All Along The Watchtower with Amber Scorah

Another Day with Ana Marie Cox

Ana Marie Cox and Open Mike Eagle

News, Arts, Performing Arts, Business, Society & Culture, Politics

4.6 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2019

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week Amber Scorah (@amberscorah) and Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) discuss Amber’s new book - Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life. Together, they break into Amber’s former faith with the Jehovah's Witnesses, her complicated marital affair, and a subsequent exit from the church. Amber opens up about her current outlook on religion, and explains how she came to terms with her son’s sudden death. It’s more heartwarming than it sounds, we promise! Thanks to our sponsors! Did you know that millennials have 3 times as much student debt as their parents? That’s not right. But you can get your student loans right by refinancing your loans with SoFi. It’s a fast and easy process––all online––and only takes 2 minutes to check your rate. Refinancing your student loans could save you thousands. Check your rate in 2 minutes on sofi.com/CROOKED. Rothy’s are the everyday flats for life on the go. They’re stylish and versatile, and they go with everything from yoga pants to dresses and skirts. Rothy’s come in a wide range of colors and patterns, and they’re available in four different silhouettes. Plus, they’re constantly launching new styles, so you’re guaranteed to find a pair—or three—you love. Go to Rothys.com/wflt to get your new favorite flats. Everlane only makes premium essentials, using the finest materials, without traditional markups. Right now, you can check out our personalized collection at Everlane.com/FRIENDS and get free shipping on your first order. Cats are natural born predators - that's why the guys at Petronics invented Mousr, a fully autonomous robotic mouse. Right now, my listeners can save 20% by visiting petronics.io/friends and using code FRIENDS at checkout.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Anna Marie Cox and welcome to With Friends Like These, where we talk about the
0:09.0	differences between us without letting them divide us.
0:12.9	And sometimes we talk about reconciliation.
0:16.6	Now, humans are not built to recant or regret or have revelations.
0:24.4	They are built to make and sustain beliefs, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that
0:29.8	they're wrong.
0:31.9	This is what makes Amber Scora's story of leaving her faith all the more fascinating.
0:38.3	She was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, a Christian sect that descended from the Millerites, a
0:44.1	Doomsday cult in the mid-1800s whose followers never stopped believing that the end would
0:49.4	come, even as the predicted date came and went and came and went and came and went.
0:57.7	The Millerites experience of the basis for a specific theory in social psychology laid
1:02.1	out in a book called When Prophecy Fails.
1:05.2	And that's the idea that those who hold extreme beliefs, if presented with contrary evidence,
1:10.7	will actually become more devout and more assertive in their profilitizing and develop new interpretations
1:17.0	of their scripture as a way of dissolving the disappointment and tension that come with
1:22.8	having to face reality.
1:26.5	You may have some notion about how this theory is relevant beyond Amber's personal and statistically
1:33.2	atypical story.
1:36.4	Amber Scora is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York.
1:38.6	Her articles have been published in The New York Times, The Believer, and USA Today, prior
1:42.9	to coming to New York, a score lived in Shanghai, where she was the creator and host of the
1:46.8	podcast Dear Amber, the Insiders Guide to Everything China.
	...

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