Talk Heathen 06.09 02-27-2022 with Kenneth Leonard and Student Doctor Ben

Greetings Heathens! Today we have the amazing Kenneth Leonard and special guest Student Doctor Ben (STB) who sheds insight on issues from both the trans and medical perspectives. Why do we care? Because beliefs end up being part of the legislature where state resources are used with horrific consequences. Our first caller is Mike in OH who follows pagan deities, and denies Jesus. He argues that everyone feels pagan gods because we feel something when observing the moon and weather. He uses the ancient people as an example and feels that Freyja resonates with him. How does our connection to nature lead to the belief in gods? How is this different from a placebo and do these practices hold us back? Next is Xeno, a programmer from South Korea who states that god is the singular point to where we come from and is the cause of everything. He thinks that everything in reality has a cause. This is the fallacy of composition and reality itself being caused can’t be proven. Does there need to be a singular point as a cause and does that need to be called god? Playing the linguistics game is not helpful or useful here. Just because reality has a set of properties does not mean that something caused this set of properties. When is it time to believe Russell's Teapot is up there? Oliver in Brazil has a friend that believes the Biblical creation story is more correct than other creation myths. It is magical for god to use words to poof things into existence. What about the order of things being off such as plants being created before the sun? How is crafting a woman out of a rib and talking animals magical? All the creation charlatans refer to this despite the fact that everything we know about science exposes Genesis for what it is. Roger in CA is wondering if we are misidentifying reality and takes issue with morality being subjective. When theists talk about morality, it is about their deity, not about what enhances the well being for everyone. What is the difference between morality and obedience? Morality may stretch beyond what humans can do; we see altruism in animals. Morality may be defined by asking the following question: how do we get closer to some form of well being? Jeff in PA wants to talk about Catholic Synodal Process and if it is a good idea to attend something like this to learn. School districts are targeting kids in certain areas due to the church achieving its goals by inserting itself into political arenas. There are still millions of people who believe this is a legitimate organization and want to keep it alive. B in VA has a friend that refuses to use proper pronouns when going into Discord. His friend says that they are shoving their beliefs down his throat and it is disrespectful to have to use pronouns. It is on an individual basis to determine what techniques you would want to use with them. You do not have to engage with people like that. Some people just do not want to be told what to do. We appreciate our viewers! Be sure to check out all our shows and thank you to the crew!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/talk-heathen--3195702/support.