SLO, Seth, and Sacred Cows

I’m a bit late posting this, but better late than never.

While other folks fall asleep to the sounds of the Tonight Show or the dumbass dog barking next door… actually, that’s us sometimes too, but aaaaaanywayyyy…

We often listen to one of several podcasts we enjoy by freethinking secularists or atheists, or the occasional episode of Unbelievable. Well, I listen to the same show several times while T nods after in the first 5 minutes then listens to the next few minutes each night till she gets through the entire show.

One of our favorites is Seth Andrews, of The Thinking Atheist program. In his Christian experience he was a Christian radio host. He still has a very radio-friendly voice. In his book, Deconverted, he recounts his transition from Christian to atheist and the path that took him to his current internet gig. 

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Lights Out

I think one of the hardest aspects of realizing that we are but really smart members of the animal kingdom is accepting the reality that we are finite. When we die, we will not know that we are dead. It will be as it was before we were born. No us, no conscious knowledge of our state.

Nothing.

Darkness.

Lights out.

For the last seventeen or eighteen years I’ve struggled to get a full night’s sleep. Two years of working two jobs and living on four hours sleep per night wreaked havoc on my sleep patterns. I rarely sleep more than five, five-and-a-half hours. Last night was one of those nights.

Double Take

One of my favorite atheist authors, and the one whose work played a key role in my deconversion, happened to find my story recently. I’m not sure how, but it was pretty cool.

For those who haven’t ready through my (overlong) bio, John W. Loftus’ book, Why I Became an Atheist, was instrumental in understanding my own doubts, and in understanding why the arguments of Christian Apologists were not making sense to me, why they were not satisfying my doubts.

Why Oh Why Can’t I?

Why do I do this? Why do I strive with believers who sometimes seem impervious to logic? Why do I care?

This appeared in my Facebook feed yesterday. I don’t think Pastor Chuck knew I saw it.

There were a number of things that troubled me about this post, honestly. But the item I’ll focus on is this:

“He is dear to me – but is quite outspoken in his atheism.”

How interesting. I had no idea that, while I was supposed to let my light shine, and not hide it “under a bushel/bowl” (Matt 5:15-16) as a Christian, now having left that behind, I’m supposed to shut up and not say anything? My being outspoken is a problem?

Tired Old Saws

At the risk of beating a dead horse, there’s one more point of interest I’d like to visit from my latest interaction with Pastor Chuck. During his latest ad hom, he said the following:

No matter which expert or scholar I bring into the equation of our discussions, you immediately presume to know more and immediately rush into a character-bashing mode.

Apparently it ticks him off that I seem to think I have all the answers.

I don’t have all the answers. And in fact, unlike Christians, I don’t even think I have all the answers. But you know what I do have the answers to?