The Good Atheist Podcast: Episode 58
July 31, 2009 4:48 pm
Welcome back to another episode of TGA’s uber popular podcast. Well, Ok, maybe not uber, but if you’ve never listened to the show, you’re in for a real treat! This week we talk about “Birthers“, a show in Turkey that tries to convert atheists, and the hilarious tragedy of dogma.
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Welcome back to another episode of TGA’s uber popular podcast. Well, Ok, maybe not uber, but if you’ve never listened to the show, you’re in for a real treat! This week we talk about “Birthers“, a show in Turkey that tries to convert atheists, and the hilarious tragedy of dogma.
Remember, if you like the show and want to hear more, we also have a bonus podcast, but you’ll need to become a patron to listen. Don’t worry though, it only costs 20 bucks a year, and you’ll gain access to our huge collection of shows, as well as a future 50 podcasts (assuming we don’t tragically die) for your listening pleasure. If you’d like to support us, then don’t hesitate to become a member.
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I think there’s a rule written somewhere that every living president has to be declared an Antichrist at some time in their presidency, otherwise no one takes them seriously. I think it would be a lot easier for most of these Christians to just come out and admit that they hate the fact that their president has a different skin pigmentation than they do, and they can stop beating around the bush. If you enjoy watching terribly deluded people try and stretch the metaphors of the Bible into specific modern day prophecies, you’ll get a kick out of this guy.
I await the day when someone finds a way to predict that I am the Antichrist as well. If that ever happened, then I know I’ve “made it”.
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Here Steve Doocy shows us precisely why Fox News is such a bankrupt news organization. According to this moron, putting the word “God” in your ad signifies that you must believe in “Him”. By that logic, putting up a sign that says “there is no Santa” somehow secretly acknowledges the existence of the jolly bearded one. Fox’s new slant on the whole controversy of atheism is to constantly remind us that people are “offended” that non-religious individuals are speaking their minds. Guess what guys, it isn’t a fucking crime to offend anyone (well, not yet at least), so get over yourselves.
Can you recognize the relative success of these ads now? Every time one goes up, the media literally goes bananas. I’m starting to appreciate the subtle genius of this campaign, don’t you?
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Superstitious beliefs are deadly. I know most of you in the Western World barely give this a second thought, but in many parts of the world, ancient and deadly rituals are still being practiced. In a small village in India, a 5 year old girl was lured into a field where she was decapitated by the local witchdoctor. He killed poor little Vandana Kumari in order to help a local man produce a male heir. Because a number of young boys had died in early childhood, a human sacrifice was apparently needed to “get rid of these problems”.
In rural parts of India, these kinds of superstitious rituals are still practiced, and the results are always tragic. When will human beings stop believing in the completely absurd? Why the fuck would chopping off a little girl’s head help someone have a male child?
The three men involved have been arrested, so I hope there will be justice for little Vandana’s parents. I would have preferred she lived a healthy productive life, but I guess I`ll have to settle for these douchebags to be in jail for a long time instead.
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How much does church suck? Well, I was never forced to go except for funerals, and even that was slow torture. I can therefore sympathize with this story. A 7 year old boy that led police on a slow speed chase in his father’s Intrepid, all because he wanted to avoid going to church.
I imagine his punishment is simply going to be even more church, so his hasty decision will end up costing him in the end. I just wish I had this kid’s guts; it’s not everyone that will go to such extremes to avoid boring sermons. What’s he going to do to skip church when he’s a teenager; steal a boat? Cuz that would be AWESOME!
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I got a lot of flak a few podcasts ago for saying that the Burkha should be banned, so it’s refreshing to hear that “Hot Atheist Chick” is also on my side. Well, she hasn’t technically taken a side just yet, but I’m pretty sure she’ll see the light soon enough. I also enjoyed her rant against feminists who accuse her of using her sexuality to get her message across. What the fuck is wrong with that? It seems to work pretty well for her, and us guys seem to like it just fine, thank you.
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The Chaser’s War on Everything tackles Biblical litteralism
July 30, 2009 4:27 pm
The truth is, almost no one believes that the Bible is literally true. They just say the do because that’s what they’ve been instructed to say. Most of these people have either never read the Bible, or they have conveniently ignored passages which so clearly call upon human beings to kill homosexuals, disobedient children, witches, fortune tellers, and people who don’t believe in the same God they do. Wow, what a great moral guide you have there!
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Most of the time, religious superstitions are just silly, stupid, or dangerous. There are plenty of apartment buildings in my city that don’t have a 13th floor for no other reason then people are annoyingly superstitious. Obviously, irrational thinking will make you do irrational things. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.
Once in a blue moon, however, you come across a particular superstition that is so strange that you can’t help but crack a smile. Take this story in Patna, India, where farmers have been asking their unmarried daughters to plow the fields naked in order to embarrass the gods enough to make it rain.
Now I’m normally the first to tell people that this kind of nonsense is ludicrous, but I find this kind of thing too funny to even criticize. A bunch of young, naked chicks plowing the fields is a sight I would PAY to see, so I guess I’ll keep my mouth shut until I can see this ritual for myself. They may not bring much rain, but I’m sure they aren’t going to stay “unmarried” for very long doing this kind of sexy activity.
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I received this email from long time fan of the site James, who recently had an experience with his mother than he thought was worth sharing. I’ve received this kind of question pretty often, and I thought it might be a good bring it up again to clarify my position. Here is Jame’s letter:
I really liked yesterday’s TGA bonus episode. Couldn’t agree more that End of Faith is my favourite of the books you mentioned. Letter to a Christian Nation is a close second, mainly because it’s kind of a quick-reference handbook of decent retorts to ridiculous Christian arguments. The show made me think of a recent conversation/debate I had with my parents, actually… it kind of made an impact on me so I figured I’d share.
Just for background: My dad’s a Catholic who grew up in Montreal North in a family of 8 kids, with a VERY devout mother, and a few aunts who were (still are) nuns (they must be doing something right because they seem to live forever). Anyway, he pretty much gave up his faith at a young age when a flood destroyed their home and the Church (to which his parents donated a large percentage of their extremely meager earnings) refused to give them any help, effectively leaving a family of 10 on the street until the Red Cross stepped in. He basically shares most of my viewpoints on religion, but takes a bit more of a Deist perspective when it comes to the creation of the Earth/Universe (fairly harmless as far as beliefs go)… but he tends to keep it all to himself because of my mom.
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