Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 144: I’m Gonna Give You Some Rain God Style.

Episode Date: March 31, 2014

    Our appearance on Atheists on Air   We appear on Inkredulous too: The 613 commandments   The weird box thing   Within reason:   Skepticamp Brisbane

Want to stream Cognitive Dissonance to your Android or iPhone? Buy the app! Go to DissonancePod.com and click on the link on the right-hand side of the page. Each purchase helps support the show. Hey guys, I'm listening right now and I had a thought. If Christians are really worried about pilots getting raptured, they should be fighting for regulation to require all pilots to be heathens. I mean, don't you think?

Anyways, I thought that was funny. Core hole, bye. Hey guys, love the show. Simon here calling from Australia. Yeah, just got a bit of a story for you. I was on a mountain bike trip recently in Central America going through Nicaragua, and we went out to this party,

and I met this girl out at the party. She was about 21, 22. I'm 30. And, yeah, it turns out that she's from Chicago. And I said, oh, I listen to the podcast. And the guy's, you know, from Chicago. And it turns out she listens to it as well. The same podcast.

And I got us talking. And, yeah, so, so you know you guys got me a route that night so thank you very much for that and yeah catch you later bye hey guys this is Troy from Virginia

we tried watching Jesus Camp tonight and holy fucking shit I cannot believe you actually recommended me to watch that. This movie was so horrible we couldn't even finish it. I think we had like half an hour left

and I just cannot say how unbelievable it is the way they indoctrinate these kids into this. Anyways, glory hole and hope you guys are having a great day hello gentlemen this is dc in detroit i just listened to your listener question about kissing the hand of a religious leader for religion which he doesn't follow and it occurred to me that a a good comparison and maybe less religiously squeaky would be if you were in the presence of a military officer

where the people that are in the military would salute the officer. If you weren't part of that, you would go ring kissing. Keep up the good work, y'all. Be advised that this show is not for children, the faint of heart, or the easily offended. The explicit tag is there for a reason. This is Cognitive Dissonance. Every episode we blast anyone who gets in our way. We bring critical thinking, skepticism, and irreverence to any topic that makes the news, makes it big, or makes us mad. It's skeptical, it's political, and there is no welcome mat. This is episode 144.

And Cecil, we've been doing a fair bit of traveling recently. We've been on a couple of different shows. We've been bopping around the internet. I, for one, am exhausted from all these rides and dump trucks. To get hella lifted around. Well, it's a big helicopter. It is. It's one of those double rotor helicopters to get me. Yeah.

Yeah, they have to cut the fucking roof off my house to get me out of there. That's a thing. And it's expensive because then they've got to back on afterwards oh yeah because otherwise that shit's fucking unacceptable but the nice thing is we've you know the the podcast that we've been on you know obviously they're as as the podcasting world will be the first to tell you you know we are fucking cash rich yeah so picking up roofs and fucking hiring helicopters is no problem no problems we were we were on uh atheist on air this last week uh with cash and love and which was so much fun it was ridiculous yeah we did like three hours so fun and it was a blast it was well maybe two

hours i don't even remember i was i fell asleep for one of the hours so when i was late coming on for the first 10 minutes. But it was good. It was a lot of fun. And you can find their podcast. We're going to put a link to it on this episode's show notes, episode 144. And we were also on Incredulous. What was it? Incredulous 7?

Was that what it was? 7 or 8? Something like that. No, it was the latest episode of Incredulous. And we were on there with a guy by the name of Brian Thompson, who runs a podcast called Quit It. And he was absolutely fucking hysterical. His whole the whole time that he's talking, it is absolutely hilarious. a professional and he was funny as hell the whole time and we had an absolute blast on that show so those are two shows that you should check out because they were way funnier than our show incredulous is a stupid fun show to be on and the nice thing is you can always figure out which is the most recent episode because it's the one three months after the prior episode they have

they've got a tough schedule they do a show out every quarter they do you know so it's yeah we recorded that like what was it like six months ago yeah yeah i don't know it was fucking snowing it was yeah it was a while ago that we recorded it but it's it was a hard thing to edit clearly because there was a a snafu and it's so awesome. There was a equipment snafu and the professional that Andy is, he, you can't even tell, like you cannot tell that there was a snafu with any equipment at all. Um, and there was in the, in the background. So it turned out great. Uh, the podcast is great. So you guys should check it out. And actually this week, uh, it's our great hope to be on, uh, atheistically speaking with Thomas. Uh, he's going to have us on, that's hope to be on Atheistically Speaking with Thomas. He's going to have us on.

That's going to be a little more serious of a show, but it should be still just as much fun. Well, let's be very clear, Cecil. It's intended to be serious. Well, it's true. All right. That's very true. But I'm not terribly convinced that that's in my wheelhouse. I'm not making any promises.

I am making a promise right now, but it's not in my wheelhouse. Who's that guy on the other side of the glory hole? It's Jesus. So, Cecil, the first story comes from Right Wing Watch. Traditional Values Coalition links contraceptive mandate to Islamic Sharia law and population control. Wait, what? What does that even mean? Yeah, no, no, no.

Let me read it to you again. If you read it, maybe I'll get it the second time. Right. I'm going to really concentrate, so just go ahead. Here we go. Three, two, one, go. Look, it's early morning. Put your fucking thinking cap on, you lazy son of a bitch.

I find it. I left it somewhere. Did I leave it in the car? I don't know. I never even had one myself. Traditional Values Coalition links contraception mandate to Islamic Sharia law. Population control. No, that did not make any more sense the second time around.

Okay, so I'll explain it to you. Yeah, please do. Let me go through and break it down point by point. Go ahead. All ears. So the Traditional Values Coalition. Yes. What they're doing is linking the

contraception okay i'm following you so far yeah and what they're linking it to is islamic sharia law as opposed to the other kind of sharia law the non-islamic the the my sharonah law which is totally different the The super pedantic fucking English nerd in me is like, why do you have to write it that way? Islamic Sharia Law. It makes me fucking crazy. It's like an ATM machine.

It's like when people say like, oh yeah, it's 8.30am in the morning. Motherfucker, it's 8.30am. I know it's the morning. It can't be. If it's fucking 8.30 in the morning, I know it's am. If it's fucking 8 30 in the morning i know it's a.m if it's 8 30 fucking a.m i know it's in the morning yeah shut your fucking mouth stop being redundant oh that's awesome so anyway they've just decided like they're just like yeah they're they're pissed

off about the hobby lobby case right who wouldn't be hobby lobby i'm curious about it myself i don't know about you i'm very well i you know i've had to suspend all hobbies and lobbies so and the problem is i do most of my hobbies in lobbies yeah because yeah well that's i i just go to hotel lobbies and build model rockets oh and then you just shoot those fuckers wherever you want well they're normally big they're like atriums so you got plenty of space yeah i'm banned from every best western from here to the mississippi actually so every holiday and holiday inexpress has your picture up right they're like do not allow this man to build model rockets in your lobby it's like the no fly list for hotels you're on it

if there was that list i would certainly be on it for other reasons um oh god don't tell me why don't i don't want to know let's just say i leave a big tip for the cleaning that's just oh and money oh this isn't going anywhere it's not all. Because what do you say about this? Like, it's just crazy. The Hobby Lobby case is being heard by the Supreme Court right now. And that's the case that is challenging the contraceptive mandate that's part of the Obamacare, you know, regulation and laws. Basically saying that private corporations have to fund insurance that covers contraceptive care.

And the Hobby Lobby is basically saying, no, we are a corporation. And as a corporation, we are a human being. And as human beings, we have religious liberty. And so, I mean, that's really the thrust of their argument. Sure, yeah. They're saying that corporations have religious liberty. When did it – was it always contraception? I know contraception has been bad in the Catholic Church for all of the times, right?

That's like a bad thing. Right. But like when did it seep out into all the other spaces that are religious that basically are now saying that contraception is a bad thing? I mean because – 2012 when a black man took off, it must be because clearly, you know, I understand. I mean, you know, there's there's some sort of logic that you can get behind when they're arguing against abortion, you know, especially, you know, like late later term and things like that. There's there's clearly some logic there that you can get behind. But with contraception, you can't even get I can't even get there.

I'm just like, you know, you're not doing anything like there's nothing there clearly is nothing nothing at all that is happening that is remotely stopping life it's just it's just preventing you from reproducing it's not stopping a life from being like live there's no life that was created that's like saying like you know like jerking off you're killing 200 000 years sperm yeah it's it's it you know, these are the same people that are worried, though, Cecil, that we're not producing enough people, that we're losing, like, you know, these are the same people who would be like, oh, you know, America's not having as many babies as, you know, the Islamic country, so that's bad.

It's like, well, don't we just need less people? Like, just wouldn't less people just in general be a good thing? And it's. Yeah, but you can't say that because then you're an extremist who wants to like cut the population down to a million or whatever. Yeah, that basically means you just want to shoot the elderly and drown their babies and like drown babies. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. Islamic law.

The Islamic law thing. I don't even I can't even follow that because that doesn't. I think just saying that Obama is a Muslim. Is that all they're just saying is like obama is a muslim and let's not forget that yeah i think so they have has to be what it is what they're what i think they're doing is just being like be afraid here's something and just like saying like you could basically replace it with like you know lions with rabies sure like like boogeyman patrol or something. Exactly, exactly. I think you've got to remember from the Bible, you look carefully at the Bible,

what would have happened in Jesus' time if two men decided they wanted to cohabit together, they would have been stoned to death. So Jesus would not have baked them a wedding cake, nor would he have made them a bed to sleep in because they wouldn't have been there but we don't have that in this country here so that's the way it is so this next story comes from the raw story pat robertson jesus more likely a stone gaze to death than bake them a

wedding cake um as i said when i tweeted this story, Pat Robertson, say what you fucking will, but you leave cake out of this. I think he's right, though. I mean, I think Jesus was clearly not going to bake anybody a wedding cake. He was a carpenter. So he didn't have the skill set. Now, he might make them a porch, but I don't know that he's going to, like, actually. I mean, it's like between the two of us, I'm less likely to give you title insurance. Right.

You know, it's so funny. He's basically saying in this argument, I don't know, whatever, diatribe of fucking the misanthropic, senile, elderly nonsense. He's basically saying that because back in the good old days of the bibble um if you knew that somebody was gay if people were cohabitating they would have been stoned to death right so they never would have been able to complain about not getting a wedding cake because people would have hurled rocks at their bodies until they fucking expired right so he's saying like look there's a reason this isn't a...

And it's funny to look into his argument a little deeper because he's saying like, there's a reason this has come up now and it didn't come up in the time of the Bible. So he's basically addressing the fact that these issues were not adequately addressed by Jesus during Jesus' time. And he's saying, look, they wouldn't have existed. We would have murdered them. Right.

But now we don't murder them the good old days right right yeah but he's saying like now we don't murder people for being gay so now that's why these issues have come up and like the first thing i think is like well wait a minute are you suggesting that we murder people or like is is that really where he's saying like is he saying like we should go back to the good old days of stoning gays? Because if he's not saying that, then he's basically saying, like, we've navigated away from that particular horror story of the Bible. So that's the only, like, that's the only, like, avenue he has to retreat back to. Yeah, and clearly, you have to think that he thinks that that's a superior

way to treat homosexuals because, uh, because I think that you can't, you can't look at it and be like, well, you know, this is clearly a bad, it's clearly an evil. This guy does not think that it's a good thing. So if that's the case, then that's how they treated bad things. And we're, we should be okay with that because we look up to those people that were in that book and we look up to them and say, Hey, they did all the right things they were doing. They were on the right path back then when they were stoning gays, I guess. And, and adulterers. I mean, let's not forget, you know, let's say that there was clearly other people being stoned and murdered because of other things. Like people like to pick and choose the homosexuals and say, oh, well, the homosexuals were being murdered.

Yeah, but they were murdering a lot of other people back then, too. They kind of had a high quota they needed to fill with the murders. Well, they had a lot of rocks. That's the thing we don't think. They had a lot of rocks and not a lot of food. When every tool is a hammer, all you see is nails. Exactly, yeah. And then when everything is a rock, all you see is nails exactly yeah and then when everything is a rock all you see is homosexuals right that's you know it's funny too it's like if you have to stone adulterers and doesn't the bible say like anybody who's lusted is an adulterer yeah so basically

we all just should stone ourselves yeah like, immediately. They're doing that in Colorado right now. Right. Because I'll tell you this, Cecil. I've done me some lusting. Oh, yeah. There's been a lust. A lust a few times. In the name of Jesus, we speak that. This story comes from OpposingViews.com, but I saw this fucking everywhere this week.

Christian school kicks out 8-year-old girl for not being feminine enough. This story comes from opposingviews.com, but I saw this fucking everywhere this week. Christian school kicks out eight-year-old girl for not being feminine enough. A Virginia Christian school told an eight-year-old girl's grandparents she's too much like a boy for them to offer her enrollment for the school next year. This school is horrible. And it's a great thing, actually, whether she knows it or not, that this little girl won't be able to attend this school of bigoted assholes because she has a fucking short haircut. Yeah. She has a short fucking haircut. They're not fans of the pixie cut down there.

I guess not. Well. Winona Ryder is not allowed to go to Virginia at all. Not at all. You know, I got to say, though, in the school's defense, if she does keep dressing like this, who the hell is going to want to marry her when she turns nine? You know what I mean? Nobody's going to want to marry her.

She's going to be like an old maid at 12. Yeah, she'll be the only single woman in fifth grade. How's Virginia going to meet its quotient of teen pregnancies? Gosh. How's Virginia going to meet its quotient of teen pregnancies? Gosh. Yeah, you feel bad because she clearly, in this article, she's talking about how she misses her friends. She misses the people that she went to school with. Oh, I feel terrible for her.

And the school is like, well, you have longer hair? Like, really? This is a point of contention for your like the school board has nothing better to do than to decide the length of your hair shouldn't they be worrying about like grades and things or does everybody in the in that school automatically like 100 pass all the standardized testing yeah you know that's the first thing I thought is like, okay, Virginia, I'm sure that you've nailed the standards. Just fucking nailed them. So this is really like you're down to this.

Like at this point, like, all right, well, all of our kids are fucking hyper literate. And, you know, our eight year olds are doing fucking calculus. And now we're going to worry about the length of their fucking hair. Yeah. And whether or not they're wearing dresses or pants or something. Right, exactly. You know, but they do have a solid rationale because they say in the letter that they sent, you're probably aware that Timberlake Christian School is a religious, Bible-believing institution

providing education in a distinctly Christian environment. So I guess in a distinctly Christian environment, if i guess in a distinctly christian environment if your hair is cut too short then you don't get to play anymore aren't a lot of girls like tomboys though when they're little little kids i mean i i i remember being a child and having plenty of friends that were girls because you pretty much your sexuality doesn't matter back then you're all just like little fucking rambunctious shits and you just want to run around and break shit what it's so funny that you say that because that was the point that like that occurred to me immediately it's like wait a minute you're worried about this girl's sexuality before she gets a

chance to be worried about it right she's eight she's eight years old she just happens she just has fucking short hair it's not like she's out on the fucking schoolyard, you know, trying to seduce other eight year old girls. That's not what they're complaining about. They're complaining because they see a perceived like sexuality in this eight year old girl that this eight year old girl is not bringing up. It's not like they kicked her out, Cecil, because she's a lesbian. They kicked her up because they think maybe shecil because she's a lesbian they kicked her up because they think maybe she kind of looks like a lesbian is what they're basically saying she may have the propensity to be a lesbian just like every other human being has the propensity you

know other woman has the propensity to be a lesbian if they you know happen to be born that way it's it's so crazy like the school, the school is hyper-obsessed with sex and sexuality. Yeah, because the kid's not thinking about it. Right. This has nothing to do with the sexuality of this child. It has absolutely no—in fact, the sexuality of the child isn't even mentioned. It's not even mentioned. What's mentioned is, like, their perception.

Like, hey, this girl looks too much like a boy. We're a Bible-believing institution with, you know, sexual moral standards. It's like, okay. What does that have to do with this girl with short hair? Yeah. Nothing. Because she's not acting on any kind of, she didn't even get an opportunity to be gay or straight. Like, this is fucking, like, prophylactically kicking her out of the school

and if you really wanted to make sure people didn't turn out like that they wanted you wanted people to turn out like super christian wouldn't the best thing to do would be to invite them into the fold of your church rather than kick them out on the street like you're not part of the in crowd well yeah but wasn't jesus all about being inclusive, not exclusive? Jesus might have been, but we're really not. What I think this too is like an extension of that homophobia that is rampant in that culture. And this shows the damage that it can cause, right? this shows the damage that it can cause right uh that they're so afraid uh that this person is going to be gay that they're willing to expel her from school before they they even know before she

even reaches puberty right and it's like it's like we want to make sure that nobody gets uh exposed to anything even remotely alternative that way they're best prepared to go out into the world and it's funny because it's like alternative is a different haircut. I know. I know. Short fucking hair. Short hair on girls? My wife has short hair.

It's like, what is this? What is this, 1904? Next thing you know, there's going to be female motorists. Like, give me my buggy whip. Right? Well, boys and girls, put your hand up if you've heard of the word evolution. Oh, boy, I think just about everyone puts their hands up. So, Cecil, you found this story.

This story is awesome. This is from the Daily Beast, which couldn't actually be more appropriate for the story. Creationists stole eight-year-old girl's idea for state fossil for South Carolina. Eight-year-olds. The eight-year-olds are not doing well this week. This is a tough week to be a third grader. Yeah. I got to say.

Eight-year-old Olivia McConnell's idea to have the woolly mammoth become the state fossil of South Carolina is being blocked by two senators who want to amend the proposed bill to emphasize that God created all creatures. Fucking what the fuck? You're afraid of an eight-year-old girl and a pile of bones you chicken shit i love this i think it's great there's there's so much in this story uh they essentially this girl saw that her state didn't have a fossil like there's a bunch of other states have state fossils and she's like well what about us and she saw they didn And she said, well, I'll write a letter and say that the woolly

mammoth should be our state fossil. And there is a couple of reasons in this article why it should be a state fossil. And essentially, and I'm going to read directly from this article. One of the guys, the Senator Kevin Bryant, proposed amending the bill to include three verses from the book of Genesis detailing God's creation of the earth and its living inhabitants, including mammoths. And at the first thing that comes to mind, Tom is thinking if God wanted that on the fossil, why didn't he fucking write it on the fossil?

I know. Why don't we have inscribed in every fucking bone made in God or something? You know what I mean? Like why is that? Like it has like a little little flag of godlandia or whatever that's there just i mean clearly he could have done it right if he made us all why didn't he just fucking just stamp us all but instead it's like no we've got to make sure that people realize that the fucking god set up there with his fucking plato and made

mammoths too he's got one of those like uh one of those press things that like shoots out the star shape like it's got his mammoth yeah mammoth shape you just squeeze it squishes out yeah you got to cut it and you make your little mammoth you know it's it's so funny to be this afraid because that's where that stems from it's like oh man if we pick a state fossil and we don't specifically emphasize that god made that fossil then the fucking seven people in the fucking world who even know that states have a fossil i know see so pop fucking quiz hot shot what's illinois state fossil t-rex is it i don't know i love the confidence with which you answered that question, sir.

I'm going to look it up, though. Well done. That was great. I hope it is the T-Rex. I'll feel awesome. If it is, I'll buy you nothing. Illinois State Fossil is the Tully Monster. Oh, yeah.

I was going to say that if I had been given every opportunity to guess words. It's a soft-bodied invertebrate marine animal. So, actually, to be honest, you and I should have a kinship with that. A soft-bodied invertebrate. animal. So actually, to be honest, you and I should have a kinship with that. A soft-bodied invertebrate. Oh, my God. Look at it. It looks like a bug. It just looks like...

Like, see the images? Yeah, oh, yeah. It's just like a weird little bug thing. Like a blood fluke or something. Right? Ah, Illinois. Ah, great. Fucking South Carolina gets something awesome, like a goddamn woolly man.

Yeah, you can't ride a tully in a battle. Right. So we're going to take a break, give you some information on how to contact us and to donate to the show. And we're going to be back with some other really, really, really bad stories. If you would like to contact the show, visit the website DissidentsPod.com for the links to the Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and email accounts. You can also call and leave a message at 740-74-DOUBT. That's 740-743-6828.

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So this story comes from the Ferengula blog. Guess who's speaking at the NSTA National Conference? The featured speaker at this year's National Science Teacher Association. Let me say that again. Featured speaker conference in Boston is mayim bialik um so i love this cecil because the very for the very next line uh mimics my exact reaction the lucky ones among you right now are saying who which is exactly i was like mayim bialik what the fuck is that and i thought like wasn't that the girl from blossom like that's my first fucking thought was like i wasn't that the girl from Blossom? Like, that was my first fucking thought was like, I thought that was the girl from Blossom,

but I could fucking be totally wrong on that. So anyway, this person, isn't she? I have no idea. The name was vaguely familiar. Oh, yeah. She was fucking from Blossom. And now she's on the Big Bang Theory. So I guess she's on more than one fucking thing.

Anyway, who cares? I mean, let's just put that fucking out there who fucking cares she's an actress and who gives a shit what she's been in so she's an actress she plays an idiot on a stupid show for dumb jerks called the big bang theory i have to get a million emails i love the big bang theory like have you watched the show i don't watch things with laugh tracks, Tom. It's so funny that you say that because I actually... God damn it. I'm laughing right now. I'm laughing right now. I've tried to watch that show.

My dad likes that show. He's like, you should watch this show. I don't know why I take viewing advice from my dad. But anyway, I tried to watch it. You should watch Matlock. Right. know why i take viewing advice from my dad but anyway i try to watch it watch matlock right and it totally has a laugh track and it's incredibly distracting and i can't make it through the first five minutes of the show yeah um but i guess like this person plays a scientist on tv and also happens to have a phd so they're speaking at this nsta conference they also happen to be a fucking weird anti-vax nut.

Yeah, that's the other thing, right? And homeopathy, too, because she's a spokeswoman for the Holistic Moms Network, which is crazy as shit. But I think the funniest part of this, and I don't know that I want to read it out loud, but the funniest part of this where pz myers is just attacking the fucking show he's like calling it like how bad it is and how they're egotistical jerks and he's going on and on if you get a chance read this he's just you could tell he really hates this show he kind of has a hate on for this show and you know i just you look at this and the problem is is buying into the cult of celebrity um has led us into nothing but problems in the past, right? Like, we're not,

we should not have speakers who happen to be celebrities, like, especially at conferences like this. Conferences like this should have speakers that have something real and substantive and important to say. The whole idea of the cult of celebrity that we fucking fashioned our world around has given us a hell of the cult of celebrity that we fucking fashioned our uh our world around um has has given us a hell of a lot of problems uh jenny mccarthy i'm looking right at you yeah

and here's another anti-vax nut who's got a bigger soapbox for no other reason than she's good at pretending she's a person she's really not yeah that's that's what she's good at that's her job fantastic great i like acting i like actors phenomenal but that doesn't give you a special soapbox you either have something scientifically valid to say or you don't get to play at conferences like this the only reason she would be invited to something is because she happens to have a PhD, but more importantly, people can look at her and they can have a little taste of that cult of celebrity for a few fucking fleeting moments. They can be in the presence of somebody who's been on fucking TV.

It's funny because, you know, I've been to a lot of conferences and the speakers lots of times really don't match the conference and they really do try to get these star power speakers there. I went to a new media conference and one of the speakers was Dana White. And I actually really like Dana White. I think he's a, you know, I like watching MMA and I like watching the UFC. And I, you know, I don't dislike Dana as a human being. I think, you know, that he's done good work with that. I don't really know kind of what work he does,

to be honest with you. He's just really their front man. But I don't have any like, there's people out there who hate him or whatever, but I don't. But I watched him speak and I enjoyed the talk, but it had nothing to do with new media. Like, I mean,

like people were asking him questions about, about controversies in the UFC, but they were never, there was not a lot of controversy. There was not a lot of questions that were coming in that were like, you know, so what platform do you enjoy more or things like that? They never really, you know, it was never really about new media at all. And so, you know, they really do go for this star power it's it's funny that they try to get these people that are you know and that in and and there was other people that were there that actually did have good keynote stuff to to offer the guy who created this this this uh um social media sharing site called buffer was there and he was he actually had some great stuff to say but you know there was other people that were clearly

there just for their star power and i wonder if this is the case here. What is she going to talk about something that is scientific? And if she does, because clearly she has like a, like a background in it, what is she going to say? Is this going to leak into, is this talk going to leak into something about anti-vaccination or something about homeopathy?

And is she going to have a stage based on that? You know what I mean? Is that, is there going to be some, now we're going to be giving that some sort of privileged coverage in a place where maybe it shouldn't because it's clearly not peer reviewed. You know, part of me, Cecil, is a huge dickhead and says, like, as soon as you come out like publicly and you hop on any kind of a soapbox or you come out and say, like, I am I am anti-vax. I'm fucking pro-homeopathy i'm you know you're i don't care if the rest of your scientific career is fucking mechanical engineering and has nothing to do with those subjects like you kind of need to be part of

me is like just fucking shun that person like they get to have a job and they get to come into work i don't care about that but they really shouldn't be given more soapbox, even at, like, a mechanical engineering conference. Like, that's not a speaker you want to have anymore. Like, because their trustworthiness in the scientific arena is damaged. And they're not going to be – I mean, they're coming out there. I just – like, I know that's not really a rational thing to say. I recognize that, but it fucking frustrates me to give people like this more power to give

people like this, a louder fucking bullhorn, you know, because these things are not harmless. Like these things are, you know, like, Oh, we should fucking not vaccinate. Oh, look, fucking mumps is back. People have fucking mumps now. Oh, measles in New York is back. Yeah. Like there was a huge

cases of that popping up all over uh all over the states and like in new york there was a big a big uh outbreak of it again clearly from non-vaccination and people are like well you know there should still be a lot of people getting vaccinated why is it spreading so fast and well fucking there's a lot of people who are not vaccinated. Right. And communities can be insular. Yeah. You know, what happens is that these things spread within in communities, within communities and sub communities where, you know, the the the vaccination percentage is less than 90 percent. Because that's the what I was reading something this week about herd immunity is really 90 percent is kind of your threshold, you know, for herd herd immunity to stop the spread of disease. So if you've got a community, let's say, and I'm just grabbing one at random. I have no idea if they're anti-vax.

But let's say you have the Jewish Orthodox community in New York, for example. That's a very insulated community. And something could spread in that community very quickly because that community is is is it is self-isolates the other the other major part of that is that the people who could not get vaccines because their bodies couldn't handle it those are the people who suffer the worst right those are the people that like they didn't choose not to get vaccinated they just can't because they just can't physically do it and they're the ones who get who get screwed on it it's like i don't care about the people i mean I do care about the children who don't get a choice, but you know,

like I, I, the people who, uh, who have those children, you made your own bed. You know what I mean? Like you, you, you made your own decisions based on that. Now, clearly I'm for the child to get vaccines because I think it's a child didn't get a choice in this, in this whole, uh, equation. But, you know, beyond that, those people having to deal with those sick children, clearly they made their own choice. But people, there's a lot of people who don't make their own choice and can't make their own choice, and they get fucked in that equation, too. I'm Raymond Massey, and I have a special message for senior citizens. Today's doctors, drugs, and medical devices truly work medical miracles for young and old alike.

But there are some as phony as a $3 bill. Investigate before you invest in health services or products. Help stamp out quackery. So this next story is from skeptools.wordpress.com. Wikipedia founder responds to pro alt med petition and skeptics cheer wikipedia's co-founder jimmy wales this week sent a clear signal to skeptics who edit the user-created encyclopedia um and that clear signal is uh fuck the quote lunatic charlatans which i love he didn't say fuck but his response did refer to paranormalists as lunatic charlatans

which i think is fucking awesome um so basically he's come out and said like look wikipedia is all about like scientific rational worldview and if you are going to post some shit and we want it to be reliable and if you're going to post some shit that's unreliable or unproven or non-scientific, then it's going to get fucking edited out. Period. Like, you don't get fucking free time on Cosmos here. Yeah, no kidding. We're not going to give you equal time on Wikipedia either. I think this is a great call.

It's awesome that Wikipedia has become this amazing source for knowledge. And, you know, while there is obviously some mistakes and clearly there is going to be mistakes on Wikipedia, the best part is, is that it does a pretty good job of self-correcting. And they've shown a couple of different times how Wikipedia is, you know, easily as accurate as the encyclopedia. And I think that that is, you know, that's a great thing to have access to whenever you want i know i i don't know how many times i check wikipedia all the time just i mean i just checked it we just checked it a few minutes ago finding the illinois state fossil right right and it's important that wikipedia then you know that that it not succumb to pressures of the

alt-med yeah nut jobs yeah because if it's going to stay a reliable source, and it is, and we use it all the time, if it's going to stay a reliable source of information, then it can't just be like, well, we're going to be like Conservapedia, right? Like, that's the alternative. It's something like Conservapedia, where some lobbyist group,

some side, some faction, gets to decide on what's true versus what's not true. You know, and I know that like the alt-med, you know, the pro-alt-med people be like, well, yeah, but isn't the same thing where the skeptics get? No, no, it's not the same thing because the skeptics are saying like, if it's true, you have to prove it. And that's the difference. Yeah. And you don't get to say it if you can't prove it if it's true i'll change my worldview you know what i mean like like clearly you're not willing to do that because you know in in many cases when they've done tests on homeopathy they've done

tests on all these other things that you know are this alt-med garbage and they've come out and said that's not a real thing that doesn't work you, yelling at your rice doesn't turn it brown or whatever. When they've come out and shown that and they've done these experiments, these people just dismiss them. They're just like, oh, well, I'm just going to dismiss that evidence. I dismiss it because I don't want to think it's not real. You know, you can't just wave your hand and be like, well, I don't believe in that evidence. It's like if there's clear evidence that it's wrong, you've got to at least take that into account.

And they're not willing to change their worldview. So fucking just take that. You don't get to play on Wikipedia. Go play somewhere else. And I'm sure, like you said, Conservapedia, they would take you with open arms. Because Conservapedia is all about protecting an ideology. That's what Conservapedia is all about protecting an ideology. That's what Conservapedia is designed around. Conservapedia is like, hey, look, we want to mold the facts to try to fit into the mold of this thought process.

Like, here we are. We think this is the way the world works. If the world does not appear to work that way, we will attack the facts. We will change the the facts we'll ignore other ones you know it's wonderful that that wikipedia and i think self-correction is the way to build this it's a smart model it's wonderful that wikipedia is standing up and saying like look we want to be accurate and the only way to be accurate is to have people aggressively edit kind of like when you edit the show see so you, and you take out all the stuff I say.

All the stuff. Yeah, the four hours of farting. Right. That's pretty much my shining moment, though. It says, Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak. But they are commanded to be under obedience,

as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. It says in 1 Timothy 2.11, let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. So therefore, obviously, before the service, before the congregation begins the

service, there's chatting and talking going on. That's perfectly legitimate. And then when we all sing praises to God, of course, the ladies should also lift up their voices and sing praises unto God. But wait a minute. When it's learning time, it's silence time. So this next story comes from the Raw Story. Anti-gay pastor who prayed for Obama's death demands silence from women in church. I fucking love this guy. This is that fucking lunatic Cecil in Phoenix, Arizona. Steven Anderson, we've talked about him before. He's from the Faithful Word Baptist Church.

And he has just absolutely said some of the most delightfully crazy shit ever um so in his most recent diatribe of insanity um he's basically talking about the passages in the bible that say women need to sit down shut up and let their men do all the talkings um and it's fucking awesome um my favorite line from this cecil and then i'll turn it right over to my favorite line is when he says but when it's learning time it's silence time oh this is great one of the things that i that i i thought immediately because he's reading from the bible and this is the same guy who said that women need to stay home and like sew clothes for their family. Right.

Yeah. And not be on the Facebooks. Yeah, and don't be on the Facebooks and your FarmVilles because that is not – you are not doing what the Lord wants you to do, which is basically shit out more children and cook me beans. Like that's essentially what you have to do for this guy. But one of the things that he's talking about is like it's all from the Bible. It's all from the Bible. And so Tom and I, a while ago had found this 613 commandments and they're all the commandments in the old Testament. And I was looking through some of these the other day and I found a couple that I thought were awesome. And they're number 79 and 80. And I'm going to read them and I'm going to explain what they are.

So it's to wear Teflon on the head and to bind Teflon on the arm. And I have no idea if I'm pronouncing that correctly. But essentially what these little things are, are little tiny boxes with leather straps that you stick scripture in and you tie them to yourself. And there's a picture on the Wikipedia page that I'm going to include if you go to this website, the Wikipedia page for this Teflon or whatever. There's a guy with one strapped to his fucking head and he looks like a goddamn miner with a fucking mining light on or whatever. Like he's like out in the woods and he's got one of those

fucking headlamps on. And he's, you know, it clearly is the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen. And the first thing I thought is, why is this guy not wearing his fucking Teflon? Why is this guy who's quoting the Bible and telling women to shut the fuck up? Why is his head not adorned with a box with scripture in it right now? Why is that not a thing? Well, you know what occurred to me, Cecil? It's like, you know, he's not allowed to work on the Sabbath. But if he's a pastor and his job is to do this and he preaches on the Sabbath, isn't that kind of a conflict? Yeah, it's a little conflict of interest there.

Isn't that a bit of a problem? I fucking think this guy should be covered in those boxes. Yeah, exactly. He should show up. He should just exactly. He should show up. I think he should show up just covered in those boxes like a fucking Cenobite from fucking. Hellraiser. Hellraiser.

Thank you. Just like covered like he should be fucking steampunked out in tiny little boxes. He should be jutting out from every angle. Just in case. Just in case, Cecil, that there was a mistranslation in the book. And maybe they meant to say like leg and not arm or chest and not head. Yeah, just in case, right? Yeah.

It's on his penis. It's like a cup. In fact, what he should do is just live inside of a giant one. He should just be in a box. I just want to see him wear one like a codpiece. You know what I mean? Like it's just sticking right out over his junk there. Right.

him wear one like a codpiece you know what i mean like it's just sticking right out over his junk there right or he's like what maybe he could be like a transformer like megatron and he turns into one of those boxes so like he jumps and he like does the little and he lands on somebody's arm and then like wraps the string around it maybe that might be a little better he has to make the noise he has to make the fucking if he doesn to make the fucking – If he doesn't make that fucking awesome noise, then it just does not count. It doesn't work as well. What is – how many women do you think could possibly be in the audience by their fucking own will? I mean if you were – I mean clearly he's talking about the women here. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I mean no woman would go to see this guy for their own – of their own free will. I can't imagine that. I cannot imagine. It would actually be really interesting to interview, not for us to do it, but for somebody competent, to interview somebody who, you know, actually sits in that audience and is like, oh, yeah, that seems like a good idea. What I think is crazy about this, you know, like we're talking about how, I mean, you talk about how this guy clearly doesn't have any respect for women, but I mean, just when you read what he has to say, I'm going to read a little bit of this. It says, even the Bible is really clear on this. Even if they were to have a question, they are not to ask that question in the church, number one. Number two, even if they want to ask the question to

their husband, they should wait until they get home. So even like, clearly this is, you know, we're talking, this is something you had said a long time ago that, you know, when you go to church, you're not there for a thoughtful experience. You're clearly not there for a lecture that has a question and answer session either, because you're not there to learn about anything. And he says, you know, when it's learning time, it's silence time. No, it's not learning time because learning requires people to ask questions about what they're learning. But instead, it's like, no, what you're here for is diatribe time. You're here for me to tell you what I fucking think.

And then you go home and shut your fucking mouth. You don't get to fucking talk here. You don't get to fucking talk on the way home. Maybe tell your fucking dumb husband something. But I certainly don't get to fucking talk here. You don't get to fucking talk on the way home. Maybe tell your fucking dumb husband something, but I certainly don't fucking want to hear it. Shut the fuck up. Read your goddamn Bible and listen to what I have to say and take it to heart because I'm the fucking way, the truth and the light. Fuck you, douchebag. What a jag off. I could not imagine a person with any kind of will whatsoever sitting in that audience for that entire thing. Here's another thing that he says.

He says, this is why I don't believe a woman should say amen during the preaching either. Because amen truly means truly or verily. And it basically means that's true. So when I'm preaching and I say something and you agree with it and you believe in it and you say amen, you're saying that's true. Well, god fucking forbid they agree with you dude right yeah i mean what it's so funny because like when i read that portion of it like what i read is him saying like i fucking know it's true i don't need you to tell me like isn't that kind of what he's saying yeah god he's basically saying like don't don't fucking

sit there and agree with me you don't have the tools to agree or disagree. You're just a woman. Right? Otherwise, there's, like, somebody being like, yeah, I agree with that. It's like, you have fucking no autonomy to agree or disagree. How dare you agree with me or disagree? I mean, he's really calling them subhumans. He's just like, you're a subhuman.

You don't get to talk. You don't get to talk. You don't get to argue. You don't even get to say, yes, pastor, that's true. You just get to shut the fuck up. Why don't they just provide muzzles that are ball gags when they walk into the church? Why don't they just ball gag all the women? If you're just going to treat them like fucking breeding stock, just treat them like breeding stock. Yeah, like they have to sit in one of those swings, you know, the sex swing, with a ball gag in their mouth.

And then, you know, they don't have to leave the swing. They could just drop the babies right out of there. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, just like plunk, plunk, plunk. It's like an egg laying eggs. You know what I mean? Chicken laying eggs.

Fucking ovipositor. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. So I think I'm entitled. You want answers! I want the truth! You can't handle the truth! So I fucking love this story. This story also comes from the Raw story.

Oklahoma pastor says he accidentally flooded Texas by praying too hard. In an appearance on the Christian Internet broadcast, Generals International. What? This dude recalled how he had used a divorce decree cecil to sever baal's hold on drought stricken states pronouncing that correct baal baal is it baal or bail which one is it because i've heard it both ways you know here's the thing someone's gonna fucking write in to tell us someone's gonna tell us hey look, that's the bad guy in Diablo 2, and they said it ba-all.

You guys clearly don't know how to pronounce fake creatures properly. Look, it's all fucking made up. It's like looking at a fucking Magic the Gathering card and being like, I'm going to cast Baal the Evil Aethers to death. Fuck you. It's all made up shit. it's just older made up shit nobody knows how to pronounce it because somebody just made it up i i hope i think it is i think baal is the bad guy in diablo 2 and i hope that this guy was stuffed with gold weapons too you know like and a lot of coins like he's stuffed with a ton of coins and like five weapons i was

wondering where those fell out of like you just punctured like a little imp and like somehow like a halberd fell out of it. How did a halberd fall out of an imp? I'll tell you this much though. If it was from fucking Diablo 3, it wouldn't have been worth the time. So he says there is no rain in sight, no rain forecast at all. But literally the day after we first used used, literally, not figuratively, the day after we first used this Baal, Baal, Baal, Baal divorce decree in 2007, we declared it in a meeting together. You see, the rains came and we ended up having more rain between February and Juneary and june of 07 than any other 12 month period in history you know what they did tom yeah they did they hugged texas to death that's what

they did they gave it like a really big hug and they smothered it's like the fucking it's that guy who petted the fucking mouse too hard and killed it like lenny like basically lenny texas it's like i keep on petting it but you know how they you know how that book ends though of course is that you know George fucking shoots Lenny so Baal gets a divorce is that how that book right you know I have to say when I first read this

I was incredibly insulted that I was not invited to the wedding of Texas and Baal I know like I mean because they've been divorced and you know I got them a gift and they've been divorced and, you know, I got them a gift and they've been married less than one year. So I think etiquette demands

that they return. They return the gift to you? That is awesome. Actually, you just keep getting married on like a year and a day basis and you get shit tons of gifts. Right.

That's the plan. You got to have the engagement first. You have your engagement party and then you get stuff then. And then you have a wedding shower, and then you have your wedding, and then you get divorced, and then you do it all over again. And you just keep doing it. No, no, you're skipping one.

And then you impregnate your wife, have a baby shower, and then get an abortion. Yeah. Oh, my God. And then you take all your money, and you put it in your carriage and you move that around like your little baby whatever stroller and you push that around. What's interesting is I wonder in the divorce proceedings, who gets Texas barbecue? Like who gets to keep that? This is awesome because it's post hoc rationalization about like what happened, right? This is awesome because it's post hoc rationalization about like what happened.

Right. They said they did a thing and then all they had to do was find one natural thing that happened and then they could tack on what they say. Yeah. Basically, they just did a big thing and said, hope things get better. And then something got better. Like you could have been it could have been like any number of things that they just were able to point to. Right. They could have been like, well, you that they just were able to point to, right? They could have been like, well, you know, the murder rate was less this year.

Like, oh, that's because we did the divorce. Like, fucking demons are no longer married to Texas or whatever. And the thing is, the thing is, is it's not better, right? I mean, like, clearly it's not better because you went from one extreme to the other. No, no, that's better. So there's not like a median ground. It's not like, oh, well, then there's a fucking bumper crop and fuckingesus came down and we all sat on his knee and he bounced us and played banjo music none of that shit happened what happened was is you flooded everything you're misunderstanding texas was just on the rebound real hard yeah that's all that it was that's like a fucking

rubber ball into the stratosphere right a? A divorce is a traumatic thing. It really is. It shakes up everybody involved. You know, it's so funny because you basically are saying, yeah, we kind of ruined Texas. Minor details. It was Texas to start with. It's Texas in the end, right? I don't think you ruined it.

It's like ruining a squatter's house. How does that work? I didn't even know that that's possible. It's like coming in and choosing the wrong paint color for a crack house. It's like, hmm, I don't know. It's not really any. Your dog shit on the floor of my meth house. How dare you?

It's like it's different, but I'm not going to say better or worse. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I love this. We over-prayed. That's the thing. You've got to modulate your praying, too, Cecil, because if you over-pray, you've got to scale that shit back. It's so effective.

Maybe God just got mad about hearing about it. He's just like, man, I am so sick of you all saying, I'm just going to flood it all then. Fine, I'm flooding it. Hope y'all got your arcs ready because I'm going to give you some rain God style. So we want to thank a few people who donated to us on Patreon this week. We have a couple new patrons.

We have Neil, Jay, Zachary, Sakura, and David. Thank you very much for your generous donations. Thank you, everybody who's a patron of the show. We really appreciate everybody who's gone out of their way to donate a buck a show or more to the production of Cognitive Dissonance. It's really awesome, and we're looking forward to using that money to actually, we're going to buy some new equipment very soon. And we're going to be making a studio in Tom's basement for Tom to record once because he's a little one on the way. And he doesn't want, he's fucking so goddamn loud when he farts that he doesn't want to wake up the kid. So, and I understand because I've been in the room with him a couple times and he's rattled the fucking rafters.

The thing is you have to put it in the basement because at least the walls are concrete. Right. And you can't get carbon monoxide poisoning down there. People outside the Midwest are like basement. What the fuck is a basement? I want to talk about a message we got. Actually, we got a lot of different messages this week about the poverty thing we did last week. It was a long part of the show. Mike from California called in and Mike, your call actually cut out and he called twice. The first call he left and he talked about he talked about how he's a person who installs a cable service for other people. And what he does is he said

he saw some people that probably shouldn't be able to afford it, but they have like an HDTV and they're getting cable. And he said it was hard for him to – he said that our talk certainly helped him think differently about how poor people spend their money and how we shouldn't be so judgmental. And it was really helpful to him, but it still is very difficult because he sees this on a daily basis. He'll be installing this cable from the service provider he works for, and he'll be seeing somebody who clearly probably shouldn't be using this money for this because they live in squalor, et cetera. And Tom and I actually had a conversation about this yesterday, and it was, you know, we both feel when we've talked about this, I think a couple of different times, it's hard to micromanage the finances there. But I will, I will relay a personal anecdote. When I was a kid, my parents were on assistance and my dad didn't have a job. And, you know,

it was, it was very tough times for us. But I do remember whenever there was any kind of cable, when there was like a promotion, some sort of promotion going on. Because back then they used to give you like three months for free and then the next three months would be $6.99 or something like that. And then they would go up to the major pricing. And I remember every time that there was a chance that we could get cable TV

for a very small amount of money, my parents always took advantage of it. We didn't always have cable when I was growing up, but there was occasional times where they would take advantage of it and it was really great for us. It was a lot of entertainment value in it. And, uh, and we really enjoyed it. And it really, it really was great, uh, for us because we got a chance to see all these different

shows and, you know, I mean, cause TV really does connect you to your world. So it was, uh, it was one of those things that we really enjoyed. And I can, I can see that, you know, you could probably make some assumptions based on what you're seeing, but you've also got to understand, too, your sample set of these people is all the people who are actually acting on getting this cable service. You're not seeing all the people that aren't getting this cable service. You're only seeing the people that are. So make sure you think a little bit about that, that there are people out there that aren't spending their money in a way that you might think would be a bad way in which to spend their money. You know, the other thing to remember too, though, is that unless you have an opportunity to review the books, to review the monthly statements of those people, what you're seeing is an outward world, right? So you're seeing what

they're showing you. You're seeing their house for certain. You're making assumptions based on the way that they live. Those assumptions are like, hey, if you live in this shitty neighborhood or with less or whatever, you must not have money. I'll tell you what. There are some people that I have met that live in a way that is totally different than their actual income and expenses. in a way that is totally different than their actual income and expenses. Um, there are people who, who have money to spare, um, and they just live in, you know, relative squalor. And there's people I've met that don't have a fucking penny to their name and you walk into their house and they look like the fucking Rockefellers. Um, so what you see is not always what you get, um, just because you're invited into someone's home for a few minutes to, you know, install cable. I did the same thing, closing loans. I'll give you

another personal anecdote. I was a loan closer for a title company for a while. I did a lot, a lot, many hundreds of in-home closings. And I'd sit across from people with, you know, their loan application in my hand and I've got every detail of their lives right in front of me. I've got, you know, their fucking social security number and how much money they make and their assets, their liabilities, their level of education. And very frequently their home would not match what one would expect just by reading them on paper. So that's, that's, it's not always the case that what you see is what you get. I would also point out that I think that television is really cheap entertainment, even if it is $40 or $50 or $60 a month. If you're not going anywhere or doing anything, if you're not eating out, that's a relatively small drop in the bucket to feel normal for a while.

Yeah, I do want to commend you though. I think, you know, you know, calling in and saying that it's changed your viewpoint or whatever. I, I, I respect that. I really do. And I think, you know, when people, when people have this, uh, you know, when people think about something and it changes their mind, I think that's the sign of somebody who is actually looking at, you know, different viewpoints. And I think it's, it's, it's commendable. So thank you. You also called in and sent in a, and had like played something in the background. Um, and it's, and you, you literally cannot hear it. You said you went to a Baptist, uh, uh, I think it was a funeral and the people were sort of singing and doing stuff and you didn't realize that they actually

did it and you had recorded it. It sounds like fucking EVP. I mean, it clearly does not sound like it sounds like what they play on those ghost shows when they're trying to tell you that there's a ghost in the room. You can't hear anything. So that's why we didn't play it this week because we just couldn't hear it. So we got a message and this message is from Jonathan

and Jonathan is a science blogger and he has a podcast, a Canadian podcast. It's called Within Reason. I'll leave a link on this episode's show notes. They've done five episodes. I have not listened to this show yet. I've had an absolutely, and I want to say it was a busy week, but it clearly wasn't. I've been on spring break and I've been playing fucking video games all week and it's been

glorious. So I haven't done anything really, but I haven't had an opportunity to listen to this, but I will leave a link on this episode show notes for your show, Jonathan. Good luck. Good luck to you, Jonathan. So we got a message from April and I want to read a little bit. I just want to paraphrase what April had said. And we had done the talk. This is again about the talk about poverty. She essentially has an MBA. And last week, she went to go get a job, her second interview for a job. This job was cleaning hotel rooms, and she was rejected. She's been working at Walmart and other places trying to find dependable work for a very long time, and she can't find good work. And to be honest, sometimes it's very

difficult with an advanced degree to find good work. Tom, I know you have a personal anecdote about someone who used to work for you with an advanced degree. Yeah. When I was hiring, I was hiring for a job. I work at a title insurance company and I was hiring for a job that paid insurance company and I was hiring for a job that paid $12 to $14 an hour right around. And the number of, first of all, the number of applications that I received for people that had law degrees or advanced degrees was absolutely stunning. And in fact, the woman that I ended up hiring has a master's degree in archeology. She has her master's in archaeology. But she's sitting behind a desk doing basic data entry work for, I don't know, $12.50, $13 an hour or something like that.

In fact, the company that I used to work with was littered with people that had degrees in unrelated fields, things along those lines. The idea that, and we didn't pay them very well. We just didn't. The idea that poor people are the uneducated, the slovenly, the lazy is just not borne out by the numbers. It's not borne out by the evidence. It's not borne out by the evidence. And anybody who's ever been in the unenviable position of hiring for a mid-level position and seeing the resumes that come through and being shocked, absolutely shocked at the candidates that are applying for these mid-level or entry-level jobs can testify to the same. Yeah. And thank you for sharing your story with us, April. I think, you know, it really does show that, you know, I know that clearly this is just anecdotal evidence,

just one person. But I think I don't think that you're you're in the minority here. I think there's a lot of people out there that are looking for jobs that just can't find them. They're certainly not people that are that are that are lazy, that that just want to, you know, suck off the government teeth. These are people who clearly want to, you know, live and work and, and be productive. And, you know, there's, there's more to work than just being, than just getting an income either. You know what I mean? Like there's a lot to work. You know, you get a lot of personal, like some people get some personal satisfaction. Some people get, you know, they get a chance to interact with other human beings.

There's a lot of things that happen through work that, you know, that are a benefit other than just getting income. And to say that people would just forsake that just to like sit at home and watch fucking Maury Povich and collect that fucking tiny little sum that you get on government assistance, I think is pretty absurd. Somebody sent us in a message about 10,000 sexual partners and they said the average Republican makes up 2.6 facts per day and about 500 facts per day would not be remarkable. I thought that was great. That was great. The

way that was phrased was pretty funny. It would not be remarkable, 500 facts a day. Not even remarkable. Not even remarkable. We got a message from Rachel, and Rachel sends in a message and says, basically, we're talking about the pilots getting voiped up. And I was saying, well, what about Peace Corps workers? Why wouldn't they get voiped up? Well, she's actually in the Peace Corps. And she sends in a message, and it's a nice long message about poverty. But then at the end, I want to read directly what she says, because I think this is very poignant.

She says, I think your average, stable, well-off first worlder, in this case, American, has had most of, if not all of its necessities taken care of, food, water, health, security, et cetera, so readily that a sense of entitlement arises. This cozy self-entitlement gives them the hubris to think that they can pick and choose what role government is allowed to play in their lives and what role it doesn't play, all the while forgetting that their comfortable lives stem from a stable, usually well-run government. And I think that that's absolutely true. People forget that all the fucking time. And, you know, I think going over somewhere where places can be fucked up and seeing that is a bit, that's a huge deal to sort of wake you up. Cecil, we were talking about this

before the show, like the, the ability of the self-made man to make themselves is reliant in large part on having a stable infrastructure and an educational system that they can rely upon, you know, an economic system that works, a judicial system that works. You know, what's the point of inventing something if that patent, if there's no patent process, if there's no judicial process to mediate conflicts? You know, one thing that occurs to me as an analog is look at the black market for drugs, right? You know, how are disputes settled amongst rival business partners within a black market organization? You know, even within the states, they're settled with violence, right?

Because there's no judicial process. I can't say, hey, you know, I had a territory. Let's actually compare drugs. Judge Judy. Right. Because there's no judicial process. I can't say, hey, you know, I had a territory. Let's let's actually compare Judge Judy. Right. You know, like compare drugs to Quiznos. Right. So if if you're a Quiznos and I want to open a Quiznos and I try to open a Quiznos next door to your Quiznos, there is a process in place for you to challenge that. You know, you can and I might be able to succeed, but there's a process you can challenge that territory. You know, you can say, Hey, you know, I'm going to call the franchise company and I'm going to make a complaint to the franchise company and say, this is an unfair, uh, competitive practice. I'm going to, you know, talk to the landlord and see

if you've got options versus a black market organization, right? We're like, you know, Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to fucking sell drugs at, at this place organization right we're like you know hey i'm gonna i'm gonna fucking sell drugs at at this place and you're like well i'm gonna sell drugs at the same place and now how do we have to settle that we have to settle that with violence right we got to shoot each other because we can't engage a judicial process we can't engage a civilized process and the same is true in you know many parts of the world where this idea of entrepreneurship, this idea of the self-made man cannot exist when you don't have security. It can't exist when you don't have infrastructure. It devolves into violence because there's no better system to

resolve disputes. But we forget that. So conveniently, we forget that. Yeah, it's funny. One of the things you mentioned earlier was, you know, can Bill Gates, would Bill Gates have been Bill Gates if he was in Liberia and born in Liberia? What would have happened? Would he have done all the things that he did? And clearly, no, he wouldn't have. You know, he would have been a really smart guy in Liberia trying to stay alive. Right. Yeah. I mean, he would have been like, I don't want my flesh eaten. Right. Exactly.

Like it would have been there, you know, and you got to think about it in that system. So it's a great point, Rachel. Thank you so much for sending it in. Alan asked a question and this is interesting. He says, he basically is talking about the new Noah movie. And then he says, do you think it would be possible to enjoy a film based on biblical mythology in the same way one might enjoy a film based on ancient Greek myths or with the constant saturation of Christian nonsense in our culture, color how we see the film in a sci-fi book that has in it concepts of, you know, links to Christianity and a sort of a monotheistic Christianity worldview. And I'm enjoying it immensely. I think it's a great book

so far. So I think, you know, I think that it's absolutely possible to have films based on that sort of mythology be interesting. You know, my gut reaction to this, Cecil, when I read this was, yeah, sure, why not? You know, I mean, I would go watch, you know, any other, you know, I would go watch a movie based on Greek mythology. So why would a movie based on Christian mythology be any different? But I will say that I think personally, just for myself, I would have a tough time maintaining distance to be able to look at a movie and not... And with Greek mythology, we've got so much distance. We've got cultural distance. We've got time distance. So being able to look at that as a true myth story is easy. It doesn't require any active, you know, intellectual pushback to create a barrier between the, you know, the sort of the self and the film.

I think watching a movie that's based really aggressively on some kind of biblical principle or biblical myth, for me personally, might be difficult to just to be interested in it. Because frankly, my, like my gut reaction to my gut reaction to Christian mythology is yawn. Yeah. And to get over the yawn and to get over the like, oh, I'm going to be proselytized to, and that sort of like, man, I just don't want to do this right now sort of feeling, that would be tough.

I'm not saying it's insurmountable. And in fact, I plan to see Noah. I actually kind of can't wait to see it because I like Darren Aronofsky his films are weird and I like them so I'll see the fuck out of this movie actually but I'm hoping that I can see this movie and have the distance

that I'm concerned that I won't be able to maintain I think I disagree I actually think I'm very different in that aspect I think that the movies that make I actually think I think I'm very different in that in that aspect. I think that the the movies that make me on are the paranormal movies. Like, I'm just like, oh, my God, are we going to do ghosts again? Is this is this what we're really doing is the fucking ghosts, something on a string

moved across the goddamn room. You know, like those are fucking yawners. But I think I you know, there's a movie I recall. I want to say it's called Prophecy or something with Christopher Walk walken and it's a biblical sort of end times movie that i enjoyed i don't remember it very well but i remember christopher walken was in it and he was like the angel gabriel and i enjoyed that movie uh i'm thinking like you know a lot of people like the exorcist i think that's a christian mythology movie oh for sure i mean you know so and i think that that's a really popular movie so i think people can get over it i mean probably even atheists could get over it i personally don't

like it because i think it's boring too i think that's actually i think the problem with that movie is that it's just boring it's just a boring long movie um but i think that uh i think that it does a good job of psychology in that movie of sort of like feeling the feeling of something being sort of insane i think a lot of movies from that era did a good job of that, but I think, I don't know. I feel like, yeah,

I could easily get into that. No problem. There's an, there's an angel movie that was bad, but I remember watching it. It was a Legion or something like that movie about angels and devils and people blowing up and stuff. Most of them are all like exploding movies.

You know what I mean? Like most of them are all like shit blows up. So you're not going to enjoy it anyway, Tom. I know. What if it was a straight up season? I'm just curious. Like if, what if it was a straight up like Bible story, you know, like not just like taking some, some, some pieces of the Bible, but like, Hey, it's going to be, we're going to see this fucking Bible story. I can sit down and watch the 10 commandments. Really? Yeah, sure. I don't think it's a bad movie. Yeah. I think it's fun. I've never seen it. I don't know. I think it's, I actually think it's fun to watch because you're

just like, wait, you just killed all the people in the city. Cause when you're a kid, you're watching, you're like, Oh God is awesome. And now you watch it. You're like, what the fuck did you just do? You know, it's like, it's like, what did you do, Ray? What did you do? So Tom, we got a message from Wes. We got a message from Wes. He's responding to episode 102. Who are you to come by after 3000 years and say to stop slingshotting retarded children into the wall? Well, I am a parent whose only child has Down syndrome and is mentally retarded. That's who I am. In a world full of violence and bullshit, that fact that my son would miss me is the main reason I bother to stick around he may be retarded

but he's sweet and wonderful and gives meaning to my life no i wasn't offended by your comments i enjoy your podcast i read this and i thought like oh my god i want to apologize we were just trying to make a joke yeah i'm so glad that it was like take it yes it was hyperbole it was hyperbole yeah colbert got in trouble for that this week i don't know if you saw on twitter did you see that what did he get in trouble for somebody he somebody posted a line from his show on the colbert rapport thing and it was like it was like uh that because he made fun of like he was making fun of rush limbaugh making fun of chinese people and it was like a ching chong ding dong thing or whatever something

like that and they posted it on there and a ton of people just gave him a ton of shit and it's like well that's right from his show like somebody quoted his show like it's you clearly you don't understand satire it's so funny how people's fucking undies get fucking right in a bunch so i want to mention that ross the host of skeptically challenged is going to be uh organizing the first ever skeptic camp Brisbane Brisbane. Is that how you pronounce it? I believe it is called Brisbane Brisbane. I think you have to pause between Chris and Chris Bain Brisbane Brisbane Brisbane.

Um, and, uh, just so we don't get the fucking messages to say, I don't know how to pronounce it. Uh, he's gonna, he's going to be running the first ever Skeptic Camp Brisbane.

And he wanted to know if we could put the link on our site. And yes, absolutely. And he says it's going to be free. So that's awesome. A Skeptic Camp that's free that you can show up to and see some really cool speakers and attendees and just hang out and get a chance to meet with people in Brisbane. So if you're interested in that, check it out on this episode, episode 144. And I'm totally going. I just need a few thousand dollars to get there.

Yeah, because you've got to get helilifted by that helicopter all the way over the ocean. Oh, yeah. To Australia, that shit's not cheap. No, they just take you to the coast, and they put you on one of those freighters with no other containers on it. There's no other container on the freighter. And then they float your ass over there. The ship is riding low like a fucking car with shitty

suspension. Exactly. So that's the end of this week's show. We're going to let you know next week what episode we'll be on of Atheistically Speaking. But we look forward to doing that. And until next time, we're going to leave you, as always, with the Skeptic's Creed. forward to doing that and we'll and until next time we're going to leave you as always with the skeptics creed credulity is not a virtue it's fortune cookie cutter mommy issue hypno

babylon bullshit couched in scientician double bubble toil and trouble pseudo quasi alternative acupunctuating pressurized stereogram pyramidal free energy healing water downward spiral brain Stereogram, Pyramidal, Free Energy, Healing Water, Downward Spiral, Brain Dead, Pan Sales Pitch, Late Night Info Docutainment Leo, Pisces, Cancer Cures Detox, Reflex, Foot Massage Death in Towers, Tarot Cards Psychic Healing, Crystal Balls Bigfoot, Yeti, Aliens

Churches, Mosques and Synagogues Temples, Dragons, Giant Worms Atlantis, Dolphins, Truthers Birthers, Witches, Wizques and synagogues, temples, dragons, giant worms, Atlantis, dolphins, truthers, birthers, witches, wizards, vaccine nuts, shaman healers, evangelists, conspiracy, double speak stigmata, nonsense. Expose your sides. Thrust your hands. Bloody.

Evidential. Conclusive. Doubt even this. or of the local dairy council. you