The Scathing Atheist - ScathingAtheist 179: Faithless Feminist Edition

Episode Date: July 21, 2016

In this week’s episode, Rick wiles will try to catch em all, the Republican Convention gets a wicked flare-up of their Control-VD, and faithless feminist Karen Garst will be here to assure us that despite what we see, many atheist authors don’t have penises. Click Here to make a per episode donation at Patreon.com Click Here to buy our book. Click Here to check out The Skepticrat. Click Here to check out God Awful Movies. Guest Links: Click Here to preorder Karen’s book, Women Beyond Belief: Discovering Life Without Religion, on Amazon Click Here to check out Karen’s blog; the Faithless Feminist You can also follow the Faithless Feminist on Facebook and Twitter Click Here to check out Chuck and Willie’s Book of Mormon Stories Headlines: GOP sub-platform comittee is full of shit: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/07/11/gop-platform-subcommittee-passes-resolution-calling-for-bible-to-be-taught-as-american-history/ GOP Platform would allow pastors to endorse candidates without losing tax exemption: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/07/16/gop-platform-says-pastors-can-endorse-candidates-from-the-pulpit-without-losing-tax-exemptions/ Study: Most evangelicals think transgender people are immoral: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/07/16/study-most-evangelicals-think-transgender-people-are-immoral/ Rick wiles calls pokemon cyber demons and it's great http://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/end-times-pastor-warns-isis-could-use-pokemon-go-to-target-christians-with-cyber-demons/ Ken ham offers one dollar ticket to ark encounter also we bully him http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/07/14/ken-ham-if-students-visit-ark-encounter-as-part-of-a-field-trip-ill-only-charge-them-1/ AND http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/07/13/ken-ham-ffrf-is-bullying-schools-by-warning-them-against-taking-field-trips-to-ark-encounter/ Kentucky judge refuses not to use the word god in wedding ceremony http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/07/14/kentucky-judge-refuses-to-conduct-secular-wedding-ceremony-for-couple/ Ray comfort says we Can't give atheists political power because they’ll slaughter people http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/07/12/ray-comfort-we-cant-give-atheists-political-power-because-they-slaughter-people/ This Week in Misogyny: Pakistan’s Kim Kardashian killed by brother in “honor killing” http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/07/16/pakistani-internet-star-strangled-to-death-by-brother-in-honor-killing/ UN calls female genital mutilation child abuse for the first time http://ascienceenthusiast.com/female-genital-mutilation-child-abuse/ http://www.bbc.com/news/health-36805117

Warning, this podcast contains words and phrases that some people find offensive, like atheist, feminist, and butt-fuck-a-rancid-badger-corpse-you-santorum-gargling-asshole. This week's episode of The Scathing Atheist is brought to you by Vaccination of Islam. It's the new immunity shot that prevents people from carrying out all the homicidal messages contained in the Quran. Now unfortunately, the anti-vaxxer movement on this one is extremely vigilant. So don't forget to use our long-range neck-dart blowgun when you're out inoculating. Vaccination of Islam.

Vax lives matter. But not all our lives matter. And now, the scathing atheist. Willie, wake up. Huh? You gotta say the line! Uh, what? That we, in fact, evolved from filthy monkey men?

Shit. Yeah, that's the one. How long was I out? At least two years. Oh, fuck me. It's Thursday! It's Thursday. It's July 21st. And in the words of Melina Trump, black power. No illusions.

I'm Eli Bosnick. I'm Heath Enright. And from New York, New York, Valdosta, Georgia, and Secret Lair, this is The Scathing Atheist. On this week's episode, Rick Wiles will try to catch them all. The Republican Convention gets a wicked flare-up of their Control VD. And faithless feminist Karen Garst will be here to assure us that despite what we see, many atheist authors don't have penises. But first, the diatribe.

Right about the time I went to college, everybody started saying, no doubt. I mean, people always said, no doubt, and its meaning hadn't changed or anything, but for whatever reason, the linguistic tides of style came in in the mid-90s, and the term no doubt floated to the top. It just became the omnipresent affirmation, and of course, soon after that, it was being sold back to us on stickers and shirts and albums and all that shit. And I only bring it up because when I look back on the generation that I came of age in, there could have been no better motto. No doubt. Government's experimenting on dead aliens in New Mexico? No doubt. Medical industry is hiding the cure for cancer so they can keep raking in that sweet chemotherapy money?

No doubt. Weed is only illegal because cannabis oil could easily replace our need for petroleum and Exxon won't allow it? No doubt. Now, that's not to say that we believed everything, of course. We just didn't have doubt. I mean, there were plenty of things that we just outright rejected, like the religion of the churches and everything the government said. But we didn't doubt those things so much as just, you know, knew they were wrong intuitively. Now, I don't mean to indict my entire generation here because I know we weren't all as stupid as me and the group of hippie rejects I surrounded myself with were by no means a representative sample of people growing up in the 90s. But I do think that there was like an undercurrent of that same attitude throughout.

And I don't think it's a coincidence that the no doubt generation came of age at the same time as the Internet. age at the same time as the internet right i mean you drop an unprecedented amount of unvetted information on a population that has virtually no required education and critical thinking and you wind up with a generation of irrational conspiracy nuts picking and choosing whatever facts best fit the narrative they prefer and in our defense on the surface modern physics is every bit as esoteric as the crazy shit the new age womb urchins are peddling right i mean there are critical differences sure but not such that they really stand out to a college sophomore with only a passing interest in science. All I knew was that there was a couple of competing narratives that all seemed too insane to believe, so I picked the one that offered the highest probability of superpowers.

And all other things being equal, I'd say that was the right choice. But alas, all other things were not equal. And one of those competing narratives could launch robots into space and the other one couldn't. So like a lot of us, but not enough of us, I reluctantly gave up on the superpowers and I gave up on the tarot and the astral projection and the karma and the chakras. And in their place, I substituted doubt. Unfortunately, as we all know, not everybody made it out of the no doubt prison. An awful lot of folks are still standing there surrounded by bars of confirmation bias and credulity so taken with the architecture of their cell that they never realized that the doors weren't locked.

And why would they, right? I mean, the grass on our side of the bars is all brown and mortal and impersonal, and the grass on their side is all green and inviting and lives forever. That's because it's AstroTurf, of course, but nobody told them and they don't want to know bad enough to check. And I certainly don't need to tell you all the terrible consequences of all this. You know, we see stories of parents trying to cure their children with maple syrup and positive thinking all the fucking time. We see billions of dollars being pissed down the alt-med rabbit holes at the same time that our real medical facilities are underfunded. And look,

the tools for solving these problems are really simple. Critical thinking isn't some esoteric subject. It's one of the easiest things to teach people. I mean, sure, you throw a lot of folks when you start talking modus tollens and shit, but just teaching people to know what true looks like is as easy as it is important. And yet, as a matter of course, we don't do it. Now, I can't speak for any of the other countries, but in the

U.S., there are zero requirements in public education for epistemology. Consider that for a second. All the learning that you will ever do will rely on your mastery of epistemology, and yet we virtually ignore that subject in school. It'd be like a basketball team that never actually uses a ball in practice. They just watch videos and look at chalkboards, and then we send them out on the court hoping they can figure out dribbling and passing before halftime. I mean, look, I'm not saying a few classes on critical thinking would guarantee that all of our students come out of school immune to charlatans and bullshit. You know, you would make all the kids learn math and a ton of people still play the lottery, but it would certainly help. So why won't we do it?

Well, I bet you've already guessed my answer, haven't you? This fucking country can't handle evolution. What do you think American parents would do if we started teaching school kids how to distinguish reality from fiction? I mean, think about it. Think about evolution. Now, that only disproves some aspects of some denominations of some religions, right? The majority of people in this country do accept the facts of evolution, but the opposition

is loud enough to shout down all the reasonable people. But teaching children critical thinking, that takes down all the religious claims, right? Teaching children to think correctly would immunize all but the dumbest of them against religious indoctrination. I mean, you know, maybe they can still justify one of those liberal pseudo-faiths that tries to fit into the negative spaces of sound epistemology, you know, one of those denominations that hid God in one of the six cracks science still left for him or whatever. But the vast majority of religious denominations in this country would wither and die if their congregants knew the difference between causation and correlation. And obviously, these religious leaders know that.

They couldn't recognize the threat that evolution poses without knowing it. And unless you've heard pastors preach about how Timothy was a forgery, I think we can all agree that they're not above trying to restrict knowledge to defend their bullshit. So we as a society have capitulated to ignorance. The boundary on compulsory education is precisely the amount you would need to know to outwit God. And if a baby has to die from syrupsuticals now and again to keep it that way. Apparently, that's a price that we're willing to pay. They're talking about you, Jesus. We interrupt this broadcast and bring you a special news bulletin. Joining me for headlines tonight are the Holmes and Watson of humanism,

Heath Enright and Eli Bosnick. Fellas, who wants to be the cocaine addict and who wants to be the closeted fanboy? Ooh, I call cocaine addict. I always wanted a 14-inch cock. Oh, me too. Who wants to guess where? Watson was so disappointed when he found out he had the wrong homes, I guess. In our lead story tonight, we have several pieces of quite disturbing news about half

the viable political parties in the United States. And we're not talking about Hillary's Blackberry. Oh, no. Terrifying as that might be. No, we're talking about the GOP, their current presidential ticket and their sub platform committee, which by the time this airs might officially become part of the SPLC's hate group list. It already happens.

Well, I said that. I mean, in defense of the notorious RBG, she may honestly just have wondered if they were fucking kidding her. Could have been an honest question. Hey, hey, she apologized for that, as well she should have. A Supreme Court justice should know better. Now, showing your secretary porn, on the other hand, is a pass. Anyone can make that mistake moral

judgments all right so uh let's start with the gop presidential ticket and uh despite the best efforts of just about every prominent republican of the last three decades uh donald trump will be their candidate and in order to balance out the bigotry on his ticket, the type of bigotry, he chose Indiana governor and medium level, you know, centrist hater of the gays, Mike Pence as his running mate. He wanted a governor, but he was afraid Chris Christie had too much national appeal. Too much gravitational appeal. Sucks the whole nation right in.

All right, so next up, we also have some new developments in the official GOP platform, starting with their announcement last week that they intend to repeal the Johnson Amendment. Now, if you're not familiar, that's the law from 1954 that says you can't be a tax-exempt charity and also endorse political candidates and although it seems that this one doesn't really matter considering the irs refuses to do their fucking job and tax churches that break that law it really does matter it really does well at least as much as the first amendment matters i guess right and now it is officially part of the gop party platform that religion should have more of a say in politics. The problem with the American government in their mind is that the churches wield too little power.

I mean, to be fair, it's not like it's not heavily in their interest to do this. We all know who the churches are voting for. It's not like I would pass a rule that my parents and only my parents were allowed to vote in the school election you know what i'm saying oh my gosh look who the rosenbergs voted for hooray hooray so uh couple other fun ideas from the gop um they're calling for the Bible to be considered a secular historical document to be used in public school history class. What? Yeah.

Well, strangely enough, though, they have not said anything about using the Hindu Bible in geology class to teach about the turtle that holds the elephants that hold the world up in the air, which is about equally accurate as the Book of Genesis. So, weird. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Apparently we're also going to be using Spider-Man comics for the radiation poisoning portion of science class, too. I'm in, I'm in.

See, I think you guys are being too harsh. I really like the idea of just doing an entire unit, like three months in eighth grade on Exodus, and then the question on the final is, did any of that shit happen? Yes? No? Confused the fuck out of some kids trying to get into high school. eighth grade on exodus and then the question on the final is did any of that shit happen yes no just confuse the fuck out of some some kids trying to get into high school please tweet at me about the heites please please go on please and uh last but not least

well maybe least um the gop wants to expressly allow the continued existence of gay conversion therapy. Oh, for fuck's sake. Christian parents can cure the gay out of their kids, which is very similar to having a therapist yell at your skin until it gets whiter. Or I can fuck away your Lyme disease.com. Yeah. Well, except the gay conversion doesn't work as well and causes way more suicides. Three people, Heath. Fuck you, man.

Fuck you. You said you weren't going to. Oh, you meant the gay stuff. Sorry. Never mind. Right. Well, besides all that stuff, pretty much the same. Yeah.

Now, all that being said, Hillary seems like she's kind of a bitch. So, you know. Tough call. same yeah um now all that being said hillary seems like she's kind of a bitch so you know and in transponder's news tonight according to a new survey from lifeway research nearly two-thirds of evangelicals in america think that transgender people are being immoral when they exist of course the evangelical research group desperately tried to put a positive spin on the issue with a soft peddling headline that read changing genders isn't morally wrong. Americans say, in fact, it even says in the article,

quote, a majority of Americans reject the view of a creator, giving them a gender that shouldn't be changed. End quote, without pointing out that that majority only holds if you don't take out the people who simply reject the view of having a creator. You can't phrase things like that. Oh, I want to play.

I want to play a new survey of worshiped gods finds that vast majority don't hate fags i would play to um most americans agree that the x-axis is the important one nearly infinitesimal percentage of god's so-called children demanded in human sacrifice about uh 100 of snipe hunters in favor of stricter gun control. Ooh. Majority of Muslims don't approve of punishment for apostasy. Oh, that's a real one. Sorry, I did a real one.

I think it's... You did a real one. But the truly interesting statistics are buried a little deeper in the report. So among evangelicals, the percent who unequivocally think transgenderism is immoral nearly doubles. Of course, as is so often the case in matters like this, one of the strongest predictors

of one's moral presumptions comes from personal acquaintance. Another was youth. So despite Lifeway's desperate effort to undersell the majority opinion by including not a moral issue on the response form, they can't disguise the fact

that they're old, outmoded, and doomed to extinction. Yeah, you hate to see reading and knowing people on the list of activities that brings down your worldview you know right yeah we can only trick the illiterate shut-ins with the uh carbon dating hoax for so long so this is good this is good now in a lot of ways of course this write-up on these data suggests that lifeway is saying hey guys we're on the losing side of this fight. But on the insane end of the analysis spectrum, you had this observation from the executive director of Lifeway Research, Scott McConnell, who partially explains the evolving attitudes as follows. Quote, a growing percentage of Americans don't believe in right and wrong.

They don't believe in absolute truth. And if there's no absolute truth then they're reluctant to talk about morality. End quote. Because apparently that's the best explanation his brain will allow for why people

don't think the gender expression of a perfect stranger is any of their business because they must have given up on the concept of right and wrong. Hmm.

I'm going to go ahead and pencil in option C because God is dead we're animals and that which cannot withstand the hammer Deserves to be smashed And in Pokemon Gozar the Gozarian News tonight

Good evening Host of True News And C++ attempt to clone Martin Sheen Rick Wiles has some choice words about the most popular mobile game of all time and no it's not that the servers keep going down and that i can't use the fucking little guide thing for shit oh 300 yards away i'm facing the right direction it's gonna be a shiny square or something the fuck is that it's fine it's fine it's fine the words you're saying are humorous and meaningful to me.

Oh, I forgot. Sorry. Let me translate for the older generation. It's like when all the black kids kept getting past you on their way into high school. Can't catch them all. They got them oversized heel bones. It's no fair. No, no, no.

He's not worried about black kids. I mean, he probably is worried about black kids in schools, but he didn't mention. That's not this story. He didn't say he's worried about. He's worried about cyber demons. Okay. Oh, okay. As long as it's reasonable. So, according to Wiles, last

week, he and his team were in an editorial meeting, which I would give several souls to be a fly on the wall during, when a man stopped outside his office searching for the pokies that shall not be named. Which caused Wiles to worry aloud about just how far this technology could go in the name of evil, saying, quote, What if this technology is transferred to Islamic jihadists and Islamic jihadists have an app that show them where Christians are located geographically end quote because

several Pokestops are in churches because apparently it was like hard to find churches in the United States before Pokemon Go that said how great a TV show would it be to watch where two jihadists use Pokemon Go to That said, how great a TV show would it be to watch where two jihadists use Pokemon Go to hunt down Christians?

Oh, that'd be awesome. Ahmed, wait. I cannot catch this fucking squirtle and if I run out of grapevines, I will blow myself up right the fuck now. I don't care. I do not care. See, why does it spin like that? That's bullshit. But it's not just humans Wiles is worried about. No, no, no about He's much more worried about the influence of demons

On the people who seek their enslavement Worrying that And this is real Pokemon masters May soon start telling people to kill People in those buildings In order to catch more Pokemon What?

And then he concluded with a fake quote from the creator of Pokemon endorsing Satanism. I have no jokes. Wiles wrote all my jokes. What am I going to say that is funnier? Yeah. Eli actually had all that stuff in his notes, and then as he finished reading the story,

he just put some of it in quotes, because it turned out that way. And cap. And I love this, too. According to the reports, when Wiles saw somebody outside of his building playing Pokemon Go, he called the police to report suspicious activity. And even better, the dispatcher was just like, no, it's somebody playing Pokemon, bro. Awesome.

Apparently, there are a lot of freaked out old folks in Florida trying to figure out what the fuck those kids are taking pictures of. I love it. Some old lady is just like, now's my chance. Lifts her shirt. Wear my beads, motherfucker. Well, now that Eli brought up old lady tits, I guess I'm not the only one who needs a minute to myself. So we'll take a quick break and hand things over to my lovely wife, Lucinda. Looks like someone taped pancakes to my

tummy. A man on the Bible? Of course, we're smart. If it's a legitimate race. You're a slut, right? Cooking can be fun. Hey! I'm proud of a man! This week in Misogyny. I wonder how long we'll have to wait before we can grade

the morality of all the countries without a learning curve. I mean, look, I hear over and over again that it's just a matter of time, but nobody ever gives me that glorious win. And more importantly, nobody ever explains how shutting up the people who are talking about the problem will speed up that process. And why do I ask? Because I've got two stories for you this week, one about someone who couldn't wait, and one about some folks who shouldn't have. If you haven't heard already, Kandil Baloch, a Pakistani model and social media starlet, was strangled to death by her brother last week in what they still call honor killing, because misogynistic suicide doesn't have a nice

ring to it, I guess. Now, look, I'm not going to pretend I'd heard of her before this happened, but in the research I've done since she passed, you know who she reminds me of? Every goddamn girl in their 20s that I know. She posted selfies, took pictures of her cleavage, and wanted to be famous. And you know what learning that about her makes me think? There, but for the grace of geographic location, go my nieces, my cousins, and all of my fucking friends. Because when Beloch didn't follow her brother's request to start dressing like a garbage bag and stop expressing herself, he fucking murdered her. Her brother was caught and admits to the murder, but the most disgusting part about this is that there's a clause in Pakistani law that would allow him to get off scot-free if her family decides not to press charges. But there's kind of a mitigating

circumstance here in that it's fucking Pakistan, winner of the scathing atheist worst place to exist as a human award. There aren't many look how fucked up the society is towards women headlines I can imagine where I would say, what, not Pakistan? But that excuse doesn't hold for my second piece of news this week. This one is so mind-boggling that I'm gonna have to get all pissed off and incredulous despite the fact that it's good news. Earlier this week, the head of the United Nations Populations Fund has, for the first fucking time, called female genital mutilation child abuse. I mean, kudos and all, but really? For the first time?

What exactly were you waiting on? What the fuck kind of data could you possibly be holding out for? Proof that the clitoris never turns into a hentai monster and devours its lovers? Or were you just too busy jerking off to that to be bothered? But I digress, because progress, no matter how belated, is to be celebrated. Even though convincing the UN that mutilating your kid's genitals is child abuse is apparently as tough as explaining to Eli why poisoning the mayor of Valdosta, Georgia, isn't an acceptable part of a prank war. And while you ponder why the U.N. treats women's rights like the porridge from Oliver, I'll hand things back over to Noah, Heath and Eli. Thank you, Lucinda.

And there's a reason why they named an anal lubricant after your state news tonight. We head back over to Kentucky where we sort of got our attendance numbers for the Arc Park's opening week. So that's what the chicken is fried in. A secret herbs and spices, bro. I didn't realize semen boiled that hot. Good to know. Semen doesn't burn that hot. How else would it survive the lattes, guys?

Come on. that hot good to know good to know it doesn't burn that hot how else would it survive the lattes guys come on anyway according to a local tv report the first week's attendance at the arc park came in at about 30 000 people or about 4 300 people a day on opening week in the peak of tourist season just a quick reminder that all his tax incentives and promises to his investors were based on a claim that over 2 million visitors a year would come through that fucking park. Yeah, I feel like he didn't sell the zip lines enough. Yeah, right, right. Should have had one coming off of the ark. That'd be awesome.

And by the way, in his first week of business, Ham also learned that his pathetic trickle of guests was going to be even worse than the opening week number suggests, since the very nature of his park precludes one of the largest revenue sources for amusement parks public school field trips and so to his apparent surprise he learned that wasn't an option for him only after the freedom from religion foundation sent a letter to kentucky school administrators reminding them that taking public school students to a christian ministry is illegal an incredulous ham took to the twitters afterwards to dub the ffrf's moves bullying and assure those school administrators that the separation of church and state doesn't count because it's not in the Bible. You see, there's historical constitution and then there's the observational constitution. Exactly. Totally different shit. And as though he thinks he's calling the FFRF's bluff, Ham upped the ante last week by announcing that public schools who wanted to test the constitutional waters on this one could do so

for the low, low price of $1 per student. Some restrictions apply, taxes, legal fees, and cost of settlements not included. He made this announcement in order to, quote, help encourage public schools to stand up against this bullying and uphold their constitutional rights, end quote. And as confident as I am that his interpretation of the First Amendment is batshit insane, I'm not as confident that the Kentucky legal system is going to do anything about it. Still have to wonder, what's the real motivation for Ham to lure a bunch of kids to his giant wooden prison?

I'm just saying, he could be trying to find those profits on the back end. Or several back ends, just in case maybe. And in God's not wed news tonight. Yeah, he was never a bride. Think about it. Mandy Heath and her fiance john were looking forward to their upcoming nuptials and headed to their local courthouse in kentucky again the fucking pakistan of america to get the paperwork sorted when they hit a bit of a snag

being secular they made a request that the word god not be used in their ceremony. And because of this County judge executive Hollis Alexander upheld the great Kentucky tradition of refusing to do his fucking job saying, quote, I will be unable to perform your wedding ceremony. I include God in my ceremonies and I won't do one without. And not adding, I do not look like Augustus Gloop at his retirement party. I don't.

Stop it. It looks like Oliver North got waterboarded with gravy and still couldn't recall. He just enjoyed the gravy. There's a bag of Reese's Pieces under my bed. All right. Now, but come on, guys. Let's be fair here. Eli, you and Anna are planning your wedding right now.

You're about a month away. Postponing it at the last minute wouldn't be a huge deal or anything, wouldn't it? How inconvenienced could this couple have possibly been? I mean, don't even say that. She can hear you. She's everywhere. Everywhere. Do you guys know there's a difference between Rose and Rosé?

Did you? Because there is just a big difference. Even if they look the same when you type them. Especially when they look the same when you type them. Someone send help. But here's the amazing thing about this story. When Hemet called to confirm over at patheos called to confirm this story not only did alexander confirm the story he actually added

voluntarily that he refuses to perform same-sex marriages as well on the phone on purpose with an atheist blogger also i cheat on my taxes I buy sex with underage boys on vacation, and my penis has smelled like cheese for 11 years and counting. And I blamed it on the dog. So he and I have some things in common. It's like a nutty

eat'em. That was the Goonies and then Sideways, by the way. See how easy that was, RNC? See how easy? was, RNC? See how easy? You just say the words We're just supposed to talk about how much we hate Hillary, right? This is the jobs night? The jobs night?

So the FFRF has sent Hollis a letter Reminding this guy that the fact you can't apparate within the grounds of Hogwarts Isn't enough reason for him not to do his fucking job And we'll wait on our end to see what song he uses without permission at his press conference with Mike Huckabee. I hope it's Fat Bottom Girls. Fat Bottom Girls.

Rockin' World Go Round. And finally tonight, from the Full Noose Party file, according to redundant, genocidal, biblical, literalist Minister Ray Comfort, atheists can't be trusted with political power because they're always genociding people. Well, we do always genocide people. Or loosely translated, tu quoque, you're a fallacy, you are.

And as proof of this theory, he cited several dictators throughout recent history and pointed out all the people they killed. Did the killings have anything to do with atheism? No, but shoo, shoo. It's fine. Okay, but as usual, the Christians have blown our plans for genocide way out of proportion without even asking how we're going to genocide. So for the record, we're not planning on killing anybody. Speak for yourself. Coming for you, Kelly Kohlberg. No, I mean in the genocide, we're not planning on killing anybody. Speak for yourself. Coming for you, Kelly Kohlberg.

No, I mean in the genocide, we're not planning. We're just going to reduce the population by making everybody switch genders and or turn gay. Bloodless Holocaust. We're calling it the Caitlyn Jennercide. Kind of catchy. Yes. Yeah, so Ray Comfort, who looks like Luigi lost his mansion and became homeless, made the remarks about atheism during a radio appearance last week. And here's a few highlights. Quote, atheists have caused 110 million deaths in the last hundred years.

Stalin, 60 million. He was an atheist. Mao, 40 million. And he was an atheist Mao 40 million And he was an atheist Pol Pot 1.7 million He was an atheist Vladimir Lenin 5 million people slaughtered He was an atheist

You can't trust an atheist in a position of authority Especially politically They may be nice people when you meet them in the street I actually got halfway to first base With one at Reason Rally when you meet them in the street. I actually got halfway to first base with one at Reason Rally. But you give them power, and you're going to find that they don't have any moral high ground to stand on because they're not standing on any whatsoever. Oh.

End quote. Must be a pre-excuse for us not getting able to use the stand your ground defense. And by the way, when you've got lists of people who murder murder people you start with the lowest and go to the highest you fucking idiot anyway let's see who do we got here lenin stalin mao pol pot is there anything other than atheism that those communist dictators have in common i can't think of a damn thing uh mustaches sorry stalin was uh stalin was Georgian. I think that's Asian. They squinted a lot. It's hard for me.

Well, yeah, I guess just to be safe, maybe we should just go ahead and ban anyone from Europe or Asia from political office. Oh, there you go. There we go. And Muslims. Brexit. And Muslims. Well, that's unrelated, but yeah, Muslims too. Oh, yeah. Also, I wasn't aware of that last part about standing on no ground, but apparently atheist

leaders can all levitate. Oh, yeah. That seems like a pro, not a con. That's just pretty cool. It doesn't matter. We're all murderers, and that's the important thing to remember, I guess. Okay. Credit where credit's due.

Andy Wilson is a murderer. We have firm evidence. What has Andy done to you, you man i don't know i just i feel like he's such a sweet guy and he's got if he wants to respond he's got to put out an episode so 12 years from now everyone's gonna tune he's gonna be like all right i've got some things to say i'm gonna be like who the fuck are you talking about oh the fat guy that died talking about the fat guy that died anyway um now that our genocidal plot finally got outed might as well roll with it let's go ahead and put those 30 seconds on the clock slogans for the genocidal atheist political party go all right i've had some of these for a while how about the atheist genocide party

we told you you should have aborted him It's either concentration camps or contraception camps, folks. Get on with it. The Atheist Genocide Party. Whatever. I do what I want. There you go. About the KKKtheist Party. Hood without God.

Harris-Dennett, 2016. Either you have a choice in this or you don't. Chapel Hillary, 2016. Either you have a choice in this or you don't. Chapel Hillary, 2016. We also like motorcycles. You see? It was like six shootings ago. You cannot be mad about that. You got like seven more.

You got seven jokes I made this week to be mad at if you want to go back to Chapel Hill. All right. What about Atheist Genocide? It's not just for Amalekites, Canaanites, Philistines, pagans, blacks, Native Americans, Jews, Muslims, other heathens, sodomites, adulterers, and women who do math anymore. It's tough to fit on a bumper sticker, but I'm up for it. We'll have to abbreviate or something.

How about answers in genocide? It's holiday morning in america i got one more what about the atheist genocide party a cultural evolution ah the time is now and i guess mao is also the time to close the headlines or maybe that time was about 30 seconds ago but whatever better late than never heath, Eli, thanks as always. Dradle. And when we come back, faithless feminist Karen Garst will be here to publicly speak and teach a man. Take that, Book of Timothy. This week on a very special episode of Pokemon.

Pokemon! Gee, Ahmed, I'm so excited you decided to come on our adventures. Pikachu. Wow, thanks Pikachu and Ash. Glad to be along for the ride. Pikachu. So, what Pokemon did you bring along to battle? Well, I have an Execute and a Machop. Oh, um, well,

that's a great team. What attacks do they know? Well, um, self-destruct. Really? Um, just self-destruct? Yep. You can always catch more Pokemon, you know. Yeah. Yeah, I guess so.

So why are we headed to Rick Wilde's house again, anyway? Oh, you know. Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. So why are we headed to Rick Wiles' house again anyway? Oh, you'll see. Pikachu. Okay, students, if you'll open your new biology textbook. Um, Ms. Anderson, this is the Bible. Yes. Well, thanks to President Trump, this is now used as a document across school subjects. So let's get to it, shall we? Billy, why don't you read first? Okay. It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when it is sown in the earth is less than all the seeds that be in the earth, mark 431.

Now, who can tell me what that means? Um, um, does it mean that mustard seeds are the smallest seed on the earth? It does in a whole bunch of fucking translations, but what does that mean? Um, is it that, like, fennel seeds and stuff aren't actually seeds?

Very good. So let me just fix this chart here. I'm smart. Nice. So next week we'll have a pop quiz how seeds and other dirt grow. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm having my period and the nurse says

I need to leave town for a week. Yeah, make it two, just to be safe. Grown. According to the most recent Pew data that I could find, 78% of American men are at least fairly certain that there's a God. But for American women, that number is closer to 90%. Weekly church attendance is more than 30% higher among women, and daily prayer is almost 50% higher. In addition, women are 30% more likely to cite their Christian faith as their primary source of moral guidance. more likely to cite their Christian faith as their primary source of moral guidance.

All this despite the fact that the Christian religion venerates a book that treats women as property, admonishes them for thinking and speaking, blames them for all the ills of society, casts them in all the most villainous roles, and repeatedly appraises their value at about 50% of their penis counterparts at best. Now, that leads to an obvious question that's been bedeviling us since the show began. Why is religiosity so much higher among women? And while we still don't have an answer, in October we'll gain a valuable new tool in our investigation The upcoming book, Women Beyond Belief, Discovering Life Without Religion collects the deconversion stories of 22 atheist and agnostic women

and offers us a bounty of insights from the feminine perspective To talk more about it, I'm joined by the book's editor, Karen Garst Karen, welcome to The Scathing Atheist. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Oh, you bet. And I have to say, when I first learned about this book, I was really excited. I've kind of been waiting for somebody to put together a collection like this for quite some time. So before we get to all the questions and whatnot, I just want to thank you for the effort. You're welcome. Now, since this book is largely a book about women shedding religion, I want to start with you. What brings you to atheism? largely a book about women shedding religion, I want to start with you.

What brings you to atheism? Were you religious growing up? Well, I was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, and so that answers most of that question. I think that everybody I knew going to school, I knew every church they went to. I knew who was Catholic. I knew the five Jewish families in town and which Lutheran church they went to if they were Lutheran. I was raised as a Lutheran, and I often say that I would have had no social life in high school without Luther League. We got together every Sunday. We went

bowling. We went roller skating, and a lot of my really good friends were in church. However, I went to a Lutheran college, Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, for my undergraduate degree. But I would say when I got to graduate school in Madison, Wisconsin, this was in the 70s, I didn't really join a religious community. This was in the 70s. I didn't really join a religious community. For me, religion was family. And it felt really odd to go to a church and not know anybody. So I kind of drifted away.

And then in the 90s, there were a number of books written by the authors of the Jesus Seminar. And I was very interested. I read a lot of those. And I was very interested. I read a lot of those, and I can credit Bishop John Shelby Spong in his book, Resurrection, Myth or Reality, as the reason Iversion stories is your own story here, and you seem to have had a much easier time with religion than a lot of the authors. Would you say that's fair? I think that's true. When I reread some of these essays, I come to tears. who was raised in a fundamental church, she says in her essay that she was taught that she was sin. And she has grappled with that her whole adult life. And she's probably in her late 40s.

She sent me an email the other day. She was at the beautiful Oregon coast and said, I went outside, I paused, I relaxed, and I felt good about myself. And she said, I think writing the essay had a lot to do with it. Awesome. Well, that's really good to know because there were times when I was reading it when I thought, you know, there were a lot of very, like, unflinching and self-deprecating admissions within this book. And there were times when I thought, like, if I was in your shoes, I'd feel a little guilty for asking someone to relive that. But I can imagine it's going to be cathartic, not just for them, but also for the readers. Exactly.

And the whole purpose of the book, and why I concentrated on women, and I appreciate the statistics that you stated earlier, is to give people an example of somebody else who's gone through it. I think we all look toward models. Can I do that? Well, somebody else who's gone through it. I think we all look toward models. Can I do that? Well, somebody else did it. I think I can do it too. And as they read these stories,

and they may skip over some of them, they may not relate to them, but if they see other women who have let go of religion and they're thinking about that, I think this will help them take that final step. So is that your primary audience then, is women who are maybe questioning their faith or just coming out of their faith? I think so, and I hope to sell the book to both men and women who know somebody that maybe is on the fence or wants some additional information, that this will be helpful to them. As you said in your introduction, there aren't a lot of books written about stories about women atheists currently.

Annie Laurie Gaylor from the Freedom from Religion Foundation did an excellent job of compiling previous atheists in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Yeah. So now, I guess my first question there about coming to atheism is really kind of a two-pronged question, because obviously part of it is what led you away from religion, but the other part is what brought you into activism. So what inspires you to get this project started? Were you already an active atheist? No, I wasn't.

I was having lunch in downtown Portland with a friend of mine, Kate Dyer Seeley, who is an author. She writes mystery novels, which are excellent. And she said, Karen, I think you should write a book. And I said, well, the United States Supreme Court had just issued its decision a few days previously in Burwell versus Hobby Lobby. And you may be familiar with this case. The Supreme Court, the five Catholic men on the Supreme Court who voted for this decision said that because Hobby Lobby had certain religious views, it was not obligated to provide certain forms of birth control under the Affordable Care Act to its employees. And I was thinking about that, and I told my friend, the only thing I can get passionate about is atheism.

And that really started me on this journey. I've had the opportunity to work with Dr. Peter Boghossian. He wrote a manual for creating atheists. Somebody introduced me to him early on, and he has been my mentor and assisted me along the way. I have connected with people on Facebook and other social media. I have attended the local humanist, atheist, etc. meetings in Portland, and I've probably read 150 books in the last year. Wow. Now, is that where you ferreted out your authors, was at these gatherings and stuff?

Or how did you go about locating them? Well, I started out by bugging my friends. And, you know, this is Oregon. So Oregon is probably the highest percentage of atheists in the country. So I asked friends of mine, and some of them said, well, you know, I'm an atheist, but I'm not interested in writing about it. Or, you know, I probably can't quite go that far. I'm not interested. But I started with that. And then I met people like Peter, who introduced me to other people who had different groups. And I

started to attend meetings and ask if people were interested. And then when I put the whole compilation together, my publisher, Pitchstone Publishing, asked me to create a little more diversity. Oregon isn't the most diverse state. And so I reached out through social media and was able to obtain women, maybe with a little different perspective, who were interested in writing. And I believe I added about six essays at that time. Right on, because that's one of the things that I did actually notice when I was reading it. And that's one of the things that really made it most interesting to me is that we got some perspectives from women growing up Christian in Africa or growing up Catholic in Peru and everything. Christian in Africa or growing up Catholic in Peru and everything.

Now, there was one sort of homogeneous thread through it that all but one of the essays were about women leaving Christian denominations. You had one essay from a former Jew, but other than that, it was all flavors of Jesus. Now, was that a conscious decision on your part or was that just a byproduct of what you had available? That was a byproduct of what was available i think given that christianity is the largest religion in the united states uh i thought it was appropriate to focus on that i do have plans for another book uh which is going to be composed of effets of authors who are going to examine all the different reasons that women should leave religion. And I do plan to include, if possible, and I've already started soliciting authors, women who are Muslim and from some other faiths. I can imagine the Muslim woman would have a lot to add on that particular subject.

Exactly. Now, I apologize if this comes off like asking who your favorite kid is or something. And so I'm happy to withdraw the question if it is. But is there one story or one moment within one of these stories that struck you the most or moved you the most? Well, I think my, it's hard to say favorite, but I think Ann Wilcox's story about leaving fundamentalist religion. And as I said earlier, she is the person who I talked to about at the coast. How shame and guilt influence your personality and influence who you think atheism, and I was doing a survey of books on Amazon, and I found that six out of the top hundred were women, which means a predominant number of them are men.

And men come from, the men who write about atheism, a lot of them come from philosophy, science, etc. That are, you know, have been, until recently, male-dominated fields. But one of the things that we don't look at is culture. And all of the different trappings of culture, whether it's ritual, whether it's speech, whether it's a community, whether it's language, it traps you in so many different ways that we're not even conscious of. I was listening to TV last night, and somebody sang a beautiful rendition of Ave Maria. And that touched me in a way that it wouldn't somebody,

someone else who wasn't raised religiously. So subconsciously, emotionally, physically, whatever, that song just had an amazing effect on me. So I think this how does culture reproduce itself is fascinating. Plus I'm trying to loop back to that Ph.D. dissertation I did on cultural reproduction that I never used. So I'm trying to, you know, I was, you know, 30 years ago, I'm trying to pull something out of that, make all the time I spend on it worthwhile.

Right. That's why I use big words. I want to make sure I get my college tuitions worth. Now, I got to say, there was one moment, I just want to highlight this one moment in the book that really stood out to me. It was early on, I believe it was in this – one moment in the book that really stood out to me. It was early on. I believe it was in the second story about a Jehovah's Witness woman. And within her story, she's talking about a moment where she had to convince a group of men, a group of elders in her church, that she'd gotten pregnant by, in her words, dry humping in a hot tub.

And I'm sure there's a lot of people who immediately snicker at that because that's's comically bizarre and everything but within the context of the story you recognize what's at stake here and this insane thing that she has to convince these people of if she's unable to do that she may lose contact with her family she may never speak to her parents again and and so it's it's so easy from a person for a person in my perspective who was not raised religious to look at some of these things and just instinctively laugh at them. But when you get these human stories and you recognize that as silly as this is, there are very serious things at stake here. I mean, I think that's that and, like you said, sort of that endurance of religion even after you left. I think those are the two main themes that I walked away from this book, that and regret of what could have been. Well, and I think, as you well know, sometimes if we don't laugh, we'll cry. that I walked away from this book, that and regret of what could have been.

Well, and I think, as you well know, sometimes if we don't laugh, we'll cry. Yeah, yeah. I think I may have had something in between at that particular moment. Now, were there any big lessons that you took away from the project, anything that you didn't expect that you learned? Well, I think growing up where I did, it was, I kind of call it Namby Pamby Lutheranism. When I was in ninth grade, we learned about evolution. There was no opposition to that. Nobody walked out of the classroom. It was accepted. My father, who was very religious, was very interested in evolution and science. So there were a lot of things in my upbringing that I associated with religion that weren't, you know, intense shame, intense guilt. Now, we can talk later, if you wish, about my lack of sex education, what that got me to. But for many of these women, it was a

very, very difficult experience. And I don't think I was aware of all the different denominations and all the different ways where they keep people away from other people. And the example you talked about, the disfellowship, it's hard to leave. Do you want to really say goodbye to your family? And I have several of the authors are using pseudonyms for that very reason. Right, right. Well, I'm still using a pseudonym for the exact same one. Now, I've only got you for a few more minutes here. So I do want to kind of circle back to the question we opened up with. Now, obviously, I don't expect you to have a one-size-fits-all answer here or anything but do you have any theories as to why women in this country are so much more religious than men uh yeah i think there's

many reasons um i think that up until recently you know women were the ones uh in charge of the children so they're responsible for it you for getting the kids off to school, educating them. If somebody's going to take them to church, that's going to be the woman. And Sakiba Hutchinson wrote a book called Moral Combat, and she is an African American, and she focused on why do women cling so much? And one of the things she said, if a woman doesn't take her own kids, a grandmother will step in and take them. My husband, as an example, his mother, who's 95 today, who is on the funeral committee for her local Catholic parish. So you might say they might be a bit desperate. She always says, I really hope the book's going well, but don't talk to me about it.

And his father stayed at home. So she was the one responsible for taking the kids, having them go to Sunday school. My husband did skip out the back, but I think that's been the role. And I do believe that if women walked out of church, the churches would fall apart because they do so much of the work, the churches would fall apart because they do so much of the work, whether it's the potluck and cooking the food or doing the funerals or putting the flowers on or helping to clean or folding bulletins. They are doing a lot of the unpaid labor that keeps that church going. So if women walk away, we can start making those churches into libraries and bookstores.

I like the sound of that. But do you think there's, would you say it's entirely culture then, the reason why? Because obviously, like I said, the Christian religion and all the Abrahamic religions are spectacularly sexist in their details, and it just seems to me that if anyone should be walking out of these churches, it should be the women. So do you think that's just cultural reinforcement that keeps so many women blind to the sexism and chauvinism in their church? Well, I think that's true. Plus, you know, when I was growing up, nobody talked about, you know, fighting the M-knights

and when God says, oh, yeah, and when you're back there fighting them, rip the fetuses out of the pregnant women's bellies. I mean, nobody talks about those things. So a lot of the really negative material isn't emphasized. One of the things that Martin Luther wrote, I did a blog post about this, is on Jews and their lives. Lives.

And he went on and on, this diatribe against Jews, which certainly, you know, contribute to the Holocaust, I believe. So you don't hear the part, you don't hear the negative part. You hear the good stories, you hear about Noah, and it's really a series of stories. When I went to Concordia and had my first religion class, they talked about the exile in Babylon as being an historical event. That was a surprise to me. They talked about the exile in Babylon as being an historical event. That was a surprise to me.

They talked about all the different oral traditions of the Old Testament. Never heard that before. So these pastors learn things in theology, but then they don't bring them back and talk about them. Right. And I really think it gives you an idea what a paucity of good stuff they've got that when you gave the example of the good stories, they tell you it's the one where God floods the entire world and kills all but eight of the people. There you go. So now again, the name of the book is Women Beyond Belief, Discovering Life Without Religion.

It comes out October 1st, is that right? Yes, and it's available for pre-order on Amazon. Excellent, excellent. And it'll be available then wherever fine atheist books are sold, I assume? Yes. All right. Now, is there anywhere other than the blog where our listeners might follow you to keep up to date on what's coming? Well, I have a Twitter account at Karen underscore Garst. I have a YouTube channel.

If you just go to YouTube and do Faithless Feminist, you'll see some of the talks I've done. And I have a Facebook page. If you just go to Facebook and say Faithless Feminist, you'll find me. Excellent. And of course, we'll have that all linked on the show notes as well. Well, thanks again for putting this resource together. And Karen, thanks for your time. Thank you so much.

I really appreciated the opportunity. It was fun. I'm glad to hear it. Run, grab the youngins, folks. It's time for Lucinda Lusion's Bible Stories for Kids. Gather round, boys and girls. Today we're going to demonstrate just how brutally fucked up the Bible is by opening it to Genesis and realizing that we've been highlighting horrible stories

from this book for three years, and I still haven't gotten around to the story of Abraham and Isaac. So once upon a time, there was a man named Abraham. And Abraham was a God-fearing man, which is a good thing because when somebody really loves you like God loves you, you should be terrified of them all the time. And Abraham was married to a woman named Sarah, who he loved very much, even though he did occasionally pimp her out to Egyptians. But unfortunately, Sarah was barren, which means that she couldn't have any babies. And as we all know, the purpose

of women is to have babies. So she was very sad. But one day, Abe agreed to whack off a little bit of his penis for God. So God said if he'd make all his slaves do it too, he'd let Abe's wife have a baby after all, even though she was almost a hundred years old. Well, needless to say, Abraham and Sarah were both a little skeptical, but not so skeptical that they wouldn't modify the penises of humans who'd already been stripped of their will and dignity. So Abe set to whacking off foreskins, and that made God so happy that he let Sarah have a baby after all. And they named that baby Isaac. Of course, Abraham loved Isaac very much because he was a boy and thus had value.

But when God saw his favorite penis mutilator devoting so much attention to his new baby, he got very jealous. I mean, sure, Abe had whacked off the baby's dick flap and everything, but he wasn't paying God anywhere near as much attention since the baby was born. So God decided to set up an elaborate ruse to see if Abe still loved him best. So channeling his best overly suspicious girlfriend from an 80s sitcom persona, God spoke to Abe one night. And Abe said, how you doing, God? And God said, pretty good. How you liking that new baby, Abe? And Abe said, I like him a lot. And God said, good. Just need you to do me one little favor. I'm gonna need

you to murder that baby of yours. Well needless to say Abraham was pretty bummed when he heard that but hey when the voices in your head tell you to murder a baby you murder a baby am I right? So Abraham woke Isaac up and told him they had to go up on the mountain to make a sacrifice to God and since it wasn't until later that day that Isaac would never trust a fucking thing his dad said again he smiled and tagged along like an obedient boy should. But along the way, Isaac noticed something was missing. After all, when they went up to the mountain to offer God a sacrifice, they always brought a sacrifice. So Isaac said, Dad, I think you forgot the lamb or the goat or whatever. But Abe assured him that, no, he hadn't. And this should

have been enough to clue Isaac in that the shit was going down. But apparently it wasn't because it wasn't until they got all the way up to the top of the mountain and Abraham started tying him up on the stone altar that he realized that he was going to be the sacrifice. Oh, no. So Isaac pleaded with his dad. Please don't murder me, pops, please, he begged. But Abraham told him to stop being such a little bitch about it. So he did. And then, just as Abraham was raising a knife to stab his son to death with, an angel appeared and stopped him. You are totally going to do it, though, the angel said. And Abraham kind of looked at his feet and said, But it's not.

But everybody knew he was lying. And everybody lived traumatized ever after. The end. Before we exit Pursued by a Bear tonight, I wanted to apologize to Mythicist Milwaukee for calling them Milwaukee Mythicists on last week's show, even though my guest had just correctly named them like three times. So sorry about that, guys. Usually try to get minor stuff like the name of the podcast I was on, right? I promise to do better next time. 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 on Tuesday at 8 a.m. Eastern. It's going to be a couple more weeks before Skeptocrat can make its triumphant return. Sorry, moving sucks. But if you can't make it that long, be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube for bonus nuggets of scatheism throughout the week. Obviously, the show would feel like unfinished oral sex if I didn't thank Heath Enright for always giving 110% despite the mathematical impossibility that that involves. I need to thank the marvelously talented Lucinda Lusions for always bringing the brightest and dark humor. I need to thank the

surprisingly soft and supple Eli Bosnick for becoming such an indispensable part of the team so quickly. Gotta give one more big thanks to Karen Garst for lending us some of her time tonight. Again, you'll find links to her blog and to pre-order her book on Amazon on the show notes for this episode. Also want to thank Chuck and Willie of Chuck and Willie's Book of Mormon Stories for celebrating their triumphant return to podcasting with a Farnsworth quote. If you'd like to give them a listen, of course, you'll find them linked on the show notes as well. But most of all, of course, I need to thank this week's primary privates, Coren, Jason, Eli, Helen, Cody, Jared, Capital Three, Keith, Robot, Scarecrow, Ray, Root-Ass Yankee,

Jim, Eric, Larry, Kevin, and David. Coren, Jason, Eli, Heath, and Cody, whose IQs are often mistaken for long-distance phone numbers, Jared, Capital Three, Keith, Robot, Scarecrow, and Ray Rude-Ass Yankee, who are so badass teams and ninjas start voluntarily losing consciousness when they approach, and Jim, Eric, Larry, Kevin, and David, whose ejaculations are so powerful Norwegian people make movies about them. Together, these nifty, thrifty, spiffy, witty, gritty, frisky, 15, 4-winner fraction of their fortune this week to give us money. Not everybody has the money and internet connection it takes to give us money, but if you have money that you'd rather we have,

you can give it to us on a per-episode donation basis at patreon.com slash scathingatheist, whereby you'll earn early access to an 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 scathingatheist.com. And if you'd like to help, but you actually made good on that seemingly reasonable, I'll bet you every penny I have

he doesn't get nominated bet that you made in April, you can also help us a ton by leaving us a five-star review on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever it is that you like to go to rate podcasts. And according to my sources, you still haven't told Grandma about this show, which is disappointing, but whatever. If you have questions, comments, or death threats, you'll find all the contact info on the contact page at skatingatheist.com. All the music used in this episode was written and performed by yours truly,

and yes, I did have my permission. But fuck a rancid badger corpse, you Santorum gargling asshole.