Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 353: Gift of Doubt with Anthony Magnabosco

Episode Date: April 17, 2017

Thanks to Anthony for joining us.    Stories covered in episode:      David Silverman Debating But Also Incorporating SE: Aron Ra Learns Street Epistemology  Near-Death Experience Convo U...sing SE Woman Drops From 100 to 75 to 50 on God Twitter: YouTube and Facebook:    

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 This show is brought to you by AdamandEve.com. If you go to AdamandEve.com right now and enter GLORY, the code word GLORY, G-L-O-R-Y, at checkout, you'll get 50% off almost any item, a free sex swing, and free shipping. Hey, Thomas Cecil, this is Fane in Colorado. I'm calling you about the Mike Pence not being alone with women story. I used to moderate a sex addiction group for Mormons, and the kinds of things that Mike Pence is doing, it's a lot to do with what a pastor or a bishop might counsel in cases where somebody's cheated on someone else. And so there's these hyper-restrictive rules that the religious leader will put into place
Starting point is 00:00:47 to try to set boundaries and make sure that the incidents, the cheating incidents or incidences, don't happen again. And so this is a lot what Mike Pence reminds me of. I saw a lot of that with the people in our class. Of course, the group I moderated, that's mostly masturbation, because in the Mormon context, that's the next thing to just cheating on your wife. Just shy up. But there were also individuals who had cheated on their wife. One guy who was
Starting point is 00:01:14 going to jail because he had met a younger girl in the park who happened to be a police officer, things like that. So yeah, these hyper-restrictive rules, that's just something that individuals have to do when they've been caught. And so it makes the wife feel better, and it sets some boundaries for the husband. Anyway, just thought I'd throw that to you. You're away. Talk to you later. Bye. Be advised that this show is not for children, the faint of heart, or the easily offended.
Starting point is 00:02:24 The explicit tag is there for a reason. recording live from glory hole studios in chicago 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 353 of Cognitive Dissonance. Good for you, buddy. I know when I'm corrected. Wow. I know.
Starting point is 00:02:49 I may have mislabeled the notes, but I saw somebody went in there and made a little change. You know, got the number right. I take suggestions. You're good. I'm open to criticism. Good, my friend. And we are joined this episode by Anthony Magnabosco. Anthony, thank you so much for entering the glory hole.
Starting point is 00:03:05 Hello, gentlemen. Nice to be here with you. That's what everyone says at the beginning of the glory hole. It's always at the beginning. Nobody at the end feels the same. It's a different experience. Something happens in between. It's a magical world. Yeah, something happens between. It's called
Starting point is 00:03:21 a wall with a hole in it. It's between us. So, Anthony, you're in town yeah you're giving a talk and what you do is you talk to strangers no one's stranger than us so i just i just have one question why how why do you talk to strangers why that sounds terrible why not why though that sounds strange why not it sounds awful it sounds absolutely strange talking to strangers is the coolest most fun thing i think i've ever done in my life i it is so interesting to talk to other people now were you i don't know were you always like that like that? Or did sort of coming across, and I know we're going to get into all the background
Starting point is 00:04:08 on why you do this, right? Yeah, yeah. But the question I have, though, the first question I have is like, has this always been something that you've done? Like, have you always been sort of? I was wondering the same thing. Like, did you always seek the company of strange men?
Starting point is 00:04:20 Or is it like a new? It's a new. Let me tell you. It's 2017. Oh, yeah. Listen, I used to be the most nervous anxious kid you probably ever met and i think i've been to atheist conventions i've met a lot i think when i first came to grips with my atheism like all of that kind of flew away. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Like once I came to realize that there's probably no God and I don't have to carry all this baggage. Oh, no kidding. My, my life has become so much better embracing atheism. Wow. Really? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:58 So why do you think that is? Why do you think it changed that piece of your life as well that's i don't know i really don't know um maybe there was some fear of hell or this the the expectations that come with do you think maybe that underlying anxiety just kind of ramped everything else up possibly you know yeah here's like kind of doing like therapy here i'm just curious i know we're on to our two different sides there yeah this got deep really quick all right but i'll make a dick joke in a minute don't worry it's all right but i guess to go back to the talking to strangers um i guess i've always This got deep really quick. All right. I'll make a dick joke in a minute. Don't worry. It's all right. I guess to go back to the talking to strangers, I guess I've always been comfortable talking with people.
Starting point is 00:05:30 Yeah. But I've never felt it more important to do so these days because of what's happening in our world. Sure. And these beliefs that people hold motivate them to do some very terrible things. Of course, they can do some good things too. Yeah, absolutely. It's the dangerous, terrible motivations
Starting point is 00:05:48 that people have because they're holding these beliefs. That's what I came to realize that, you know, something needs to be done. Yeah. And it was sort of the confluence of that and my embracing my atheism and discovering Bogosian's book and going out and starting to talk to people
Starting point is 00:06:01 that kind of all came together. Can you explain what is street epistemology first, just in case anyone isn't familiar with the concept? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, sure. And if I can take a step back from there just briefly. No, we're only going one step back at a time. And then we've got to go two forward,
Starting point is 00:06:13 and it's a whole thing. Who's got the dice? Is this boggle? Are we doing a boggle thing? Oh, man, you guys are rough. Okay. All right, so I don't know where to go with that. I'll just talk about street epistemology.
Starting point is 00:06:24 So it originated from Bogosian's book, A Manual for Creating Atheists. He's the father of street epistemology. He's a philosophy teacher, teaches the Socratic method. He's also a non-believer. to people rather than presenting facts, rather than ridiculing people, which will more than likely cause a person to double down on what they believe. Sure. Let me just ask them why they believe it. How do they come to the conclusion that it's true? And that back and forth of questioning generally opens a person up to take a moment, slow the fuck down. Sure.
Starting point is 00:07:00 And think, why do I have this belief? How did I form it? Did I use a reliable method? And that moment of slowing down and helping a person reach that point of introspection, that is when the gift of doubt can be imparted on a person. I hate to get all flowery with my language. No, I like that. The gift of doubt, but it's awesome. I give that all. I give it every year. Yeah. Every year. A lot. I can keep the gift of doubt every day. It's the gift that keeps on giving really. He just opened up a box. It's just a shrug inside. I don't know. I will say this though. Anthony has a YouTube page. And if you watch these YouTube videos of you engaging in dialogue with strangers, you can see some of these moments really, really clearly.
Starting point is 00:07:52 Thank you. So what I've done is taken his book and started putting it into practice. Because I read it and I thought, holy shit, if this works, if this works like Bogosian says that it will work, then we should be doing this. We should be having these conversations. And not just about God beliefs, but any claim. So I went out with my camera, started engaging with people and you don't have to initiate talks. You can wait for them to happen organically. I was on a plane today and there were perfect opportunities to talk to somebody about why they have a Bible on their lap or a cross around their neck. Sure, sure. They make some claim about the weather, right?
Starting point is 00:08:28 You can still engage in those conversations with people. And what I found, even though I got off to a rough start, is that the method does indeed seem to work. And that was like, it's like discovering plutonium in your backyard. Seriously. Holy crap. Like, this might be the thing that can help humans get past this huge impasse that we're all at, it seems. Well, I want to ask you about starting these conversations, because that was one of the issues that Cecil and I had a long time ago, and I think we still have, is that I don't, most of the people in my community, most of the people in my social circle are atheists.
Starting point is 00:09:06 They just, and they have been for 20 fucking years. I don't, I just, I'm in Chicago, not Texas. You know, I just don't run in to a whole lot of people who are religious or that are open about the religion or that seem to want to have conversations about it. And so short of being aggressive, and there's a difference, a huge difference I want to talk to you about being assertive and aggressive, but like short of being aggressive, and there's a difference, a huge difference,
Starting point is 00:09:25 I want to talk to you about being assertive and aggressive, but like short of being aggressive, I don't naturally get into these conversations. I don't think you do either. I do more than I do. I work for a religious organization and I have for about 15 years and my boss has a PhD in theology and I have conversations with him all the time about religion and about, you know, the effects of religion. We rarely enter into the things that you talk about though, which is the, why do you believe it? Which is the main thing that has to do. Yeah, exactly. Right. That is the most, well, I think the dynamics are different when I'm initiating a
Starting point is 00:10:01 talk with a stranger on the street or they're getting ready to do a hike on a trail or something and you having a conversation with your boss. I would even go so far as to say that I don't even think that that might be the best opportunity to be having those conversations because there's an inherent risk there and he could fire you. There might be some HR rules against it. But I guess to your point, I think you don't have to just limit these conversations to just believers. There are plenty of atheists that are probably in your circles that believe things that they've never been gently challenged on at all. They think that they've seen a ghost. They think karma is real. They think that they're going to avoid buying a red car because they've heard that those get more speeding tickets than other cars, right? They think that there's lizard people inside of the queen.
Starting point is 00:10:56 Well, that's true. David Icke said so. So that's a viable source of information. I wouldn't just say, well, all my friends are atheists, therefore there's no place for this method. That's a viable source of information. I wouldn't just say, well, all my friends are atheists, therefore there's no place for this method. This isn't just atheists talking to Christians or even believers and God believers. But I would love to have these conversations. I want to know how you begin these conversations.
Starting point is 00:11:16 And I've seen a number of your videos. Good. And I think I'd like you to kind of walk us through that for our listeners too. I'm going through my day-to-day life. I wake up, I shower and go to work and I come home and I take care of the kids. When do I have these conversations and how do I have these conversations?
Starting point is 00:11:32 Well, I'm in a kind of a unique spot where I'm a stay-at-home dad. My kids are a little bit older. When they go to school, sometimes I have a few hours in the day where I'm not doing laundry or going grocery shopping or taking care of the dog or a sick parent. And I have a little time to go out.
Starting point is 00:11:47 And what I'll do is, because I want to capture the exchange that I'm having with people, I bring a little camera, I strap on a GoPro, and I have a little whiteboard to keep my notes and even a timer. Because I found that if you ask people if they have five minutes to chat with you,
Starting point is 00:11:59 rather than just say, can I chat with you about some sort of belief that's in your head, they usually say, oh, he's probably, you know, he's respectful of my time. And they agree to it. Oh, okay. I don't know. Two-thirds of the people that I ask, maybe, I don't know, half, will say, sure, I'll talk with you.
Starting point is 00:12:14 Wow. Wow, that's a lot. It is huge. So do you just walk up to people and say, hey, let's talk? And then how do you find the person to walk up to? Okay, so. He stalks them for several weeks first. I have very low success on that
Starting point is 00:12:26 and I get barred from all these school zones. You need camouflage. It's a thing. I wear the ghillie suit and I just climb around. You need that turkey camouflage. Exactly. I've been going to a couple different locations. When I first started, I thought let me talk to
Starting point is 00:12:42 the street preachers who are always in front of the Alamo on Sundays. Sure. This seems like a great, great person that wants to have this conversation, right? You'd be surprised. They really don't want to have the conversation. No shit. They are probably the most dishonest believers that you might run into.
Starting point is 00:12:59 And I'm stereotyping here. Some of them are pretty genuine. But what I found is that when somebody is willing to stand on a soapbox, possibly even literally, and proclaim their belief in a God, they're often so focused on a script that they won't really open up and have a real conversation. So I would much rather spend 10 hours of a weekend, for example, talking to regular everyday folks than spending five hours with one street preacher where we're not getting anywhere. Sure. Okay. So venue's important. That moved on to a college university, a couple of different schools. I figured, let me talk to some younger adults who are in an educational environment. That was extremely fruitful.
Starting point is 00:13:46 They're very open. They're very reflective. I've seen a number of those videos. I thought a lot of those videos were really, they were really interesting videos to watch because of what you just described. I think that, and not all of them, you know, there were some folks that were locked down,
Starting point is 00:14:00 like locked down pretty hard. But many of those kids were just in the right place, right? They're in the right place to say like, well, I'm walking around asking questions and being asked questions on a regular basis. Fucking liberal universities. I know. What are we going to do? It's just ridiculous.
Starting point is 00:14:15 But it's Texas. I mean, it's liberal. I guess that's true. I'd say probably every one out of every five students that I spoke to would say that they were a non-believer. They were atheists. And I would still ask them, can we pick five students that I spoke to would say that they were a nonbeliever. They were atheists. And I would still ask them, can we pick a belief that you have that we can explore? I'm not just focused on God beliefs.
Starting point is 00:14:30 In fact, I'll even ask people, go ahead and pick something. Pick a belief that's in your head that you think is pretty much is probably true. And I'm going to ask questions. And by the end of a five-minute talk, you might actually be less confident that the belief that's in your mind is actually true. be less confident that the beliefs that that the belief that's in your mind is actually true. And then I moved on to a hiking trail, which I love this spot because I've been posting these videos for a while. So a lot of people will complain and say, well, you're picking on these younger adults because they're inexperienced and they, they haven't thought about these beliefs. So I was like, okay, I'm going to use this method
Starting point is 00:14:58 on older people and started going to a hiking trail and engaging with 30, 40 year olds, 50 year olds, 70 year olds. And, and nothing's changed. When I say that, I mean, the justifications for the beliefs that they have regarding spiritual or supernatural claims are almost always based on very faulty, very shaky foundations. And it almost always comes down to faith. Wow. Yeah. That is, that's crazy to me that, that somebody.
Starting point is 00:15:26 Is that a surprise to you? It is. It absolutely, absolutely is. And I, and I, I think, I think I'm biased on the people that I know that were older, like my father and, and some of the people that I've met through work and other places. And some of the people that I've met through work and other places, the older people, I feel like they're a lot harder to convince of things that they are, that they're just, that they just have those beliefs for a long time. My father, especially my father, my father, my father passed away. But before he passed away, we had many conversations about, about the belief he did. He was really heartbroken that I did not believe in God anymore.
Starting point is 00:16:07 I told him, I'm sorry, I'm an atheist now. That's just the way it is. I was never able to have a conversation with him that made him think anything different than he already thought coming into the conversation. Okay, so there's a distinction here. Yeah. Yes, I do agree that older people
Starting point is 00:16:20 are more steadfast in their beliefs and less open to change or even considering belief revision. What I was talking about is when you actually do have a conversation with somebody and you learn the reasons for their belief and you start asking about the how, how did you conclude that that method, that main thing that is the reason why you believe, how did you conclude that's true? Across the board, regardless of age, regardless of belief, the justifications that people have are shaky.
Starting point is 00:16:51 I see. I see. That's the consistent thing. I get it. I get it. Younger people are more open, generally speaking. Sure. Older people are certainly more closed, but that's a consistent thing that I find. I see. I see. So you get the book years ago. 2013. 2013. And you start reading the book. But I want to go back. I want to go back before you got the book. You were religious, maybe? Were you religious? I went to a Catholic grade school. I didn't, I thought it was made up. I was in second grade. I told my mom and dad. No kidding.
Starting point is 00:17:29 I said, I think God is made up like Santa. And they freaked. Did they really? Yeah, they were. Well, from what I remember, this is sort of my now constructed, I think, imagination of what happened. But I'm pretty sure this is pretty accurate. But I do remember my parents having a meeting with a nun and a priest to sit down and explain to Anthony, young Anthony, that no, Anthony, God is... God's a real thing. Santa is made up, but God is actually real.
Starting point is 00:17:53 And I remember it must have been 20, 30 minutes and they said, now do you believe, Anthony? And I said, I looked around and I could see them. I knew that this was important. You could feel the need. This was important to them, but I lied and I said that, yes, I believe. I never did. I was always skeptical. It wasn't really until I started having kids myself where they start to ask the questions and you start seeing the beliefs that are being instilled in people at a young age. And I'm like, you know, what do I want my kids to think? How do I want them to think? Do I want them to question,
Starting point is 00:18:23 you know, what we tell them? And of course we do. So that's do I want them to think? Do I want them to question what we tell them? And of course we do. So that's when I started coming to grips with my non-belief and starting realizing what the labels mean and, oh shit, I'm agnostic and I'm an atheist. And then, oh, look at that. There's this community out here. There's people podcasting. This is wonderful. How can I help? And right around that time is when I discovered Boghossian's book. I see. And so you read this book, this light Bogosian's book. I see. And so you read this book, this light goes off and you think I should try this. Right. Literally went off in my head. Like it was a light bulb moment. Yeah. I was on an airplane reading it and I was like,
Starting point is 00:18:55 I started shaking. Yeah. I was like, wow. It was like, wow. That's great. I was like, whoa. If, if this guy is legit and, and remember when I said I wanted to go back? I actually ran into Bogosian at a conference, too. He was speaking at FFRF, our 35th. Okay. And I saw him speaking, and he was talking about his book. I'm like, that's just ridiculous. But I got the book, and I was reading it, and it just dawned on me, like, this makes complete sense.
Starting point is 00:19:23 We're butting our heads against the wall, arguing with believers and giving them facts and doing all these counter-apologetics. They're not changing their mind. They seem even more convinced. And I'm walking away angry and mad. And I burn bridges with my family members by doing that. I have brothers and brothers and brother-in-law and sister. And I've got family members that try to avoid. We basically don't talk to
Starting point is 00:19:46 each other anymore because I burned those bridges. Right. You know, if I had found this book, if I had used this method of talking to them, I'm nearly certain that our relationships would be way, way, way better. Wow. Yeah. So look, I'm going to ask you a related question to that. So you've been doing this. How many interviews do you think you've done? Look, I'm going to ask you a related question to that. So you've been doing this. How many interviews do you think you've done? Easily a thousand.
Starting point is 00:20:07 Holy shit. Easily. So I might have a five minute talk, a 10 minute talk. Sometimes they go 30 minutes. Sometimes it's two hours. But yeah, it's. That's amazing though. That's a lot of people. A thousand five minute events.
Starting point is 00:20:17 That's like 4,000 sex acts. That's amazing. And I try to, I do try to record them all and I save everything, but I don't upload everything. Right. So I'd say a third of my content is uploaded. We were talking earlier about like sometimes you do some live shows. Like that really amps it up. Like it's much more difficult to have a live conversation with somebody or to do SE Live. When you're recording it, you could say, well, that conversation was good, but she was out of focus or sunscreen on the lens, or
Starting point is 00:20:46 she, um, she kind of just rambled on and on. You have the luxury of just sort of not uploading those, but I mean, I've got example after example, after example on my channel, wonderful, loving, thoughtful, powerful conversations where we're almost crying because it was moving and the person realized, I don't know why I have this thing in my mind. And now where do I go? Where's the community? That type of thing. Well, I want to ask you, you know, so you've done a thousand of these, give or take, and you feel like if you had employed this method with your family, the rift that now exists with you and some of your family members may not exist.
Starting point is 00:21:27 So I guess related to that, like I I'd love to know what's the worst this method has ever gone. And what's the best this method's ever gone. You know, like you've had these conversations, has it ever backfired on you? And in a, where you've,
Starting point is 00:21:41 where you've walked away and thought, Oh, that, that just, that just went very, very poorly? Oh, sure. There have been times where the conversation went completely off the rails.
Starting point is 00:21:49 And it's typically, when I look back, it was the conversations that happened three years ago as opposed to the ones that happened three months ago. So three years ago, I was very rough. I read the book and I had a concept of what I should be doing, but I was still, it's very tough to not go fall
Starting point is 00:22:06 back to the counter apologetics that we spend so much time as atheists learning and reading about, and we enjoy watching that and we enjoy watching those in debates, but when you actually use them in real life with a person, especially in a one-on-one talk, they don't work. No. So I've run into people years after I've talked to them and they still want to battle with me, like even physically with me because I was just such a dick to them. But generally speaking now, when I, when I use the method, um, almost always the person says that they love the talk. They want to meet again. They want to revise their definition of a, of a particular word, or can you talk to my mom now?
Starting point is 00:22:45 Really? Because I'm a Muslim, and we had this great conversation. My mom has this completely different—she's a Christian, but it's sort of this weird, different sect of it, and I'd really love it if you would talk to her. So all in all, it seems like it's been very well received, not only from the people that I speak with, but the growing atheist community that seems to be getting aware of it. And even the theists, there are a lot of apologists that weigh in on what's happening in the atheist movement. And they've had some strong opinions of street epistemology, too. But it seems like they're softening on it. In the past, they would demonize it compared to jumping out and doing the knockout game with somebody.
Starting point is 00:23:27 Like one person actually equated it to that. No shit. Wait, wait, wait. Explain that to me. Because I need to understand that because I don't. Because I've seen a number of your videos. We're here in person. You're a soft-spoken, respectful, measured person.
Starting point is 00:23:44 That's the impression I get from every one of your videos. That's the impression I get from having spoken to you for, you know, what, a half hour in the studio. I can't imagine anybody feeling that way about the method you're using to interact with people. It's very specifically not that. It's possible that when they lodged that specific complaint that street epistemology is akin to the knockout game. It could be that they were looking at other examples of it or maybe examples from Bogosian's book or possibly my videos. I think generally I think it probably was my videos because at the time, that's pretty much all that was out there. Right.
Starting point is 00:24:17 And they even showed one of my videos in a church to warn people about this method. This guy might ask you questions to make you feel the squirmy squirms or what we keep talking about we keep talking about method what is the method let's talk about the method just for a minute yeah yeah yeah so we should because people are probably like exactly what the hell yeah well what is this epistemology is it's it's really based off sort of the socratic method right so right typically when you see an atheist and a believer having discussion about the believer's beliefs, it's usually, here's my argument for the God, and the atheist says, well, that's ridiculous, or that's not evidence, or I've got evidence that shows that that's wrong. That type of approach doesn't help anybody. The street epistemology approach is,
Starting point is 00:25:03 please explain to me the reasons why you think that this is true, and let's investigate the method you used to get there. And did you use a reliable method? So it's basically just asking questions, and not like question after question after question to confuse you, because if I can't understand why you believe it and how you concluded it, then I can't ask a question. So it's imperative that I listen to you.
Starting point is 00:25:33 It's imperative that I repeat it back to you so that you can hear the same things that you're saying come back to you. And I'm never telling anybody what to think. I'm always asking just gentle questions to dig deeper and deeper and deeper and expose the foundation. And, and that, and it's, it's also just not trying to confuse the person or, or, or change the subject or anything like that. It's, it's more about, I really do sincerely want to understand how you believe it, why, why you believe it and how you concluded that it's true. Because if it is true, I would like to understand that at the heart of it. It's, it's it, it's a quest to arrive at truth. There is a chance that the person that I'm speaking to who believes that there's a God
Starting point is 00:26:10 may have used a reliable method to conclude that. And I'm open to that possibility. I see. Okay. So being humble and recognizing that we have biases, but trying your best to set it aside is so important when you're having these conversations. And it took me a long time to get there. It's just so instinctual to want to battle and to want to provide counter-apologetics.
Starting point is 00:26:35 But you have to remind yourself, what is my goal? My goal is to help the person slow down, take a second, and think about the belief that's in their mind. slow down, take a second and think about the belief that's in their mind you said earlier that almost all the people that you talk to they kind of have the same responses have you ever been surprised?
Starting point is 00:26:55 have you ever been really just surprised at the methodology tell me about a time that you've been surprised the one that comes to mind is when I asked some young adult on a college campus, what do you believe? He said, I believe in a God.
Starting point is 00:27:12 Why do you believe it? He said, well, about two years ago, I had a dream about my dog. And my dog had died. And the dog, I was actually having a conversation with my dog. And at first I thought, like I was looking at his face to see if he was just, if he was punking you, he was trolling you.
Starting point is 00:27:33 But he was serious. I really, and I was like, okay. So, so that was probably the oddest thing, but the reasons that people have for these beliefs are quite varied. And,
Starting point is 00:27:44 but when it comes down to it, whether it's evidence or they think they had, they had a personal experience, it could be anything. I mean, I've, I've heard so many different things, but that was probably the oddest thing. I think where the guy said that his dog was talking to him in his, in his dream. And that was his best evidence that his God existed. What about like, what about people? Have you ever met anybody who's had a near death experience? Has anybody ever had a conversation with you that has been like,
Starting point is 00:28:08 I had a near death experience where like I saw the light and my grandma was there and Oh really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's one of the, one of the most watched videos on my channel is with a woman who she was, I think she was 32 or 30 in her thirties at the time I interviewed her when
Starting point is 00:28:20 she was in her twenties, she was drinking and she was being bad and not believing in any gods. And she fell through a ceiling and crashed 25 feet onto concrete. Fuck. And that's what happens when you're bad, though, Tom. That's what God does. Really? He's very angry.
Starting point is 00:28:34 I've fallen off nothing and I am never good. She fell and she said that she had an experience with a god. Wow. And the beauty of that conversation, if I remember correctly, I think her name was Kelsey, if anyone wants to look it up, was that she repeatedly kept saying, when I asked her, well, how do you actually know that that was a God and just not some other explanation? She said, I don't know, but I just know. And it was just sort of this kind of cognitive dissonance. Right, sure. Your show name is perfect for what street epistemology ends up oftentimes resulting in with these people.
Starting point is 00:29:16 So, yeah, the conversation went on and on. And by the end of it, it was evident that she really didn't have a very good, reliable method for concluding that her God existed. And this isn't about instantly deconverting anybody. No, right. This is about placing a pebble in a person's shoe that they will hopefully think about the talk and maybe find better reasons to keep the belief that they have or possibly just discard the belief over time. to keep the belief that they have or possibly just discard the belief over time. But you do talk, and I've seen a couple of your videos
Starting point is 00:29:47 where you talk about like, at the end of this conversation, this person felt like they were 25% less believable. And then maybe we met up later and that was 50%. So you are trying to, like there is a, you're trying to quantify the level in which they believe these things.
Starting point is 00:30:04 And so that's an important level. And I was just wondering, especially when somebody's had a really moving experience, an emotional experience like that, what their level of belief falling off is. How far can they move or do they move on that continuum? Okay, so you're talking about the belief scale that we, people that are using street epistemology, we thought, well, how can we see if what we're doing is working, is effective in some way? And I think someone along the line, I can't remember if it's Bogosian's book or somebody in the private street epistemology Facebook group, said, well, let's come up with a scale. Let's try to get a sense of where a person is before the conversation and then ask them after.
Starting point is 00:30:41 Sure. So we try to get a sense of where a person is in terms of their confidence that the belief that's in their mind is true. Whether they think karma is real, or they seen the leprechaun, or they think Jesus died for them or whatever. So we'll kind of get a sense of where they're at. This is a self-reported number.
Starting point is 00:30:57 It's not perfect, but it's a crude attempt to see if a person is changing in any way. And sure, I've had conversations with people where they said they were 100% sure their God existed because they prayed and prayer works. And 11 minutes later, they put themselves at about the 60%. Wow. I had another conversation with a woman who was 100% sure her God existed. I met her a week later.
Starting point is 00:31:20 She self-reported at 75. I met her a week later, and she-reported at 75. I met her a week later and she reported at a 50. Wow. And she said that she would, she, the conversation changed the way that she would plans on raising her kids. Holy shit. Yeah. My goodness. This is powerful, powerful stuff, which is why I'm, I'm so excited to be here with you guys and giving this talk this weekend, because I want to, I want to try to promote this method, because from my firsthand experience, it seems incredibly effective in helping a person stop and re-examine how they form their belief, and possibly lower their confidence in the belief. Well, tell us about your talk.
Starting point is 00:31:57 My talk is on Saturday. It's coming up. It's to the Chicago Atheist Society. My talk is called Street Epistemology, Things That I've Learned, because I've been doing this for three years. Sure. And I've learned a tremendous amount of background of how street epistemology seems to be the most effective and the things that people are doing in this movement
Starting point is 00:32:19 to try to promote it and the tools that are out there, where this is going and some of the science behind it that actually backs up what we're doing that shows that this might actually be effective. And what's happening in the brain, I'm going to show a brain scan. Oh, wow. There's this really cool report that Sam Harris did with Jonas Kaplan and Sarah… Oh, I thought the brain scan was going to be from the Bible.
Starting point is 00:32:43 I didn't realize. That's crazy. Yeah, I turned to the MRI pages in the Bible to see the, like, you know, the FMRI. Is that New Testament? It's new, new. It's the Neo New Testament. Yeah, it's one of the, they didn't find that one in the Dead Sea
Starting point is 00:32:56 yet, but I feel like if we keep looking. I want to chuck a softball question at you right now. All right. So you ready for this softball question? You can hit it out of the fucking park. Are you ready for this? This is where the hard one comes in. No, this is total. Why is this important? Why should we be doing this? You're excited about it. You want to spread the word. Why is it important? The why it is important is based on my assumption that people generally want to help other people
Starting point is 00:33:25 and live in a world where the majority of the population believes things that are true. That's my presupposition. I'm hoping... So how did you come to that? Hold on, let's do a little street opinion. How did you come to this?
Starting point is 00:33:37 I'm kidding. I'm kidding, of course. We can do that if you want. No, I'm terrible at this. So that's where I'm coming from. I think the world would be a better place if people believed true things. And generally, I think when we encounter a theist who thinks that Allah is real, and we decide to debate with them, more than likely we're doing so because we want to help
Starting point is 00:34:00 correct their view of reality. I would imagine, unless you're just arguing with them to be a dick, which some people do, they get off on it. Like it's fun. Sure. You know, you get a lot of views and the video gets whatever. Yeah. Matt Delahunty. I know. I'm kidding. You know, if, if you're looking generally, I think people, when they engage in these discussions, they're, they're talking with people because they want to help them. And the, the method of arguing with people is not want to help them. And the method of arguing with people is not going to help them. It's going to do the complete opposite.
Starting point is 00:34:29 It will cause them to get more entrenched in their belief. So you're into this method. What do you think of debate then? Like that Oxford-style debate that we see all the time where one theist is on one side and Christopher Hitchens
Starting point is 00:34:44 or some other great master debater is on the other side. I'm a master debater. You're not actually, you're terrible at this. I've been master debating since I was 15. 15? You're a late bloomer. So,
Starting point is 00:34:56 but, but we, is this, is this really just voyeuristic? Like nothing? I mean, is it really useful? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:02 Is it useful at all, you think? Yeah. So I'm sure you've talked to a lot of atheists, ask them why they no longer believe in a God. It's more than likely because, well, maybe they were just raised to not believe,
Starting point is 00:35:14 um, or maybe they watched Christopher Hitchens or Matt Dillahunty or David Silverman arguing or doing the, doing the debates. The debates have their place. They're very valuable for the people watching them on YouTube. They're right. Or jogging, they're listening to the debate, and they're a theist, and they're like, that's the same argument that I would use. And that atheist just made that guy look like a fool. That's perfect because they can distance themselves from it. They're not being
Starting point is 00:35:40 attacked. Sure, sure. So they have their place. And I also think the debates are great for helping atheists better defend their position. I am so much more confident in defending why I'm an atheist because I've watched hours of the atheist experience. Sure. I mean, I love that. I barely miss a show. Yeah. Even today, I love it. But as far as using that approach, a more aggressive debate approach and presenting facts and making a big production out of it, that is not going to help your conversation with your aunt at Thanksgiving about why she thinks Jesus exists. How much of this is a question of venue? Like a debate has its place as something projected to an audience. place as something projected to an audience. Street epistemology strikes me as something that is not meant for an audience as much as it's meant as a genuine, authentic conversation
Starting point is 00:36:30 between two humans. I used to think that SE was only for one-on-ones, but I saw David Silverman recently have a debate with somebody, and I can't remember his name, it's like February of 2017, where I'll be damned if he wasn't asking Socratic street epistemology outsider test for faith questions of his opponent. Because Silverman's savvy enough to realize that this is being video recorded. There's an audience. I'm asking questions that my opponent seems to be dodging, but those questions will land. So in a way, he was using macro street epistemology. He was in a venue, it was a
Starting point is 00:37:06 debate. It was a one-on-one debate with an audience watching, but he was using a lot of the, he was asking a lot of the same questions you'll see in a, in a one-on-one conversation of one of my videos. I was, I was screaming with joy because I, it's great. We, we, we want to see this method being put into other uses and to be able to see it in a debate like that was, was cool. Sure. It's very cool. I wonder, you know, when we talk about, when you talk to people about, uh, their religious belief, I suspect that a lot of times it really boils down to the conversation turns out to, well, who told you? Because it's one of those things that's like, well, why do you believe in God? Well, I believe in God because I read the Bible.
Starting point is 00:37:45 Well, why did you read the Bible? I read the Bible because my dad told me to read the Bible. And I read the Bible and I got it and I liked it. And I thought, you know, there was some good things in there and it seems like a good way to like live your life, et cetera. And, you know, I feel like, you know, the gospel speaks to me, et cetera. But at a certain point,
Starting point is 00:37:59 it sort of always comes back to source material, right? Doesn't it always come back to, there's a source material that I believe more than I believe something else? Sometimes, somebody asked me once, of the people you talk to, what percentage of people say it was because I was raised that way or because I was told it?
Starting point is 00:38:18 I would say probably right off the bat, 50% would say I was raised that way. But there are people who would say, no, I was never raised religious. My parents were atheists or whatever. And I had this experience and I just absolutely know that it was Allah or that it was Jesus that was there. Sure. And then they went out and started seeking the source material.
Starting point is 00:38:39 I see. You never know. I always try to be open to never assuming, even though the majority of people say I was raised that way. Yeah. Sometimes people say that they have evidence for it. Yeah. Um, oftentimes when you start peeling back the layers, it's hardly ever evidence. It's almost always faith. We, uh, we are in a situation now politically in this country that the country is very divided. Um, you know, more so divided, I think than, than it has been in many, many years. One of the things that I wonder is, does this method, have you ever tried this method in politics? Have you ever used this method to talk to somebody about whether or not they find,
Starting point is 00:39:17 and the other part of that question too is, there's also been a great deal of discrediting of a media, the media for a long time. The media is in a lot of ways how we know. That's how we know. So what a second part of that question is what, you know, is has this has that ever come up in like sort of the street epistemology sort of, you know, have you ever used this method to try to figure out how people know things, you know, politically and through the media. These days, I ask people to pick the topic. We can talk about politics. We can talk about God, karma, whatever. Pick a belief. Do you think paper bags are better than plastic? Pick a belief and I'll just ask some questions. And sometimes they do pick political beliefs that they think that man-made global warming is real or they think man-made global
Starting point is 00:40:06 warming is a hoax um whatever i've had topics with people about marijuana legalization so there's there's really no difference between a religious belief in a political belief and the method of street epistemology i really wouldn't the main difference maybe is that they're not basing it on faith, like a political belief. Usually they think they have evidence or credible sources or that type of thing. Whereas when it's a supernatural claim, usually it comes down to it's an appeal to faith.
Starting point is 00:40:38 And then we can start talking about the reliability of that. I do think that there's a huge untapped market. If there's anybody who's been watching street epistemology and is thinking, how can I come at this from a unique way and try something different? My recommendation would be to start going to rallies for both sides, all sides, and just start asking questions. Coming up with facts to show, there was a study in 2009 that's the backfire effect where these guys took a whole bunch of conservative people who thought that Obama was a secret Muslim, provided them with facts, and they were dumbfounded that these subjects, when they showed them the facts, they believed it even more that Obama was a secret Muslim. Even though they were, here's all the facts, he's going to church, he's a Christian, blah, blah, blah.
Starting point is 00:41:23 It backfired on them. Even though they were, here's all the facts, he's going to church, he's a Christian, blah, blah, blah. It backfired on them. So you can definitely use these beliefs, you know, use this method with political beliefs. I think it's a much better approach to avoid that backfire effect and have the person ask themselves, you know, did I use a reliable method for forming this belief in my mind? And let them do the work. reliable method for forming this belief in my mind and let them do the work. So that's the beauty of this approach is you don't need to know a lot about the Bible or the democratic platform or the Republican platform to have these conversations. The stupider you are on the topic, the better it is for you. It really is. I'm going to crush this. You are going to kill it.
Starting point is 00:41:59 This is my method. It's more of a liability. If you know the Bible inside and out of the Quran and you can cite verses and you can do all this, that will hamper your progress because it's not about that. Yes, you need to know that they think the God exists because the Bible is true. But when you start asking about how did they determine that the Bible is true, that's when you need to move off the verses into something deeper. you need to move off the verses into something deeper. So I want to ask if you ever had a situation where, where somebody has been threatening or violent towards you because of this, because this is, you know, you're shaking foundations of people's beliefs.
Starting point is 00:42:38 I mean, this is a big deal. Has anybody ever had a, I know we had talked about negative reaction, but I'm talking about like, have you ever gotten physical or emotionally aggressive? Um, a couple of street preachers early on.
Starting point is 00:42:51 Cause, cause I was very aggressive with them. Sure. Like I was, I was debating with them. I was yelling at them and saying, faith is unreliable and you guys are fools and all this stuff. And of course I was just asking for it.
Starting point is 00:43:02 And they, they do a little pushing and shoving and that type of thing. Um, it's so rare these days what's more typical is that I might because I give a card at the end of the talk sometimes I hear back from people very frequently
Starting point is 00:43:16 do you really? one out of seven times somebody messaged me back they want to meet again wow yeah it's insane sometimes they say I can't believe you were asking me those questions. And I spent the whole night crying and I'm, I'm in the bathroom now. And I was thinking about, I had this vision of me smashing you with a chair and you, they're kind of like going through the stages of grief. Yeah, sure. Yeah. But, but then you're at that point,
Starting point is 00:43:45 like I'm obligated to keep, I just can't just walk away from that. Like I try to keep engaging with them. Right. You opened their door, right? Yeah. You have a responsibility to it. And I'm talking about that as well on Saturday.
Starting point is 00:43:55 So, so yeah. So you do get that a little bit, but generally it's, it's so rare. Most people greatly enjoy the talk. It's not confrontational. It's not, it's not awkward. They really greatly enjoy the talk. It's not confrontational. It's not awkward. You would think that it would be because I'm asking about the deepest, darkest belief that they have and making them question it, making them doubt. And it's something that's kind of
Starting point is 00:44:16 off the table for a lot of people to talk about. There's a few things that are just off the table you just don't bring up. But see, that's why I think people enjoy talking about it because they're not allowed to. And maybe that's one I think people enjoy talking about it, because they're not allowed to. And maybe that's one of the benefits of talking to a stranger as opposed to somebody that you know, is that maybe they feel a little safer with you. Even though I'm recording it, it's baffling. But it's amazing how people will quickly open up way to use these uh techniques of street epistemology in the socratic method um in a in a systematized way for self-introspection like so so without engaging somebody else in fact um that's that's my recommendation uh if so a lot of people say and i even wrote a blog post about this on the streetepistemology.com
Starting point is 00:45:05 website, where people say, I've seen you have these conversations with believers, but I'm an atheist and my wife is a believer and she wants to raise our kids to be believers. I want to have this conversation. I want to have that special moment I've seen you have with a stranger. I want to have that with my spouse. How do I do it? And sometimes those beliefs, especially like the deep ones with a loved one, can be very hard to even talk about. People's spouses have started crying when they
Starting point is 00:45:35 said, can we have a talk about why you believe in the God? And they'll just break down and cry. So my recommendation there is start having conversations about every other claim that that person has or makes or somebody else makes. And just make that a common thing. Just teach them the method so that they'll use it on the same tame everyday beliefs, the safe beliefs that happen every day. And then eventually, I think that they'll start using them on themselves.
Starting point is 00:46:03 So if people were going to find the method, how would they find it now? I know it's in Bogosian's book, Peter Bogosian's book, A Manual for Creating Atheists. That's the first place you found it. But there's got to be better sources out there now. Oh my gosh. And it's probably refined at this point a little bit, right? Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:16 So I had the pleasure of helping Bogosian and a team of other people work on an app that he created based on his book. Is this the Atheos app? Yeah. Have you heard about it? I have heard about it. Yeah. So it's a great app.
Starting point is 00:46:29 I found myself, while I was helping to build the app and come up with questions, I would then go out the next weekend to use Street Epistemology. I was that much more prepared because I used the app. So the app is awesome. There's over 2,000 or 3,000 people who are interested in this method that are on the private Street Epistemology Facebook group. I've mentioned the website, streetepistemology.com. There are probably 10 other people that are now uploading content. Oh, wow.
Starting point is 00:46:56 And they have different styles. It's not like the Magnet Moscow style, but they're trying different things, which is great. We want other people trying this. And there's a woman that's doing it and somebody in France and all over the country that people are doing it, uploading content. So there are tutorials, there are examples, there's an app. I mean, there's some exciting new things coming down the road too. That's great. That's great. If people were going to find your YouTube page, where would they look? The easiest way to get to my YouTube page is find me on Twitter first. And then if you look at my bio,
Starting point is 00:47:26 I've got a link to my top 10 videos. Okay. Oh, great. Of the 3,000, it's not 3,000, sorry. Of the 300 that I've uploaded, my top 10 are there. So if you're short on time
Starting point is 00:47:35 and you want to just check out one or two, that would be the place to go. We'll put that on the show notes. This is show 353. So we'll put that on your show notes. We'll put your Twitter there. We'll put streetepistopology.com. We'll put as many links as we can to send people this. Anthony, it has been an amazing conversation.
Starting point is 00:47:49 Good luck with this. And anytime you're in Chicago, come visit us. Oh, awesome. And the invitation is the same for you guys. You guys ever blow through Texas or San Antonio? They don't let us back. It's a whole thing. It's a whole thing. You know, they say don't mess with Texas. You shit in the LML one time. I know. Right. And that's what happened. That was you guys.
Starting point is 00:48:08 Yeah. That time. Thanks for joining us. Thanks so much. Yeah. Pleasure guys. So Tom. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:16 Cecil. I'm always curious how you're going to intro this portion of the program. It's spring time. It is. It's, it's a time that you would take someone and put them on a swing outside. Oh, I see. You know what I mean? Sometimes spring has sprung. Spring has sprung.
Starting point is 00:48:29 Swing has sprung. Swing has come. Who knows? I don't know. And it can wash out a little if you use cold water and probably some cleaner from adamandeve.com. Glory at checkout. We love our sponsor, Adam & Eve. Adam & Eve allows you
Starting point is 00:48:48 to explore your sexuality, to do it in a private way, to get it delivered to your door, to have fun with your sex life. And Adam & Eve is going to give you 50% off just about any item. You can get tons of different stuff from there. We've had people send us messages saying they've gotten vibrators.
Starting point is 00:49:08 They've gotten fuck socks. They've gotten, you know, they've got whatever they call those pocket pussies or whatever. They've gotten lube. They've gotten lingerie. Hey, guys. Why do you send us emails telling us what kind of sex stuff you buy? You know? We've been meaning to talk to you about that.
Starting point is 00:49:23 I don't know. I think we're just touting how private it is some of you guys need to take that message home I'm just saying but if you do feel private you're clearly not one of our listeners but you can go to admin eve.com you can enter Gloria checkout you can buy all the kinky shit
Starting point is 00:49:38 that gets you off all the kinky shit that gets your partner off and you can get a free fucking sex swing and you can fuck in the fucking sex swing and get 50% off any item. The sex swing's free. So you get 50% off any item and you'll get free shipping. So check it out. Gloria checkout.
Starting point is 00:49:52 That's G L O R Y at adamandeve.com. So Tom, um, we are a couple chapters into our two books. Indeed. Mine is, uh,'s 100 Science Facts The Fucking Bible Never Told You About. And yours is Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard. I'm getting closer to becoming clear, Mike. How many questions do you have this week?
Starting point is 00:50:19 I've got four. Four questions. All right. So why don't you go first? We'll cover Dianetics first and then we'll cover Ray Comfort to wrap it up. All right, So why don't you go first? We'll cover Dianetics first and then we'll cover Ray Comfort to wrap it up. All right, buddy. Here we go. Cecil, what is the goal
Starting point is 00:50:30 of man? The dynamic principle of existence? Pussy. A. Butt stuff. We were on the same wavelength. It's A. B. Two chicks at one time. It's B. Three. To finally get some goddamn
Starting point is 00:50:46 peace and quiet. That's awesome. You know, with kids, it's a lot different, but I understand. I understand where you're coming from. That's after the two chicks. Yeah, exactly. You gotta relax. Two chicks and butt stuff? No, wait, no.
Starting point is 00:51:02 Peace and quiet is what I meant. D. Infinite survival. is what I meant. Fuck. D, infinite survival. Butt stuff. Yes. Elrond, totally into it. Infinite survival. That's the goal of... I think that's when you go up, down, up, down, left, right, left, right, A, B, start.
Starting point is 00:51:19 Almost infinite. That's 30 survivals. Okay, that's 30 survivals. What about when you jump on that turtle shell in Mario and then it eventually just gives up on numbers and gives you a heart question mark? You're more patient than I am. Cecil, what would be the optimum survival characteristics
Starting point is 00:51:39 of various life forms? A. What the fuck, dude? Okay, should I read it again? Are we slow? You do should I read it again? Are we slow? You do need to read it again. By the way, these are actual rhetorical questions.
Starting point is 00:51:53 He writes with rhetorical questions. This book has been a joy to do this quiz with because he writes by posing rhetorical questions and then clumsily fumble fuck answering them. So my questions are all his questions. Okay.
Starting point is 00:52:07 I see. So you're not doing any work is what you're saying. Right. I'm fucking outsourced this to L. Ron Hubbard. L. Ron Hubbard's from the grave. Like, good job, Tom. Yeah. I made somebody on fucking Sea Org write this for me.
Starting point is 00:52:23 Then I beat him with a toothbrush or whatever. Elrond's screaming from the volcano. Good job, Tom. So one more time for the slow kids in the audience. For the slow kids. That's me. What would be the optimum survival characteristics of various life forms? Various life forms.
Starting point is 00:52:38 A. Laser eyes. That's it. Admittedly. B. A scorpion tail. Again. C. Worthwhile. Rocket launcher hands. Okay. Admittedly. B, a scorpion tail. Again. C, rocket launcher hands. Okay. Yeah, I know.
Starting point is 00:52:49 D, other shit my 10-year-old makes up. Or E, just lots of different stuff. Seriously, variation. That's the fucking answer. Variation is the optimum survival characteristic of various life forms. Rocket hands. Rocket hands. Rocket hands.
Starting point is 00:53:12 Why have we not evolved into rocket hands yet? That's what Ray would ask. Maybe you haven't. Why haven't we evolved into pinchy rocket hands? What I want to know is really, why are we all Inspector Gadget? Right?
Starting point is 00:53:22 I just want to be like, go, go, Gadget. And then my body transforms into some machine part, like propellers come out of my hair, whatever. It'd be amazing, right? It'd be amazing.
Starting point is 00:53:32 So you'd be able to finally reach things on the top shelf. I don't think so. That's really high out there, man. What are the ultimate pain? And what is the ultimate pleasure? So it's two answers to this quiz and then masturbate. Okay.
Starting point is 00:53:50 A one answer. Both questions again, but stuff, I guess it depends on your perspective. Yeah. Right. Depends. No,
Starting point is 00:53:59 that's fair to that equation. Right there. B sugar in my goddamn coffee and a never-ending supply of goddamn coffee all right no that's fair c listening to eli order food and watching his heart silently break when the scent of bacon wafts his way or d existing just before death and immortality, one of which I will note we have already done and didn't notice, and the other of which is the pleasure
Starting point is 00:54:30 and actually sounds terrible. It's bacon. All right. But here's the stumper, and I think I've got you on this one. Which of these is a real sentence copied from the book Dianetics? All right, here we go.
Starting point is 00:54:46 A. What is primarily interrogated in the question of being is that being which has the character of time. That's for you, buddy. That's Heidegger. B. A pleasure which reacts to injure the body physically, as in the case of debauchery,
Starting point is 00:55:03 discovers at work a ratio between the physical effect, which is depressed toward pain, C. D. consequences through, but not always toward, the ultimate dynamic of survival. Or D, the fact of the survivability of man is evidence of his regression from pain, though this regression should be thought of as holistic rather than individualistic. You wrote this, you wrote two of these? Uh-huh. Oh, good for you.
Starting point is 00:55:38 Right? Good for you. I know, right? B is the one for the original. It is. Damn you. I thought I did good. I thought these were good. I use all his buzz jibber jabs. They were good, but damn you. But B is good. Damn you.
Starting point is 00:55:50 I'm going to get you one of these. It's a long book, motherfucker. And this bit doesn't end until I win. Okay, that's fair. That's fair. We're going to stop and listen to Ray Comfort. This is Adam Rieks from the Herd Mentality Podcast. Reading as Ray Comfort,
Starting point is 00:56:05 an Aussie reading as a Kiwi, and all the Kiwis love it. So here we go. This is... The sheep right in or whatever. I don't know. Fucking bang their hopes and shit. They gave us a laptop.
Starting point is 00:56:17 They get down from the fucking... from Mordor up there and have to throw in their rings in and they're like, I hate stuff. All right, here we go. This chapter has a picture in it. A picture of a smiling man
Starting point is 00:56:29 with a thermometer that wouldn't have existed at the time, but anyway. And he's covered in some sort of hideous life-threatening disease. But he's smiling like Gary Glitter. A young lady who's also smiling back like a Gary Glitter victim.
Starting point is 00:56:45 That was my touch. I got Raylene to draw that. She's very good at drawing acne. Oh, God. All right, let's read this. Bold. The Bible and the laws of quarantine and bold. Long before medical science discovered the importance of quarantine of persons
Starting point is 00:57:03 with infectious diseases, the Bible instigated them. In 1490 BC, the scriptures tell the children of Israel what to do if a man has leprosy. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled. He is unclean. He shall dwell alone. Without the camp shall his habitation be. Leviticus 13, colon 46. Laws of quarantine were not investigated by modern men until the 17th century. That doesn't... Yeah, we're scared of people that look all fucked up. We're scared of like sick people.
Starting point is 00:57:44 Fucking 1500 BCc and you knew like the thing is is like people knew that shit was transmissible transmissible they didn't know how it was transmissible but just because they they affected quarantine before we figured out the germ theory of disease doesn't mean that it like there wasn't they didn't have like ways in which to tell that quarantine wasn't efficacious. It's fucking self-evident. Somebody's got fucking leprosy. I'm fucked up looking like fucking want to hang out with that guy. No.
Starting point is 00:58:11 Hang out with you every week. Hey, hey, that's clearing up. It's clear. You are a clear. I'm taking leprosy. During the devastating black death of the 14th century,
Starting point is 00:58:30 patients who were sick or dead were kept in the same room as the rest of the family. Yeah, but I think that that was more cultural than anything else, right? Like, again, we're talking about cultural. And didn't they, I thought that they, and again, I'm not sure about this. Again, because it's cloudy when you read stuff, you don't know whether or not it's something that might be apocryphal. It might not have a ring of truth to it. But I thought that they would seal the family in with them because they thought that they were all infected.
Starting point is 00:58:57 Yeah, like, fuck that shit. Like, if fucking little Joey's got it and the fucking rest of the family's going to get it, fucking cask of a Montiato and seal those fuckers up in there what i thought that's what i thought they did again p but i don't know man i'm sure there's a historian out there that knows that whether or not that's true i don't personally know but i i could have sworn i read that but it's also like he's treating like the entire world like it was just fucking europe like like all the rest of the rest of fucking people in the world just didn't exist and during this one time in history in a small sliver of the fucking known world europe yeah like oh
Starting point is 00:59:30 they did this thing different and that's fucking indicative of a fucking thing it's not indicative of anything except you're a dick that's what indicative of rationalization this whole fuck's wrong with you people often wondered why the disease was affecting so many people at one time. They attributed these epidemics to bad air or evil spirits. And the fucking Bible attributed it to no attribution. Just fucking go away. It's like citation needed. Right?
Starting point is 01:00:01 Because Pat Robertson told them at the time and he was around then. However, careful attention to the medical commands of God, as revealed in Leviticus, would have saved untold millions of lives. No, it was spread by fleas! It would have saved nobody! It was spread by fleas! It was spread by fleas! Unless you quarantine the fleas!
Starting point is 01:00:20 Arturo Castiglione wrote about the overwhelming importance of the biblical medical law. The laws against leprosy in Leviticus 13 may be regarded as the first model of sanitary legislation. Open brackets. A history of medicine. In brackets. Grant Jeffrey, the signature of God. I included a reference there.
Starting point is 01:00:45 It looks very good. Thank you, Adam. That shit is amazing. That shit is fucking amazing. All right, so I have two questions, two short questions. I'm going to fucking knock these out of the park. In the chapter, Ray says that this line is proof
Starting point is 01:01:00 that God warned us about the germ theory of disease and that we had to use running water to be clean. Quote, when a man is cleansed from his discharge, he is to count off seven days for his ceremonial cleansing and he must wash his clothes and bathe himself with fresh water and he will be clean. What does God warn us to do in the following line of the Leviticus? Okay. So that was one part of the thing in Leviticus. That's the thing in Leviticus. What is my discharge?
Starting point is 01:01:34 I, Hey now, Hey now, I've cleared up. Hey now, I'm not a sailor, but, uh,
Starting point is 01:01:42 the next line of Leviticus warns us to do something else. So this is the next line of Leviticus warns us to do something else. So this is the next line. The next line warns us to kill like every gay person. Yes. B that you should bring turtle doves to a priest waiting in a tent nearby. Probably. C to store grain in the pyramids or D that if the priest's daughter becomes a prostitute,
Starting point is 01:02:04 then you should probably burn her to death. I take that back. You should definitely burn her to death. Oh my God, it's the turtle doves. It is the turtle doves. You just show up with birds? However... You just show up with birds? However, except for the pyramids thing, those other two are in Leviticus.
Starting point is 01:02:20 The gay killing people and then burning prostitutes that happen to be rabbi's daughters. What the... Those are both in Le to be rabbi's daughters. What the? Those are both in the video. Those are real. What? They just happened.
Starting point is 01:02:29 They just didn't happen to be the next sentence, Tom. Yeah. How do you? The Bible teaches us about blood clotting. According to Ray, how does it do this? A, it gives the optimal amount of stones to throw at an adulterer to outpace the scabbing. B, it tells us how long blood sits in a cup before it develops a skin, which is related to clotting speed.
Starting point is 01:02:50 C, it tells us the perfect day to cut off the tips of our imperfect penises. Or D, it takes one part blood, one part vaginas, then mixes in misogyny. D? No. That's like blood clotting on a cup thing? No, it's penises. Wait, what? Eight days, they say you're supposed to snip off your pee-pee,
Starting point is 01:03:11 and that's the perfect day for blood clotting and immune systems or something. That's what he said in the book. I don't know if that's true, but... I'm making a face that I wish could translate. I'm fucking actually dumbfounded by this. I'm trying. I'm trying. Seriously, I'm making a face that I wish could translate. I'm fucking actually dumbfounded by this. Yeah. I,
Starting point is 01:03:27 I trying, I'm trying, like, like seriously, I'm having them like, I'm having a genuine moment of real confusion. Yeah. No,
Starting point is 01:03:34 that's, that's how we know that, that, uh, the Bible taught us about blood clotting before we knew what blood clotting was because it told us the day in which we were supposed to snip off peepees. Yeah, no,
Starting point is 01:03:45 there's like a, there's like an optimal day. They think that you cut off a dick and that day is eight days. I think at least that's what it said in the tiny little book that Ray comfort wrote, um, that it's eight days. It is.
Starting point is 01:03:59 That's the baby's born. The baby's born. His blood clots more, much better. And so you step the dick off then and it won't bleed the baby to death or something. But after eight days, it starts to like the bug doesn't clot as well, he says. So it doesn't like there's a
Starting point is 01:04:11 magic clotting. There's a magic eight day mark. And Ray Comfort thinks that's real? It's like when you got your McDLT and the cold side was cold and the hot side was hot. It's like that. Except for it's a penis and you're using a blunt instrument to chop part of it off okay that makes me exceptionally uncomfortable to think about but i'm still how do they do it
Starting point is 01:04:32 back then they just bang a rock against it like how did they can you imagine the fucked up looking dicks back then like none of those guys could do porn you know what i mean like they're all like weird jagged they got like some of them got mullets. Some of them don't. This is some weird. No kidding. Right. There would be. And plus like they didn't have anything antibacterial. Sure. Right. So they're not even using like proper
Starting point is 01:04:56 fucking knives and shit. They're just fucking using donkey teeth or whatever fucking garbage they put a carrot in there. Alright. so next week more of this. Thank you. Thank you, Adam, again for reading for us. It was really funny.
Starting point is 01:05:14 It is just insanity, but we're on the course of insanity and if we do this, there is a judge in heaven and that judge in heaven is going to take vengeance against those who damage Israel. That's what the Bible says.
Starting point is 01:05:30 This story is the right we watch. Dave, coach. Da coach. Not a coach. Not a coach. But he's got a hat. He's got a coachy, coachy hat. Actually, I watched this video. I think he has to take his hat off indoors. Oh my gosh, yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:48 If he's borrowing somebody's Wi-Fi, he has to follow their rules. So this is Dobbin Meyer. Blames, this is so weird, he blames Trump's Jewish daughter and son-in-law for the U.S. airstrike on Syria. Which daughter? The one that looks like an elf or the one that looks like a pug? The big issue, I'm going to stick my toe in the water here, is he should get a more unobtrusive... He's a cracker barrel. Is that where he's at?
Starting point is 01:06:12 I don't know. He's using... He's clearly using free Wi-Fi. Like, there's no way that's not free Wi-Fi. Right? Yeah, because he's showering there later. Like, this is a guy who's taking a fucking whore's bath in the sink. I just want you to pay attention to what he's saying
Starting point is 01:06:27 in public. Okay, just listen to what this man has to say in public. I am glad though that he's wearing an unobtrusive headset and microphone.
Starting point is 01:06:35 Let's say he's a defensive coordinator for something. Like he's going to call something in. His surface isn't working on the sidelines. He's furious about it.
Starting point is 01:06:43 Just tackle a guy or whatever that means. Run a play just win the points score the foot touch or however that is i don't know the nation of israel i'm gonna make a lot of people mad because i know we have a lot of israel lovers in christianity and hey hang on man you're you're feeding information to us without feedback so why would we hang on a minute oh don't interrupt me said somebody monologuing on a
Starting point is 01:07:14 recorded episode the fact that I criticize a black man doesn't make me racist it does if you call him the n-word though I found that out that's the worst way. Don't do that. He got punched out by Ishmael's pillow.
Starting point is 01:07:30 The fact that I criticize a white woman does not make me a misogynist. But if she's a white woman, it does. And if you criticize her vagina, it means you haven't seen one. The fact that I criticize a homosexual does not make me homo... Erotic. He doesn't know what to say. I thought he said first a homeless sexual. I thought that's what he said.
Starting point is 01:07:55 I was like, well, that's... We only have sex with homeless people? That's weird. So stinky. Gosh. I got to use your diarrhea as lube. That's weird. I mean, it's not awful, but it's weird.
Starting point is 01:08:04 It's weird. I mean, it's not awful, but it's weird. It's weird. It's phobic. And the fact that I criticize Jews does not make me anti-Semitic. Is that okay? Can somebody give me a thumbs up on that? Would that be okay if we just told the truth? And why is it in America today the only group that you cannot criticize are the Jews?
Starting point is 01:08:26 You're in the fucking middle of the place he's talking about. Criticizing the Jews. The Jews. Oh, God. He's got to be in a friendly place. Like I said, like Cracker Barrel. Like an anti-Semitic place. Some racist location. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, where all the racist truck drivers go. They're always a racist truck driver breakfast
Starting point is 01:08:42 joint. That's what it is. It's a welcome sign. Not all people that go to Cracker Barrel are racist. Just most of them. Yeah, the servers aren't. Some of them. The black ones. Ooh, I feel it right now.
Starting point is 01:08:57 I feel that thing trying to creep over the top of me right now. What? What is he talking about? He's talking about homosexuals. And our entire foreign policy in America has changed ever since 1948. He's in a McDonald's or something. Yeah, I know. Like there's a fucking Redbox behind him.
Starting point is 01:09:13 Yeah, he's somewhere because I keep seeing like a TV or something behind him. And it looks like there's a coffee maker back there. Yeah, he's fucking at the West End. This is a free Wi-Fi situation. He's going to make a waffle in 30 seconds. Exactly, right? There's a breakfast buffet. I've never had a food
Starting point is 01:09:31 in any of those things that are free that's worth the cost. Now, hang on. I will challenge you on that. You can occasionally get a mealy red delicious apple, an underripe or overripe banana. That's true.
Starting point is 01:09:44 Or... The underripe is more common though. Yeah. Cause I think they just throw them out once they start turning yellow. They are really underripe. They're like, Hey, where's Mark? We got any more green bananas. It's like, would you like a breakfast plantain? I don't want a breakfast plantain.
Starting point is 01:10:00 We can make it into a smoothie at least. Right. There's like a huge fucking container of balance bars. I just steal those and throw them in my bag. I'm like, I'll take these later. And then like lukewarm fucking turned yogurt. That's it. I've never been to a free, like a complimentary
Starting point is 01:10:15 thing in the morning and been like, that was good. No, it's not even, it's not even that it's good. It's like, I don't think I have food poisoning. That's where you walk out. You're like, I'm probably going to... You're playing rock, paper, scissors with the lady behind the thing, hoping you win. It's like, I got a one in three chance
Starting point is 01:10:32 to get food poisoning here. I'll occasionally see those. I'm not partaking of them. Especially if I'm traveling for work. I'll be like, oh, well, should I... I always have that moment where it's like, maybe. It's like, no, I don't want to shit my pants in a conference room today.
Starting point is 01:10:48 You know, that's not what I want to do. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to dry clean that out of my suit. And later on when I'm having homeless sex, I don't want to do it then, too. You know what I mean? I do want it then. No, but that is better.
Starting point is 01:10:59 No, you really only want one party with diarrhea during a sexual act. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. you want answers i think i'm entitled you want answers i want the truth you can't handle the truth all right this is from right wing watch this is rick joiner rick joiner cecil can't understand why people get so worked up just because putin had some people knocked off jesus christ here we go this is rick joiner and i think Knocked off. Jesus Christ. There you go. This is Rick Joyner. And I think we're making some real progress. But there's an awful lot going on. There's still an awful lot of ground to be taken by the new administration. They're making really good progress.
Starting point is 01:11:40 In what fucking way? I mean, I guess they got their Supreme Court guy in, right? I mean, they got GORUCK or whatever the fuck is it. Yeah, they fucking dropped the first ever non-nuclear weapon in Afghanistan. So that's good. I didn't see it blow up anything, though. I have no confirmation that the bomb actually blew up. It's probably fake news.
Starting point is 01:12:03 I'm skeptical. It's probably a false flag bomb. It's a false flag bomb. I'm skeptical of it. I'm skeptical that it bomb actually blew up. It's probably fake news. I'm skeptical. It's probably a false flag bomb. It's a false flag bomb. I'm skeptical of it. I'm skeptical that it was actually dropped. It was probably dropped by terrorists on themselves. That's probably what happened. ISIS probably blew themselves up.
Starting point is 01:12:20 ISIS blew themselves up and then blamed it on Assad, who blamed it on Putin, who swallowed a fly to catch the... Still unbelievable inside opposition. People left over from previous administrations that are just fighting and doing everything they can to hinder progress. One of the things that I think people don't understand is that they don't get brand new people. I thought I read, and I don't know, people in the audience might be able to correct me on this, but I could have sworn I heard,
Starting point is 01:12:49 maybe it was on NPR or I read somewhere, that the reason why they don't replace the FBI director and the CIA directors all the time is because they have terms. When they get appointed, they get appointed for a certain number of time, like amount of time. I'm not sure, but I thought I heard that on somewhere.
Starting point is 01:13:06 I'm not going to look it up. So if somebody sends us the message, I'll certainly read it on the air. I actually didn't know those were appointed stations. I had thought that that was, well, how else would it get at them? I just thought you moved your way up the ranks to FBI director. Oh, that might be too.
Starting point is 01:13:17 That could be too, I guess. So I don't, I never really had, I had thought that what happened was is that they were appointed, but they were appointed on a schedule that they're they kind of have like almost a term, like it's like 10 years or something. So it spans longer than that president can do it. And then it's a half a year in or two years into their term or something. I got you know what I mean? Like, so it's like it's like there's no way to get rid.
Starting point is 01:13:41 You can't just get rid of them if they're, you know, like say investigating things. Sure, right. Yeah, if maybe you had ties to Russia during your campaign, for example, like if you're just throwing something out there. It's amazing. I mean, you're talking about thousands of people, many of which are in key positions
Starting point is 01:13:57 and have got to be replaced. And you know what the definition of treason is? Removing sanctions on Russia in exchange for hacking into... Your opponent's email, right? I think. To influence an election. That might be treason. To be elected by a minority of the voters.
Starting point is 01:14:17 Maybe. That could be treason. Possibly. I don't know. Won't matter. Won't make a fucking difference. Oh, no. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:14:23 It's going to make no difference at all. I have a feeling, even if something comes out, which it may or may not, it may or may not be a real thing. I don't know if it's true. I think it would be treasonous if it were true. Even if it came out, I don't think that they would impeach him.
Starting point is 01:14:40 I don't think he's impeached at this point. No. He's our garbage president for a while. Until he dies because he's impeached at this point. No. No. I think this is just, he's our garbage president for a while still until he dies because he's fucking old and fat. That's more of a possibility than anything else. Yeah. I mean, I really think it's, I'm like, I'm joking,
Starting point is 01:14:53 but I'm kind of not. He's getting a lot of exercise golfing though. Oh my God. I think that's good. I'm just, I'm gratified that he's the oldest seated president. Yeah. And he's fucking fat and useless
Starting point is 01:15:04 and doesn't exercise. And he said that he doesn't like to exercise. He is because other people, his age exercise, and then they fucking fuck up their knees. He's totally fucking said the reason he doesn't exercise. He doesn't want to get hurt exercising. It's not how that works.
Starting point is 01:15:20 He's my dad doesn't exercise. His body is garbage. He can't fucking move my dad's body is a sack of broken glass basically every piece of him is a half decent sack my my dad is 69 years old he needs the chair that helps you stand up no shit yeah he's got the he's got the fucking standy city chair to take him upstairs he's got a fucking standy city chair. The gremlins chair to take him upstairs. He's got a fucking first floor, single floor, only one floor home. And to get in and out of his lazy boy, he's got a button. How does he get in and out of his car?
Starting point is 01:15:53 I'm fucking carefully, I hope. Because I really like him. He doesn't have a lifty seat for his car. He doesn't have a lifty seat for his car, but he's got a lifty seat for his house. His house. So the house comes up to meet him and then, but my dad's the same. My dad is the same mindset, right? He's like, he tried to exercise. He twisted his knee and he's like, well, fuck that. I'm going to hurt my fucking knee if I do it. So that's it. There's no more of that. I work out with a 65-year-old dude in my gym.
Starting point is 01:16:26 Today, we had to do 2,000 meters on the rower, and he did it in nine minutes. And he's 65 years old. Yeah. He's working out. He runs every morning. He runs between five and 10 miles, and then he works out in the afternoon with me. With you. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:16:43 I told my dad I was doing a thing. He's 65. Yeah. I told my dad I was doing a thing. He's 65 years old. I told my dad I was sore and he's like, you're pushing yourself too hard if you're getting sore. No. And I was like, dad, that's not how this that's not how any of this
Starting point is 01:16:58 just this is why your body is a sack of broken glass. Can you just grind him up for protein powder and then just take him up for protein powder? I know. Just eat him. Just take him. One of our guys read it yesterday. It is actually trying.
Starting point is 01:17:14 No, it was Bobby Conner that read it. Nobody cares. Jesus Christ. I think it was little Joey Jr. Get on with it, Santa. What the fuck? It is the attempt to overthrow a duly elected government or a you know a government that is legitimate government any attempt to overthrow such a government is true yeah no shit okay the attempt to overthrow the government would be fucking
Starting point is 01:17:41 treasonous to that is that your legal definition definition? Did you call Andrew Torres for that? Are you fucking kidding me? I attempted to overthrow the government. Was that potentially treasonous? Get fucking a hundred percent of the time. Holy shit. That's your fucking swift legal analysis. Jesus Christ.
Starting point is 01:18:01 You fucking hill person. And we've got a lot of people seriously doing treasonous things now wait are they trying to take over the government or are they fucking criticizing the government because those are two different things fake news
Starting point is 01:18:15 that's what's crazy about that is that people will equate the two things they'll say oh well it's treasonous it's not treasonous to just insult the people in the government or to criticize their actions It's not treasonous to just insult the people in the government or to criticize their actions. That's not treasonous at all. That's treason. If you don't like what the government is doing, then you are overthrowing the government by making fun of them. I don't hope it won't get to the point of treason, treason, actual treason. Please say treason.
Starting point is 01:18:43 Maybe a tea party. Treason? Treason. Actual treason? Please say treason. Maybe a tea party? Sedition? You know, where people are going to have to be charged and dragged out.
Starting point is 01:18:49 Some need to be. Some have done things so illegal. I hope it doesn't get to the point, but this needs to happen. Some need to be? Dragged out? Yeah. Some of these treasoners, that's what they're called. They're treasonites. They all wear the same leather jacket.
Starting point is 01:19:04 And they carry, they wear their hair the same way. And they have a flashy gang sign that looks like a T. They actually dance a knife fight. They're like, when you're a jet, you're a jet. Okay. All right, treason error. But just yesterday, some of the things that came out in the news, it again came out. Guccifer.
Starting point is 01:19:24 Guccifer? He's like Lucifer, he just has a longer neck. And did you grab Lucifer's ass when he's not looking? I don't like that name, but it's another organization that has been incredibly accurate with the stuff they put out. And they also agreed with Assange that the DNC staffer that was murdered last year was the one who leaked the DNC emails to WikiLeaks, which is what Julian Assange said. That guy was murdered. And of course, DC police covered it up saying it was just a-
Starting point is 01:20:00 A murder. Just a- A robbery. But they didn't rob him of anything. Didn't take his wallet. They robbed his life. Money, whoever did it, it was just murder. And it was a cover-up, obvious cover-up.
Starting point is 01:20:18 Oh, great. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks for that. I decided that it was different than what the police decided. And I know better. Because what, did you investigate the body? Were you there? Do they do they call up like the fucking
Starting point is 01:20:27 blue and red lights are going on like somebody call Rick Joyner. Make sure he gets his fucking two cents in. He will never contaminate the crime scene with his fucking beard hair. He's got to wear one of those things. He's got to wear like one of the nets around his beard like when they make your muffins. The homeless people make your muffins. The homeless people make your muffins.
Starting point is 01:20:45 Where do you get your muffins? I get them after homeless sex. You make them cook for you? What kind of monster are you? Look. And I want to know how you get them to do it. Here's my point. There's some really ugly stuff going on.
Starting point is 01:21:04 If you make it up yeah sure yeah that's fucking terrifying i heard a dinosaur ate him that's what i heard i heard it was a dinosaur he was actually so he had a can of barbasol and inside the bottom of it was like dinosaur dna and he was running as fast as he could through the forest in the world and i know people that just get outraged at putin because he's had some people knocked off well just about everybody in government including our government has done that kind of thing yeah i'm gonna whack a couple fucking people what the fuck fucking look at this is my business huh it's my fucking business don't fucking ask about my fucking business all right i fucking want to go whack a few fucking people hey i'm the fucking president i don't know why he's so upset that the government's killing its citizens
Starting point is 01:21:55 well i don't know actually that seems like something we don't want to have we don't just be like tacitly like, I want the same number of bullets in every citizen. Do you know how long that's going to take? The same number of bullets. So we want to thank our patrons, of course. They're the ones who make this show possible. They're the ones who make Glory Hole Studios possible. So we want to thank all our patrons, but we would like to thank our newest patrons, of course. They're the ones who make this show possible. They're the ones who make Glory Hole Studios possible.
Starting point is 01:22:25 So we want to thank all our patrons, but we would like to thank our newest patrons, Keegan, Michael, Bailazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz I like the person put on the end of their name, good luck pronouncing it. I think we nailed it though. You just kind of, kind of just give up halfway through. God comma.
Starting point is 01:22:55 I hate that last guy. It's the tie. Mateo. Oh, that's a good name. I like that. Christopher, the biggity bang and Zachary. Thank you so much for your generous
Starting point is 01:23:06 donations. We really do appreciate it. So we got an image from James and James sent this image along. It's going to be on episode 353's show notes. It's a church sign about Easter. It's so great. It's really funny. I love that somebody went
Starting point is 01:23:21 either way to hang a secondary sign on their sign. So we got a message from Vin, and Vin sent in an image, and this is hilarious. It says, this is what a senator, Senator John Reagan said. Tom, read where it starts with my response. My response would be, what kind of accountability do we have now? Our schools are graded by test scores, and half the schools are doing worse than the other half. And nobody does anything about that at all.
Starting point is 01:23:53 That is true, John Reagan. That's true about anything you quantify. That's fucking hilarious. It's terrific. We got this message from LR and LR sent us some ways in which to pronounce things in Croatian. So I'm going to try to do this. He says that the C with the toupee
Starting point is 01:24:11 is pronounced as cha. The C with the Trump hair is mostly the same. So it's a sa in the back of the throat. The S with the toupee is SH. So like shut. And then the Z is a J. So you remember when I pronounced it J last time? I was right. It's like J as in
Starting point is 01:24:28 jocks. But a D is also like a D with like a little extra little knife that's been stuck in its back is also a J. It's like a Caesar J. So thank you for your pronunciation little guide here. That's going to help us for
Starting point is 01:24:44 all of the Croatian stories. I though am very impressed that someone in Croatia is listening. I think that's awesome. I think that's great. We got a message, a cooking message this week from someone who said, what's a good, like, I want to hear what your sides are. You guys were picking on ham and sides. I want to hear what your sides are. I just want people to know that if you make your own potato salad, one of the biggest problems with potato salad, there's so many different problems with bad things that people do. One of the things they do is they pick the wrong potatoes. They get those fucking Idaho potatoes instead of the red potatoes.
Starting point is 01:25:14 Oh, the ones that turn into nothing. Yeah. So they get fucking, they get like baking potatoes. Yeah. Right. And then you, you stir it once and it disintegrates. It turns into potato gel. So you got to get, you got to get waxy potatoes. You got to get a red potato. Then the other thing that people don't ever do, which makes the potato salad immensely better, is make your own mayonnaise.
Starting point is 01:25:33 It's not hard to make your own mayonnaise. There's plenty of recipes out there. If you have a food processor or an immersion blender at home, you can make your own mayonnaise and it's exponentially better than any mayonnaise you could ever get out of a jar. And the Alton Brown recipe for making your own mayonnaise is super accessible. It's easy. It's just he's made it simple. Another thing is people put too much onion in that.
Starting point is 01:25:53 And I find that chive is probably all you really need. You could add a little red onion if you want, but chive is perfect. Get good bacon. That's another thing that people don't do. And they don't like they'll put like turkey bacon or they won't put bacon at all. No, wait, wait, wait, wait, slow down. Turkey bacon? I know.
Starting point is 01:26:07 But what you need is you need to go out and get good bacon. Buy the best bacon you can find. Cut it into, cut the strips across so that it's all diced. Throw it in a pan and adds a little bit of water to it. And that's going to help render the fat. And then you'll get all the, well, that fat will start to render. And then the fat, once all the water disintegr, that, that fat will start to render. And then the fat, once all the water disintegrates or evaporates, doesn't disintegrate. Once it evaporates,
Starting point is 01:26:30 I know, God, it's like fucking, it's like Fukushima. They got to put it in a fucking thing. No, but once it, once it evaporates, then that grease has already had a chance to render. So now it starts actually cooking the bacon and you get a nice pan of brown bacon that way. It actually works out really well, but brown all the bacon and use the a nice pan of brown bacon that way. It actually works out really well. But brown all the bacon and use the whole fucking thing. Like don't fucking skimp on the bacon. I find that people do that all the time. Another thing that people do that makes their potato salad terrible is they cook
Starting point is 01:26:54 the eggs way too long. Have you ever gotten the green egg potato salad? Oh, fucking hell, man. Twelve minutes for hard-boiled eggs. You put them in. As soon as the water starts boiling, you time it. As soon as it's off, you take them off the fucking stove and you put them on cold water. Cold water, ice, whatever you got to do.
Starting point is 01:27:10 Stop the fucking cooking process or you're going to have sulfur balls. What the fuck, man? Do you want sulfur balls? People fuck that up. And the thing is, all of those things are relatively easy to do. But at any juncture, all of those, like
Starting point is 01:27:26 one of those pieces can be so far off and it's the worst potato salad you've ever had. But potato salad is not hard to make. But if you do like the right things, you can make an amazing potato salad. Good potato salad is worth something. Absolutely. Right. It's following your recipe for potato salad. Potato salad is my son Finnegan's favorite food.
Starting point is 01:27:46 It is his favorite actual food. It's fucking potato salad. It's bacon potatoes with some homemade mayonnaise. Right. But still, it's, you know, That's why he likes it. And eggs that are cooked properly. Because he knows how things get.
Starting point is 01:27:57 Yeah, it's like, so that's my favorite side with ham. But I also think a good mac and cheese is also good, but not fucking box method. Like, make your own mac and cheese is also good, but not fucking box method. Like, make your own mac and cheese. Like, fucking there's a million recipes out there. That's not terribly hard either. It's not hard. Make a bechamel, throw a little cheese in there, get it fucking cooked
Starting point is 01:28:14 up. That's not hard. But people fucking think, like, you know, like, I'm going to make mac and cheese. I'm going to open this box of orange shit and make it. I'm not, and the thing is is like look i get it it's high food you want to eat that shit while you're high eat away but it's not a fucking if i have guests over it's easter yeah it's easter i i think the best side with a ham is a prime rib
Starting point is 01:28:38 i think nothing compliments that's very true a ham a, like a garbage can, and then a prime rib. I think you can make a good ham. I do a mustard crust on my ham, which I like a lot, but some people don't like mustard. I love mustard. I do a mustard crust on there, and I think that that's a good salad. I don't try to make it sweet, and that's
Starting point is 01:29:00 a thing that people try to do a lot. That honey glazed the fucking ham. Yeah, I guess if my dog's hungry, I would consider, and if I didn't love my dog, I would maybe give some of that. Stick grapes in there and chop it and give it to your dog.
Starting point is 01:29:17 We want to thank Anthony Magnabosco for coming by in studio. Great guy. Great guy. First chance to meet him, but really just a nice guy. I could see him being able to really easily chat
Starting point is 01:29:29 with a bunch of people. You know what I mean? Like a bunch, a wide range of people. His YouTube channel is fascinating. There's going to be a bunch of links on this week's show notes to check them out on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook,
Starting point is 01:29:39 as well as a bunch of other videos we're going to link on this week's show notes. Check out Anthony's work. He actually is a really smart, talented guy, and he's doing good stuff out there, teaching people how to do this street epistemology method. There's ways to find the stuff like we talked about earlier, but you can also buy Pete Bogosian's book, which is actually an excellent book. It is. Manual for Creating Atheists. Look for it on Amazon. Really good book. Pete's a good
Starting point is 01:30:03 guy. So that's going to wrap it up for this week. We're going to be at ReasonCon next week. So we will post the show after ReasonCon. We'll probably post it for patrons before, but we'll post the show after ReasonCon. So we hope we run into you at ReasonCon. And that should be a lot of fun. If we run into you and we knock you over,
Starting point is 01:30:21 I'm sorry, and I'll buy you a drink. We're going to leave you like we always do with the Skeptic's 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 dead, pan, sales pitch, late night info-docutainment.
Starting point is 01:30:53 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, wizards, vaccine nuts, shaman healers, evangelists, conspiracy,
Starting point is 01:31:16 doublespeak, stigmata, nonsense. Expose your sides. Thrust your hands. Bloody, evidential, conclusive. Doubt even this. The opinions and information provided on this podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. All opinions are solely that of Glory Hole Studios, LLC. Cognitive dissonance makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information
Starting point is 01:31:57 and will not be liable for any errors, damages, or butthurt arising from consumption. All information is provided on an as-is basis. No refunds. Produced in association with the local dairy council and viewers like you. great check check I want to hear that again it's been recorded for posterity
Starting point is 01:32:42 so great that's gonna be stolen from Ryan Slotnick I don't know how this works but I want that to be my ringtone forever it's got a little bit of Mario to it like alright skit begins oh I go first
Starting point is 01:33:09 fuck thought somebody was going to read the stage direction I don't know why it's an audio medium nobody's even walked in the fucking door yet he thinks we've been doing a two and a half year table read Jesus Nobody's even walked in the fucking door yet. He thinks we've been doing a two and a half year table read. Jesus.
Starting point is 01:33:32 All right.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.