Lawrence who follows "Christ my way" is on the show to discuss his beliefs and answer the tough questions from the Rational Response Squad.

Brief notes on the topics and questions discussed in this episode...

Is the bible literal or metaphorical? Would you say contradictions are metaphorical?

What if we could show you that the God of the bible lied?

Do you think that god is all loving?

If god is infinite, is he also hate?

If god is the creator of all things is he not the creator of evil as well?

If god is infinite isn't god love and hate at the same time?

Why do you think god would create something that he knew ahead of time would occur? Why would he subject himself to that?

If god is all knowing then god knows before certain people come into existence that they are going to hell when they die. He knew about it before he created the Universe.
God is all knowing therefore he knows ahead of time who is going to hell and who is going to heaven. Certain people were born with god knowing they were going to hell. It's hard to reconcile that with all loving. Would you create a child if you knew in advance that child was going to go to hell? (LONG PAUSE AND DODGED ANSWER)

This show starts with Sapient talking about losing his mother to religion and her hypocritical ways. It's this loss that fueled the adult activism of Sapient, in hopes that other children wouldn't have to experience the same loss. Sapient gives props to The Infidel Guy and talks about how he'll be fighting theism for the rest of his life. (3-12 minutes)

13-22 minutes: Should atheists speak up against religion.  Are we heading towards a theocracy?  Is respecting a persons ludicrous beliefs, actually disrespectful? 

23 minutes JJ the Christian comes on to discuss god belief with us.

Covered in discussion:

Did anything create god? 

Bill O'Reilly says run from people who believe in god and calls them irrational and neurotic.

What is the evidence for God?

Do we really have free will?  Is everything predetermined?

Would you bring a child into existence knowing it would soon be in pain for many years?

Why didn't god foresee ahead of time that he would need to come down to earth as himself to sacrifice himself to himself so that others could escape his wrath?

How can you tell which parts of the bible are literal and which parts are metaphorical?

The 4th episode of The Rational Response Squad radio show. In this show Sapient attempts to use the Socratic method exclusively and as you can see Rook Hawkins had a hard time doing so. Kudos to Mike for a job well done. Hopefully you'll see how the socratic method can be employed to bring your Christian friend to the path of righteousness by simply holding their hand as they find the path themselves. The last segment of the show is comedic in nature with Reverend Jebediah Oglethorpe.

Questions asked and stumbled over:

Why should I believe in God?

Are there contradictions in the bible?

Does the bible talk to you?

Should I stone my son when he disobeys me? Did Jesus change the Old Testament?

Is the Bible literal or metaphorical?

How do you know that your god is the correct one?

How can your base your entire life on something you admit is flawed?

If you realized that the god of the bible wasn't real, would you be able to recognize that you personally had the strength to get through your tough times?

How did you know that it was Jesus that got you through your tough times?

How do you know it wasn't Allah that got you through your tough times?

Do you recognize that it was god that got you addicted to drugs in the first place?

Its been a while since I've heard any news about the RSS. Do they still do radio shows or live chats? I check the front page ever once in a while and there is never any info of new shows.

It needed to be said and was said, and has always been the case in our history. It is sad in this context that Obama stated a truth that should not have to be said. These soldiers at Fort Hood, died, not for Jesus, or the republican party. They served and were the unfortunate target of a nutcase. But be it overseas or at home, they defend OUR Constitution and there is no religious litmus test to serve in our military. They served to protect OUR freedom, not a theocracy.

I am literally crying right now out of pain and joy. Pain that it took this to state the obvious, but joy that it is finally coming to light.

I thank anyone, left or right, believer or not, who does what I cannot do. But it takes all kinds to serve and those who serve defend us all and our country is not monochromatic, nor should our military be.

I couldn't be more proud than I am right now, I am just sorry it took this event to state the obvious.

http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/news-atheists-applaud-obama-for-including-them-in-fort-hood-speech-r-1257667673

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/crucifix-out-warming-in/article1354734/

The EU has ruled that crosses in public schools violate the freedom of religion of others. Dipshit crybaby Christians cry foul not understanding the importance of keeping religion out of government. They, like many right wingers in America claim it violates their freedom of religion and MISS THE POINT.

I doubt anywhere that the EU said that Christian churches should be burned to the ground. I doubt they said the Chrisitian religion should be outlawed. WHAT THEY SAID, and were taking a page out of Jefferson's wall, is that it should not be the role of government to tell, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN, what god they should believe in. This protects the rights of the parents of other sects of Christianity, being that Italy is a majority Catholic, but it also protects other religions such as Jews, Muslims and atheists who sit besides these Catholics in public schools. The rights of the majority do not trump the rights of the minority.

Freedom of religion IS NOT an entitlement to a monopoly of power. If people want to live in a country that plays favorites to religion Iran and Saudi Arabia do that. No Christian, or atheist would want to live in those countries.

Is that what they want to be like? They want Christian indoctrination camps like Islamic countries do with their government sponsorship of religion?

Hello there, everyone, I'm new.

I'm sorry, I'm sure this has already been discussed here, but I find that when diving into a new, already very active forum, it's usually just easier to start a new thread and get on with the ranting.

I'm an atheist through and through, and when agnostic people say to me "how can you be an atheist, we don't really know, do we?" my answer is always the same: even if, then why? Explanation to follow:

Even if we suppose there is a god ... hell, let's even presume it's a god of the old school abrahamic type ... then why worship the old psychotic bastard? That's the part I don't get. I'm fully aware of the fact that the human brain is quite capable of believing the most outrageous crap (the evidence of that is unfortunately all around us), but going from belief, or faith if you will, to worship is simply a non sequitur. A perfect being would not demand worship, that's the domain of demons and the like.

Considering what the world looks like and what happens in it daily (the ichneumonoid wasp is the classic example) , the only rational explanation is of course provided by science, but if you insist on believing in a higher power, why grovel before it? It's a conundrum. People who believe there's a deity controlling all of this should shake their fists at the sky, shouting "bastard!" at the top of their lungs rather than waste time, money and effort praising the old sociopath and trying to convert others into doing the same.

I worked with a guy for a year who one day told me about his brother who was a genius scientist who wroked for various governments and agencies working on new technologies .  He said he worked on anti-gravity propulsion for 8 years or  something.  He was a decent  guy, head on straight smart no reason to think he would lie.  One day he described an experiment his brother conducted one day (i believe he said it was recorded/televised,) thats pretty crazy to me.  Forgive my ignorance with terminology as i try to explain what he did which is way above my head, im no scientist.  So he  took a brick size piece of solid metal (no idea what kind) and hooked it up to his "machine" (whatever that was).  This machine somehow de-densified the molecules  in the metal.  He then manually inserted a standard canadian loonie into the brick.  He then re-densified the metal  and  it solidified around the loonie.  He then cut the brick open on a precise metal saw to reveal the loonie intact,  completely surrounded by solid metal all around it.  Is this possible?  Or wast this guy just broother crazy and just made it all up. 

 UPDATE 13 dead.

I love Rook and I hope there is no bad blood between the "camps" as media has been pointing out lately.

However, Rook is wrong in that atheists should be polite all the time. I think what politically correct people in general miss, be they believers or atheists is TIME PLACE AND CONTEXT.

As humans, we do not expect to walk out of our houses and be punched in the face, or at least we don't want that to happen. I GET THAT, but that doesn't mean that people who take opposite positions are incapable of verbally duking it out without taking it personally.

Rook has the same concern we do about absurd claims being made. But just like there is more than one way to slice bread, people have different comfort levels on how they discuss things. I myself don't mind the blasphemy even when my believing friends aim it at me. I want to know where they stand, without censorship, so that I can make a solid argument in opposition. I refuse to demand that they don't hurt my feelings or name call. WHY? because what one person calls being "offended" another person merely may see as an observation.

The slippery slope of taboos is that we could, BOTH SIDES, end up being silenced.

If atheists demand that believers not equate us to Hitler, then they could use the same "dont offend me" tactic to silence us from merely saing "Jesus did not preform magic tricks".