Greetings heathens! Join us for today’s show with Johnny Angel and Phil Ferguson who tackle questions from callers on how to handle today’s challenges when speaking with friends.



First caller is Jessica in Ut who asks if atheism can be harmful to mental health. Some people find the truth hard to handle. You are not alone when you feel that all the certainties are gone that used to be there when you had the support system of your church. Recovering from Religion can help with this. Count the good things in life and not just the negative hits. Is the cause of your distress the newly found lack of belief in magical thinking, or is it something else?



Next is Dave from NC wants to talk about the driver behind the holocaust being racism. He has an issue with society having racial categories to emphasize the illusion that races are separate. It comes down to definitions and we often talk past each other as humans. It is not our place to say who is and isn’t a race or who is in a struggle or not. It is more important to learn from the people who were involved than for us to speculate. Do you recognize that certain people statistically get the short end of the stick in society?



Next is B from VA who is talking to a religious friend that does not accept the different between sex and gender. It seems like he says these things to encourage people to hate him. The friend says the LGBTQ community is ruining the world. He also thinks science is wrong about sex and gender. Many people have received their marching orders from a book and some people believe this because it is what they learned growing up. This friend needs to meet more people in the LGBTQ community so his shitty attitude will become less. Our hope is that bigots are dwindling and fading away. Do you feel compelled to be the person that changes your friend’s mind on the subject?



Dan from OH is next that would like to know how to best converse with his friend who is autistic on theist topics. His friend at work is a Christian Fundamentalist and does not understand why the only atheist he knows does not hate Islam. We are not experts on autism, but talking with people can be different for each person. You can use clever ways to look at the Bible as a club when talking about Christianity and argue literally anything. Maybe there is something on the fringe that you can find that will help with the smallest improvement that can be enough to nudge the asteroid off course.



Marcus in TX would like to know how to play off the religious person’s superiority to encourage them into being better human beings. The morality that most people follow is not the same that is laid out in their holy book. People just assume that believers are a positive force in the world because they are part of a charity. You are not moral because of the Bible but in spite of the Bible. Ask questions. Do atheists tip better? What percentage of your tithing actually goes to helping people?



Thank you all for joining us! We want to hear your experience so please keep calling.