Flawed Theology

In this episode, Phil and Susie catch up and discuss the US election results and what went wrong for Democrats, how religious beliefs are correlated with being susceptible to disinformation, Project 2025, how we both felt upon learning the results, and how we move forward over the next 4 years.  
The main part of the episode is Susie's conversation with our favorite expert on everything, Lars and his family.  She got the chance to sit down with them at her home over the summer on their way back from picking up their kids from camp, and they have a very interesting conversation, with a special focus on how their family is adjusting to the recent revelation that their son, Alex was trans.  They talk a bit about how their still Xtian parents have responded to that revelation and how they responded to Lars and Christie's deconversion, along with some other family member's responses.  It's a fascinating and engaging conversation with Lars, Christie, and Alex along with special appearance from Susie's daughter, Audrey, who talks about her perceptions about what she thinks about trans questions and her views on therapy.  The conversation concludes with a conversation with a few of the kids about their lives in a non-religious family, and it's truly refreshing!  It's a wide ranging conversation that covers a wide variety of subjects.  We hope you enjoy.  Thanks to Lars and Christie for sharing with us and to Alex and Audrey for contributing and a big shout out to Susie for her solo hosting debut! She is fantastic!! 
 
Notes and Resources
Graphic Referenced in the intro about disinformation:  https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/2024-election-surveys-show-trump-voters-misinformed-on-major-issues-by-j-bradford-delong-2024-11? 
Project 2025: The official site https://www.project2025.org/ 
An Analytical Overview from Fact Check:  https://www.factcheck.org/2024/09/a-guide-to-project-2025/ 
 
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After an excessively long break, Phil and Suzie return for a little catch up chat.  We talk about our summer breaks, where we both are now in our journeys away from faith and what the future might look like as we continue to move forward and what it means for the podcast and our lives in general.  The episode concludes with some random podcast recommendation and a little discussion about religious trauma. 
We are looking forward to getting back into the groove as we wrap up the year and Season 3 over the next few months.  
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In this episode, Phil and Susie talk with Laura, a nurse, originally from WV who now lives in CA with her husband, 3 cats and a special needs stepson.  She has taken a circuitous journey from Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Southern Baptist to eventual agnostic, humanistic atheism. 
She has a Bachelor’s in Marketing from Johnson & Wales University in Providence and did advertising stuff for a few years. She switched gears after her mom’s death and went to nursing school. She has Associates and Master's Degrees in Nursing. She current works in an ICU step down unit in Pasadena.  She enjoys reading, hiking, triathaloning (poorly and slowly), traveling, Braves baseball, Steelers and WVU Mountaineer football, cats, and craft beer.  She is a published author and is adopted.   According to Ancestry.com, Davy Crockett is her great x4 uncle. 
Laura's Recommended Resources:
Podcasts
You can’t get to heaven in miniskirt: https://www.heaveninaminiskirt.com/ 
Graceful Atheist podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/graceful-atheist-podcast/id1456800368 
Divorcing religion podcast: https://www.divorcing-religion.com/religious-trauma-podcast 
Deconversion podcast: https://thedeconversionpodcast.com/ 
Thinking atheist podcast : https://www.thethinkingatheist.com/ 
Books
Good without God
God Delusion 
Skeptics Annotated Bible
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In this episode, Phil and Susie explore the topic of prophecy.  We discuss what prophecy is, what criteria something needs to meet in order to be considered "fulfilled" prophecy, examples of "fulfilled" prophecy from the bible and determining if they meet the criteria, modern false prophets, and how the gift of prophecy has changed over the centuries.  Be warned, there is a lot of bible in this episode and we compare the biblical text to historical data to help us determine if the bible really does have fulfilled prophecy.  There are a lot of links in the show notes section if you'd like to dig into this further.  
We also wanted to give our listeners the opportunity to support a fellow creator within the community, Tim Mills of Harmonic Atheist, who is in the midst of a difficult family and legal situation and needs some real support and help.  You can connect with Tim at any of the links below to support his channels and to make a donation to help him in this time of need.  
One time PayPal: paypal.me/harmonictim 
Venmo: @harmonicatheist  
Zelle email: harmonicatheist@yahoo.com  
GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-tim-stay-full-time-on-harmonic-atheist 
Monthly https://www.patreon.com/harmonicatheist
Tim’s YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@HarmonicAtheist 
https://linktr.ee/harmonicatheist
Show Notes and Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/christian-prophets-predictions.html&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1716648572040904&usg=AOvVaw1Jw347u5kFJt5vioK1Asuy
https://sites.google.com/site/errorsinthebible/failed-prophecies/6-failed-proph 
https://www.tyndalebulletin.org/article/29192-prediction-and-foreknowledge-in-ezekiel-s-prophecy-against-tyre.pdf
https://www.gotquestions.org/Tyre-rebuilt-prophecy.html
https://sites.google.com/site/errorsinthebible/failed-prophecies/the-bible-s-broken-promises
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictions_and_claims_for_the_Second_Coming
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/explanation/bdaniel.html
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/primary/white.html
https://www.modernreformation.org/resources/articles/the-mod-the-messianic-prophecies-in-the-book-of-daniel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Revelation
https://www.craiggreenfield.com/blog/moderndayprophets
Psalm 22 video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKRzo_wtSwk 
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In this episode, airing on Mother's Day (which we didn't realize at the time of recording), Phil and Suzie chat with Diane, who is a long-time Virginia resident, a mom to a brilliant nearly-25-year-old, and completely owned by a big, goofy black lab and two cats – one perfect angel and one complete ass. She adores them all. She also loves to swim, write, and travel, and she’s fascinated by architecture, especially old churches. Some have said that’s God reaching out to her, but that just makes her snort. An agnostic atheist since her late teens (but a doubter since childhood), she was indoctrinated and raised in the Methodist church. She enjoys hearing about others’ spiritual journeys, even when she doesn’t understand them.  
We have a fascinating conversation about her upbringing, her transition from indoctrination to atheism, and the freedom, hope, and joy that she has found outside of religion and faith.  Diane is the ultimate example of what many people strive for while deconstructing, namely the desire to be free, be herself, and connect with people on her own terms.  
Diane writes on her blog, Breathing Underwater.  You can connect with her at https://breathingunder-water.blogspot.com/ 
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In this episode, Phil and Suzie talk with Sarah Miller Mott, a former preacher/leader under the Foursquare Denomination. She is a published author of poetry and working on getting her novels that she has written over the years published.  She tells us all about her very interesting story, growing up Lutheran in North Dakota, how she deconstructed, became an atheist, and then went back to Xtianity in a whole new way, and then after being misled and manipulated by the church, deconstructed and deconverted again.  She tells the story how she will never go back to being a believer and why.  Her story is fascinating and engaging and you will certainly benefit from hearing it.  
You can find her published works on Amazon and Follow her on Tiktok @authorsarahmillermott:  
The Collected Poetry of The Girl in the Corner 
The Collected Poetry of The Girl in the Corner Vol 2
A Short Tale of a Happy Trail
https://linktr.ee/theycallmesars 
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In this episode, Phil and Suzie talk with Darante' Lamar in an incredible, wide-ranging, and passionate discussion about his faith background, his life in ministry, what lead to his deconversion, and the impact of faith and the journey away from faith on him as an Black man and the black community.   
Bio: Darante’ LaMar's journey from serving as a leader in both charismatic megachurches and hyper spiritual storefront churches, to embracing a life of secularism and reason, offers a unique perspective on the evolution of faith in contemporary society. With a background that includes virtually every role within the ministry, Darante’ brings a comprehensive understanding of the inner workings of religious organizations and the impact they have on individuals and communities. Currently, Darante’ is a Global Project Manager and DEI executive in the healthcare industry. He serves, alongside his wife, as the managing partner of DLDD World Group - a nonprofit committed to people centric projects, programs and progress. He is the author of three published books: Significant, Parenting on Purpose, and Memphis: The Last Supper and three upcoming books, Making The Jump, Christ Held Up and The Case for Religion 
Link to the "Hell" video referenced in the episode:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-mQwkFBgaY
Where to Find Darante: 
Social Media 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbROOoAVy40Cv5NtKccRClg 
https://www.facebook.com/darante.martin/ 
https://twitter.com/DaranteLaMarX 
https://www.tiktok.com/@darantelamar7 https://www.dldd.us 
Books 
https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3ADarante%27+LaMar&s=relevancerank&text=Darante%27+LaMar&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1
Significant - https://www.amazon.com/Significant-diffidence-confidence-Darante-LaMar/dp/1506105572/ref=monarch_sidesheet
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In this episode, Phil and Susie discuss the correlation between religious ideology and the ideologies of authoritarianism.  This was suggested to us as a It’s a Feature, not a Bug” idea, but we decided to expand it to a full episode topic, because there’s a lot of interesting things to talk about! Thanks to one of our listeners who suggested the topic.
Data Nuggets Segment:  Is there intelligent life on other planets? Opinions of the religious and non-religious.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/07/28/religious-americans-less-likely-to-believe-intelligent-life-exists-on-other-planets/
Sources: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_and_authoritarianism 
https://theconversation.com/trumps-use-of-religion-follows-playbook-of-authoritarian-leaning-leaders-the-world-over-140050
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3389201/ 
https://oxfordre.com/politics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-667
https://one.npr.org/?sharedMediaId=1236709842:1236709862