Podcasts about judeo christian god

Becoming immortal: https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2024/08/05/immortal-2/ PDF: https://erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/The-Immortal-Man-7.pdf Summary: - **Ubermensch Ideal:** Aim to become *beyond* man, embodying the übermensch concept. - **Masculinity vs. Femininity:** - Masculine traits are often associated with physical dominance, exemplified by Achilles. - The use of guns in modern warfare is seen as cowardly compared to physical combat. - Modern masculinity is often measured by material wealth rather than physical prowess. - **Stud Concept:** - "Stud" refers to prime breeding potential, both in animals and metaphorically in men. - Women are often attracted to physical traits like height and muscularity over wealth. - **Immortality:** - Mortality means inevitable death; ancient immortals were gods who could not die. - True purpose of fitness is not about being the strongest but achieving lasting vitality. - **Short and Buff:** - Many short, muscular men may use steroids to compensate for insecurities about height. - Notable short men include celebrities like Jeff Bezos, Kanye West, and Tom Cruise. - **Comparison and Judgment:** - Humans are inherently comparative, constantly measuring themselves against others. - In ancient times, men were judged by their ability to survive and conquer, not by modern metrics. - **Gods and Theology:** - Ancient Greek gods were more human-like, which contrasts with the monolithic Judeo-Christian God. - The incarnation of God as Jesus in Christian theology is seen as a way to bridge the divine and human. - **Lifestyle and Ethics:** - Reject modern drugs, alcohol, and unhealthy foods in favor of natural elements and physical activity. - Challenge and disrupt contemporary morals and ethics to achieve a higher state of being. - **Democracy and Society:** - Despite flaws, democracy is seen as the best system, promoting freedom and opportunity. - Emphasizes the importance of immigrants' contributions and the shifting global power dynamic. - **Family and Lineage:** - Having children, especially sons, is essential for continuing the family lineage. - Grandparents' role is to care for and impart wisdom to their grandchildren, countering modern hedonism. - **Silent Resistance:** - Avoid giving attention or publicity to things or people you dislike; silence is more powerful. - **Stoicism and Emotional Control:** - Strive to transcend human emotions, adopting a stoic approach to life. - Embrace innovation in personal ethics, often by doing the opposite of what is expected. These points encapsulate the major themes and ideas from your text.

Is intelligent design a scientific possibility worth exploring? According to today's guest, Dr. Stephen C. Meyer, it is, and he claims he has scientific evidence to prove it! Dr. Stephen C. Meyer is a former geophysicist and college professor who received his Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. He directs the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute in Seattle. He authored the bestselling books Darwin's Doubt, Signature in the Cell, and most recently, Return of the God Hypothesis, a book we discuss in depth in our interview.  You may be wondering what an advocate of intelligent design is doing on a show with a practicing cosmologist who frequently declares himself to be a devout agnostic and if I, a respected cosmologist, am getting into intelligent design. Well, tune in, and you'll find out!  Let's get into it! Key Takeaways:  Audio: Intro (00:00) Why Stephen's work is so controversial (03:21) The level of epistemic support in his evidence (16:03) The origin of the universe (19:36) Stephen Hawkin's relationship with religion (37:26) Newton and the God of the gaps (47:27) The logistics of intelligent design (54:15) Is intelligent design proof of a Judeo-Christian God? (1:14:52) Outro (1:20:52) — Additional resources: 

Questions Covered: 14:31 – Does atheism lead to nihilism? 21:13 – Why do so many Christians fall into atheism? 23:02 – Is the intelligent design argument against evolution helpful, unhelpful or irrelevant in the debate about God? 33:41 – Why the Judeo-Christian God instead of any other God? 40:58 – What are good resources for atheists who want to get into philosophy? 48:38 – My belief in God stems from my illness. 52:05 – I just discovered the idea that we are born seeking God. Can you comment on that? …

Pastor Bill: [0:02] Hello and welcome to season 3 episode 95 of the Berean Manifesto; Faith, Hope, and Love for the modern Christian. I'm Pastor Bill in the big seat today, the big chair and I'm joined by Pastor Newms in the little chair, I disabled the video for bandwidth so I don't remember where you are you're right, right here on the video with me. He's the little head today and I'm the big head today because something came out this week and I was like okay, we need to talk about this and we really need to talk about this so we're going to talk about it. … Pastor Bill: [8:29] Okay so let's move on we've got a lot to cover tonight, maybe we'll get it all done in the one hour maybe we'll go over it might be a double episode tonight and then we'll just release the second half of the podcast the next week I don't know. Pastor Newms: [8:47] Wouldn't we just record the next half next week or else we wouldn't have any of the beginning stuff next week. Pastor Bill: [8:58] I don't know we'll play it by ear. Pastor Newms: [9:13] Okay okay. Pastor Bill: [9:16] I don't know I don't know okay so this week the results of a nationwide survey came out that the survey is done every it's not every year. Pastor Newms: [9:26] It's every two years. Pastor Bill: [9:27] Every two years, and it's a group called the state of Theology and they partner with Life Way. Now life way you know you used to see them as Christian bookstores everywhere well they kind of rain to that end because, well they weren't making any money they were losing money on their you know brick and mortar stores. It's 35 statements on theology Doctrine things like this. Pastor Newms: [10:02] How many statements? Pastor Bill: [10:05] 35 Pastor Newms: [10:08] Why do I only have 32 listed. Pastor Bill: [10:14] That's an interesting question but there's thirty five statements okay so it's 35 statements and. Pastor Newms: [10:21] Oh no oh no. Pastor Bill: [10:26] People went in and took this survey and they would answer you know based on the options given. And so we're going to go through some of these and we're going to talk about the results and the question and talk about you know a scripture or maybe not a scripture but we're going to talk about the way we see it I may say one way that's your news May see the different way, everyone listening may see a completely different way than either one of us and that's fine on most of this a couple of these it is that basic, it's either this way or you're not actually a Christian kind of thing you know. Pastor Newms: [11:12] I would agree yes. Pastor Bill: [11:15] 1. God is a perfect being and cannot make a mistake. Out of 3,000 people that responded 51 percent strongly agree, 15% somewhat agree nine percent weren't sure 10% somewhat disagreed and 15 percent strongly disagreed, that God was a perfect being and could not make a mistake. Right, so I believe God is a perfect being and that he does not make mistakes I also believe, that from my point of view I can look at something God has done, and either not see the big picture and think it was a mistake or not agree with it from my point of view and think it was a mistake, But ultimately from a grand scheme all of time expanse point of view God doesn't make mistakes and (responding to a live comment) - Biggs says our god well as, yeah there were this is off of the assumption that it is the Judeo Christian God of the Bible. Pastor Newms: [12:34] Which really plays into a future. Pastor Bill: [12:38] How do I word this correctly? Yeah it does. Pastor Newms: [12:41] So so yeah I I so this is the issue I have, overall you posit do you reckon continue with this one sorry so this is the issue I have overall so just so you know when you lean like that right there no one can see your face this is the issue I have, with this entire survey, and this is the issue I've had in this survey in past years also the wording of these questions are terrible. They are steeped in a biased belief of this is what I think whoever wrote These originally which this has been years and years and years ago so there's no telling, but it's very biased some of them are extremely christianese. Some of them aren't but, it's very much I have this set of beliefs so I'm going to ask the questions in this way not thinking about, any other situation because words like mistake what is a mistake you know um, like you mentioned I could view something that God did as I don't understand it or like it so to me it is a mistake in the perfect will of God it is not a mistake so, it's interesting to look at that in a lot of these questions is, the wording is so bad and don't worry I'll complain about English all night tonight so do be prepared the next two weeks I will be complaining about English the entire time so hold your seats and be prepared and I'll try not to blame Microsoft for anything but it is going to be English, blaming a lot so you have a scripture and I'll let you go first before I say what I was going to say because I thought you paused because you were going through it so. Pastor Bill: [14:45] So I attached Isaiah 55:8,9 to this. It says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways this is the Lord's declaration, for as Heaven is higher than Earth so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” And I think that really summed up what I was saying you know like God from God's point of view you know he works on a completely different playing field than the rest of us, and he's got the you know the 100-yard view whereas we're down here in the grass just trying to see daylight you know past the blades of grass, so Pastor Newms: [15:24] And what I looked at for it, was Psalms 18:39, “His way is perfect the word of the Lord is pure he's a shield who take all he's a shield to all who take refuge in him you know his way is perfect.” because it's his way and he kind of hit go so he gets to his prerogative because he said go. So that that that's a yeah. Pastor Bill: [16:01] 2. There is one true God in three persons God the Father God the son and God the Holy Spirit. Well once again, this is really a bias question it's worded with a lot of bias in it it's bad data collection but assuming that you believe in the one true God in a one true God. It then makes another assumption that you believe in the Trinity or don't d.c. they're asking do you believe in the Trinity or you not believe the Trinity everything's not really that clear-cut there's a lot of gray there I mean the idea of the trinity, isn't even one that's expressly stated in the Bible right it's a doctrine that we've pieced together out of context clues from, well this writer said this thing and this writer said this thing and this writer said this thing and through all of that, crafted this idea of the trinitarian nature of God, but there's no one scripture that just point blank says that and we could honestly spend a whole, episode of its own by itself going through all of the stuff that leads you to believe there is a trinity in the nature of God right, but that's not what we're doing tonight and so like this isn't another one of those bad ones, fifty-four percent of people strongly agree 16% somewhat agree 11 aren't sure president 5% somewhat disagree and 14 percent strongly disagree, with that statement that was not a pause that was me moving it over to you now. Pastor Newms: [17:50] Okay so this is where this is where I'm going to complain in my in my part so, with a one true God in three persons God the Father God the son and God the holy spirit so to me with the way this question is worded. I feel it leads one to sometimes especially if you're not steeped in christianese this is one of those that's steeped in crime if you're not, you might think of three God's not three parts of one God, and three the way the trilogy Trinity is you know three people that are one that are what you know because depending on how you read that sentence where the commas are how the you know, it's an interesting thought process, because the Trinity is like you mentioned hard in and of itself and. Verse I did pull a verse for this one, just one simple one that I kind of grabbed which is Galatians 4:6 and it says “in because you are Sons God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba Father” and, so that does talk about all three parts in one the three persons that are all parts of one God that are, three at the same time which again steeped in christianese this is the Trinity and of itself is an extremely hard concept, unless you think of Body Mind and Spirit and can they be separated can they not excetera Etc so the Trinity is hard. It's deep theological stuff this isn't a an easy one. … Pastor Bill: [20:41] 3. God accepts the worship of all religions including Christianity Judaism and Islam. okay once again so bad so bad, so bad okay so 45 percent strongly agree with the. Um 22% somewhat agree 11% are not sure 6% somewhat to disagree and 16% like me strongly disagree with this statement, that God accepts the worship of all religions that's the statement. And then it gives a cough. Pastor Newms: [21:30] Why is that the statement why is that the. Pastor Bill: [21:32] Including the Judeo-Christian religions. Pastor Newms: [21:39] All three Abrahamic religions. Pastor Bill: [21:43] Including all three Abrahamic religions and I'm like wait God accepts worship with all religions so you're saying you know Hindu Buddhism Taoism. Pastor Newms: [21:54] Jediism the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Pastor Bill: [21:56] Jediism Zaroastrianism the Flying Spaghetti Monster. You're making a rather broad statement and then saying. Pastor Newms: [22:03] Yeah. Pastor Bill: [22:04] Including the Abrahamic religions. Pastor Newms: [22:08] Which I think is what throws a lot of people off with this question which is why you have so many that agree because when they, when they hear the statement well yeah all three of those religions serve the same God technically you know so. Yeah to you know and so this question is terrible because of that three. Pastor Bill: [22:36] But even in the three they should have disagreed I put John 14:6,7, “Jesus told him I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me if you know me you also know my father from now on you do know him and have seen him.” Judaism does not accept Jesus as the Messiah or believe he is the way to the father so that kicks them out of the question Islam does not believe that Jesus is the son of God. Pastor Newms: [23:17] Which which I which I agree there's a difference between is God the god of these religions. Pastor Bill: [23:24] That that would be a question where you could say oh yeah yeah they all believe they're worshiping the same entity. Pastor Newms: [23:31] Right and but I believe there's also a line between see here's the other aspect accepts worship, and has a relationship with in eternity are also. Pastor Bill: [23:48] My wife, abatsbrain, bring brought up Cain and Abel, God accepted the offering of one and rejected the offering of the other because one was doing it according to the way it had been lined up and the other one wasn't and so it's that same question. Pastor Newms: [24:05] God accepted the worship of Judaism for a long time. Follower of a follower of original Islam, you know before you know not the modern that we know today I mean God spoke to, Ishmael and you know blah blah blah you know so there's you know and he was the founder of, you know that offshoot and then it goes and goes and goes and of course it ends up where it is now which we would agree that it is not the same but, the god that they worshipped was the same, and the tenants are the same because of it and then it went to left field of course because you know people. … Pastor Newms: [25:06] Wait wait so sorry I didn't know you're ready to move on um so I did Exodus 20:3-6 which is like the obvious one for this like, which is, “Do not have any other gods beside me, do not make an idol whether it is the shape of anything in the heavens above or the earth below or the waters under the Earth Do Not Bow and worship to them do not serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God punishing the children for their fathers iniquities to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but show faithful love to a thousand generations for those who love me and keep my commandments.” which is pretty much a, you know you really shouldn't worship anyone else according to biblical standards because he kind of laid that one out there so if you're praying to an idol, even if it looks like a saint I mean um oops my bad. … Pastor Bill: [26:06] 4. God learns (that should be your red flag right away) and adapts to different circumstances, Um 32 percent strongly agree 20% somewhat agree 17 aren't sure 8% somewhat disagree and 23% like me saw that big red flag and went no, absolutely not God does not learn, God knew God knows got and so I pulled Malachi I've actually have two scriptures here written down the first ones Malachi 3:6. … Pastor Bill: [26:59] “Because I the Lord hath not changed you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed” now he does not say I will never change because obviously then he became Jesus that's somewhat of a change, big change but he had not. Pastor Newms: [27:17] Taking the physical form. Pastor Bill: [27:19] Right but then there's other scriptures that people have taken to say we'll see God never ever ever in any way changes anything. Pastor Newms: [27:29] Well and and I think I think one of the big things here. Pastor Bill: [27:32] Was James written down rather was James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of Lights who does not change like shifting Shadows” So God doesn't learn something and then and then change the way he's going to do something because he learns something new, he's not like shifting Shadows where you know the clouds are moving so that the sunlight causes the shadow to change it's not like that, God doesn't learn anything new he knew from the beginning he saw the end and everything in between he there is nothing left to learn for God so that's not really a thing.  Pastor Newms: [28:26] So the thing I wrote about this is you know God does not adapt because he's unchanging, in many ways it lists this through scripture and there's tons of scriptures of you know his ways doesn't change his personality doesn't his love doesn't there's there's all these different ones, that I found that you know trying to pick which one I wanted to use but they were all about aspects of God that dip that don't change his love will never change his this will never falter his you know blah blah blah blah blah. The big thing and you alluded to it is his. The way he handles things has changed because of Grace in Jesus so it's not that he adapted. Pastor Bill: [29:17] But he always he always had the proclivity to be that but we prevented him from being that. Pastor Newms: [29:27] Right and that's that's what I think that that's one of those things where it has a hard time sometimes where there are times where God changed his mind quote unquote. Pastor Bill: [29:39] I'm not quote unquote that's straight-up I Repent ever making humankind I'm gonna wipe them out with a flood that's got changing his mind. Pastor Newms: [29:50] Well well it could be God changing his mind it could be God going mean this was the worst I knew it was bad but, I knew it was bad but boo, they're just bad bad like I knew they were bad like I knew it was going to happen but looking at it it's kind of like when you do something and you know it's not going to turn out okay like you know if I try to do art, right if I try to draw something anyone who knows me in real life is seen this probably at some point unless you've been spared I will draw something, and I know it's going to be bad and then I show it to someone and they're like oh that's like bad bad like that's so bad other people are complaining about it I knew it was going to be bad but I didn't know other people were going to complain to me about how bad it was going to be to the degree that they and so I think that's part of the like God knew it was bad but then it's like in the moment this is even think this is bad bad but that doesn't mean he has changed or, that just means he has the ability to change his mind from the beginning of time and does it sometimes based on. Prayers based on situations. Pastor Bill: [31:09] Based on finding one righteous man on Earth who then said mmm don't wipe us all. Pastor Newms: [31:16] But even then but even then you know, it's kind of cool to Sodom and Gomorrah right Sodom and Gomorrah he struck them down not because he looked at him and went and they're bad because other people were crying for. Pastor Bill: [31:35] The cities around. Pastor Newms: [31:36] Because of how. Pastor Bill: [31:37] In Sodom and Gomorrah. Pastor Newms: [31:39] Right so it's one of those situations where it's, do you know these guys are so bad that other people are bringing it's not that he didn't know, but people have and it's that whole you start to deal with that whole and this is actually something that's later also, the whole aspect of asking asking I can ask and I will ask can I you know, there's that aspect of these types of situations God didn't change but God sometimes, Alters the course of his Divine will because of other situations which happened, right off the bat because we were all supposed to be naked in a garden eating fruit but one tree still to this day and I hate wearing clothes and I'm still upset about it but, it is what it is you told us we had to so I do but you know whatever. Pastor Bill: [32:40] Did I write down the wrong scripture for this next. Pastor Newms: [32:43] I didn't think I'd be able to work in the fact that I hate wearing clothes into a sermon ever that's awesome that's interesting. Pastor Bill: [32:48] 5. Biblical accounts of the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate, This event actually occurred. so one, accurate is a broad question that allows for to people's testimonies to contradict so math you can say one thing and Mark can say something different and they can still both be accurate, right now is it a faithful replication of events as in you'd have in a history book, not really there eyewitness accounts they're not a history text that's not what the gospels are this. Pastor Newms: [33:42] Isn't that what all history texts are though eyewitness account. Pastor Bill: [33:47] No there these are the facts that are verifiable, by multiple Witnesses and documents and records and evidence is to make historical it has to be backed up by multiple things, the gospels are simply one man's eyewitness account that he wrote down and then another man's eyewitness account that he wrote down. Pastor Newms: [34:13] I understand what you mean but I don't know if you've picked up historical text recently because they're not always verifiable and the country. Pastor Bill: [34:22] Well they're supposed to be okay so. Pastor Newms: [34:24] Yeah I'm just saying like. Pastor Bill: [34:27] I'm in the strongly agree category at 47% somewhat agree in nineteen percent not sure it 11 percent somewhat disagree at 8% and strongly disagree at 15% of people, Mr. Grogy says the winner writes history to a certain degree he's right. Pastor Newms: [34:47] Can you find the Skeptics in the room yeah they're all my family. Pastor Bill: [34:53] Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.” if you disagree with statement number five then you do not meet the bare minimum requirements for being a Christian as the Bible explains them to be. The event actually occurred, you have to believe that as a prerequisite for being a Christian. It just is that just that is that's that's the Bare Bones. Pastor Newms: [35:40] Yeah so. Pastor Bill: [35:40] That's what makes you a. Pastor Newms: [35:42] Didn't I didn't even put a scripture down but I just wrote without faith in the resurrection Jesus wouldn't have been the Messiah so we wouldn't have belief in him so. Pastor Bill: [35:56] So this. Pastor Newms: [35:56] Peace out like that's what that's all I wrote. Pastor Bill: [35:57] This 15% that are like I strongly disagree that Jesus you've bodily Resurrected are you gonna tell him or should I I don't I don't know. Pastor Newms: [36:08] Well but do remember not everyone in this survey is a churchgoer even. Pastor Bill: [36:15] This was intended to be a survey of only churchgoers primarily Evangelical. Pastor Newms: [36:28] No cuz there's because in the structure. Pastor Bill: [36:29] 2,300 of them are not Evangelical and 711 of them were evangelicals. Pastor Newms: [36:37] And in attendance to church 642 of these people have never been to church. Pastor Bill: [36:45] I see that yeah. Pastor Newms: [36:48] And so you know not all. Pastor Bill: [36:52] 28 of them responded that they're not sure if they've ever been to church. Pastor Newms: [36:57] Yeah I didn't I thought that one was humorous. And I truly did find the, the differences in income and education level and their answers but that's just playing with data that's not part of this conversation anyway number. Pastor Bill: [37:23] 6. Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. So 40% of respondents follow the Arian heresy apparently and believe that Jesus is a created being. 15% somewhat agree 13% weren't sure 8% somewhat disagreed and 24% including myself, I strongly disagree that Jesus is a being created by God and was the first of those beings. Pastor Newms: [38:24] And I believe 40% of that part of that 40% doesn't understand the question because of how poorly it's written. Pastor Bill: [38:35] So I put John chapter 1 verses 1 through 18 in there. “In the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God he was with God” in the beginning you know on and on and on and on what number two. And then when we skip down to verse 14 “the word became flesh and dwelt among us we observed his glory the glory as the one and only son from the father full of grace and truth John testified” and then we get down to verse 17 and it identifies the person who became flesh as Jesus Christ, Verse 18 “no one has ever seen God the one and only son who is himself God is at the father's side he has revealed himself” no Jesus was not a created being, Jesus is a part of God who then gave up Divinity to become a human person. Read move on to the next one. Pastor Newms: [39:54] So I also wrote Genesis 1:26, the illusion of John 11 you know the in the beginning was the word and the Word was God in the well in 1:26 is “and then God said let us make man in our image according to our likeness” they will rule such and such and such and such and such, but, you know God used a plural there. Because we are three parts like he is three parts exactly Biggs we are just shoved into an earth suit it's a dirt sack. Pastor Bill: [40:40] 7. Jesus was a great teacher but he was not God There is literally no wrong answer to this question. Given that he was God before he was Jesus and then became a human being who was not God while he walked the Earth and then became God again after he died and rose again. Pastor Newms: [41:11] And then walk the earth some more. Pastor Bill: [41:12] And then walk the earth some more and he was a great teacher during all those different parts so I put in Philippians 2:5-11 so we can really understand what I'm saying at that point is, “adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus who existing in the form of God (right so Jesus was God), did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited (so he didn't oh I'm God I'm gonna take advantage instead he emptied himself), by assuming the form of a servant (some of the translations have said gave up his divinity gave up the Divine part of himself to become a human being a lowly servant.) Even humbling himself to the point of death even to death on a cross” he was God he became not God he rose again and became God again there's no wrong answer here any of those answers would have been accepted a say acceptable, Thirty-One percent strongly agreed 22% somewhat agreed 11% were like you're going to need to be more specific that's kind of where I'm at I'm like you need to give me a little bit more specific with your question, nine percent somewhat disagreed and 27 percent strongly disagreed, which is you know the Hardline evangelicals that I went out there you saying he's not God and didn't actually think through the question all the way up I believe. Pastor Newms: [42:52] So and and part of my problem is is I refuse to go mid line because I'm a I'm a person who won't go midline ever so I put disagree because, there's that aspect of he was and now he is so even if he took on Humanity he was, is and so the was was not God makes me go no you can't you can't cuz he was. Pastor Bill: [43:22] Yeah like I said there's no wrong answer they're that. Pastor Newms: [43:25] Right right so what I put is this is funny because what I put, was what we just talked about I put John 1:14 which is in the word became flesh and dwelt among us we observed his glory the glory as one and only son of the father full of grace and truth, and then I put also John 8:24 and I didn't put it in chat when I was about to say it, “therefore I told you that you will die in your sins for you do not believe that I am he you will die in your sins” so, you know there's that even he said I am, which is which is a very dangerous statement in that culture because that is what God told, Moses it is what got you know I am and so, that was Jesus saying I am and so that's why you know I put that in there. And now we get to the fun ones. Pastor Bill: [44:35] This is the first fun one it says the Bible hates trans people. Pastor Newms: [44:39] It's not what it says it's what is. Pastor Bill: [44:44] 8. God created male and female Okay like I agree with that statement, it's a it's a factual statement about the text God created male and female now the subtext of what you're saying I disagree with, um 64 percent strongly agreed 14% somewhat agreed 97 percent were not sure 3% somewhat disagree in twelve percent strongly disagree so if we go to the text Genesis 5:2 “God created them male and female when they were created he blessed them and called them mankind” yeah, and then I wrote down Jeremiah 1:5 because this is where it actually gets interesting to me at least. Jeremiah 1:5 “I chose you before I formed you in the womb, I set you apart before you were born I appointed you a prophet to the nation's” doesn't point blank say that God forms Us in the womb there, but it does imply that everyone is formed in the womb got stitches us together in the woman's another way it says that none of the scripture, God is not a man that he might lie or a son of man that he might change his mind as he speak and not act or promise and not fulfill, and you're probably going well what does that have to do with male or female or trans or any of that well, God created the world and humanity and he set us on our course, with certain laws of physics and Dynamics and responsibilities and we screwed the pooch right Adam and Eve ate the fruit welcomes in into our very beings into our very DNA, and so God goes in and he goes to form a person in the womb. And what does he have there to use legally without. Not fulfilling his word of giving us Authority and letting the laws that he set forth right so he uses what's there, and sometimes what's their doesn't always match what's inside. So I believe it's 100% possible, for the the items that were there to be stitched together stitch together a male. Who God originally intended to be a female, and so they have this female psyche this female spirit this female point of view and all the tools all the stuff that was there that was provided to God, could only be made into a male or vice versa there was a female but inside. Pastor Newms: [47:58] Sorry you said all the tools in it. Pastor Bill: [47:59] God intended them to be a female but the tools the matter that was provided to God, the only thing he could make out of it with something else, and I believe that's why some people are born without an arm or they're born half deaf or they're born blind or they're born one way or another, God only has certain materials to work with and he's not going to lie and make himself a liar and Rewind thousands of years of creation because all of a sudden, God's not God and we all cease to exist because the only thing holding all this craziness together is the idea the fact that God is God, and I've got isn't God anymore everything just falls apart. Pastor Newms: [48:43] So first off the reason I'm laughing is because you said the word tool a lot, and and certain people love to call certain parts tools and so it just it made me it made me like you kept going tools tools and I'm like tool because I'm 12 so, you know it works so what I wrote here is I agree of course because, the text, detect says so and then it says the first humans were male and female but the wording of this makes it seem very aggressive against all non-binary which, is of course even farther farther step than just trans you know there are people, non-binaries a much larger encompassing of you know trans and people who, there's lots covered under the whole umbrella so which is not spoken about in scripture anywhere, that I can. Pastor Bill: [49:48] I shouldn't even be a question. Pastor Newms: [49:49] That's what I'm saying it's not. Pastor Bill: [49:51] Finn was should we love everybody no matter what and Jesus said yes. Pastor Newms: [49:56] Right. Pastor Bill: [49:57] Cooks. Pastor Newms: [49:58] Yeah yeah and and so that's that's where this really comes down to and it really is especially the, the as we talked about its the wording and the the the way some of these questions are it's very much a do you agree to trans people should exist and you're like whoa whoa that's not. Pastor Bill: [50:18] But I can't just I can't I can't say this is a true or false statement like theirs. Pastor Newms: [50:25] Like this your what you're asking what you're asking me to say vs. what I believe about what you're asking me to say are two completely different things and I think that really makes this survey, garbage people. Pastor Bill: [50:43] But that's why we need to talk about it. Pastor Newms: [50:45] But yes so. Pastor Bill: [50:45] Because this is what people are talking about and they're looking at this and they're going well this is what Christians think about the world and I'm like. No that doesn't accurately represents how I feel about my neighbors. Pastor Newms: [51:03] And it doesn't accurate and again that's where it comes down to these questions are poor because it doesn't accurately represent what they mean and what people are going to take from it, and that's where these kind of questions in these kinds of surveys cause problems and cause divisiveness. But yeah and the state of and calling it the state of. Pastor Bill: [51:32] The state of. Pastor Newms: [51:35] And the state of Theology and then this is a question that's not a, theological question you're asking a morality question more than you're asking a theology question but that's beside the point asked what you mean say what these questions should be worded how they actually mean. Pastor Bill: [51:52] Same number 9. Pastor Newms: [51:53] Okay I'll wait to complain about that. Pastor Bill: [51:55] 9. The holy spirit is a force but is not a personal being thirty-three percent agree that the holy spirit is the force I'm sorry a force. That was a little Star Wars joke 26 percent yeah somewhat agree. Pastor Newms: [52:12] midi-chlorines. Pastor Bill: [52:13] We don't talk about midi-chlorians 15% are not sure 7% somewhat disagree and 19% where my people at strongly disagree, that the holy spirit is a force but not a personal thing and I wrote down John 14. Because I could look at my notes 15 through 18. Jesus talking “if you love me you will keep my Commandments and I will ask the father and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever he is the spirit of Truth, the world is unable to receive him because it doesn't see him or know him but you do know him because he remains with you and will be in you” and if you follow along with the story, Jesus references this comforter again and Point Blank tells them it's the Holy Spirit and to wait for him to arrive, after and you go on and that's what happens in Acts 2. Pastor Newms: [53:23] So, this is again this is all about wording, this is all about wording and I did not throw things at my wife as she was walking up and down the stairs and then she did not throw them back at me because I am a child, this is all about the wording of this does trip me up some I wrote disagree this spirit is a distinct part of the Trinity but it is a spirit not a physical being so the question is written in a way, that leans people to answer a certain way, I was only slightly distracted groggy huh the issue I have, is when you read personal being, right there's two things that that can come from that like he is distinct he is a being but when you read personal being and force, there's that, well he's not a person so not a person no but like the question is worded so poorly. It's that whole like I know what you're asking, but it's written really bad like like I could answer true because he is not a person because a person in our definition of person has a body, but person know being he is a distinct being so and he is a force because, he's not physical so there's there this is one of those questions where like I know what they're asking and. I disagree but the wording makes me want to pull my own ears off, if someone actually called me an actually asked me these questions I'm pretty sure they would just Mark me as no answer on all of them and hang up because they've get two questions in and their ears would be bleeding, cuz that would be a. Pastor Bill: [55:46] 10. The holy spirit gives a spiritual New Birth or new life before a person has faith in Jesus Christ. That's just poppycock I sat here and stared at the computer when I read that the first time when I was like, that's that's just that's ridiculous twenty-seven percent of people strongly agree with that statement, 23% somewhat agree 21 percent aren't sure 9% somewhat disagree in twenty percent strongly disagree, if the Holy Spirit. Pastor Newms: [56:53] 50% of that 27 percent didn't hear the word before. Pastor Bill: [56:56] Right I guess so if the holy spirit gives you a spiritual New Birth or new life before you have faith in Jesus Christ then you've attained salvation before you've attained salvation. Pastor Newms: [57:09] Well to be fair to be fair there are people who believe, there are a second Christianity who believe you are chosen in the past, before anything happened God chose who would be saved and that's actually talked about later there are people who believe that and so for the people who believe that this makes total sense, because oh yeah he he decided I'm going to have a new life before I had a new life and you're like putting. Pastor Bill: [57:48] This isn't said decided this is Gibbs this says this is this is saying those people who are elect they have they have new life a new birth when they're still before they believe that. Pastor Newms: [58:03] Some of them some of them believe that that they're perfect already. Pastor Bill: [58:08] Like they could just go out and murder a bunch of people and they would still go to heaven because they were chosen Before Time that's ridiculous. Pastor Newms: [58:17] So what verse did you right now. Pastor Bill: [58:20] The same one as for 9, “if you love me you will keep my commands and I will ask the father and he will give you another counselor” he's not you're not going to be given the counselor you're not gonna be given the Holy Spirit you're not going to have the Holy Spirit before you love Jesus and keep his commands you can't you can't hook up, you you take the horse and you hook the cart to the horse you don't put the horse behind the cart and hook the cart to the horse and then start whipping the cart like why won't this thing go. Pastor Newms: [58:56] So I wrote you know I wrote little passages for each of these as my personal notes so that way when you looked at me and I would go oh blah because, this one's heavier so I didn't want to misspeak off the cuff like I sometimes will so for number 10 I wrote disagree. And I didn't write anything else I wrote a scripture so I'll read the scripture but I wrote nothing I just wrote disagree because like you said huh, but I didn't write anything because I was like I don't have anything to write for that that is so silly my brain hurts so I wrote second Corinthians 5:17, and I said it's I said hmm, I've copied and it says “therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has passed away and see the new has come” you have to be, in Christ before you are a new creation this isn't a. Read the book sorry that's rude of me but some of these questions got me real hot and bothered some of these questions got me real hot and bothered. Number 11. Pastor Bill: [1:00:31] All right this is this is going to be a fun one 11. The Holy Spirit can tell me to do something which is forbidden in the Bible. Pastor Newms: [1:00:42] Do you want me to start you want me you want me to start. Pastor Bill: [1:00:49] Eleven percent strongly agree with that statement 11% somewhat agree. Pastor Newms: [1:00:54] Aha aha. Pastor Bill: [1:00:55] Sixteen percent aren't sure 11% somewhat disagree and a whopping 51% of people strongly disagree, with this statement but before I tell people what I chose. Pastor Newms: [1:01:08] Aha. Pastor Bill: [1:01:09] Imagine if you will you are Peter, in the New Testament and the Holy Spirit tells you, you can eat meat that isn't clean and you go but the Bible says I can't do that, so you must not be the Holy Spirit. Like God doesn't change but the way that he interacts with humans does, things that were forbidden for certain cultures in the Bible because it wouldn't have been good for them like eating pork because they didn't know how to take care of it, may not be forbidden for you as a person living in today in the Old Testament you couldn't wear cloth that was two different types of fibers, but that's okay today. Pastor Newms: [1:02:10] So so I know you know go ahead and say where you stand and and then I'm going to say what I wrote and why I wrote it. Pastor Bill: [1:02:18] I strongly agree with the statement that the Holy Spirit can tell me to do something which is forbidden in the Bible. Pastor Newms: [1:02:24] So I disagree and here's why, the things that we get from a holy spirit should align with scripture since we know God doesn't change and all in scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching rebuking correcting and and training in second Timothy now the reason I said this, is because of the wording of the question, the Holy Spirit can tell me to do something that is forbidden to me hope that didn't go through on Twitch. Because of the wording of the question and this is where the question is so terrible. There are people in our culture who has said things like God told me to murder my children and you're like death didn't go somewhere. Pastor Bill: [1:03:18] See that violates the spirit of the text you he won't tell you to violate the spirit of the text. Pastor Newms: [1:03:27] And that's what I mean when I say that not that. You know the Holy Spirit doesn't give Revelations doesn't give so like for example. I actually have this written later but in Romans and so will touch the, I'll put the thing out in a minute but in Romans you know everything is permissible but not everything is uplifting you know and that's not worded that way and we'll get to it in a minute because I've Canada written a couple of times but the, actually I should probably put it because we might not get there tonight so. You should know the scripture off the top of your head doo doo doo okay First Corinthians 10 23 so, because we're not going to get that we're not going to get down that far tonight the. Pastor Bill: [1:04:39] There we won't talk about sex tonight that'll be next week or the week after. Pastor Newms: [1:04:46] Oh crap what number are we on. Pastor Bill: [1:04:50] We are on number 11. Pastor Newms: [1:04:51] 11:00 okay so that's what I that's what I that's why I said the disagree, because the Holy Spirit won't need you to do something that is against the spirit of the law that doesn't mean he just won't convict you of something that he might convict someone else for that doesn't mean, if you you know there's a lot in there that is a gray area, but I wrote the disagree because of the spirit of the law who he is versus the letter of the law because the problem is this is one of those questions I know what you're asking me, I don't like how you asked it I know what you're asking but like you said if you're Peter you're. Pastor Bill: [1:05:41] I assumed they were asking about the letter of the law. Pastor Newms: [1:05:45] CI Pastor Bill: [1:05:46] Has so many Christians take it as this is they see this and they see this as a law book not a love letter this is a list of laws not as a you know. Pastor Newms: [1:05:58] And if you're looking at especially Old Testament Old Testament verses New Testament the Holy Spirit 100% did this 100% the holy spirit said now that's fine that's not that bad now that's. Pastor Bill: [1:06:11] Hey Samson pick up that Jawbone that's illegal for you to touch under religious law and go kill those men over there which is also a legal under religious law. No yeah the Holy Spirit definitely definitely doesn't care about the letter of the law. Pastor Newms: [1:06:31] But there definitely is a I understand why people are quick to go disagree and not think it through but I wrote the caveats of. Pastor Bill: [1:06:44] Without the caveat. Pastor Newms: [1:06:45] Really bad oh I. Pastor Bill: [1:06:46] Yeah without the caveat disagreeing to this statement is a very childish point of view on religion and the Holy Spirit. Pastor Newms: [1:06:58] And and makes the whole new testament almost invalid. Pastor Bill: [1:07:03] But with the caveat sigh can see how you would say disagree. Pastor Newms: [1:07:07] And that's again why these questions are so bad. Pastor Bill: [1:07:12] Hair number 12. Pastor Newms: [1:07:14] Twelve. Pastor Bill: [1:07:17] Everyone sins a. Pastor Newms: [1:07:18] Fun. Pastor Bill: [1:07:20] 12. Everyone sins a little but most people are good by Nature. twenty-seven percent strongly agree 30% 39% somewhat agree 16 work sure 14% myself included somewhat disagree and 14 percent strongly disagree, I actually have three scriptures here, we Jeremiah 17. Pastor Newms: [1:07:47] I've got a paragraph of caveats. Pastor Bill: [1:07:49] Nine through 10 then we're gonna go to Matthew 15 verses 17 through 20 then we're going to go to, if I can spell it Deuteronomy 13:9. Pastor Newms: [1:08:05] Deu that's how you spell it. Pastor Bill: [1:08:07] Yeah we don't have you D UE well I'm already in. Pastor Newms: [1:08:12] Why no deu because it's the abbreviation that's the only part I know how to spell. Pastor Bill: [1:08:16] 17 9 through 10 the heart is more deceitful than anything else and incurable, who can understand it I the Lord examine the mind I test the heart to give each according to his way according to what his actions deserve, right the heart is evil continuously Morrissey for our emergency food anything else Matthew chapter 15. Verses 17 through 20 this is Jesus talking, don't you realize that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach as the is eliminated, but what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart and this defiles a person for from the heart come evil thoughts murders adulteries sexual immorality these thefts false testimonies slander, these are the things that defile a person but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person, violating religious law does not make you a bad person, and people aren't good by Nature their heart is deceitful and evil but that doesn't make them bad people, because it's when you act on those bad deceitful Nature's that defiles you, verse 39. Um the Lord was angry with Moses and he said I could let him go into the Promised Land. Your children whom you said would be plunder your son's who don't yet know good from Evil will enter there, I will give them the land and they will take possession of it so because the children didn't know good from Evil yet because they weren't at what people call the age of accountability, they weren't held accountable right so yeah everyone sends a little but there is this, certain time when you're young that it isn't accounted to you as unrighteousness yet, because you know the difference between Good and Evil and the heart is evil, so everyone is not good by nature but you can choose to be good, so it's this it's one another one of those that it's not that clear-cut. Pastor Newms: [1:11:07] Okay so for mine I actually wrote agree and here's why so we as humans are not perfect but that is different than being bad natured we are born that way, nature in and of itself you know the word and the connotation versus the diction of nature, the synonym Perfection of Adam flows through our veins so we are not perfect now most people, most people listen to The Guiding voice that we all have that is the holy spirit talking to us and for those of us that are not Christians and have the in filling there are still that voice that is trying to pull us towards which, there are many people who are good-natured outside of Christianity, are striving to do good as you said because they choose to do so and some people consider that part of nature, yeah then there are people who are just downright dirty, and I actually realized I just now when I was typing furiously actually wrote the word there but um I think this question is very worldly poured it where did poor. Pastor Bill: [1:12:21] Weirdly ported nice. Pastor Newms: [1:12:25] Poorly worded for the thoughts are trying to get to because I do believe everyone has a sin, a sinful nature but I believe everyone is, good-natured but good-natured and sinful nature are completely different because of the word good not perfect if it said most people are perfect by Nature well no, but good and perfect are two completely different things and so that's where for me I get that hang up of no you're not perfect no one's perfect, are you good you might be good enough you're not perfect, and that's it that's the Crux because Romans 5:12 therefore just as Sin entered the world through one man and death through sin in this way death spread to all people because all sinned none of us are perfect, and we start off not. Pastor Bill: [1:13:23] Your body is imperfect. Pastor Newms: [1:13:25] Good and perfect are completely different words which is why I think so many of these statistics need to be thrown out the window because these questions are just bad, so bad number 13. Pastor Bill: [1:13:43] 13. Even the smallest sin deserves Eternal damnation. It is is really is 15 percent strongly agree 10% somewhat agree, six percent aren't sure 11% somewhat disagree and 58% of respondents completely miss the concept, other propitiation of sins by the death of Jesus on the cross completely missed it, and said no the smallest sin doesn't deserve Eternal damnation Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” if you want to spend eternity with a perfect God then you must be perfect, sin is an imperfection, and invalidates you from eternity with a perfect God that's why we needed the sacrifice of Jesus, to take our place of imperfection to make us righteous and Justified and spiritually perfect. That's why the smallest sin deserves Turtle damnation, it's a it's a it's a heavy statement but if you want to boil it down to its like flipping on an on switch on or off switch either you are perfect or you're not either you pass or you fail. That's why we have the need for salvation because it's a pass or fail question it's not a oh you almost got there oh you you were sort of good enough it's not about good or bad it's pass or fail where you perfect or not. Pastor Newms: [1:15:52] Yeah and so what I wrote I'm assuming that pause was for me to go right sorry, so what I wrote is agree as we see, as we see in the same verse above so I reference Romans 5:12 again you know sin entered the world to all of us you know, we're all Sinners which separates us from God it's not a damnation for sinning but rather a separation from God, and sin so it's separating those two and because we are we can't not being and not being in a relationship with God, and so then I added the Revelations 20:15 because I. Pastor Bill: [1:16:44] Man you just jump straight into it didn't you. Pastor Newms: [1:16:48] I did I went straight to like. Pastor Bill: [1:16:50] You like you responded with the same. Pastor Newms: [1:16:52] I'm Nation. Pastor Bill: [1:16:53] Force that they ask the question you really you just met there there Gus too. Pastor Newms: [1:16:59] Yeah no, and everyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life was thrown into the Lake of Fire so it does not say, everyone who has sinned is thrown into the Lake of Fire it's not what it says, your damnation is not necessarily because of sin, the damnation is because of the lack of relationship, because you can't have a relationship and be in sin and we are in sin and so there's that it's a, it's a multi-step process it's not as cut and dry as six words sorry 12, seven words you know and and that's what what makes some of these questions so hard and heavy because it's like, but that's not the point the sin separates us Jesus came to fill that Gap so because of that, it's not the sit it's not the sin that dams us it's the separation that dams us and that bridge is, Jesus. Pastor Bill: [1:18:15] And if you're if you're looking at if you're looking at what we're saying what I'm saying and you're going wait a second a minute ago you said there's a certain age where you become accountable and your accountant you know you're held accountable to that sin nature, but you just said all is sinned and fallen short of the glory, did these The Book of Romans acts Revelation these aren't written for children audiences these are written to adults by an adult, to someone who's accountable to the words by someone who's accountable to the words this whole idea of, teaching people under 10 years old that they might go to hell if they said they never would have. Even that would never even cross their mind to teach that kind of thing, to someone under 13 when they were writing these scriptures that wouldn't even be a concept they would even talk about until after they became an adult like it would. Pastor Newms: [1:19:21] And because we're not going to get there, because we're not going to get there tonight and these kind of tied in for me and so I want to touch on it real quick, Revelation 20:11-15 and I saw a great white throne and when Seated on it and heaven was filled with his presence and there's no place was found for them and I also saw the Dead the great the small standing Before the Throne and the books were opened and another book was opened which is The Book of Life and the dead were judged according to their works that are written in the books and the Sea gave up the dead that were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them and each one was judged according to their works. Pastor Bill: [1:19:58] First judgment. Pastor Newms: [1:20:00] So There's a there's judgments it's not just cut dry either there's multiple judgments because there are certain parts here, where you know certain things are at this point thrown into the Lake of Fire. Pastor Bill: [1:20:18] Now wait let's pause here let's pause for one second why are their judgments why are all of your actions judged. Pastor Newms: [1:20:27] It's not black and white it's not black and white. Pastor Bill: [1:20:29] It's not black and white if you were raised, in a isolated tribe in Papua New Guinea and lived your whole life and you never met someone who ever heard of Jesus and you never heard of Jesus. What black and white you're not you go to hell that's not how that works that's why the Judgment exists. Pastor Newms: [1:20:50] Where's the accountability. Pastor Bill: [1:20:56] The Judgment exists so that can be argued out with God and God can do what God does, you know and this is where we get this idea of well they were elect they weren't chosen they followed they caught on to this idea of everything that Jesus was, even though it's physically impossible for them to have ever heard the law, Paul even says it if you've never heard the law you're not accountable to the law. But that wasn't but that wasn't the command the command was To Go Make Disciples not to go make converts. Pastor Newms: [1:21:43] Certain points I know I know I know but I'm just, I'm just saying there were some people who that was there well I don't want to because if I tell someone, then they they're they're tied to. Pastor Bill: [1:22:00] So what if you grew up being taught one thing and you embraced it and then later you found out that that technically was blaspheming the Holy Spirit, and that's unforgivable what well that's what the judgement is for, you go into the judgment and God sees what you were taught that you you've had no better understanding no one who taught you better than what you knew and so you know that's up to God, if you're held accountable to that anyway. Pastor Newms: [1:22:40] Now this leads in the number 14 quite fun Lee number 14. Pastor Bill: [1:22:46] God counts a person is righteous not because of one's works but only because of one's faith in Jesus Christ now technically, the numbers on 13 and the numbers on 14 should have been the exact same, but they weren't 34% of people strongly agree. Pastor Newms: [1:23:04] But they weren't no because the questions are worded bad. Pastor Bill: [1:23:09] 3% some way agreed 10% weren't sure 13% somewhat disagreed and twenty percent strongly disagreed, um I agree I agree with that statement God council person is righteous not because of your works like because of one's faith in Christ Jesus and I wrote down Romans 3:20 to just one scripture above the one I use for this last question, um the righteousness of God. Pastor Newms: [1:23:37] What what did you say cuz. Pastor Bill: [1:23:38] Romans 3:22 “The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe since there is no distinction, no distinction between all those who believe whether Jew or Greek or Gentile slave or free is the distinction he's talking about.” Pastor Newms: [1:24:02] So I wrote agree because if you're if you're looking at righteousness this is I agree and I used Ephesians 2 8 and 9, for you are saved by grace through faith and this is not from yourselves it is God's Gift not of works so that no one can boast and I wrote agreed this one's pretty self-evident, I mean it there's a verse that literally just says, through faith not works like this one's written out pretty well like this one in this one's hard to argue in my mind if you are subscribing to Christianity, this one is kind of. Pastor Bill: [1:24:45] All right save me 15 and this will be the last one for the night, everyone is born innocent excuse me everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God, I agree with that if you've been listening the rest of the evening you know that I agree that were born in a similar state to Adam and Eve, and until you know the difference between right and wrong the difference between good and evil until you reach that age which is going to be different for everybody so you reach that age, you are considered innocent and it is accounted to you as righteousness until you know the difference between good and evil and it is at that point, that you are then accountable like say you're 23. Your Down syndrome to a point not all down syndrome there are certain Down syndrome people that they get to a certain age and they never continue progressing mentally they stay 10 or 11 or 12 mentally, it's not common it does happen them well in my mind, they I don't think they understand yet the difference between good and evil right and wrong and so technically they would still be under that Grace area of being an, there are other people that are much younger age they have some kind of trauma and they become all too familiar with good and evil right and wrong, well that's when they become accountable to knowing good and evil right and wrong, and then we talked about the idea of being in an isolated you know look there's that island off of the coast of India, that's never been visited by someone that wasn't born on the island as long as we've been recording history there's no way they have any concept of who the Hebrews were or who Moses was or Abraham was or who, Muhammad is or who Jesus is, that's not a concept that they have unless Jesus visited them in their dreams and get you know um. Pastor Newms: [1:26:59] And we won't know because no one's talked to him. Pastor Bill: [1:27:00] We won't know because always talk to them and Yuki you literally will get killed by the Indian government, by the Indian military if you try to approach the island like they're keeping it protected its this microcosm they're allowing those people to develop on their own scale, which I think is great what if you live there what is the accountability the spiritual accountability between you and God, that's between you and God and I can guarantee you that when God looks at those people he looks at those people and judges them, on a daily basis according to their own culture and their own sense of morality you know what I mean, um Pastor Newms: [1:27:49] I do but. Pastor Bill: [1:27:50] Put. Pastor Newms: [1:27:54] I wrote disagree and here's why because Romans 15:12, “Therefore just as Sin entered through the world through one man and death through sin in this way death spread to all people because all sinned” I believe that everyone has sinned. Pastor Bill: [1:28:11] You said 15:12 no. Pastor Newms: [1:28:13] This is where that question yeah 15:12 which I've already used above so. Pastor Bill: [1:28:19] Romans. Pastor Newms: [1:28:22] Everyone is born yeah. Pastor Bill: [1:28:24] Okay I was like 15:12 is and again Isaiah says the root of Jesse will appear. Pastor Newms: [1:28:31] No 5:12 my issue is again with the wording of this question, what they mean to ask is do you believe this innocent nature is what they're asking what they asked is innocence and, it's kind of like the opposite like the conversation between good and perfect it's similar in this state we are all sinners that does not mean we are all, Sinners because judged innocent and, born innocent are different so to me they could be viewed as innocent because they have followed the morality is of their culture they know right from wrong in their culture they they've done what they need to do so God will judge them accordingly, but they are born Sinners we all are, so I think there's a caveat there that again makes some of these questions not black and white. Which is funny because we've op answered opposite on some of them even though they just because of how we did in between us we interpreted. Pastor Bill: [1:29:52] And you're right in in the way they're asking the question because they have key findings, and they don't give a key finding on everyone but on number 15 I do they said the fact that almost two-thirds of evangelicals believe that humans are born in a state of Innocence reveals that the Biblical teaching of original sin is not embraced by most evangelicals started it. Pastor Newms: [1:30:16] But that's not what the question is asking to you. Pastor Bill: [1:30:19] That's not what the question says that's what the question says that all. Pastor Newms: [1:30:22] But to me it does. Pastor Bill: [1:30:23] They meant to ask but it's not what they ask. Pastor Newms: [1:30:25] To me I read because of our upbringing being different I was raised in a way that that makes sense you're not born innocent you're born a sinner You're Not Innocent but innocence is a. Pastor Bill: [1:30:36] Let's see that's not that's not the way the question came across to me from my perspective. Pastor Newms: [1:30:44] Exactly that's what's so and that's the problem so in closing since we're going to wrap up here at 15, to me that's the biggest issue with this survey is that they don't take into consideration what people mean, by their answers they're just taking their answers and anytime you ask someone you can ask me and Bill the same question a thousand times and there are times we have set at these desks, meet this desk him at that desk away from y'all in random meetings middle of a day hey I got a question what do you think about and then argue, four hours, on what does is mean what does the truly form they're like you know and, sometimes we end up agreeing at the end sometimes we end up not talking for a couple days because I'm mean. Pastor Bill: [1:31:39] Would be what is a soul and what is a. Pastor Newms: [1:31:42] Great we still don't agree on that. Pastor Bill: [1:31:45] We still don't agree on what is a soul and what is the spirit like we have completely opposite. Pastor Newms: [1:31:48] We agree. Pastor Bill: [1:31:51] Definitions we agree that everyone has both but we have complete opposite definitions of which is why. Pastor Newms: [1:31:57] Exactly and it's complete and so that's one of those things was when you deal with something like this and then someone publishes their findings and the problem with it is let's take the key findings, and compare it to what this says thirty percent of Christians don't believe in original sin we just saw someone who agreed, that everyone's born Innocent but believes in original sin you cannot make that correlation based on how these questions are worded because these questions suck, thingies balaam's. Pastor Bill: [1:32:34] Wow yeah it's bad data. Pastor Newms: [1:32:37] It's such. Pastor Bill: [1:32:38] Data it's so bad. Pastor Newms: [1:32:38] And and people are using it oh. Pastor Bill: [1:32:41] The questions are bad the the answer options are bad the fact that there's nowhere for you to explain so that outliers can be removed to stop from skewing the data doesn't exist. Pastor Newms: [1:32:54] The fact that we only have 3000 people answering it. Pastor Bill: [1:32:58] Right if you submitted this to any serious data analytics, person company anything this would get laughed out of the room it absolutely is horrible. Pastor Newms: [1:33:10] It's not a good cross-section. Pastor Bill: [1:33:11] This is what people are talking about, people are talking about this in Tick-Tock to talking about social media people who aren't Christian or grabbing a hold of this and going did you see what they believe now what they are talking about you and me what they believe now and I'm like that doesn't represent, what I believe that isn't were to represent what I believe most Christians believe. Pastor Newms: [1:33:33] And there are certain. Pastor Bill: [1:33:34] I think that represents that represents a skewed collection of data based off of what I'm a minority of rich, people who claim to be Christians believe. Pastor Newms: [1:33:48] Well and also. Pastor Bill: [1:33:49] But that doesn't represent us as a whole. Pastor Newms: [1:33:51] And also I thought it was funny there was a particular person who's a, clergyman I don't remember what they're called in their SEC their denomination of Christianity and they're like see everyone's coming to our side now, and you're like. Pastor Bill: [1:34:06] Unitarianism yeah. Pastor Newms: [1:34:07] Yeah and I'm like are they or do they not understand the questions because human beings don't understand what they're being asked because they're being asked it wrong but anyway, that's all I have. Pastor Bill: [1:34:25] All right so this podcast was recorded every Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. I say everyone when I say every I mean, when we feel like it Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. Central Standard Time if you'd like to join us in the chat for the live recording you can do so you can go to our website EK K dot house, it looks a little something like this if you're watching live right now or you're watching a recording

Ancient Science in the Bible (pt 2) There seems to be a serious conflict between the modern science in our world and the ancient science in the Bible. Do modern scientific findings threaten the Christian faith? Does modern science "disprove" the Judeo-Christian God of the Bible? Do the skeptics have a legitimate reason to dismiss the faith on the basis of modern science? There are valid questions that need to be considered. Unfortunately, most people in our modern American society have a flawed view about the nature of science and the nature of Scripture. Let's explore the question as to whether the Bible teaches modern science or not.

Why should you believe in the Judeo-Christian God and His holy word—the Bible? Today, we begin a twelve-part series with Dr. Rocky Ramsey called WHY WE BELIEVE. This episode will begin to prove the existence of God by three major evidences. How do we know that the God of the Bible is real?Looking for Corryton Church Merch? Use the discount code "PODCAST" for 20% off our lastest merch. Visit www.corrytonchurch.store for more.Watch Corryton Live every Sunday at: https://bit.ly/3b3IgjhMORE: https://bit.ly/corryton

This week we begin a short series based on the book "He is there and He is not Silent" by Francis Schaeffer. The purpose of the book and this series will be to strengthen our faith in the fact that God, as described in scripture, is the only answer to the big questions human being ask. This week it is the question of existence. When we look at the world and mankind we find that the only possible answer to where it all came from is the Judeo-Christian God. Read Romans 1:19-20 - what is Paul saying here and how is it true?

This week we begin a short series based on the book "He is there and He is not Silent" by Francis Schaeffer. The purpose of the book and this series will be to strengthen our faith in the fact that God, as described in scripture, is the only answer to the big questions human being ask. This week it is the question of existence. When we look at the world and mankind we find that the only possible answer to where it all came from is the Judeo-Christian God. Read Romans 1:19-20 - what is Paul saying here and how is it true?

"At first glance it would appear as though the Movement for Black Lives, or the more general Black Lives Matter movement, has https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/black-activism-baltimore-black-church/474822/ (lost its religion)," says Ari Colston of Emory University. "But the Movement for Black Lives, its theories of liberation, and the social and political actions for which it is responsible are far from purely secular or atheistic." In today's episode, we hear from Ari Colston as she puts forward the question of whether the Movement for Black Lives is only a secular movement. Whereas history might associate the Civil Rights Movement with Black middle-class congregations and church leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Colston writes that the Black Lives Matter movement seems to model itself after the more populist and secular organizing frameworks of Ella Baker and the Black Panthers. Many of the millennial and Gen Z members of the movement struggle to reconcile the inactivity of the Judeo-Christian God of the Exodus with the realities of police brutality, mass incarceration, and systemic racism. These activists stand at odds with the Black church's predominantly reformist stances on incarceration and policing and the institutional culture of respectability politics and cisheterosexism. From the outside looking in, this troubled relationship between young Black activists and the church suggests that the “new” iteration of the Black freedom struggle is completely secular. The reality, as Colston shows, is much more complicated--and more sacred--than one might expect. With this push away from religious institutions, what does the future look like for Black activist movements? Listen now. https://canopyforum.org/2020/08/12/losing-religion-black-lives-matter-the-sacred-and-the-secular/ (Read) the original article on Canopy Forum. https://cslr.law.emory.edu/scholarship/cslrbooks2016-2021.pdf (Browse) our book brochure.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: An Alien God, published by by Eliezer Yudkowsky on the LessWrong. "A curious aspect of the theory of evolution," said Jacques Monod, "is that everybody thinks he understands it." A human being, looking at the natural world, sees a thousand times purpose. A rabbit's legs, built and articulated for running; a fox's jaws, built and articulated for tearing. But what you see is not exactly what is there... In the days before Darwin, the cause of all this apparent purposefulness was a very great puzzle unto science. The Goddists said "God did it", because you get 50 bonus points each time you use the word "God" in a sentence. Yet perhaps I'm being unfair. In the days before Darwin, it seemed like a much more reasonable hypothesis. Find a watch in the desert, said William Paley, and you can infer the existence of a watchmaker. But when you look at all the apparent purposefulness in Nature, rather than picking and choosing your examples, you start to notice things that don't fit the Judeo-Christian concept of one benevolent God. Foxes seem well-designed to catch rabbits. Rabbits seem well-designed to evade foxes. Was the Creator having trouble making up Its mind? When I design a toaster oven, I don't design one part that tries to get electricity to the coils and a second part that tries to prevent electricity from getting to the coils. It would be a waste of effort. Who designed the ecosystem, with its predators and prey, viruses and bacteria? Even the cactus plant, which you might think well-designed to provide water fruit to desert animals, is covered with inconvenient spines. The ecosystem would make much more sense if it wasn't designed by a unitary Who, but, rather, created by a horde of deities—say from the Hindu or Shinto religions. This handily explains both the ubiquitous purposefulnesses, and the ubiquitous conflicts: More than one deity acted, often at cross-purposes. The fox and rabbit were both designed, but by distinct competing deities. I wonder if anyone ever remarked on the seemingly excellent evidence thus provided for Hinduism over Christianity. Probably not. Similarly, the Judeo-Christian God is alleged to be benevolent—well, sort of. And yet much of nature's purposefulness seems downright cruel. Darwin suspected a non-standard Creator for studying Ichneumon wasps, whose paralyzing stings preserve its prey to be eaten alive by its larvae: "I cannot persuade myself," wrote Darwin, "that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice." I wonder if any earlier thinker remarked on the excellent evidence thus provided for Manichaen religions over monotheistic ones. By now we all know the punchline: You just say "evolution". I worry that's how some people are absorbing the "scientific" explanation, as a magical purposefulness factory in Nature. I've previously discussed the case of Storm from the movie X-Men, who in one mutation gets the ability to throw lightning bolts. Why? Well, there's this thing called "evolution" that somehow pumps a lot of purposefulness into Nature, and the changes happen through "mutations". So if Storm gets a really large mutation, she can be redesigned to throw lightning bolts. Radioactivity is a popular super origin: radiation causes mutations, so more powerful radiation causes more powerful mutations. That's logic. But evolution doesn't allow just any kind of purposefulness to leak into Nature. That's what makes evolution a success as an empirical hypothesis. If evolutionary biology could explain a toaster oven, not just a tree, it would be worthless. There's a lot more to evolutionary theory than pointing at Nature and saying, "Now purpose is allowed," or "Evolution did it!" The...

After last week's episode where Arthur describes his experiences being chosen by his goddess, The Morrigan, Emma is left with many questions. If The Morrigan is real, are other polytheistic pantheons real as well? And what about the Judeo-Christian God? This debate gets intense! ✧・ﾟ:* Become a Patron for exclusive content! *:・ﾟ✧ https://www.patreon.com/strangebeliefs Follow us on twitter and instagram: https://twitter.com/PodBeliefs https://www.instagram.com/strangebeliefspodcast/ Join Arthur and Emma on the Official Strange Beliefs Discord Sever: https://discord.gg/kdSbH6jdMk Are you a fan of all things spooky and paranormal? Are you fascinated by what may lie past what we all believe to be reality? Have you had insane experiences or believe in intangible? Whether you're a believer, a skeptic, or somewhere in between, join Arthur and Emma as they delve into the world of the supernatural. Find out what happens when a witch and a skeptic start a podcast! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/strange-beliefs/support

Stephen C. Meyer received his Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. A former geophysicist and college professor, he now directs Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture in Seattle. He has authored the New York Times bestseller Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design (HarperOne, 2013), Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne, 2009), which was named a Book of the Year by the Times (of London) Literary Supplement in 2009, and now, The Return of the God Hypothesis (HarperOne, 2021). In his first book on intelligent design, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne, 2009) Meyer examined the mystery of the origin of the first life. With Darwin’s Doubt, he has expanded the scope of the case for intelligent design to the whole sweep of life’s history. And please join my mailing list to get resources and enter giveaways to win a FREE copy of my book (and more) http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php

December 6, 2020 10:00 am Rev. Dave DunnAre we stuck in thinking about God as the Judeo/Christian God? As a being in whose image we were created? As an omnipotent, omniscient being? Can we expand our imagination?#Unitarian #Universalist #Sermon #Inspiration #God

Hi everyone, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast - A podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between! We Make Books is hosted by Rekka Jay and Kaelyn Considine; Rekka is a published author and Kaelyn is an editor and together they are going to take you through what goes into getting a book out of your head, on to paper, in to the hands of a publisher, and finally on to book store shelves. We Make Books is a podcast for writers and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, concerns, and tell us your favorite novel covers! We hope you enjoy We Make Books! Twitter: @WMBCast  |  @KindofKaelyn  |  @BittyBittyZap Instagram: @WMBCast  Patreon.com/WMBCast   Episode 44: Theme and Character Arcs transcribed by Sara Rose (@saraeleanorrose)   [0:00] R: Welcome back to We Make Books, a podcast about publishing—and writing. And sometimes going backward and revising. Whoops. I’m Rekka, I write science fiction and fantasy as RJ Theodore.   K: And I’m acquisitions editor, I, Kaelyn Considine, at Parvus Press.   R: How dare you.   [Both laugh]   K: It’s the heat. It’s the heat and then quarantine.   R: The heat is definitely getting to us. We have to turn off the AC to record these, folks, so pity us.   K: Hi, everyone! No, today we actually have, I think, an interesting episode. We are going based off a Twitter question we got from one of our listeners, Ashley Graham, about themes and character arcs and how to manage them and make them good in your story.   R: And by good, we mean strong or tight or—   K: Pervasive, efficient—   R: Pervasive. [giggles]   K: What are some other words we use to describe them here? Lots of very positive adjectives, to be sure.   R: Mhm, yeah.   K: You want your character arcs tight and your themes pervasive.   R: Yup.  K: It’s kind of what we’re left with here. Anyway, we had a lot of fun talking about this because it’s something that I really enjoy working with authors on.   R: Yeah, when Kaelyn gets a novel manuscripts, this is what she dives in and gets to.   K: It is, yeah. This is at the very developmental level and I think anybody who’s a writer that’s listening to this and has submitted and gotten rejections has probably, at some point, gotten a note to “work on their themes or character arcs.”   R: Mhm.   K: Which is just so helpful and specific.   R: That’s why they call them form rejections.   K: Yes. So, we spent a lot of time in this talking about, first of all, what are these themes and character arcs? And how do you work on them? A lot of fun examples in movies and shows and, you know, like I said this is one of my favorite things about editing, is working on these parts of the book.   R: See, Kaelyn thought that she could ask me to restrain her, but the fact is I also love these, so we did go on a little bit. But I think we’ve had longer episodes. We’re fine.   K: Definitely, yeah. We were like kids in a candy shop for this, to be sure.   R: That’s true.   K: Anyway, so take a listen. We hope this is helpful, if this is something you’ve been struggling with in your writing process, and we’ll see you on the other side of the music.   [intro music plays]   K: I don’t know what I could’ve hit. That’s upsetting. Anyway! So, if my elbow hit something is that a character arc or is that a theme?   R: I think that’s a theme. Or it might be a story element…   K: It could be a plotline. Is the elbow a character?   R: Is the elbow haunted?   K: I mean, I assume so. It’s mine, yes. Anyway, today we’re talking about—one of our listeners, Ashley Graham, sent us a question about, I don’t know. Do we wanna read the question?   R: I’m gonna summarize it. Basically, Ashley was working on a short fiction piece and was suggested to, by an editor, that the theme and character arc could use some clarification. So, what the heck does that mean? That’s feedback that people will see.   K: That’s very common feedback, actually. Probably, I think, a lot of people listening to this who have submitted something either to an agent or an editor, probably got feedback that may have specifically said character arc and theme.   R: Yeah. And I think this one might have been for a publication, so short fiction market. And you’re gonna get that kind of stuff a lot because their second-tier response is going to be, “Your story almost made it, you could’ve tightened this up,” you know?   K: Yeah, and also, especially with short fiction, you’re gonna see that more because you have to do a lot in a short amount of time.   R: Yeah.   K: Now that is not, by any stretch of the imagination, to indicate that you won’t see this with long-form fiction because, believe me, you will. I’ve said it multiple times myself—   R: It might be easier to go astray with a long novel.   K: It’s very true. So, why is it these two things, a lot, that you hear? Because they’re a little, especially in the case of themes, they’re a little nebulous and not as easy to pin down. A plot is, I think, a lot of times easier because it’s the story. When you sit down to write an outline, what you’re outlining is usually the plot.    R: It’s concrete, it’s easy to point at and go, “That is part of the plot. That is a thing that happens and it happens in an order and if that order goes awry then it’s not a plot anymore.”   K: That’s exactly what I was gonna say, was that when you’re outlining something and it’s the plot, it’s an order of actions happening in sequence, or maybe out of sequence, depending on how you’re writing, but in how they’re going to be presented in the final book or short story, or what have you.   So, before we get started, let’s kinda define some things here. So a plot, obviously, we know what a plot is. That is not a character arc, it is not a theme. A plot is the elements of a story that take place and happen to the characters. That is a very broad definition, obviously, but plots are sequences on actions and things that happen.   R: Yeah, I’ve even heard it defined as a sequence of actions, reactions, and complicating factors.   K: Yes, that’s a really good way to describe it. Themes and character arcs, and it’s funny because character arcs and plots get confused together and then themes and morals get confused together. A theme is not a moral, a moral is, we’re talking strictly in terms of terms in literature. A moral is a lesson that is learned. A moral is the kid sticks his hand in the cookie jar when he’s not supposed to, it gets stuck, he breaks the cookie jar and has cuts on his hand and his mom finds out he was doing all of this anyway.    So what has he learned? He has learned to listen to his mother because maybe it’s not just that she doesn’t want him to eat cookies when he shouldn’t, maybe it’s that he could get hurt. That is a moral. That is actions and the plot leading up to a character changing themselves because they learned something. That is not a theme.So, now that we have—   R: It’s a character arc though.   K: It certainly could be.   R: Yeah.   K: And so that’s why I’m saying, plots and character arcs and themes and morals can get confused. So now that we’ve established what we’re not talking about, let’s talk about what we are talking about.   And let’s start with themes because that one is a little more nebulous, I think. A theme in a story is, at its basis level, an underlying message. It’s a big idea.   R: Mhm.   K: It is conceptual. It’s things that do not physically, tangibly exist in the world. If you are saying, “Yes, the theme is this,” and a lot of times, if it’s something you can actually touch, that’s probably not actually a theme.   R: So my theme is not coffee?   K: Your theme might be coffee, Rekka.   R: I was gonna say! You’re speaking in universals here, but I just don’t feel like I can relate to what you’re saying.   K: Your—your theme might be coffee. [laughs] Now, somebody might—you might come in and say, “What about the ocean? What if the theme of this story is the ocean?” Well, my answer to that is that the theme of the story is probably not the ocean.   The theme of the story might be travel or man versus nature or the horror of the unknown, and the ocean just happens to embody that.   R: Yup.   K: Again, these are Big Ideas. These are things that you cannot touch, feel, or hold. So things like love, death, good versus evil, a lot of coming of age stories. Stories of rebellion and overthrowing corrupt systems of government. Survival. These are themes. And those are big themes. You can have smaller ones like… family. Finding things that are lost.   R: Appreciating what you had all along, kind of thing,   K: Exactly, yes. Realizing that home was really where you wanted to be this whole time.   R: Yeah. Adventure was the friends you made along the way.      K: Exactly, yes. The other thing that I always tell people when trying to identify themes in their story and bring them forward a little more, is what do you want the reader to walk away thinking, feeling, or knowing? If the theme of your story is: the adventure was the friends you made along the way, then you want the reader to go, “You know what? I really need to go spend some more time with my friends and do something fun with them.”   R: Mhm.   [09:55]   K: Or “ I need to go out and make some new friends,” or “I’m gonna go have an adventure and see if I make any new friends.”   R: Yeah.   K: Your—if, you know, the theme is something like death and loss, maybe you want the reader to leave feeling really sad and depressed and hopeless, staring into the void of existence.   R: You monster.   K: Hey, I mean we’ve all read a book like that.   R, laughing: Yes. In high school. They were required reading.    K: Ohh, oh yeah.   R: So, another way to phrase this or to think about it is to—say, your example of the ocean and say, “Okay, but that’s still a noun.” If you were to remove the noun, what’s left? What’s underneath that? If the setting and the characters are the carpet and you pull up the carpet, what’s underneath it? What is the most fundamental, base human relatable thing that you’re communicating with this story?   K: And that’s what makes themes so difficult to manage and to bring forward in stories, is that they are intangible. You can’t—There’s a frequently said thing that editors use which is, “Show me, don’t tell me.” R: Right.   K: And that is—   R: We should have an episode on that.   K, laughs: Yeah. But that is themes. You can’t put a sentence in there saying, “And the theme is: love.” No, you need—it’s something that has to be woven through your story for the reader to pick up on their own. You shouldn’t have to tell the reader what the theme of this story is.    So, now, before we go too far down that line, let’s kinda talk about character arcs and what is a character arc? They’re definitely a little more tangible, if you will, than themes. You can sit down—and I encourage people to sit down and write out a character arc. Rekka, you’ve done this a few times.   R: A few...yes. Just a couple.    K: Just a few. But a character arc is partially, mostly, a lot of times, an inner journey. It’s a transforma—   R: It’s a transformation. Ah, there we go.   K: It’s a transformation of the character over the course of the story. We’re seeing them start out a certain way, the plot affects them, and they have to change and adapt accordingly. And some definitions of this will say it must be a permanent change. I don’t buy into that because I don’t think that everything needs to be a fundamental personality shift.   R: Well, sometimes you just really wanna write a really long series and that character’s gonna have to learn that lesson more than once.   K: Yeah… Hey, nobody said these characters have to be smart!   R: Yeah, they don’t have to grow ever upward.   K: No, character arc is something. Theme has been what it is for a long time. Character arc is something that, I think, the standards and definitions of it have shifted a little bit over time. In fiction, especially, if you go back to when literature was first being really defined and written about and studied, you’ll find a lot of stuff that says, “Well, a character arc must have these elements: the character must start here; they must encounter or create a problem for themselves; they must come up with a way to overcome that problem, or get the thing that they need; they must suffer a setback; they must recover from the setback; they must resolve the storyline.”   R: And usually in a Three Act, there’s a second setback that’s extra bad.   K: Yeah, yes. I don’t agree with this. I think that there’s no such thing as a formulaic character arc.   R: Right. And, for one, that’s a very Western oriented, Western-centric character arc. You’re going to travel outside Western stories, you’re going to see different character arcs.   K: I would make the argument that character arcs that are a very Western thing that can be applied to a lot of stories because the nature of stories has character arcs, but—   R: Well, I would argue that the nature of Western civilization is colonialism and that sure is going in and applying new rules to other people’s stuff, so. [laughs]   K: Absolutely.    R: So burn down character arcs, got it.   K: Yeah. No, no. And, look, what makes stories interesting is seeing the people in them grow and change. The degree to which that happens varies wildly across all genres and all cultures and how—I’ve had literature professors that said, “If your character is not X amount different by the end of the story, then that’s not a successful character arc,” and I think that’s bullshit.   Because character arcs, which are obviously very tied to character development, do not necessarily need to be a fundamental shift in personality.   R: So, why don’t we start talking a little bit examples. We named one off the air, before we started recording, which was basically any character that Harrison Ford plays.   K, laughing: Yeah!   R: Do any of those characters fundamentally change across the time spent on screen?   K: Well, let’s scale it down a bit to characters Harrison Ford plays that appear in multiple movies. Franchise Harrison Ford characters.    R: Okay, so we’re talking Indiana Jones, Han Solo, and then Jack Ryan.    K: Okay, well I don’t know anything about Jack Ryan, so I’m not gonna be able to help there.   [15:57]      R: Basically, he’s—once again, we’re talking about uber-competent male action heroes, basically.   K: I am going to focus primarily on Indiana Jones and Han Solo because that’s an interesting dichotomy. One of them has a character arc, the other absolutely does not. Spoiler alert: Indiana Jones does not really have much of a character arc.   R: Um, as we said, his character arc is… he needs a thing, he has a competitor for the thing, the competitor gives him a setback, he overcomes, approaches again, has a bigger setback, and then he gets the thing. It’s not a personal growth, it is his striding toward a goal.   K: Yes, but that is his plot.   R: That is also the movie plot, but I’m just saying—is it a flattening of the character arc with the plot, when the character doesn’t change very much?   K: It is because Indiana Jones does not change over the course of the story. He ends and begins every movie with, It Belongs in A Museum.    [both laugh]   R: Fortune over ___, kid.   K: Yeah, that’s Indiana Jones. It’s It Belongs in A Museum or I Don’t Want the Nazis to Have This. That is everything motivating Indiana Jones throughout all of his movies. Han Solo, on the other hand, does have a character arc. Han Solo starts out as a smuggler and a guy who, according to his prequel, was running drugs.    R: Mhm.   K: And he eventually becomes somebody who, instead of just living this sort of private-smuggler lifestyle—   R: Out for himself.   K: Yeah! Out for himself. Has friends and family that he grows to care about. And maybe he’s not as gung-ho Freedom Fighter as they are, but he certainly takes their values and their goals into account and wants to help them and be successful in that. Then he walks into a lightsaber—but we’ll, you know… that’s… [laughs] But! It is a different, it’s another downswing on the character arc is that we see that Han Solo, at the end of the day, is still Han Solo.   R: Mhm.   K: Because what happens? He goes back to smuggling pirate loner lifestyle with Chewbacca. We pick up with him again and, yeah, he’s different but of course he is, he’s older. So there, again, successful character arc! But what he’s showing us is that, at the end of the day, this is what he does and this is what he knows and this is what he’s good at.   R: Well, but, the question is, is he good at it or is he Chewbacca’s sidekick.   K, laughing: How good he is is a different query.   R: Okay, so—   K: Actually, real quick sidebar, if you think about it, everything we’ve seen of Han Solo, he’s not actually a very good smuggler.   R: No, he’s terrible! So the question is, does your character start from a default? And what we’re saying here is Han Solo, his default is smuggler, loner, trying to make the next paycheck and keep himself out of trouble.   K: Scruffy-faced nerf-herder.   R: Whenever he is thrown into the mix with people who are potential friends, they mess up his default and pull him away from that. But send an obstacle into his path—like a son—and he reverts back to his default when he doesn’t know how to cope.   K: Yeah, exactly. So, Han Solo is actually, and I think, primarily accidentally, a very successful and good example of a character arc.   R: Mhm.   K: Indiana Jones: It Belongs in A Museum or Stop The Nazis.   R: I think he’s intentionally left out of the character arc.   K: Yeah, I mean—but this is the thing, that’s not what those stories are about.   R: Right. That’s to the point of this question is, when you are told to tighten up a character arc or a theme, you do need to know what kind of story you’re telling before you decide how deep into character arcs and themes you need to dive. I mean, you might get this feedback from one person, and they might be off the mark for what you were trying to do with your story.   K: Mhm.   R: Which can also tell you, maybe you need to extract a little of that character arc and not make it feel like it’s so much about developing a character, if you are just telling a whip-cracking, gun-toting archaeologist tale. Don’t do that. Archaeologists don’t appreciate it.   K, laughing: Yeah, that’s uh—   R: Another episode.   K: In case anyone was confused at home, that’s not what archaeology’s actually like, sadly. Anyway, now that we’ve talked about what character arcs and themes are, why are these two things that people are frequently told to tighten up? And frequently told to tighten them together?   We’ve already said that character arcs are closer to plots, themes are closer to morals, but they’re not the same thing. So how do character arcs and themes overlap? Themes motivate and drive characters. This feeds both the plot and the character arc. The plot, obviously, because based on the theme, and therefore the character’s motivation, the character will be making that will affect both the plot and their character arc.   R: Mhm.   K: That’s where things start to get a little tricky. Those two are very closely intertwined. Because obviously the plot, in a lot of cases, is dependent upon what the character is doing. Their choices and decisions dictate what happens next in the story.   So then, drill down for that, what is influencing their decision-making, their motivation? And where is the motivation coming from? And that’s where you start to get to the themes of the story. So, if one of the themes of your story is survival and, let’s think of—   R: Alien.   K: Okay, that’s a more fun example. I was gonna say The Hatchet, remember that book we all had to read in middle school?   R: Yeah, we’re not doing that, we’re doing Alien.   K: Okay, we’re doing Alien.   R: Mostly because there was a point you made earlier about character and we used Harrison Ford’s various characters as the example, but I love the example of, specifically in terms of survival, and specifically in terms of the character of Ripley, Ripley doesn’t really change throughout the movie. What she does is survive because she has the skillset, which is the ability to think things through logically in the first place, to say, “Okay, we need to not be doing this.”   Basically the theme of Alien, correct me if I’m wrong, is We Should Have Listened to Ripley?   K: I mean, yeah. Probably. But beyond just the theme of—Granted, this goes into further expansions in the Alien franchise, but—   R: Well, let’s stick with Alien for one. The other movies in the franchise are different genres, basically. So sticking with the space truckers’ monster-horror survival.   K: Alien is a horror movie in space. That’s all it is. It was groundbreaking, genre-defining, but it is a horror movie in space. So, the themes of the movie, as Rekka said: survival. There’s also, I would say, a theme of frustration.    R: Mhm. The capitalist bureaucracy.   K: Well, and that’s what I was getting into.   R: Okay.   K: So then we’re introducing a conflict element there that is beyond simply: there’s a thing laying eggs in people’s chests.   R: That thing laying eggs in people’s chest wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for the company.   K: Yes, exactly. So then, if you want to take all of that and say, “Okay, so how does that affect Ripley’s character arc?” Ripley is changed at the end of the story, not necessarily physically or personality-wise, but emotionally she is very affected. And she is going to then—have you ever heard about how Alien was supposed to end? One of the alternative endings they shot?   The alien gets Ripley, essentially, and then when whoever is calling in over the ship, the alien gets the intercom and answers back in her voice, requesting for orbits to come back to Earth.   R: Gotcha.   K: So, it was a very bleak ending, obviously.   R: But a lot of monster movies do this. They leave off with you not feeling safe.   K: Yes, and so that is another theme. What do you wanna leave your readers with? And, in this case, the movie pivoted a little bit and said, “Well, we wanna give the audience a sense of closure,” and that all of this, this theme of survival, she did survive. So rather than going with the theme of feeling unsafe, which was another theme running through that entire movie, paranoia, uncertainty—   R: Claustrophobia.   K: Claustrophobia. Anybody could become your enemy at any moment.   R: Body horror. Yup.    K: Yeah. So instead of leaving off with that theme, they decided to be a little kinder and pivot a little bit to say, “Hey, determination, intelligence, stick-to-itiveness, and survival will make you victorious.” Which is another set of themes. So then, back to, how does this tie into the character arc is: Ripley is a changed person at the end of this.   Boy, has she seen some shit. And now she knows that this corporation is up to no good. She is no longer just in it for the money. They say this is a long, awful journey, but it’s very good money. It’s totally worth it.   R: Mhm.   K: Maybe it’s not worth it anymore. There’s absolutely some anti-capitalist undertones in there.   R: Mhm.   K: Ripley comes out of this, even though personality-wise she hasn’t changed—the movie takes place over a relatively short period of time. But Ripley’s definitely got some different thoughts and motivations now, at the end of this. So, even though she hasn’t undergone a radical, inner transformation, she certainly thinks different things now than she did before.   R: Yeah, for sure.   K: So, yeah. That’s a great example of some really cool themes and how they affect—and it’s interesting because you could take it a step further and say how they affect the character arc, rather than the plot.   R: Right.    K: Because in this case, a lot of Ripley’s decisions are reactionary. Things are happening and she’s trying to adapt and recalibrate very, I’m only thinking of two instances in the whole—really, one and a half off the top of my head, in which she goes on the offensive, so to speak.   R: Right. Well that’s also sort of a plot thing is that your character is reacting to things up until a certain point, and then it’s at the time when they decide to say, “No, I will take care of this myself,” that’s when you’re entering that last act.   K: Yes! But, then, by the time we get to the, “I’ll take care of this myself,” for the plot and the character arc, we all go back to the themes of Ripley kind of coming to a new understanding of how stuff is actually happening around her, rather than letting it happen to her.   R: Yeah.   K: Yeah. Anyway, I think that’s a good example.   R: Cool. So, now that we’ve talked about what they are, given you some examples, figured out how to un-intertwine the character arc and theme. How do you tighten them up? And since the example given was a short story for publication, let’s assume we’re doing this in under 7,000 words. How do you tighten up character arc and theme and you’ve also, presumably, got a plot in there, in a very efficient way?   K: All of these kind of work together. I think that anything you’re going to do to a short story, you can apply to longer form fiction and vice versa. So me, personally, with—and Rekka has been on the receiving end of this a couple times—when working with authors, let’s start with themes. I mentioned before, one of the first things I ask the author is: What do you want the audience to know, think, or feel that they didn’t at the beginning of the book?   And when I say know, I don’t mean you’re—   R: Teaching them.   K: Yeah, you’re not putting a graph-chart in there and saying, “And then the price of gold went up to—” I’m not talking about facts, I’m talking about what you want them to know about these nebulous concepts in the way you want them to know it? So, identifying those things really will help you figure out where your themes are.    The other thing I always say, and this is where it starts to tie into the character arc, is look at the character arcs and the plot and the motivation. What are the characters doing and why are they doing it? What is driving them to do this? Because that’s where you’re gonna find a lot of your themes. And then, if theme is very important to you, if you really want to hammer a message home, making sure that your characters act and are motivated by that theme, consistently—and this isn’t to say it can’t evolve, it absolutely can. But making sure that they are correctly motivated, based on what the theme is, is a really good way to help tighten that up.   Then, that helps to feed into their character arc. Because you have a character, then, acting, reacting, and making decisions based on what is important to them and how the story is building.   [30:09]   R: And I think, at this point, if you’re feeling like, “I can’t make this character make this decision,” then that tells you that you are not succeeding at either theme or character arc.   K: Yes… and—   R: Or not in a way that supports what you set out to do with the plot.   K: Yes, and listen. I want to be clear about something that every story does not need to be a Magnum Opus of subtle themes and ideas woven through this— it’s going to be studied in college 101 classes for decades to come. But you do need a theme for your story. You need there to be something that is important in all of this. Otherwise it is a bland series of actions happening one after the other.   R: And if you don’t feel that it is a bland series, or your beta readers don’t feel that it is a bland series of actions, one after another, that means there’s a theme in there. So if you’re having trouble identifying it, that doesn’t mean immediately that you don’t have one.   I will use an example of Mike Underwood, when I was working on Annihilation Aria with him. So we had a few calls, I read the manuscript multiple times, and Mike had actually said the themes of the story are very important to him. So I went through the manuscript, and I do this with most books that I edit, and I kind of write out a plot outline based on what I’m reading, what I see happening in the book. Part of this is, one, that it’s just easier for me to keep track of things, but then also because if I show it to the author and say, “Okay, this is how I’m reading this,” and they’re going, “No, no! That’s not it at all,” then it’s like, okay, now we need to have a conversation.   But one of the things that I like to do through that is mark off, in my notes of this outline, where I’m identifying and seeing certain themes. And then we have a conversation about that. And if we’re seeing a real imbalance of them, or I’m only seeing them come through in certain parts of the story, or if I’m having a real hard time nailing them down and saying, “I feel like I’ve got ten themes in this story. Which one’s the most important to you?”    And I think that’s a really good exercise is, you know, most authors out there, I’m guessing if you’re pretty far into your Work-In-Progress at this point, you probably already have an outline. So go through it and try to pick out sections where you think certain themes are coming through. And I actually color-code them and then I can look through and see, “Oh, there’s a lot of red and not so much blue.”   R: Mhm. If you’re a pantser and you write without an outline, this is something you do, probably in your revision process. Write down a summary of each scene and that becomes an outline. Just because you’re doing it after the fact doesn’t make it less of an outline. And then do the same practice with that.   K: Exactly. It’s not easy to do. There’s a reason that anybody who’s taking any sort of an English literature class will say there’s a reason you spend a lot of time working on and learning about themes is because they’re intangible. They’re nebulous. There isn’t a point at which, in the story, the character breaks the fourth wall and says, “Hey, just so you know, we’re introducing a new theme here! It’s compassion!”   R: But at the same time, you study examples in order to identify the universalities and that’s what themes are.   K: Yes.   R: So, if you learn how to work your theme around compassion, you can write twenty novels that are completely different that are all about compassion, and you’d get really good at it. You know?   K: Yeah, absolutely.   R: That’s why romance writers are really good at what they’re doing. By choosing their genre, they know what the theme is and they stick to it and, by the end, capital R, Romance writers are really, really efficient at getting stories written because they’ve already done this work. And every time you do this with a theme, it answers questions about the plot.   K: Yeah.   R: What needs to happen here? I’m lost. Well, okay, what’s your theme? What needs to happen here? Oh, well this!   Yeah, you answered your own question.   K: So, just to talk a little—with character arc, tightening that up and defining it a little better. Again, outlines here help. And it doesn’t need to be anything too detailed. It just needs to be this, then this, then this, then this and then throw some lines in there explaining what led to or motivated the character to get to that point. Character arcs, it’s funny because in some ways they are far more concrete than themes. You can actually sit down and outline a character arc, but I think it is harder sometimes to say, “Is this a character arc?”   The most important thing in the character arc is the character has to be different at the end than when they started. It can be something like RIpley in Alien where she hasn’t undergone a major personality shift, but she has changed the way she thinks and will act differently now because of that.    As opposed to someone like Luke Skywalker, who has the farmboy to legendary hero character arc, but Luke goes on this whole journey and at the end of it, he is a very, very, very different person than when he started because of all of the things that happened to him. All of the experiences, the adversity, the finding out his father’s Darth Vader. I mean, that alone—   R: Oh, I know. Plus he literally can’t go back to the life he had before.   K: Yeah, exactly. And that’s actually a very good marker of a successful character arc. Can they go back to how things were before? And if the answer is yes, your character has probably not had enough of a character arc for it to be considered a character arc.   R: Or it’s Indiana Jones.   K: Or it’s Indiana Jones. Because Indiana Jones always just goes back to how things were before. Indiana Jones has proof that God exists—   R: And goes back to university and just keeps teaching the Neolithic Era.   K: And just kept living his life! [laughs] Indiana Jones has multiple instances of literal proof that not only does the Judeo-Christian God exist, but also Hindu deities and various other things.   R: Mhm.   K: Aliens! All of this stuff and just continues on like it’s nothing. I don’t know what that says about him. If we should be impressed or horrified.   R: I think we’re supposed to be impressed. The idea being that the first time we see it happen is not the first time it happens for him.   K: I wanna be very clear about something: in the timeline of Indiana Jones because we all know—   R: Are we counting the River Phoenix and Young Indiana Jones?   K: Oh, no, but we’re counting the beginning of Last Crusade, to be sure.   R: Okay, alright.   K: Okay, so we’ve got Last Crusade, we’ve got that awesome train scene, whatever. Chronologically, then, Temple of Doom actually happens first.   R: Right, so we have the intro to Last Crusade, we have Temple of Doom—   K: And Temple of Doom, we establish that Hindu deities are clearly a real thing and a serious force to be reckoned with. Even if you wanna say, “Well, maybe it wasn’t the Hindu deities, it was magic,” okay fine, it was still bad, it was still, you know, unhappy.   R: Yeah.   K: Alright, so then we go to Raiders of the Lost Ark, at the end of that we have established that the Judeo-Christian God is a real thing that exists and does not like Nazis and you should not open the box.   R: Yep.   K: Then, we go to The Last Crusade, and in case anybody was a little like, “Meh, I’m not sure, that could’ve been who-knows-what, just because they said it was the Ark of the Covenant doesn’t mean that’s what it really was,” well now we’ve got the Holy Grail. The literal, actual Holy Grail that has kept a Crusades-era knight alive and then, if we’re still gonna take this a step further, heals his dying father’s mortal wounds.   R: Yup.   K: So, we have now established that multiple deities actually, really exist and this guy just freaking goes back to teaching college like this hasn’t rocked his entire world.   R: Teachers have a limited amount of vacation time.   [K laughs]   R: What is he gonna do?   K: Doesn’t he get summers off? I just assumed that was when all of these were happening.   R: I don’t think he has tenure yet? Once he has tenure, maybe.   K: Yeah, yeah. Good point. Anyway, the whole point is: Indiana Jones, not a great character arc. Can he go back to the way things were? Yes. He does.   R: Apparently!   K: Over and over again.   R: He resets to default.   K: Yes. Getting back—I apologize, we got sidetracked there again—   R: It’s fine.   K: It’s fine, we get excited. So how do you actually go about tightening these up? When somebody gives you the incredible, helpful note of tighten up your themes and character arcs. So helpful. What do you do?   Well, so, for themes I think a good technique is sort of what I mentioned. Go back either through your outline or through your manuscript for revisions, and identify motivations and actions and what themes stem from those.   R: And color-code them maybe, like you  said.   [40:14]              K: Maybe color code them. Take a step back, so to speak. Take a thousand foot view and say, “Is the story driven by these or are they happening because the story’s the thing that’s driving here?” If it’s the second one, you do not have tight themes. The themes should be the ones driving the story and motivating the characters and influencing the plot.   R: And by driving the story, we don’t mean stop at the end of every two paragraphs and reiterate what your theme is.   K: Yes, so how do you tighten this up? Identify things that are happening. Be they actions of characters or elements of the plot. Maybe external forces of nature, depending on what your themes are, and go in and emphasize those a little bit. Make it so that—Yes, you can’t have a character turn to the audience, wink, and say, “I’m doing this for love!” But you certainly can have an inner dialogue where they are acknowledging and identifying that what is motivating them is their love for their dog.   R: Mhm.   K: Or, I guess, their significant other. Whatever.   R: Mostly the dog.   K: Yeah, probably the dog. This goes into the Show Me, Don’t Tell Me.   R: Mhm.   K: See the characters react based on things that are important to them, and that brings forward your themes. I don’t like the phrase “tighten up your themes” I like the phrase “strengthen your themes.”   R: Yeah.   K: And emphasize your themes. Showcase your themes. With themes, you’re not contracting them. You’re trying to disperse them a little bit more through the story. You are showing, not telling.   R: The thing is, like, a bouillon cube.   K: Yes.   R: It starts very small, but it goes throughout your entire project.   K: And then there’s no getting it out again. It’s in there.    R, laughing: Yeah.   K: Character arcs, on the other hand, are absolutely something that can be tightened and focused. So, how do you do this?    First, look at your themes. How are they affecting the story? How are they affecting the character’s decisions? Then look at what the characters are doing. Is it primarily reactionary? Are they just letting things happen to them? Or do they have agency? Are they making decisions themselves?    And it’s okay if, especially for the first part of the book, they’re just reacting. A lot of stories start out with a character just trying to get their feet under them, to recover and reorient themselves from something happening.   R: Although, I wanna say that that does not mean they shouldn’t have some sort of agency.   K: Yes, there needs to be decision-making in there.   R: Maybe they want something that they’re going to end up not wanting at the end.   K: Well, it can come down simply to something like they’re running away from the alien monster that grew from what was living in the back of their fridge and, do I run upstairs and lock myself in the bedroom or do I run out the front door?   Yes, they’re running, but they’re making a decision of how they’re best going to try to escape this.   R: And they can make the wrong decisions, too. I mean, that’s kind of part of the character arc.   K: That is part of the character arc. So tightening these up has to do with having the character come up against a conflict or an obstacle or a decision and then learning and growing and changing from it. So, again, identifying the parts at which your character is coming up against conflict in some way. And conflict, here, not meaning physical or argumentative. Sometimes the conflict can simply be, “It’s low tide, I need to catch fish and I can’t catch fish when it’s low tide.”   R: Right.    K: It can be like a force of nature. And then identifying how they’re reacting. Then, the next time it’s low tide, have they instead gone, “Ah, yes, I should catch extra fish because on this planet low tide lasts for three days and, therefore, I’m not going to be able to fish again for three days.” That’s growing and learning and making new mistakes.   R: Like staying on this planet where low tide lasts for three days. Can you imagine the smell?   K: There’s a very weird mood pattern on this planet.   R: It’s pitch black but low tide.   K: Yes, exactly. So somehow. It’s really weird because there is no moon, actually. No one really knows where the tides are coming from.   So identifying the areas of conflict for your character, where they’re coming up against adversity, and then seeing how they’re making decisions. If they’re just not reacting, if they’re just not doing anything over and over again, that’s not character development. That’s not a character arc.   R: Mhm.   K: Having them grow and change and learn, maybe thinking: Okay, I’m safe now. I’ve locked myself in my room from the alien creature from the back of the fridge can’t get me. Oh, hang on a second. It learned how to open doors. That’s... what do I do now? Okay, I’ve got a chair I can put up against the door.   And then finally getting to the point of going: you know what? I should have just run outside. I need to get out of this house.   R: Mhm.   K: So, again, identifying areas where your character is coming up into conflict, figuring out how they’re reacting, and making sure that they’re learning and changing and not reacting the same way.   This is not a real thing, I wish it was, the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? Obviously that’s not correct.   R: Right.   K: But it is important with character arcs and character development. Having your character do the same thing over and over again is not character arc.   R: Although there’s that stubbornness to that, or that unwillingness to grow, that can be the character arc and suddenly they realize doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is not getting me where I want to go. And the thing they learn is not to do that anymore.   K: I am now being eaten by the thing that lived in the back of the fridge. I regret my life choices.   R: Yes.    [both laugh]   R: And that’s the morality lesson—the moral of the tale is clean out your fridge.   K: Clean out your fridge, people!    R: And not just in August.   K: Is that a thing that you do in August?   R: No, I’m saying… it’s just about coming up on August as we record this, don’t make it an annual event. Make it a…   K: You know what’s funny is that with all of the quarantining and stuff, I have been so much better about cleaning the fridge out because I’m just here all the time.   R: Mhm.   K: And I’m kinda like, “Huh.”   R: Well, when you go into an office you procrastinate by going to the lounge and making a cup of coffee and getting a drink or going to talk to somebody about something. But, when you’re home, how do you procrastinate? The only thing you can do is clean.   K: It’s kinda like I’m looking at this going, “Huh, that might start talking to me soon. I should probably do something about that.”   R: But if you’d been going into an office, you would’ve said, “That thing is talking, I should probably do something about that.”   K: I’m gonna go back to my office.   R: At least you’d be the only one there.   K: Yeah, yeah. Anyway! That was a very long-winded way of answering your questions and I hope that—   R: We answered it.   K: We hope that was helpful and not just a series of me rambling about uh—   R: At least we talked about interesting movies and people can relate to, at least Ripley. Especially right now.   K: I think we can all relate to Ripley on some level. One of my favorite behind-the-scenes thing with Alien is, have you ever seen the cute scenes from there? There was a part, it was so ridiculous, it would have ruined the movie, the actor that played the alien was like 6’8” or something and they just put him in this giant rubber suit. And I can’t remember what part of the movie it would’ve been in, but it was one of those where the character’s backing slowly with their gun into a room and they hear something behind them and they turn around and the alien’s there.   And there’s footage out there—look this up—of the alien crab-walking up to them. So just imagine this giant, 6’8” man in this heavy, absurd rubber suit crab-walking on all fours up to this actor. It—I understand what they were trying to do, and the sound effects were certainly creepy, but… it just ruined the whole, it was too ridiculous-looking. Thankfully, they saw that and cut it.   R: I think that has a lot to do with the human joints versus where the joints were supposed to be in this alien.   K: Yeah. Well that’s like in The Exorcist with Regan walking backwards down the stairs. Part of how creepy about that is how unnatural it looks. You’ve got joints going in directions that maybe humans can do that, but they probably shouldn’t.   R: Right, yeah. Exactly. So theme. Stay limber.   K, laughing: Yes! Anyway, Ashley, we hope we answered that for you and keep us posted. Let us know how things go with the story. And if you want to keep us posted on anything else—   R: You can find us online. We are on Twitter and Instagram @wmbcast. We are at Patreon.com/wmbcast where we have some awesome patrons who are supporting the show. And if you feel like we have been helpful, you can throw us some bus fare and stuff for when we’re allowed to go see each other again and get back together for our podcast episode recordings.   K: I was gonna say, I don’t think we’re allowed on buses anytime soon, Rekka.   R: No, we’re definitely not. And if you don’t have cash to spare to support the show, you can also help us out a lot by leaving us a rating on review on Apple podcasts. We’re everywhere. Stitcher, Spotify, all that good stuff. But if you wanna leave a review, it’s most helpful to leave it there. You can also shoot us an email, info@wmbcast.com, and we can answer a question if you have one. If you wanna keep it anonymous, that’s the way to do it. Otherwise, post it to Twitter like Ashley did, and we’ll answer it in a future episode.   K: Yeah. We’ll try our best. That’s for sure.   R: Yeah.   K: Alright, well, thanks everyone so much and we’ll see you in a couple weeks.   R: Take care, everyone!   [outro music plays]

The panel reviews the epilogue-like Mutabilitie Cantos of the Faerie Queene, reviewing scholarly opinion about their place in the whole poem, and considering the interrelations of the Greco-Roman pantheon to Nature, Time, and the Judeo-Christian God.

The panel reviews the epilogue-like Mutabilitie Cantos of the Faerie Queene, reviewing scholarly opinion about their place in the whole poem, and considering the interrelations of the Greco-Roman pantheon to Nature, Time, and the Judeo-Christian God.

Greetings and welcome back to Horror Business. We have one awesome episode in store for you guys. In this episode we’re talking about two films involving missionary killers: 1976’s GOD TOLD ME TO and 2001’s FRAILTY First and foremost, we want to give a shoutout to our sponsors over at Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations, the premiere screen-printing company of the Lehigh Valley. Chris Reject and his merry band of miscreants are ready to work with you to bring to life your vision of a t-shirt for your business, band, project, or whatever else it is you need represented by a shirt, sweater, pin, or coozy. Head on over to www.xlvacx.com to check them out. Also, thank you to our Patreon subscribers. Your support means the world to us and we are eternally grateful. Thanks! We start by briefly discussing what we’ve done lately involving horror. Liam talks about seeing the films Knifes And Skin, The Terror, and the trailer for Spirals: The Book Of Saw. Justin talks about the HBO series The Outsider and seeing the films The Turning and Gretel & Hansel.   We talk about some of our favorite scenes in the film, including the scene in which the main character confronts his biological mother on the issue of his conception and she has an emotional breakdown. We go off on another tangent on how the film draws from the concept of “ancient astronaut theory” and how such concepts are inherently racist. We tie it back into the film by examining how the film suggests that divinity and extraterrestrials might not be entirely different but how Cohen never actually says, for certain, that religion was inspired by aliens. We then touch upon the depiction of a murderer talking about his crime in the film and how realistic it is in contrary to some other depictions of them in film in that it is so mundane it becomes unsettling. The somewhat problematic scene in the film where the main character attacks and murders a room full of black men is talked about. Up next is Frailty. We begin by briefly talking about the terror of Powers Booth. We give a brief summary of the film, sing the praises of Bill Paxton, and talk about some of the performances of the film. We talk about how the narrative of the film is framed. The films big reveal and how it’s so intricately layered is touched upon, as is the films overall melancholy nature. The way the film stays deliberately vague on as to whether or not Bill Paxton’s visions are real or not until the end is discussed. We talk about how the film could be seen as analogy for abuse or neglect, in that a child is forced to step up and take responsibility when a parent is clearly not well. The performances of the child actors in relation to Bill Paxton’s are discussed. We talk about our personal histories with the film, lament on the death of Paxton, and the phenomenon of the McConaughnaissance. The lack of a happy ending and how that opens up a terrifying concept is touched upon. The movie’s lack of a definite adherence to the Judeo-Christian God is discussed, as is the commentary on the nature of God and the Devil. Thank you to everyone and anyone who donated on Patreon, checked this episode out, or shared a tweet/shared a post on FB/gave us love by recommending us to someone. We love you forever for listening. Any questions, comments, suggestions for movies and guests, or if you yourself want to join us for a movie viewing or even an episode, can be sent to thehorrorbiz@gmail.com.  We would love to hear from you! Thanks always to Justin Miller, Jacob Roberts, and Doug Tilley for their technical contributions and fliers, Mike Smaczylo for the shirts and fliers (you can check more of his work out at here), and also thanks to Josh Alvarez for the theme song, Chris, Brad, Alexis, and LVAC for the support and buttons (check them out at www.xlvacx.com), and a HUGE thank you to anyone who retweeted us or shared something on Facebook that we posted. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @thehorrorbiz666,

The popular cultural understanding is that all the gods of the religions are the same or the Judeo Christian God does not exist except in theory alone. In this show, Rob dispels both objections giving an answer to the religious pluralism claim that all deities are the same using three statements: (1) God made all (2) God is all and (3) No God at all. In the second part of this show Rob gives a classical answer in conversational style to the question of God's existence. You will not want to miss out on the answers, as well as two thought provoking commercials from The One Minute Apologist with Drs Craig Hazen and Ken Boa. Middle of the show buffer from Out of the Grey, "Feels Like Real Life" Opening and closing music from Kerry Livgren's One of Several Possible Musicks, "Ancient Wing." If you have any questions please forward them to realissueapologetics@yahoo.com. If you like what you hear, and would like be a part of extending the ministry of The Real Issue Apologetics Ministry, click on the Donate link at https://roblundbergapologetics.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rob-lundberg/message

What is in a name? The Judeo-Christian God has many names to describe Him. One name in particular, not only describes who He is, but what He is. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is debating with the Pharisees. He tells them that Father Abraham longed to see the day he came into the world. They joked that Jesus wasn't even 40 years old. So, how how could He even know Abraham? Jesus answered: "Before Abraham was, I AM!" They immediately picked up rocks to stone Him to death on the charge of blasphemy in the highest degree. He used the most holy of all God's names to describe Himself. Come this Sunday as we study Exodus 3, to find out what His name means and see what happened when Moses ran into the "The Great I AM".

In this, the final publication of NamePending? Network and the NamePending? Podcast, I djvolqu talk about the why of what is happening. I BEG you to please just listen to all I have to say with open ears and an open heart. This may be hard for all of you to listen to, but believe you me when I say that this is so much harder for me after putting over two thousand dollars and thousands of hours of work into this show. Know that it is not all for naught, as there will be something new and beautiful coming soon. In the mean time Please look forward to publications from the "Saul to Paul Ministries Network" (link will be here when available) and utilize these sources that i have linked below: Bill Schnoebelen Bio and his work with "With One Accord" Article of Bill's conversing the why's within scripture to avoid D&D Geeks Under Grace and their position on D&D Again, I am not condemning or saying that anyone person is correct, but my personal conviction and that of my Co-head of the Network are in agreement in that we cannot continue this production. May God's Love and Grace be ever upon you and may His loving Mercy grant you revelation into who Yahweh (the Judeo-Christian God) truly is. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/podcast-pending/support

In this episode, we take a break from politics to discuss what the Judeo-Christian God actually is as necessitated by quantum mechanics and string theory.

TRANSCRIPT “...What I want to say to young girls is forget about likability. If you start thinking about being likable you are not going to tell your story honestly, because you are going to be so concerned with not offending, and that's going to ruin your story...”                                                                                                 -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie   I haven’t been a young girl for a few decades now, but when I read this on the Facebook page “A Mighty Girl” today, it spoke to me.  If this were a blog instead of a podcast, I’d bold print this part:  ...you are not going to tell your story honestly, because you are going to be so concerned with not offending, and that’s going to ruin your story.   I struggle with this one a lot, both as I work on ideas for podcast episodes, and as I work on convincing myself to complete my current book project, which I haven’t really touched in the last year.----more---- Hi, I’m Mary Young. Thanks for joining us on the Lessons from Life Podcast. Today’s topic is  “Who am I afraid of offending?” So who am I concerned about offending?  It’s a combination of traditional, conservative Christians, friends who don’t share my beliefs, and my family members. So let’s take those one at a time. Traditional, conservative Christians --  I will tell people I “suck as a Christian,” because I don’t typically act the way all those church-people did in my childhood, adolescence, & young adulthood.  Or how they told me I should act.   In fact, I told my al-anon group one time that “the God of my understanding is not the God of my childhood.”  That doesn’t mean I don’t believe in God, or don’t have a relationship with him, but I find myself hesitant to publicly share what I really think or believe because I can imagine a slew of comments telling me how wrong I am, with the commenters cherry-picking Bible verses to prove it.  And then I would need to respond to those comments, either defending my own beliefs, or capitulating to theirs.  I don’t want to have those conversations, so I censor myself.  I need to stop doing that.  My beliefs and value system are mine, not anyone else’s, and God and I have had long talks about them over the years while I was developing them.  He lets me know when I’m out in left field, and his opinion really is the only one I care about, in that area   On top of that, I know many people today who seem to hold the same beliefs and values I do, so why do I still feel like I’m the odd one out?  For that matter, why do I still feel like I need someone else’s approval or agreement of my own thoughts, ideas and feelings, anyway?  That’s something to ponder with my therapist, I think.  Meanwhile, I’ll work on not censoring myself in my podcast and book. I have to admit though, I have another “likeability” fear when it comes to God - but it’s in the other direction. I have a lot of friends who either don’t believe in the same God I do, or don’t believe in any god at all.  I’m concerned about alienating or offending them.  My friends who don’t believe in the Judeo-Christian God have very valid reasons for their beliefs, just as I do for mine.  And while I want to be free to talk about my beliefs, as a natural part of conversation, I don’t ever want them to think I’m trying to push my beliefs on them, or to use a more traditional term: trying to “save their souls.”  That’s not my job.  Which is a good thing, because I suck at that kind of thing worse than I suck at being a Christian. J  But it’s a hundred times easier to stop worrying about offending people with my faith journey than it is to stop worrying about offending my family.   Family goes to the core of our identities - to the core of MY identity. I am a Young, and a Smith; youngest daughter of a truck-driver and stay-at-home mom; and grand-daughter of Appalachian coal-miners, all of whom brought me up to believe that family is the most important thing there is, and we should all stick together.  And yet I have lived my entire adult life away from my family, and once I was out of college, trips home were only once or twice a decade.  The majority of my emotional healing journey was based on coming to grips with childhood events; recognizing and admitting truths about my nuclear and extended family; and seeing how all of that impacted how I became the person I am today, and why I still react to some things the way I do. But I find myself hesitant to speak that truth out loud in public, in case family is watching or listening, and takes offense at what I say. But without truth there is no freedom, and no healing.  So I live away from family, and speak my truth to trusted friends, hoping family will never hear me say it. And when I do that, I’m cheating both myself and my siblings.  For all I know, instead of living in denial, they could be going through their own emotional healing journey, and it could be comforting for them to know that someone else thinks Dad’s entire family was alcoholic.  Or they might also be feeling like they’re the world’s worst child for thinking that while Mom did a lot of really cool things for us when we were growing up, she wasn’t really as supportive as she sounded, and actually fits a lot of the character traits of a narcissistic personality. Then again, if I say all that out loud, and they hear it, and they’re NOT thinking that way, I could find myself effectively disowned.  And that’s a scary thought. So I do worry about offending them, and as Adiechie says in that bit I quoted at the beginning, it ruins my story, because it keeps me from being honest. I think it’s interesting that as I was driving the 500 miles home for my mother’s funeral, 15 years ago, one of the thoughts that crossed my mind was “Now I can write my  book.”  My subconscious has known, far longer than I have, that I’m afraid of offending my family.  That I’m afraid that somehow sharing my truth, my reality, my memories, my fears and my nightmares will be seen as unjustified criticism and result in banishment. Ya know that relationship with God that I mentioned about 500 words ago?  It used to be a lot like my childhood family relationship. I was afraid of being honest with God - afraid of offending him, afraid that my questions and doubts were proof that I didn’t really believe in him. I was afraid that one day he would decide he’d had enough, and stop loving me.  And it would be my own fault, for not being a good enough Christian - not trusting him enough, not doing enough for him, not loving him enough, and most of all, not being like the church-people told me to be.  That emotional healing journey I’ve been on for the last 20+ years was also a spiritual healing journey , and it’s probably been 5years since I was afraid of making God so mad he wouldn’t love me anymore.  For me, that’s been one of the biggest benefits of my spiritual healing journey....the realization of how very much God loves me, and what that means for me in my life.  But that’s a topic for another podcast, maybe. For this one, if I’m gonna be authentic and vulnerable, whether it’s in this podcast or in my  current book project, I have to be honest and open, both about my family (without worrying about offending them), and about my faith.  Because I can’t speak for other people, but for me, I wouldn’t still be here if it wasn’t for my faith, and for my relationship with the God of my understanding. And I can’t keep that out of the story of my healing journey, no matter who it offends. So that’s my take-away for this quotation I stumbled across on Facebook today.  My question for YOU would be who are you afraid of offending? What’s keeping you from telling your story honestly, or maybe the question is who’s keeping you from telling your story honestly? You can certainly just listen to me pondering about this, and walk away and go “man...she’s talkative. I would never share all that.”  And that’s OK. You don’t have to. I just want to be the best me I’m capable of being, and that means being authentic and vulnerable.  And that means facing up to who I’m afraid of offending, and not letting that stop me from being honest with my story. Until next time, thanks so much for listening. Now, go make it a great week.

This is our first episode in our new series on the Bible’s portrayal of God! We are currently working on a theme video about God that will be released later in 2018. In part 1, (0-8:33) Tim overviews the whole subject. He says later on in the discussion they will talk about the Trinity in the Bible, but for now, they will just focus on the development of the word God in the Bible. In part 2, (8:33-37:34) Tim outlines the problems of modern conceptions with God compared with ancient Hebrew conceptions of God. Tim says that it comes down to how people use the word ‘God’. Today people use the word ‘God’ to refer to a personal being that exists. ‘God’ is both a title for a kind of being and a name for a specific being: the Judeo Christian God. Tim says that if you look up “monotheism” in the dictionary, they define it as “the belief there is only one God, specifically in Judeo Christianity.” Tim asks how can this be the case if the Bible says things like “Lord of lords” and “God of gods”. How did monotheism today come to mean something that it didn’t mean to the ancient Hebrews? Tim says the Hebrew word for “God” is ‘Elohim’. The short forms of this word is “el” and also “eloah”. Tim says that in Hebrew “Elohim” is plural. In part 3, (37:34-54:05) Tim outlines a unique use of the word “Elohim” the story of Saul in 1 Samuel 28:12-13: Saul has a spirit-medium conjure up the presence of the deceased Samuel: “And the woman saw Samuel, and she cried out...and said ‘I see a elohim rising up from the ground.” This refers to a human who exists apart from their body. This is not saying Samuel is “God” or a “god.” Rather, the word elohim apparently refers to the mode of existence: a member of the non-physical, spirit realm. The later biblical authors developed vocabulary to talk about these beings to more clearly distinguish between them as elohim and the one elohim: Angel, demon, spirits, etc… The implications are Yahweh is an elohim, but not the only elohim (= spirit being). He is the most powerful, and authoritative, and he alone is the creator of all things, including the other elohim. Tim cites this quote by theological scholar Michael Heiser: “Yahweh is an elohim, but no other elohim is Yahweh. Elohim is a place-of-residence term. The word tells you what the proper domain is for that being. By nature, the God of Israel, the many elohim of God’s council, demons, angels, the departed human dead like Samuel, they are part of a non-physical domain, that’s related to, but distinct from the physical, embodied domain. An elohim is by definition and by nature a disembodied entity, so the word can refer to many different beings who inhabit that realm.” In part 4, (54:05-end) Tim outlines a New Testament example. 1 Corinthians 8:4-6: Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” Tim says Paul is telling the Corinthians that there are other “Elohim” but for the Hebrews, their is “one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ.” What does this mean to the Hebrews? Find out next time in episode 2! Thank you to all our supporters! Resources: Paul Jouon & T. Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew Michael Heiser: The Naked Bible Podcast 1 Samuel 28:12-13 Check out all our videos and resources at www.thebibleproject.com Produced By: Dan Gummel. Jon Collins. Matthew Halbert Howen Music By: Defender Instrumental: Rosasharn Music In the Distance: Tae the Producer Nocturne: Nomyn 2.

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, June 25, 2017, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Bishop Carlton D. Pearson, Affiliate Minister. SERMON DESCRIPTION What if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?” (Romans 3:3) The America faith is traditionally as much in its majority Judeo/Christian God as it is in its constitution, bylaws, American culture, and democracy. However, in today’s America there is nearly equal doubt in all of the above. It seems there never has been more distrust in normally presumed trustworthy people and professions including politics, lawmakers, law enforcement and lawyers over all, not to mention preachers, priests, teachers, and corporate structure. The gift of doubt can also be a curse, or at least a cause, that can awaken or necessitate an overall renovation and renewal of the moral infrastructure of the human and American culture and societal model. SUBSCRIBE TO AUDIO PODCAST: WATCH THIS SERMON ON YOUTUBE: SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL: GIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: or text LOVEBB to 73256 LET'S CONNECT: Facebook: Twitter: All Souls Church Website:  

America is in big trouble for its growing acceptance of things that are contrary to God’s word, the Bible. It is no mystery that America’s problems have increased in direct proportion to its steady abandonment of the Judeo-Christian God, the Bible, and Biblical principles. America’s War on God goes to the heart of the issue of what’s wrong with today’s America and ignores political correctness to tell what the solution is. It gives compelling reasons for the reader to turn to the Bible’s God, the same God and Bible that American’s have looked to for generations and has led to America becoming the greatest nation on earth. America is now metaphorically standing at a precipice, if its people don’t wake up and act soon, our once great nation will surely fall into the abyss of history where other Godless nations have gone before.