David Silverman, president of American Atheists joins Mark and I for this weeks Athiest News Podcast. This was the first time we’ve had a guest on for a full episode and it was a lot of fun to have three people on the show. David had a lot to say about the news, the state of atheism in general and his own journey.
He also had a lot to say about the American Athiest convention coming up in April, including the fact that they have a student price of $20 to get in the door! That is pretty slick. The line up looks pretty promising too.
Special guests are a relatively new thing for this particular show, so we decided to skip listener mail for this week. It shall return next week, (unless we have another special guest.) I’d also like to apologize for the gap between this show and the last. I am hoping to keep things more steady, but the next couple of weeks look sort of hairy, so I’m not going to make any promises. ;P
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4 comments
Rick Riess says:
March 13, 2011 at 3:47 am (UTC -8)
It was great to hear David Silverman on your show. He fit the show’s style like a glove. My exposure to him has been limited, though who could have missed him on O’Reilly. I finished Episode 41 thinking, that’s why he’s the President of American Atheists. Strong, clear thinking, smart and passionate. Just great.
I’d also say Mark has been a super-solid addition. He has yet to not make a cogent point. All in all, you’ve continued with the clear-thinking quality, while also maintaining the all too important, “I’d like to have a beer with these guys,” criteria. Thanks for putting in the time to pull this off.
BluePrint says:
March 15, 2011 at 11:59 pm (UTC -8)
More than anything, Israel is a confused state:
- Israel is a Jewish state only in the context of not being an Arab state (important distinction at the time of it’s founding), a state of the Jewish people but not in any way a state of the Jewish religion. It was founded vehemently secular similarly to the U.S.
- A person can’t officially be a non-religious Israeli as the Israeli nationality is not recognized within the borders of Israel. Even though recently citizens were given the option of not having a religion noted in their ID card, they are still listed in the census registration database as Jewish/Muslim/Christian/Druse/whatever… There’s no Atheist option and I’m not sure if there’s even an Other category.
- Although Israel got obnoxiously religious in recent decades, there’s no “state church”. Far too many concessions were given to religious lobbies, to the point that the group most discriminated against in labor laws are Jews, but the state is (still) officially secular.
Candy Cooper says:
July 11, 2011 at 5:27 pm (UTC -8)
I just wanted to let you guys know that I, a single straight woman of 56, who’s been an atheist for most of my life, I was never even baptized; LOVES your show. You guys crack me up.
My comment is about episode #32 at minute 38. You are talking about picking your places to go and being safe. What you’re talking about is “Don’t be the Wildebeest on the edge of the herd.” That’s the one the lions always take out. This concept comes from a book called, “Listening to your fear.” It was a so, so book. But I came away from reading it with a better understanding of intuition. We all have it, it’s natural for us to fear walking down the dark alley in the bad part of town alone. So, listen to your intuition and don’t do it.
When my daughter moved to La Jolla CA to go to UCSD at 20 years old, I told her to be aware of her surroundings. Not to go jogging alone at night in the woods. Don’t be alone in dark stairwells. If something feels hinky, don’t go there or do that. Allot of people who get raped, mugged, hurt, whatever, put themselves in iffy positions socially and aren’t aware of their surroundings.
I’m not saying that it’s your fault if something bad happens to you, but limit your chances of that something bad happening by “Not being the Wildebeest on the edge of the herd.”
I think I also heard Dr. Laura say something to this effect back 19 years ago when I was briefly listening to her. When she started making me puke every time she got all orthodox on her show, I had to stop listening to her.
Love you guys, keep up the good work.
Lord Scarab says:
September 15, 2011 at 6:40 pm (UTC -8)
Whoo! A new podcast! fantastic!