Live From Beer Camp with Daryl Van Tongeren (#329)

Religion on the Mind

Religion, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.7 • 542 Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2025

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This special live episode was recorded with one of the pod’s favorite friends, Daryl Van Tongeren, back in October at Theology Beer Camp. We talked about how people make faith decisions without definitive proof, based partially on William James' concept of "will to believe." After we establish that Christianity can't be proven beyond reasonable doubt in our pluralistic age, we get into James's framework for "genuine options"—choices that are live, forced, and momentous. Daryl explains the cognitive biases that make certainty impossible, and how James suggests we can reasonably consider pragmatic evidence when metaphysical questions remain unanswerable. We also get into some personal stories, with Daryl sharing how one inexplicable college experience survived his decade-long deconstruction after his brother's tragic death. This was an intellectual yet practical conversation about how we can learn and choose how to live thoughtfully with uncertainty. Other episodes with Daryl: The Good of Religion Without the Bad You Are Not Your Beliefs Come to Theology Beer Camp 2025 in St. Paul, Minneasota! Highlights 01:49 The Challenge of Proving Christianity 09:00 William James and Genuine Options 21:11 The Evolutionary Perspective on Meaning 42:15 The Role of Evidence in Belief 50:25 Living with Uncertainty ___________________________________________ Follow Dan on IG: www.instagram.com/dancoke/ Or Twitter: twitter.com/DanKoch Faith deconstruction resources: www.soyouredeconstructing.com/ Edited by Josh Gilbert (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠joshgilbertmedia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- he is accepting more work!) Join the Patreon for exclusive episodes (and more) every month: patreon.com/dankoch Email about the "sliding scale" for the Patreon: youhavepermissionpodcast@gmail.com YHP Patron-only FB group: tinyurl.com/ycvbbf98 Website: www.dankochwords.com/yhp.html Join Dan's email list: www.dankochwords.com/ Artwork by sprungle.co/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Project Hail Mary is an extraordinary cinematic experience.
0:03.8	You're a great scientist, Dr. Grace.
0:05.5	The world is counting on you.
0:06.8	Starring Ryan Gosling.
0:08.3	So I met an alien.
0:09.7	Two worlds, one impossible mission.
0:12.2	We're gonna save the stars.
0:13.7	Project Hail Mary.
0:14.8	Amaze, amaze, amaze.
0:16.0	Seat first March 14th and 15th in Cinemas Everywhere, March 19th.
0:20.0	So for whatever reason, March 14th and 15th in Cinemas Everywhere March 19th.
0:28.2	So for whatever reasons, some of them technological, some of them scheduling-wise,
0:33.5	we are releasing this episode, which was recorded last year at Theology Beer Camp,
0:36.7	between myself and Daryl Van Tongren, friend of the show.
0:42.6	And I just wanted to say we should also talk about the upcoming theology beer camp.
0:50.1	So October 16th through 18th in St. Paul, Minnesota, Theology Beer Camp 2025.
0:56.8	There will be some kind of a you have permission event, possibly a live Generation Gap culture hour.
1:00.9	We've done that the last two years and really enjoyed that.
1:05.4	Josh Tony and myself kind of really getting listeners and the audience involved.
1:07.6	And I'm looking forward to it.
1:12.7	Jaffrey is probably going to come with me to Minneapolis, St. Paul,
1:17.8	Minneapolis, St. Paul flying into Minneapolis. And not, she's not going to be there for the whole camp, but she'll probably be there here and there. So any of you who have been wanting to meet her,
	...

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