Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to my podcast. This is an audio
Speaker 1: version of my videos available to make listening to my
Speaker 1: stuff in the background easier than YouTube makes it. But
Speaker 1: since my videos are primarily made for YouTube, there may
Speaker 1: be occasional references to visual materials. If you'd like this
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Speaker 1: dot com, slash Vice Rhino. Please enjoy.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to my channel Vice Rhino. Here today,
Speaker 2: I have a funny shaped hole in my heart? What's
Speaker 2: that all about? That was a weird intro? What is
Speaker 2: going on here? Well, I'm sure you guys are all
Speaker 2: familiar with the Christian evangelist telling people that they have
Speaker 2: a hole in their heart that only God can fill.
Speaker 2: And so we constantly try to fill the void, or
Speaker 2: fill those things or avoid other things because we just
Speaker 2: got to keep moving. I know that everyone is empty inside.
Speaker 1: Why is that? Because we're born, we're sort of a
Speaker 1: hole in our heart.
Speaker 2: There is a whole in our heart that only God
Speaker 2: can fail.
Speaker 1: Pascal the great seventeenth century scientists and philosophers stated, and
Speaker 1: every human heart is a God shaped.
Speaker 2: Vacuum that only God can fail. This results in atheists
Speaker 2: like me flippantly joking about having an atrial septal defect
Speaker 2: in the shape of a cross or something. So what
Speaker 2: is up with that? Well, put simply, the evangelist is
Speaker 2: under the impression that everyone's lives will feel empty and
Speaker 2: unfulfilling unless they turn to Christianity. Pastors will preach about
Speaker 2: how they tried to fill that God hole with everything
Speaker 2: from sex and porn to drugs and parties, but it
Speaker 2: was only when they gave their lives to Christ that
Speaker 2: they finally felt a lasting satisfaction. But what if I
Speaker 2: told you that there is some truth to this, that
Speaker 2: people really can find a sense of meaning and purpose
Speaker 2: in their religion, and that this has the potential to
Speaker 2: provide them with the lasting satisfaction that they want in
Speaker 2: their lives. Because that is true. Atheists myself included, like
Speaker 2: to think of themselves as rational people, people who believe
Speaker 2: things based on evidence, logic, and reason. And yet when
Speaker 2: I point out that religious people tend to be happier
Speaker 2: and more fulfilled in their lives, many atheists, myself included,
Speaker 2: bristle at this fact. And yet a fact it remains. Now.
Speaker 2: Of course, most of us who bristle at this fact
Speaker 2: also know the reason it is a fact. It's not
Speaker 2: that any particular religion is true, it's the sociological factors,
Speaker 2: regular social gatherings with like minded people, an automatic level
Speaker 2: of respect for being a religious person in a society
Speaker 2: where religious belief is normative, Knowing people that will bring
Speaker 2: over lasagna when you've just had a baby. The social
Speaker 2: benefits of belonging to a societally dominant in group essentially
Speaker 2: give members of this in group a head start in
Speaker 2: the metrics used to measure happiness in life satisfaction. But
Speaker 2: knowing this doesn't stop it from being a fact that
Speaker 2: religious people do tend to be happier and more satisfied
Speaker 2: in their lives. And sure, we can advocate for a
Speaker 2: more secular society, and in more secular societies, the effect
Speaker 2: of religion on happiness diminished significantly. In fact, that's what
Speaker 2: I do here all the time. But hang on, how
Speaker 2: is this related to my heartholes. Well, it is a
Speaker 2: fact of life that you will not always feel happy
Speaker 2: or fulfilled. It doesn't matter if you are the most
Speaker 2: happy and fulfilled person on the earth. You will eventually
Speaker 2: experience something like the death of a loved one. Empty
Speaker 2: nest syndrome or an existential crisis for myself. As much
Speaker 2: as I have very strong misanthropic tendencies, I don't actually
Speaker 2: do very well.
Speaker 1: On my own.
Speaker 2: I've mentioned this in previous videos, but I have a
Speaker 2: negative self talk problem. The reason mean comments on my
Speaker 2: videos don't bother me is because there is nothing that
Speaker 2: any of you could say that would be even half
Speaker 2: as heartless and cruel as the things that I say
Speaker 2: to myself. When I'm with other people, it's not as bad.
Speaker 2: And between my partner and myself, we have five kids,
Speaker 2: so I'm nearly always with other people. But recently she
Speaker 2: took her kids on trip to see the island that
Speaker 2: she grew up on, and during that trip, all of
Speaker 2: my kids ended up at various multi night sleepovers. I
Speaker 2: was completely alone for more than forty eight hours for
Speaker 2: the first time in years, which, now that I've said
Speaker 2: that out loud, yes, does sound entirely pathetic, But that's
Speaker 2: actually kind of the point. I felt like something was
Speaker 2: missing from my life, even though it really wasn't. It's
Speaker 2: relatively easy to get people feeling like that, so someone
Speaker 2: experiencing that and not knowing why might find themselves thinking
Speaker 2: maybe there's something too, this God shaped hole that the
Speaker 2: evangelist told me about the other day. I think I
Speaker 2: will give church a try. So you go to the church,
Speaker 2: and in most cases, a new face is always welcome.
Speaker 2: You're brand new here. We'd like to personally welcome you.
Speaker 2: Hopefully somebody in the seat next to you will welcome
Speaker 2: you as well. Everyone there is happy to see you
Speaker 2: and make sure that you know it. There's free food
Speaker 2: and coffee afterwards. There's even free childcare. During the service,
Speaker 2: you feel a sense of satisfaction of belonging. But then
Speaker 2: you go home and you see the contrast between what
Speaker 2: you had at church and what your life is normally.
Speaker 2: The feeling of emptiness returns worse than before. But when
Speaker 2: you go grocery shopping, you see Rick, who you recognize
Speaker 2: from church, who now greets you warmly, giving you a
Speaker 2: slight tape the feeling of satisfaction and belonging that you
Speaker 2: had when you were there. This must be what it
Speaker 2: feels like for God to fill that hole in my heart.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't it be nice to have that feeling all the time?
Speaker 2: And thus we have religious institutions co opting the normal
Speaker 2: human desire for connection and at least on the part
Speaker 2: of the fellow church goers. This is probably completely unintentional.
Speaker 2: I've gone to enough churches of various denominations throughout my life,
Speaker 2: and this is a fairly constant thing throughout them, and
Speaker 2: the people doing what amounts to love bombing are being genuine.
Speaker 2: I can tell you that because in the past it's
Speaker 2: been me doing that and I was genuine. Maybe some
Speaker 2: are being cynical about it, but I'd wager that they
Speaker 2: are in the minority, And in fact, if this were
Speaker 2: all there was to the story, I would fully support it.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, go to church, make yourself happy and satisfied
Speaker 2: by having that community. In an increasingly online world, having
Speaker 2: a real world community of people who care about each
Speaker 2: other is becoming increasingly important. But the unfortunate fact of
Speaker 2: the matter is that the church is most likely to
Speaker 2: engage in the kind of outreach that will lead to
Speaker 2: a version of this scenario are also the ones with
Speaker 2: the most harmful messaging, the evangelical ones. That's what evangelical means.
Speaker 2: Evangelizing is Christians working to spread Christianity. But the evangelicals
Speaker 2: are the top of the class when it comes to
Speaker 2: hating LGBTQ people being against women's rights, being prone to
Speaker 2: conspiracy theories, voting for the worst politicians, and so on
Speaker 2: and so forth. Intentions be damned. The functional result of
Speaker 2: this dynamic is that the church prays upon emotionally vulnerable people,
Speaker 2: giving them what they need, but masking it as belief
Speaker 2: in God. You don't want to feel that emptiness, so
Speaker 2: you come to church, and by the way, you'll get
Speaker 2: a lot less of that sense of community if you
Speaker 2: don't agree with us on these issues that really and
Speaker 2: truly have nothing to do with religion whatsoever. The people
Speaker 2: most likely to fall victim to these tactics are people
Speaker 2: with low self esteem, people who are socially isolated, people
Speaker 2: who are going through grief or experiencing trauma. I mean, hell,
Speaker 2: they'll deny it, but there are stories of former Jehovah's
Speaker 2: witnesses who were taught to do things like search through
Speaker 2: obituaries or hang around cemeteries in order to find people
Speaker 2: to witness to. I would call these vulnerable people ripe
Speaker 2: fruit ready for Jehovah's harvest. It's more than a little
Speaker 2: slimy if I'm honest, and remember what I said about
Speaker 2: a real world community becoming increasingly important. Well, there are
Speaker 2: people for whom it's not practical. If you're a member
Speaker 2: of the LGBTQ community and you live in the depths
Speaker 2: of the Bible Belt, you sure as hell aren't going
Speaker 2: to be turning to the church for community. But if
Speaker 2: you're not publicly out, and you don't know anyone who
Speaker 2: is publicly out, then how are you supposed to find community?
Speaker 2: For people in situations like that, the Internet is a gift.
Speaker 2: It's a place where you can go and find people
Speaker 2: like you, people who share the loneliness that you feel,
Speaker 2: knowing that they too would be rejected if they made
Speaker 2: their true self known. I don't want to downplay this.
Speaker 2: This is a category that I find myself in, not
Speaker 2: for my LGBTQ experience. My particular brand of queerness made
Speaker 2: it so easy to blend in with the straits that
Speaker 2: I fooled myself and thought I was one for most
Speaker 2: of my life. But I've always had a hard time
Speaker 2: making friends as a child. Growing up, I bounced from
Speaker 2: school to school, transferring to avoid bullying, and at each
Speaker 2: school I would have maybe one friend if I were lucky,
Speaker 2: and that friend would inevitably be the other unpopular kid
Speaker 2: in my grade, my real friends were the other weirdos
Speaker 2: that I found on the internet, other kids who didn't
Speaker 2: fit in. And yes, I did eventually meet most of
Speaker 2: them in real life, so I know that they were
Speaker 2: actual kids, well mostly, But this tendency to form online
Speaker 2: relationships has followed me into adulthood. My closest friends are
Speaker 2: people who live scattered all across North America. The physically
Speaker 2: closest one is a thirteen hour drive away, so when
Speaker 2: my partner went away for a week, there was no
Speaker 2: one I could just call to go hang out with.
Speaker 2: To reiterate, I know that there are people for whom
Speaker 2: an online community is the only option, and I'm not
Speaker 2: shitting on that, but it is important to be aware
Speaker 2: that for those of us who rely on online communities,
Speaker 2: we are inherently more vulnerable to these kinds of tactics.
Speaker 2: Just having an awareness of the tactics pretty much automatically
Speaker 2: makes them less effective. And honestly, if you're in my audience,
Speaker 2: it's a pretty safe bet that you won't be accepting
Speaker 2: any church invitations anytime soon. Anyway, I'm off track. My
Speaker 2: point is that everyone will, at some time in their
Speaker 2: life feel the feeling of dissatisfy, loneliness, or emptiness that
Speaker 2: will make them vulnerable to the You have a God
Speaker 2: shaped hole in your heart apologetic even among Christians. If
Speaker 2: you are feeling the hole, then that's a sign that
Speaker 2: you need to strengthen your faith. You should pray more,
Speaker 2: come to Wednesday night church as well as Sunday morning church,
Speaker 2: go in for counseling with the pastor and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: But the whole isn't God shaped, it's human shaped. Jesus
Speaker 2: doesn't fill the hole when he comes inside you. People
Speaker 2: do that. Don't blame me for that one. They're the
Speaker 2: ones that are constantly using sexualized language to describe their
Speaker 2: relationship with Jesus. It's not me when the Holy Spirit
Speaker 2: comes upon you, haven't you had the Holy ghosts coming you?
Speaker 2: You pic please.
Speaker 1: Fill me the money.
Speaker 2: Having meaningful relationships with other human beings is one of
Speaker 2: the most effective ways of filling that hole. At church,
Speaker 2: they provide seemingly meaningful human relationships and then they tell
Speaker 2: you that it's God filling the hole, not the p
Speaker 2: that's it for this one bit shorter than normal. Thanks
Speaker 2: for sticking by me as I play around with different
Speaker 2: types of videos. Today's comment today comes to us from
Speaker 2: X four iron Man twenty X, who says you helped
Speaker 2: me deconstruct and now I hear you are a sellout.
Speaker 2: You know, I really wish critical comments would be more
Speaker 2: specific or detailed. Like last week there was a person
Speaker 2: who complained that I didn't fact check the statement that
Speaker 2: Israel is committing genocide. But despite the fact that I
Speaker 2: use high quality sources to back up that statement, they
Speaker 2: brought nothing to the table to back up their statement,
Speaker 2: and now here apparently I'm a sellout. Why am I
Speaker 2: a sellout? I don't know. Best I can come up
Speaker 2: with is the fact that I take sponsorship sometimes. Sorry
Speaker 2: that my kids like to eat, I guess, but if
Speaker 2: it makes you feel better, I turned down way more
Speaker 2: than I take do. Y'all remember Established Titles. I took
Speaker 2: a deal with them for one ad, then the whole
Speaker 2: It's a scam controversy hit. And not only did I
Speaker 2: turn down a very lucrative follow up deal that would
Speaker 2: have required zero effort on my part, they just wanted
Speaker 2: me to rerun the ad I had already made. But
Speaker 2: I also went into the video that they did smile
Speaker 2: anonsor and deleted that ad. I've also stopped working with
Speaker 2: ground News because they get uncomfortably close to demand and
Speaker 2: control over parts of the video that are not part
Speaker 2: of the ad, and that is a non negotiable for me.
Speaker 2: If a company sponsors me, they don't get to choose
Speaker 2: what else I say in those videos. In fact, if
Speaker 2: you go through my channel's history, you might notice that
Speaker 2: the videos that focus on the LGBTQ community are the
Speaker 2: most likely ones to be sponsored. There's a reason for that.
Speaker 2: YouTube has in the past been very bad about demonetizing
Speaker 2: any LGBTQ related content. So if there was a video
Speaker 2: that I wanted to respond to that dealt with anything
Speaker 2: LGBTQ related, I would wait until I had a sponsor
Speaker 2: lined up before covering it. That way, if YouTube didn't
Speaker 2: pay me for it, I wouldn't need to worry about
Speaker 2: lost income. So taking sponsor money actually allows me to
Speaker 2: be more authentic. The only other thing I can think
Speaker 2: of is that I sell merch but you can buy
Speaker 2: it merched up ice rhino dot com. But let me
Speaker 2: tell you, if that counts of selling out, then I
Speaker 2: have a really low price because nobody buys my I
Speaker 2: made just over one hundred dollars for merch over the
Speaker 2: last year. Really bringing up the bacon with that one.
Speaker 2: I guess so, I guess what I'm saying is by
Speaker 2: my march, it'll put you in a very exclusive club.
Speaker 2: God anyway, Yeah, I'm a sellout apparently. Point is, if
Speaker 2: you're gonna say something bad about me, be specific so
Speaker 2: that I can at least know what the you're talking about.
Speaker 2: Thanks for watching. I'll be back next Friday with more,
Speaker 2: but if you need to get your rhino fix in
Speaker 2: before then, I live stream service every Wednesday eight thirty
Speaker 2: Eastern on my other channel, The Watering Hole, and periodically
Speaker 2: published shorts on the channel Vice Rhino Shorts. Thanks to
Speaker 2: Piper for being my editor, and special thanks as always
Speaker 2: to my patrons, Brian Brehany, Mechtheist, and all the rest
Speaker 2: who are the plug that fits perfectly into all the
Speaker 2: holes that are my channel. If you'd like to definitely
Speaker 2: totally not be a sexual thing, you can join us
Speaker 2: on Patreon for as little as a dollar per week
Speaker 2: over at Patreon dot com, slash Vice Rhno, or by
Speaker 2: supporting the channel and one of the other methods. I
Speaker 2: can be found at links out viceround dot com which
Speaker 2: is also where you will find links to my other projects.
Speaker 2: Maybe this is me selling out. If for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: you want to send me stuff, my pobox addresses in
Speaker 2: the description. See you next time, Fie