Hello everyone. Today I'm talking to Aaron Smith Levin and he has a

YouTube channel called Growing Up in Scientology where he discusses as you might guess growing up in Scientology where he discusses, as you might guess, growing up in Scientology.

But he left the organization after a number of decades.

And we talk a fair bit about why he did that, why he came to the realization that this was a sterile route.

But more importantly, the conversation allowed us to delve into a problem that we all face

which is the fundamental problem of distinguishing truth from falsehood, especially

organized falsehood, the difficulty that we face in determining what organizations, which are clearly necessary, can be trusted, and what metaphysics are reliable, how you distinguish bitter fruit from sweet fruit in that regard

or separate wheat from chaff and so our discussion is very interesting in that regard,

enabled us to take those abstract considerations

and to nail them down to something very specific,

you know, the events of Aaron's own life

and the particular cult-like nature of Scientology,

which is one cult among many.

And so, well, welcome aboard for the trip.

I've been writing a fair bit in this new book

I'm finishing up.

It's called We Who Wrestle with God.

It'll be the subject of my next tour.

I've been writing a lot about the manner

in which we come to distinguish truth from falsehood in general in our lives in the scientific enterprise

and then let's say in matters of faith you know now the scientist types would say, well, all faith is delusional,

but I'm afraid we can't move forward without faith, so that's not a helpful, that's not a helpful objection.

...