I was the first caller. : ) Yay. Thanks, Seth, for allowing me to be heard and to know there are many, many others like me.

My first day of church, I asked why god didn't bury gold where he knew the churches were going to be built. That way the preacher would not have to beg for money from poor people. That was the end of ever believing for me. Soon church was out.

@JamesRichardWiley

4 жыл бұрын

Religion's biggest problem is trying to hide the fact that it is man made.

I was taught Greek mythology as I am Greek myself. The first few minutes of this video, aside from the boy scout thing, describes the initial factor that led to my deconversion. I had almost no problem with my family in telling them I no longer believed. I was initially met with, "You're too young to decide this." I said, "So I'm young enough to believe fairytales and in imaginary friends?" After a few hours of talking with them and exposing their fallaciesand non sequitors we were all atheists

I wish I never believed in God. It would have saved me so much trouble and whatnot. I didn't become an athiest until I was 26.

When people in my church started speaking in tongues (gibberish), i was done. I was 10 years old. Never went again

I really enjoyed this one, because this was my story! I only was forced to church 2-3 times on Christmas eve (which I celebrate purely for the presents, ignoring the religious side) I know that I never really believed, so that's what I told someone who asked me what I believed at school in 8th grade, which led to, "oh, so you're an atheist?" I went home and googled it and now I have something to call myself and be a part of. Thanks for the podcasts! I love hearing all the different stories!

The best thing my mother ever said to my brother and I. "You boys don't have to go to Sunday school any more" We asked " Why?" She said " From now on I want you to think whatever you want to think."

Thanks for doing this episode for those of us who never believed.

@bradzimmerman3171

2 жыл бұрын

Finally!thanks Seth, no mention of "god" no bible etc in our house growing up not realizing how NICE it is (was)great entertainment watching you, Matt, Jimmy to many to mention

Giving a mental hug to the lonely atheist at 53 minutes.

My parents never put a word on religion when my sister and I were growing up. They gave us the tools to search for answers ourselves. My mom worked in a library for 9 years, and my dad's bookshelves were full of history, archaeology, science, and different cultures from around the world. They taught us to be good for goodness sake, not for any 'god'. It was only recently that I realized that I was an atheist, all along.

Another great broadcast Seth. Excellent call in guests! Your staff does a nice job sifting them out of all who call in. You're truly one of the best voices for Atheism (rational thinking). I HOPE that you make yourself available to any tv/cable shows looking for an atheist type spokes-person. Your perspective + empathetic understanding of flawed religious thinking provides the right approach for having a persuasive conversation about rational thought. We need a good US voice. You're the one.

I've been an atheist all my life(more than three decades). I didn't really encounter any type of religion until high school. That's when I'd get into heated debates with my religious education teacher (in British state schools we're given mandatory RE lessons). Before that I thought they were just stories that nobody actually believed. Jack And The Beanstalk. David & Goliath. I thought they were both in the same category. It wasn't until 2001 when I was in my late teens, did I really notice the damage done in the name of religion, and the vile contents in the various holy books. About the same time I began to notice that those who hold conservative views usually do so for religious reasoning. That's when I put the larger picture together and realized how harmful religion was, and I began to speak out against it.

Thank you Seth for doing a podcast on us lifetime non-believers. There are a ton of us out there, more so than I realized until you did this.

Thank you for this podcast and posting it on KZread! Being part of the majority, I've never been able to talk to someone who hadn't been brought up as a believer like myself. It's a great pleasure to hear people talking from this perspective. A nice break from the commiseration the show usually takes even though it's always cathartic for me :) I hope this podcast gets taken up by someone else when you finally collapse from all the hard work you obviously put into it. Thank you Seth + staff !!

I'm born, raised and rationally atheist and I've lately listened a lot of deconverted stories and I must say one thing: no one, who finds a way out can be stupid or slow or anything like that. Quite the opposite: it requires a lot of intelligence and probably luck. I was lucky and didn't have to go through such a huge challenge.

My Mother was an Irish Catholic, my father is Protestant. Since they couldn't agree on denomination we never went to church. As a result I am an Atheist, and I couldn't be happier

Glad to have brought it up to you. I've told my family countless times that if there even was a possible chance of a higher super natural being out there, that was both loving and merciful, then it wouldn't be the gods portrayed by current day religions.

RE: “How can you be so sure the "Evidence" science shows you is real?” >< By observing it of course; how else?

I'm also a life-long atheist, but i was raised in a very religious city, called Chilliwack, where there's a church of a different denomination on almost every corner. On my street, alone, there are 4 or 5 churches running down it. It was 8 when i realized people believed in crazy things when a kid got spittingly angry at my "No" to the god question, and didn't believe in stories about people returning from the dead. I was about 16 when i first learned the word atheist. The internet helped a LOT.

Some ancient pre-christian greek would look at christianity and wonder why it calls itself monotheistic. Yahweh, Satan, Jesus ... all different gods in the christian pantheon ... even Mary is worshipped as a goddess by some of them.

@JamesRichardWiley

4 жыл бұрын

Yahweh started with one personality in the Old Testament and ended up with three in the New Testament. I wish the scribes that assembled the Hebrew Bible over the centuries had left out the gibberish that did't make any sense.

@JohnDoe-zy6tm

2 жыл бұрын

@@JamesRichardWiley the Old Testament is full of leftover polytheistic references from before they moved to monotheism.

Awesome stuff, interesting, profoundly interesting!

Seth, thanks so much for posting this podcast. Ironically, listening to this on Easter Sunday. I was always an atheist at heart as a child, young adult and adult-just never knew the term atheist and kept quiet. Always questioned dogma the humans around me endured. None of it made any sense. Most of my family was mildly spritual-and those closest loved science. When openly and cruelly harrassed by the religious, I KNEW NO way could I be a believer-wondered why anyone would be.

Once I got into a foster home where I stopped being forced to think about the issue, I stuck with the god in my head, but stopped being much concerned about religion itself. I occasionally went to other peoples churches of different denominations, to a bible camp of a non-denomination. I was a rabid learner and became interested in the different versions differences, but honestly, aside from those times I didnt think too much on it. I had bigger issues to deal with.

As someone who wasn't raised religious, I do have family members who do attend church very regularly while also living in a part of the country where religion is a HUGE part of our ways of life. Back to the point I was going to make after the opening statement (got sidetracked lol). I wonder how many people are just going to church because "it's just what we've always done" and don't really believe in a god or in the Christian bible stories.

I WAS raised in a Catholic household & was required to attended Catholic lessons once per week for around 6 years until age 12, and then attended a Christian school ages 12-18. Yet I NEVER BELIEVED. I knew what an atheist was by age 12 & that I was one. I remember being taught how to pray etc, but I never really believed.

You asked one caller if they thought, looking at your religious upbringing, if they thought you were slow or stupid for not getting out sooner. I see your experience as the equivalent of growing up in an abusive household. I feel sorry for you that you went through that and congratulate you for figuring it out. That's my outside looking in perspective. I was always a science geek as a kid. I played with stuffed dinosaurs instead of dolls. My dad was one of the electrical engineers on the NASA space program. I couldn't decide between being an astronaut or a paleontologist as a kid. The whole concept of growing up with religion is totally foreign to me.

just recently subbed, good channel dude.

These videos are a breath of fresh air. I sometimes feel like my closest family is all the atheists there are. Particularly at school, where EVERYONE seems to religous. I`ve been raised by parents who stepped back. I`m very grateful for that, and your podcasts, too. I`ve always been hiding my beliefs, and these make me feel more open about my atheism.

I remember that I used to believe my parents and the stories at church but always been suspicious because my prayers never received an answer and I was experiencing bad things to myself as well as witnessing them around me to others. Its safe to say that I used to "go along" with christianity but never really believed because there wasnt evidence for what I was told. And the fact that many people become agressive and upset when you question their belief only enforces that view

Essentially, your stories are really cool.

I'm happy I never grew up in religion. I passed that gift onto my children. :)

@bradzimmerman3171

2 жыл бұрын

Nice me too my parents avoided the christian crap I had to pass it on, why torture your children

I love this show.

When I went through Air Force basic training, they put Non Religious Affiliation on my tags.

Best show on KZread.

I never believed in a God. As a kid I would look around in church at people praying to the air and it reminded me when you see cults and how they chant. People would pray for this person or that person who was very sick and then some of them would die but they never mentioned that part in church. No one every mentioned the doctors and their medical training. Not to mention the idea of believing in magical things that happened long ago seemed weird. I like star trek but an invisible God that has magical powers was silly even on old star trek episodes.

@thehalloweenheavymetalmusicwar

9 жыл бұрын

Religion has ruined this world. I am very proud to always have been an atheist.

@JamesRichardWiley

4 жыл бұрын

Prayer is wishful thinking and hoping. I tried it for 20 years and found it unreliable. Now if I want something, I work for it and leave god out of it.

Only feel bad about their lack of understanding that THEY are deluded, not you. Stay strong, no matter what, in the knowledge that you are not alone in this world.

I was never not believer but I have always been logical, had a hard time just going with the flow and questioned everything. It was my parents divorce that proved that they were not always right that they would be wrong about things. That was the start of my atheist path that ended with me realizing what I really was a decade later, I’m still made at shelf for being slow to realize it

My parents weren't very religious but still sent us to Sunday school and church - mainly to get my brother and I out of my parents' hair. Church was boring and Sunday school was stupid. Trouble was that everyone knew everyone else so when my brother and I would skip out - getting sidetracked on our way to church - Mom would get to hear of it and we both would get a lecture. This lasted for nine years after which there was no more talk of church. The last time I was inside a church as a youngster was fourteen and I never looked back. God had been depicted as Father and, since I hated my father (a most intemperate man), I wanted nothing to do with an eternal father who would never GO AWAY. After age fourteen, I was far too busy for religion until the rise of the Religious Right and Phyllis Schafly. I immediately became their life-long enemy and have remained an enemy of religion ever since and have raised my children and grandchildren in joyous irreligion.

I can't believe I was ever like you once. I do not struggle because of sin, I struggle because of people like you! You refuse to let people live out their lives in peace!

Written story by Kim sounds a lot like me, in terms of rebelling against church and getting dressed up. Aside from being a tomboy and not seeing the point of dressing up, I was pushed into participating in children's masses and going to Sunday school and hated it! I got scolded and lectured and guilted often, but did my own thing anyway. I was raised Catholic but not sure I really believed it. My family blamed my rebellious streak on me being in public school rather than me just thinking it was all silly, including how vehemently they felt they needed to defend it. Interestingly, I grew up in a parish called St. Ignatius of Loyola. My siblings all went to school there. Ignatius of Loyola, I'm sure you know was a pivotal figure in the Church around the time of the Reformation. Ignatius theorized that the Reformation was due to the Church's failure to educate youth in Catholic and was responsible for the growth of parochial schools. My three siblings all went to that Catholic School. My older sister became non-denominational Christian, my younger sister became an agnostic atheist, and my brother, the youngest, is apathetic toward religion. Once in the early 2000's, my immediate family was visiting my father's sister in Massachusetts. My late aunt was a retired eighth grade science teacher. I remember one Sunday morning, my family was getting ready to go to a church near my aunt's house and I was waiting for my father to finish getting ready. I was playing solitaire on her kitchen table. My aunt came in and asked where Dad was and I'm not sure who brought up getting ready for Mass, but it resulted with me pointing down my throat and making gagging noises. My aunt busted out laughing and said, "That's why you're my favorite." I remember reading something my aunt had sent my Dad and it said, "I love Gina for her love of learning." Aunt Dorene passed in 2009 and Dad eventually figured out that I was going to do my own thing anyway., such that Christmas 2019 I had put a Ravenclaw House hat/scarf set on my Amazon Wish List for Christmas. I was chuffed to get it. My dad looked me dead in the eye, smiled and said, "Good choice!" I know I'm late to this party, but it's good to know I'm not alone.

I was raised by religious parents but they had a very rare mindset for a theist: "thou shall keep thy religion to thyself". They never pushed their beliefs on me and religion was never discussed in our household. The only times I "had to" go to church was for a wedding or a funeral of a family member. Fast forward a couple of decades and my mother is now an atheist, an anti-theist even. I never believed btw.

I remember being seriously like 7 and a lady invited me into her home (I asked if it was ok to go inside cuz i was friends with her son, kind of ) and she sat us down and read the story of noah, though from a childrens book. The first thing I said "Lions would eat the giraffe" "No because god made them friendly for those 40 days" and i go "No the lions would get hungry!" but ive always been a kid fascinated by science, in the sense of animals and dinosaurs and cave men my parents loved it.

oh man i wish i didn't miss this one when it was live.... i would have called right away!... this one fits me so much... sad i didn't get to call or anything.

Happy Easter!

This is just fantastic seriously I play league of legends whilst I listen to podcasts and these podcasts have been incredibly entertaining I had already went through all of Christopher Hitchens Podcasts and my only wish was that there was more of them but its about quality not quantity that guy was a man against men a truly fantastic inspiring man. But I have honestly found these great podcasts almost as great as his debates and podcasts, really fantastic work keep it up.

Wow, that really struck close to home... Where have you been all my life to give it direction?

I was raised as a Catholic, even going to Catholic school from K to 3. My mother's mother was fiercely religious but my mother was not and my father even less so. After moving away from my grandmother the daily indoctrinations ceased and I was able to evaluate "my" beliefs without bias and I found them wanting. I then looked at other denominations and other religions and found them no better, no more real. And so, at 14, I became nonreligious and now I'm an atheist.

I've always felt a sense of pride of not ever being a believer. I just remember at a very young age that whenever someone tried to talk to me about god just thinking to myself how silly they sounded.

thank you

Oh snap! 518? I'm here going to med school in the Caribbean on Grenada listing to this as I make dinner. I miss Upstate New York. I'll be home soon!

I remember my first in-person encounter with religion. My mother has always had substance abuse problems, but it's largely the fault of her parents and she is absolutely brilliant when she's sober. She always conveyed to me her issues with religions - Catholicism, especially, as that was what she grew up in - and presented her case. She also kept a Bible on her bookshelf alongside her medical books, and encouraged me to read it. Needless to say, I thought it was ridiculous also. She was the type to straight up tell her kids where babies came from when asked, and to be honest about Santa's real home. Now, due to aforementioned substance abuse, my dad thought it in my best interest to separate me from her, and in hindsight this was probably for the best. My new stepmother was Baptist, and she sent me to VBS for the first time when I was 7, and saw firsthand the stuff my mother talked about - Don't ask questions, God is the answer, you know the type. At around the same time, I was transitioning from children's cartoons to documentaries as my preferred form of visual entertainment, and as I learned about the natural world, I found the religious view more and more ridiculous. And so it has gone.

At 46:24 he mentions that the name "Big Bang" was made by the religious to make fun of the theory. Actually, it was coined in 1949 by astronomer Fred Hoyle while incidentally, speaking on a radio show. The name is purely meant to be descriptive of the theory, not mocking.

cool! first time i've ever heard my area code announced. 31:13

I agree with the second caller my parent (singular) wanted me to come to my own conclusion and I think that is the best way to raise a kid.

I believed. I was taught to believe. I grew up in the faith. The rage and the betrayal I felt when I realized god doesn't exist. Indescribable. I've been an atheist for almost 10 years and I still feel it.

I wish I had been able to call in live. I have never had any faith in my life, which was never a problem in my childhood, but has become a bigger problem as I grow up as people pull the 'Well you just haven't let him into your heart etc.'

I was looking at my Fox Mulder X-Files poster "I Want to Believe" while I listened to her reference it. haha!

darn pub, mad me miss podcast :P thank science for recording and uploading to the internets

This is the show for me. I've never been religious either. My mom is Christian, so I went to church as a kid and I participated in the singing and reciting and such, but looking back I can never recall a time that I actually bought into the message. I think it mostly had to do with the bible stories. I'm a person that has always loved stories and fairy tales and that's what the bible stories always seemed like to me: fiction to be enjoyed but not believed.

Oh damn! That Army church scene is diabolical.

This year my daughter started high school and I, an outspoken atheist, told her that she should start to look into religion and make her own choices on the matter.and if she had any questions to ask, and to my surprise she told me last month that she likes Greek mythology, she "i know its not real, that would be stupid, but its fun to read not boring like the bible"

Good job again TTA, nice for you to remember us never believers. I live in Finland that is quite secular nation but still the lutheran church is the "national" church. While in the military service (mandatory) all the non believers attended to "pagan circle" (joke name adopted by us) and we got couple hours rest while others listened to sermon or some such, so it was slightly beneficial to us non believers. Keep up spreading the good word... lol ;)

"...you will be saved". I lol'd.

hooray - another episode of TTA !

I wish i was listening to him when he was taking these calls... I would've loved to tell him my stories... and I'm waiting to hear my first podcast since I started hearing his recorded podcasts (started listening to them since this wednesday)

"To resist the influence of others, knowledge of oneself is most important."

For most of my young life I was surrounded by people that believed in Christianity. When I came across people that didn't believe in a god, it seemed so foreign to me.

They guy as 15ish minutes described my home very well. My family just never thought or talked much about religion. My mom is a bit new-agey (she sometimes speculates about some universal force or energy, but is a practical person and finds the idea of a personal god ludicrous) and my dad as far as I know from things he's said is atheist. I didn't know about the extent of religion until my age was in the double digits. I just knew "some people think you go to heaven when you die."

I fit into the category discussed by Seth. I was born into a non-religious family, lived in a non-religious environment, attended non-religious schools where nobody pressured anyone else to be religious. My only exposure to religion as a kid was when we visited my grandparents, and I wondered why they were talking to an invisible man. I thought it was stupid, and when we accompanied my grandparents to church I was bored by this pointless exercise. I thought then, as now, that religion is dumb.

i really like the beginning

Its nice to see that the people watching are not only atheists and non-religious. Kind of gives me hope of wining hearths and minds... Well, minds mostly.

I am an eagle scout and had to deal with this as well. When I was in boy scouts here I was open about my lack of belief in gods and so were some others in my troop. When I got to my eagle board they asked me what “a scout is reverent” meant to me (a good number of the members of my board already new that I didn’t believe). I responded with something along the lines of I wouldn’t go into a church or a mosque and tell them that there beliefs were wrong I would respect there customs while in the places they consider holy. Luckily my board didn’t force me to lie to get my award and were satisfied with my response. I’m interested to hear what experiences others have had. Also to the organization I would ask why they decided to essentially punish thought crime.

I never believed, too. My life was a mess, Never had parents, was raised at boarding-schools in Ukraine, Eastern Europe (for Americans only) and was involved in gangs, night clubs, drugs, girls and always thought I was right. Once I came to God and gave my life to God my life changed, my friends noticed a huge difference. Some of them came to God. But it is funny how those, who believe there's no God, believe in "once appeared for 100yrs and disappeared again.' What a "logic"!!!

I was born an atheist but practiced Catholicism for twenty years under the strict control of my devout Catholic mother. After she died my normal critical thinking resurfaced from where it had been crushed and buried. Religion's biggest problem is in trying to hide the fact that it is man made.

I was brought up going to the Baptist Church in 1960's Britain, and I can honestly say that I never believed a word of it. We had to do our nighttime prayer on our knees, 'now I lay me down to sleep, I pray to God my Soul to keep....' I don't think this has anything to do with how smart you are, this is to do with the way you think. I was a dunce at school because if I couldn't see the logic and reasoning in the maths for example, I couldn't get it. Some of us are wired to be grounded in logic and reason, we're the ones who tend to be practically minded. We're the Engineers, mechanics, technicians, designers of the world, and we are often not inherently academic because we don't learn by rote or accepting the authoritarian view. So I spent my time in Church, looking at the way the organ and stained glass were designed, and daydreaming about what I'd be doing with my model making when I got home. Some people accept what they're told, and some of us question it. That's hard wired at birth in my opinion.

I actually had Wiccan Pagan stamped on my tags. I was picked on for it, but no one could explain esoteric knowledge of the scriptures, so I ran numerology around them until they gave up.

Middle caller cited; I knew a non practicing Catholic family, and they never ate pork. Very weird to me, growing up more fundamentalist Protestant...

I definitely identify with some of the points that Laura made. There was always a lack of wanting to be religious. But, the memory of theist preaching their religions. Though, the non sense threat of hell was never really preached. But found that non sense in memory. Religion suck

My perspective is quite strange. I was raised very Mormon, half hour of reading scriptures every morning, prayers at every meal, family prayer every morning and night, church every sunday(unless you were barfing). I can't ever remember my family members talking on fast sunday(Mormon testimonial based service), so I didn't really understand what anyone's belief actually was. We'd read, listen to lessons, but never discuss what was to be believed about them. It still seems weird to me that I never believed any of it nor did I believe anyone else in my family actually believed the stories until I asked about it to figure out if i'd been raised fundamentalist or not when I was in college. Turns out they're almost all fundamentalist in their belief systems. One of the reasons for my lack of understanding their beliefs in their stated beliefs was that all of my siblings except one left the church(inactive/not going to church/indulging their iniquity) for years at a time. They all came back after they got married though.

These stories are SO similar to mine. When I was young I asked questions CONSTANTLY and really wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up. I obsessed with dinosaurs and yet... the Bible never discussed them. I concluded that since dinosaurs are a fairly recent discovery, the Bible was really just written by man, and not the word of God because if it were his word, he surely would have made mention of ALL of his creations.

Initially from the title I thought it was a long the lines of "you where never a true christian" type of show. Guess I ignored that group too. LOL.

I think the biggest reason why some people have trouble believing that a person could be a never-believer is they can't imagine a child being skeptical enough to doubt their parents word about God. They believe that all children are completely trusting and would never doubt their parents. But when you assume that about children, you're forgetting how quickly they learn. If a child learns about things that contradict the Bible before they are introduced to the Bible, they'll be suspicious.

Vegie tales is shown in the UK too :)

When my mother died a large number of people were certain she'd gone to heaven. I needed to know how they knew. Most of the people I spoke to told me I should read the Jewish Christian Bible. After two years of dedicated front-to-back reading it was clear I was engaged with a large collection of contradictions and bizarre fantasies. For me, reading the Bible was like reading a 12-year-old's account of his summer vacation: "As a reward for my good grades, my parents took me to Disneyland, we had a wonderful time. My parents said because I'm an idiot they refused to take me to Disneyland. My parents said they only took me to Disneyland because they were afraid I'd burn the house down."

This is exactly what I always ponder.. I wouldn't consider myself an atheist, but i'm slowly turning Agnostic, at the very least questioning my beliefs.. At the bottom of it, I've always believed that out there is God. But definitely not the one painted to me by religion, or the bible.

When you attend a Catholic mass service you get one heck of a workout.

@prettybabyface7313

4 жыл бұрын

Hahahahaha...

Oh, and just clarifying that I'm bot against the mandatory military service. There is good experience(s) to be had in that and also you can do civil service instead of it (helping elderly, caring for children etc.). Your show has really taken my worldview to another level from anti-theism to just being atheist. Telling people what I think if I'm asked but not pushing my views on others. Thank you.

Haha I also hated going to church as a child. I was never into it at all. I was always dumbstruck whenever people took the side of religion in religion vs. science debates (e.g. evolution, big bang, etc.). I used to think: "I'm a Catholic and all, but how can people SERIOUSLY believe in that Adam and Eve story and profess it out loud while keeping a straight face?!"

I remember one of my first trips to Sunday school I was asked if I wanted to go to heaven and I asked where heaven was. I was told it was this magical place in the sky. It was at that very moment that I was pretty sure this was all baloney. I was rather flabbergasted that an adult was actually acting like they believe there was something up in the sky. Of course the rest of the stories they tried to feed me rang equally true.

Your voice is AMAZING! its almost, dare I say, God-Like!!!

Ad on the side is for this thing called Evolve Fish Apparently it's been "Helping the world laugh about religion since 1992"

I wasn't going to add anything here, till the military girl mentioned the going to church in bootcamp. I had to do that as well. And, when you go to your "command"(whether platoon in marines or army, or ship or squadron in the Navy or Air Force), they have jotted down what your belief was. I had written down "Jacob Bronowski Scientific Humanism." I had some officer who would pull strings and make me do TAD in the mess halls and the laundry, and he'd come down to tell me that was him. And, when we couldn't go to Egypt for a port call, the guy said, give me your cameras and I'll take pictures. I didn't really intend to; i didn't have a camera; but, I remember looking at him, and he was giving me this look like "no, I'm not going to do anything for you."

@oker59

2 жыл бұрын

As for my story - I never believed. My father was atheist, my mother was neither here nor there; but, believed in "trying everything." So, I did go to church and did some church schooling stuff. I don't think I never thought about god while going to church! I remember a defining moment was about ten-ish. It was early nighttime. I had put a blanket over my head and the heater vent in the floor, and I tried very hard; I clenched my fist, and concentrated very hard to detect god. And, I didn't get an answere; so I concluded there's nothing there. I did the same thing with Aliens. This was in W.S.M.R.(White Sands Missile Range), New Mexico. I'd go out of the base in the desert, look up at the stars, and try to see if the Aliens could hear me. I figured it there's Aliens, they should be very advanced, and can hear me. So, I said, "if you're there, then come down and solve problems." No aliens came down. - I never thought I'd pick up a bible and read it, till my twenties. What does the bible have to do with mathematics and science? But, I found Israel Finkelstein's "The Bible Unearthed" within a month of it being published in 2002(or 2001), and then, I heard of Acharya S's "The Christ Conspiracy." I have since then read much like Reverend Robert Taylor's Diegesis, The Golden Bough, Robert Grave's "The Greek Myths" which proves Sir James Frazer's "The Golden Bough" in spades. And much else besides. I've read Dennis R. Macdonald's "The epic of Homer and Gospel of Mark" and the Bart Ehrman stuff. Robert Eisenman's "James brother of Jesus." And, I've read so much more. I know the literature. I'm kind of done, and ready to get back to mathematics.

I can't wait to see and hear Seth at FreeOK 2012 in June! For the record, I have never believed.

church is the best escape in basic from the air force perspective. i went maybe 3 time and volunteered for kp duty to get out of it the rest of the time. your only "forced" to go the first time and its nothing like being threatended to convert. i always used it to get some rest in a pew when no one was looking

Years ago in London I saw a large family sitting in a restaurant holding hands with their eyes closed. It looked like they were trying to summon something.

Growing up in the Catholic Church, I learned early in life that guilt is a sacrament.

These comments mostly make me sad. Anyhow, great podcast Seth, good work mate!

I grew up in a world totally engrossed in hardcore religion... I knew I was an unbeliever from as far back as I can remember. I was a child and if it wasn’t for the Bible saying other people didn’t believe I would have though I was the only one. My family just kept telling me to read the Bible... so I did. When I finished I kept going. I read everything I could find on the early church. That moved me to the Greek writings of early Christians. Then the Hebrew texts. Then the gnostic text and the Dead Sea scrolls. From there I branched out to the prebibical myths and writings. The Greek and Roman myths, the Egyptian collections, the Ugaritic texts, the Hittites , the Assyrians, the Babylonian, the Sumerian. Then I found the Golden Bough... armed with this knowledge and being older I attempted to readdress the family members that started a young atheist on this journey. Only to find out they barely cracked the cover of the book they forced on me... they have no idea what it says beyond a basic cliff notes overview. And they don’t care. They just imagine what it should mean for them then assert that’s what it means to say... so I stepped back from attempting to show them what I had learned. Instead I just read to my kids. 😉

I often got in trouble in primary school for not 'praying' when asked. Wasn't even a Christian school and they forced acts of worship upon us...

Seeing so many people are raised like this makes me happy :) Progress ! And once i get children we got even more secular people :p