Good Morning Heathens, in today’s episode of Talk Heathen, Vi La Bianca is joined by the wonderful and gracious Neil the 604 Atheist. Neil hosts his own YouTube show (
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOkKPs3juZb9iwFn7Z29-Lw/) and has had a plethora of fantastic guests talking about their own deconversion stories there. Check them out!Let’s get to calls. The first caller is Rachel from Australia. How do atheists respond to the “No True Scotsman fallacy” when it’s used referring to us when/if we were christians? To them, a "real christian” is possibly just someone who hasn't stopped believing. If you stop believing, you never believed in the first place. Next up, Hadisoufi from North Carolina would like to talk about how a functional “day-to-day” god could possibly exist and it works for him. Vi asks this question very pointedly: Why would you value a conception of god if you don’t necessarily believe in a true existing god?Kevin in New York is calling again, this time with a hypothesis about scriptures of the bible, Jesus’ life, and the Peter principle. However, Vi would like to refresh us all on his progress on the pineal gland, wormwood, and Ouija boards, topics from previous calls with him. Vi also wonders about how Kevin comes up with these quite out of the ordinary hypotheses and questions. They give him a choice, talk about previous topics or the slew of new ones. Given the choice, Kevin decides to talk about the Peter Principle and Jesus’ life. Next time Peter, we will want to talk about your progress and will hold you to it. No ifs, ands, or buts allowed.Michael in New York would like to discuss how DMT can “show” you the metaphysical world and can prove evidence for god. Claims it is repeatable and testable because of how the drug works and it’s mind altering properties. Neil jumps in to say it’s irrelevant due to societal imprints and hallucinations can not be truth. Ooooh, this call is fantastic.Rick in Tennessee would like to talk about the ultimate self. He describes the ultimate self being “the us that we really are, our perception/essence in being, and not what is perceived of us.” He goes on to say: “This is sooo deep it’s shallow.” and “What I am at any given moment, at the moment of being, is essentially the ultimate self.” Chad in Nebraska recently deconverted and wonders how to give up religious prayer. That’s a great question, you can absolutely continue to internally meditate and talk through things. It can continue to be helpful. Vi says it wonderfully: Deconstructing your religion can take time. There are things that linger, and that is ok. That’s our show for today! Thanks to all essential workers and protesters fighting the good fight! See you all next week!