Talk Heathen

Latest Episodes:

Talk Heathen 07.35 with JMike and The Cross Examiner Sep 03, 2023

Show notes

show notes upon receipt
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Talk Heathen 07.34 with Forrest Valkai, Jmike, and Jamie The Blind Limey Aug 28, 2023

Show notes

On today’s special episode of the Talk Heathen we have three hosts! The amazing trio of Forrest Valkai, Jmike, and Jamie the Blind Limey make this an amazing episode.
Kevin in OR is deconstructing his mennonite faith and is unable to shake the fear of going to hell. Religious trauma can be hard to get over, this even happens to people that haven’t believed in decades. It fades over time, you’ll realize you’re thinking about it less and less. It may help to look into the origins of the hell belief, it’s fascinating.
Krissy in KS participated in a PAID in advance “digital seance” and felt really out of place. A family member paid to try to contact her deceased brother. We’re very sorry for your loss and that you had to go through that. Gently talk to your family about your hesitancy with this scheme.
Ben in TX is seeking advice after deconverting last week. Build a good epistemology and find or start a community of like minded people. You’re also pretty close to us, come visit us on the last Sunday of every month. You’re free to learn about and deconstruct every belief that pops up.
Seven in GA wants to find a way to circumvent the weak vs hard atheist labels. Really it comes down to Theist or Atheist, Gnostic or Agnostic. Just make it about the belief, not the certainty of that belief.
Ed in AL is frustrated by creationist debunks of evolution, like one kind of animal only creates the same kind. Oooh, great call for Forrest! There are examples across the fossil record of transitional “kinds”, actually everything is a transitional form. For the sake of argument, proving evolution wrong doesn’t point to creationism or a god. Evolution is the logical conclusion of biology, your offspring is always slightly different.
Thank you for tuning in to your community! This week's Talk Heathen To Me prompt is: What is biblical advice that could get you arrested?
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Talk Heathen 07.33 with ObjectivelyDan and Richard Gilliver Aug 20, 2023

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notes upon receipt
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Talk Heathen 07.32 with Richard Gilliver and ObjectivelyDan Aug 14, 2023

Show notes

Today’s episode of the Talk Heathen ObjectivelyDan joins Richard Gilliver to answer your (hopefully) wonderful questions.
Muji in Europe asks what issues atheists have with god wanting people to do good deeds, like love one another and give to charities? It’s not all good… Non-believers don’t believe gods exist and can do all those same good deeds, sans holy book. The quran supports the owning of human beings and child marriage! That’s straight up immoral and we reject that “holy” book.
Nataka in NY wants to talk about free will. There are categories within free will, the hosts tend to lean more toward determinism. Humans are simply physical beings in a physical system so anything we do is physical as well. There is no good evidence of anything supernatural.
Mike in WA disagrees with our weekly poll, proclaiming god is not evil but hates queer people. (yay, random transphobia. ugh) Well, hell is super evil. Why does god allow that much evil? Why does god slaughter people? Under your definition as evil is something we don’t want done to yourself, your god is evil.
Ahmed in Bangladesh purports there are scientific miracles in the quran, like allah referencing the big bang and creating every creature from water. This is post hoc rationalization. In this case, applying gained knowledge to ancient written text. Big Bang does not equal “heavens and Earth”.
Meryssa in UT is leaning more atheistic but thinks there is a small possibility there is something supernatural and a divine experience could change her mind. We haven’t experienced anything divine and there are no compelling arguments otherwise. We don’t think someone shouldn’t believe anything without good evidence.
Otari in Georgia claims the problem of evil is a good argument to prove god. A god isn’t necessary to know what is right and wrong. We can still make moral judgements even if objective morality exists or not. Even if a god exists, doesn’t mean they are good.
Nick in OH asks why humans categorize animals in this “can harm and can’t harm”. We agree harming animals for no reason is bad. Hard to sum this call up. This call dives into arguments regarding ethical vs unethical treatment, analogies to eating humans, economic impacts, and more.
Thank you for tuning in to your community! This week's Talk Heathen To Me prompt is: You are in Hell! Who is your roommate?
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Talk Heathen 07.31 with Doctor Ben and Christy Powell Aug 06, 2023

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Talk Heathen 07.31 with Doctor Ben and Christy Powell
show note when received
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Talk Heathen 07.30 with Jamie Boone and Jamie The Blind Limey Jul 31, 2023

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Today’s episode of the Talk Heathen is a tag team of Jamies. Jamie Boone and Jamie The Blind Limey team up to … talk about veganism a lot.
Tim from MN is disheartened by atheists going dogmatic. Claiming to see similarities of not being able to question something: citing being pro-vaccine even though the Covid-19 vaccine can be harmful. It comes down to risk management. The consensus of medical professionals says it’s best to get vaccinated.
Nick from OH claims veganism is inline with secular morality and we’re risking pandemic causing microbes. Sure it can be a healthier diet but we don't agree it’s a morally superior stance. There are widely varying takes on veganism by atheists and secular humanists.
Live from the audience, Gabriel asks The Jamies take on the affordability of veganism. That's a good point not often brought up. Not everyone is in an economic position or location for one to go vegan.
Sorry Reg-Guy, the call dropped. Sounded like an excellent call, please call back!
Thank you for tuning in to your community! This week's “Talk Heathen To Me” prompt is: Wrong answers only, why is god hiding from us?
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Talk Heathen 07.29 with Doctor Ben and Richard Gilliver Jul 24, 2023

Show notes

In today’s episode of the Talk Heathen, Doctor Ben and Richard Gilliver take calls ranging from values to the resurrection.
Josh from NY claims that prayer is “incredibly helpful” and goes on to say prayer isn’t simply a cure all. Prayer is about a coin flip in terms of effectiveness. You shouldn’t accept something like prayer without evidence that it works. Get checked by a medical professional if you have any illnesses. Prayer doesn’t help, at all.
Amanuel from TX asks how atheists come up with their values or ultimate purpose given we don’t believe in a deity? There are thousands of deities proposed by humans, even thousands of denominations in christianity alone. Any Abrahamic holy book is loaded with immoral laws, proclamations, and values. We’ll stay away from that nonsense.
Martin from The UK claims Christ’s resurrection as described in the bible is historical fact. A retelling of a story in an old book is not evidence of a fact, let alone one written decades after said event. Don’t trust christian apologists, they tend to start with a belief and disregard opposing evidence.
Connor in TX wants perspective on a frustrating religious argument he had, someone questioned his beliefs. Respectfully decline to talk about religion in a professional setting. Arguments tend to elicit strong emotions and reactions. Make it a boundary and involve HR if available.
Latrina in Canada claims there is a placebo effect in prayer, it can be helpful for an individual prayer. We’d rather someone seek medical treatment. Placebo's don’t work on a lot of physiological issues, like cancer or broken bones. The risk isn’t worth any benefits. People have relied on prayer and died, or their condition worsened.
Thank you for tuning in to your community! This week's “Talk Heathen To Me” prompt is: What flier would you not expect to see on a church bulletin board?
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Talk Heathen 07.28 with Christy Powell and Kenneth Jul 16, 2023

Show notes

In today’s episode of the Talk Heathen, Christy Powell and Kenneth take on callers with questions of belief and truth.
Chloe in PA asks how we should react if religion pushes prosocial behavior. Do you need religious beliefs to do good things? Even if you can get a positive result out of a lie or fiction, it is incredibly dangerous to do so. Why are people just fine believing things they have no evidence for? If you choose to block out evidence and science, you will be using the same broken epistemological tool that anti vaxxers use.
Kaden in FL has evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Empty tombs, martyrdom, and changed minds can not possibly be used to demonstrate the resurrection happened as the supernatural claim. Even if we combine all the claims and grant them as true, we still have little data points that need a narrative constructed and that narrative is not the most simple explanation. Natural explanations for the claims are more likely than the resurrection. Even if Jesus were to be demonstrated to exist, how is the empty tomb evidence that he rose? Why are the claims of Jesus resurrecting different from the claims in the Quran such as Soloman talking to birds?
James in Canada has some claims about Jesus, the tomb, his true teachings. Can you see the distinction between a claim and the evidence for a claim?
Ryan in KY believes that something does not have to be a scientific fact for it to be a fact and that the Bible is perfect with no things that are untrue. If it is all about interpretation, does it matter if it is accurate? What does it mean to know something? What makes something worthy of belief? Why should we believe anything in the Bible and that god created the universe? Why are faith claims not discussed in simple language? We are encouraging you to be more critical in the way you think about these things.
Otari, in the Nation of Georgia, interprets the Bible literally. How do you resolve some of the obvious contradictions in the Bible? If you don’t read the Bible, how is it that you interpret it at all? How can the Catholic church have teachings aboutmorality that are infallible, while spending billions of dollars settling sexual abuse cases and enabling the behavior for this abuse to continue?
Billy in LA describes legislation that requires all schools K-12, and universities to have the words, “In God We Trust” in every classroom. How is this separation of church and state? The people who write this legislation do not care if there are people who believe in a different god or if there are atheists in the class. These are indoctrination attempts and propaganda. There are some groups that are doing things to push back such as using Arabic to write the required words.
Thank you for tuning in to your community! The question of the week is: What is a great slogan for Satan!
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