Welcome to Talk Heathen! Today host Katy Montgomerie is joined by the amazing Kenneth Leonard who will talk with callers who present a number of ideas to them for contemplation, and talk about wasp facts involving caterpillar AIDS. In light of Father’s Day, who was the worst dad in the Bible? Abraham? Lot? Noah? Jephthah? How about Yahweh himself?

First up is Davan in NE who argues the soul could potentially exist partly because of having out of body experiences, even though rationally he attributes these experiences to a dream. The idea of the soul as originally brought out by the texts is valid is his stance. How can any given experience be evidence for a soul if we know these things happen in the brain? Why would we use the “soul” label? Does the soul have some other component that is not part of the brain or body?

Next is Teo from Croatia who wants to talk about the possibility of a heathen experiencing a Christian god. Would you agree that it is possible for people to imagine things that are logical and make sense? How do we tell the difference between experiencing a god and our imagination? Is it possible to believe things on faith that are not true? How do you know you have had an experience with a god and if it is true? Why should anybody believe that a god has manifested anywhere? Could your same reasoning prove a genie? If you can’t prove something does not exist, does that mean you can prove that it does exist?

Judy from IN has an insight that we are stardust because fluorine from another planet is connected to the fluoride in our body. Katy explains who things formed including large stars, nuclear fusion, and supernovas. Scientific claims need to be supported by evidence. Truth is valued differently in the scientific community than it is the Christian community. If we have a claim, we should be able to test that model.

Tony in NY feels that atheism only works in the physical world and that money is a god that we worship. Does not believing in Santa Clause only work in the physical world? Money is real and has transactional value as currency. What is the evidence of there being a non-physical world? Why do you think that thoughts are not physical? What in money maps the claim that god exists? Is there anything that religion is essential for, and we could not achieve through secular means? As atheists, we are not saying religions do not exist. We are only saying it is possible to exist without religion.

Chris in Scotland would like to know if it is possible to be moral without knowing how bad you can be. He wants to know if you can truly know the best without knowing the worst. Morals are not well defined. Without defining morals, this statement is as ridiculous as not running a marathon if you never had cancer. Can you climb Mt. Everest without making your bed?

Thank you for joining us today and to the essential workers! We will see you next week!