2285: Follow the Money
 

with Mike Guild and Kerryn Feehan – Substance abuse and stand-up comedy; Kerryn’s new romance(?) and married sex; America and Israel are behind ISIS; Adele’s 25 first week sales: 3.38 million; body issues and ballet

Guests:
Mike Guild
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Kerryn Feehan
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My friend pointed me to a great podcast episode by The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds. It's titled, "122 - The Iraq War" and was very eye opening, while still being funny.

Here is a direct link to the episode if you are interested;
http://traffic.libsyn.com/thedollop/Iraq_War.mp3

hello! I want to start by saying that I am a longtime fan, around 8 years, and also an atheist. I agree with Chemda 90% of the time on her anti-religious arguments. However in this episode I think she came off as way to attacking of Mike Guild. From what Mike Guild was saying he's not the sort of religious person Chemda is necessarily against. The world does not have to be completely free of religion in order for people to live a good life. attacks on planned parenthood are not carried out by people like Mike.

My fear with Chemda's strong atheist opinion is that every mention of religion has to become an argument and Chemda is becoming the same person she dislikes who is shoving a belief system down someone else's throat. I understand that it is not atheists committing heinous acts in the name of atheism but I think my point still stands.

The argument derailed the show and didn't Chemda didn't allow Mike Guild to speak therefore making him less of an impactful guest.

She'll get there eventually. Her brother Michael is the kind of atheist who will have a conversation with you rather than approach the topic of religion as a debate that must be won.

Chemda has such amazing and effective interviewing skills (KATG, What's My Name); at some point it will become apparent that cross-examining people who believe in god never gets anywhere.

I'm totally with Chemda, and I'm glad she doesn't just back down when someone bring up their moderate religion. When Chemda said that religion helps people justify things Mike said that people will justify things to themselves in all sorts of ways. The problem is not with one person making themselves feel better. The problem is that good Christians will go from Mike's vaguely christian belief to actually following the words that god supposedly left for us in the bible, which leads to far far too many people justifying planned parenthood shootings, and supporting people like Trump or Santorum who play to their biblical values to gain support.

Also an Atheist here, and I do love Chemda and think she makes some really great points. However, I think the way she treated Mike makes Atheist look bad. Her tone was very aggressive, and she would barely let Mike get a word in. I get her point and what she is arguing, but it sounded like she was putting words in Mike's mouth at times. You don't have to agree with his beliefs, but you also don't have to try an belittle someone because they do believe, or try and place the blame on their beliefs for what a other shitty people do in "God's" name. To me it's like you are becoming the thing you hate. We complain about loud mouth Christians shoving their beliefs on everyone, but then end up doing the same. I'm guilty of this myself. I used to love jumping on religious people and having debates/arguments thinking I was going to be the one to change their mind. What I did was push people away because they weren't looking for a fight.

Hopefully the point I am trying to make comes through. Just one man's opinion. I still loved the show, and have nothing but respect for Chemda. :-)

Also an atheist here, and as for Chemda being aggressive, I feel like nonbelievers are held to a much higher standard than believers in terms of "politeness". My religious friends get to post things like "All these other people live there lives like this, but I'm better cause I follow the bible, which is always correct and moral. Liek if you believe he died 4 U and R going to heaven" on facebook and no one bats an eye. But anytime one of my secular friends or I post something privately about the harmful commandments of the bible, like stoning or beating your wife, we're treated like assholes. Or, god forbid, anyone points out a contradiction in the book.

Also, when you grow up in a religiously abusive environment, it can become really triggering when people, though moderate, still uphold the same book. Somehow in college I got involved in a group of people that think that women shouldn't have authority, at home or in public office, because periods (fortunately I only lasted in that group for a year and didn't end up joining some strange cult), and now any time I hear "god made men and women different", even if it's just in terms of body shape, I nope the hell out.

i am careful when and who i say to that i don't believe a God exists. it changes the way a lot of folks look at you down here. even lovely people. my sweetheart Bear's Mama is a cool fucking chick and i watched the look on her face change the moment i said it casually to her for the first time. that has stuck with me real hard. suddenly i didn't "belong."

it's perfectly fine for someone to tell me i'm going to hell in any context they please and to call it love. it's not ok for me to even suggest out loud there's no sky dude; it's "an abridgment of their constitutional right." b/c of course that's what that means…but, i digress.

like most things of this nature, it's not about the individual it's about the system and it's the rage of a thousand paper cuts. it's why i don't walk around flying a drug flag. if you walk around on crutches you're a little responsible for the stubbed toes, kwim?

That's true, but you can't blame a rational believer who doesn't post stuff like that. Christians who do that are assholes no doubt about it, but we shouldn't stoop to their level. I mean if we looked we could find several instances of Atheists doing the same thing to a Christian who posts something as simple as, "Need prayers." or "Feeling blessed by God today." I've seen Atheists jump all over these posts belittling the Christian the same way the Christian belittles the Atheist. Just because some religious people are intolerant assholes, doesn't mean they all are. You should treat each person and their beliefs with respect until they give you a reason not to. Being super aggressive does more harm than good I feel.