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For those who do not know I was in the hospital with cellulitis, and the beginning stages of sepsis. That put a delay on getting my next few podcasts out. Now before I get into the story of what happened in the hospital, I came to a realization this summer. It is going to be difficult for me to be able to record a show during the summer and other long vacations. I know there are other people out there that have jobs and children and still manage to record podcasts. That is just a luxury that I do not have. I currently live in an 850 square foot apartment with my wife and 7 year old child. There was no way I could record during this time. The recovery process required me to be stuck in bed and my recording area is not conducive to my recovery. I will try to find a way to continue recording through the months when there is no school, but I can not make any guarantees. It is a difficult process for me as I have taken on the role of the stay-at-home parent due to uncontrollable circumstance that left me unable to find work that I am capable of. Getting a little personal here, and I am not trying to play the pity party. I am very obese. I had always been overweight, but a life event that brought on severe depression turned being a little overweight to crossing the line into extreme obesity. I got up to over 600 pounds. I managed to get down to 475, but am suffering the negative consequences of carrying that much extra weight all this time. From knee injuries to severe back pain, and extending into nerve damage and micro fractures in my feet. With the panic of the opiod epidemic in America, the only pain management I receive is mega doses of aspirin which may have already damaged my liver. Enough of the poor me segment. I am doing better and slowly getting my weight under control. So all is not negative. I am slowly increasing my activity level and rebuilding atrophied muscle. This will all help reduce my pain levels. But enough of this digression and back to my story about being in the hospital. This illness taught me a valuable lesson, do not delay getting help if you notice an infection. I came uncomfortably close to sepsis and death. If it wasn’t for my wife tricking me into the car to go to the hospital I wouldn’t be alive. I remember very little from the onset of the infection until about 12 hours into IV antibiotics in the hospital. It was a very surreal experience. (Interesting side note: I found out that I am in the 3% that experience negative neurological effects from the antibiotics I was on. I had troubles finding words, and formulating complete sentences. I did eventually get switched to a different medicine that was not as bad.) Over all the experience in the hospital never turned too awkward, as many just relied upon and talked about medicine. Yet one incident did leave a bitter taste. I am a fairly fat guy. No I'm not afraid to say that. I know that I am fat and am not afraid to admit it. That is however not the point of the story. The problem is that I earned a reputation while in the hospital as very difficult to find a vein for IV’s and blood draws. It was so bad that I often had the lab techs reaching for the portable ultrasound machine to draw blood. I didn’t mind this at all. But the part that really bothered me is when one of the lab techs actually prayed that she find a vein. Surprise!!!!! she didn’t, she hit the 3 stick limit the hospital had per tech. 1 John 5:14: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” I understand there is a level of confirmation bias going on here. Where this tech probably believes in the power of prayer because she remembers how it felt every time she prayed and something happened. If this is in fact the case. It is equally possible that she has never had a hit, but remember all the hits others claim. I am not going to pretend to be inside this lab techs mind. I will however,

In this weeks episode we discuss the state of the country right now. The divisiveness, and hatred that is going around is very disturbing. We have been in a this game of us and them and moving toward a state of chaos, rather than harmony.  I know that when we label ourselves or others we are contributing to this problem, but what is the solution here. What is the best and most beneficial way to structure a society? Is it going to be based on reason and things that are known, or is it going to be based on dogma and unverified truth claims? The latter is where is seems we have been leaning for some time, but it is the former that we should advocate for. The Muslim Ban is part of this idea of using dogma to dictate our societal structures. Sure we have a problem with Islamic extremists, but is an outright ban on all people from Muslim countries going to solve the problem or exasperate it. It certainly didn't solve any problems we have here at home, and it did inflame tensions and alienate potential allies in the Muslim world. We need to remove any ideas of a religious test for anything.  We have seen all throughout history that any type of religious test never turns out the way we plan them in the beginning.   Also on this episode my co-host Matt finally gets his microphone and makes a surprise visit at the end of the episode. This is that happy ending I promised in the show title. We discuss the situation in Tennessee a little bit from the perspective of an atheist. We then give our take on this story coming out of Portland of the man that stabbed 2 people who were trying to stop him from verbally assaulting a group of teenage girls one of which happened to be wearing a hijab.  

Secular Ethos Episode # 12 Secular Sunday School With all of the attacks on the LGBT community from politicians and religious leaders, it is not surprising that they can draw a straight line to a passage from their holy books to condemn them. They especially seem to have a serious problem with gay marriage. Many of the laws contain the language of traditional marriage, and the proponents seems to want biblical marriage to be the only marriage legally recognized in the United States. So what is biblical marriage exactly. It is often stated as a union between one man and one woman. Where does this idea come from? Is it in the bible? Is there a commandment, “thou shalt legally define marriage as between one man and one woman”? We need to dig a little deeper to see what is behind these ideas. One of the strongest cases for this is found in Ephesians 5:25, 31. From the King James Version: Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;” Ephesians 5:31 “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This does make a strong case for the idea of biblical marriage as being one man and one woman. If we care about what the bible says about marriage what else does it say? From 1 Samuel 18:17-27 King James Version: 17 And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul said, Let not mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him. 18 And David said unto Saul, Who am I? and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son in law to the king? 19 But it came to pass at the time when Merab Saul's daughter should have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel the Meholathite to wife. 20 And Michal Saul's daughter loved David: and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. 21 And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore Saul said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son in law in the one of the twain. 22 And Saul commanded his servants, saying, Commune with David secretly, and say, Behold, the king hath delight in thee, and all his servants love thee: now therefore be the king's son in law. 23 And Saul's servants spake those words in the ears of David. And David said, Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a king's son in law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed? 24 And the servants of Saul told him, saying, On this manner spake David. 25 And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. 26 And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son in law: and the days were not expired. 27 Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king's son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife. This is another disturbing take on biblical marriage where there is an alternative form of payment for a wife.

This episode I am going to do something unpopular. I am going to discuss teen suicide. I am doing this for a variety of reasons. First I feel this is a very important issue, and I have personal experiences that are relevant. In doing this episode I am hoping to not only help any of you who may be listening to help open up these discussions more, but I am also helping myself. Many of things I am going to be talking about I have very rarely discussed openly with anyone, and I have certainly never talked about any of it publicly. Before I get started I want to make the following warnings. First if you are a teenager or young adult, I am glad you are listening, but please do not do so alone. Have a close friend or parents with you while you listen. If you are going to be watching the Netflix series “13 Reasons why” The same advice applies. These are difficult topics and no matter how old you are I personally encourage you to not engage in them alone. If you find yourself going through some bad times, or feel lost or depressed or alone do not be, find someone, anyone you trust and discuss your feelings before during or after listening to this episode or watching the Netflix show I am discussing. If you have experienced a loss due to suicide or have these thoughts yourself please do not listen alone, and please contact National Suicide Prevention Lifeline if you need help. 1-800-273-8255 This is a serious topic and do not delay if you think someone you know may be hurting. Learn how to be a friend In this disclaimer portion of the show I want to clearly make the point that I do not wish to sound like I am hijacking these issues to promote atheism, or to promote my show. I have been personally impacted by suicide not only as having a family member kill themselves in front of me as a young child, but also having going through my own period of depression and struggling with suicide. My personal thoughts while going through this did have religious tones to it, and did involve the ideas of turning to drug use as an alternative method of suicide to allow my entry into heaven. My situation and my experiences are not typical. The only reason I mention this is to highlight the need for secular therapy and to leave personal religious ideology out of these discussions. This is a medical issue, this is a societal issue, this is an educational issue, and finally and most importantly this is humanist issue. In this episode I am not going to only talk about my personal struggles I am going to go over information and news regarding suicide. As far as I am including my own personal stories into this, I went back and forth on this for a long time trying to decide if it was the right move. In coming to this decision, I decided to leave it in. In particular I am going to be discussing the issues of suicide in Tennessee specifically. I know that Tennessee is not the only place that faces the problems of suicide, and I apologize up front if my focus on Tennessee in this episode in any way minimizes the effects of this topic in other places. Part of my goal on this podcast is to give the secular community in east Tennessee a voice, and in that pursuit many of the stories and information I share will be from here. I want to however highlight that no matter where you live this is a big issue and hopefully those not from here can take what we talk about and add it to their tool kit in discussions. In Tennessee this has become a particularly contentious and difficult subject to approach. I have been personally effected by suicide and have that perspective. I have also done a lot of research into this topic, and with the recent controversy surrounding the new Netflix series ‘13 Reasons Why’ I feel a need to discuss this issue. According to the Tennessee Suicide prevention network’s statistics suicide was the number 2 leading cause of death for the 10-14 age group and the 25-34 age group falling second only to the category of “unintentiona...

  Secular Ethos Episode 10 _ Secular Sunday School edition Localmemphis.com headline: ’Parents Angry Altruria Elementary Bible Club Was Shut Down After Complaint By Atheist Group’ This story is about the Altruria Elementary school in Bartlet Tennessee having a bible club in the mornings. I do not know a whole lot of the details in this story except what is in the article. The school had received a letter from The Freedom From Religion Foundations in regards to a complaint about this bible club being in the public school. I am not a lawyer, so when I say this does seem like it is clearly a 1st amendment issue please keep that in mind. If you take the 1st amendment issue out of this, and look at it from the stand point of what is appropriate material for elementary school age children to be exposed to. The bible is very vile and lewd, especially in the King James version. http://www.localmemphis.com/news/local-news/parents-angry-altruria-elementary-bible-club-was-shut-down-after-complaint-by-atheist-group/704993017 Restating that I am not a lawyer, I did find the Tennessee code regarding student conduct. http://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-49-education/tn-code-sect-49-6-3401.html Tennessee Code Title 49. Education § 49-6-3401 (a) Any principal, principal-teacher or assistant principal of any public school in this state is authorized to suspend a pupil from attendance at the school, including its sponsored activities, or from riding a school bus, for good and sufficient reasons.  Good and sufficient reasons for suspension include, but are not limited to: (1) Willful and persistent violation of the rules of the school; (2) Immoral or disreputable conduct or vulgar or profane language; (3) Violence or threatened violence against the person of any personnel attending or assigned to any public school; (4) Willful or malicious damage to real or personal property of the school, or the property of any person attending or assigned to the school; (5) Inciting, advising or counseling of others to engage in any of the acts enumerated in subdivisions (a)(1)-(4); enrolled and the director of schools shall determine the appropriate educational assignment for the student released for readmission . - See more at: http://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-49-education/tn-code-sect-49-6-3401.html#sthash.rPGgGKKk.dpuf in regards to section a(2) I am going to mention Ezekiel chapter 23: verse 20 - For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses and whose issue is like the issue of horses. Aside from whether or not an elementary school age child knows what is meant by the words “ flesh” and “issue” we must hope they are not in possession of an expositors student bible. In my student bible I am given the following explanation of this verse: “ She threw herself into the idolatrous ritual of Egypt with an almost orgiastic passion. The last phrase is likened to a wife who, in her unfaithfulness, not only commits adultery with a man, but has sexual relations with an animal.” I don’t know how the school is interpreting what is vulgar or profane, or what they would consider immoral or disreputable. Yet, it seems that simply bringing a book that talks about a woman having a passionate orgy with animals would fall into at least the disreputable. It is definitely profane for a 5-8 year old to be sharing with their peers at a public school. So what about the argument, “ you are just taking this out of context”. In what context is a 5-8 year old kid supposed to take, a woman engaged in an animal orgy. Should 5-8 year old be biblical scholars or apologists to “properly” read something like this. It is even more explicit if they were reading the New International Version(N.I.V.), which reads: -There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. To get a some context of this verse let’s look at the beginning of the chapter to se...

  Episode # 9 show notes:     This weeks episode is shorter than some of the rest. I had a full episode available for this week, but I decided to delay it for another week. I did this because the subject matter is very heavy. I had planned on addressing the recent suicides in Tennessee, coupled with the disturbing trend of teen suicides over the past several years. I am delaying the episode on this to give you all an opportunity to share with me any stories, or related subject matter that you would like me to discuss on this topic.   This is a very serious topic, and I would like to get as much listener feedback as possible before I finish the recording and release it.  I have personally experienced the pain of a suicide in my family, and will be sharing my story. I will gladly, share your stories, or let you be the voice of someone close to you anonymously, under any pseudonym, or internet handle you choose.  The idea behind this upcoming episode is to add our voices to this topic, as many secular voices seem to be silent on such an important subject.     WBIR headline: ‘Acupuncture helps Knoxville couple get pregnant’ A couple in Knoxville credits acupuncture for their pregnancy rather than the 3 cycles of IVF.     http://www.wbir.com/news/health/acupuncture-helps-knoxville-couple-get-pregnant/438351325 https://nccih.nih.gov/research/results/spotlight/072913 https://www.nice.org.uk/news/blog/the-importance-of-3-full-cycles-of-ivf http://www.fertilityfairness.co.uk/nhs-fertility-services/what-sould-nhs-provide/   Trump fires FBI director while his team is being investigated by the FBI.   https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/us/politics/james-comey-fired-fbi.html http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/trump-putin-no-relationship-226282

Secular Sunday School first episode: As this is the first episode of Secular Sunday School, I find it important to establish a vocabulary. The reason I want to do this is to go over some of these tricky terms that people often use in various ways. Such as the term atheist, this term ( or label ) is often applied in many different ways. So what I am going to do is to go over the dictionary definitions, the philosophical definitions and the common usages. From those, I will also establish the way in which I apply these in the discussions I am going to have on Secular Sunday school. Now you may apply these labels or use these terms in different ways than I am establishing for this show. If you have an issue with the way I am going to be using these terms I encourage you to reach out to us on the various social media outlets. Such as @secularethos on twitter or https://www.facebook.com/secularethos/ You can also email me via john@secularethos.com. Or you can go to the show notes at https://www.secularethos.com/show and click on the episode title, scroll to the bottom and leave a comment there. We also have a contact page @ https://www.secularethos.com/contact I appreciate all of your feedback and will address it as soon as I can. Now we can start on our terms. The most important terms I think will be the terms: theism and deism. So first for theism, Merriam Webster gives the definition of theism as: belief in the existence of a god or gods; specifically : belief in the existence of one God viewed as the creative source of the human race and the world who transcends yet is immanent in the world This is a straightforward definition of theism, and is close to the way that I will be using this term. I use Theism as traditional theism which is the western ideas about god. Open theism is the fairly new idea that god is not only the creator and maintainer of the universe, but is also seeking a relationship with the people in it. In this view god wishes for the people to have free will. It also provides that god is all knowing in that he knows all that can be known. This is counter to the idea that god can know the future. God only knows of possible futures in this view, but does not know which particular future will be the one experienced. God is also all powerful, in that he has all of the power that he can have. Which means that the trope of, can god make a rock so heavy that god can’t life it, is not possible. Because god can only do what is logically possible. Closed theism is often referred to as Calvinist, whereas god has perfect knowledge which means that not only does god know the future, but has set up a particular future that can not be altered by any action. Open and closed theism are types of theism closely related to a Christian type of theism, but there are others that are more philosophically based than a christian theism. One of which is called process theism, which gives the view of god is part of the universe and exists within the same temporal space. This is counter to the space less timeless god of more traditional theism. These various categories of theism will be topics for future episodes, and I will stop here with theism and move on to the next terms. Theism is often used in the traditional way to draw a distinction from deism whereas deism is a more vague rather than specific god. Merriam Webster’s definition of deism seems less like the way I have heard people use it. And I will give you that definition here: a movement or system of thought advocating natural (see 1natural 8b) religion, emphasizing morality, and in the 18th century denying the interference of the Creator with the laws of the universe Now this definition of deism may be historically accurate, but it seems counter to the way I often hear it used. Especially in places such as youtube atheists. I personally have used this term to refer to the god of the first cause apologists,

Tennessean headline: “How secularism will fail us” This is a local story where this pastor from Inglewood Baptist church. Where he argues that secularism is going to fail because he equates it to moral relativism and that any moral claims made are a result of stealing from the “judeo-christian” worldview. This article brings in few common arguments against secularism in the United States. First, it makes the assumption that moral relativism is a negative consequence of not being Christian. It is the assumption or even assertion that if you do not have morals commanded on you by an invisible entity. And not just any invisible entity, it is the specific entity that must have their will interpreted by pastors. It is no more of an objective moral standard than any other pronouncements. The truth is the secular morality is the closest to an objective moral standard. This is because it is not subject to the thousands of sects of Christianity and the sects of the many other religions. The fact that these type of stories make it into the news in this region just show the ever growing need for us to build our communities. These ideas need an opposition if we are to ever hope to normalize atheism. This pastor is among many that have this idea that the way in which all societies have formed moral identities is negative. This idea is counter to moral progress. The facts are that as societies have shed their adherence to dogmatic ideologies. This has led to moral progress. The main problem I have with this story is this is the type of story that makes it into our newspapers. The Tennessean is a fairly large and old newspaper in the Tennessee area. This story represents a common view I hear when talking to the religious in my area. I even at one time held these types of views. Even the local government seems replete with people who hold these views. http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2017/04/27/how-secularism-fail-us/100602128/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tennessean WBIR headline: “Group opposes city funds for Emerald Youth project in Lonsdale” http://www.wbir.com/news/local/group-calls-on-city-not-to-contribute-money-to-lonsdale-facility/434737467 I want to do another follow up on a previous episode where I discuss some listener feedback on a statement I made about the differences in how liberals and conservatives define corruption. I don’t want to spend too much time on the recap. But just for new listeners what I had said is that conservatives look at politicians who support or are supported by unions are corrupt, and that is what is mean by statements drain the swamp. I supported my arguments with some anecdotes from my personal life, and by mention of some of the things I had read from the trump supporters on twitter. None of this is actual evidence for my position on this, or should I say not great evidence. What I should have said is that it is nuanced just as many of these types of issues are. Yes the portrayal of wallstreet ties has been a major part of the rhetoric around this idea of liberal corruption. And many conservatives see this as a major liberal downfall. Even though the big business ties to the republican party are substantial, both sides have shown some level of collusion with the so called wall street types and big bankers. This big speech by Obama to the Cantor Fitzgerald firm for $400,000 gives weight to this idea of political corruption of the left and their ties to wall street. I want to be clear I am not saying this speech by obama is proof of his corruptions or that it shows he has any allegiance to wall street. I am also not saying that this should condemn all liberals to appear weak and corrupt. I am saying that regardless of the facts of Obama's increasing of regulations on big business, and his push to increase taxes on top earners this does look bad to conservatives. Some articles and right wing pages that show you what they say about corruption: ...

Feedback from episode #1: I have gotten some feedback from my first episode, where people have noted that I made an assertion about Trump supporters that I did not cite sources for. The assertion that I made was that there is a disconnect from what liberals see as corruption and what the right wingers call corruption. The liberals often see the billionaires buying politicians as corruption and the right wingers see unions supporting politicians as corruption. The feedback I am getting is that I provided no support for that argument. First I want to say that I did not see a need to. I made the assumption that if you follow politics this would be obvious. Well, I guess that assumption was incorrect. I got this from multiple places, but the first and most important is the anecdotal evidence ( which I know is not good evidence ) However, the point is that I myself come from a very conservative background. I would sit and listen to my family constantly talk about how all the liberal are in the pocket of the unions and how they were so corrupt and needed to be replaced. I believed this way for years. In fact, for nearly 2 decades I was a right wing conspiracy nut. I have recently ( in the past several years) been training myself in skepticism, and looking at the world much differently than I did in the past. In the past I believed most all of the right wing type conspiracies about the left, and even some of the more crazy ones. I was a 911 truther, I was climate change denier, I was a old earth denier. I believed that intelligent design had some truth to it. I believed in ghosts, demons, and even believed that humans could tap into their power to cast spells. The things I believed were kinda crazy. Yet, through the help of a good friend and being completely embarrassed by a couple of the biggest morons where I worked, I took a deep dive into youtube atheists like Hitchens, Dawkins, and Harris. I was able to critically evaluate my beliefs, and much more than the god belief fell away. The march for science was on Saturday, and it brought out not only those that advocate for science but also all of the deniers came out on social media and comment threads. A common complaint was this so called agenda driven fear mongering of the advocates of stopping climate change. Even with all of the data we have supporting climate change, the deniers take their anomaly hunting into overdrive. They also seem to be more reactionary to misleading headlines. This article from the Washington Times is worth discussing here. Washingtimes Headline: “Climate change whistleblower alleges NOAA manipulated data to hide global warming ‘pause” Briefly what this article talks about is this alleged manipulation of climate data. The data are said to show a pause in the global temperature rise in the 2000’s . Now let’s put aside whether or not this is true, and focus what that data would change in the overall view of climate change. The independently verified data that is already known shows that the average rate of temperature(climate not weather) is on the rise. A single data point showing no rise or fall does not change that overall rate. There would have to be a pause or decline over a significantly large period of time to alter that average. There were many articles citing theses claims on other websites, and they all center around this same guys claim offering no new analysis. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/5/climate-change-whistleblower-alleges-noaa-manipula A deeper analysis of this can be found on Snopes: They go much more in depth into the claims of the alleged data manipulation. http://www.snopes.com/2017/02/08/noaa-scientists-climate-change-data/ You can also read more about this on businessinsider.com http://www.businessinsider.com/noaa-climate-data-not-faked-2017-2 Another argument I’ve seen floating around is this analysis of the Antarctica Ice mass.

Correction I say 5013c charity it is 501 c3. Episode 5: Syria, Gorsuch Syrian missile strikes: Was it a good move by Trump? Did his remarks about god give ISIS another recruitment boost? The inaction on Syria may have been a bad move by Obama, but did the immediate escalation to missile strikes by Trump accomplish anything better. The real answers here is that there may not be a correct coarse of action. Syria is it’s own nation with their own leadership, albeit contentious leadership. If there was some agreement between all nations involved in this as to what the proper coarse of action should be, we may have a better answer here. It feels like we are being goaded into military action here for some other end. However, there is no direct evidence of this being the case. Other than the strategy of ISIS which is to force us to spend billions, and thus further weakening our country in further failed attempts to stop them. Could their efforts to topple the United States, and weaken our influence on the world stage be working. Obama made us look weak and indecisive and Trump makes us look irrational and infantile. Is there a solution that America could actually use to gain some ground in this issue? The coalition idea seemed to be the best solution, but that requires patience and leadership. We just don’t have those things. A coalition with the United States in a decisive leadership position could be more effective. Rather than forming an alliance and just hoping someone else decides the actions we could lead and tell our partners that they must act. If other nations close to this conflict are complacent with the actions of ISIS and of Assad it must be made clear that they are on the wrong side. In fact between the two, ISIS and Assad, one can not say that there is a good guy or bad guy here. You have to groups fighting each of them with a corrupted sense of ethics. Sun Tzu Quote: “Ultimate excellence lies not in winning every battle, but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting.” The Syrian situation has put us into a position to where either action or inaction hurts our interests. I don’t know what the correct coarse is, and it is clear that our leaders don’t either. Whatever the strategy is here, the god rhetoric when giving a speech to justify action here is a serious problem if we wish to stop radical religious ideologues. Some say this is a way for Trump to deflect from the other things he is doing, and that this does appear true based on his past strategies. However, I think it is more a reflection of his inexperience in political matters. Further, it shows Trumps inability to cope with hard political realities of the position he is in. It is possible when confronted with this some part of his decision to act may have been a deflection strategies, but as far as it being a prime motivation point there is little evidence to point to this. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-critics-cant-write-off-the-syria-strike-as-a-distraction-history-shows-why/2017/04/09/51954cde-1bcb-11e7-bcc2-7d1a0973e7b2_story.html?utm_term=.c799dfa81b5a Snopes.com Headline: “White House Admits Syria Missile Attack Was a Publicity Stunt to Make Trump Look Good? Unreliable web sites spread the false claim that senior White House officials openly admitted that the missile strike against Syria had no actual purpose.” Snopes.com rates this as FALSE. At the end of the article about this, Snopes states, “On the question of whether or not President Trump’s military action against Syria was an ‘empty gesture’ or a ‘publicity stunt’ we take no position, but we find nothing in Jim Acosta’s tweets to support these judgments.” http://www.snopes.com/white-house-syria-publicity/ NBC Headline: “New Justice Neil Gorsuch to Have Immediate Impact on Supreme Court” Thanks to the Senate Republicans changing the rules every time they lose Neil Gorsuch was confirmed just in time to hear cases of extreme church/state impor...

Show notes for episode 4: The rise and fall of secularism. Is secularism bound to failure. With the religious birth rates and accelerated indoctrination, the numbers are favoring the religious. However this is not a death blow to secularism. It does however renew the need for finding allies on the other side. There are the religious that support secularism, or at least the uncoupling of church and state. There are christian groups that have formed to fight for secular government. Atheism must be normalized, and at the same time hold on to potential allies. The ideas of religion deserves ridicule, but the people deserve respect and humanistic compassion. So where is the line between respect of people and ridicule of their ideas. Is there a case that can be made that their ideas are more worthy of ridicule. The Knox county schools are re-segregating there school district by authorizing new construction of schools in majority white areas, while not funding any new constructions in areas where the black populations are more than 5 % . This is a human rights issue, and is related to secularism. The meetings for the redistricting efforts are only held in majority white schools. They have even got the attention of the NAACP. Creationism in public schools: In Tennessee we already have on the books the ability for teachers to teach so called "alternatives" to scientific theories in public school classrooms. The advocates for this kind of non-sense work off a fundamental or maybe even intentional misunderstanding of science. The bills similar to this use the language that evolution is "just a theory". The truth is that yes evolution is a theory, but using the language just a theory demeans the importance and significance of the term theory in science. In science, theory is the highest standard to reach. Theory means it is the best explanation for the phenomena observed. All of the evidence leads to the same conclusions, and predictions and experiments all can be repeated and confirmed independently. The fact that when the public hears the words just a theory they do not understand this is a misrepresentation of the scientific process, is disturbing. It highlights the problems that we are all facing in the world. Education is more political and subject to the shifting power structures. In fact education should be made to be just as secular and godless as the U.S constitution. The wall of separation should have it's strongest point around education. So that real educators can teach children what science is and how it is conducted. children should be taught that the least biased ways of looking at the world is what is important. Washington Post Headline : “Law allows creationism to be taught in Tenn. Public schools” April 11, 2012 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/law-allows-creationism-to-be-taught-in-tenn-public-schools/2012/04/11/gIQAAjqxAT_story.html?utm_term=.8b2872b0d1c2 Chattanoogan.com Headline: “ David Fowler: Making John Scopes Proud-- Finally-- “ Fowler makes the argument that the laws against the teaching of creationism are the scientific community doing the same things as the anti-evolution laws of the past. http://www.chattanoogan.com/2011/2/21/195128/David-Fowler-Making-John-Scopes-Proud.aspx This is more of the religious false equivalence. Their standard methodology is to make these type of arguments. Title 49 Education Chapter 6 Elementary and Secondary Education Part 10 Curriculum Generally Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-6-1030 (2016) 49-6-1030. Teaching scientific subjects in public schools. (a) The state board of education, public elementary and secondary school governing authorities, directors of schools, school system administrators, and public elementary and secondary school principals and administrators shall endeavor to create an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that encourages students to explore scientific questions,

In this episode we discuss beliefs, how one comes to a belief, and what a belief is. We also discuss indoctrination, and how it is different from the way most people come to beliefs. We go into Trumps Muslim ban and why atheists should be concerned. At the end of the show we talk about the working poor, and how that is an often overlooked section of atheists.

Local Elections: We start off with a snippet of my personal story. Then we move into to some laws and local candidate news. We then emphasize that we need to pay more attention to the local elections and find the secular values candidates. The importance of these local elections can not be overestimated. It is the same strategy that allowed the Republicans to take over all of the house, senate, and presidency. The local elections help to slowly ramp up support for your parties platform, and it motivates the base to get out and vote. The royal rangers website. http://royalrangers.com/ My family all believed in the supernatural from god to astrology, ghosts,and everything in between. I had a “psychic“ aunt who could read auras and horoscopes. She even communed with the dead. I was constantly from the earliest age I can remember filled with supernatural notions. I was enrolled in all the basic theological activities, including the incredibly strange Royal Rangers. For those unaware of what this is, Royal Rangers is like Boy Scouts for Pentecostals. I was also given the basics like tooth fairies, Santa, and even a strange concept of the Easter bunny. There was no hesitation to scare me into submission with hellfire and eternal torture. They even went to great lengths to vividly describe to me what this “hell “ would be like. As My immediate family they new all of my fears and blended them into their various affirmations as to how bad hell would be I was enrolled in this program as a child and it was incredibly strange. Part of the program as it was implemented at my church was sitting in on and taking notes from sermons. The sermon led me into an interest in studying the bible more thoroughly, which later helped me in my path to atheism. Again Tennessee is getting involved in people’s love life, by trying to dictate who can or can not get married. They call this the “Natural Marriage Defense Act”. The Tn Republicans seem to equate biblical with Natural because they have this dogmatic belief that god is the creator. What is the problem with a man and a man getting married, or a woman and a woman getting married? No one should dictate who someone loves, and what consenting adults decide to do together. HB 0892 Marriage - As introduced, enacts the "Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act," which states the policy of Tennessee to defend natural marriage between one man and one woman regardless of any court decision to the contrary. - Amends TCA Title 36. http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/default.aspx?BillNumber=HB0892&GA=110 Tennessee equality project. They are a LGBT action group that keeps an eye out for any anti LGBT legislation that comes up and puts out the word on how people can help fight it. I signed up as a supporter and they gave me a recruiter Id You can go to their website through the recruiter link here. https://tnep.nationbuilder.com/monthlytepdonation?recruiter_id=68129 I don’t benefit financially from this all I know is I get some social capital( which I am gonna be honest I have no clue what is used for ) You could find them without the recruiter link here https://tnep.nationbuilder.com Just a little disclaimer:: The fact that I am signed up on their website does not in any way suggest that they support the work that I do, or that I am affiliated with them in other way other than signed up as a supporter. I do no know whether they endorse or agree with the atheist, agnostic, or secular humanist worldview at all. The only thing I know is that they support equality for the LGBT community and that’s a good thing. This same disclaimer shall apply to any organization or individual that I mention either in print on my website or through my podcast unless otherwise specified. Local elections: We really need to support local candidates that are either openly atheists or even if they are religious and are strong supporters of secular values and chur...

Building communities: East Tennessee finds itself lacking in strong atheist, agnostic, and secular humanist communities. We need to work together and build our own community and create strong social safety nets.