The Scathing Atheist - 492: Dear Old Dads Edition

Episode Date: July 21, 2022

In this week’s episode, we find watchmen that give Alan Moore the creeps, GOP lawmakers mansplain the myth of the clitoris during a congressional hearing, and Thomas Smith and Tom Curry will teach me how to properly roll an extension cord. --- To make a per episode donation at Patreon.com, click here: http://www.patreon.com/ScathingAtheist To buy our book, click there: https://www.amazon.com/Outbreak-Crisis-Religion-Ruined-Pandemic/dp/B08L2HSVS8/ 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 our half-sister show, Citation Needed, click here: http://citationpod.com/ To check out our sister show’s sister show, D and D minus, click here: https://danddminus.libsyn.com/ To hear more from our intrepid audio engineer Morgan Clarke, click here: https://www.morganclarkemusic.com/ --- Guest Links: Check out Dear Old Dads here: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dear-old-dads/id1627427933 Check out Lisa M. Lilly’s stuff here: http://www.lisalilly.com/ --- Headlines: New bill would crack down on Christian “health care sharing” ministries: https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/new-bill-cracks-down-on-scammy-christian-health-care-sharing-ministries/ Here’s a list of all the nonreligious candidates running for office in 2022: https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/nonreligious-candidates-2022/ The ‘Watchman Decree’ is a scary vision of Christian nationalism in action: https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/the-watchman-decree-is-a-scary-vision-of-christian-nationalism-in-action/ Penalize a shamelessly politicking Ariz. church, FFRF insists to the IRS: https://ffrf.org/news/news-releases/item/41288-penalize-a-shamelessly-politicking-ariz-church-ffrf-insists-to-the-irs Canadian Court clears the sale of 43 Catholic properties to pay sex abuse compensation: https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/court-oks-sale-of-43-catholic-church-properties-to-settle-sex-abuse-claims/ GOP Congressman Jody Hice asks if women can give birth to turtles or a breakfast taco: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/07/gop-congressman-asks-women-can-give-birth-turtles-breakfast-taco/ In the same hearing, GOP Congressman Andrew Clyde mansplains what a woman is: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/07/gop-congressman-blasted-mansplaining-woman-woman/ And GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz doesn't understand what 'bisexual' means: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/07/republican-matt-gaetz-accuses-bisexual-woman-redefining-bisexuality/ --- This Week in Misogyny: WaPo whiffs on pregnant 10 year old fact check: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/07/20/wapo-joined-right-wing-propaganda-casting-doubt-10-year-olds-post-roe-nightmare Christian group moves to outlaw online ads for reproductive services: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/16/abortion-foes-move-to-block-online-ads-for-reproductive-services-00046195

Warning, the rate of profanity rises with the temperature. This week's episode of The Scathing Atheist is brought to you by ZipRecruiter, HelloFresh, MySheetsRock, and by the new brand of frozen suppositories for those hot summer days, Asicals. Asicals, if you're not ready yet, just give climate change another couple years. And now, The Sc Skating Atheist. Hello, I am Lisa M. Lilly, novelist and host of the Buffy and the Art of Story podcast. And I'm here to tell you that we did, in fact, evolve from filthy monkey men and cave slayers. And don't make cave slayer angry. it's thursday it's july 21. And it's National Be Someone Day. So check and check.

Yeah. I'll be no illusions. I'll be Eli Bosnick. I'll be Heath Enright. And from Marjorie Terrell Bosnick's New Jersey, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Waycross, Georgia, this is The Scathing Atheist. Oh, this week's episode,

we find watchmen that give Alan Moore the creeps. GOP lawmakers mansplain the myth of the clitoris during a congressional hearing. And Thomas Smith and Tom Curry will teach me how to properly roll an extension cord. But first, the diatribe. You know what scares the shit out of me dying now you would think that that'd be one of those things that kind of goes without saying dying scares everybody even the people who purportedly believe that they're going to go to paradise

afterwards but if you follow as many atheists online as i do you could be forgiven for thinking that fearlessness in the face of death was an outright prerequisite for atheism i see this shit all the time people ask in all sincerity how atheists cope with death only to be met by a profoundly cavalier dismissal the one i most often see is attributed to mark twain right where he supposedly said i had been dead for billions and billions of years before i was born and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. And, you know, I'll admit that's a great fucking quote. I love that quote. There are situations where that is exactly the right thing to say, but there are also situations where that is a terrible thing to say. And I see it used in both types of situations about equally. To understand why, you have to

consider that fear of death is probably the number one thing standing between most Americans and outright atheism. Set aside the extremists for the time and just lump in all the non-churchgoing Christians with the spiritual but not religious types and I kind of have my own religion, folks. If you could inject all of those people with some kind of truth serum that would force them to be honest with both you and themselves, most of them would admit that the chief benefit they get from the semi-religious status they have is some ambiguity about death. These aren't people who have hard and fast answers to what happens when you die. They're not even people who want hard and fast answers to that question.

The more concrete the answer, the easier it's going to be for their mind to chip away at it. So they settle into a nice fluid of, yeah, nobody really knows what happens when we die kind of attitude and they're happy to stay there forever see in a sense because of this the fundamentalist biblical literalist types are easier for us to convert their beliefs are like dense bricks being held together by a mortar of apologetics those make for pretty imposing defenses but if you can knock out one fucking brick the very weight of the construct is going to take the whole damn thing down over time. But the moderately religious people are protecting their claims less behind a wall and more behind a smoke screen. It's never

really a thing you can grab a hold of, and even when you reach for it, it retreats from you. So even if you manage to get rid of a brick's worth somehow, it's going to have no effect on the defense as a whole. And that's why when they present us with a genuine question about the thing at the center of that defense, their fear of death, we need to do better than meh. And look, I get why atheists don't want to talk about this. Religion's answer on the death question is really fucking good. Now, in our defense, they're fucking lying, right? If we got to lie, I feel like we could come up with a better afterlife than they did.

Like, here you go. You spend eternity being treated exactly how you treated your pets. Boom, done, way better. But instead, we're stuck with the truth. And the truth is that there's no reason to believe in an afterlife. And that truth is really fucking scary. So you ask religious people what happens when we die and their eyes just light up. They got streets of gold, personal planets, and rivers of honey to sell you. You ask an atheist what happens when you die and their eyes just light up they got streets of gold personal planets and rivers of honey to sell you you ask an atheist what happens when you die and as often

as not you get a whole lot of pretend ignorance and that's usually followed by cavalier mark twain quotes or something like that but look what happens when we fall into that trap of treating death is no big deal at best the person we're talking to assumes that we're lying to them they assume that we're so scared of death that we can't even admit how scared we are without risking our conviction and irrational worldview. Now, just like religious people, we're lying about death to make them and ourselves feel better. And it gets that much easier to dismiss us as no different than the other guys. And that's best case scenario. Worst case scenario is that they actually believe us.

They actually think that we're so brave that we don't fear death. As badass as that might make us look, it's very likely going to leave them with the impression that they're never going to have the kind of courage

it would take to be an atheist. But if we're honest, if we talk about the anxiety and the ennui and the fear, if we talk about the anxiety and the unwee and the fear if we talk about the glimmers of immortality that we seek from our art and our altruism and our progeny if we admit that none of that is sufficient and we confess to our moments of grief and dread then we've given them an opportunity to admit to themselves that we cope with our mortality the same damn way that they do. They're talking about you, Jesus.

I interrupt this broadcast and bring you a special news bulletin. Joining me for headlines tonight are the Equifax and Experian to my transunion, Heath Enright and Eli Bosnick. Fellas, are you ready to pay down some debts? Oh, yeah, I don't have any. I'm just going to make my coffee at home for a few weeks and then buy a house. Oh, nice. Yeah, that's how it works. Yeah. For the record, though, if I dox you, you're also entitled to seven years of identity protection from me. It's a whole thing. Yeah, we got to say, well, that would that must mean that Heath has some paperwork to fill out.

So we're going to pause for a quick word from this week's first sponsor, ZipRecruiter. Hey, podcast listener. You know, we just came back from an amazing vacation, but it wouldn't have been nearly as good without the wonderful people that made it special. Uber drivers that put up with my singing. Folks at Mallet Media who filmed our pajama party and made it look great. And, of course, a host of very patient waiters who put up with Eli's tomato juice order. You know, outstanding talent is crucial for a successful business. And if you're hiring,

you can find talent for roles like these and more at ZipRecruiter. Will you try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash scathing. What's ZipRecruiter? ZipRecruiter uses its powerful technology to find and match up the right candidates with your job. Then you can easily review the recommended candidates and invite your top choices to apply. In fact, four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. So travel to this easy to remember web destination.

What are you doing there? ZipRecruiter.com slash scathing. That's where you can try ZipRecruiter for free. Again, that's ZipRecruiter.com slash S-C-A-T-H-I-N-G. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Those waiters were really patient. Well, excuse me for bringing my own tomato juice thermometer. No.

Yeah, no. And now, back to the headlines. In our lead story tonight, three Democratic members of Congress have introduced a bill to tackle the scourge of Christian health-sharing ministries, members of Congress have introduced a bill to tackle the scourge of Christian health-sharing ministries, or as the state of New York dubbed them in a lawsuit against the nation's largest example, pseudo-insurance. See, these things are like insurance in that you pay them premiums and they send you a little card and they have a website that's basically indistinguishable from a real insurance website, save the ubiquity of Jesus references. But unlike real insurance companies, they don't suffer

from the burden of regulation or oversight so like you know imagine how generous insurance companies would be if nobody was checking up on them and you're imagining christian health share ministries yeah imagine arguing with a claims adjuster who won't send you a thought or a prayer because you're out of network for some technicality and by out of network we mean gay by right yeah sure that'll do it so we've talked about health share ministries a bit in the past and our friends over on the opening arguments podcast went into some detail about them on episode 497 of their show if you want the tldr version of that discussion the title of that episode is christian health sharing is a scam. Yep. Right on the nose. Yeah.

Right. Now, they promote themselves as a religious alternative to insurance, and they emphasize to prospective clients that they don't pay for stuff like abortion, contraceptives, or ailments brought on by a sinful lifestyle. Read AIDS, I guess. Monkeypox. Yeah. And leave them thinking those are the only things that they don't pay for.

Right. But in reality, they just pay whatever they want and decline whatever they want. and leave them thinking those are the only things that they don't pay for. Right. But in reality, they just pay whatever they want and decline whatever they want. And as you can imagine, they want to decline an awful lot. Yeah. I know this is different than real insurance companies, but so far it feels a lot the same. Right. So, OK, let me clarify. According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Charity Ministries, Get the fuck out of here. for example,

spent about 16 cents of every dollar in premiums on healthcare expenses. Fuck you. Okay, that's one-fifth of the percent that real health insurance companies are required to spend by law, and real health insurance companies are already demonically evil.

Right? And by the way, that 16 cents per dollar was before Charity filed bankruptcy last year and left over 10,000 families with unpaid bills totaling over $50 million. Yeah, okay.

Just think about this. Sometimes they just don't pay out and they went bankrupt. Yeah. That's crazy. You know how wishing wells don't go bankrupt generally this one did somehow yeah yeah they lost money as a casino that gives out communion wafers instead of chips

right but sometimes they don't even give out the wafer well yeah i was gonna say that's the thing is that they didn't lose money and therefore go bankrupt guys great now ultimately there's no legal basis to outright ban these things, but you can stop them from pretending to be a legitimate alternative to insurance, which is what the Health Share Transparency Act seeks to do. It would do stuff like require CHSMs to explain how they differ from insurance companies before customers enroll, disclose things like FTC complaints filed against them, and tell potential customers if and where they can get more

comprehensive coverage. This is a pretty common sense shit that isn't required now, but I'm sure that won't stop Christian Zealots from dubbing this as some form of persecution. Well, of course not. Okay, I love that they're going to have to put some shit at the end, like, coverage might also mean go fuck yourself and lead to fatal events.

This is real insurance. No, the fuck it's not. Micromachines. I'm looking forward to that at least yeah uh-huh i like that they have to explain where you can get more coverage just like all right well oh one last thing sorry we are legally required to tell you that anything's better than this so should we get you signed up exactly yeah it's an alternative to insurance. That's X-surance. That's insane. All right. So also, I think it's worth pointing out that two of the sponsors of this bill are Jared

Huffman and Jamie Raskin, the founding members of the Congressional Secular Caucus and Congress's only self-described humanists. And I think that serves as a great reminder of how everybody benefits from having more non-religious representation this bill is being spearheaded by humanists because let's face it all of the other representatives are scared of working against anything with the word christian in it and and let's keep in mind like the victims of these health sharing ministries are exclusively christian this isn't a case of atheists looking out for their own this is the case of humans looking out for their own begrudgingly well yeah and in news will not replace us news for most of my life

domestic terrorism by fascist bigots was obviously there but it was something we had to investigate oh granted law enforcement wasn't really trying that hard a lot of time because you know they'd be looking for themselves but at least in theory we had to look we had to find them and infiltrate their nazi themed s'mores party and get them on tape planning their crimes and then maybe arrest them well there's good news and also bad news the good news it's a whole lot easier to find them now. They just openly broadcast their neo-Nazi gatherings on national television. The bad news, it's a whole lot easier to find them now. And they just openly broadcast their neo-Nazi gatherings on national television. And we got a terrifying example recently with a Flashpoint Live event in Georgia,

with a flashpoint live event in georgia during which a bunch of christian right leaders recited a literal pledge of domestic terrorism that's not great called the watchman decree yeah so this managed to be scariest thing said by a right-wing christian leader in georgia during herschel walker's campaign see this is why i don't take andrew's emails about my tweets seriously you guys they're airing the pledge to race war in between episodes of pawn stars and he's like don't say that about supreme court justices yeah so flashpoint live if anyone's not familiar it's one of the big names in our domestic terrorism lecture circuit that we have now and during the latest event in georgia a guy named dutch sheets apparently he's like a flatulence themed porn star and also a pastor i'm not sure he led the whole group in reciting the watchman decree it's terrifying

it starts with a bunch of sentence fragments using whereas because they clearly learned that word recently and smartish ass. Yeah. So they threw that in there and then they say the following exact words all starting with we decree that they have a list of decrees. Quote, America's executive branch of government will honor God and defend the Constitution. Always fucked up when you start off by pledging that other people will do shit. Our legislative branch, Congress, will write only laws that are righteous and constitutional. They had to clarify with that big long leggy word. Somebody was like, what's that?

All right, we put Congress in parenthesis room. Here's the next one our judicial system courts courts those are courts i know that one our judicial courts will issue rulings that are biblical and constitutional it's one or the other guys come on make up your mind next up we stand against wokeness the occult and every evil attempt against our nation what okay you can taste the moment someone was writing this and going woke occult should i call it woke cult no the world's not ready for woke cult i'll just you know i'll separate it out next up we have we take back and permanently control positions of influence and leadership in each of the seven mountains. Okay, good to know.

They also decreed that the blood of Jesus covers and protects our nation. Well, can't he handle the wokeness and occultism? It seems like he's into it, if anything. He hurt his back playing softball. It seems like he's into it, if anything. He hurt his back playing softball. They also decreed that our nation is energy independent. It just is now. What?

Okay, look, I get that the blood of Jesus might be covering our nation, but now you're just being silly, guys. Come on. They also decreed that America is strong spiritually, financially, militarily, and technologically.ologically next on the list we can fly and last but not least we will operate in unity going beyond denominational lines in order to accomplish the purposes of god for our nation end of decree we'll even work with catholics y'all it's that important yeah right

not to like the other one but maybe catholics and just to be clear this wasn't just a bunch of random like strip mall pastors with no power the event included mega church leaders with huge followings and shit loads of money along with anti-choice lunatic and god-awful movies job creator Abby Johnson. And, of course, it also included Marjorie Taylor Greene. We got to watch a sitting U.S. congressperson pledge allegiance to not American democracy. Nope. Like, the J6 hearings could have just turned on Fox News and hit a fucking gavel at this point. So, bottom line, every single Republican

and every single Christian, okay, maybe all of them aren't domestic terrorists, literally, but they're all helping domestic terrorists, very literally. And we need to be telling so-called moderate Christians to shut the fuck up about religion and admit they're just part of a magic club. That's not part of real stuff. stuff and more importantly they need to admit that their magic club includes a whole bunch of very literal domestic terrorists like a lot now events like this are exactly why the atheist movement is more important than ever we have to watch the watchman yeah yeah exactly and of course we also have to fund the watchman watchers which is why we need to take a break from our second sponsor this week, HelloFresh. Ah, now we need Watchmen Watcher Watchers.

Damn it. Thanks for offering to grill lunch today, man. Ah, no problem. Now that I'm a dad, it's pretty much the only way I'm willing to cook. So what do you got there? Let's see. I've got boigers and hot dogs, brats. Sorry. Why are you saying it like that? You're saying it weird saying what like what burgers and hot

dogs, I think, but oh, no, these are boigers and not dogs beef soy and textured guava skin. See, yeah, I come on. This is too good to be true. Well, how do you guys suggest I find delicious meals to cook on the grill? Huh? Well, you could use HelloFresh.

America's number one meal kit? How do they help out when it's grill time? They've got a brand new cookout collection with recipes like melty Monterey Jack burgers, herb grilled steak with Old Bay shrimp, and their summer BBQ chicken plate. Plus, HelloFresh is 72% cheaper than

dining at a restaurant, and it's even cheaper than grocery shopping. That's money back in your pocket. Damn, that does sound good. Where do I sign up? Go to HelloFresh.com slash Scathing16 and use the code Scathing16 for up to 16 free meals and three free gifts. So I just go to HelloFresh.com slash Scathing16 and use code Scathing16 for up to 16 free meals and three free gifts?

That's right. So I'm guessing you guys don't want any of these then, huh? Wait, didn't you say you had brats? Yeah, beetroot and tomato sausage. You go to jail. Yes. A man wrote the Bible. A whore is what she wants.

If it's a legitimate rape. If it's a slut, right? Cooking can be fun. Hey, I'm proud of a man. This week in Masajid. Yo, I take a couple weeks away and these motherfuckers are trying to force a pregnancy on a 10-year-old raped victim. This is why I can't take time off. And look, I know you've already heard this story and I don't want to talk about it any more than you want to hear it.

But I've got to talk about the fucked up response to it from the right-wing pundits and the media in general. See, the source of this story was an Ohio doctor that had to call a neighboring state and say, hey, can you perform an abortion for my 10-year-old rape victim? Because I'm not sure that's still legal here. And perhaps recognizing the truth of the matter was our policies leave the fate of 10-year-old rape victims in legal limbo at best, the Republicans who put us here decided to just pretend it wasn't happening. Tucker Carlson accused the doctor of lying, and his baseless claim was echoed in other Fox shows. And it wasn't just the right-wing extremists promoting this fucked-up narrative.

The Washington Post actually ran a fact-checking article that cast doubt on it for the most absurd possible reasons. Stuff like that we hadn't heard about it directly from the 10-year-old rape victim. Now, to be clear, someone was arrested for raping a 10-year-old girl in the exact area where this was supposed to have happened right after it was supposed to have happened. That was a matter of public record when they ran the fact-check. So there's no reasonable doubt that the story is true. But even if it wasn't, nobody was questioning whether this could be true.

It absolutely could, and it could by design. So it's more than just true. It's inevitable. But the fact that it's so bad that the situation's architects are in literal public denial isn't going to stop them from making it worse. We just got word this week that the situation's architects are in literal public denial isn't going to stop them from making it worse. We just got word this week that the National Right of Life Committee is lobbying states to enact legislation that could make it a crime to advertise for abortion services via pills or otherwise. So not just a law against ads that say dial 1-800-WOON-FLUSH, but laws against ads that say, hey, did you know abortion pills were even a thing? And if the whole idea of making it illegal to share information isn't enough to scare you,

I should point out that they're modeling this whole law after the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. You know, in cop movies where they'll say, oh, now we've got them on a RICO violation, so we can arrest anybody remotely connected to any of this. Yeah, it's like that. If you publish a thing that says you can take pills to abort an unwanted pregnancy, they want to be able to go after the person who did the layout. Jesus.

Remember when I had stories that I could make jokes about or close the segment out with some kind of silver lining? I could make jokes about or close the segment out with some kind of silver lining. Yeah, wouldn't have guessed it at the time, but apparently those were the days. Anyway, on that depressing realization, we'll wrap up for this week and I'll hand you back over to Noah, Heath, and Eli. Thank you, Lucinda. And in Fat Guy in a Red Hat news, if you follow along with our show or just atheist news in general you know that one of the ways in which christian idiots are desperately seeking attention this year is by openly defying the laws that prohibit churches and other charities from endorsing political candidates so first up greg lock a couple of weeks ago said you can't be a

christian and a democrat at the same time then he lied about giving up his charity thing because he tore up a piece of paper while very much still remaining a church magic paper right but then this week none other than fat guy in a red hat josh foerstein decided to get in on the action by trying a textbook level test as he explicitly stared into a camera and dared the united states to enforce his laws yeah that's right he dared someone to pay attention to him which is actually a pretty solid summary of his entire career now that i hear it and yes his funko pop head looks crazy in the video it's so big but in fairness the camera adds 10 pounds to red hat i've

heard that's no it's fair it's true yeah now back in february at his church foerstein openly endorsed candidate jerone davidson for u.s congress saying quote stay standing with me i'm going to do something illegal the irs tells me that because i'm a preacher that i'm legally not allowed to endorse a candidate i'm just gonna say this and broadcast it around the world and i'm gonna look the irs right in the face doesn't have a face my name is joshua foerstein the founder of america's revival and tonight i officially endorsed jerome davidson for congress of the united states of america and let me say to the ir, come at me, bro. End quote. Well, OK. In the IRS's defense, though, I'd imagine we're talking about like 13 fucking dollars difference. I wouldn't talk to that asshole for 13 bucks.

It's true. It's true. Well, whenever there's a violation of church and state that obvious, you know what that means. That's right. It was time for the FFRF to write another letter to our government reminding them that laws exist. And that's just what they did this week, reminding the IRS that when someone breaks laws and tells you as the U.S. government to come at them, bro, it would be nice if you kind of sort of came at them, bros. Also, please send a tow truck to repo that red hat. for the hat's sake that's funny now let me be clear i'm under no illusion name sorry i'm under no illusions that anything will be done about this right jerry falwell has been calling for preachers to explicitly defy this law for decades now but not so much since 2007 but yes but they also weren't tweeting it and bringing it to the attention of the secular world.

Now, do I think that's going to mean or change anything? No. But at the very least, this is a story to pull out of your back pocket the next time someone tries to tell you about how the churches do all the charity. Right. And in improperly news tonight, Canada isn't buying any of this cemetery maintenance fund bullshit, and that's presence in that area. Some of them also aren't, which means the end result of this is both that Canadian sex abuse victims get paid sooner and that there are a few Catholic institutions in that country. Okay, I'm glad Canada did something, but eventually somebody has to just lose

at Monopoly. Do I want a safe spot on my next afterlife hotel that I land? No, you just lose and don't exist now. So this story stems from an orphanage the Catholic Church ran in the provincial capital of Newfoundland in Labrador. That's one province, by the way, St. John's. It was called Mount Cashel Orphanage, and it's absolutely infamous for decades of physical, sexual and psychological abuse at the hands of a group that's called the Congregation of Christian Brothers. Now, the Vatican argued that they shouldn't be held responsible for this because, like, they outsourced the child abuse. But since they actively covered the shit up for at least 30 years, Canadian courts weren't buying that shit either and ultimately ordered the church to pay about $50 million to its victims.

ordered the church to pay about 50 million dollars to its victims of course at this point the world's richest organization that wasn't a fucking national government cried poverty and canada was like hey aren't you guys the second largest landowner in the world after the canadian fucking government and they're like yeah we think we knew you'd notice but we need these buildings to rape kids you know what i heard it. You can have some. Right, yeah. So now the sale of these 43 properties are expected to bring in over $20 million. But as I'm sure you've probably noticed,

that's less than $50 million. So it's expected that as many as 70 more of their properties are going to show up on the auction block in the near future. And to be clear, this isn't to settle the overall debt the Catholic Church owes to its Canadian victims this isn't to settle the overall debt the catholic church owes to its canadian victims this is to settle the debt they owe to just the people that were subjected

to their malice in this one particular orphanage in canada's ninth most populated province so yeah i i feel like there will be more bad news for them to revel in soon yeah on the other hand our eyes here at the scathing atheist are now peeled for a monastery on the cheap where we can start our libertarian canadian atheist run fuck cult slash society stay tuned people we're gonna get a mailing list together they won't be libertarian i just mean in the bear sense yeah i know what you mean but like how does one communicate we're doing the bear thing got it we're doing the bear thing? Got it. We're doing the bear thing. Donut bears.

And finally tonight, America is too stupid to be alive. Yeah. Yet, here we are. We're like a poisoned cat in a box, but we won't look at ourselves. Technically, we're not dead yet. The country. That's us. During official congressional hearings in our past we've had a u.s representative asking the ceo of google about how the news alerts work on the iphone

we've also had a question for a gynecologist about why a pregnant person can't swallow a camera to look inside their uterus also really happened it seemed like rock bottom for us each time but then we got two different hearings in the u.s house last week with cishet white men trying to mansplain the definition of woman to a woman and the definition of bisexual to a bisexual person the hearings went very badly yeah well and keep in mind that the scale of congressional hearing outcomes at this point is nothing of note is accomplished on the high end and five people die in rioters smear feces on the walls on the low end like it went badly on that scale joseph welch walks in okay now we have no decency i kind of shot my shot early on that one everybody

apologies wasn't thinking ahead carthism topical so thank you speaking of republicans uh let's start with a man who's being investigated for his role in very literal child sex trafficking and also he's a sitting member of u.s congress yep matt gates of course is who i'm talking about during a hearing for the house judiciary committee about abortion rights gates was speaking to the legal director of the human rights campaign sarah warblow and hey hey can we stop right here for a second and acknowledge that no child predator matt gates should not have any questions for the director of the hrc right a governmental system that leads to Matt Gaetz having a few things to ask the head of HRC

is broken and can't be fixed. Yeah, that just needs to be, nope, hands down, please. Everybody who's a sex trafficker, go ahead and put your hands down, sit back down. So at one point during this hearing, apropos of absolutely nothing, Gaetz asked, if a woman is with men and women, she's bisexual, right? And Warblow responded, no.

And then there was a pause to indicate you're fucking dumb. And then she continued, a person who's attracted to both men and women is bisexual. They can be in long-term monogamous relationships. That's when Gates got very confused and he said, you're saying that lesbian women are also capable of being into men? And again, Warblow responded with a tacit

no, you're fucking dumb, followed by that's not what I said and then just started giving him the correct answer again. At which point he cut off the bisexual woman who was telling him what that means to answer his question. We really want her to light up a cigarette. Matt, you're not going to get a definition

that gets that girl you met at the Scholastic Book Fair to call you back, man. Let it go. Let it go. Get a Mad Libs or something. And just for context, Gates was trying to make the argument that the lgbt community should be against abortion because more unwanted pregnancy means more babies to adopt now of course that's fucking insane so i'm not sure if it helps to even mention that or

i don't know if that even counts as the word context either way right after the hearing gates tweeted a video of the exchange as if he won somehow with a caption that said breaking bisexuality redefined in the house judiciary committee he's like a dog that thought you'd be impressed by how evenly he distributed the cushion fillings right except for without all the redeeming qualities of doghood and that brings us to the definition of woman it's a tricky question that finally got solved by a republican man so you know it's about time good stuff huh during a hearing for the house oversight committee u.s representative andrew clyde was speaking with the president and ceo of the national women's law center fatima goss graves not sure why i even told you about her because she's going to be irrelevant to this whole conversation but here's the exchange andrew clyde said this year our new supreme court justice katanji brown jackson was asked what a

woman is and she had a difficult time defining that no she didn't since you're the president no she didn't right since you're the president of the national women's law center i was hoping that you could define what a woman is and goss graves got half a sentence into her answer before getting interrupted then she got half a sentence into the answer again and the exact same thing happened and then we got the real answer from andrew clyde straight from his 1978 high school biology textbook and he didn't okay it was that but he didn't even get that right he got 1978 high school biology wrong he said it's about something with x and y chromosomes i don't know. I don't know. Something like, I'm done.

You're all welcome, ladies. Now you know what you are. Good work, me. I love the extent to which he missed his dunk. Right? Because the whole point is she's supposed to stumble and then he offers this succinct wrong answer. It's a common tactic when you're lying about something complicated. But she didn't stumble and he didn't have a succinct answer no not it's like

it's like he it's like he went up for a dunk on his own basket then missed and then realized he was playing volleyball and then shit himself okay okay god god i know you're not real but if andrew clyde turns out to have the relatively common genetic abnormality that would give him anything other than XY chromosomes while still having male genitalia. I am all the way in. Do you hear me? I will be Jewish, Christian, Muslim, you name it, God. Just come on. And on that note, we're going to close out the headlines for the night.

Heath, Eli, thanks as always. And when we come back, Eli will realize he's the only one of us with a podcast that explicitly labels him as old in the title. Okay, three, two, one. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What? Are you going to go on one or are you going to go on go? On go, obviously. Guys, guys, what is the trebuchet doing out? Are the Mongols back again?

No, no. Heath is just shooting me into space. Yeah, right into space. Yeah, I got excited by your diatribe about the Webster telescope last week, so I thought I'd check it out myself. You know, see the... Eli, Eli, you can't shoot yourself out of a trebuchet into space for like so many reasons. Don't worry, Noah. I know what you're worried about. And I've got the regulator sheets from MySheetsRock.

What are the regulator sheets from MySheetsRock? They are designed specifically to keep hot sleepers cool and cold sleepers comfortable. They regulate temperature, wake moisture, stay breathable, and are so soft you'll sleep comfortably every night. That's because they're made from best-in-class bamboo rayon, the holy grail of sheeting. This miracle material transfers body heat two times more effectively than regular sheets, and it reduces humidity by 50%, so you can experience your best night's sleep yet. That's why MySheetsRock officially guarantees that you will love their sheets and you can safely shoot yourself into space

while wearing them. I don't think that they officially guarantee that last one. Well, if Eli said it, it's got to be true. MySheetsRock actually sent us a set of sheets to try for the bedtime sleeping stuff and they became my favorite sheets. Mine too. Don't believe me?

Their five-star customer reviews speak for themselves plus they offer a 90-day risk-free trial and free shipping and returns check out my sheets rock at my sheets rock.com slash scathing and enter our code scathing for 10 off and free shipping that's my sheets rock.com slash scathing code scathing you know a trebuchet wouldn't actually be very effective against the Mongols. Historically, almost all their soldiers were mad. Boo, nerd! I don't even know what a trebuchet is! No, I'm boo! No one cares about the details.

Okay. Garfield telescope. Boo! It's a perpetual problem for atheist parents that an overwhelming amount of the parental resources in this country are explicitly religious. Christians think anything with the word family in it is theirs by divine right. So books, groups, and online resources are overrun by evangelism. And that's why I'm excited to tell you about a new podcast that seeks to right that balance a bit by talking about fatherhood from a secular perspective.

new podcast that seeks to right that balance a bit by talking about fatherhood from a secular perspective dear old dads is a collaboration between tom curry from cognitive dissonance thomas smith from opening arguments and our very own eli bosnick who i'm convinced only signed onto this show so that i would have to introduce him into an episode of scathing that he was already on so thomas tom welcome to the episode and eli welcome to the episode. And Eli, welcome to the C segment. My plan's coming together. All right. So to start off, whose idea was the show and what was that idea? I think all of us independently had sort of thought about doing something like this. But if I'm not mistaken, I think I approached Thomas and Eli and said, hey, guys, we should do something here. We've got, we all have this experience. And I think we all have a unique perspective and a voice. And I think there's a need for male voices to speak to other men about what it means to be a

parent. But I think when I approached both of you guys with the idea, you already had the idea. Yeah. So we were all kind of percolating the same thing. Absolutely. It was an interesting process of definitely, Tom, you deserve credit for getting us going and like approaching us. But all three of us were like, yes, I've already thought about this entire thing. And the process was like converting, you know,

like a series of Apple Mac dongles, like getting our ideas to be somehow into one adapter that turned into the show. And it's absolutely, in my opinion, it's better for it, the fact that we all kind of had to merge and get our idea into one vision. Basically, Thomas and Tom promised that I wouldn't have to make anyone take me seriously, and then I was in. That's actually true. Right on.

So it's not wrong. You guys used the same strategy that we did. All right. Awesome. So now, is this a show just for dads? Absolutely not. Okay. 100% not.

In fact, I mean, the name, we love the name fits with the overall theme, but it does suck that it obviously sounds like it's just for dads. Not meant just for dads at all. Not even meant just for parents. We did a Facebook poll of the group and astonishingly, I think it was like 20% of people in the Facebook group. So like, that's like the, you know, the, the enthusiastic group of listeners, 20% of no kids. And they're like, yeah, I just love listening to it. I always jokingly put it like, if you have kids or if you ever were a kid, the show's for you. So like,

there's like a few people, if they were, you know, Benjamin Button or so, I don't know. There's going to be a few edge cases where it's not for them, I guess. Also, one of the things that the show is largely about is who we have become because of our dads. Right. So the show very much explores the fact that Thomas's dad sucks and he knows it. Tom's dad sucks and he doesn't know it. And my dad didn't suck. It's an ongoing thread.

That is... Hi, Dad. He won't listen to your podcast but he'll listen to mine. There's literally no chance he would ever hear this in a million years. If your dad listens to my podcast but not yours, I will murder on the Orient Express him with you.

Oh, that's actually incredible. I kind of hope he does, Eli. Prank war. I kind of hope he does, Eli. Prank war. Yeah, there you go. I kind of hope he does. I never miss an episode of Skated. You seen my Carl the Bug

of Pegacorn t-shirt? Oh, I love Manscaped, man. All right, Ron, I'll see you later. Meanwhile, he's never heard of Citation Needed. Yeah, right. All right.

So now, obviously, like, none of you guys are developmental psychologists or PDF anything-ists or whatever. So what exactly do Thomas, Tom, and Eli bring to the table, like, dadding wisdom-wise? Oh, wisdom is a high bar. I think in the same way that none of you guys are filmmakers, but I still listen to the hell out of God awful movies. Like it's just intelligent commentary.

I hope when we're at our best about something that like everybody goes through. Sorry, everybody. When we're talking about childhoods, it's stuff that everybody goes through. And we're talking about parenting and stuff that parents go through. And I think that our side tends to, with good reason, be like, leave it to the experts. The best ideas will out, you know. But like, meanwhile, the other side has 9 billion well put together professional looking websites on how vaccines cause cancer and all that. And like, they're ready to build the parasocial relationships to then convince other parents of terrible ideas.

And I think one of the many things we can do is try to provide a counter to that. You know, like if somebody is an anti-vaxxer, for example, they always say like, the best thing to do is not have like some scientist on the internet talk to them. The best thing is to have another parent that they trust tell them like, hey, no, actually it's fine. You know,. And building that parasocial relationship can be a big part of getting more people to not believe really stupid, unscientific things. I would add, too, that there's so many online resources for moms. And when I was thinking about this show and kind of what I wanted from it, I really wanted a place where men got to speak about the,

you know, and speak openly and honestly and with some emotion about the experience of being a dad and about, you know, having a dad. And there's so much shitty toxic masculinity bullshit out there. And there's so many wonderful like mom blogs and mom podcasts. blogs and mom podcasts and i'll tell you what there's there's not a lot of great resources out there that are relatable and honest and like emotionally available for men to tap into and that was something that was immediately apparent that we had an opening for i would take it one step further there are no fucking good dad when we were searching for dad podcasts the five i found four were christian yeah and sucked and one just sucked yeah right one the final one that wasn't like hi i'm pastor mcgillicuddy i was like oh thank goodness and he was like anyways punching and i was like oh yeah well and that's and they

they will very often sneak that shit into it, right? Like you'll be 20 minutes into it and then it'll be, and that's when you tell your kids about Jesus or whatever. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. All right. So obviously this is a huge question and it sort of sits at the heart of your entire podcast. So I don't expect a succinct answer, but what is a good dad? Like, what does that even mean?

And Eli, we'll start with you here. I think everyone's got their own definitions, but I think what we have all realized we have in common is putting your kids before your own wants and needs a lot of the time. Because certainly when we talk about what was wrong with our fathers or what we see

fathers do wrong, it's about putting themselves. You can say my father. It's fine. Oh, yeah. I was actually sneakily trying to include tom's dad too but it's fine we just talked about it the twitter poll remains strong but yeah uh yeah putting your child's needs before yourself at least some any of the time oh and and also that like another thing that unfortunately it's such a low bar to be a good dad in this day and age that just yeah it is doing the process of self-examination and trying to be a good dad is already like

90% of the way there. You know, like there, the problem in our society right now, isn't a bunch of dudes are like thinking every day, how do I be a good dad? And then they're just getting the wrong answer. Shitty dads just don't are just so narcissistic and, you know, self-absorbed that they don't care. They don't do enough, or they've absorbed a bunch of bad ideas from times past. So I really think a good dad, and it's very much a good parent, you know, it's not a lot of the stuff, you know, we do take the gender out of it, but like it's also trying to communicate on both levels. Like if you want to be a good dad, you can do so in a way that still is harmonious with some of these like classic masculinity ideas or not. And, you know, listening, being emotionally supportive for me, it's mainly I come to the show and I'm like, here's what my dad did. So do the opposite of that. Like it's a lot of, it's a really good, you know, I know Noah, you've said

that about your old boss. Oh yeah. Right. It's like that. Like if you get a really bad version of something, you'd just be like, all right, that's my cheat code. I'll just look for the opposite of this. Yeah, exactly. The puzzle in a thunderstorm business credo is whatever the opposite of my old boss would have done. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there you go. It's like that. I think of being a good dad as a couple of different things. I think of it as being very goal directed. You know, when I think of it myself, I think that the ultimate goal of being a good dad is to raise healthy, well-adjusted, emotionally stable, and competent adults. That is the work that I am trying to achieve by being a good dad. But I also think very much that, and we talk about this on the show a

fair bit, that being a good dad also necessarily intersects with being a good partner and being a good man. Yeah. And those are all ideas that are worth spending time on and exploring. I don't think you can separate out that role, that role of fatherhood from other familial roles that you're necessarily going to take on in your world. And so those are all worth exploring. And we try to explore those ideas on the show as well. Right on.

So if a person wants to learn how to grill a steak or build a birdhouse or whatever, they can probably grab a resource that's decades old and be fine. But given the pace of technological and cultural change and the rate that we're learning new shit about psychology, parenting is something that every new generation needs to reinvent. So what is, in your opinion, the biggest way that being a father has changed since you were a kid? And we'll go in order of oldest, first kid to youngest here. So we're going to start with you on this one, Tom.

No more Mercurium. How has parenting changed since I was a kid? My dad was born in 1947. So my dad's views on parenting and parenthood were very much, I was just talking to Haley about this. They were very much discipline based, right? So my dad wanted, and he was also a single dad raising two boys. And that does change the equation.

He was a single dad in the 80s too. So when there were no single dads. So I was very unusual. I did not know any other kids of single dads. So my dad's whole thought process was obedience based. And Haley and I were talking about this the other day. I've got, my oldest are 16. Haley and I have been together five, almost six years.

And I can tell you that with the four kids across six years, we have punished the kids one time. Oh, wow. Once. In six years, the need to punish a kid happened exactly one time. Because what you realize as you move away from a discipline and obedience based model is that you can achieve

the same result by meeting people where they're at. By understanding the developmental stages that they're going through. Better results, actually. Much better results. Much, much better results. Yeah, way fewer psychological problems down the road, too, for them to unlock. Yeah.

My stepson, we took away his computer because he... And punishment is even the wrong term. He was having a hard time balancing his desire to play on his computer with the need to do his schoolwork because the computer was simply a stronger temptation.

And we recognize that it is actually unfair to ask him to manage that temptation. Tom, I that it is actually unfair to ask him to manage that temptation. Tom, I'm going to need you to enter into my life as a parent, by the way. Punish me, daddy. That's a different show. Same, different show, Thomas Smith. That's the patron feed of our show.

You got to want to sign it. Same LLC name, Daddy Issues. It's Dear Old Daddy's, actually, just to keep the checks from getting confused. But it's so funny. I was punished all the time as a kid. Yeah. And that is just not even part of how my household functions.

Yeah, I was given even, well, I don't know if harsher punishments is corrected. So we've, Tom and I went back and forth about that on the show. But different. Similar. And I think related to that, but, but distinct is I am really glad that for most of us, for people in our kind of progressive circles, the focus of parenting, especially sons is not to quote unquote, toughen them up. Yes. You know, I'm really glad that that's not how it's viewed for a lot of people. But one thing, and one reason, a main reason that

we're doing this show is we have to realize how many people are not with us on that. You know, when we did, we went on my show SIO with Lindsay to do a bit of a science-based parenting thing. And she took us through this paper on spanking. And she was like, yeah, just to introduce this out, like, you know, 80% of parents in this country still spank their kids. And you're like, what the fuck? 80 fuck? Jesus, really? What the fuck? That's 90% too much. It might have been 60.

Am I remembering wrong? It was something. I think it's 60. Okay. It could be 60, but it was high. Yeah. But that's still like the majority. That's insane.

It was still a majority. It's still 59% too much. Yeah. And so like, as much as we have these progressive ideas and we're trying to get better, I think there's a lot of room for us to try to bring in other people, hopefully. You know, that's a lot of people.

I don't know what the odds are that exactly the percentage of parents that are not abusing their kids are like our audience. Maybe there are some, maybe, or maybe there's some people we can reach. Like a lot of people still have very old fashioned ideas ideas about parenting despite being

nominally progressive. I think that's important work that we can do, hopefully. As evidenced by our iTunes reviews. Well, yeah, even when you step away from something as extreme as physical violence, which I wish that was a lot more extreme, but even when you step away from that, that larger

idea that your job as a dad is to man up your child, you know, as your son is still pervasive, even in families that don't spank. I'm just going to point out how much safety shit has changed since I was a kid. And we haven't

even gotten to do an episode about this. Look forward to a future episode. Do you know that there's no cough medicine for children under the age of six anymore none in the fucking world since 2004 2004 bunch of kids overdosed on cough medicine they were like hey we should probably like check and see if cough medicine works so they did a big study and they were like yeah cough medicine doesn't work and so there's no cough medicine to be fair there was no cough medicine before either if it didn't work there was just a little bit of stuff you drank but when i was a kid they like they would literally just give you liquor yeah i bet tom's dad tom your dad must have done that

come on oh no my dad's a teetotaler my dad does not have any liquor ever yeah oh okay no teetotals oh no my dad would just get us slightly drunk. Yeah. I thought it was weird that he brought you to the bar, though, Noah. Was your dad Heath? Was Heath your dad? Oh, that explains a lot about our work environment. Yeah, right?

Whereas my dad would have been like, oh, that sucks. Just wait until it goes away. Yeah, right. Which honestly was probably the best, weirdly, the best out of all these was my dad being like, don't care, wait until it goes away yeah right which actually honestly was probably the best weirdly the best out of all these was my dad being like don't care wait till it goes away yeah no apparently that was the best advice he accidentally nailed it nailed that one yeah putting one point on the board for thomas that is a lonely point yeah so now of course dear old dads is a non-religious show but that doesn't mean it's exclusively geared towards non-religious people.

This show, however, is. So could you tell us about some of the challenges that atheist dads face specifically? And we'll reverse the order, youngest kid to oldest this time. So, Eli, you can start us off here. There's so many places it comes up from. Other people talking about your kid to Jesus to the fact that preschools are significantly cheap, like almost exponentially cheaper if you are willing to put them in a religious preschool or school.

Well, right, because they don't have to pay the people then. Yeah. Or get them certified or anything. Or get certified. Yeah. Any of that. Or, hey, parenting groups where you're apparently not allowed to point out that God doesn't do this. That comes up in future episodes.

Yeah, I had a story. And actually, it's in the episode coming up soon for everybody. It's kind of a minor thing. But one day in daycare, I go to pick my kid up. And they always, you know, they give you a little report. How is your kid? You know, and there's some comedy about that. It's really funny.

They'll be ready to shame you about your kid doing something or whatever. So I go in this particular day and Phoebe's teacher is like, yeah, Phoebe, Phoebe used some bad language today. And I was like, fuck, fucking what? The fucking, what the shit she used? My fucking kid used, holy shit. No, I said said so you fucking kidding me no i said uh wow bad bad language you say she said yeah phoebe said oh my god today and i was

like wait what oh my god fuck your face or what what was that oh my god get the fuck out of here what is the thing she no that was it apparently. That was it. She said, oh my God. And I had to pretend because, you know, I don't want to. Yeah, Phoebe's teacher. She's delightful. Well, you do want to, but you're not gonna. Yeah, she's a delightful person.

And I didn't want to become the enemy of my own child's little daycare school thingy. So I was like, oh yeah, well, we'll we'll definitely you know we'll have a talking to and then we get home and i was talking to lydia i was like i do not give a shit about that i'm not gonna say a single thing about that do not fucking care good she can say oh my god all she wants do not care putting a dollar under her pillow like the tooth fairy she can figure it out you know i i would echo it's It's funny. I've got kids now. I've got two kids that have gone to private schools for different reasons.

And my oldest, Finn, gosh, first grade, I put him in a private school because he wasn't handling the homework situation very well. And to find that kid a private school that was non-religious, he ended up in a Montessori school which was

the montessori school he went to was basically like the crunchiest most granola ass hippie goddamn place you've ever seen you're like i would go to parent teacher conferences and they would tell me all about how he gets along with everybody and is emerging as a leader in his class like yeah can he do math like does he know does he know can he does he know like one multiplication at all just even one tom he's your kid he definitely can't do math no he absolutely can't and no he was he's deficient in every way but i mean it took years actually to get him caught up from the montessori school which was shit school, but it was the only school that was private that was non-religious. And when the pandemic hit, I had no option but a Lutheran school to send my

stepdaughter to. One thing I know we've all covered on our various shows is that it is an explicit goal of the right to fucking ruin public school so that then they can get money funding for their private religious schools. And that makes it so often there are, I guarantee you, there are tons of people listening right now who had to put their kids in religious private schools as Tom kind of almost did there. I did. Because that's, you did.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I put my kid in a Lutheran school. I put my stepdaughter in a Lutheran school for two years. That's the best choice you have available to you because the right has ruined this fucking public school system. Yeah. And,

and, and for every one of those, there's somebody else who, whose kid didn't get as good an education as they could have because they didn't, because they refused to do that. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, I've saved the most important question for last. If our listeners want to check out the show, where should they go? Just search dear old dads in any podcast thingy. You're going to find it.

It is a ton of fun. And that's all you got to do. Search Dear Old Dads in your podcast thingy. And once you listen to it, we'll tell you where to find other stuff. And of course, we'll also have a handy dandy link in this week's show notes if you don't want to go searching in your podcast thingy. Well, I hope it goes without saying, given the track records of the people involved, the show is top notch. I'm not a dad and I have no plans on being one, but I still get a lot from your discussions. So thanks for putting the show together, and thanks for dropping in to chat with me about it. Thanks for having us.

Thank you so much, Noah. Thanks for having us on, man. Appreciate you. I'm staying for the outro. Before we save and quit this week, I want to remind you that we're going to be at QED at the end of October, recording a live episode of Godawful Movies. Tickets to Skepticism's best conference are on sale now, and you'll find a link in the show notes. 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's hot friend, Godawful Movies, debuting at 7 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, and an even newer episode of our half-sister show, Citation 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 obviously this episode would ring hollow if i neglected to thank keith enright

for making it work eli bosnick for making it stick and lucinda illusions for making it great i need to thank tom and thomas one more time for hanging out and putting another awesome secular resource into the world again check the show notes for a link to dear old dads i also need to thank lisa m lily for providing this week's farnsworth boat if you need more supernatural thrillers in your life check out lisa lily.com or check the show notes for a handy dandy link to that one as well but most of all of course i want to thank this week's most earnest earthlings alice philip hmp fbi profiling is nonsense gary jen ada beth simon matt daniel tj storms of logic r2t2 jackson caratessa sparkled toes laurie and zuzia alice philip hmp profiling gary and Jen, who are so hot, heatwaves issue them warnings.

Ada, Beth, Simon, Matt, Daniel, TJ, and Storms, whose very badassery goes a long way towards solving the Fermi Paradox. And R2-T2, Jackson, Karatesa, Lori, and Zuzia, whose IQs are so high, Binary gives up and starts using twos. Together, these 18 amiable atheists aided our aims to alienate the amen-ing anuses this week by giving us money. Not everybody has the money it takes to make sure Eli's baby doesn't starve, but if you're sufficiently guilted now, 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 your money melted in the extreme heat, you can also help a ton by leaving a five-star review, telling a friend about the show, or following at PIATpod on Twitter. Legal services for this podcast are provided by the offices of P. Andrew Torres, Tim Robertson handles our social media, and 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 can find all the content on the contact page at skatingads.com. or on the contact page at skatingadius.com. Sometimes it's fun to just run one ad for a company. Right, exactly. The preceding podcast was a production of Puzzle and the Thunderstorm LLC. Copyright 2022. All rights reserved.