Talk Heathen 06.28 07-10-2022 with ObjectivelyDan and Johnny P. Angel

Today we have ObjectivelyDan joined by Johnny P. Angel who will work through topics of ontology, AI, binary systems, and 911 conspiracies.First caller is Noah in OK wants to know what the world would be like without religion and how to create change to prevent theocracy. We would have different kinds of magical thinking but we would not have dogmatic religious branded thinking. People would not be able to tell fairy tale stories that justify not liking other people. Get out there, vote, call representatives, vote with your dollar, get engaged, search what you can do to push back, give your creativity and get moving in a constructive way.Xeno in South Korea is next who wants to talk about ontology where an entity has to depend on another entity and therefore everything is divisible and has an origin point which is god. This is an oversimplification of what we know of the universe. When you use the word, “god” as the origin, you are sneaking in other qualities that are not within the definition. Why can’t this be called physics? Why would there not be a bigger origin point than god? If god has things that make him contingent on something else, then he is not the origin.Dean in CA is next, who is a creator of AI and argues that religion could be a factor in the creation of Artificial Intelligence(AI) and that some AIs have religious views now. Advanced chatbots will just say what you want to hear while religious algorithms can end up pushing people in certain directions. If we design an AI, do we program it with assumptions that god is not real? Think about what choices you make when programming and why.Alok in CA does not agree with the binary system of being convinced, and would rather attribute a percentage to his level of belief. If you are not sure, the classic label is agnostic. Some use belief scales to determine the strength of the belief. Just because we are not convinced that Thor exists, does not mean that Thor does not exist. Discovering the reason behind this belief is much more important than the label. Rather than alienating people who are not hardcore anti-theists we need to find the common goals we have in common.Marcia in NC is a 911 Truther and is questioning why certain key people were out of touch or new to the job when this happened. It is not an unnatural inclination to be skeptical of the events that occurred that day, however many of these claims are truly bananas. That does not mean there were no mistakes made within the chain of command. This is an excellent call for Truth Wanted.Gabe in KY is the final caller who argues that if we just snapped our fingers and got rid of religion, we would eventually be seeing the same problems. We agree, and human beings want to find ways to have magical thinking. If we teach people how to teach skeptically, religion will start to evaporate. Religion is a front of where social war is taking place.Thank you for tuning in! Please thank essential workers in all areas. We will see you next week!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/talk-heathen--3195702/support.