Episode 256 - Everyone's Autonomous Podcast with Marie D'Elephant
Everyone's Agnostic Podcast
Today we feature the pilot episode of Marie D'Elephant's new podcast, "Everyone's Autonomous." It's a spin-off of this podcast and we're excited to promote it. For short, we call it EA2 and this show EA1. It'd be great if you could subscribe to EA2 and support the work. Cheers!
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Episode 255 Cass and Marie and Bob
Everyone's Agnostic Podcast
Final episode
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Episode 254 - Joe
Everyone's Agnostic Podcast
Joe grew up a farm kid in rural northern California. His parents mistrusted public education and home schooled him all the way through eighth grade, although home school meant more farm labor and than learning, and social education happened only through the church. In eighth grade his parents decided it was time for him to get a "real" education, which meant sending him to a small private Baptist school where he learned more about the bible than reading or math. His de-conversation journey began when he entered college and learned that the world is a much bigger place than the space within the...
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Episode 253 Randy Krakowski
Everyone's Agnostic Podcast
Cass Midgley talks with Randy Krakowski. Randy was raised Catholic but in his mid twenties discovered an exciting evangelical Christianity on the radio during his daily commute. From the frying pan to the fire, then out into the cold water of reality. Randy was raised in Buffalo, NY. A Roman Catholic altar boy for 7 years and CCD religious instruction for 10. However, after moving to the Bible Belt post college, he converted to Evangelical Christianity. Some 20 years later, while trying to reach his son and wife "for the Lord" by researching science and Atheism, he came out the...
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Episode 252 - Tony of the Conversations With God Podcast
Everyone's Agnostic Podcast
Interview Tony of Conversations with God, a comedy show where God is interviewed and held accountable for his actions.
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Episode 251 Amy & David
Everyone's Agnostic Podcast
Cass Midgley talks with married couple, Amy and David. They recently went through an intense deconstruction of their faith after which they found true freedom for the first time in their lives. David and Amy both come from a “Christian” upbringing, but were raised very differently. David comes from a healthy loving home while Amy was raised by an abusive father. Amy served on the worship staff at a non-denominational megachurch for many years where David also served as an Elder. We also feature a 12 minute sketch of Jerry Dale and Leroy on AM Christian talk...
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Episode 250 Josh Richards
Everyone's Agnostic Podcast
Josh Richards is an ex-pastor who now serves as a humanist chaplain. Josh was laughed out of his last church he served as a minister for, and then he struggled for years leaving faith. He is an example of someone losing faith and then everything else. He made mistakes and had to learn to live honestly. He is so thankful to come through all of that. Josh runs a webshow "JRRTalking" and speaks in public as often as he can.
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Episode 249 Author Thomas Larson
Everyone's Agnostic Podcast
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...
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Episode 248 - ExJW Coach Rod / Cass & Marie
Everyone's Agnostic Podcast
Cass Midgley and Marie D'elephant discuss everyone's autonomous right to grieve their loss however it manifests. We feature a segment of a YouTube talk by ex-Jehovah Witness, Rodney Allgood, and an updated from Dave Warnock on the Dying Out Loud campaign. 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....
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Episode 247 Rebecca & Cat of The Seeker & The Skeptic Podcast
Everyone's Agnostic 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...
info_outlineBob and Cass interview Jeff Loken, another Minnesotan listener who reached out to us to share his story. When a fellow Lutheran friend lost his faith, Jeff felt called of God to rescue the apostate by sharpening his apologetic skills and engaging in a 2 year dialogue with him, only to discover that in the end he had lost the argument and had too much personal integrity to use the smart-bomb of faith to wipe out his cognitive dissonances, or trick himself into thinking that works. He had to admit, to himself, his wife and parents, that he couldn’t believe it any longer.
Jeff points to an argument made by J.L. Schellenberg called nonresistant nonbelief, which is very similar to the concept of divine hiddenness. This argument says that if God exists (and is perfectly good and loving) every reasonable person would be brought to believe in God; however, there are reasonable nonbelievers; therefore, this God does not exist.
Here’s an excerpt from Schellenberg’s book, The Wisdom of Doubt:
“Consider those who have always believed in God and who would love to go on believing in God but who have found, as adults, that serious and honest examination of all the evidence of experience and argument they can lay their hands on has unexpectedly had the result of eroding their belief away. These are individuals who were happy and morally committed believers and who remain morally committed but are not longer happy because of the emotional effects of an intellectual reorganization involving the removal of theistic belief. Perhaps they will be happy again, but the point is that for the time being, it is the removal of theistic belief that they are inclined to resist, if anything. For they were still on friendly terms with God and benefitting in a variety of ways from what they took to be contact with God when their belief in the existence of such a being was whisked away.” (The Wisdom to Doubt, p. 205)
Bob and Cass fell in love with Jeff and his Midwestern cultural modesty. He’s a sharp, humble guy trying to be honest about his lack of faith without letting the transition destroy his life.
We taped these conversations on September 11th, 2016. If you’re liking our show, please subscribe to it, give it 5 stars, and/or leave a review on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, you can support us monetarily on a per episode basis through our Patreon page. That’s www.patreon.com/eapodcast. Or leave a donation through PayPal at our website, www.everyonesagnostic.com.
Credits:
"Towering Mountain of Ignorance" intro by Hank Green https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3v3S82TuxU
Intro bumper "Never Know" by Jack Johnson
The segue music is “Hard To Be,"
Thanks for listening and be a yes-sayer to what is.
Jeff’s Blog – Real Live Actual Blog
Schellenberg’s Defense of Nonresistant Nonbelief / Divine Hiddenness - See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/secularoutpost/2014/11/14/schellenbergs-defense-of-nonresistant-nonbelief-divine-hiddenness/#sthash.MbZzTHDN.dpuf
David Bazan “Curse Your Branches” full album on YouTube