Atheist Nomads

We're joined by Mike Wiseman from The Bible Says What!? a podcast where he debates pastors, rabbis, and other people pushing dogma. We talk about the types of pastors, Followers of Christ finally getting arrested for abuse, the House gutting the Johnson Amendment, a Russian spy who infiltrated the NRA and religious right, and who's really behind Bigfoot and UFOs. https://thebiblesayswhat.podbean.com/ Dustin’ off the Degree - Types of Pastors 1. Catholic Priests 2. Orthodox Priests 3. Protestant professional ministers with M.Div. 4. Protestant uneducated ministers 5. Mormon Bishops 6. Cult Leaders NEWS Followers of Christ sexual abuse arrest http://bit.ly/an261-kester House votes to prevent IRS from punishing churches engaging in politics http://bit.ly/an261-irs Alleged Russian spy infiltrated the NRA and Christian Right http://bit.ly/an261-butina American Family Radio tells listeners Satan is behind Bigfoot and UFOs http://bit.ly/an261-bigfoot INTERVIEW - Mike Wiseman from The Bible Says What!? podca

This week we joined by Justin and talk about the Trump/Putin press conference, conspiracies, fasting, and the latest news. Dustin’ off the Degree - Fasting NEWS Indian lawmaker says Mother Teresa should be stripped of civilian honor over baby-trafficking scandal http://bit.ly/an260-mother-teresa Authorities in India are cracking down on baby-trafficking that her Missionaries of Charity has been doing with at least one nun and at least one other person working with the charity selling babies to childless couples for $550 to $1450. As a result some of the leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist party are calling to remove the Jewel of India, the highest civilian honor, that was conferred on Mother Teresa nearly 40 years ago. Rodrigo Duterte says he’ll resign as Philippine president if someone can prove God exists http://bit.ly/an260-duterte Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte got a lot of attention for calling God stupid and calling out Catholic dogma such as original sin for tainting even innocent infan

Bart Everson joins us to talk about his naturalistic holiday system drawing from Neo-paganism, but before that Erin joins us for for the news. The GOP is taxing churches, Tony Perkin's wants to drive gay rights supporters from the GOP, Northern Ireland will now allow Humanist weddings, Brother Adam has figured out how men can save America. NEWS Republican tax law hits churches http://bit.ly/an259-taxing-churches One provision of the GOP's tax bill was to remove deductions for fringe benefits for employees. These benefits include free parking, meals, bus passes, and the like. It was intended to offset part of the huge increase to the deficit that the tax cuts are causing, but interestingly it's poorly worded enough that it includes nonprofits, including churches that will now have to start paying some taxes. Tony Perkins: We can do for gay rights what we've done to abortion rights http://bit.ly/an259-gop-gay-rights Tony Perkin’s of the Family Research Council is quite happy that pro-choice Republicans hav

This week we're joined by Erin Riley. In the news we have Ultra-Orthodox flight delays, polygamy convictions in Canada, Boise stabbing, the 'Brown Invasion', toddlers in court. We also discuss faith and depression. News Ultra-Orthodox men again hold up plane, refusing to sit beside women http://bit.ly/an258-ultra For the second time in as many weeks Ultra-Orthodox men held up a flight. This was an Austrian Airlines flight that 26 men were moved to after their original flight was canceled, so yes, it was full. Each of the men refused to be seated next to a woman and eventually the pilot had to get involved and convince the women to change seats so the flight could take off only 40 minutes late. After the previous incident on an El Al flight that airline decided that any passengers refusing to be seated would be removed from the plane and an Israeli court has also recently ruled that women cannot be forced to change seats. Two fundamentalist Mormons convicted of polygamy in BC http://bit.ly/an258-poly Six

After the first segment we are joined by Craig Wells to talk about his new book The Blasphemous Bible and his upbringing in the Adventist church. Buy the book NEWS France arrests 10 far-Right suspects over alleged plot to attack Muslims, say prosecutors Since 2015 more than 240 people have died in terror attacks in France perpetrated by Islamic extremists. On Saturday anti-terrorist police, acting on information from France's intelligence service arrested 10 would be terrorists, all linked to the far-Right, who were trying to stockpile weapons to use in attacks against Muslims. French priest suspended after video of him slapping baby goes viral You've probably seen the video by now, it's an elderly Catholic priest trying to calm a crying baby that he's supposed to baptize. When the normal soothing doesn't work he slapped the baby across the face twice. It took both parents to force their child out of the priest's arms. In response to this the diocese in France that the 89 year old priest worked in has

Dustin’ off the Degree - Cults The word cult has a lot of meanings. For example, in archaeology describing something as cultic, just means that it was a religious site or artifact because in its original meaning, cult just means worship. At its most academic, all religions and religious groups are cults. However, if you use it like this to describe modern groups in conversations with almost anyone, you're using it wrong. On the other extreme, there are cult classics, TV shows, movies, comic books, etc that develop a cult following. Nobody actually worships the Firefly TV series, but it has developed a large following and quite a few dedicated fans. Many of groups we've talked about recently are considered cults by many, but I have avoided using it because how it's most commonly used is a pejorative for weird groups, but there is a meaning that is actually pretty well accepted, or at least unlikely to cause confusion. Generally cults are: New religious movements, arising since the mid 1800s High degree of

This week we are joined by Mikey Pullman and talk about Messianic Judaism, why Pride is relevant, renewed gay hate, parents claiming Christianity was on trial, Norway's new burqa ban, and more. Dustin’ off the Degree - Messianic Judaism In the 19th century protestant groups in started targeting Jewish communities for evangelism. In 1821 the London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews published the first Yiddish New Testament. These efforts spread from the UK to Ukraine, the US, and various other places. In the US they had the greatest success with converting Jewish immigrants and created communities that had their worship services on Saturday and mixed Jewish and Christian customs. As a result the gentile leaders of the groups were being accused of being Judaizers by other Christians. This movement picked up steam starting in the 1920s and by the 1940s and 50s Southern Baptist missionaries operating in Israel used the term “messianics” instead of notsrim which translates to Christians from Naz

Dustin' Off the Degree - The Salvation Army You've seen Salvation Army thrift stores and bell ringers raising money around Christmas, and while there is a Salvation Army charitable organization, it's run by the Salvation Army church. The organization was founded under the name of the East London Christian Mission by a Methodist Reform Church minister, William Booth and his wife Catherine in 1865. Their early goal was to convert the poor prostitutes, alcoholics, and gamblers of London with William leading the preaching and Catherine working her way through high society raising money. In 1878 in a letter where William had dictated "we are a volunteer army" to his secretary, after some banter it was updated to "we are a salvation army." By the end of the year William styled him self a general and started wearing a military style uniform. He then started commissioning other ministers as officers and made the lay members soldiers. Catherine at this time also got a special title, "Mother of The Salvation Army". T

Dustin' Off the Degree - Patron Saint of Doubters High churches are the ones that follow the liturgical calendar where each church service is tied to events in the life of Christ or other significant events. They also tend to recognize saints as special class of dead believers. This is different from the low churches which don't follow a specific liturgical calendar and that believe in the sainthood of all believers. Saints as a special class are the best of the best dead believers. In some cases they are martyrs but in all cases they have a special in with God. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches kind of take this to an extreme and don't pray to God, since the average Christian isn't good enough to get his attention, so they pray to a saint and then that saint will talk to God about the living believer's request and if they're lucky God will allow the saint to work a miracle. Candidates for sainthood in the Roman Catholic church are confirmed by the church verifying miracles that happened when

Dustin' Off the Degree - Christian Science You've probably seen the Christian Science Monitor and I know we've used it a few times on the show. It's a publication that generally does good reporting and has won 7 Pulitzer Prizes. There's also a decent chance you've seen Reading Rooms in your downtown. Science, reading, and good journalism? They can't be that bad, right? This is the Church of Christ, Scientist and the the science is Mary Baker Eddy's divinely inspired revelation that that the material world and illness are all illusions. The real world is purely spiritual and wrong beliefs cause the illusion of illness which can only be healed by corrective prayer. Christian Scientists will begrudgingly comply with vaccination laws, they will see the dentist, optometrist, OB/GYN, and let doctor's take care of broken bones, but they discourage members from seeking medicine to treat illness. They don't believe that the medicine will prevent the prayers from effecting healing, but they believe the healing will be

On this week's episode of the Atheist Nomads Chris Matheson is back to talk about his new book The Trouble with God: A Divine Comedy about Judgment (and Misjudgment) where we follow God, last seen in The Story of God through Islam, Mormonism, and Scientology. This episode is brought to you by: * Travis McGee * Danielle * Michael * Darryl * Arthur * George * Mike * The Flying Skeptic * SoJo * George Greene * Kim * Rachel * John * Josh * Rob * Al from South Carolina * Henry * Alexandra * Alan You can find us online at www.atheistnomads.com, follow us on Twitter @AtheistNomads, like us on Facebook, email us at contact@atheistnomads.com, and leave us a voice mail message at (541) 203-0666. Theme music is provided by Sturdy Fred. DOWNLOAD EPISODE

Discussion - Freedom, hate, and social media NEWS White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative Some famous faces—and questionable reputations—are joining President Donald Trump’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition Trump has named Dr. Oz, Patriots coach BIll Belichick, the CEO of SlimFast, an NBC executive, and 14 others to the Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. Eighteen members of congress have nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize Betsy DeVos gets standing ovation from Florida graduates after religious speech US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos delivered the commencement address for the graduation at Ave Maria University in Florida. During her 20 minutes she focused on teachings of John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Jesus, and heavily pushed service to God, country, and neighbor. Franklin Graham continues to defend Trump Evangelist Franklin Graham is continuing to defend Trump. He told the Associated Press: [Play audio] This differs from his views on Bill Clinton in 1998: "Private c

Atheist Comedy Experience - May 18 in Boise NEWS Four House Democrats have launched the Congressional Freethought Caucus Representatives Jared Huffman and Jerry McNearney of California as well as Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Dan Kildee of Michigan have launched the Congressional Freethought Caucus with the goal of pushing “public policy formed on the basis of reason, science, and moral values,” to promote “secular character of our government by adhering to the strict Constitutional principle of the separation of church and state,” and to fight against “discrimination against atheists, agnostics, humanists, seekers, religious and nonreligious persons” and giving “a forum for members of Congress to discuss their moral frameworks, ethical values, and personal religious journeys.” Paul Ryan forced the US House Chaplain to resign The Chaplain of the US House of Representatives was given the choice of retiring or being fired by Paul Ryan. He chose to retire. Why would the Catholic House Speaker force out the C

Discussion - Is science broken? NEWS Mormon president told Africans that tithing was the solution to poverty While visiting Nairobi, Kenya, Russell Marion Nelson Sr, the President of the Mormon church, addressed a crowd of over 2000 and talked to them about tithing, saying: “We preach tithing to the poor people of the world because the poor people of the world have had cycles of poverty, generation after generation. That same poverty continues from one generation to another, until people pay their tithing.” Poverty, by definition, is not having enough money to meet basic needs like food and shelter, yet in his mind it’s a spiritual problem and the solution is to give 10% of not enough money to feed your family to the Mormon church. Liberty Counsel's attorney says that Satan is behind sex ed programs Mary McAlister and “Activist Mommy” Elizabeth Johnston are working on “Sex Ed Sit Out” where they are trying to get parents to remove their kids from school in protest of “graphic, gender-bending sex educat

This week we're joined by Mikey Pullman and we've got David Silverman, updates on Trump's latest trans military ban, Ken Ham's labor woes, the impending apocalypse, fighting over condiments, and more! Atheist Comedy Experience - May 18 in Boise NEWS David Silverman has been fired by American Atheists amid conflicts of interest and allocations of sexual assault Judge blocks Trump's latest trans military ban, declares trans people a protected class Atheist sues Missouri town that ejected her from city council meeting for criticizing “In God We Trust” sign Arizona House passes bill requiring women seeking abortions to say why A Woman has accused the governor of Missouri of violent, nonconsensual sex Trinidad and Tobago set to decriminalize homosexuality Billy Graham's daughter says that God may send a nuclear strike to punish us all for immorality Ken Ham can’t find enough creationist employees, so he’s loosening restrictions ‘Boy who came back from Heaven’ says he didn’t and is suing A numerologist

This week Merry Cole is back and brought along little baby Blithe. In the news we have the Idaho Gov and Lt. Gov race, Mormon creepiness, the SBC president’s resignation, healthcare, and more! We’re back on Thursday. NEWS David Silverman placed on leave following a complaint An Idaho Lt. Gov. candidate thinks women who get abortions should be executed Idaho state Sen Bob Nonini is running for Lt Governor and took part is a candidate forum with other candidates on the “CrossPolitic SHow and Podcast” which is a Christian political show. All three candidates agreed that abortion is murder. The host, David Shannon asked if women who get abortions should get the death penalty and Nonini agreed saying, “Yes. There should be no abortion and anyone who has an abortion should pay.” After the backlash that he deserved for saying that he tried to backtrack on Twitter saying: "LET ME BE CLEAR-I have always been a pro-life supporter. That means classifying abortion as murder & I believe we should consider penalties

 On this week's episode we are joined by Baba Brinkman, the first ever peer reviewed science rapper. We talk about his spiritual upbringing, how he started rapping Chaucer, and then moving on to science. Website Twitter Facebook "Good Bayesian" by Baba Brinkman and featuring MC Lars and Mega Ran is used with permission. This episode is brought to you by: * Travis McGee * Danielle * Darryl * Michael * Arthur * George * Mike * The Flying Skeptic * Kim * Rachel * John * Josh * Rob * Al from South Carolina * Henry * Alexandra * Alan You can find us online at www.atheistnomads.com, follow us on Twitter @AtheistNomads, like us on Facebook, email us at contact@atheistnomads.com, and leave us a voice mail message at (541) 203-0666. Theme music is provided by Sturdy Fred. DOWNLOAD EPISODE

DUSTIN’ OFF THE DEGREE - The Mandeans A few weeks ago I mentioned a religious group that is effectively the church of John the Baptist. I mistakenly referred to them as the Ebionites, which were a Jewish Christian group that rejected Paul and viewed James the brother of Jesus and preferred James the brother of Jesus. They were also big fans of the John the Baptist, but not the group I was thinking about. The Ebionites disappeared by around 300 CE, but they’ll come up again when we talk about Jews for Jesus. It’s been nearly 11 years since I dropped out of the seminary so it’s not surprising that much of my knowledge of obscure religious oddities has faded along with my knowledge of classical Greek. The group I was thinking of is the Mandeans. They started sometime in the first three centuries of the common era, but the historical record of them is pretty scant with many of the best early sources coming from Islamic writers and the Hadith. They are generally thought to be the Sabians that are counted by Mus

This week we are joined by Mikey Pullman and talk about privacy in the online world, state sponsored religious foster care agencies, family values infidelity, how the kids are all right, and more. We have an Alexa skill. Just say Alexa, activate the Atheist Nomads skill. DISCUSSION - Privacy online NEWS The South Carolina governor has signed an executive order allowing foster care agencies to discriminate on the basis of religion The Obama administration updated regulations to prohibit foster care agencies that are publicly funded and licensed from servicing only specific religions, before that they were only prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race or national origin. Last week South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster issued an executive order to undermine that regulation making it perfectly fine to discriminate on the basis of religion and he’s asked the US Department of Health and Human Services to exempt the state from the regulation. The "family values" GOP Iowa state senate majority leade

We are joined this week by local comedian Emma Arnold and talk about the latest news. There's Italian gay priests getting outed, trans people winning in court, and more. @iamaroadtrip Instagram Tree Fort NEWS An Italian male escort has exposed 36 actively gay Catholic priests and seminarians in a 1200 page document complete with very explicit evidence An Italian male escort gave the archdiocese of Naples a 1200 page dossier identifying 34 priests and 6 seminarians who he knows to be “actively gay”. The document included explicit WhatsApp messages, photos, and other evidence of these men of the cloth getting on with other adult men. In response to the gravity of the situation the archbishop sent the document on to the Vatican since as we all know priests aren’t allowed to have sex with consenting adults. A Boise woman on a flight from San Francisco said she was God and tried to open the cabin door A Boise woman was trying to fly home from San Francisco when she screamed, “I am God, I am God, I am God” a