In today’s episode of the Talk Heathen, Richard Gilliver and Doctor Ben sort out patterns that look like creation, free will based determinism, and the reliability of Paul’s writings.

Guru in India argues that god must exist because we would not be around if god did not exist. Does the creator need to be a living thing? Why do we need a living being to create us? Instead of using the term, “created”, why don’t we just use the term, “come into existence”? Where in a rock is there evidence of creation? We don’t know what caused this process to happen, but it is a stretch to conclude that this is the same as when humans design things. In order to maintain the idea of a living creator, one must have a shallow mindset. Redefining examples does not make your original point correct. Not everything that has a pattern, has to have a creator.

Chris in WV claims that relativity tells us the future existed at the moment of the big bang and we also existed during the big bang so therefore we have free will existing with destiny which means god is not responsible for atrocities. There are some cases where humans have no choice because there are biological factors leading up to their decisions. If god is the one who made brains work in antisocial ways such as not feeling guilt, how does god have the right to punish these people? How do these people have complete free will? When these people are not in the equation, does the argument still work? How can you make a spiritual claim and then say, “scientifically speaking”? No matter how you cherry pick, religion still has harmful things within it. Why doesn’t the moral instructional book or religion tell us not to own slaves?

Christian in GA, asks what standard of evidence the hosts use to see if the Gospels are reliable. We take the approach where we don't accept it to be true until we see evidence and the baseline is not believing. How do we know that Paul’s trip to Demascus happened and not some other kind of trip? When hallucinating, do things happen the way they are described? Validity is not affected by how many people believe something or how many times it is said. What is it that convinces you that the gospels are true? What evidence substantiates the rising from the dead? Wouldn’t people have known about tactics writers used to convince us? People dying for their beliefs do not make the claims true. Can you apply the same level of scrutiny to the Bible that you apply to the Quran?

Jim in OH asks Richard about a past call involving Buddhism. This is more of a philosophy than a religion. Richard clarifies his position by stating that there are some gods within this system, just not creator gods.

Thank you for tuning in and please remember to thank our essential workers! Question of the week is: What would you have ordered at The Last Supper and why?

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