The Scathing Atheist - 351: Dying Out Loud Edition

Episode Date: November 7, 2019

In this week’s episode, Pennsylvania has nothing better to do with its money, we let Matt Bevin know that we're currently hiring, and Dave Warnock will be here to remind us what actually matters. --- How to Participate in Vulgarity for Charity: Click here to donate to Modest Needs Send your donation receipt to this email, along with info on who you want insulted. --- 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=sr_1_1?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/ To hear more from our intrepid audio engineer Morgan Clarke, click here: https://www.morganclarkemusic.com/ --- Guest Links: Here more from Dave Warnock here: https://daveoutloud.com/ Find The Stop Button Blog here: https://thestopbutton.com/ --- Headlines: PA Lawmakers Spent $1.1 Million in Taxpayer Money to Block Atheist Invocations https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/11/01/pa-lawmakers-spent-1-1-million-in-taxpayer-money-to-block-atheist-invocations/ Indonesian Man Who Helps Implement Sharia Law for Adultery Flogged for Adultery: https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/11/01/indonesian-man-who-helps-implement-sharia-law-for-adultery-flogged-for-adultery/ Chick-fil-A told us to buy a sandwich on Sunday when they're closed to honor God: https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/11/03/chick-fil-a-told-us-to-buy-a-sandwich-sunday-when-they-were-closed-to-honor-god/ Trump administration rule allows religious discrimination in foster care and adoption: https://religionnews.com/2019/11/01/new-rule-would-allow-foster-care-adoption-agencies-to-exclude-on-religious-grounds/ Man who worships Trump loses $1 billion religious rights lawsuit against Twitter: https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/11/02/man-who-worships-trump-loses-1-billion-religious-rights-lawsuit-against-twitter/ --- This Week in Misogyny: Men cleared of rape charges in Spain because victim was unconscious: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spain-protests-men-cleared-rape-girl-manresa-a9185841.html P-Robes offers some truly awful advise to young mom: https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/11/06/pat-robertson-to-pregnant-woman-give-baby-up-for-adoption-and-dump-boyfriend/ Condom Company Reacts to Christian Abstinence Trope with Chewed Gum Wall in D.C.  https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/10/31/condom-company-reacts-to-christian-abstinence-trope-with-chewed-gum-wall-in-d-c/

Warning, spellcheck is wrong. We did not mean ducking. This week's episode of The Scathing Atheist is brought to you by Hymns, Honey, and by Vulgarity for Charity. We're still taking your money for sweet, sweet vengeance. Vulgarity for Charity. Being bad never felt so good. And now, The Scathing Atheist. Hi, this is Andrew Wickliffe, author of thestopun.com. And as someone who's blogged about over 3,000 movies and never won starring Kirk Cameron, I can assure you we did, indeed, evolve from filthy monkey men. Even Kirk Cameron. And we ate bananas.

Like Kirk Cameron. It's Thursday. It's November 7th. And it's National Alzheimer's Awareness Month. Every month is National Alzheimer's Awareness Month. As far as they know. I'm no illusions. I'm Eli Bosnick. I'm Heath Enright.

And from Bunny Lebowski's New Jersey, Cincinnati Swing State, and Good Husband Georgia, this is The Scathing Atheist. On this week's episode, Pennsylvania has nothing better to do with its money. We let Matt Bevin know that we're currently hiring. And Dave Warnock will be here to remind us what actually matters. But first, the diatribe to the theme of the show. Right, there are a diverse range of topics that I'd like to talk about, but as a general rule, if I can't tie it to atheism or religion, I leave it out. But I'm going to make an exception this week and talk about a subject that you almost

certainly can't have any interest in whatsoever, my teeth. I've got some pretty fucked up choppers. You may have noticed even at the beginning of this diatribe that I'm sounding increasingly like Tholvester over the last couple of weeks, and that's because I'm in the midst of a ton of dental work of the we've got to burn down the village in order to save it variety. Incidentally, by the way, it'll probably mean that there will be a period early next year where I won't be able to talk with you for a few weeks. Apologies in advance.

So here's the story of my fucked up teeth. Age of 22 or so, I'm a college dropout buried in a mountain of student debt and working two jobs, both of them for a hair over minimum wage. And I'm in a situation that many of you are probably familiar with where I don't so much pay my bills every month as have my utilities turned back on several times a year. So when I broke a tooth, it was all I could do to afford to see a dentist about it at all. So he does his x-rays.

He comes back. He tells me I'm going to need a root canal. And I don't remember the price exactly, but it was something like 900 bucks. comes back, he tells me I'm going to need a root canal. And I don't remember the price exactly, but it was something like 900 bucks. And in the situation I was in at the time, it might as well have been nine thousand dollars or nine hundred thousand dollars, because short of getting a better job, there was no time horizon over which I could save a thousand bucks. You know, no sooner would I get a some kind of close to half that amount and my car would break down or my wife would need some medical work or something like that. My other option, of course, was just to suffer until the tooth died,

at which point they could extract it for a much more reasonable sum. So that's what I did. Got to 10 years and a couple of fucked up teeth later and my financial situation had changed dramatically. I wasn't rich by anybody's definition, but I had enough money to keep the lights on year round. So I went back to the dentist and I said, hey, doc, what will it take to fix my mouth? So he does all his x-rays. He comes back and he says, oh, you're going to need three X's, two Y's, half a dozen Z's, etc. It's going to come to about $14,000. Again, I don't remember the exact amount, but it was something like that. It was something like what it would have cost me to buy another car new. And at this point, I probably could have saved $14,000 over

a year or two. But it's not like my teeth were the only pressing problem I had to deal with. At that point, Lucinda was sick. We had no insurance and none of the doctors could figure out what the fuck was wrong with her. So I continued with the suffer until I get rich plan that had been working so well for me up until then. So cut ahead another decade and you're in the present day. More or less, I go to the dentist i say hey man i finally got the 14 grand for the first time in my life i'm financially stable enough and devoid of other emergencies and i can get my face fixed so the dentist does his x-rays he comes back and he says it's too late now don't get me wrong they're still going to take my 14 grand it's just that i'm not going to have fixed teeth at the end of it and look i'm obviously

portraying myself in the best possible light here, right? It's a lot harder to sympathize with me in this story. If I mentioned the $50 a day coke habit I had my late 20s or the fact that I left a job with insurance to hacky sack for a living, I'm not trying to portray myself as a hapless victim of life, but mine is a pretty damn common story, right? My lack of 900 bucks a few times in my 20s leads to thousands more dollars for worse results in my 40s. The point is, it's really expensive to be poor. If I was rich, I'd invested a hell of a lot less money in dental care to this point in my life,

and I'd have much better teeth. And this is only one of a million examples of the various poverty traps that can so easily turn temporarily running low on money into permanently destitute. Right. You'll often hear pundits talk about how many of us are one medical emergency away from poverty. But for an awful lot of people, it doesn't take cancer. It's going to take a faulty fuel pump. Right. Before you know it, you're taking out a payday loan, even knowing that you're going to pay a trillion percent APR because the other option is not having a car and therefore not having a payday. Of course, if I could, I'd go to the ATM, I'd get that 900 bucks, I'd reach back through a time portal and hand it to my younger self, but I can't. So instead, the best thing that I can do

is take 900 bucks and hand it to some other 22 year old that's in the same position. Right. I can't undo my own suffering, but I could prevent somebody else's. You know, look, we've had a ton of fun doing vulgarity for charity, and it's easy for us to focus on the big dollar amounts of the endless stream of insult requests. But at the core, there are real human beings whose entire lives can be set on a different course because of your donation. And when I look at the modest needs homepage, I see a mother of two who needs car repairs to get to work. I see a single mother of four who just got a job and needs some help while she's waiting for that first paycheck. I see a disabled veteran who needs help

with his mortgage while his paperwork is making its way through the VA. And I see countless other people just like them who are at a low point in their lives and need to be reminded that the world is filled with people like you. Generous, loving, caring human beings that will help another person for no reason but the bonds they share as humans. That's what humanism is, right? And nothing serves to better evangelize for humanism than being a humanist. They're talking about your Jesus.

We interrupt this broadcast and bring you a special news bulletin. Joining me for headlines tonight are the Howard Cosell and Don Meredith to my Frank Gifford, Heath Enright and Eli Bosnick Phillips. Are you ready for some free thought? I'm assuming those are cold remedies of some kind i was born in 1987 i don't know free thought party let's do this yeah for most of the 70s and 80s though breathing through your nose near those guys would definitely make you feel better for sure from a cold cancer cocaine, cocaine withdrawal, whatever. Yeah, really. A wide array of things they can help you with.

Just about anything. All right. Well, quick while I convince Eli that those were the Apollo 11 astronauts, we're going to take a quick break and tell you how you can play along with vulgarity for charity. There were 11 of them. Hey, podcast listener. Your dad looks like a fat Tim Allen. Your dad looks like a fat Tim Allen. Your dad looks like a fat Tim Allen.

As you may already know, here on The Scathing Atheist, once a year we team up with our buddies Tom and Cecil over at Cognitive Dissonance and insult people for good. Fat dog, fat cat, fat baby, fat, fat, lemon fat, lion fat, fat, fat. So here's how it works. Fat people. Head on over to modestneeds.org, give $50 or more, and then send your receipt to vulgarityforcharity at gmail.com.

That's vulgarityforcharity at gmail.com, along with who you'd like us to insult, a picture if they're not famous, and we'll give them the burn they deserve on an upcoming episode of The Scathing Atheist or Cognitive Dissonance. Your kid looks like someone sat on a hat. Your kid looks like someone sat on a hat. Your kid looks like someone sat on a hat. But there's more. This year, a generous supporter is matching our first $100,000 in donations,

so whatever you give is doubled. But don't wait to donate. We'll be doing these in order, and if you wait to the last minute, Eli might accidentally move you to a folder that only he knows about and forget you for three months. That happened one time. Once again, that's modestneeds.org. Send proof of your donation to

vulgarityforcharity at gmail.com. Vulgarity for Charity. Being bad never felt so good. And now, back to the headlines. In our lead story tonight, $1,100,000 could buy you 22,000 Vulgarity for charity roasts. It could provide 569,950 meals for homeless people.

You could buy enough crush-resistant ball pit balls to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool to a depth of four feet, even if you didn't get a wholesale discount. Okay, I wanted to swim around like Scrooge McDuck. I was doing a thing. I know. I get it. I get it. I'm bored. Gold is harder than you think. And this is the option that the state of Pennsylvania went with.

The gold coins hurt. You could use it to defend a blatantly discriminatory state government policy that bars atheists from delivering invocations in your statehouse. Fuck. Hey, Pennsylvania, maybe instead, I don't know, print out a couple extra copies of that report for your politicians to read.

The one you did. Yeah, right. I'm just spitballing. Atheists are not the problem. Money to spend on copies at Kinko's. I don't know. You can get a lot for that. Now, this was already a pretty fucked up story before we saw the tab.

So let me back up. The state of Pennsylvania has been aptly described as Philadelphia on one on one side pittsburgh on the other and the bible belt in between and this is america so they open every legislative session with somebody blathering about jesus yeah and if central pennsylvania is the bible belt then harrisburg the capital is right on the bible's taint yeah it is right there it is biblical taint so back in 2014, atheist Carl Silverman said, hey, you know, uttering those opening magic spells looks like fun. Can I play? And the state told him, no, because you're an atheist.

And that's weird since you're not supposed to have separate atheist laws. So this eventually winds up in front of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which ultimately decides that, yeah, actually, Pennsylvania can have separate laws for for atheists. I told you. No, no, not where the story's going. OK, yeah, different laws. So all that wrapped up over the summer. But until this week, we didn't know exactly how many taxpayer dollars were spent defending this bigotry. And as of last week, we know the number.

And it is, in fact, the staggering sum of 4.4 million crush resistant ball pit balls or in today's money 1.1 million dollars and this happened between 2014 and 2017 that's when they spent it so heath and i paid a part of that yeah oh it's good to know good thing we're on to ohio and georgia now where our tax dollars will never again be appropriated for legally dubious religious overreach. Yeah, Mr. Bad People from Jersey in the intro. At least I don't pay John Kasich's salary. You guys remember John Kasich? You guys remember that guy?

Simpler time. Yeah, John Kasich. But I get where you're going, but CNN actually pays John Kasich's salary now. He got an electoral vote, by the way. He did. He got one. He got one faithless elector in Texas. That was for him.

Who was like, I'm going to do the right thing and vote for John Kasich. And in Isn't It Moronic News tonight, regular listeners to the show may remember a couple of years ago when we reported on the official implementation of Sharia law in the Indonesian province of Aceh and the Aceh Aluma Council or MPU, which oversees it. These laws punish same sex acts, drinking and adultery with public caning, imprisonment and even execution.

implicating imprisonment and even execution right well because alcohol can cause reprehensible public behavior and in some cases violence so they prevent that by torturing people in the street it makes sense yep yeah they read cat's cradle and they were like oh yeah this is perfect we're san lorenzo every crime get metal hooked through your stomach nobody does crimes anymore we're the good guys we fucking nailed this we're nailed it what is happening people need to learn to read in one week of news we have confusion about the good guys from cat's cradle and inherit the wind it's not clear to these people the good guys in those books and the bad guys in those books shorter books that's the secret well it's a short book they're both short those are pretty too long well this week one of that board's members, Mooklis bin Mohammed, was caught with another woman that he was not married to, got his ass caned 28 times, and the schadenfreude

is sweet. Now, obviously, it goes without saying that two thirds of us here at The Scaling Atheist are against the brutality of Sharia law, even when it punishes hypocritical jerks. That said, maybe we should start trying something similar here in the United States. Huh. I wonder what that would be like. Would be like. Senator Johnson. Senator Johnson. Senator Johnson. Senator Johnson. Question. Question. One at a time. Yes, Phil. Senator Johnson, you are the first politician to undergo President Bosnick's fair is fair laws. How do you feel? Well, as a Christian, I must admit I find these laws stringent, but I'm prepared for the consequences of my actions.

Senator, Senator, about these consequences. Your punishment includes death threats to you and your family as well as a public shaming campaign how do you think that'll affect you wait death threats yeah death threats you know fair is fair right so death threats fair is fair well i'm sure that i'm a crazy person part of your punishment is that i'm gonna show up to all your events until i'm explicit enough to get a restraining order do you like coffins i'm sorry was that not explicit enough it was not senator um last question why are you dressed like that would you call yourself a squad what do you say to the president tweeting your home address and a picture with a bullseye over your face. Um, fair is fair.

Fair is fair. I mean, at least he's consistent, right? He is, Rebel Rebel. I'm going to send you a bomb! And next up in headlines, eat more Popeye's chicken, spelled weird like the cow from the thing. They just, at Popeye's chicken, spelled weird like the cow from the thing. They just, at Popeye's, re-released their chicken sandwich, and America is freaking the fuck out.

I'm not sure why a chicken-themed restaurant chain would put their chicken sandwich on hiatus. Apparently they did that. But now it's back, and it's so goddamn amazing people are getting stabbed over it literally stabbed i googled popeyes to see if anyone explained why they were creepily withholding their signature sandwich okay don't take it personally and all the results were not about that they They didn't explain that. They were about a guy getting stabbed to death in Maryland for cutting the line to get a new old chicken sandwich, and that sounds pretty bad,

but at least they're not Chick-fil-A. Let's keep that in mind. Let's have some perspective. That does sound bad, but getting stabbed in the line at a Popeye's is at least three notches higher on my would-you- than eating in a chick-fil-a so you are correct that checks out also keith i don't know where this story is going but if you're about to tell me that popeyes made a billboard about those cows kicking their gay son out of the house

i will go back to eating meat just to support this company. So just in case anyone missed it, Chick-fil-A is run by evangelical Trump-supporting homophobic bigots. And we've had some pretty fun news about them recently, actually. Last month, their newest location got ousted from a British mall, like right away.

And here in the US, their offer of free food got refused by public school teachers public school teachers for whom a chicken sandwich makes up way too much of their annual salaries as a percentage but it got even better last week in celebration of national sandwich day on sunday november 3rd chick-fil-A sent out promotional ads trying to get everyone to buy their sandwich on the day of the week that their entire chain is closed because they're crazy people who think God declared a day of chicken sandwich rest. Their God is way too obsessed with

people putting cocks in their mouths. Who? When? It's a whole thing. Sorry sorry did god say cock or foot either way let's spend a bunch of money to tell people to come here when we're closed we'll get them both at the same time everybody wins yeah so this story is definitely about ridiculing chick-fil-a for being stupid and hateful but more importantly popeyes is opposite. Despite what you might think from a chain whose slogan was Louisiana fast, last I checked, Popeye's is one of the few American restaurant chains that does not donate to the politics of Christian evil. But most importantly, this story is about the Popeye's chicken sandwich. It is fucking delightful. Have you guys had this? No. It's so good. You're asking a vegan and a guy who who never eats you don't eat fast food chicken sandwiches though i barely eat anything

that's not like if you're gonna eat like four things that's not gonna be on your list right oh it's so good add it make a fifth i'm just saying put an amendment in there i literally paused in the middle of this story and went out to get one. In Kentucky. I went to Kentucky for this. I crossed state lines to get one. Totally worth it. So I'm not saying that line cutter deserved to get stabbed,

but I am saying that. I'm not saying he didn't deserve. It's okay to get, that's reasonable. Quick before this turns into a full-blown confession, we're going to pause for a word from our sponsor it was in maryland and andrew was in italy it wasn't any of us hey eli um what's what's with the beard of bees oh hey yeah i'm thinning a little bit on top so i figure what better way to distract people than a beard of bees. Am I right?

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they can prescribe you medication to treat hair loss shipped directly to your door. That sounds amazing. You should make an order. Our listeners can get started with the HIMS Complete Hair Kit for just $5 today, right now, while supplies last and subject to doctor's approval. See website for full details and safety information. This could cost hundreds if you went to the doctor or a pharmacy somewhere else. Go to forhims.com slash scathing. That's F-O-R-H-I-M-S dot com slash scathing. Forhims.com slash scathing, huh? All right, Heath, I'll give it a try.

So, you've been playing the Sean Penn clip this whole time, haven't you? Yes, yes I have. Okay. A man wrote the Bible? A whore is what she wants. If it's a legitimate rape. You're a slut, right? Cooking can be fun.

Hey! I'm proud of a man. This week in Masada. So here's a question for you. When is a rape not a rape? And if you answered when you've got really good swim times, I'll give you partial credit. And if you answered when you've got really good swim times, I'll give you partial credit. And if you answered when you're nominated for the Supreme Court, I'll also give you partial

credit. And if you answered most of the time according to the conviction rates, I'll also give you partial credit. But the answer we were looking for this week was when you fall asleep in Spain. You may have already heard this story, but in case you haven't, let me fill you in on the details. Apologies in advance because it starts with five men gang raping a 14-year-old girl, and it doesn't exactly get better from there. The good news is that they got caught and got charged with rape, but the courts ultimately decided to convict them only of sexual abuse because the victim was unconscious. That's right. In the eyes of the Spanish judiciary, the fact that she was unconscious made it less rapey. Apparently, the laws in Spain define rape very narrowly, such that it has to include specific acts or threats of violence.

So I'm not sure if women sleep in groups with a rotating person on watch, but if not, maybe they should consider it. Or maybe they should just wait until their stubborn lawmakers fall asleep to take their revenge. And speaking of shoving things up people's asses, my next story is about pee robes. And I know Pat Robertson gives shockingly bad advice isn't exactly a newsflash, but this one is so bad I had to mention it. A young woman calls his show. She tells him she has a baby and her and the father aren't married, but they are considering moving in together. And she wants to know if Jesus will be all good with their cohabitation.

Now, as you can imagine, P. Robes immediately assured her that no, Jesus would not be okay with that. So no, don't move in with him. In fact, don't even date him anymore. And what's more, stop raising your kid. Judging entirely by her voice, he felt qualified to make the following assessment. Quote, you're not capable of getting into marriage. You're not capable of raising a child. You don't have the time or patience.

And all of a sudden, when the pressures of marriage and motherhood come upon you, you won't be able to handle it. End quote. And look, I'm kind of tempted to agree that any woman going to pat robertson for advice shouldn't be entrusted with the life of another human but i also recognize that she's a victim of the christian effort to devalue women especially women who have sex but i'm going to close on a kudos to the condom company trojan for an advertising campaign that seeks to counteract that they just put up an ad in washington D.C. that takes up a whole wall and is completely made of chewed gum.

In the negative gumless space, the ad reads, You are not chewed gum. A reference to the common abstinence-only claim that having sex with a woman that has lost her virginity is like chewing used gum. And look, it's a sad fucking world we live in where anybody has to sell fucking, but I'm still glad somebody's doing it. So on that high note, I'll take my leave of you and hand things back over to Noah, Heath and Eli. Thank you, Lucinda.

And in putting the option back in adoption news tonight, adopt all the kids you can quick, because if the new rule change goes through that the Trump administration just proposed and it will, goes through that the Trump administration just proposed, and it will, adoption agencies will once again have the power to discriminate based on religion or lack thereof without fear of losing their federal funding. The change would essentially gut a 2016 rule implemented in

the waning days of the Obama administration that established not so much protections for same-sex couples and people of minority faiths, but protections for children in need of loving homes from people who hate same-sex couples and minority things. Fuck. And this week, those hateful bastards fired back.

Oh, why can't the nice men who came last week bring you home, little Timmy? Okay, you know Barack Obama? No? Well, we're mad at him. Yep. Yeah. And really, we're mad about how our white christian bigotry coalition is running out of power and will be mostly extinct within a generation so you know we're uh abusing orphans

until then does that make sense to me yeah because that's yeah that's a little panic attack fucking story and to be clear the point of this rule change is to discriminate against same-sex couples right that's the overriding goal of most of the people supporting it but we atheists are more than collateral damage here many christian adoption agencies have long sought legal protections for discriminating against muslims jews atheists or anybody that doesn't accept their narrow interpretation of christianity hell miracle ministries in south carolina was famously sued when they refused to let a woman volunteer at their children's home because she was catholic are you doing a goddamn good work you are fired get the fuck out and by the way they didn't lose that suit right they did not lose that lawsuit so yeah

you atheist will lose some rights in this change even if you fuck the people that they would have you fuck. Right. Upside, though, I cannot wait for the Koch brothers funded YouTube channel by the kid who didn't want to be adopted by gay people. And like that shitty barber gets their chair open and you're waiting for the good one and you don't want to make the shitty one. Sorry. No, I just got a fax about hetero orphan stuff. I have to take this fax

back in a minute. Maybe you'll still be open. Whatever happens, happens. And I want to remind everybody that these are the but the children crowd, right? Aren't they? They're the ones that are constantly accusing people who fight for LGBTQ rights

of harming children. And they're literally using that shield to bludgeon helpless children. And it's worth noting that among the most vociferous opponents of the change are children's rights advocates, not gay rights or atheist rights

or Muslim rights activists, children's rights activists. And that makes sense when you consider that the message we're trying to send is that the religious beliefs of the children, of the orphans in their care, are not fucking proprietary. Yep.

Let me tell you, next time someone wants to talk about, you know, wedding cakes or nativity scenes, ask them how they feel about this. They get woke real quick. Unfortunately, they fucking don't. But yeah. Well, yeah, not all of them.

Some of them. And finally tonight, we have a story about my favorite new evangelical Republican. Oh, yeah. He is not famous. He fucking needs to be, though. His name is Adrian Rangel.

And he made the news this week after his failed attempt at suing twitter because they curtailed his free speech in particular his genocide announcement that's the free speech he's talking about not surprised you know how the founding fathers wanted the constitution to guarantee life liberty and retweets about mass murder yes um yeah well apparently jack dorsey that sjw cuck who runs twitter took away adrian wrangle's constitutional right to call for mass genocide by hanging of all the godless heathens in government who don't support Donald Trump. He did that.

He got in trouble on Twitter. So he tried to sue Twitter for $1 billion. Exactly. I would bet every penny I have that someone had to tell him he had to take the muahaha out of his deposition. No, but that actually is a fair price, though. Good genocide is worth an easy billion dollars. If I've learned nothing else from Volkswagen. Yeah, that's, I mean, Google,

the origin of Volkswagen's money. So here's a quick background about Adrian Rangel. He goes by the Twitter handle of at religious erpico because it's fucking stupid. I actually checked and at religious serpico is available if that's what he's going for. Then it wouldn't be a portmanteau. The ass is doing double duty there. You get it? Not even really a portm really important either way but yeah he's an idiot and according to wrangle's profile he's the ceo of something called

high tech corp well high ec corp was already taken he had to come up with something different yeah he's also a retired private detective who apparently retired in order to become the CEO of the corporation called High Tech Corporation. Yep. And he's also a born again Christian, but specifically King James Version only. Oh, okay. Born again Christian. Very clear about that. Only his reborn again Christian.

And his last two tweets are a video of Donald Trump posted by Donald Trump that says jobs, jobs, jobs that Rangel retweeted. And then next to that, his other tweet, Rangel also made a retweet of Donald Trump retweeting his own tweet about jobs, jobs, jobs. tweet about jobs jobs jobs and for this amazing curation of content wrangle has 149 followers most of which are all 1 million moms if i had to guess the valuation makes sense so i i will say it's tough to start a genocide with such a small number of followers at first he thought he had hit on something he had an idea to get around it so with like the but every guy you murder murder six other guys plan but you have to do that that didn't work out as well as he thought so the feud with twitter all started when mr erpico tweeted the phrase hang them all in reference to all the liberal politicians just all in reference to all the liberal politicians just all of them and it turns out calling for the execution of all the government leaders that you don't like is a minor violation of twitter's official policy well unless you just don't like the muslim ones in which case they might make an

exception yeah right very possible yeah so for that minor violation calling for execution, Rangel got suspended for a few days and each day was worth about three hundred thirty three point three million dollars damage to his free speech. complaining that Trump was elected by a miracle from the Christian God, specifically the King James Christian God, I guess. Thank you. Thank you. And therefore, Rangel's religious beliefs are inextricably intertwined with his support of Donald Trump. And that means you have to let him organize mass executions on Twitter, or else it's persecution against Christianity.

His King James Christianity. Honestly, I'm just surprised that wasn't like Jack's official opinion when he was asked about it on Joe Rogan. Yeah, well, and I'm surprised that this guy managed to come up with a more coherent claim of persecution than Stephen Breyer's concurrence on Trinity Lutheran. So yeah, shocking for everybody there.

Yeah, so this story ends with some good news and some bad news. The good news, religious Urpico did not win $1 billion. That didn't happen. The bad news, I could not find any video or a transcript of a very real judge having to deal with this lawsuit in his real job in real reality which happened and i'm very disappointed if anybody can find that a transcript a video anything

please let us know i want to see that i want to hear it i want to know what happened we are turning it into a musical yesterday all right well quick before the supreme court decides to overturn this we're going to close the headlines for the night heath eli thanks as always popeye stab which and when we come back dave warnock will point out that luke eric has a weird definition of luck. Hey, Santa, what's the matter? Oh, hello there, Twinkle Toes. Sorry you have to see me like this.

It's just that Santa is never going to be able to afford presents for all the good little boys and girls this year. Well, Santa, why don't you try Honey? I mean, like a couple kids will be into that, but I think they prefer toys. No, no, Honey. Honey is a free browser extension that automatically finds the best promo codes whenever you shop online. This means that you'll always get the best deals even without trying on over 20,000 sites such as Amazon, eBay, J.Crew, Sephora, Expedia, Target, Best Buy, and more. Whoa, but does it really work? Oh, it sure does. Eli bought a Switch with Honey and saved almost $50. $50?

That's a lot of scratch. It sure is. If you're buying gifts this holiday season, then you need Honey. If you're not, you probably know someone who is, so do them a solid and tell them about Honey. Honey can help make sure that you're getting the best price for whatever you're buying. It's free to use and installs in just two clicks. Get Honey for free at joinhoney.com slash scathing. That's joinhoney.com slash scathing. My goodness, Twinkle Toes, you've

saved Christmas. Thanks, Santa, but for like the 50th time, my name is Gary. Oh, I know, I'm roasting you. Oh. Quinkle toes. I was with an atheist friend and his ever so slightly religious wife a couple of weeks ago. And when the subject of religion came up, she explained away her spiritualism with a single sentence. I just don't want to believe that nothing happens when I die. Now, that's not exactly a sound epistemological argument in favor of the existence of God, but it's honest and it's the reason that a lot of people remain religious. As atheists, we don't talk enough about death.

And perhaps it's because we know you just die isn't as appealing as eternal paradise in terms of the marketing, but our reluctance to talk about it, our reluctance to own our own mortality continues to be an arrow in religion's quiver. And that's why tonight's guest, Dave Warnock, is dying out loud. Dave, welcome to The Scathing Atheist. Hey, good to be here. Thanks. Yeah. Okay. So normally introducing the guests is my job. That's kind of the whole reason I'm here. But in your instance, I'd kind of rather let you present your story. So can you tell us briefly how you came to be here? Yeah, I've been an atheist for about eight years.

And prior to that, I was an evangelical charismatic Christian for the better part of three and a half decades, 36, 37 years. Okay, so sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you so quickly. No, that's fine. charismatic Christian for the better part of three and a half decades, 36, 37 years. Okay, so sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you so quickly. No, that's fine. For those of us who don't come out of a religious tradition, what does it mean to say you were a charismatic Christian? Is that just like one of the many slices? Yeah, it's one of the many flavors of Christianity. What it has to do, it's kind of a hybrid Pentecostal.

We spoke in tongues. We believed in the gifts of the Spirit. We're laying on of hands, healing, prophecy, those kinds of things. We viewed the Bible as the inerrant, inspired word of God. It wasn't just a book of good stories. It was God speaking to man. So fairly fundamentalist in our flavor. Okay.

And not very charismatic in my experience either. Okay. Yeah. All right. So, and you said you were involved in that for decades. Yeah. About 36 years from the time of the age of 18, I got caught up in the Jesus movement. And for much of those years, I was on staff at churches in pastoral ministry. So, I did the marrying and the burying and teaching and preaching and baptizing and all those things. So I say that to say that I was not a casual weekend only kind of Christian. I was all in all the time. It was everything to me.

It was my life until it wasn't. And when I woke up about eight years ago, I realized that it wasn't true, that I had believed lies, I had been fooled, and I was pretty pissed. I was sad and angry and disoriented and disillusioned and not quite sure what to do with the rest of my life at that point. Yeah, I mean, you know, for a person like myself, again, I wasn't raised with a lot of religion. My parents said, yeah, yeah, there's a Jesus, go look it up. And so when I came to that same realization, obviously much younger than you did, it was for me, it was like, you know, I just wake up one day and I went, huh, that makes way more sense. Yeah. I snap my fingers and I move on with my life.

But, you know, when your life is very much defined by your religion and by your attachment, your relationship to Christ, et cetera, et cetera, that's got to be a hard thing to sever. So like, was it a sort of a sudden realization? Was it something that you sort of held at arm's length as long as you could? Yeah, you hold it off for a while. There's over the years in that kind of world, you know, the Bible, the God we believed in was a very present God. He was active. You prayed to him.

He did things. He spoke to you. He moved all those things. So it was a God that we viewed as very involved in our lives. He wasn't just some big daddy in the sky that started things off. He was very much a part of our daily life. So to come out of that and to come out of that environment, that culture, where in every fiber of my life, my family, my children, everything, my friends, my whole community was wrapped up in it. It's very traumatic. In fact, there's a designated thing called religious trauma syndrome. It's been verified by the mental health people.

And it's a thing. There are a lot of people that are severely traumatized by what they learned as a youth. And then coming out of that, breaking up of families, of marriages, my own included, having to do with moving on from what someone like you and the people that didn't grow up with it look at it like, it's a bunch of fairy tales. What a bunch of bullshit. How can these people believe that shit? But we were all in. It was everything to us. And so coming out of that is very traumatic and disorienting. Well, and you alluded to this just now. I hate to say this, your story was quite tragic even before the terminal diagnosis gets factored in. You said your marriage was broken up because of your change of belief there?

Yeah. And I've got three adult children and two of them, my two daughters, don't have much to do with me. They pretty much disassociated from me when I became an atheist because they felt like they needed to hold me at arm's length and not embrace my apostasy and my rebellion against God. Their view is that I'm rebelling against God and that I need to repent and return to him. rebellion against God. Their view is that I'm rebelling against God and that I need to repent and return to him. So to have me in their lives is to, in essence, endorse my sin, and they just can't do that. So I lost my relationship with my daughters, my grandchildren, and my marriage ended up breaking. I left that marriage because it was just, I was unable to continue to be married to an evangelical fundamentalist Christian who in all ways was better than her theology. But still, it was a theology I could not stay connected to because it's so problematic for me.

And I believe that that culture does a lot of damage to a lot of people. And I can't be connected to it. I can certainly understand that. So largely you lose your support network. You largely lose connection to your family. And then this year things take a turn for the worse for you. Yeah. So I'd been moving on with my life.

I kind of rebooted things about three years ago, left my marriage, was living my best life in all ways. I was very comfortable with who I was living as an atheist. I've got a vibrant atheist community here in, in middle Tennessee, around Nashville. And, um, a lot of ex-Christian atheists that I do do life with, you know, that's my family in essence, that's my community. And I've been loving, you know, living downtown Nashville, having a good time. And then February of this year, I get diagnosed with ALS and that kind of changed everything. Well, I get, you know, obviously in preparation for this interview, I did my best to try to put

myself in your shoes and obviously that's not possible. So if you could kind of, I don't mean to be callous here and if you're not comfortable with it. Oh, nothing's off limits. I've been talking about this for eight months now, so I've heard it all, bro. Okay. So can you kind of tell us like what are the, what do you do immediately after that? What do you do the next hour, the next day? Yeah. Well, you know, people can research it. ALS is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. And you're told you have three to five years to live. It's basically a wasting of your muscles. Your muscles quit working in different parts of your body. So for me, my symptoms began in my fingers and hands and arms, and I get increasingly weak in those areas. And then it's going to move

from there to either my respiratory system, my tongue and mouth, or it'll go to my legs. And it's just hard to know where it'll go next or how fast it'll go. So I immediately began to let people know that there were friends and family that knew I was seeing doctors and I let them know what it was and made a few phone calls. And I was working in the insurance business and kept doing that for another week or two. But then I made some pretty quick decisions to change everything. I retired from working. I moved in with friends rather than being alone in an apartment. And I started selling stuff and giving stuff away, making plans to travel

and go places I wanted to go and see people I wanted to see. And that in a month or two morphed in from just me traveling for my own pleasure. It morphed into this dying out loud thing that kind of came out of it, wherein I was traveling around and have been traveling around for the last six months all over the country, talking to people, secular groups, colleges, universities about dying and about living and what that means in light of facing a terminal illness as an atheist. That's the essence of what I've been doing for the last six months. a terminal illness as an atheist. That's the essence of what I've been doing for the last six months. All right. So there tends to be this, and I consider this very bizarre, but this assumption outside of atheism that a lack of belief in the afterlife necessarily breeds nihilism. If life isn't eternal, it's meaningless. And I've never had any trouble rejecting that argument, but I've always done so from the privileged position of a guy that does not have an ALS diagnosis.

So let me ask you, are you dealing with the feeling that there is and was no point? No, in fact, the flip of – I think the reverse of that is true, Noah. And I've talked about this a lot in my meetings and on podcasts and YouTube shows and things like that. meetings and on podcasts and YouTube shows and things like that. The idea that what I come from is evangelical Christianity, wherein they view this life as a dress rehearsal for the real thing. And they've got this fetish for the afterlife. And so what that does by default, it minimizes the value of this life. It makes this life more meaningless, not less meaningless. And so when you realize that this life is the only one you have and it's precious and it's brief and it's unpredictable and anything can happen, then what that causes you to do, what it has

caused me to do is value every moment, every day, every experience I can get with people that I care about. And it enhances everything. The colors are brighter. The smells are stronger. Everything is more intense and more wonderful than it was before the diagnosis. And certainly more so than it was when I was a Christian because I realized the beauty of this life and I make my own meaning. That idea that there's no meaning and purpose without God is just fucking bullshit. There's more meaning and more purpose because this is what we have

and we control it and we live with the consequences, good or bad. And it makes everything more important, more vibrant, more wonderful in my view. Yeah, it's an argument I've never really understood because all the things in the world that we value are finite and it is the fact that they are finite that gives them value. Yeah, that idea that because there's nothing after this life, you know, in your intro, this without an afterlife, what's the value of this life? That's like saying, because the movie's going to end, why watch it? Or because this meal is going to be over in a few minutes and I'm going to not be able to enjoy this steak anymore. Why even bother? Well, because, you know, you'll be hungry tomorrow. So

that kind of logic escapes me, honestly, because it's not logic. Yeah. OK, so have you gone skydiving, Rocky Mountain climbing 2.7 seconds on a bullman named Fu Manchu? Yeah. Well, I haven't done that yet. I've had since I've been doing all these shows, I've had people reaching out to me literally from all over the world, inviting me to come stay here, come go there. I've got a place in the Swiss Alps. I'd love for you to come stay. I've got a place in Spain overlooking the ocean. A guy somewhere, I can't remember where, said, I've got a skydiving company and I want to take you on my treat to come jump out of an airplane. So I thought about that song when he said that.

I thought, oh, all I need now is a bull riding company to contact me. I'll complete the trifecta. But I look at things. People ask me all the time, do you have any bucket list things and things you want to do, places you want to see? And there's, man, there's so many places I want to go. And I know that I'm not going to get to them. I just got back from Italy this year. I had that trip planned even before the diagnosis, but I'm most likely going to do the UK next year because I've got a couple of speaking things over there that want me to come and some people I want to connect with. But there's no way. I mean, even you with a full life ahead of you, you're not going to get to all the places in the

world. So, you know, you pick and choose and do the most you can. But my bigger moments, my bigger bucket list is just to have the opportunity more and more so to pour into people, to connect with people, to talk with them. This has been one of the most gratifying times of my life, Noah. And it sounds weird to say that when I get a terminal diagnosis and I've got a short window ahead of me, but still the opportunity to be talking about stuff like living and dying and atheism and Christianity to a wide audience and having the incredible response that I've had from people all over the world that are getting some inspiration from the

stuff I'm saying. It's just been, it's probably been the most meaningful stuff I've ever done. And that includes all the time I did pastoring where I thought I was doing, you know, good stuff there. And I was trying to do good stuff there, but I looked back and realized that I was not, I was not really helping people by, by fostering the idea of, of this fairy tale thing. All right. So I think you've already more or less answered this question, but I want to throw it out there anyway, because I think it's an important one to reflect on. Obviously, atheism is not something that we choose, right? Nobody woke up one day and said, you know, I'd rather live in a life without a loving God that cares about me.

I'd rather not have eternal paradise or whatever. It's a realization and it's knowledge. You can't turn knowledge off. If you could take a pill right now and go back in time and be a person who sincerely believed that you had an eternal life in paradise ahead of you, would you take that pill? No. No. Because having seen both sides of this coin and I've had people ask me, what would it have been like if you'd have been diagnosed with ALS as a Christian? Well, it would have been very problematic because in that world, you have to factor God into everything. Where's God in this? What's God saying? What's God doing? Whereas in the world that we live in, the world of reality where life is what it is and you accept it for what it is, you just take it and move on. You don't have to

figure all this shit out. It's just life is what it is. And I would not want to live in a world where there's an eternal life and or eternal death, heaven and hell. Because first of all, that concept itself, it's just ridiculous. Anything that lasts forever just doesn't make sense. And so I would not want that world because then that would make this life less meaningful, less important, and less valuable. And I wouldn't want to minimize this life because I think this life is pretty damn cool. And what a tragedy it really is how many people in your position decide to dedicate a large portion of their remaining time to getting right with God, right? Or whatever it is that Christianity would have you do in that time. Yeah, it is sad. I've connected with a lot of ALS people since this,

because, you know, whatever thing that's going on in your life, you become a part of that club, so to speak. If you get cancer, then you're connected with cancer people and so on. And so many of them just seem to be biding their time with, you know, and you're connected with cancer people and so on. And so many of them just seem to be biding their time with, you know, and they're spending time with family and whatever. And that's great. But I just, it feels like many of them are trying really hard not to die. In other words, trying to find the next thing. Is there a medicine somewhere? Is there a doctor that's got a special thing? Can I take these 16 supplements? And focused on, okay, what kind of equipment am I going to need? And I know I'm going to need to

deal with all that stuff down the road, but right now I'm a little bit too busy living than spending all that time figuring out how not to die. Yeah. All right. So, you know, obviously coming as you do from the South and from an evangelical background, I'm sure you still have a lot of religious friends and family. Have they largely respected your beliefs about this, or are you being inundated with exhortations to come back to God before it's too late? I haven't been, and that's been puzzling to me because most of my family is still evangelical Christians. family is still evangelical Christians and several friends, several of them hung around after, you know, most of them left when I booted Christianity out the door. Most of them kind of went away because they didn't want to deal with an atheist. But those that have been around, those that are still in my life, my life have been largely silent. And it's been puzzling to me

because if they really believe that when I die, I'm going to go to hell, then I would think they would be banging on my door to try one more thing, one more book. Look at this, Dave. Have you thought of this? But they've not been. And I really don't know what that means. It could mean several things. They may think my heart is so hardened that I wouldn't listen to them. And that's probably true. I've got such a hard heart. I wouldn't listen to them. And that's probably true. I've got such a hard heart. But maybe they just don't really believe it themselves. I don't know. But one of the goals that we have, we're going to be working on a documentary. In fact, we started filming some stuff last week in Seattle about my life. And one of the things I really want to show is that contrast between Christians and atheists upon my diagnosis and

to show the incredible support and loving community that I have around me that are atheists, ex-Christian atheists who have compassion and kindness and caring, and they're not angry, mean, wicked people. They're beautiful people who just don't happen to believe in God. All right. So I've saved this question for last. I think it's obviously the most important question. From your perspective, what matters? In my dying out loud message, the things I talk about the most are, I have a phrase that I've been living by for several years called carpe the fucking diem. And it's really just about the moments, grabbing the moments that life has to offer. So,

a simple sentence would be, what matters the most is the moments. And it may sound like a little cliche-ish trite thing, but it's really not if we recognize what it is. And it just simply means that life is nothing more than a collection of moments. There's no big plan or scheme that all fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. It's just random moments that we piece together and make meaning out of. And what that does, if we're aware of that, if we're cognizant of the moments, if we make room for them, if we give them a chance to happen, then we're aware of that, if we're cognizant of the moments, if we make room for them, if we give them a chance to happen, then we're going to make space for people in our lives that matter. We're going to have quality relationships. We're going to spend quality time. And those are things

we all know are true. But what happens is we get caught up in life and we get caught up in the mundane and the trivial and we get sidetracked by distractions and annoyances and frustrations, anxiety, stress, all those things that make up life. Well, what I've been able to do because of this diagnosis is I've been able to filter out all that stuff and just focus on what matters because I've got this tunnel vision about grabbing the moments and making the most of life. And so that's what I talk about it. That's what I talk about. And that's what seems to be resonating with people

that I'm hearing from. It's helping them kind of reorganize themselves and reprioritize life and what matters and what doesn't matter. And we've got these bracelets people order called WWDD, What Would Dave Do? And that's a whole other story that just kind of happened organically. And people are wearing t-shirts that we have just as a reminder that, you know what, we can focus on what's important and what matters. And if we do,

we'll have a better life and we'll have better quality days. So to answer that question, that simple question with a long-winded response, the moments are what matters. Awesome. Awesome. Well said, man. Well, if our audience wants to keep track of you and hear more from you, where should they go? Do you have like a schedule of where you'll be speaking? Yeah, the calendar's on the website. The website's really simple. DaveOutloud.com. Dying Out Loud was taken, so Dave Out Loud was second best. But the calendar is on the website. We're adding dates all the time.

I'm scheduled up through. You mentioned the Nashville Nuns. I'm actually going to speak at NanoCon next spring, so that's on the schedule. Just stuff everywhere. And what I love more than anything else, when I go speak somewhere like, I was out in Seattle last week and we had a little meetup. So we let people know we're going to be in town and people that have been following Dying Out Loud or have heard me on a show or seen me on a YouTube show or whatever, they come out and meet and we hang out and we get to know each other and we have those human connections. And I love that more than anything. So if I'm going to be in your area and you've heard me on a show and you want to meet and hang

out and have a drink, then that's giving a chance for the moments to happen right there. Awesome. Well, and of course we'll have that linked on the show notes as well as along with your Facebook page there. I got to say, Dave, on behalf of myself and the audience, I want to thank you for giving us this transparent view into such a personal ordeal. And I believe no guest that we've ever talked to on this show knew the value of a moment more than you. So I want to thank you for sharing this one with us. Oh, man, thank you, Noah. My pleasure to be here.

to be here before we put her in park for the night i wanted to let you know that as of this recording we are on pace to raise 100 000 with vulgarity for charity this week every penny of that is getting matched so we could feasibly raise a fifth of a million bucks this year but we're going to need your help to pull it off remember to check the show notes for details or check our social media because we're plastering that shit everywhere anyway that's all the blasphemy we've got for you tonight but 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 on monday and even newer episode of our sister show's hot friend god awful 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, I'd be a sad imitation of me if I neglected to thank Heath Enright for his wit and wisdom, Eli Bosnick for mostly just his wit, and Lucinda Lusions for more things than the show's runtime will allow me to detail. And also, by the way, Heath did not have a three-degree temperature.

I meant to say three-digit temperature in the outro last week, and it felt really stupid, and it was too late to change it once I heard it. I also want to thank Dave Warnock one more time for kind of inspiring the fuck out of me tonight i will have links to where you can hear more from him on the show notes as well i also want to thank andrew from the stop button.com for providing this week's farmsworth quote you're going to find his blog

linked on the show notes of course and also andrew sorry saw your email a little too late to wish your wife a happy birthday but happy belated birthday andrew's wife most of all of course i want to thank this week's best people, Eric, Matthew, Stephen, James, Timothy, Lydia, Alabama, and Atheist, Gunther, Charlie Foxtrot, Colin, Nathan, Jai, and Alice, Queen of Hearts. Eric, Matthew, Stephen, James, and Timothy, whose condoms can double as quarantine tunnels in a pinch.

Lydia, Alabama, and Atheist, Gunther, and Charlie Foxtrot, who are so sweet sugar puts them in their coffee. And Colin, Nathan, Jai, and Alice, Queen of Hearts, whose IQs have more zeros than the 1944 Japanese Navy. Together, these 13 thoroughly thoughtful thinkers threw in on our throwdown with theocracy this week by giving us money. Not everybody has the money it takes to give us money, but if you have some, you should probably give it to Modest Needs. But if you already did that, you can also give some to us through patreon.com slash

scathingadeist, whereby you'll earn early access to an ad-free extended edition 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 skatingatheist.com. And if you'd like to help, but you spent all your money supporting Pulgarity for Charity, you've already helped plenty. But you can also help a ton by leaving us a five-star review and following at PIA Teapot on Twitter. Legal services for this podcast are provided by the law offices of P. Andrew Torres. Tim Robinson handles our social media, and our audio engineer is Morgan Clark, who also wrote all the music 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.

I feel like I'll be a good daughter, Dad, if I have a daughter. Boy, did that quiet up the have a daughter. All right. Boy, did that quiet up the room. Okay. You guys. I'm deaf. How about that? All right.

Stopping there? Stopping there. The preceding podcast was a production of Puzzle and a Thunderstorm LLC. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.