Thursday, February 10, 2011

Episode 79 - Porn, Politics and Perfection

First, we take a look at XXXChurch.com's latest attempt to dress puritanical sexual policies in a slutty outfit. Then we focus on recent events in Egypt and discuss whether or not we should be afraid of a Muslim Caliphate taking over the world like Glenn Beck says we should.

In response to listener comments from our previous episode, we take a look at Sarah Palin's idiocy and look at the data about the claim that the American political left is just as bad in its violent rhetoric as the right is.

In our counter-apologetics segment, Justin Schieber schools apologist William Lane Craig and his argument for ontological perfection.

We wrap up the show with another adventure in the world of PolyAtheism as Fletch tells us the story of Enki, Mesopotamian god of mischief, water and incestuous rape.

To download this or any previous Reasonable Doubts episode click here. Find the episode you want and right click the "play now" link and select "save target as..."

20 comments:

delphi_ote said...

Jeremy, you will be missed! I understand your absence, but please hurry back when you can. This show is without a doubt THE podcast I look forward to the most, and you're an important part of it!

Anonymous said...

I'm having problems downloading this episode via iTunes. It looks like the URL of http://doubtreligion.blogspot.com/2011/01/episode-79-porn-politics-and-perfection.mp3 is incorrect. My subscription is through http://feeds.feedburner.com/SkepticsUnited

Jeremy said...

Sorry Anon. Problem should be fixed now.

Lyle said...

My minister (from my pre-atheist days, in the late 1970's & early 1980's) made a great effort to get the cable TV company to remove the Playboy channel from their lineup, even though only customers who asked for it and paid an extra fee could see that channel. For the rest of his life, he held that up as one of his great victories for God, it was even mentioned at his funeral. But I was friends with him the rest of his life, and I am the person who helped him with his computer. I know that he was downloading a lot of porn. He claimed it was because he wanted to see what was out there on the internet, so he could get it removed, but even after I explained why no one could get the porn removed from the internet, he kept downloading porn on a daily basis, and he never even tried to get the porn removed from the internet. Plus, his excuse of needing to see what kind of material was out there would not require daily downloads. I have no problem with porn (except child porn, of course), but I do have a problem with hypocrisy.

spacemonkey said...

Hey guys, I haven't listened to the last show yet but I'm really glad it's out. I wanted to ask you, I've sent you 2-3 mails and I've never had a reply. Are you getting to many or what? It would be nice to get a "Sorry, too busy" at least.

Anyway, thanks for the great podcast.

Melissa said...

I hope this means you'll be making Schieber Fever shirts now.

Phil said...

Not sure about others, but I still can't get the episode through podcaster. Tried re-adding the feed using the supplied link in the post (http://feeds.feedburner.com/reasonabledoubts/Msxh) but that seems not to work. Sent an email earlier as a heads up but no response. Anyways, still getting a 404 if I navigate from the link in my current feed. Let me know if more info would help, or if it's just me.
Phil

Jeremy said...

Phil,

I dont know why it's not working. It's only been a problem for people who subscribed to the feed for our blog, because there was a bad enclosure link there. But that link has been fixed. In the meantime here is a direct link to the mp3 file for this episode. I hope this helps

http://www.doubtcast.org/podcast/rd79_porn_politics_and_perfection.mp3

Phil said...

Thanks Jeremy, I imported from the blog feed probably, since many podcasts don't appear by default in the podcaster listings. I assume it's related therefore. But the direct link works fine - listening as I type - thanks!
Phil

Ollie said...

Just when I've managed to tell Dave and Jeremy's voices apart, there is a lineup change! Just joking, but I look forward to your return Jeremy. This is my favorite podcast by a long shot, and I really appreciate the effort you all put in for each episode.

Dan said...

Hey guys, just wanted to say that I love your show and appreciate the quality content. I'm a 26 year old who recently deconverted from the extremely conservative Christianity I was raised in (homeschool through 10th grade, 2 years in a Baptist High school, a few semesters at Bob Jones University, and I even taught sunday school in a fundamentalist Baptist church until 2.5 years ago). Thanks for you and the rest of the Skeptic movement giving me the tools to look rationally at the Bible and Christian theology; I really don't think I would be an atheist today without the Skeptic movement.

Also, Jeremy you will be missed; I hope you return to the show quickly. Enjoy your time off.

Unknown said...

Damn you guys. Listening to your hour long podcasts takes me two hours.
I keep having to stop and run back to my office and look up the info you are talking about.
Makes good reading for the local atheist group I am co-organizer for.
Speaking of which would you happen to have the title or link to the study where conservatives judge bad actions better when they agree with the cause?
I have tried looking it up and cannot find it.
Thanks guys and love the show.
Have fun Jeremy and I am looking forward to your return.

Anonymous said...

I think you are refering to Altemeyer's experiment where high right wing authoritiarians were less punitive to the criminal "Langley" when he supported their own cause. A description can be found in his book "the authoritarians" here on pg. 87
http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAuthoritarians.pdf
Also the work of Linda Skitka and John Jost are similar.

watch my gf vids said...

I have been following the past episodes of this post and I think this episode about porn, politics and perfection is one of the best that I read. I am looking forward for more post like this.

Anonymous said...

I am not adding anything to the discussion by posting this, but I just wanted to thank you for the best podcast I have encountered (and I listen to a TON of podcasts). Thought-provoking AND entertaining! It's a rare feat to excel at both. Keep up the great work!

Anonymous said...

i wish jeremy wasn't so fuckin awesome. i wouldn't miss him as much :(

Geoff said...

Hey, thanks for your show.

I'm often challenged by Jewish believers to look at the evidence of the Jewish people as proof of the bible.

The bible says they'll get beat up, kicked out of their land, that they'll always exist, that they should be a light to the nations, etc.

Jews have been beat up throughout history, they've existed for thousands of years and their religion has too, despite having been kicked out of many lands including Israel, they survived the Inquisition, pogroms, and the Holocaust, etc., they've contributed much to humanity (e.g. there's a proportionately high number of Jewish Nobel Laureates).

http://www.jinfo.org/Nobel_Prizes.html

Also, the establishment of the State of Israel and the "resurrection" of the Hebrew language (i.e., it's a rare case that a dead language is brought back into use as an official state language) are seen as evidence of their "chosenness."

Any thoughts?

One of my thoughts is that the Hebrew bible's view of "goodness" and "light" is directly related to keeping the commandments of the Torah. Most, if not all, of the Jewish Nobel Laureates are probably considered apostates and worthy of death because they didn't believe in, nor keep, the commandments of the Torah, e.g. Sabbath, the penalty for which is death.

Geoff

Rob said...

Hey guys. New listener. Enjoy the podcasts (Really, I do). You do a great job.

One request - could you talk more about studies that show conservatives are more likely to be violent/hateful etc., then follow up with discussion on the Wisconsin protests, along with consequences for those found attempting to flee modern-day Cuba?

Probably just outliers ....

Snowbrush said...

Interesting show. I hadn't heard of it.

Winston said...

Loved the podcast. :) Any chance of tackling Australia's ultra-Puritan censorship system?