The Scathing Atheist - 293: Vulnerable Johnson Edition

Episode Date: September 27, 2018

In this week’s episode, Republicans will learn their Hindus and Hin-don’ts the hard way, Brett Kavanaugh supporters explain how he's technically a quantum rapist in a sealed box who may or may not have raped that cat yet, and Bryce Break-an-Egger will be here because he’s the only one who can pronounce his name correctly. Come see us live in London! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/god-awful-movies-live-in-london-tickets-47591873575 To make a per episode donation at Patreon.com, click here: http://www.patreon.com/ScathingAtheist To buy our book, click there: http://www.amazon.com/Diatribes-Godless-Misanthrope-Scathing-Presents-ebook/dp/B00J53FZFI/ref=sr11?ie=UTF8&qid=1396141562&sr=8-1 To check out our sister show, The Skepticrat, click here: https://audioboom.com/channel/the-skepticrat To check out our sister show’s hot friend, God Awful Movies, click here: https://audioboom.com/channel/god-awful-movies To check out out half-sister show, Citation Needed, click here: http://citationpod.com/ Guest Links: Check out the Naked Mormonism podcast here: http://nakedmormonismpodcast.com/ Headlines: Religious leaders are helping with sexual assault apologetics for Brett Kavanaugh: http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2018/09/20/bryan-fischer-brett-kavanaughs-accuser-fails-the-biblical-two-witness-test/ http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2018/09/19/focus-on-the-family-urges-support-for-brett-kavanaugh-despite-assault-claims/ http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2018/09/21/dennis-prager-brett-kavanaughs-accuser-is-undermining-our-moral-principles/ Senate introduces bill against global blasphemy laws: http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2018/09/20/u-s-senate-introduces-resolution-calling-for-global-repeal-of-blasphemy-laws/ Ted Cruz claims in debate that school shootings are the result of removing god from schools: http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2018/09/22/ted-cruz-school-shootings-are-the-result-of-removing-god-from-public-life/ Texas GOP apologizes for ad urging Hindus to vote republican since they’re so into elephants: https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/20/politics/texas-republicans-hindu-theme-campaign-ad-trnd/index.html Pastors try to ban books from banned book display: http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2018/09/18/three-pastors-tried-banning-books-from-a-maine-librarys-banned-books-display/ Art Gallery uses Christian homophobia to get them to stop parking in their lot: http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2018/09/19/gallery-owner-uses-gay-conversion-therapy-sign-to-resolve-church-parking-feud/ Satanist sues Chicago for discriminating against his pet pig, Boarphomet: http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2018/09/23/satanist-sues-chicago-for-religious-discrimination-over-his-pet-pig-boarphomet/ This Week in Misogyny: Israeli court fines ultra orthodox radio station over banning women: https://religionnews.com/2018/09/21/israeli-court-fines-ultra-orthodox-radio-station-for-banning-women-from-the-air/ India bans instant divorce for Muslim men: https://religionnews.com/2018/09/20/india-bans-instant-divorce-by-muslim-men/

Warning, the following podcast contains words. If you get offended by them, that's kind of on you. This week's episode of The Scathing Atheist is brought to you by Robin Hood, Zip Recruiter, and by Eli's Birthday. Eli's Birthday. Bringing Eli tantalizingly close to the age I was when he first started making fun of how old I am. And now, The Scathing Atheist. Hey guys, this is Sarah from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Now, the scathing atheist. Hey guys, this is Sarah from Green Bay, Wisconsin. And though my family may be shunning me for being an atheist,

it doesn't change the fact that we did in fact evolve from filthy monkey men. It's Thursday. It's September 27th. And it's Crush-A-Can Day. But that's not why Eli isn't here today. I'm no illusions. I'm Heath Enright. And from Cincinnati Swing State, good husband Georgia, this is The Scathing Atheist. On this week's episode, Republicans will learn their hindus and their hindonts the hard way. Brett Kavanaugh supporters explain how he's technically a quantum rapist in a sealed box who may or may not have raped that cat yet. And Bryce Bregenager will be here because he's the only one who can pronounce his name correctly.

But don't look at that Supreme Court nominee. Don't look. First, the diatribe. One of the vexing questions within atheism is the ongoing and yet insufficient effort to figure out just how many of us there are. See, demographers have made big strides recently to try to get a better handle on this number, but there's a fatal flaw in all the methods if you really want to know how many people don't believe in God. So if you just go out and ask people how they identify, you'll find that X percent are atheists. In the U.S., that number is somewhere in the 2% to 3% range, but that's way low. If instead of zeroing in on the word atheism, you ask people if they believe in God, the number who say no is somewhere between 10% and 20% depending on how you ask.

And if you just clump together all the people who say none when you ask for their religion, you get somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of the population. Again, these are the numbers in America, and we're really shitty at not believing in God compared to the rest of the world. Now, a lot of surveys have tried to whittle this down a bit. For a while, there were a lot of media outlets

reporting the nuns as though they were all atheists, but that's not at all accurate, right? Many of those people are the spiritual but not religious asshats. And as much as I'd like to bandy around a big number, it's disingenuous to pretend that those people are atheists. So a lot of studies have sought to divide up that group and categorize them a little more accurately. And that's good, but we'll never get at the real number that way.

See, the big issue with this methodology is that it relies on self-reporting. A lot of atheists are in the closet. There was a study out of the University of Kentucky last year that tried to get around that obstacle by cloaking the disbelief in plausible deniability. We talked about it on the show, but briefly, what the study did was they presented a list of things like, you know, I've driven a motorcycle, I've attended a professional soccer match, and I have a dishwasher in my kitchen. And for half the group, they included, I believe in God on the list. Now, rather than asking the participants to answer each question, they just asked how many questions they would answer yes to. Then they compared the averages from the group that didn't have God on the survey

and the averages of the one that did. And it stands to reason that if your groups are large enough, the difference between those two will be the difference of how many of them answered yes to the God question. And this is valid and pretty damn clever. This methodology allows people to answer that they don't believe in God without ever actually having to say it, even to an impartial survey. So they did that, then they compared those numbers to self-reporting. You know, how many people would just answer no when you asked them if they believe in God. And what they found was that about twice as many people would disavow God if they didn't have to do it directly. And when you apply that to the population as a whole,

that puts the number of atheists to somewhere around 25% of the population. And that's probably the closest we have to a real number, right? But there's another group of atheists that don't get caught in that net. And I'd venture to say that they might be as big as the population that does. Now, you've met these people before, and they would never identify as atheists,

and they'd vociferously reject your diagnosis if you called them atheists. But atheists they are. And the group I'm talking about are the people who don't seem to realize that the God they believe in is functionally indistinguishable from nothing. Consider all the people you've talked to whose God beliefs get summed up in meaningless platitudes. You know, all the people who are like, well, you know, I believe in something greater than ourselves and like a fucking course you do at Saturn, for example, or they'll say, well, I believe in a higher power.

I just don't know if it gets involved in my life. I'm like, what? You mean like exponents? Google? No, that gets involved in your life. Fuck. What is that? These are the people that try to forgive the Bible by saying it's not a true account. It's a series of analogies meant to tease out the deeper meaning in life. And okay, sure, I'd argue that the Bible doesn't do that. But even if it did, that's also true of all the other works of fiction, right? The cat in the fucking hat is an analogy that tries to tease out the deeper meaning in life. These are the people who tend to start their explanations of what God

is by saying things like, well, God isn't some bearded man on a throne sitting in the clouds, as though the quickest path to explaining what a thing is would be to whittle away all the things it's not. They're the people that resist any effort to hang an attribute onto their God because they know as soon as they give him a characteristic, he can be refuted. These people try to hide their God beneath a pile of ambiguity and imprecision for fear that if they pushed away all the bullshit, there would be nothing to find underneath it. And look, I understand that it takes some courage to embrace atheism. You've got several well-funded worldviews that are desperately trying to sell you a universe that takes a personal interest in you and promises you immortality and a chance to see your grandma and your childhood dog again. That's tempting. I get why these people don't want to dig into that

pile and why they get pissed off when you try to dig into it for them. But even that resistance is an admission, isn't it? If you're afraid your worldview will be refuted if you let yourself examine it, you must already know it won't hold up, right? So I think we should come up with a term for these people. Now, I know there's already too damn many ways to parse the concept of atheists. We got atheists, agnostics, agnostics, apotheists, deists, non-theists, nuns. But there isn't a pigeonhole for these people that I'm aware of. And they may actually be larger than all those other groups put together.

These sad and desperate people who believe in nothing but still call it god they're talking about your jesus joining me for headlines tonight is the wild card heath enright heath are you ready to readily substitute for any other card in the deck i'm'm ready to go. What card do you need? Name any card. Eli. Seven of clubs. Wire card.

All right. Well, while we work that out, we're going to take a quick break for a word from this week's first sponsor, Robin Hood. Hi, I'm Heath Enright. And I'm here to tell you that Noah's really stupid when it comes to computers. Not, I don't know that I would say stupid. Okay, how many days did it take you to figure out how to turn on your Xbox that you just got? I don't see how that's relevant. Okay, I mean, it is, but you at least know that that's not something most people measure in days, right?

I bet lots of people have that problem as they get get older dude you bought a pixel phone because you were pretty sure that that one came with a google it did though i was right about that did come with yeah it did it did i have a pixel with a google as well but even noah can use robin hood's simple and intuitive investing app that allows him to buy and sell stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptos all commission-free. Okay, yeah, that's true. Robinhood has easy-to-understand charts and market data, and the app lets me place a trade in just four taps on my smartphone. It's a non-intimidating way for stock market newcomers to invest for the first time with true confidence. Even for people who have to be told that syncing a Bluetooth device does not involve getting

it wet. Not my fault they use such a deceptive term. With Robinhood. It's short for synchronizing. Synchronizing. I knew that already. And we were talking about Robinhood, which gives you custom notifications for price movements so you never miss the right moment to invest.

custom notifications for price movements so you never miss the right moment to invest. And best of all, Robinhood is giving scathing atheist listeners a free stock like Apple, Ford, or Sprint to help build their portfolio. Just sign up at scathing.robinhood.com. That's scathing.robinhood.com. Robinhood. Investing. Now for the rest of us. Kind of like Festivus.

And now, back to the headlines. In our lead story tonight, you know who's never been accused of sexual assault or sexual misconduct of any kind? Merrick Garland. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, true story. Also, everyone on the Supreme Court right now, minus Clarence Thomas.

That being said, a lack of allegations is no guarantee of innocence. But Brett Kavanaugh's number of three allegations so far, it was two when I first wrote this, now it's three. That number of three, that's infinity times larger than the zero number i'd like to be seeing just an interesting little stat i was thinking about um infinity times to rapey i feel like we just go ahead and set the par for this one at zero people credibly accusing you of sexual assault but apparently that's a controversial statement somehow. Oh, right. Because, hey, what God didn't traumatize a few girls in high school and college with their penis, right?

And somehow that argument is followed by not turning oneself in to the cops, but rather by saying that he didn't do it, right? Everybody does this now and again, except Brett Kavanaugh. That's where the Republican argument has landed. Yeah. And of course, we got to hear a depressingly long list of religious right leaders voicing their continued support for Brett Kavanaugh this week and helping out with some good old fashioned sexual assault apologetics. Yeah. And I guess we shouldn't be surprised. That's kind of their thing. This was like Brett Kavanaugh getting challenged to a fight outside a bar.

And turns out his friends are the fucking Avengers, except for, you know, attempted rape apologetics. His friends are a team of superhuman rape apologists. Yeah. And by the way, guys, do not Google the rape apologist Avengers Iron Man suited as wildly inappropriate. So here's a few notable examples, starting with Focus on the Family,

the conservative Christian anti-LGBT hate group started by James Dobson, who you might not remember, but Pepperidge Farm remembers. Pepperidge Farm remembers James Dobson, who you might not remember, but Pepperidge Farm remembers. So in response to the allegations from Dr. Christine Ford against Kavanaugh, Focus on the Family sent out an email to its entire contact list entitled a supremely qualified nominee, telling everyone to contact their senators and insist on kavanaugh's confirmation and the message ended with an accusation that democratic senator diane feinstein had been holding the allegations in secret until the quote 11th hour as if there should be a

shorter statute of limitations on sexual assaults and uh also on knowing about sexual assault you're right and as if the exact hour during which you hear about the sexual assault should matter somehow and also they seem to think there's like a cinderella pumpkin scenario happening it's a weird email yeah right it's it's only the 11th hour because they're steamrolling the fucking process right like you can't say how long the average supreme court nominee waits for a hearing because you can't divide by zero but even if you set garland aside they're warp nining this procedure i mean she damn near brought this up in the literal 11th hour after the confirmation process started pretty much right away yeah uh okay so we also got some input from conservative radio host and almost completed jew for jesus dennis prager

who pepperidge farm also remembers oh yeah according to prager's recent article for national review quote it's impossible to overstate the damage done to america's moral compass by taking the charges leveled against brett kavanaugh seriously end quote then goes on to argue that the whole stigma about sexual assault should go away after a few years like you know points on your driver's license right yeah like you take a consensual driving course and you're back to even somehow and then from there he tells a story about how his mother was sexually assaulted by a doctor that ends with but you know ah come on yes pretty much doctor what and then he closed it out with these exact

words quote if you told my mother she was a survivor she would have wondered what you were talking about the term was reserved for people who survived nazi concentration camps and japanese pow camps and for cancer survivors not women groped by a man end quote plus according to nichi kavanaugh made her stronger so you, you know, she should really be thanking. The fuck? What is happening? Yeah. And, of course, nobody does rape apologetics in this town without Brian Fisher getting a taste.

You may remember him as the guy telling his Puerto Rican waiter about the other Mexican he knows. And during a recent segment on his show for American Family Radio, Brian Fisher pointed out that the allegations by Dr. Ford don't count because she didn't have the two witnesses required by the Bible. And that's a true statement about the Bible, if you're not familiar. According to the rules in the book of god for christian and jewish people you can't get in trouble if you only rape one person at a time just no spectators and no groups and you cannot get in trouble no you can have one right you apparently can have a rape spotter which let's be clear the nominee for the supreme court did allegedly yeah three women by

counting yeah we should probably check that one more time but it's three as we're recording it was two as i wrote it yesterday anyway so uh i think we have two big takeaways here first of all in light of the two witness rule i think it might be time for our entire gender to get mandatory body cams not just the police maybe just every man has that from now on uh but more importantly maybe we'll put mostly women in charge of judging stuff from now on i know that doesn't guarantee no more rapists on the court but gets us us way closer, which feels like a win. I know. I know that's controversial, but it feels like it would be a win.

And you know what? Judging by the polling data, men should just never be allowed to do anything without getting a woman's permission from now on. Right. It was men that gave us Trump anyway. And putting the ish in accomplished news tonight, the U.S. ish and accomplished news tonight the u.s senate continued this week to hold up a high moral standard for brown people in other countries it's amazing how impeccable their morals get when we're talking about brown people in other countries anyway credit where credit is due the coelacanth of congressional politics a bipartisan resolution was introduced in the senate but before you get excited note that I said resolution though, right?

And not bill. It's nothing. Yeah, right. It's not like they came together for an action that would change the configurations of the atoms outside of the Capitol building or anything. Yeah. James Inhofe's still working on that.

Snow nine to debunk global warming, but he's not done yet. Right. No, I'm sorry. Wait, wait. I'm supposed to be praising the Senate done yet. All right. No, I'm sorry. Wait, wait. I'm supposed to be praising the Senate in this story. Okay. Anyway, here we go.

A couple of senators crossed the aisle to introduce a resolution calling for, quote, global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws, end quote. And that's a non-evil action, and it's the Senate. It is. Yeah. Break out your noisemakers and pop a fucking court, guys. This is as good as it gets. Wow. So it is. Yeah. Break out your noisemakers and pop a fucking court, guys. This is as good as it gets. Wow.

Yeah. OK, well, obviously, Ted Cruz doesn't get how this relates to penis cake or he'd be working on a government shutdown to stop a non binding resolution about not the United States. Basically, yeah, we're not saying that he isn't. We just don't know that he is. All right. So to be fair to the resolution it does seek to take tangible action it just seeks someone other than the senate to do it the resolution quote calls on the president and the secretary of state to make the repeal of blasphemy heresy

and apostasy laws a priority and bilateral relationships end quote so like you know if someone else does a good thing they would be in favor of it this time but of course wait no it gets worse they were nearly identical and in one case just identical resolutions introduced in the house in 2017 2016 and 2015 and none of them passed how does that not pass for three years right who's the anti-lobby on this? What the fuck? During our next meeting with Saudi Arabia, somebody mumbles executing a blogger says what? That's all I'm asking.

That's all we want to do. Just a piece of paper that says that. And the Senate refused. Okay, okay. What about a piece of paper that says we'd be okay with it if boo, nerd, no, whatever you're about to say. Really? We can't pass that?

And I should say that this non-binding piece of inaction is being waived at a real problem, okay? One of the clauses in the bill references previous efforts to normalize anti-blasphemy laws with U.N. resolutions, and even some Western countries are toying with blasphemy laws as a backdoor into censorship, right? But don't worry about that atheists who make their living blaspheming internationally. The U.S. Senate is on the job, or actually they're on ZipRecruiter trying to find some, well not ZipRecruiter because that's the smarter way to hire, but you know they've got a paper on a Starbucks billboard with a bunch of little tabs with their phone number that you can tear off one at a time, I guess.

And in cruise control news, despite the recent move to eliminate Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller from their entire public school curriculum, the state of Texas is also trending away from stupid on a different front thanks to an impressive campaign by a very impressive candidate named beto o'rourke the voters of texas are getting surprisingly close to removing ted cruz from the senate and i'm really excited about it yeah yeah cruz is still in the lead by about four points right now in the polls but it wasn't even supposed to be close and following their televised debate last week it might get even closer considering Ted Cruz is just awful and looks like a muppet of a cholesterol-sucking vampire so he doesn't do well on tv no and as if his looks weren't enough when they asked at the end of the debate what the nicest thing each of the candidates could say about the other one was ted cruz basically said no

pass as we already know if you give ted cruz a long stretch of on-camera talking it does not go well for him no apparently he was a toplevel competitor in formal debates as a student, but that does not translate in terms of not looking evil and stupid on TV during a campaign debate. Clearly not, yeah. Especially when you're in a large room in Texas, which pretty much guarantees a few gun violence victims from that day, and you claim that the solution isn't gun control, but rather atheism control. Yep. Yep. Guns don't kill people. God not divinely stopping the bullets because he's angry.

Teachers don't make everybody talk about how awesome he is every morning does. That's the actual argument from Teddy Cruz. That's what's happening. Yeah. So the topic was gun laws and background checks. Not sure how you could be against the existence of those things in some form. So it's a weird debate topic. But the GOP stance is about as close to that as possible. They're almost against the existence.

That would be like being against sex ed contraception and abortion. That would be ridiculous. Yep. And that includes Ted Cruz. According to Nosferatu, quote, as the father of two daughters, there is something deeply wrong that we have these shootings. Just real quick, I'd like to go ahead and add that as a mammal from the phylum Cordata, I'm also against school shootings. I'm anti-school shooting as a Cordate. I didn't need a couple daughters to get there.

Yeah. Continuing. Continuing. Lots of things behind it have nothing to do with government, like removing God from the public square, end quote. Okay. All right. government like removing god from the public square end quote okay all right but the fact that those things that the ones that caused the school shootings have nothing to do with government that's because you're in charge though right that's the problem do you not at least see what we're going for here yeah and from there cruz launched into a giant lie about what he learned from the kids at Santa Fe High School near Houston, where 10 people were killed in a shooting last May. He claims he was in

a hospital room with several of the survivors following the incident and asked them how to handle the gun violence problem. And apparently they all responded in unison not gun control more atheism control and more door control yes and wrist control i really ted cruz really students in unison i tried to find any record of students ever ever ever ever ever saying that after a shooting but it turns out i guess they went to a different school in canada so i wouldn't know but but what i love is even when he constructs a lie the best he can pretend is that a bunch of traumatized 14 year olds agree with him right i mean he's making them up but that's the best he can even make up yeah oh and in super packy durham news tonight in an effort not to break the partisan

theme we've got thank you thank you in an effort not to break the partisan theme we've got going in this week's headlines a republican party group in houston texas is furiously apologizing after taking out an ad in an indian newspaper urging hindus to vote for Republicans because, hey, Hindus love elephants. Am I right? The ad, which I'm so barely exaggerating the ad, which was on real websites and everything. So I'm almost certain I'm not just fucking with you. Featured an image of the elephant god Ganesha above the words, quote, Would you worship a donkey or an elephant? The choice is yours.

What are you doing right you had next week in ebony magazine would you worship a donkey or an elephant playing basketball with a watermelon smoking a newport yes hashtag black and right yes So apparently they realized this was offensive sometime that was inexplicably more than immediately after the first time someone suggested it. In fact, they ran the fucking ad. And of course, just to make sure them elephant worship and nincompoops saw what they were going for here. They published the ad on September 12th, a day before the start of a 10 day Hindu festival celebrating the birth of Ganesha. A day before the start of a 10-day Hindu festival celebrating the birth of Ganesha. They might as well hire Hank Azaria to do Apu as their new spokesman.

What are you thinking? Anyway, so immediately upon the release of the ad, Hindus shoved it up these people's asses. A board member with the Hindu American Foundation issued a statement dumbing the ad despicable and adding quote equating hindu's veneration of the lord ganesha with choosing a political party based on its animal symbol is problematic and offensive end quote not adding actually you know what just bringing up the man with an elephant head that rides around on a little mouse makes us look bad so just just stop stop and quick before i offend any more hindu atheists we're going to pause for a quick break and hand things over to my lovely wife lucinda a man wrote the bible a whore is what she wants if it's a legitimate race you're a slut right cooking can be fun hey i'm proud of a man this week in massage okay so this episode is coming out the day that dr ford is scheduled to testify

before the senate about her accusations against brett Kavanaugh in a proceeding so disingenuous it carries its young in a pouch. But don't worry, they hired a woman to say the sexist things for them, so it's not sexist anymore. In other words, if you want some misogyny this week, you're not going to have to get it from me. So rather than focus on what's sure to be an abysmal display of sexism on the national stage, I thought maybe I could offset it a little by bringing you some good news on the misogyny front. And by good news, I mean minimal steps away from medievalism that really just underscore how far we still have to go. But if you don't think about it too hard, it'll sound like I'm saying good things. And speaking of not thinking about things too hard, let's check in on the Orthodox Jews in Israel, shall we?

Now, we've talked a lot about the Orthodox community's desperate effort to excise women from the public square. We've talked about their airlines rearranging women like they were trying to take a fox, a duck, and a bag of grain across the river. We've talked about how movie companies produce special all-male movie posters so they won't be driven into a sexual frenzy by the appearance of Smurfette. But apparently there is a limit to how much of that bullshit they're allowed to get away with.

So this story starts in 2009 when an Orthodox radio station called Kal Barama decided to ban all female voices from the air. Once again, justifying their misogyny with claims of religious modesty. once again justifying their misogyny with claims of religious modesty because you know how when guys hear my segment they're whipped into a sexual frenzy and you know just start sticking their dicks and whatever's nearby and concave yeah it's like that but in 2012 a class action lawsuit was filed by collect an orthodox women's advocacy group that represented women who'd been denied a chance to speak on the station now to the to their credit, once the lawsuit was filed, Kol Barama did start incrementally adding female voices, but only to talk about lady stuff like recipes and child rearing. And apparently the courts didn't think that was enough,

which is why they handed down a one million shekel fine, yeah, about $280,000 US, and ordered them to fucking stop it. And Israel isn't the only unfathomably sexist place that got a sliver less misogynistic this week. Our next story takes us to India, where the government's top court issued a ruling that finally struck down the Muslim practice

that allows men to instantly divorce their wives just by saying divorce, divorce, divorce into a mirror three times at midnight. And for the record, yes, I'm exaggerating. They don't have to use a mirror, and they can do it any time of day. So divorcing your Muslim wife in India was, until now, easier than summoning Bloody Mary. Hell, they didn't even actually have to say it. Apparently, some Muslim men were

invoking what's known as triple talaq via text message or on social media. And until now, that counted legally. They just go on Twitter and say, at my wife, talak, talak, talak, and they'd be divorced. Hell, I'm not 100% sure I didn't just divorce somebody when I was describing it, but no more. Now, if this sounds familiar, that's because the court actually already struck down this practice last year. But the parliament has been dragging their feet about passing an ordinance that officially bans it. So it's still happening, despite being legally meaningless. ordinance that officially bans it so it's still happening despite being legally meaningless what this most recent ruling does is allow the government to punish men who still practice it between now and the parliament getting their shit together and on that we're going to call it a

high note i'll hand things back over to noah and heath thank you lucinda next up in headlines we have a story about religious people not getting the point so badly they almost physically injured themselves on the point. I fucking love this story. of Banned Books Week, an annual tradition in the United States during which libraries and schools spend the final week of September highlighting the dangerous history of literary censorship. Well, in response, like overweight mice to cheese, a bunch of religious groups are trying to ban some of the books from the banned books display. They're literally doing that. Also, they're seeking to remove the word bowdlerized from the banned books display. They're literally doing that.

Also, they're seeking to remove the word bowdlerized from the dictionary because that sounds like a thing you'd do with your butt. Yeah. All right. So quick background on Banned Books Week. Tradition started in 1982 and it's meant to bring attention

to the frequent practice of challenging and banning books from libraries and school curricula. And as you'd probably guess, that's pretty much always the handiwork of ignorant religious parents or the groups that represent them. And just to be clear, it's not like public schools are providing kids with books about homemade explosives and snuff porn. kids with with books about homemade explosives and snuff porn it's books like to kill a mockingbird and the color purple and uh this one's my all-time favorite fahrenheit 451 yep which is about why you shouldn't ban books and was nonetheless banned at least once by a school district because religious parents were mad

that one of the books in the story that gets banned and burned is the bible yep among all the other books but but you know i'm glad you bring this up because nobody ever really looks at the bright side of fahrenheit 451 right no bibles which is nice also it was warm easy to stay warm that world yeah good with the best so uh the latest round of book challenges comes from christian people who think a book that acknowledges the existence of same-sex couples is the same thing as a pop-up book about hardcore gay sex i mean honestly i'd like to see both types of books available. Patreon, gold. Right. But that's the main theme of the panic in Run for Maine right now.

Pastors are having a meltdown about books like, for example, And Tango Makes Three, about a penguin with two dads. And again, the book doesn't describe the dad penguins fucking each other. It's a children's book, just to be clear. Well, right, and the lack of consummation is not why it is banned. It's not like people frustrated they lewd up for some good penguin porn

and felt ripped off. It's different reasons than that. Yeah, so I'd say the banned book celebration in Rumford could not have gone better. The display might as well have had a giant box over the top being propped up with a stick and a rope tied to it that says, Dear Christianity, please do not pull the rope. No kidding.

Idiots. They pulled the rope. And speaking of absurd censorship, here's hoping some libraries in Texas got creative with their display this year and have giant sculptures of Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller having graphic lesbian sex together or or without the sex either way just a lot of Hillary and Helen Keller and in straight of the art news tonight you might not have realized that you had a favorite art vendor in Houston Texas but you do and that would be the Hiram Butler gallery which is across the street from one Riverpoint Church. So apparently the art gallery owner has an issue with church people parking in his reserved parking spaces every Sunday. And, you know, he's talked to the church about it.

He put up signs. He got angry with him until he was blue in the face. But none of that dissuaded the church's parishioners from hogging up the art gallery's parking. So he put up a new sign which reads quote parking only for gay conversion therapy end quote and appeared apparently fear of looking like a homo seems to have worked where nothing else did just a bunch of tvs showing gay porn big sign and says don't worry if you're straight you will not get a church boner you're fine everybody check everybody it could be better now obviously i love this not just because they jujitsu christian homophobia uh but on the other

end like this could work like those crisis pregnancy centers right like the the owner made it clear that he's quote gay as a goose and quote that i want you to be very clear as his words because i don't think geese are gay not that i would have a problem with it if they were but the point is that if anybody did come into his shop for gay conversion therapy that would be a hell of a lot better than if they went somewhere that actually did that shit right yeah absolutely just like welcome welcome uh you want to talk about modern art okay i'll fuck a dude or whatever i'll not fuck a dude whichever it is you're doing just no modern art and of course just to make sure that a everybody knows it's satire and b i'd have enough material to

fill our typical three paragraph news item format his shop also sells an accompanying line of bumper stickers that read quote follow me to the blossom gayy Center, where we pray the straight away, end quote. Excellent work by the gallery guy. And finally tonight, in Red Red Swine News, we have a story about how religious exemptions from the law are being exposed in their stupidity in beautifully elegant fashion by a Satanist and a pig. Where every great romance begins absolutely the satanist in question is kenneth male of chicago illinois who recently filed two different lawsuits against the city for their failure to accommodate his sincerely held beliefs in particular those beliefs include

the right to have an emotional support pig just just like an emotional support dog, except a pig and with devil magic. Oh, yeah. And also the right to have a private satanic fuck dungeon for your pig and your pig fucker's satanic friends. Okay, now this story gets way less fun if they fuck the pig. I was kidding about the romance. Actually, it's not clear that they fuck the pig. Maybe the pig fucks them or there's just like sexy times and there's a pig there he doesn't say exactly so kenneth male has a pet guinea hog nicknamed borfomet um that's that's okay

obviously it should have been lord of the sties or squeals above clearly but we're gonna let that go because you know these lawsuits are priceless so yeah But we're going to let that go. Because, you know, these lawsuits are priceless. So, yeah, we're going to let him go with Borfamette. In terms of the emotional support animal issue, he's filing a suit to make the city give him official paperwork that would allow his underworld-themed emotional support pig into all the same places you could go with other support animals.

For example, he's arguing that he needs to be allowed to bike around the city with Borfomet in a wagon because this symbolizes the coming of the black horsemen of the apocalypse. Oh, okay. And according to mail, Borfomet meets all the requirements for a service animal and should therefore be treated just like a miniature horse. And I guess miniature horses are allowed in wagons while you work for Chicago. Yeah, it must be. As near as I can tell, when scientists study the benefits

of emotional support animals, it doesn't really matter what animal you use or which inanimate object you use or lack of inanimate objects. The results are always the same. So it must be that everything works. That's how you science, people. That's how you science. Okay, so moving on to his other lawsuit, which is even better.

So apparently the city wants to inspect his house, but he claims they didn't show up for their original appointment, and now it's too late because he already did some dark magic and turned the property into a sacred space that can't be violated by outsiders anymore. According to the filing, quote, the house has now been appropriately defiled for purposes of making it a sacred space where plaintiff may practice his faith and conduct his rituals alone with Borfmet and with other people. Any intrusion will defile the sacred space, interrupt the rituals and practices, and risk a leak of religious secrets.

For example, an inspector may not know a safe word on premise and run risk of non-consensual bodily harm within the walls of the building. The safe word is not for the ears of the inspector and everyone inside the walls of the house must know the safe word to ensure consent. End quote. Oh, I hope you're taking notes, Andrew, because you could bet your ass that Eli has. Yes, so basically, either admit that gay people should be allowed to always buy food, or you might get legally sodomized

by a demonic pig in my fucker. I fucking love this guy. Great lawsuit. All right, well, clearly we've got a new graphic novel to hash out, so we're going to close the headlines there. Heath, thanks as always. Jumanji. And when we come back,

Bryce Blankenagle will be here to remind us that we should fear the Mormons no matter how hard the magic underwear makes that to do. Hi, I'm Sarah Huckabee Sanders. And I'm Magaga Trump, baby. Okay. And we're here to tell you about ZipRecruiter. You could know what's not a smart baby. You know what, man?

Just don't do the lying thing. But I can what's not a smart baby. Just, you know what, man? Just don't do the line thing. But I can be my goggler Trump baby. It's just, it's not the same. You know what I mean? Blunt age? Okay. That's a funny word. No, it's not working for me, though.

It's not the same. Okay. How about I be Tony D for this one? No, you can't do Tony D either. But that's the character I was doing before Eli even started with the show. Yeah, and yet now we always have Eli do it. Right. Yeah.

Right. Right. Okay. Hey, folks. So you know what's not smart? Having Noah do the voices instead of Eli. You know what else isn't smart? Job sites that send you tons of the wrong resumes to sort through. That's not smart. You know what else isn't smart? Job sites that send you tons of the wrong resumes to sort through. That's not smart. You know what else isn't smart? Well, you're listening to this

show, so you already know about that one. You know what else isn't smart? Job sites that make you wait for the right candidates to apply to your job. But you know what is smart? The copy. Nope. It's going to ZipRecruiter.com slash scathing to hire the right person. That's right. Because ZipRecruiter doesn't depend on candidates finding you. It finds them for you. It's powerful matching technology, scans thousands of resumes, identifies people with the right skills, education, and experience for your job, and actively invites them to apply.

So you get qualified candidates fast. That's why ZipRecruiter is ranked number one by employers in the U.S. And that rating comes from hiring sites on Trustpilot with over 1,000 reviews. So yeah, they cited a source in the required read part of the copy. So right there, you know it's smarter than most companies. And right now, our listeners can try ZipRecruiter for free at this exclusive web address, ZipRecruiter.com slash scathing. That's ZipRecruiter. free at this exclusive web address, ziprecruiter.com slash scathing. That's ziprecruiter.com slash scathing.

Ziprecruiter.com slash scathing. Already said that. So did I. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Increasingly in today's political climate, atheists find themselves in a metaphorical version of the dude's bathtub living in constant fear that someone's going to come along and cut off their johnson of course trump has repeatedly promised to rescind the johnson amendment which prohibits churches from directly endorsing candidates and telling their parishioners how to vote and while we rightly fear the morass of dark money havens churches would become without

said amendment, we also recognize that even now the amendment is rarely enforced. For example, the Mormon church recently sent out an email to all its members in Utah urging them to vote no on Prop 2, which would legalize medical marijuana in that state. So how do we get here? How do we reach a point where a church just blatantly waves its dick at the legislature and that's seen as a veritable non-event in Utah politics? Well, if we're going to talk about how Mormonism got where it is, we're going to need the help of our good friend Bryce Blankenagle. Bryce is the host of the Naked Mormonism podcast,

and he's an ex-Mormon with a well-ground axe. Bryce, welcome back to The Scathing Atheist. Thank you, Noah. Has religion always been a marmot trying to bite our dicks off? That's the best analogy that I can come up with for religion in general, especially Mormonism. But stick around. I'm sure I'll have something much more vulgar to say about it eventually. Oh, we'll get there.

Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So obviously telling momos how to vote on this proposition is nothing new for the Mormon church. So I thought it might be fun to explore the history of them shitting on the american political process so tell us where does that first begin for the mormons well we got to take a little time machine back to joe's days of course joe smith in the 1830s he ran the mormons some fifty thousand dollars in debt to build a temple in oh, which created a situation. Sorry, that's $50,000 in like 1830s money?

Yeah, 1830s money. Wow. Yeah. So that forced him to take his first major foray into politics. So they made a bank and applied to the Ohio State Legislature for a banking charter. That charter was denied, but they still decided to print money and tried to absolve their debts with that money. Oh, really? I got to say, that is the most Joseph Smith answer possible.

His first foray into politics was sedition. Forgery and counterfeit, so yes. Wow. So this eventually caused the Ohio church to completely implode, and Joe was excommunicated from his own church and chased to Missouri, where he reestablished his church out there. So Mormon history in Missouri is fascinating, but suffice it to say, Joe raised a private militia known as the Army of Israel. Of course he did. Complete with their own secret black ops force known as the Danites. They aggressively attacked a Missouri militia, surrounded the homes

of elected officials, and forced them to sign documents under duress, and eventually looted and burned a number of non-Mormon settlements in the area. So the governor Boggs signed the Mormon extermination order, and the Mormons were killed and chased out of the state while Joe and five of his elites were locked in prison for five months. So eventually, Joe escaped prison with a little bribery, and then he joined the new Mormon settlement in Quincy, Illinois. Now, I just want to point out, for the record, when you learn this history in Mormon Sunday school, it's just, and then the Mormons were persecuted for their beliefs, right?

That's how they present this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, the Hans Mill Massacre that i referred to in the mormon extermination order they factor heavily into the persecution narrative today but you know persecutions like fertilizer right you need some of it to galvanize the people against a common enemy but too much of it snuffs out all life so mormonism happened to have the perfect amount of fertilizer okay so now did things go any better for them when they got to Illinois? Somewhat.

It kind of depends on what snapshot of Illinois you're looking at. So Joe decided to approach things the right way this time. So he signed a bunch of land contracts on the order of over $1 million for tens of thousands of acres. And that's, once again, 1830s money. So that's an insane amount of money today. But it resulted in Joe wielding a ton of power. I mean, political and monetary, even if all of that monetary power was wrapped up in debts that he was juggling around.

But he had politicians who were fawning over him and all of the Mormons from 1839 to 1844. And conveniently enough, the Mormons passed a city charter, which included provisions for them to make their own militia, the Nauvoo Legion, make their own university, created a dynastic hotel organization that was created just for speculation. And it also allowed the Nauvoo government to issue writs of habeas corpus whenever somebody was arrested by any authority. And that final provision saved Joe's life a a number of times as you can imagine okay all right so the politicians are directly courting this weird ass violent cult i feel like that should scare the hell out of any right-thinking illinoisan right well local newspapers did start to report on the increasing power of Joe Smith from April 1841 on. The first truly frightening display was the Nauvoo Legion out in full force for a military parade during which a number of politicians and wealthy non-Mormons attended.

This is what the Herald says in 1841, quote, The Mormons can already dictate to the state of Illinois, and are they not doing it? The Mormons can already dictate to the state of Illinois. And are they not doing it? Has not Joe Smith issued a proclamation requiring his followers to vote for certain candidates for governor and lieutenant governor? And then speaking of the parade, the military parade specifically, here's another newspaper article. Yesterday was a great day among the Mormons. Their legion to the number of 2,000 men.

Now, to be clear, that is larger than most state militias at the time. Wow. So, yeah. Holy shit, right? Their legion was paraded by General Smith, Bennett, and others and certainly made a very noble and imposing appearance. The evolutions of the troops directed by Major General Bennett

would do honor to anybody of armed militia in the state and approximates very close to our regular forces. What does this all mean? Why this exact discipline of the Mormon Corps? Do they intend to conquer Illinois, Missouri, Mexico? And of course, around the same time, articles were printed that a Mormon named Oren Porter Rockwell, colloquially named the Destroying Angel, had traveled to Missouri and shot ex-governor Lilburn Boggs. That was the guy who signed the Mormon extermination order in 1838.

And Boggs at the time was running for Missouri state senator. So Boggs took four bullets but survived and then swore out an affidavit calling the Illinois governor to arrest Joe and Porter Rockwell. They were both arrested, but because of that convenient little writ of habeas corpus line in the city charter, they were let free and they, you know, fled across state lines to safety because there was no interstate police force. Yeah, right. And again, in Mormon Sunday School, and then they were persecuted some more. Exactly. So Joe's power continued to grow. He began his campaign for President of the United States in 1844, and he formed his Council of 50. Now, the Council of 50 is shrouded in mystery, but Brigham Young said this about the Council of 50 during Joe's presidential

campaign. This is bloody Brigham Young for you. Quote, We are acquainted with the views of General Smith, the Democrats, and Whigs, and all factions. It is now time to have a president of the United States. Elders will be sent to preach the gospel and electioneer. The government belongs to God. No man can draw the dividing line between the government of God and the government of the children of man. End quote.

Wow. That was two months before Joseph Smith was assassinated. Okay, yeah. So remind me because I'm fuzzy on the history here. Joseph Smith was not elected president in 1844, correct? We got some other guy. And from all that I can tell, he was actually the first presidential candidate to get assassinated during his campaign. Really? Yeah, we've talked about it before here. Joe

was killed in the drunken Carthage shootout, and then Brigham Young completely took over after that. So Brigham's faction of Mormons were chased out of Illinois, and they settled in Mexico beginning in July of 1847. Now, the Compromise of 1850 carved out the Utah Territory and named Brigham Young Governor and Director of the Department of Indian Affairs of the Territory. So, from 1848 to 1857, Brigham Young laid the foundations of a theocratic kingdom. He killed thousands of Native Americans through a series of battles that, really, they're better termed as massacres and he just became the dictator sitting atop an empire where there simply were no lines between government and religion but for all intents and purposes utah was a sovereign country within the bounds of the united states bloody

brigham completely built the the state into zion the new jerusalem just as joe always dreamed of doing where mormons range supreme. The Mormons were industrious. They established businesses. They printed their own desert banking notes that they used for money. And long time scathing atheist listeners will know that the early Mormons

even had their own alphabet. Yeah. But of course, 1852 also marked the beginning of unabashed and openly practiced polygamy in Utah. To be clear though, Brigham made it to Utah with like 30 wives already, but they just started openly practicing it in 1852. So from that time forward, Brigham Young cultivated a population who continually looked forward to the collapse of the United States government so that mormonism could rise out of the ashes as the sole ruling body you know kind of like a western roman empire and catholicism sort of situation so brigham's governorship was it was up it had run out in

1858 but he wasn't willing to step down because he was fucking king right right so president franklin pierce was spineless, but James Buchanan, elected in 57, was much less tolerant of bloody Brigham's bullshit. So he sent an armed militia to Utah to unseat the dictator and put in place a governor who wasn't Mormon. Now this at a time, almost without exception, every single elected government office was held by a Mormon in the Utah Territory. And federally appointed officials and judges were only accepted if they were friendly to the Mormons. Some of them ran away with their hair on fire when they realized how horrible it was in Utah. But beyond that, that's just the official capacity.

What's the underground that we need to recognize as well? Nothing happened in Utah without Brigham's knowledge or approval. From 1851 on, a number of federal appointees fled Utah because they were afraid for their own lives. They legitimately thought that the Mormons were going to kill them because they claimed that the Mormons were murdering a bunch of people. They were destroying federal court records. They were harassing public officials that were appointed by the federal government. And Brigham Young was apparently slandering the government from the pulpit, which is borne out in hundreds of sermons where he claimed that the state of Deseret was this sovereign society beyond the control of the federal government. So finally, in 1857 to 1858,

during this Mormon rebellion, the Mormons fortified Parley's Canyon in anticipation of Buchanan's militia of 2,500 soldiers entering the state. The militia camped out in Wyoming, where guerrilla Mormons cut off their supply lines and just terrorized them. Yeah, again, this is so hard to get your hat around in the modern day because of all the slurs that i would throw at the mormons of the modern era warlike would not make the list right you don't think badass like a mormon they're they're sleeper cells they're just waiting to be turned on yeah now uh i wish i wish i could describe how true that actually is so something that's interesting here is Daniel Wells, who was lieutenant general of the Nauvoo Legion, devised a scheme. Now, the Nauvoo Legion was still the same banner in Utah.

It was still called the Nauvoo Legion there. It was just the Mormon military force. So he said this, quote, on ascertaining the locality or route of the troops proceed at once to annoy them in every possible way okay well now i'm picturing him charging in on horseback scratching little chalk boards and stuff like that i'm sure that's not what he meant but you know yeah silverware on plates yeah exactly right no he he goes on to describe what they're supposed to do use every exertion to stampede their animals and set fire to their trains. Burn the whole country before them and on their flanks.

Keep them from sleeping by night surprises. Blockade the road by felling trees or destroying the river fords where you can. Watch for opportunities to set fire to the grass on their windward, so as, if possible, to envelop their trains. Leave no grass before them that can be burned. Keep your men concealed as much as possible and guard against surprise, end quote. So after a challenging winter

of 1857 to 58 in this guerrilla warfare, tensions finally fizzled out. Accepting that open rebellion and war with the federal government was the only alternative, Brigham finally decided to step down and accept Alfred Cumming as the new territorial governor. So Cumming became a useful moderate emissary between the federal government and the Utah Territory. I would love to know who Alfred Cumming pissed off to get that job, right? You can't imagine that there were people lining up to be that guy no no god no but eventually relations between the mormon theocracy and the federal government stabilized now the moral anti-bigamy act was passed in 1862 in spite of vicious opposition by mormon and jack mormon politicians jack mormon at the time was just a non-mormon who was friendly to the mormons

gotcha then the government became occupied for a few for a few years with that whole pesky Civil War thing. And then, of course, Brigham must have just lit up a cigar and sipped on his whiskey for a decade and a half, completely unbothered by the government until his death in 1877. And during this time, Brigham said that, quote, the sound of polygamy is a terror to the pretended Republican government. Why? Because this work is destined to revolutionize the world and bring all under subjection. Yeah, that would do it. An apostle at the time, Orson Pratt, said, it is not consistent that the people of God should organize or be subjected to man-made governments.

So this is all setting the scene. This is Utah prior to the 20th century. It was a sovereign theocracy. This is the great and great again, isn't it? Oh, God. Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah.

A series of other anti-polygamy and anti-cohabitation laws were passed. And finally, in 1889, the federal government seized all Mormon assets that were greater than $50,000. They disincorporated the church as a legal entity and they dissolved the perpetual immigration fund. The prophet at the time, Wilford Woodruff, issued the first manifesto, and then the official practice of polygamy finally ended. Only after the federal government broke the church, basically. Right, right. Or as the Mormon Sunday school teacher puts it, and then Wilford Woodruff got a message from God. Revelation. Revelation without inspiration.

Yes. revelation, revelation without inspiration. Yes. So finally, the next prophet, Joseph F. Smith, he issued a number of declarations that helped to streamline the new state and bring it kind of into line with mainstream Christianity. So, you know, if you can't beat the majority of Christians in the Christian government, you just decide to join them. Yeah, it's working out well for him. All right. Well, that brings us into the 20th century, which seems like a great place to close off for the night. But Bryce will be back next week to talk about the modern history of Mormons v. representative secular government. But if you can't wait that long to get your Mormon history fixed,

be sure to check out the Naked Mormonism podcast, which you'll find linked on the show notes for this episode. Bryce, thanks so much for hanging out, man. Thank you, Noah. man. Thank you, Noah. Before we make way in the playlist, I want to apologize to anybody who's really been paying close attention and was disappointed that there wasn't a case for Christ segment this week. We're going a little off schedule with that and Bible Peace Theater and the ramp up to our trip to England, but we promise to have everything back to normal as soon as we get back. And speaking of England, tickets are still available for our live show in London.

We'll also be at QED in Manchester. We hope to see you at one or both. Anyway, that's all the Blast Movie we've got for you tonight. We'll be back in 10,022 minutes with more. If you can't wait that long, be on the lookout for a brand new episode of our sister show, The Skeptocrat, debuting at 7 a.m. Eastern time on Monday. An even newer episode of our sister show's hot friend, Godawful Movies, debuting at 7 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday.

And an even newer episode of our half-sister show, Citation Needed, debuting at noon Eastern on Wednesday. Obviously, this could be easily mistaken for a cheap knockoff episode if I neglected to thank Heath Enright for using his vast intellect for the powers of good despite having Lex Luthor's brilliance and hairdo. I need to thank the absent but always here in our hearts, Eli Bosnick, for making the edit so much easier this week. I need to thank the lovely Lucinda Lusions, who will also be celebrating her birthday this week. I'm not going to tell you how old she's turning on Friday, since people always get weird about turning 40, but I am going to wish her a happy birthday.

I need to thank Bryce Blankenagle one more time for hanging out with us today. Again, check the show notes for more him. Also want to thank Sarah from Green Bay for providing this week's Farnsworth quote. Sarah, your family can and should go fuck themselves. I know we're not much, but you're welcome in our family anytime. Just Eli's the cousin we don't talk about in public, okay? Just Eli's the cousin we don't talk about in public, okay? But most of all, of course, I need to thank this week's finest fauna Nicole, Chris, Alistair, Amy, Blank, Mishy, Franz, David, Carl, and Jason

Nicole, Chris, and Alistair who aren't allowed to have any more gravitas Lest they collapse into a singularity Amy, Blank, and Mishy, Franz who are so badass Ninja hordes have to attack them two at a time And David, Carl, and Jason whose erections give the elevators at the Overlook Hotel Engorged with blood envy Together these nine notable non-believers nominally nudged up our net worths this week by giving us money. Not everybody has the veracity for veracity that it takes to give us money,

but if you think you're up to the challenge, you can make a per-episode donation at patreon.com slash scathingatheist, whereby you'll earn early access to an extended ad-free version of every episode, or you can make a one-time donation by clicking on the donate button on the right side of the homepage at scathingatheist.com. And if you'd like to help, but in a way that doesn't cost you money, you can also help us a ton by leaving us a five star review somewhere other than a bathroom stall liking us on facebook and telling a friend about the show legal services for this podcast are provided by the law offices of p adrew torres tim robertson handles our social media our audio engineer is morgan clark who also wrote all the

music that was used in this episode which was used with permission if you have questions comments or death threats you'll find all the contact info on the contact page at skatingatheist.com increasingly in today's political climate atheists find themselves in a medical Contact info on the contact page at skatingatheist.com. Increasingly in today's political climate, atheists find themselves in a medical... A medical? No. No. All right. Get my fuck-ups out of the way early. Here we go. The preceding podcast was a production of Puzzle & Thunderstorm, LLC. Copyright 2018. All rights reserved.