#71 Matthew Sitton-Atheism: What You Didn’t Know
Release Date: 05/01/2018
The Next Chapter with Charlie
Show Notes Today’s show is one I have been looking forward since the publication of our guest’s new book: Unfolding Light! I can’t wait for conversation with poet and mystic Steve Garnaas-Holmes. I wonder if Steve truly understands his role as Divine Elder in the American caldron of longing for mystery and wonder and awe. Steve Garnaas-Holmes is a gift to all of us. Let’s let his conversation carry us away in love and wonder and the art of paying attention. LINKS Please check out Steve Garnaas-Holmes’ poems at “Unfolding Light” . ...
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Show Notes Yikes, Paul. This Summer has been delightfully eventful. I will be or have been out of state or country for nearly seven weeks in July and August. Visiting seven countries and two states, with a couple of 3-day trips to the Abbey for retreat and spiritual direction. All I can say is… Yippee for the retired life! Hmm… someday we’ll do a show on meaningful retirement. It’s sooo cool! My guest today is another very diligent and busy retired guy. Rand Selig has an MBA from Stanford and undergraduate degrees in mathematics and psychology. He has managed hundreds of...
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Show Notes Well, here I sit, back from 3 weeks on a northern Europe cruise and a few days in Cambridge, England. I love travel, except I got home last night, and I am still on England time and a wee bit fatigued. But I promised our most special guest my best. Which won’t be difficult at all because she is a tremendous guest. So much fun! In my opinion, our guest today, Suzanne Campi ranks as a premier personal life coach for those of you looking for wisdom in life’s most challenging transitions. Today’s show is all about making wise choices in a puzzling world as we deal with what...
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Show Notes Our guest today, Kathleen Joan, is a certified life coach and first-time author of a somewhat controversial book titled, From Goo to Gratitude. It’s controversial because she challenges some traditional lifestyle requirements of a very conservative religious faith tradition. But her science, which will be the focus of our show, is fascinating as we dive into the depths of what Kathleen calls “cellular recognition”—that cells can be open or closed—and how that impacts personal transformation. Such a fascinating discussion today. Important Links ...
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Show Notes Today I thought I might explore a few thoughts I have wrestled with recently about discovering God in a fresh and ever more realistic fashion. A discovery based not on our expectations of how God might act, but on our reception to a God of unexpected relationships, of quiet relationships. Oh, I am tempted to go into deep theology at this time, but I won’t. Instead I want to tell a couple stories. I am will begin with, an… I don’t know… like a nearly three-thousand-year-old story of the prophet Elijah, his contest with the priests of Baal, his 40-day...
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Show Notes Today is a special show for me. That’s because I have a gifted friend willing to step in when I need him. Due to a last-minute cancellation of a show with a pre-planned guest, Terry stepped right up to help. So, we have a most interesting show with little prep time. In a recent Sabbath Moment post Terry Hershey wrote this, “I believe in the healing power of revisiting. Because sometimes we need stories more than food to stay alive. They remind us of what really matters and allow us to see—and connect—with our heart. Stories save us.” Today Terry and I talk about...
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Show Notes Our guest today, Randy Adkins Jr, creatively weaves his experiences as a corporate consultant, ordained minister, and community leader into a tapestry that inspires people to integrate spiritual principles and everyday life. Such is the theme of the Next Chapter with Charlie: the integration of spirituality and everyday life. So it seems that Randy and I are kindred spirits. This show tells how. Important Links Visit Randy’s website with helpful tools .
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Show Notes Today we a once again doing a show with one of my very favorite friends, very sought-after high-performance coach, with a new discipline—as a neuroplastician. Which will obviously be the prominent focus on the podcast today. As to Ellie’s credits… they would take half the show to list them. Still… Ellie’s bestselling book, Feeling Forwards, is endorsed by Tony Robbins and remains popular. She is a university lecturer, coach to very successful people, and is currently working on a doctorate relating the mind/body connection with quantum physics. Huh??? ...
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Show Notes Our guest today, Pat Wetzel, is a blogger, soaring pilot, and award-winning author of a book titled Bump in the Road. And, oh by the way, Pat also holds a degree from the Wharton Business School in Finance. It was almost 2 years ago that Pat and I did on show on “soaring,” which means flying an airplane (solo) with no engine or in other words… gliding. Pat is an avid soarer and much, much more. And, since that show, we have become dear friends. Pat is an enggaing and “very curious” conversationalist, which makes for very fun talks. ...
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Show Notes Our guest on today’s show is a 15-year counter-intelligence expert with a large portion of his experience in Afghanistan for ten years and also served in Kuwait, Iran, and Iraq. Yikes! I can’t wait for our conversation on this subject, But John’s passion is no longer counterintelligence but rather spiritual intelligence. From 12 years desert combat zones to a battle within, John Lawyer transformed from soldier to spiritual seeker. He is the co-founder of Kishar, a non-profit online spiritual community where people to share their journeys and explore their own unique...
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Let me begin our show today with a question? Consider this rather long list of names: Woody Allen, Isaac Asimov, Kevin Bacon, George Carlin, Jodi Foster, Joyce Carol Oates, Brad Pitt, Ayn Rand, Oliver Sacks, Kurt Vonnegut, James Baldwin, Charles Bukowski, Ursula K LeGuinn, Pablo Neruda, Virginia Wolfe, Stephen Hawking, Sir Richard Branson, and Bertrand Russell. What do all these famous and intelligent people have in common?
When I add the name Sam Harris to the list you might know: they are all atheists. And all of them have also contributed significantly to the value of the value of society and the world. They have made huge impact on the poor and disenfranchised as well as initiated critical thinking about the state of life and the universe.
So, today I am choosing to go off my normal grid and talk curiously about the subject of Atheism. I am genuinely curious. I ‘d like to know what atheism is and even more important what it isn’t, why a person would adopt a-theism over theism. My hope today is to simply understand a general overall perspective of the atheism. Many very bright and compassionate people have come to the atheistic conclusion through deep study, listening to their “moral compass,” and have often suffered some sort of restrained cynicism about what they believe and don’t believe.
My very special guest today is Matthew Sitton. Matthew is a thoughtful man, fluent in conversational Japanese, and spent one year in Japan teaching English.
Matthew Sitton is a Southern California native who is openly atheist. Matthew grew up a Christian but found himself leaving religion in his early adult life. A combination of time abroad, self-reflection, and extensive reading lead Matthew to find that he could live a progressive and moral life without theism or other supernatural beliefs. Matthew believes that a worldview without these attachments affirms our ability and responsibility to live meaningful, ethical lives—lives capable of adding to the greater good of humanity. Matthew now identifies himself as a humanist and tries to live his life [I really like this part] tries to life his life informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion.
I have been looking forward to this time for about three weeks now. Finally we get to talk on air about the fascinating topic of atheism.
FOR ALL MY LISTENERS PLEASE NOTE: MY PURPOSE WITH THIS SHOW IS TO SATISFY MY CURIOSITY ABOUT ATHEISM; NOT TO GET INTO ANY DEBATE OF THEISM VS A-THEISM. I WANT TO LEARN AND I HOPE YOU DO AS WELL.