Everyone's Agnostic Podcast

Cass Midgley and Marie D'Elephant interview people you don't know about a subject no one wants to talk about: deconstructing faith. After episode 255, this show is on an indefinite hiatus. Check out Marie's new podcast: Everyone's Autonomous.

Episode 256 - Everyone's Autonomous Podcast with Marie D'Elephant 11/06/2019

Episode 255 Cass and Marie and Bob 10/27/2019

Episode 254 - Joe 10/10/2019

Episode 253 Randy Krakowski 10/07/2019

Episode 252 - Tony of the Conversations With God Podcast 09/27/2019

Episode 251 Amy & David 09/20/2019

Episode 250 Josh Richards 09/15/2019

Episode 249 Author Thomas Larson 09/08/2019

Episode 249 Author Thomas Larson Journalist, book/music critic, and memoirist Thomas Larson is the author of "Spirituality and the Writer: A Personal Inquiry" (Swallow Press). He has also written "The Sanctuary of Illness: A Memoir of Heart Disease" (Hudson Whitman), "The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber's 'Adagio for Strings'" (Pegasus Press), and "The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading and Writing Personal Narrative" (Swallow Press). He is a twenty-year staff writer for the San Diego Reader, a six-year book review editor for River Teeth, and a former music critic for the Santa Fe New Mexican. His Kindle books include "What Exactly Happened: Four Essays on the Craft of Memoir," "We Are Their Heaven: A Family Memoir," "On the Poetry of James Wright," and "Awash in Celebrity Authors." As a lecturer, Larson speaks about his book on heart disease, holds workshops on "Writing the Memoir" and "Writing the Spiritual Memoir," edits nonfiction manuscripts, and gives talks on jazz, American composers, and nonfiction narrative. His website is thomaslarson.com. When not on the road or spending time in Santa Fe, Larson lives with his partner Suzanna Neal in San Diego We taped this conversation on May 30, 2019. Thanks for listening and "Be a Yes-Sayer to What Is". We interview people you don’t know, about a subject no one wants to talk about. We hope to encourage people in the process of deconstructing their faith and help curb the loneliness that accompanies it. We think the world is a better place when more people live by sight, not by faith. Please subscribe to our podcast, and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, we offer these podcasts freely. And your support truly makes a difference. You can support us monetarily in two easy ways: you can pledge a monthly donation through Patreon. that’s or leave a lump-sum donation through PayPal at our website, . Produced by Cass Midgley and Marie D'Elephant Website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: YouTube: Patreon: D'Elephant: /episode/index/show/everyonesagnostic/id/11168546

Episode 248 - ExJW Coach Rod / Cass & Marie 08/31/2019

Episode 247 Rebecca & Cat of The Seeker & The Skeptic Podcast 08/16/2019

Episode 247 Rebecca & Cat of The Seeker & The Skeptic Podcast The Seeker and The Skeptic is a podcast in which two friends, Rebecca and Cat, explore esoteric, paranormal and spiritual topics from two completely different perspectives. Cat is The Seeker, she’s interested in spiritual ideas and hopes to find something meaningful and empowering in the wisdom of religion and new age philosophy. Rebecca is The Skeptic, she’s passionate about finding truth (or at least getting closer to it) using the tools of reason and evidence. Though their approaches to life and ideas are very different they share a sense of humor and a commitment to talking honestly about what we believe and why, which is why they started this podcast. In each episode they discuss a different topic or experience they’ve had from Holotropic Breathing to Mediumship and they’ll see if they can learn something from each other or change each other’s minds… or if their conversation will devolve into a good natured slanging match. Whatever happens they think having these conversations will be enlightening and amusing and after they finish recording they’ll be pouring themselves a drink and planning their next adventure. Twitter & Instagram: @SeekerSkeptic We taped this conversation on April 28, 2019. Thanks for listening and "Be a Yes-Sayer to What Is". We interview people you don’t know, about a subject no one wants to talk about. We hope to encourage people in the process of deconstructing their faith and help curb the loneliness that accompanies it. We think the world is a better place when more people live by sight, not by faith. Please subscribe to our podcast, and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, we offer these podcasts freely. And your support truly makes a difference. You can support us monetarily in two easy ways: you can pledge a monthly donation through Patreon. that’s or leave a lump-sum donation through PayPal at our website, . Produced by Cass Midgley and Marie D'Elephant Website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: YouTube: Patreon: D'Elephant: /episode/index/show/everyonesagnostic/id/10903123

Episode 246 Cynthia Jeub (Kids by the Dozen) and Gary MacDonald (The Gospel of Thomas [The Younger]) 08/02/2019

Episode 245 Dave Warnock, Dying Out Loud 07/21/2019

Episode 245 Dave Warnock, Dying Out Loud Dave Warnock, a former conservative Evangelical pastor and church leader for almost 40 years and , began a process of de-conversion several years ago. At first calling himself an agnostic, he gradually began to embrace the word ‘Atheist’, as he does what he can to de-stigmatize this word (which simply means “non-theist”). Dave’s leaving the Christian faith came at huge cost with the loss of almost his entire community of friends, the breakup of his 37 year marriage, and the Christian “shunning” by two of his three children, which has also deprived him of being a part of his six grandchildren’s lives to this day. Given how life can be random, chaotic, and unpredictable, on February 26, 2019 Dave received the devastating diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Suddenly for Dave this precious and brief life became infinitely more precious and incredibly brief. Instead of succumbing to the depression, anger, and hopelessness this debilitating fatal diagnosis often brings, Dave immediately decided to begin “Dying Out Loud,” - living life to the fullest and making plans to travel as much of the world as his body will allow - seeing places he's never been to and spending time with people he knows and loves, while also experiencing the joy of meeting new people and cherishing the beautiful “moments” life offers to all of us. Follow his adventure on as he seeks to grab as many moments as he can. We taped this conversation on April 15, 2019. Dave's deconversion story is on episode 107. Thanks for listening and "Be a Yes-Sayer to What Is". We interview people you don’t know, about a subject no one wants to talk about. We hope to encourage people in the process of deconstructing their faith and help curb the loneliness that accompanies it. We think the world is a better place when more people live by sight, not by faith. Please subscribe to our podcast, and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, we offer these podcasts freely. And your support truly makes a difference. You can support us monetarily in two easy ways: you can pledge a monthly donation through Patreon. that’s or leave a lump-sum donation through PayPal at our website, . Produced by Cass Midgley and Marie D'Elephant Website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: YouTube: Patreon: /episode/index/show/everyonesagnostic/id/10603853

Episode 244 Amberly Page of Apostitch 07/05/2019

Episode 244 Amberly Page of Apostitch Amberly Page was raised in a particularly literal strain of Mormonism. She was convinced as a child that the Last Days were here and she would never grow old enough to go to college or have children of her own. She was home-schooled and sheltered from worldly influences, partially on a secluded compound in Arkansas, waiting for the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus never did come and to the dismay of her parents, life on this fallen world continued. Amberly went on to follow the back-up plan of getting a degree in Music History, a Returned Missionary husband, and the recommended minimum three children. Always faithful to The Church, she found herself stuck in a holding pattern that turned into a deep depression in her late 20’s. To counter it, she threw herself deeper into church service until a forced confrontation with homophobic and misogynistic doctrines pushed her out for good. Still angry and grieving over the loss of family and community, she copes with the trauma of spiritual abuse and deconstruction by subverting her domestic goddess skills to design blasphemous needlepoint art. We taped this conversation on April 14, 2019. Thanks for listening and "Be a Yes-Sayer to What Is". We interview people you don’t know, about a subject no one wants to talk about. We hope to encourage people in the process of deconstructing their faith and help curb the loneliness that accompanies it. We think the world is a better place when more people live by sight, not by faith. Please subscribe to our podcast, and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, we offer these podcasts freely. And your support truly makes a difference. You can support us monetarily in two easy ways: you can pledge a monthly donation through Patreon. that’s or leave a lump-sum donation through PayPal at our website, . Produced by Cass Midgley and Marie D'Elephant Website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: YouTube: Patreon: /episode/index/show/everyonesagnostic/id/10417784

Episode 243 Jessica Wilbanks - "When I Spoke in Tongues" 06/20/2019

Episode 242 Jeremy & Elise - Unevenly Yolked 06/03/2019

Episode 242 Jeremy & Elise - Unevenly Yolked Jeremy and Elise had the perfect Christian beginning to what promised to be the perfect Christian marriage. They met in church. Even though they had very different backgrounds and life experiences, and an age difference of almost 6 years, they found a strong attraction to each other, similar life goals, and of course their shared faith wonderful reasons to tie the traditional Christian knot. They began a Family right away, their son being born shortly before their first wedding anniversary and a daughter followed nearly three years later. Due to Jeremy’s career as a chemical engineer their family has moved many times, three time across the country. They currently live in the fifth home they have bought together. Now, married 20 years in 2019,, with one child in college and a high school sophomore at home, Jeremy and Elisa are navigating marriage, family, and independence after deconversion. Through they walk that path together now, it wasn’t always so. Jeremy began his process towards unbelief many years ago. When he admitted to Elise in 2010 that he was an atheist, as a believer she thought their marriage would end in divorce. Thankfully, it didn’t. Elise began her own process in 2015, with no input from Jeremy. She declared herself free from religion in 2016. Today, they discuss being “equally and unequally yoked”. How they navigated the very tough times they faced. How they had to renegotiate what marriage and family meant to them. More importantly, how they were able to do it with their marriage and their love and respect for each other intact. They want everyone with a believing spouse to know that there is hope. There can be fulfillment in an unequally yoked marriage. And ultimately, that the gift of personal freedom and autonomy within marriage is the best gift you give your loved one and yourself. We taped this conversation on April 6, 2019. Thanks for listening and "Be a Yes-Sayer to What Is". We interview people you don’t know, about a subject no one wants to talk about. We hope to encourage people in the process of deconstructing their faith and help curb the loneliness that accompanies it. We think the world is a better place when more people live by sight, not by faith. Please subscribe to our podcast, and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, we offer these podcasts freely. And your support truly makes a difference. You can support us monetarily in two easy ways: you can pledge a monthly donation through Patreon. that’s or leave a lump-sum donation through PayPal at our website, . Produced by Cass Midgley and Marie D'Elephant Website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: YouTube: Patreon: /episode/index/show/everyonesagnostic/id/10029065

Episode 241 Leah Helbling of "Women Beyond Faith" Podcast 05/30/2019

Episode 241 Leah Helbling of "Women Beyond Faith" Podcast Leah is a middle aged former-evangelical homeschool mama who studied Biology and Secondary Ed at universities in New York & Washington, D.C.. From the age of 10, she dreamed of rescuing all the ill and downtrodden children of the world by studying to become a pediatrician. Those dreams died when she failed to get in to medical school right out of college. Plan B? Leah rose above the discouragement & disappointment & determined that she could still save the world, one child at a time, by becoming a die hard fundamentalist christian. This led her on a 20+ year journey into the domain of falsehood, deception & tyranny. Thanks to the critical thinking skills of her oldest son, Leah has fully rejected the truth claims of Christianity. Today she strives to make every effort to rediscover the harsh beauties of life. She counts devouring content by the likes of Hitch & Harris, marathon training, podcasts, adventuring near & abroad, growing communities of like minded people and quality conversation among her myriad of interests. Leah is the host of the Podcast, "Women Beyond Faith." To continue your conversation with Leah, visit her on Facebook (Leah Helbling), at her email We taped this conversation on March 31, 2019. The intro music is "Just Groove Me" by Dave Weckl. The segue music is "The Loop" by the 77s. Thanks for listening and "Be a Yes-Sayer to What Is". We interview people you don’t know, about a subject no one wants to talk about. We hope to encourage people in the process of deconstructing their faith and help curb the loneliness that accompanies it. We think the world is a better place when more people live by sight, not by faith. Please subscribe to our podcast, and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, we offer these podcasts freely. And your support truly makes a difference. You can support us monetarily in two easy ways: you can pledge a monthly donation through Patreon. that’s or leave a lump-sum donation through PayPal at our website, . Produced by Cass Midgley and Marie D'Elephant Website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: YouTube: Patreon: /episode/index/show/everyonesagnostic/id/9979100

Episode 240 Dr. Darrel Ray of "Recovering From Religion" 05/14/2019

Episode 239 Steve Hilliker of "Voices of Deconversion" Podcast 05/06/2019

Episode 239 Steve Hilliker of "Voices of Deconversion" Podcast Cass and Marie chat with Steve Hilliker, host of . We discuss the complexities of raising children in a secular way, absent the prescription believers are raised by. We talk about how to cope with our impending deaths, now, as atheists, and how to die. We touch on the common theme of how to create our own purpose and meaning in life (Steve proposes leaving a legacy of love in those you love, as you reflect on the legacy of love that brought you into the world, too). Steve Hilliker is an ex-conservative Christian living near Seattle with his wife and teenage sons. Steve deconverted from Christianity in 2005 while earning his Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies and planning to be a pastor. What followed was a major crisis. Steve’s career path was gone and his wife still a Christian. He worried about how they would raise their kids. He couldn't find resources or community and struggled greatly with depression. Years later, Steve realized the importance for himself and others in discussing these experiences. In 2017, Steve started the Voices of Deconversion podcast to encourage ex-christian atheists & agnostics. Steve loves listening to podcasts, becoming engrossed in a good Netflix show and watching March Madness each year with his friends. We taped this conversation on March 3, 2019. Thanks for listening and "Be a Yes-Sayer to What Is". We interview people you don’t know, about a subject no one wants to talk about. We hope to encourage people in the process of deconstructing their faith and help curb the loneliness that accompanies it. We think the world is a better place when more people live by sight, not by faith. Please subscribe to our podcast, and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, we offer these podcasts freely. And your support truly makes a difference. You can support us monetarily in two easy ways: you can pledge a monthly donation through Patreon. that’s or leave a lump-sum donation through PayPal at our website, . Produced by Cass Midgley and Marie D'Elephant Website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: YouTube: Patreon: /episode/index/show/everyonesagnostic/id/9670127

Episode 238 Jon Willis of "Wayward Willis" Podcast 04/22/2019

Episode 238 Jon Willis of "Wayward Willis" Podcast Jon is a father, Army veteran, computer programmer, and host of The Wayward Willis podcast. He grew up in a military family with fundamentalist Christian beliefs and at the age of 5 he accepted Jesus into his heart and was baptized. He spent the rest of his childhood pursuing his relationship with Jesus but after reading the Bible from start to finish twice he began to have doubts about the accuracy of the text and the goodness of Yahweh. His deconversion began when he left his parents' home and started interacting with people of diverse backgrounds and beliefs. Though it took nearly 10 years to complete, the availability of the Internet sped it along. While shedding religious belief, Jon also shed preconceived notions about sexuality, gender norms, and Conservative ideologies. At 27 years old, Jon started blogging, tried YouTubing, and eventually started up a podcast as a progressive, liberal atheist to publicize secular humanism and push back against the harms of organized religion and credulity. We discuss reconciling with kids raised religious when the parent deconverts later on. We get into gender and sexual orientation fluidity. And lastly, we celebrate the surprised delight in feeling fully human as opposed to a temporarily postponed angel. We taped this conversation on February 17, 2019. Thanks for listening and "Be a Yes-Sayer to What Is". We interview people you don’t know, about a subject no one wants to talk about. We hope to encourage people in the process of deconstructing their faith and help curb the loneliness that accompanies it. We think the world is a better place when more people live by sight, not by faith. Please subscribe to our podcast, and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, we offer these podcasts freely. And your support truly makes a difference. You can support us monetarily in two easy ways: you can pledge a monthly donation through Patreon. that’s or leave a lump-sum donation through PayPal at our website, . Produced by Cass Midgley and Marie D'Elephant Website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: YouTube: Patreon: /episode/index/show/everyonesagnostic/id/9485306

Episode 237 Jenn of "Waiting4Wrath" Podcast 04/12/2019

Episode 236 Aaron Rabinowitz and GW Rodriguez of "Embrace the Void" Podcast 03/18/2019

Episode 235 Cass & Marie 03/12/2019

Episode 234 Kari Becken 02/18/2019

Episode 233 Luke of "Your Atheist Pastor" Podcast 02/05/2019

Episode 232 Naomi 02/01/2019

Episode 231 Dr. Eric Sprankle - "Satanic Sex Doctor" 01/20/2019

Episode 230 Emily 01/07/2019

Episode 229 Tim Rymel 01/02/2019

Episode 228 Harold Sikkema 12/20/2018

Episode 228 Harold Sikkema Listen in on our conversation with Harold Sikkema, an artist and educator in Toronto, Canada. His roots in a Calvinist setting have shaped but not defined his path. Born to Dutch parents (on a mission project in Papua) he grew up in a rural Ontario bubble where the Bible was inerrant, evolution was a lie, and God's covenant people sang beautiful 16th century melodies carrying the gravity of eternity. The church offered redemption and certainty, but Harold's curious spirit was never really at home with rigid strictures. Encounters with ecumenical Christians in Geneva revealed a broader stream of life, while readings in philosophy, science, and the arts called into question the historical and ethical claims of literal religion. It was freeing to to see the Bible and its interpretation as a (creative) human production, but also challenging to carry new insights into the tightly woven fabric of faith, tradition, and family. In artistic practice, Harold explored new patterns and processes - a more critical thinking, seeing and making - but art in the church remained suspicious. Comfortable with dissonance, Harold saw that the creative tension in religion could be productive. Nevertheless, the anger stirred by creationist deception, patriarchal insistence, damaging dogma, and purity culture made it difficult to stay. Today, Harold is grateful for what wisdom has wound its way through the fray. He teaches college courses in design and code while developing spiral images from processed digital video. He enjoys cat fostering, and cooking with his partner, Deborah. Curiosity, he says, is the original spin. We interview people you don’t know, about a subject no one wants to talk about. We hope to encourage people in the process of deconstructing their faith and help curb the loneliness that accompanies it. We think the world is a better place when more people live by sight, not by faith. Please subscribe to our podcast, and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, we offer these podcasts freely. And your support truly makes a difference. You can support us monetarily in two easy ways: you can pledge a monthly donation through Patreon. that’s or leave a lump-sum donation through PayPal at our website, . Where to Find Us: Email: everyonesagnostic at gmail dot com Website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: YouTube: Patreon: /episode/index/show/everyonesagnostic/id/7990604

Episode 227 Bonnie + Cass/Marie 12/07/2018

Episode 227 Bonnie + Cass/Marie This episode's structure is a little different than you're used to. First join us for 35 minutes as Cass chats with Bonnie from They discuss painting murals in her hometown and ethical choices for living on earth, given this is the only one we have. Then eavesdrop on a conversation between Marie and Cass for an hour as they work through the dynamic of the podcast with Marie as the new co-host. Enjoy scintillating topics such as misogyny, tokenism, racism, sexism, intersectional feminism, and patriarchy. Lastly we lament the loss of our recording with 's creator and writing: Andrew Bradley. Saying yes to what is doesn't always feel good. We interview people you don’t know, about a subject no one wants to talk about. We hope to encourage people in the process of deconstructing their faith and help curb the loneliness that accompanies it. We think the world is a better place when more people live by sight, not by faith. Please subscribe to our podcast, and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, we offer these podcasts freely. And your support truly makes a difference. You can support us monetarily in two easy ways: you can pledge a monthly donation through Patreon. that’s or leave a lump-sum donation through PayPal at our website, . Where to Find Us: Email: everyonesagnostic at gmail dot com Website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: YouTube: Patreon: Consider this phrase: my perception is my reality. First let me say that this is true. It's true to the individual. Maybe also to people groups or even nations. Disagreements, even wars, can be caused by different perceptions that create different realities. The parable of the blind men and an elephant places a group of blind men engaging an elephant for the first time. They each touch a different part of the elephant's body such as the ear, leg, trunk or tusk. They then describe the elephant based on their limited experience and upon insisting that they are right and the others are lying they come to blows. The moral of the parable is that humans have a tendency to claim absolute truth based on their limited, subjective perception as they ignore other people's limited, subjective perception which may be equally true. So while YOUR perception is YOUR reality, it is not necessarily the whole picture. It doesn't mean you're wrong AND it doesn't mean that differing positions aren't also right. When perceptions become mutually exclusive, the opposing parties may be in denial and insist on the rightness of their narrow view. Convincing them otherwise can be extremely difficult if not impossible. We form a bias around a perception and often don't want to be bothered with the facts. Humans once believed that the earth was flat. It must be, just look at it! We thought the sun and stars circled the earth because it looked that way. Galileo was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding the belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun, which was deemed heretical by the Catholic Church. ... Galileo agreed not to teach the heresy anymore and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. One social research study examined a pool of people’s opinions about federal welfare programs. The researchers found that the majority of people were highly-misinformed about the nature and scope of these programs, and that the people who were the least-informed about them generally expressed the highest degree of confidence in their knowledge. Furthermore, the researchers found that presenting people with facts about these welfare programs did little to change people’s opinion about them. However, in a follow-up study, the researchers discovered that tweaking the way they presented the facts made people respond more positively to the new evidence. In this follow-up, people were first asked to estimate the percentage of the national budget that is allocated towards welfare. Then, they were also asked what percent of the budget they believed should be spent on welfare. Posing these questions back-to-back led participants to contrast their perception of reality with their preferred level of spending, before they were told what portion of the budget is spent on welfare in reality. This meant that most of them had to process the fact that not only is the federal-spending lower than they thought, but it is also lower than the portion of the budget that they believed should be allocated to welfare. Thus the value of agnosticism: It guards against certainty. Much blood has been shed based on certainties that were just not true. Since perceptions can seem like realities, we build narratives which become foundations on which we build assumption upon assumption. When we discover that the assumption upon which all the others were based, it falls like a house of cards. To the degree in which we were invested in that narrative is the degree to which we will be embarrassed and maybe even traumatized. We were living a lie. them that we then act on or even live by. My wife and I were at a music concert once that was general admission. I saw some empty seats and approached them but a guy had his left leg stretched across them. We moved on thinking he was saving them. We noticed that no one ever came to sit there and he was just stretching out, hogging those seats, or so I thought. Turns out he had a full leg cast under his pants and couldn't straighten his leg. I had lunch this week with a friend who shared that she had a lucid dream when she was a young mother where she was visited by a messenger. The message was that her toddler son was going to die before her but not until after her father died. Fast forward 40 years and the woman's father died. That message had haunted her her entire life and now that her father was dead, she was riddled with fear and anxiety that her son was going to die at any moment. She built a narrative on a nocturnal brain fart. Sometimes we give perceptions way too much power and unmerited influence over our lives. My issue with this way of living is that a person is steered by external data. And the key problem there is "steered." Incoming data is unavoidable and amoral. The only person not interpreting events and circumstances is unconscious. However, if one does not have an inner core that is awake, aware and vibrant, they will likely live their life as one with no agency. They're childish. They are tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every conspiracy theory. What Jesus called, "a reed swayed by the wind." For lack of a better word, I'll call this thing the soul of a person. Souless people need to be told what to think, how to act, what to wear, who to be. They have no core. They are robotic, only able to do what their programmer coded. Computers that can adapt and think for themselves are called Artificial Intelligence. Perhaps this soul I'm talking about could also be called intelligence. Intelligence is one's ability to understand something. We're hearing more and more stories of people losing their parents or siblings to Fox News. Two years ago, on Episode 126, I interview Jen Senko who'd made a documentary film called "The Brainwashing of My Dad." If people are hollow inside, a vacuum is created that takes in counterfeit nourishment, pureed baby-food, served up by charlatans and conmen to the laziest, least intuitive minds over which they can easily overpower and influence for their causes--mainly the inflation of their wealth. The condition of soulessness--a person with no agency--fosters a type of insecurity that disables that person from bringing their person authentically into the room, precisely because they don't have one. No soul, no ownership of their ability to discern their world and make choices. Due to non-use, the muscles that empower one to think for oneself are atrophied. And they are preyed on by the greedy. And here we find ourselves. Corporations spotted the credulity of Christians and the GOP and corralled them into their fold to think, propagate, and vote their agenda. Wanna know why a large majority of Christians support Trump? They have no soul. The filled their God-shaped void with God alright. Human's imaginary gods have the substance of cotton candy--they leave you hungry and wanting more, the steady diet of which will make you lazy and fat. I believe there is no void. We're not born with it at least. We create the void by believing that we're not good enough, not worthy, not powerful, insignificant without a higher power. Those of us who left that brainwashing, soul-stealing lie have set out to rediscover our soul, our inner core, that was there all the time. Not so we can get an identity or "find ourselves," but so that we can begin living from that core toward the world, not the other way around. There is no self to find. There's only you showing up in the moment as whatever your soul wants to do or say in real time. No one and nothing should tell you who to be; you already are. I'll close with a prose by David Whyte posted by my friend Fiona. It's called THE SUBVERSIVE SOUL We tend to focus on, and speak about the soul-life of an individual in terms of spiritual comfort and deep nourishment, qualities which are a central, and abiding dynamic of its presence, but the equally unsettling and disturbing quality about this strange, often wild and courageous faculty of belonging inside us we have come to name ‘the soul’ is its ruthless, and almost tidal wish to find its own way to a fuller union with the world. The soul is a planner’s nightmare, the career counselor’s central puzzle, the biographer’s conundrum, the saboteur of the puritanical and the unimaginative; an internal abiding spring that is both a source and a flow: an internal stranger at the door of our outer life about to break everything apart; a pilgrim often suddenly more in love with the horizon than its home; and most disturbingly, someone who would much rather fail spectacularly at their own life than succeed, imprisoned drably by the ordinary, at someone else’s. /episode/index/show/everyonesagnostic/id/7836377

Everyone's Agnostic Podcast

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