Here it is…the final episode of Reasonable Doubts, featuring new Counterapologetics, God Thinks Like You and Polyatheism segments mixed with goodbyes from our fans and outtakes from the past eight years of doubtcasting. Thank you to everyone who made this show what it was. Special thanks to Jonathan MS Pearce for the spoken word introduction to the show and to Hugh McDonald for allowing us to use his song “Schrodinger’s Cat” for this episode.
After eight years, the Reasonable Doubts podcast is ending. The Doubtcasters just finished their final recording session in the studio, but there is still a chance for you to be part of the last episode. Email doubtcast@gmail.com with parting thoughts, memories about the show or stories about what the Reasonable Doubts podcast meant to you. Include an audio file and we’ll share it as part of the final episode (please get submissions in by Saturday Sep 12th). Thanks to all our listeners for all the support you’ve given us over the years!
This podcast features a previously unreleased interview with Australian singer and songwriter Shelley Segal. Shelly shares about her experience growing up in a conservative Jewish household and how her music naturally turned to turned to secular themes when she decided she was an atheist. She also performs two songs from “An Atheist Album.”
Interview: Daniel Fincke – The Reaction to Charlie Hebdo
Dan Fincke from Camels With Hammers joins us to defend Charlie Hebdo’s right to blaspheme and answer many of the criticisms we’ve heard over the past weeks.
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Dale McGowan, executive director of the Foundation Beyond Belief talks about some of the exciting ways the organization plans to put humanist principles into action in 2015. Also, statistics on the public’s attitudes towards the Christmas holiday, the John Templeton Foundation donates millions of dollars to philosophers who study free will and the Norse god Oden might just be the world’s first Christmas ornament.
Interview: Dale McGowan – Foundation Beyond Belief
The Foundation Beyond Belief is attempting to raise 75,000 dollars for its years end fund drive. Executive director, Dale McGowan joins us on the show to share some of the exciting new projects (including the humanist service core and the disaster relief) the foundation is planning for 2015. Please consider donating to Foundation Beyond Belief. You can find out more about what they are doing to advance humanist at the links below.
Philosopher Alfred Mele believes the public has been misled into believing that neuroscience disproves free will. Now Mele is at the helm of a multi-million dollar research project to study the nature of freedom, a project funded by the theological wing of the John Templeton Foundation…prompting the doubtcasters to once again make the case for determinism in response to some of Mele’s objections.
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This RD Extra features a debate between Ed Brayton and Dr. Tim Schmig. The debate took place on November 12, 2014 at CFI Michigan in Grand Rapids.
Ed Brayton is the founder and owner of the Freethought Blogs Network and the voice behind the popular blog Dispatches from the Culture Wars. He is the co-founder and past president of Michigan Citizens for Science and the recipient of the Friend of Darwin Award from the National Center for Science Education and has appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show, The Thom Hartmann Show, and C-SPAN. Ed is also a current member of CFI Advisory Board. Brayton argued for the resolution “That the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
Arguing against that resolution is Dr. Tim Schmig, the Executive Director for the Michigan Association of Christian Schools. Tim Schmig has taught High School History, Social Studies, Government and Economics for 5 years in two different Christian Schools. He holds a Doctorate of Literature in Ministry from Maranatha Baptist Bible College.Tim spends much time in Washington D.C. and Lansing meeting with elected officials and has earned respect and garnered influence on both sides of the political aisle.
Reasonable Doubts would like to thank Ed Brayton and CFI Michigan for letting us share this debate, as well as a special thanks to Mike Slomka for helping capture the audio. Reasonable Doubts will be back with another regular format episode on December 15th.
Physical pain plays an important biological role, but should we expect it to in a world created by God? Also, a recent paper in the journal cognition posits distinct cognitive attitudes underlying religious belief and factual reasoning, but is the evidence from cognitive science and philosophy sufficient to support this claim?
Counter-Apologetics: Theism, indifference and the biology of pain
Pain serves an important biological purpose. Even animals who lack moral agency experience pain, and moral agents often experience gratuitous pain that serves no biological or moral purpose. Paul Draper’s paper “Pain and Pleasure: An Evidential Problem for Theists” explores the philosophical implications of these facts for theism.
God Thinks Like You: Imagination and Religious Belief
The power of imagination can make fictions seem real to us–even prompting behaviors and powerful emotions. The paradox of fiction asks how we can have such powerful reactions to what we know to be false. The journal Cognition recently featured two papers inspired by the paradox of fiction. One demonstrates how imagined events can fool our unconscious mind into believing the events are real, even when we factually know the experiences never happened. Another claims that religious beliefs are formed by cognitive processes more similar to imaginings than factual beliefs.
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Many non-theists keep their doubts hidden for fear of losing friends and love ones. But remaining in the closet also has drawbacks: stress, hypocrisy, the oppression of silence and fear of being found out. Despite the risks, those who’ve made the decision to be open about their atheism almost never regret it. Luckily, doubters do not need to make this important decision on their own. Greta Christina (FTB blogger and author of Why Are You Atheists So Angry) conducted over 400 interviews with non-theists about their experiences of leaving the closet. Along the way she discovered that differing circumstances call for different coming-out strategies. Her latest book Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help, and Why?–distills this wisdom into clear and compassionate strategies for preserving important relationships while being open about your doubts.
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The Nonreligious
