We have the dynamic dual of Secular Rarity and Student Doctor Ben for today’s episode of Talk Heathen who will take calls from atheists on subjects that cause us to dig deep for answers.

First caller is Austin in TX who sees a benefit in having a defined difference between atheists and agnostics. What happens when you press people about the labels they assign themselves? We may be having miscommunication when we compare one broad category to a smaller one. It is easy to be charitable when communicating with someone by using the definition that person attributes to their label. You will need to work further into what the person’s label means at some point during the conversation.

Jasmine in Canada would like some opinions on assisted dying. Someone dying of cancer is not going through an easy time and it is hard to understand the amount of pain involved. This is done when the person is able to make the decision themselves. It is important in health care to balance autonomy and beneficence, and oftentimes autonomy takes precedence.

Nate in Ohio sees that many religions require certitude and believing things without evidence by not suspending their disbelief. How does knowing this change the landscape? We don’t know what metric to use that differentiates people who suspend their disbelief and those that don’t. This could be a technique, but we don’t know if this can be accepted as a definition.

Steven in AZ observes a rage that has been released within groups that are driven by fear and different communities have been developed by evolution. What factors have led to this and what has changed from the tribal focus time period to now? How would you determine if we are more altruistic now than we were a long time ago? How do we measure how altruistic one group is over another? We like to hope we are going in that direction, but we just don’t know. The more we ask this question, the more likely we are to make it happen.

Nate in CA has an idea that Jesus was actually a clone of Mary and therefore we have the gender wrong. Even if Jesus had been a clone of Mary, he can still engage as a man and therefore would not change the story. What matters is how a person presents in society, not the assigned gender at birth. Student Doctor Ben is TransJesus.

Brandi in MA who says that altruism and religion do not have anything to do with each other because we have observed altruism with archaic humans. It is always worth remembering that the religious community does not have a stranglehold on being a good person.

Russell in VA is dating a woman who is a member of a church in the Philippines that controls their congregation to extreme levels. Recovering From Religion has trained individuals that can help with these difficult moments.

Thank you for tuning in! We will see you next week!

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