creation of all the scriptures was to
make women less than men.
Speaker 7: I don't know why. I mean, I yeah, I guess
I would be because essentially the patriarchy does do that.
But I've just always kind of heard like, yeah, it was,
you know, just used to support the patriarchy because, you know,
rather than be like, well, how dare human beings do
this to other human beings, essentially it would be like, well,
you're going against this will of something that's untouchable and
so much larger than you and have so much power,
and so essentially the theory kind of goes that it
was basically a scare tactic to not really get people
to think about the patriarchy and how much it's screwing
people essentially and how much power it's given them.
Speaker 2: Well, I can't speak to what motivated the authors. How
I don't even know who the authors were. I think
probably the agendas were wildly varied. But sexism, misogyny, the
subjugation and oppression of women, that's just littered throughout the Bible,
Old Testament and news. So whatever the agenda was, we
know it was a man's book written for a man's agenda.
And this idea that Jesus or God is pro woman
to me is not rooted in any way on the
Christian scriptures, for what it's worth, but it's an interesting question.
Thanks for posing it, Rain, Thanks.
Speaker 7: For calling not problem.
Speaker 2: Have a great day, yep see. I am working on
a presentation about Jesus. I think I did a version
of this maybe ten years ago. I called it the
Changing Face of Jesus, and it talks about how our
gods have always looked like us and kind of fit
what we want or what we think or what our
values are, etc. That Susan B. Anthony quote comes to mind.
I distrust people who tell me what God wants because
it always seems to coincide with their own desires. That's
a paraphrase, but I'm going through this idea that you know,
if I was to walk into a Baptist church down
the road here in white bread, corn fed, red state Jesustown, Oklahoma,
right Protestant Christian Oklahoma, and I was to show them
that artist depiction of the Middle Eastern Christ with the
brown skin, the attributes that were extremely Middle Eastern and
not European Caucasian, what would the response be? And I
think a lot of these Oklahoma Baptists would lose their
minds because their Jesus is white Jesus in their illustrated
children's bibles. It's the one on the portrait hanging in
the lobby, It's the one that they put on the
big screen in the billboards. Is freaking white Jesus, fair skinned,
light brown hair, blue eyes Jesus. And so my presentation
is really about how we make gods in our own image.
And if you go to different cultures throughout the last
almost two thousand years, you see reflections of various identity groups,
ethnic groups, political agendas, etc. They're Jesus looks just like them.
You know, there's a Persian Jesus that really speaks more
to Islam and the prophet character of Jesus who was
not the son of God. You've got Native American Jesus.
You've got African American Jesus. There's a Hindu Jesus. Some
of these are hybrids of Christianity with other religions. Some
people would say that's sack religious, but I'm like, well,
what further evidence do we need that, at least at
some level, we make gods in our own image. So
that's the speech that I'm getting ready to give here
in a few weeks. It will eventually make its way online,
but you know, everybody's got an agenda. And don't tell
me the authors of Scripture didn't have some kind of
an end zone in mind. I've got Ron dialing in
from Canada. Ron, thanks for waiting. Are you there, I'm here?
Speaker 8: How are you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm well, what's up? What do you want to talk about?
Speaker 8: One of the thoughts that I had about Mega, it
feels to me like there are a different species. Like
you mentioned your wife saying, you know how patient, love
it and kind she is. But after ten years, she's
kind of had enough and said, man, these people need
to be publicly shamed. It feels like when you're trying
to talk to some of these folks with their ideologies,
you're just hitting a wall that is impenetrable. And the
propaganda that they've been fed through Fox News, they just
live and breathe it and believe it. How do you
reason with that?
Speaker 2: Oh, this is a question for the anxius. I've attempted
to reason with it over and over and over and
over and over, and right or wrong. I gave up.
I've just written them off. I'm like, if you're going
to have an epiphany, it's going to have to happen
without me. I'm going to steamroll past or over you.
I'm done. And you know, I hate that about myself.
I just hate that I've come to this place.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, you know, I really run into it
with Like I can see the parallel with sort of
the hardcore evangelical group too, where they belies. They have
to tell themselves to believe that Yahweh is a good
and loving God. You know, they twist themselves in not
trying to justify a lot of the you know, genocidal
acts that this so called Levey yahweh does and justify
that and say that, well, God's within his right to
do these things. So it's not hard to see the
next step for with Trump that they just justify and
sort of overlook and give Trump a pass and all
the acts he's doing. Or they'll say, well, you know,
he's kind of like that king that the Bible talks,
but he's not great. But you know, it's what God wants.
And who are we to question God's authority book who
he puts in charge of us. We need to pray
for him.
Speaker 2: If a Democrat is elected in the next presidential election,
watch all of those people stop saying we need to
pray for the president just they're immediately going to go silent. Yes,
there are potential reasons to be optimistic. I just read that.
I think fifty plus congress people are not running again
in the midterms, and the majority of those people are Republican.
Part of me wonders if they're rats that are fleeing
the sinking ship. We see Texas may turn blue. That's wild.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that was wild and deep red riding went blue
by a lot.
Speaker 2: If we do have an election and you know, if
they try not to have an election, I think there's
going to be I don't know what's going to happen,
but it's gonna get Shit's gonna get crazy.
Speaker 8: Do you think Margie Taylor Green is the genuine of
what she's doing. She's just flaeing a sinking ship and
trying to save her skin and try to get Marjorie.
Speaker 2: Taylor Green is a poisonous snake. She waited far enough
into her term so she would get full benefits from
serving in Congress, and only then did she come forward
and start wailing about the Epstein files and the injustice
of it all and going after Trump. And I think
in some ways she's trying to whitewash much of her
own legacy. She has a long time legacy of hateful, bigoted, nasty, awful,
conspiratorial behavior. I'm not gonna forget that just because she
happened to line up on the right side of a
single issue. I think she's a snake. I wouldn't trust
her any further than I can throw her. Yeah, hey, Ron,
I appreciate the call. I got to bust out of here.
Speaker 8: Okay, okaye, thanks so much.
Speaker 2: Yeap, see you later, Marjorie Daylor Green. She walks into
the room. You're still alone, and she has been so awful,
and all of a sudden, I've seen some of my
fellow liberals and they're starting to share her stuff and
say good for her. She's seen the light. I don't
think she has. I think whatever she's doing is self serving.
I think she is as dull as a sack of
wet mice. She's got some nutbar ideas about the world.
She's totally bigoted, totally bigoted. Her heart is not a
good one. She's not going to get a pass from
me just because she happened to line up on Epstein
or whatever. But that's kind of where I fall How
do you fall on? Marjorie Taylor Green? Three one three
Gary is dialing in. Gary, are you with, Oh yeah,
I'm here, all right, Gary, it's on your mind.
Speaker 3: It's all over the place right now. You know Epstein
and everything else, and some of the ship that's coming
down on that. Who is it that said, if you
can get someone to believe absurdities, you can get them
to do atrocities. Well that's where the Christianist Republicans are.
They believe absurdities, they'refore, they're quite willing to do atrocities.
Speaker 2: Voltaire. Those who can make you believe that absurdities can
make you commit atrocities.
Speaker 3: And the thing I find amazing is that they'll come
across well, what if there's Democrats in the f Stein files. Well,
if there's evidence that Democrats committed those kinds of crimes,
they should be punished for them.
Speaker 2: I don't give a shit who's there to files. I mean,
I don't care whoever it is. It's my favorite politician,
my next dar neighbor.
Speaker 3: And the thing is because we're not reflexively supporting our leaders,
which is what they're doing. It's a cult. The Republican
Party is no longer a political party. It's the Trump cult.
Speaker 2: Imagine Abraham Lincoln if he was alive today and looking
at his part, I.
Speaker 3: Think he would be swinging that axe rather freely, you know,
the one to use for real splitting.
Speaker 2: Hopefully he wouldn't be committing homicide, but I understand he
would be extremely frustrated and probably shouting at all the
people who had sold out the party.
Speaker 3: It is a cult. They won't come out of it
because it is a cult. They've drunk the kool aid
to the fact the picture's empty. And I've seen it.
I've seen my own relatives go down that line. My father,
who claims to be, you know, the Christian, is Christian,
that ever Christian, but he supports Trump, one of the
least Christian men I've ever seen.
Speaker 2: You bring up an interesting point that I'll get into
a little more in just a few Gary, But I
do appreciate the call very much.
Speaker 3: It's nice talking to you, all right, brom be good.
Speaker 2: We'll see you later. Okay, go to a Bible banging Christian.
So show me one attribute in Donald Trump that emulates
the best teachings of Jesus Christ, or the best teaching
is in scripture.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Do not bear false witness, not even close guys a
serial liar, Do not lust, do not commit adultery. Humble yourself.
Pride goes before the fall. Are you shitting me? Have
you ever seen a bigger ego maniac? A soft answer
turns away wrath. Don't be a bully, blessed are the meek?
Don't take revenge vengeance his mind saith the Lord Donald Trump,
I think in his book was at the art of
the deal. I know he's spoken it from the stage
on many occasions. His word is get Even if somebody
screws you, screw them back and screw them back in spades.
And of course the evangelical maga Christians are cheering, what
the fuck, I think to myself time after time, the
best teaching of Christ Donald Trump. There's no crossover, and
they just don't care. And I think part of this
is and I think someone had mentioned maybe earlier in
the show, and trying to remember the Bible itself, fundamental
Christianity and high control religions in general prime people to
respond to authority figures with the capital A right. So
if God in the Bible says I want it done
this way, and this is a commandment, and the word
obedience has just littered throughout scripture, obey, obey, obey, obey, obey,
supposed to obey your leaders. We see this in the
patriarchal model for the family, as the wife is supposed
to obey the husband, who is the authority who has
been placed in that position by the greater authority, which
is God, the umbrella authority, and you're just supposed to
obey and do whatever. So if this particular culture slash
cult believes that Donald Trump has been placed divinely by
God above. He is now the one who has to
be obeyed without question. It's a get out of thinking
free card. It's a get out of moral reasoning free card.
He says it. We do it. And this is an
entire culture of followers who've been primed by a religion
to respond to savior figures. Donald Trump says, I alone
can fix it. It was a few years after the first
election that he said I am the chosen one. You've
got depictions of Donald Trump wearing a king's crown. He's
been carved in gold and displayed at the Seapad convention
in twenty twenty one. There's a gold idol of him
in an AI video that he reposted that shows him
standing fifty feet over Guza as he turns the now
decimated Gaza into a Trump resort. Yay, a golden idol.
I just don't understand these people, except that I know
that in many cases, their religion primes them to respond
to any body who shows up, bangs a Bible and
invokes the name of God. And how freaking lazy are
you to follow that kind of person? How awful is
your moral compass. How screwed up is that for you
to look at that guy and see anything other than
just poison. Let me take a real short break more
with you, your calls, whatever you want to talk about
on the way. Before I get back to your calls,
I would like to ask for a favor. I got
a birthday coming up next month, so I'll ask maybe
for a birthday gift your support for the broadcast. I
won't go into details, but it's a weird time for
content creators, and there's a whole bunch of stuff happening
behind the scenes with the requirements and apples making some
maneuvers with how podcasts are distributed on its app blah
blah blah. It is in some ways harder for content
creators to be able to make a living via advertising
unless you are Joe Rogan, unfortunately, and so for people
like me, Patreon helps to fill that gap. It is
just a lifeline. And I'm so thankful to be able
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get the show early in commercial free by becoming a patron.
A lot of folks don't care about that. They just
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a part and they want to support it. It makes
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you as a patron. I'll give you everything I've got.
I'm going to continue to produce content and you know,
try to make a dent as best I can and
help you to do the same. Patreon dot com slash
Seth Andrews and I am bowing. I'm on my knees
bowing in your general direction. Thank you so very much.
I've got Dale dialing in at eight zero three. Dale.
Are you there?
Speaker 6: Yes, Seth? How you doing today? My friend?
Speaker 2: I'm all right, what's up?
Speaker 6: Love, Let's see your show and Seth. People got to
realize that, you know, we've got to get out and
we got to vote and change everything over. But people
got realized for the last forty seven years that it's
slowly been taken over by Israel. We have been taken
from the outside again. And people don't see that today.
They gotta wake up and see because there's time something
comes from BB comes over and straight's out, trumps and
kicks it in the ass and get things going again.
Speaker 2: Well, let me make sure I understand what you're saying.
I know that even many Israelis are opponents of Nutting Yahoo.
They think he's disgusting. They don't agree with the government
and the genocide in Gaza. I know that there are
a great many people who do believe Israel is part
of an end time's narrative. The Zionists, etc. Who say
that this is all biblical and so we have to
support it is reel at any cost, and net and
Yahoo etc. Have certainly been playing on that for who
knows how long? Is that the point you're trying to
make it is.
Speaker 6: Seth it is you know, this has been going on
ever since forty seven years, wouldn't you know they clonalize
and let them all get together. But since then they
have slowly come in and taken over inside our government.
But we need to clean the house and start fresh
again and make it happen.
Speaker 2: Well, hang on. Part of this sounds that there is
a conspiracy theory, and it is often quite a xenophobic
and even racist, where people say that the Jews have
infected all aspects of American society and this is all
part of a vast conspiracy to control our banks and
run the world. I'm not hearing that, am I.
Speaker 6: Well that that's coming, it's coming. But you know, Jews
have the right, You're there's some good people, honest, now
Jewsy Israel. But yeah, it's just the way that the
system is taken over by the Oligar. So I saw
this to it in the Zionis are behind it. You
look at everybody who's in our position in the head,
they're all Zionist Jews. There's some good Jews that there,
really are. They have resistant to us this, but you know,
we've got to get the bad ones out. We've got
to weed things out like everything else.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not going there with you. I mean, I
buy the oligarchy, I buy the billionaire class. I buy
people in the shadows who've been puppeteering the Supreme Court,
et cetera. I do not buy the conspiracy theory that
the Jews are infecting us all and it's the Jews
who are running that show. And if you start to
speak in that way, you realize how problematic that is.
The Jews, the Jews, the Jews, this is part of
a deep state QAnon conspiracy theory about your work.
Speaker 3: Actually, you're right.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you're right, you're right. I'm sorry on that part.
It's not it's not the Jews fault, you know, it's
olig Ouris and people who have the money and powers
take over and they have control of everything. Mainly it's
the Heriage group and all these foundations have money who
have taken and over society. That is the groups who
are running the place. They're itelling Trump and everybody. They're
with the tea. But you're right, Jesus is not the
cause of it. It's just that the people inside the
our government.
Speaker 2: All right, day all I appreciate your call. Thank you very.
Speaker 6: Much, thank you, thank you for your Yeah.
Speaker 2: See, the Heritage Foundation is a conservative Christian foundation. They
are essentially a political action group that has been working
on the order of decades for the Christian nationalist takeover
of the United States. And they've been working with some
big power players. These are not the Jews. Elon Musk,
the world's richest man, the guy who was given access
to all of our private information, taking in all of
these previously anonymous hackers to harvest who knows what kind
of data, and I'm sure he's going to unleash the
AI on that he's not Jewish. There may be a
gap in your understanding when it comes to some of
the conspiracy theories that involve Jewish people. Even Marjorie Taylor
Green when she was talking about how there was a
cabal of well funded Jews who were flying a satellite
over the state of California and using a laser to
set wildfires so that people in this country, the woke libs,
would be able to jam through climate legislation. All of
this it feeds into a very tangible bigotry that we
have to be extremely aware of and resistant too. And
you know, the QAnon folks have a lots of conspiracy
theories and even hatred when it comes to Jewish people
because many of them believe it's part of an end
times narrative. The Zionists, then, are not just people who
want a Jewish state. They are people who are wanting
a Jewish state to be able to go out and
infect the rest of the world with some plan with
a capital P. This is wildly complicated, but I think
we have to approach it fairly, and I think we
have to approach Jewish people understanding that anti Semitism is
spiking it is spiking in this country, and it's spiking
all around the world, and some of these narratives play
into that, and we have to be protectors of people
who are of the Jewish persuasion or culture or religious faith.
I'm not saying we agree with everything they do. We
don't necessarily agree with the dogma. We don't agree with
the superstitious version of the religion, and we certainly don't
agree with everything that Israel says and does. I'm a huge, huge,
huge critic of net and Yahoo. I think he's a
mass murderer. If he was out tomorrow, if he was
in prison, I would be doing a party. I would
host an event, we would have a soiree because I
think he's just among the worst. But as far as Israel,
Israeli's Jews and their right to have a nation, I
fall on that side. It's not a biblical opinion. It's
really more of a political, ga graphical, cultural opinion. I'm
a big fan of the two state solution in the
Middle East. The problem is, I don't think that is
ever going to happen. Can we all just get along?
Isn't there room on this planet for all of us?
And how much better off would we be if we
did away with all the religious backstory. You look at
Mike Huckabee, who is our ambassador for Israel, and you
think about all the bullshit that he's been vomiting out
that's Bible based. Why in the world are we having
foreign policy attitudes and decisions made by a guy who
believes in the Talking Animals book. Why in the world
are we having global policy dictated by Bible Christians. That's terrifying.
It's terrifying. My parents were pro Israel. They had the
sticker on their car Israel. We support Israel, which to
me is so reductive. You support Israel and what right?
That's the first part of a conversation. Can Israel then
do whatever it wants to do? Can it bomb whoever
it wants? Can it declare war? Can it go out
and do this or that awful thing? And we just
support Israel blindly and blankly. Well, that's totally irresponsible. So
I support Israel. I find it potentially destructive. Maybe that
gets us back to authority. As the Bible talks about
the chosen people. Therefore, anything the chosen people and a
chosen representative does is somehow off the hook not available
for scrutiny. I don't know. It's massively complicated. Massively complicated.
That's another issue, because we don't want it complicated. We
want it to fit on a meme. Okay, I guess
I will finish here with a rundown of some of
the major events. I just added a few new ones
to the calendar for twenty twenty six. What the hell
it's going on with Canada? How many events? I got
three events coming up just in Canada or I don't know.
I don't think people are afraining to have a free
thought event here. I know that American Atheists has postponed
their next convention till twenty twenty seven for logistical reasons.
It's not because you know, they were afraid that ice
or somebody was going to crash through the door. That's
you know they're but they're doing their event coming up
next year, first weekend of May, Calgary, the Western Canadian
Reason Conference. We Can Reason going to be a great time.
I will be there for that in Ottawa, Ontario, August
seventh through the ninth, the World Humanist Conference. People are
going to be traveling in from all over the world,
all across the planet, to be a part of that.
Baha Con Canada going to be at Sarnia, Ontario, third
weekend of August. Oh, lookie, there's an event in Wisconsin, Milwaukee,
the Freedom From Religion Foundation National Convention October sixteenth weekend.
And then Huntsville, Alabama, third weekend in October. That's going
to be at the US Space and Rocket Center Marriott
And apparently after we speak and hang out and do
our thing as heathens, then we're going to go and
tour the US Space and Rocket Center And I cannot
wait for that. Details on all these and I'll add
others as they come in at the Thinkingatheist dot com
slash events, and with that, I will bid you a
fund farewell until the next show next week. Be safe,
be goods, and we'll hang out. Then.
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