When I was a teenager I went with my friend to her church that was definitely different than my mormon upbringing. They had the games, and the the live band, and the soda and pizza. Later in life, I couldn't help but relate it to the scene in Pinocchio where the boys go to that island and turn into donkeys. Now it seems like instead of a lure to do naughty things, it is a lure to embrace ignorance.

I live in Britain and work as a home help. This is a Job where I visit an elderly person and go shopping, cleaning or fill in forms, basically anything they need doing. Today a 93 year old lady sat me down and declaired "I want to talk to you about god". OK she is OLD nearer the grave to me so I will agree with her on this and any topic. I learned that I should not pre judge. She declared "Darling I know it may upset you but there is no god". I laughed and we had a fantastic conversation. I have been visiting her for a few months. We chatted and laughed. Finally she hugged me and said I love talking to you (we've had loads of other conversations about everything and anything). She gave me her wisdom....you only have one life, enjoy it. How true from a woman born getting on for 100 years ago. A woman with very little education but who until a few years ago started reading when she retired. She said she is free and those nuns she worked with were evil tartars (she lowered her voice and said...cold bitches).

You know how everyone automatically assumes that someone they meet is a christian. I'm going to start assuming that everyone I meet is an atheist and act surprised if they tell me they're a christian.

@HadalStreetlights

7 жыл бұрын

Kippz214 i already do this, and can vouch for how amusing it is.

@firefox5926

6 жыл бұрын

weird thing is liveing where i do thats my defualt setting and then when the mention something about a "soul" etc its like ....ooookkkkkkkk.... um ... hmmm how do i go about talking to you because theres so many things i have to tap dance around ... cose you know ..... er

Threaten an atheist (especially one who was a former believer) with hell is like threatening a US navy ship with falling off the edge of the ocean from a flat earth..........

@troyevitt2437

7 жыл бұрын

And convincing somebody with common sense that the earth is flat is like convincing that same person they will go to Hell for non-belief.

I remember going "backstage" with my uncle, who was a deacon of a large Assembly of God church, and the guy working the lights and sound board gave us a demonstration of how they use different color lighting, music and even air-conditioning to manipulate the congregation, to evoke a particular emotion. He of course didn't see anything wrong in it so long as it worked. Just helping the Holy Spirit out I guess.

When I was about 16, I went to this youth conference in Edmonton Alberta, about an 1 1/2 drive by bus, they loaded us up onto 3 BUSSES, and shipped us off the the Coliseum, the big arena where the Edmonton Oilers play, and there were about 20,000 people, mostly kids, packed into this HUGE building, they brought in dozens of performers, speakers, comedians, ever music performers like Skillet. What was even crazier, was that across the freeway, there was about 50 acres of various buildings used for rodeos and trade shows, and ALL of them, were filled with everything from market stalls, to small stages of live music, there was food, games, book signings even I think. I had never seen anything like this before, it was crazy, I came home borderline 'born again' and immediately went online to see why ANYONE would not believe in this awesome Christianity thing, aaaand that was the end of my religious belief. XD

@chadhansen5057

7 жыл бұрын

Great story lol

After watching a few of these videos I'm struck by how emotionally screwed up America is.

@firefox5926

6 жыл бұрын

ooooooooohhhhh its not just america ...

@legalfictionnaturalfact3969

6 жыл бұрын

it's not JUST america, but america has its own brand of creepy, emotionally stunted neuroses.

@bengal4047

5 жыл бұрын

Speaking as an American living in the bible belt, the whole place is a fucking mess. Some states are worse than others, some are better. Indiana's just a sloppy ball of cornfields, churches every 3 blocks, 'Hell is real' signs, scripture billboards, republican campaign signs, anti-abortion signs, 'Jesus is coming soon' signs, and soybean fields. A friend and I went on a 3 hr roadtrip to Holiday World (in southern Indiana), and we saw more churches than literally anything else, including fields. Within an hour, it got to the point where we wouldn't have been surprised if bibles started raining from the sky and cracked the wimdshield

@davidsmith4416

4 жыл бұрын

@@bengal4047 If you think that's bad, Pontiac,Michigan ( a suburb north of Detroit it worse). There are roughly 400 churches in an area virtually just over 15 square miles. The homeless population rotates from one new crowd to another within every few years, although there are those who never leave( until that generation dies off). There's a multi-millionaire preacher who owns an eight million dollar church and a homeless shelter, has his own local radio show and a snob, racist country-club wife. The poverty is stifling and the local corruption keeps it that way. On the sides of the fleet of church 100,000 dollar church minivans( donated, of course) is the church company logo and the tag line-"Helping the homeless help themselves". But they help themselves to the homeless by prostletising to them with a free meal and a bed and out to the street in thirty days, whether or not they find a job and secure housing. But the preacher makes his financial quota since each body in the shelter equals a financial payback to the shelter ( aka-preacher) along with corporate funding( tax deductible,of course).

@VidsnStuff

3 жыл бұрын

@@davidsmith4416 that is personally disgusting on so many levels

16:15 Man, I did the same thing when I first acknowledged that I was an atheist. Mostly to keep out of conflict with my family, who didn't know what "humanist" meant, but for the same reasons described here. I thought I was in the minority of people who did that.

There are a lot of Christian MMA type groups... There is a MMA clothing company called "Jesus Didn't Tap" Every time I see an advertisement I think the same thing... "Of course not; his hands and feet were nailed down!"

LOL it's like those "free ski weekends" when they trap you and try to sell you timeshares xD

Someone should make a Church Management Simulator video game :)

@mauricepedro1736

7 жыл бұрын

sim cult

I laughed so hard when I seen that Billy Graham ad right above my suggestions!

I like this line of thinking. Tells it all in a few words.

We had contemporary Christian music artists Rick Cua visit our church once. He has a song called" "I can I will" from the album entitled midnight sun released back in "89". Which I was honored in meeting him after his performance on stage!

Oh, my is this timely! June is "Bible Camp Month" in my small town! As soon as school lets out, all the churches start having day camps for kids are 6 or 7 to around 11 or 12. They stagger them so only one camp runs at a time for about 5 weeks. Its all free and food is provided, so a lot of parents - especially low income parents - sign up because its basically free child care for a month or more. There are even some that send a van or bus to pick the kids up so mom and dad don't have to make an extra trip. Then they transition to the weekend lock ins, camping trips, etc. It's all designed to indoctrinate kids. Its so calculated and predatory.

Warm fuzzies during the service and hard reality when you leave becomes a spiritual addiction. Religion is for those who can't handle reality. I'd rather live in reality.

I remember when I was a little kid my cousin brought me to his church one Sunday. The pastor gave him a silver dollar for bringing in someone new. I didn't know much about church, but I thought that was pretty weird...

I know right?! The lock-ins at my church invovled staying up all night eating pizza, chips, hamburgers, hotdogs, all sorts of dessert, and playing video games on the churchs projector screen with my best friends and running around the church in the dark. it was some of the best fun ive ever had.

@bengal4047

5 жыл бұрын

The only lock-in I went to was one where the church took us to this place that had a jungle gym and an arcade. It was fun for the first few hours before I crashed. I'm an introvert (energy drained by people and outside stimulation rather than gained), so after a few hours, I was a fucking wreck. I remember just sitting at a table, drinking a soda, trying not to cry from stress, staring at the wall, desperately wishing that it wasn't the middle of the night because my mom was asleep and dad was at work, so no one could pick me up.

@bengal4047

5 жыл бұрын

Come to think of it, every youth retreat and outside-of-church activity I went to was a disaster. It was the reason I stopped going to retreats after the 2nd one turned into a dumpster fire amd made me realize that I usually ended up miserable on the retreats rather than happy

The Church is ALL about marketing!!!! GREAT job Seth!!!! I live in NYC and I LOVE THE SHOW!!!!

The last message was powerful... That is true irony.

Regarding the "camel through the eye of a needle" biblical quote; I had always heard it was mistranslated and actually referred to camel hair rope, which was thick and coarse.

Greetings from GB. Great show - keep up the good work!

The lock in, did many of those as a kid.

Lets get the word out!!!! It's a BIG MYTH!!!! I LOVE my friends and family that are Christians!!!! But I KNOW IT'S ALL A BIG MYTH!!!! I live in NYC and I'm a HUGE FAN Seth!!!!

great stuff. I'm learning a lot

The concept of Amerigod is brilliant! Thanks for that--I think it will be useful in conversation.

Your talk about the seeker churches gave me an insight about pricing structure in church marketing. A store will have a baic model for $70 and a deluxe model for $130. You may not be willing to pay an extra $30 but if they have an $90 model with a few extras, and a $110 model with a few more to walk your rationalizations up to the deluxe. Churches can have the intro version but they have other versions for those who want hard-core religions, too.

SCREAMING my junior high bible study was called "Avalanche" as in "avalanche of love." xD

@bengal4047

5 жыл бұрын

The last one I was in as a teen was called 'FUEL'. No acronym, just all capital letters

I find it highly depressing that I got an ad for "I am a Mormon" for this video.

I am so gonna do that from now on.

My grandfather, who what I could tell was agnostic, went to church one time in his life. The one time he did, he won a television. Never caused him to convert, but he always laughed about it.

Christianity is the oldest and most profitable franchise ever.

That's the best one I've ever read.

I had a lot of fun at church lock-ins back in the day.

Your first 5 minutes brought back so many memories as a Christian! Lol.

Jerry Dewitt well put!!!! AWESOME!!!!!

cant wait til next show :D

Caller Jessica has such an infectious laugh. I just loved listening to her recount the AWANA ticket tale.

I'm proud to say that Utah Atheists adopted a mile of one of the most traveled surface streets in town.

Very interesting and informative podcast. :) "Bring out the crystals!" LOL

OMG your laugh is awesome!

An hour and a half of podcast :D

To say it in one way: Advertising isn't bad per se. It can be funny and shows you what kind of cool things and practical gadgets exist out there. But it becomes a problem when it gets really anoying or states things that aren't true. They sell you their fruit juice? Cool. Everyone has to earn their living. They sell you their fruit juice, saying it contains 100% actual fruit juice when it doesn't? Problem. They try to sell you eternal life but instead you just get manipulated? Same problem.

That's great. "Shut up!" "I am Jesus." "Shut! Up!" "I am Jesus." "The batteries are screwed in. You can't shut him up." "I want to tell you a story." So funny. So apt.

I'll think over this

Amerigod!!!! Genius!!!

The first rule of Guts Church is don't talk about Guts Church.

Thanx, Seth, for mentioning these mindnumbing actions that literal die-hard religionists evidently cherish. Let alone, sometimes try to force their actions upon others. Just an epileptic, FL political worker.

OMG!!!!! i was rolling around laughing when Jesus started talking :-P That has to be the funniest thing i have ever heard!

Good Point!

The action figure is hilarious. I keep imagining Jesus going toe for toe with Buzzlightyear "I am the way and the light..." "To infinity, AND BEYOND!"

"First Church of What's Happenin' Now!" Lol! Flip Wilson as Reverend Lerroy!

I remember an "outreach" program that was pulling people from the Naval schools in Chicago area. For teens just out of high school, stuck in a not so good area of town, it would seem like a good getaway. They pick you up in a bus and you had a picnic (with cute age-appropriate girls to chat with). After which there was a sermon. I was glad I brought earplugs. (LOUD sermon.)

Regarding the eye of the needle, Jesus discouraged any kind of material wealth because he was basically an end of days preacher. There was no use having possessions or wealth because no one would need them for very long. See Dr. Bart Ehrman's excellent works for more info on that.

A christian, a jw, and a muslim walked into a bar because there was a sign that said "god commands u not to duck"

Cognitive behavior therapy has a secular orientation, since it emphasizes that emotional disturbances come from how you think about your experiences, instead of promoting dependency on religious authority figures. You can learn to manage your emotions by thinking about your experiences differently. For example, if a girl rejects you, you can think that it reflects badly on you and feel depressed; or you can think, “Hmm, that girl must have really low self-esteem. I feel sorry for her.”

Some of us have gone to church and thought we felt 'his' holy spirit (I love how its a he most of the time. Sexism AHEM...). Then we learned how that feeling can be explained scientifically and naturally. People feel all sorts of different things in all faiths and yet you don't support them all like tongue speaking or believing you were once Napoleon in a previous life. Becoming an atheist has made life so much grander and worth living. Much more so than when I believed in god.

Much as I enjoy listening to your podcasts, you seem to be uploading quite a few lately (2 or 3 a week?). Am really struggling to keep up with them all, owing to their length.

Oh actually i think I remember seeing that quote, its a good one.

This actually has me missing those lock ins.

The church I used to go to had a puppet show routine called the SWAT team, it was Students With a Testimony, ironically enough the logo was a bible in the sight of a cross-hair. gooood times...good times.

The "eye of the needle" scripture noted in the podcast is a 2,000 year old mistranslation. In Aramaic, the word for "camel" is "Gimmel" while the word for "rope" is "Quimmel" -- only one letter difference in the original tongue of Jesus. The jist of the saying is that it is easier for a ROPE to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven, which makes much more sense than the image of a camel.

Now I'm technically catholic but I believe I'm an atheist, yet I still hang on to some of those old christian traditions. Though I tell myself "you think about these things because you were raised like this" I can't decide which to embrace, or how to chose it

I imagine a defense for "why would God let a person die in church" might be "They're just going up to heaven anyway."

I read that in your voice, and it was amazing. Also who is the woman who does the intro for your Podcast?

Not true. I have a friend who was Christian, and then we discussed and debated religion for a week or so. I eventually won him over and he became Atheist. One summer later, he was a born again Christian, baptized and everything. The poor guy fell for Pascal's Wager. So we discussed and debated for another week and he became a "born again Atheist". He actually has a genius IQ and absorbs knowledge like a sponge. The downside is he is quite gullible. You can tell him anything and he'll buy it.

Agreed, it should be more of a "Despise the individual extremists"

He's stated on a few of his shows that he gets a lot of email like that, but insofar as his calls go, I believe that his bride-to-be helps screen the calls. I could be wrong, but I think that's how it is.

I agree. I think natmil1's point is that it can be very hard to weather the storm of people that are using their religion as a shield to hate.

A 'Lock-In' in the UK is when the patrons in the bar at closing stay in and drink till opening time

the reason they say bring a friend is so when that collction plate comes around you feel guilty

Amerigod, is fantastically accurate! "A New Species of god"

love the show! great that this is out there! does he actually get a lot of hatemail? or "YOU'LL GO TO HELL" - calls on the show...i bet he does but how does he filter them out?

At my church, when we have baptisms, I'll come home and tell my brother that we "Clapped in some new fish".

If we really love our fellow humans, we have to be willing to tell them when we think they are mistaken.

Talking about adopting a highway. Down here in Australia, we don't have nearly as much emphasis on religion and non-religion based groups used to do that sort of thing instead. When I was much younger, our town and area had a CB radio club. Citizens Band. 27MHz radios. Because telephones were only for rich people in towns who could afford to have wires run. If you were in the bush, you weren't going to pay the modern equivalent of a hundred thousand dollars to have wires run half a mile, or more for further. So radio was the way many people did things and it was all built up by hobbyists and home enthusiasts. Hence the CB radio club. We wouldn't adopt a highway. We'd get twenty to fifty people out and walk a length of road with a garbage truck idling along in between and go out for a day or two picking up rubbish as far as we could manage, or out multiple roads depending on how many people turned up. Not to get paid or sponsored, but just to do it. Someone eventually thought up getting shirts to wear while we were out doing it. I have a t-shirt sized for a four year old with the label 'Good things come in glass' on it from such a time. And of course the 'Keep Australia beautiful'. I won't say churches didn't do similar things, but I don't recall seeing it and there were no religious overtones when we were doing this. In more recent times, such road cleaning runs were performed by the scouts or girl guides or sometimes a sports team. None of the above is meant to put down any churches. It's just meant to illustrate that other "secular" groups do plenty of good also and have been doing so for quite some time.

I can't even listen to this. I really want to. My PTSD is kicking in. Actually, CPTSD with anxiety, of course. 😢

(continues) that we as humans interact with each other, because we are not self sufficient, our society is so that we need others for food and other goods and services. So our lives are affected by other people's decisions and actions. I base my actions in logic and I expect people around me to do so too, even if we don't agree. So it is not as simple as you put it, to just accept their believes, because i can give you a ton of examples where their believes shape our lives too.

EASTER CANDY!!! Jesus, it's me, I'm back from that extended bathroom break I took ten years ago, and boy do I love you even more, they say absence makes the heart grow fonder, here I come big guy ready or not...is that a candy bar in your pocket or are you just happy to see me ;)

I’ve noticed the trend towards dumbed-down bible translations as part of the “outreach” industry. Now we have a bible “written in screenplay format” called “The Voice.” Apparently most functionally literate Americans now lack the skills and attention spans to read the older translations. I don’t seem to have that problem, however. I watched the trailer of “Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter” and recognized the quotes from the KJV translation of Revelation.

I would love to reprogram the jesus action figure to say the top 10 Samuel L Jackson's qutoes "You know me. It's my duty to please that booty!" "Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherf*cking snakes on this motherf*cking plane!" ....

@troyevitt2437

7 жыл бұрын

Ezekiel 25:17...Pulp Cruci Fiction

I endorse this

To quote matt dillahunty; 'most people are better than their religion, even if they don't realise it'. I will agree though that seth sometimes grants 'undeserved respect' and literally tolerates the intolerable (like the conversation with sye a few podcasts ago, it really made me cringe how lenient he was towards some of sye's sickening remarks). Those segments annoy me aswell, but I try to look at his podcast as a whole and have concluded that it's a worthwhile subscription ;).

Amerigod, Awesome.

32:26 points for succinctness :)

A buddy of mine has a Steve Irwin action figure which also talks when you push the button; much more inspiring IMO.

I bet if I went to one of those all night church parties, I'll fall asleep during the sermon.

I'm on your side about treating the christians reasonably, Seth. While I was never religious, I know the feeling politically. I can't stand, "People are anti-abortion because they hate women!" Which is absolutely absurd if you've ever heard the anti-abortion people. I suspect the religious get a lot of the same, so I really appreciate you being out there to combat dehumanization and stereotypes of the religious.

Ludwig Feuerbach -"Man created god in his own image."

im at first year of law school one of my class is called theology ,sitting there for three hours listening to a father(catholic )deniying evolution and talk about how the bible has zero mistakes(yes he really thinks the bible has no mistakes at all) what should i do its a very stressful situation. sorry for bad english im writitting from latinamerica

Actually, I believe that Joel Olsteen's church building was formerly "The Summit", not the Astrodome. Although he might be buying that next.

If your friends and your's opinions on religion don't interfere with your friendship, then there's no fight. He's smart and all, but when it comes to religion, he doesn't even realize the evil he stands for (IF he stands for it). Once your friend takes a stand against rationalism because of religion, all of his scientific degrees are covered in shame and you or someone else must "eliminate" him by speech. If he's illuminated by then - he's truly rational and worthy of his titles.

My great grandfather had that "choice" too.

They did the same thing that jessica said in my home village with kids. Every "good action" would give you a fake coin which you could collect for other nonsense. I went there once because a friend took me there (because he got coins for bringing me, snowball system). I wasn't raised religios so even while I was a wee child I immidiatly noticed what a sell-out that was. I think that kept me away from religion till I was old enough to teach myself some critical thinking skills.

A Japanese friend told me how, after the War, Christianity began making inroads in Japan simply because Buddhist "pastors" at the time were mostly celibate monks who could be touted as unqualified to deal with "family" matters. By contrast Christian missionaries were almost invariably married, with children. What is never mentioned, of course, is that they are all decadent sinners in need of salvation by some intervening savior - a concept foreign to the Buddhism in which they had been reared.

"They beat the holy shit out of each other" hahaha. Oh Seth, you slay me.

Respecting their believes it's a different thing. I don't usually go and call everyone an idiot just because they believe in fantasies, and I can understand where they come from. But my acceptance stops when their decision affect other people's lives. For example, when they discriminate against gay, when a friend of mine has disappointed me in so many levels because of her believes, when they fight to bring creation in schools. What I'm trying to say is (continues)

Seth, I know Tulsa has way more churches than a rational city needs, but do you know about the Mercy Hill Church, founded by Steve & Shelley Harden? I had a major crush on Shelley in our teen years, but she despised me.

As a Christian, this has actually happened to me a couple of times. I usually just reply with, "Seriously, man? This is Kansas" lol.

People seem to not understand what he's getting at here:/. It's not impossible to be outspoken about your atheism AND help other people, be homeless, poor, or just another human being. He isn't attacking Christians good actions. He is pointing out the hidden agendas that lay behind a lot (not all) of church charities/out reaches. I believe atheists need to be more outspoken, but also do good. And I think Seth does a fantastic job of balancing both.