Talk Heathen 06.51 12-18-2022 with ObjectivelyDan and Student Doctor Ben

In today’s episode of Talk Heathen, ObjectivelyDan and Student Doctor Ben are live in the studio handling both audience and caller questions. An audience member, Jaime, kicks off the show with a reminder that Christians do not have a monopoly on Christmas. It is okay for Atheists to celebrate! The holiday was hijacked from pagans anyway.Our first caller is Michael from Ohio who wants Christians to explain why the second coming of Christ is the best thing that can happen. Christians seem joyful whenever there is a disruption in the middle east. These beliefs can have dire consequences for the world. Many people have rapture anxiety. People always expect the special things and end of the world to happen when they are still alive.Hayley from DE, wants to convert one of the hosts to Christianity since Christians have lots of denominations and atheists only have one, Christianity must be true. We believe this is a troll. Zach in TX sees misconceptions about morality. Even if god created everything, this is still not an objective morality because god would be a subject. Christians want this so they can have the ability to legislate people’s lives. We want a morality that cares about human beings.Tim from the audience asks if we could find an objective moral obligation, if we would then be required to create a legal obligation. Just because something is objective does not mean it is something we should follow. Jasmine in Canada wants to discuss how religion has entered into politics and the heartbeat bill in Texas causing the underground abortion pill trade. What does abortion have to do with atheism? People who have passionate views about taking abortion away, have religious reasons for it. Abortion being denied results in an entire population being denied medicine that is necessary. Jessica from UT asks if she should just let people be religious when there seems to be benefits to that person. Would they just suddenly become an amoral person if they are no longer religious? Even though there are benefits, there is real world harm that happens on the institutional level and that is why we talk about the issues. Connor from the audience is from the Baha'i faith and believes the second coming has already happened in 1844. If it was supposed to have happened on a day in the past, can we just name anyone as the messenger? We want to know as many true things as possible and if what this faith teaches is true, we want to know about it. What about this belief convinces you of its truth? We are atheists but that does not mean we are not open to new ideas and learning new things.Thank you for tuning in this week! We will see you next year.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/talk-heathen--3195702/support.