Episode 246 – Now with twice as many babies!


This week Merry Cole is back and brought along little baby Blithe. In the news we have the Idaho Gov and Lt. Gov race, Mormon creepiness, the SBC president’s resignation, healthcare, and more!

We’re back on Thursday.

NEWS

David Silverman placed on leave following a complaint

An Idaho Lt. Gov. candidate thinks women who get abortions should be executed

Idaho state Sen Bob Nonini is running for Lt Governor and took part is a candidate forum with other candidates on the “CrossPolitic SHow and Podcast” which is a Christian political show. All three candidates agreed that abortion is murder. The host, David Shannon asked if women who get abortions should get the death penalty and Nonini agreed saying, “Yes. There should be no abortion and anyone who has an abortion should pay.”

After the backlash that he deserved for saying that he tried to backtrack on Twitter saying:

“LET ME BE CLEAR-I have always been a pro-life supporter. That means classifying abortion as murder & I believe we should consider penalties for individuals involved in these procedures. I NEVER said or agreed the death penalty should be considered.”

Harley Brown is running for Idaho governor again because God wants him to and wants him to be President

Harley Brown is once again a candidate to be Idaho’s next governor, why? Because God wants him to be president and told him to run for Governor.

A lawyer for the LDS church responded to rape allegations against the former head of the Missionary Training Center by gathering all church discipline and legal records on the victim and sent that to the accused’s son who sent it to the media

Salt Lake march to stop Mormon bishop interviews with children about sex

More research has been done about Trump and Christian Nationalists

New York is threatening to sue if the Trump administration goes through with their religious protections for healthcare workers

The Maryland legislature has passed a bill to ban gay conversion therapy

Matt Barber thinks Jesus advocated for the second amendment. Maybe he just needs to try turning the other cheek.

The head of the Southern Baptist Convention has resigned because of an “inappropriate relationship”

Children from a Muslim family in Britain called the authorities on their parents over abuse, isolation and attempts to turn the kids into extremists. They made the kids watch an ISIS beheading

A South African pastor would pray for forgiveness each time he’d rape teenage girls

After being reported as saying Hell does not exist, the Pope clarified that it does

This episode is brought to you by:

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* Darryl
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* George
* Mike
* The Flying Skeptic
* Kim
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* John
* Josh
* Rob
* Al from South Carolina
* Henry
* Alexandra
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Episode 245 – Rapping about Science with Baba Brinkman


On this week’s episode we are joined by Baba Brinkman, the first ever peer reviewed science rapper. We talk about his spiritual upbringing, how he started rapping Chaucer, and then moving on to science.

Website
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“Good Bayesian” by Baba Brinkman and featuring MC Lars and Mega Ran is used with permission.

This episode is brought to you by:

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* Henry
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Episode 244 – John the Baptist’s religion


DUSTIN’ OFF THE DEGREE – The Mandeans

A few weeks ago I mentioned a religious group that is effectively the church of John the Baptist. I mistakenly referred to them as the Ebionites, which were a Jewish Christian group that rejected Paul and viewed James the brother of Jesus and preferred James the brother of Jesus. They were also big fans of the John the Baptist, but not the group I was thinking about. The Ebionites disappeared by around 300 CE, but they’ll come up again when we talk about Jews for Jesus.

It’s been nearly 11 years since I dropped out of the seminary so it’s not surprising that much of my knowledge of obscure religious oddities has faded along with my knowledge of classical Greek.

The group I was thinking of is the Mandeans. They started sometime in the first three centuries of the common era, but the historical record of them is pretty scant with many of the best early sources coming from Islamic writers and the Hadith. They are generally thought to be the Sabians that are counted by Muslims as a People of the Book.

They are a Semitic Gnostic group. What’s odd here is that most of what we know of Gnosticism is that it was a Hellenistic Greek phenomena drawing very heavily on neo-Platonic dualism, however that same kind of dualism and secret knowledge, the Greek gnosis or Aramaic manda.

According to the Mandeans they are the continuation of the religion of Noah and they revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Aram, and John the Baptist, especially John the Baptist, as their prophets. According to one 13th century Dominican Catholic observers they detest Abraham because of circumcision.

They believe in marriage, procreation, and family and don’t practice celibacy or asceticism, this is in stark contrast with standard Gnosticism, but is likely part of why they have outlasted the Gnostics by more than a millennia and a half. Like the Gnostic they believe the world is a prison and governed by the planetary archons.

Their dualism also takes an interesting form, while Gnostics typically had the spiritual pure opposite the evil material, Mandeans have a cosmic father and mother, light and dark, right and left. They believe in a supreme formless Entity who delegated the creation of spiritual, etheric, and material worlds and beings to creators. The cosmos is the creation of the Archetypal Man which was created so that it could be populated by beings created in his form.

Souls come from the Entity and are in exile and captives on this world, but eventually they will return to the Entity. Planets and stars influence our lives and are also a place where souls are detained. There are also savior spirits that will assist souls on the journey to the worlds of light.

Their sacraments are centered on purification, with washing, as a core part of it, hence at least in part their reverence of John the Baptist. The goal of the sacraments is to purify the soul so that they can be freed of the material world and reborn in the spiritual world.

They reject the Torah and the Christian Bible, but have many scriptures where they have recorded things that have learned from the manda or gnosis, the secret knowledge of the spirit world.

While this may all seem quite strange, it’s actually quite logical. The Gnostics believe that Yahweh is an evil Archon and most believe that Jesus isn’t much better. They tended to view mainstream Christians as slaves of the evil material world and that they needed freed from. Latching on to John the Baptist also makes since considering that with the poor hygiene and rampant disease of the era, any focus on bathing and cleanliness would result in improved health. To accept John, while rejecting Jesus is also logical if you view Jesus and the Christians as usurpers who tried to steal and corrupt John’s message.

Historically their population has generally been centered around modern day Iraq and Iran. The Iranian population probably didn’t fare well during the Islamic Revolution. Prior to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 there were 60,000 to 70,000 Mandeans worldwide with most in Iraq at that point. Most have fled the country with fewer than 5,000 remaining in Iraq.

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New supporter – Michael

NEWS

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica
Facebook’s been gathering all of your contact data, phone call and text metadata

Since we talked about privacy on the internet last week, it’s interesting to see the stories that have been popping up since recording that episode. For the first one, Global Science Research used a click bate personality quiz and the permissions on the Facebook app they created for that to scrape as much personal data as they could on 50 million people to hand it over to Cambridge Analytica so they could help Trump win the election. Facebook then went on to try to bury the story.

There’s also a story on Ars Technica about Facebook using Android privacy permissions to gather all of your contact data and phone call and text message metadata until Google finally shut down that api in October 2017.

Does it change my thoughts on the topic? No. I still go with the fact that in all of these free services we are the product and not the customer and that you’re a fool if you trust them. Don’t post anything on the internet unless you’re fine with everyone in the world seeing that. We also need to have serious discussion as a society and the government needs to get up to speed on the issues and do something to help figure out how we live in the current digital age. I would go as far as to say that the internet and the societal changes it’s bringing is a bigger change than the internal combustion engines and cars, and maybe even bigger than the industrial revolution, however time will tell.

Trump has issued orders to ban trans service members and is asking the courts to lift their injunctions

On Friday President Trump issued new orders banning transgender service members who require surgery or or significant medical treatment from serving the military in nearly all cases. Since it wasn’t even two years ago that the ban on trans people serving in the military was lifted, we’re still in place where every trans service member would still require surgery or significant medical treatment. The justification is that they are trying to avoid that medical care from impacting troop readiness, but really it’s because Trump things trans people are icky and he’s hoping, just like his Muslim ban, that this attempt might make through the courts.

The military will not be implementing this at this time because they will be following the court injunctions against Trump’s last two attempts to ban trans service members. Ultimately this will be decided by the Supreme Court.

Ben Carson is more worried about the people that trans people in homeless shelters make uncomfortable than he is about trans people getting equal rights

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson was called before a House subcommittee and was asked by Rep Mike Quigley (D-IL) about the removal of training materials that HUD had produced under the Obama Administration that aimed to guide homeless shelters in how to give access to transgender people. Here’s his response:

Congress has blocked DeVos education spending agenda

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos managed to get her agenda into the spending bill, including a $3.6 billion reduction in the Education Department budget and spending $1 billion on private school vouchers.

Congress rejected most of the proposals including drastic cuts to the department’s Office of Civil Rights, cutting federal work study programs in half, and a $250 million private school choice program.

In hearings, DeVos justified this as reducing the federal government’s role in education.

In the end charter schools got an additional $58 million, Head Start got an additional $610 million, and the Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant for needy students that Trump and DeVos wanted to eliminate got $107 million added to its budget.

Tennessee has passed a bill requiring “In God We Trust” to be prominently displayed in all schools

Tennessee has passed a bill that requires schools to prominently display the national motto, “In God We Trust”. The requirements are that it must be in a place where it’s likely to be seen such as a entryway, cafeteria, or common area, but schools are free to pick the exact for of the display. It passed the state senate unanimously and the House with 81 of the 99 members voting for it.

Despite the governor’s concerns a stand your ground law will take effect in Idaho

The Idaho state legislature, despite the Governor’s misgivings passed a Stand Your Ground bill along party line votes. What this bill does is make it so that you are presumed innocent if you killed someone who was entering your home, business, car, or property.

The governor did not sign the bill over concerns that it would allow unreasonable killings such as a kid crossing a field or a teen breaking into an RV to steal a soft drink.

Idaho’s new abortion law requires providers to give patients misinformation and report detailed patient information to the state

Idaho, with Butch’s blessing has passed a new abortion bill that requires that women seeking abortions can stop the medication half way if they change their minds and will require detailed data reporting with the woman’s age, race, how many children she has, if any children have died, and how many abortions she’s had in the past. Complications such as infection, blood clots, and hemorrhaging, depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders also have to be reported.

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Randy via Facebook regarding Episode 243

Study shows that better access to contraceptives would lower the abortion rate and save billions a year

A new study shows that increasing access to the full range contraceptives would result in a 64% drop in unintended pregnancies, a 67% drop in the abortion rate, and a $12 billion public health savings annually.

A Fox News analyst quit and called it a “propaganda machine”

LTC Ralph Peters, USA (RET) has served as a military analyst for Fox News for a decade has resigned saying:

“Today, I feel that Fox News is assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers. Over my decade with Fox, I long was proud of the association. Now I am ashamed.”

Three members of a militia in Kansas have been arrested for plotting to kill Muslim refugees

Three members of the Kansas Security Force militia and a splinter group known as the “the Crusades” with a goal of killing as many Muslims as they can and to make them feel uncomfortable in America have been charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to deny other’ civil rights from a plot to bomb an apartment complex where Muslim immigrants from Somalia lived and had a mosque.

The Austin Bomber was part of a Christian specialist group | Link2

Austin recently was faced with a bombing spree that killed 2 and wounded 5. The bomber recorded a confession video on his cell phone and blew himself up with his last bomb as the police after running from the cops.

The motive is not known, but his targets were all minorities and he was part of a Christian survivalist group the discussed weapons and dangerous chemicals.

Texas pastor sentenced to 99 years for starving a toddler to exercise a demon

A video showed Pastor Aracely Meza cradling the body of a 2 year old boy praying to God to bring him back to life. The boy, who lived in her church’s commune with his parents had died because two weeks earlier she had ordered that his food be cut off as part of an exorcism.

March for Our Lives may be the biggest single day protest in DC history

This episode is brought to you by:

* Travis McGee
* Danielle
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* George
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You can find us online at www.htotw.com, follow us on Twitter @AtheistNomads, like us on Facebook, email us at [email protected], and leave us a voice mail message at (541) 203-0666.

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Episode 243 – They’re watching and listening, should you be afraid?


This week we are joined by Mikey Pullman and talk about privacy in the online world, state sponsored religious foster care agencies, family values infidelity, how the kids are all right, and more.

We have an Alexa skill. Just say Alexa, activate the Atheist Nomads skill.

DISCUSSION – Privacy online

NEWS

The South Carolina governor has signed an executive order allowing foster care agencies to discriminate on the basis of religion

The Obama administration updated regulations to prohibit foster care agencies that are publicly funded and licensed from servicing only specific religions, before that they were only prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race or national origin. Last week South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster issued an executive order to undermine that regulation making it perfectly fine to discriminate on the basis of religion and he’s asked the US Department of Health and Human Services to exempt the state from the regulation.

The “family values” GOP Iowa state senate majority leader has resigned after getting caught kissing a lobbyist in a bar

Bill Dix is a married father of three and until last week was the anti gay “family values” Iowa state senate majority leader. He got caught on video kissing a lobbyist in a Des Moines bar.

Stephen Hawking has died

Generation Z is the most atheistic yet

A new Barna Group study has found that 6% of the US population identifies as atheists. More interesting than that is the generational breakdowns. They found Baby Boomers to have the fewest atheists, at 5%, Elders and Gen-Xers were average at 6%, Millennials a little higher at 7%, but Gen Z came in at a full 13%.

A Canadian gay conversion therapist got in terrible for having sex with his patients as part of their “treatment”

A Canadian psychiatrist who ran a gay conversion clinic has been found guilty by the Ontario medical regulator of sexually abusing two patients. He will also face a hearing before the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. As the regulator found, the patients “thought that the sexual activity was part of the therapy and an attempt to cure them of homosexuality by engaging in the acts, rather than fantasizing about them.” And that he “engaged in mutual masturbation and oral sex with two male patients on different occasions during therapy sessions, and once had anal intercourse with one of them in his office.”

A crucified Stormtrooper has caused controversy at the Anglican church it’s displayed in

A crucified Stormtrooper was on display as the centerpiece of a stations of the cross art exhibit at a London Anglican church. Once church members saw this, they got pretty upset.

The artist explained it as “I like to think of it as a New Hope – such as in the new Star Wars film, where John Boyega rebels against the dark side and fights for something good.” He was also hoping to raise awareness about his brother who has been missing since 2003.

After a priest arrived to investigate and met with the artist and upset parishioners they agreed to move the Stormtrooper from the front of the church to the back of a hallway.

Linda Harvey blames homosexuality on God’s punishment of society for abortion

Update on Boise priest’s charges

We have an update on retired Boise priest Thomas Faucher. Additional charges have been filed and his bailed was raised from a quarter of a million dollars to a full $1,000,000. He failed to secure the bail and has been booked in the Ada County jail. Not only did he possess and share large amounts of child porn, but more than 2000 of the images and videos depicted kids getting raped and some showed the torture and murder of children, adults, and animals.

More important is that fact that two people have gone to the prosecutors with allegations that he sexually abused them as children.

This episode is brought to you by:

* Travis McGee
* Danielle
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* Arthur
* George
* Mike
* The Flying Skeptic
* Kim
* Rachel
* John
* Josh
* Rob
* Al from South Carolina
* Henry
* Alexandra
* Alan


You can find us online at www.htotw.com, follow us on Twitter @AtheistNomads, like us on Facebook, email us at [email protected], and leave us a voice mail message at (541) 203-0666.

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Episode 242 – News with Emma Arnold


We are joined this week by local comedian Emma Arnold and talk about the latest news. There’s Italian gay priests getting outed, trans people winning in court, and more.

@iamaroadtrip
Instagram
Tree Fort

NEWS

An Italian male escort has exposed 36 actively gay Catholic priests and seminarians in a 1200 page document complete with very explicit evidence

An Italian male escort gave the archdiocese of Naples a 1200 page dossier identifying 34 priests and 6 seminarians who he knows to be “actively gay”. The document included explicit WhatsApp messages, photos, and other evidence of these men of the cloth getting on with other adult men. In response to the gravity of the situation the archbishop sent the document on to the Vatican since as we all know priests aren’t allowed to have sex with consenting adults.

A Boise woman on a flight from San Francisco said she was God and tried to open the cabin door

A Boise woman was trying to fly home from San Francisco when she screamed, “I am God, I am God, I am God” and tried to open the plane’s door mid flight.

A federal judge has ruled that Idaho must start considering applications to update the sex on trans people’s birth certificates

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has been automatically rejecting any and all requests by trans people to update the sex on their birth certificates because they interpret the law, which they admit is unfair, to refer to sex, not gender, and that it only allows for corrections if there was an error at the time of birth. US District Judge Candy Dale ruled that this is a discriminatory violation of the 14th Amendment and that the state has to at least consider the applications.

The 6th Circuit has ruled that religion is not a valid excuse for workplace discrimination against trans people

The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a trans woman who was fired from her funeral home job by her boss after informing him that she is trans and was going to start transitioning was illegally discriminated against in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The employer’s defense was that the employment decision was protected under his free exercise of religion and the court ruled that employing a trans woman would not be a substantial burden on his sincerely held religious beliefs and that he had fired her for not living up to his gender stereotypes, a clear violation of the law.

Tennessee killed a bill that would ban child marriage to help a lawsuit to try to overturn same sex marriage

Last week we talked about the death of Kentucky’s child marriage bill, well now Tennessee has followed suit. At the request of a lawyer House Majority Leader Glen Casada referred the bill to ban marriage under the age of 18 to summer study, where bills go to die. The reason is that the lawyer, David Fowler is planning a lawsuit to challenge Obergefell, the US Supreme Court same sex marriage ruling. His theory is that the Supreme Court invalidated all marriages in the state since it struck down the state’s marriage law and by the state updating the law they would be acknowledging same sex marriage and make his lawsuit moot.

News anchors at Sinclair TV stations are going to be required to read Trump propaganda about “fake” news from national media companies

Sinclair is a media company that operates 173 TV stations around the US. In recent years it’s become clear that their owners are trying to push a right wing agenda on the company as exemplified by their new mandate for stations to record and frequently run promos that decry the “fake stories” from national news outlets.

The Federal Government has informed Idaho that it can’t violate the ACA

Idaho applied for a waiver to the Affordable Care Act that would allow the state to offer extremely limited cheap plans on the state’s health insurance exchange. Now the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has let Governor Butch Otter know that the ACA is still the law and the state has to follow it.

Pastor Jeffress explains why it doesn’t matter to evangelicals that Trump cheated on his wife with a porn star

Pastor Robert Jeffress is the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, a contributor on Fox News, and a member of Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board. When asked about the left calling Evangelicals hypocrites for their continued support of Trump in light of the on going Stormy Daniels scandal. Let’s listen to his response.

This episode is brought to you by:

* Travis McGee
* Danielle
* Arthur
* Darryl
* George
* Mike
* The Flying Skeptic
* Kim
* Rachel
* John
* Josh
* Rob
* Al from South Carolina
* Henry
* Alexandra
* Alan


You can find us online at www.htotw.com, follow us on Twitter @AtheistNomads, like us on Facebook, email us at [email protected], and leave us a voice mail message at (541) 203-0666.

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Episode 241 – The Sun, Moon, and Rod


We are joined this week by Brigid Fitch from Holy CRAP! The VlogCast.
http://holycrapthevlogcast.com/
https://brigidfitch2112.wordpress.com/

DUSTIN’ OFF THE DEGREE – The Unification Church

NEWS

Hundreds of couples gathered, wearing crowns, for the AR-15 blessing ceremony at the Unification Sanctuary http://cbsn.ws/2tmL8Ua

The Unification Church’s most famous ritual is mass weddings, but they also do other commitment ceremonies, such as the one that the Moonie offshoot World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland, PA held last week with hundreds of couples showing up wearing crowns and carrying their AR-15 style assault rifles, which the church believes to be the rod of iron in Revelation. During the service they drank holy wine and exchanged or renewed wedding vows. Protesters and state police were outside the church and a school across the street bused students across town to another campus.

During the service the Rev. Sean Moon prayed for “a kingdom of peace police and peace militia where the citizens, through the right given to them by almighty God to keep and bear arms, will be able to protect one another and protect human flourishing.”

Florida state senator thinks thoughts and prayers are the only solution http://bit.ly/2D1AcLz

The state of Florida debated, passed, and then rescinded an assault rifle ban. One republican voting against the bill was state senator Kelli Stargel. She’s also interested in limiting gun sales to those under 21, increasing mental health services, and increasing the amount of armed personnel on school campuses, but ultimately…

The Tennessee GOP and Lt. Gov. have attacked a special election candidate for the state senate because of her atheism http://bit.ly/2H8gkJ0

Gayle Jordan is the executive director of Recovering from Religion and she’s also running for the Tennessee State Senate in a special election. A few weeks ago the state Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden called on voters to reject her because she is a quote “radical atheist”.

On March 1 Lt Gov Randy McNally went to social media and wrote:

“In my 40 plus years in Tennessee politics, I’ve seen few candidates as dangerous as Gayle Jordan. She is not just out of step with a majority of Tennessee on matters of policy. She is out of step on matters of values and faith.
In her daily work, she directs an organization called “Recovering from Religion.” Most Tennesseans, whether they are strong believers or not, recognize the strength and comfort faith provides. Gayle Jordan rejects faith as a positive force for good in the world. She believes faith is something from which people need to be rescued.
This is not the type of person we need in the Tennessee Senate.”

An atheist in Ohio is suing over the court mandated religious addiction treatment program he has to attend
http://bit.ly/2Hb8ZZ1

James Lindon was convicted of drug possession and theft for stealing five hydrocodone pills from the clinic he was working as a pharmacist at and convicted of tampering with evidence for swallowing four of the five pills when confronted by security guards.

He was sentenced to a month in a substance abuse program and two years of probation. He’s now suing because the program is Alcoholics Anonymous which requires people to submit to a higher power and he’s an atheist, thus this court ordered program violates his religious freedom.

A Kentucky bill to end child marriage is stalling due to lobbying from conservative groups and parental rights concerns http://cjky.it/2oIvyxK

Senate Bill 48
Pulled from schedule
Kentucky Family Foundation

Alabama bill would eliminate marriage licenses http://n.pr/2FXj1xP

13 Alabama counties do not offer marriage licenses
Probate judges “may” issue licenses not “shall”
Passed state senate and house judiciary committee
Eliminate marriage licenses
Form to affirm meeting legal requirements
Marriage contract

The Utah governor is asking people to pray for snow http://bit.ly/2FZ6v0s

While the Utah state legislature is advancing a resolution to acknowledge climate change and call of smarter energy policies, the governor is calling on people in his state to pray for snow. Why?

This has been a dry winter and left the state with only about half the snow pack it needs. Besides, when he asked people to pray for rain during the forest fires in 2012 it rained.

National Geographic is sending out crystal healing water bottles http://bit.ly/2tjW4Ci

National Geographic has been sending out press packets, including one that went to Gizmodo’s Ryan Mandelbaum, in advance of their new series, One Strange Rock, narrated by Will Smith.

Contained within the box was a National Geographic branded water bottle that retails for $70 and contains a sealed vial of crystals and in instruction manual on how to prepare heavenly gemwater, a scientifically proven process to raise the energy level of water.

120,000 South Koreans rallied for pastors to be punished in forced conversion cases http://bit.ly/2I3baiK

South Korea has a forced conversion problem. This usually happens when family members will kidnap someone who has strayed from the usually Christian faith and then they will take them to a convent or church where the apostate will be confined and “ministered” to. In some cases, as in the case of 25 year old Ji In Gu they are killed. Her case after being suffocated by her parents after escaping a monastery where she was confined for 44 days.

On January 28, 120,000 people across the South Korea’s major cities gathered for a rally organized by the Human Rights Association for Forced Conversion to demand that pastors who take part in or encourage these kidnappings to be punished.

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This episode is brought to you by:

* Travis McGee
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* The Flying Skeptic
* Kim
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* John
* Josh
* Rob
* Al from South Carolina
* Henry
* Alexandra
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You can find us online at www.htotw.com, follow us on Twitter @AtheistNomads, like us on Facebook, email us at [email protected], and leave us a voice mail message at (541) 203-0666.

Theme music is provided by Sturdy Fred.


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Episode 240 – The Blessed Semi-automatic Rifles

NEWS

Full Idaho science standards have passed the state senate committee http://bit.ly/2EObjZt

The Idaho State Senate Education Committee approved the state science standards by a vote of 6 – 3. This is the full science standards including the climate change supporting content that the House Education Committee striped out a few weeks ago. Assuming neither side wins, the full unedited standards will go into effect at the close of the legislative session.

An Idaho State Senator yelled “Abortion is murder” at students and threatened to call the cops if the students returned to his office. http://bit.ly/2CHMrwp

Students from the University of Idaho went to the state capital, a 300 mile trip, to meet with state legislators to talk about bills about contraceptives and sex ed. GOP state senator Dan Foreman canceled their meeting so the students left a note and some condoms on their way to meetings with other legislators.

He then went out into the hall and shouted:

““Abortion is murder, I stand against it. I am a Roman Catholic and a conservative Republican. I think what you guys are doing stinks,”

After being told that that’s his choice he continued:

“You’re damn right it’s my choice, so stay out of my office. The next time you stand in my office you’ll be dealing with ISP”.

He then went to Twitter.

Democratic state senator Maryanne Jordan filled an ethics complaint against her colleague and said to the AP:

“It’s one thing to disagree with policy, it’s another thing to position something like that against another lawmaker. This type of behavior is beneath the Idaho Senate.”

The Idaho House has introduced a resolution declaring porn a health crisis. This is modeled after the resolution Utah passed last year. http://bit.ly/2F4KGij

The Florida House has declared porn a health issue, but won’t do anything about guns which are actually killing people. http://bit.ly/2sZYtBJ

The Florida House passed a bill that would require “In God We Trust” to be posted in all schools.

In response to recent events in Florida, especially in the schools, Florida state Rep Kim Daniels, a Democrat from Jacksonville who runs a ministry introduced a bill requiring that the state motto, “In God We Trust” to be posted conspicuously in every Florida public school.

“He is not a Republican or a Democrat. He is not black or white,” Daniels said. “He is the light, and our schools need light in them like never before.”

She talked about the shooting, then said, “But the real thing that needs to be addressed are issues of the heart.”

She’s also concerned about video games.

The bill passed 97-10.

A Pennsylvania church is going to hold a blessing ceremony for AR-15s and similar rifles. http://bit.ly/2Cfbuv3

The World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Pennsylvania is holding a blessing ceremony for semi-automatic rifles. This will allow people “to show their willingness to defend their familiars, communities and nation.” All guns will need to be unloaded and zip tied to prevent bullets from being inserted. Police have been invited to come as well.

Oregon children missing vaccines have been sent home from school http://bit.ly/2FAVfHq

Oregon leads the country in non-medical exemptions for vaccines and also just passed it’s annual exclusion day. This is the day each year when students who are not up to date on their vaccines and who do not have an exemption on file are sent home until their paperwork is up to date. It also set new records for the most exclusions. These are kids whose parents have ignored several letters and phone calls and who have not bothered to get their kids their shots or fill out the really easy exemption form. It’s not anti-vaxers, it’s just apathy.

A judge has dismissed a creationist’s lawsuit over his tax money going to teach evolution. http://bit.ly/2EVtxrW

Focus on the Family is now claiming to be a church so it doesn’t have to declare it’s finances.

New supporter – Arthur

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Episode 239 – American Atheists 2018 with David Silverman

On this week’s episode after the news we talk to David Silverman about the upcoming American Atheists National Convention, American Atheists’ advocacy work, and the upcoming Atheist Voter program.

American Atheists https://www.atheists.org/
Convention https://www.atheists.org/convention2018/
David’s book, Fighting God http://amzn.to/2BE3dQb

Women v. Religion: The Case Against Faith and for Freedom is now available for preorder. It will be released on June 1, 2018. http://amzn.to/2FcFbeS

NEWS

Stoneman Douglas High School shooting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoneman_Douglas_High_School_shooting

How many school shootings have there been this year?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/no-there-havent-been-18-school-shooting-in-2018-that-number-is-flat-wrong/2018/02/15/65b6cf72-1264-11e8-8ea1-c1d91fcec3fe_story.html?utm_term=.c90e9f0e7fda

An atheist activist was kicked out of a Missouri city council meeting over complaining about “In God We Trust” being in the room
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/02/16/atheist-kicked-out-of-mo-town-meeting-after-criticizing-in-god-we-trust-sign/

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Episode 238 – Shepherd’s Rod part 2

This week we’re joined by Mikey Pullman and talk about some local drama, revisit the Shepherd’s Rod, and talk about the latest news. We went long so patrons will get a few extra news stories and longer discussion of the stories totaling nearly 30 minutes.

You can email Mikey at [email protected] and find him on Twitter at @MikeyPullman

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Brad – Pizzalchik

DUSTIN’ OFF THE DEGREE – Shepherd’s Rod part 2

Corrections from robp123451 via Youtube
https://hearyetherod.wordpre­ss.com/?s=Into+the+Viper%27s+den&submit=Search

NEWS

Update: More details on Boise priest
http://www.ktvb.com/article/news/crime/retired-boise-priest-facing-child-sexual-exploitation-charges-out-on-bond/277-515831492

In the midst of record high temperatures in Boise, the Idaho legislature has again rejected the climate change sections of the state’s science curriculum.
https://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/cold-shoulder-idaho-legislature-committee-censors-climate-change-from-public-hearing/Content?oid=9152577

Eleven Hildale, UT city employees resign over religious beliefs
https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46257457

Patron Only – A Utah state legislator who voted in favor of stricter punishments for prostitution has resigned after two sessions with an escort where the state paid for the hotel room have come to light
https://nypost.com/2018/02/09/lawmaker-accused-of-using-taxpayer-money-for-sex-with-escort/

The Michigan town of Bay View is being sued for it’s Christians only rules.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/09/christians-only-town-bay-view-michigan

Evangelical megachurch leader and Trump advisor Gloria Copeland said not to get a flu shot since Jesus will protect you.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/gloria-copeland-trump-adviser-flu-shot-jesus-god-christian-evangelical-healing-miracle-a8197801.html

Patron Only – A Somali-American gay atheist escaped from his family in Kenya the night before he would be taken to a gay conversion camp thanks to Ex-Muslims of North America, the US Embassy, and Ithaca college
https://theithacan.org/opinion/escaping-gay-conversion-therapy-in-kenya/

Iran has sentenced an Iranian-American couple to prison for being Zoroastrians
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1236956/middle-east

Half of Iranians want the nation’s hijab requirements dropped
http://www.dw.com/en/half-of-iran-wants-to-drop-headscarf-laws-government-report/a-42462263

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Episode 237 – Following Christ with Child Sacrifice

DUSTIN’ OFF THE DEGREE – Followers of Christ

NEWS

Yet another bill to address child sacrifice (also known as faith healing) in Idaho has been submitted.
https://www.idahopress.com/news/state/faith-based-healing-bill-drafted-awaiting-consideration/article_b1852247-73f5-578c-8762-82fcb67efda6.html

Parents in UK are forcing autistic kids to drink bleach
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brit-kids-forced-drink-bleach-11924623

Retired Boise Catholic priest arrested for sexual exploitation of a child
http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/article198216134.html

The first woman to publicly accuse Nassar has quite the rebuke for her church and Evangelical Christianity as a whole
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/rachael-denhollander-the-church-isnt-safe-for-sexual-abuse-victims_us_5a73264ce4b06fa61b4e1574

A “pro-life” pastor in Wisconsin wants women who get abortions to be executed
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/freethoughtnow/pro-lifers-whod-execute-women-popes-hate-fake-news/

29 women in Iran have been arrested for not wearing their hijabs during a protest
http://m.dw.com/en/hijab-less-iranian-women-arrested-while-protesting-compulsory-cover-up/a-42417935

A bill that has been introduced or discussed in every state would require am registering and paying a $20 fee to watch porn. The bill is called the “Human Trafficking Prevention Act”, but it doesn’t do anything that would prevent human trafficking.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/01/31/youd-have-to-pay-20-to-watch-porn-under-these-bills-by-christian-conservatives/

Eric Trump complained about Democrats not standing and clapping when religion was brought up during the State of the Union
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/eric-trump-says-democrats-must-clap-trump-love-jesus-americans-united-god/

Florida’s system of restoring voter rights to felons has been stuck down in federal court
http://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/02/01/federal-judge-strikes-down-floridas-system-for-restoring-felon-voting-rights/

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