Videos

In this nearly 45-minute discussion with returning guests Mark Alsip and Nick Cowan, Kiosk Editorial Review Committee member and Secular Web author Robert Shaw discusses what the Christian Bible says about women. From passages urging silence in church to stories of strong and influential female figures, the texts themselves appear to offer conflicting visions. Are these contradictions evidence of divine intent, cultural baggage, or human misinterpretation? Author Mark Alsip argues that the Bible and its traditional interpretations have long upheld patriarchal control, while Christian Nick Cowan presents the counterpoint that Scripture, when understood properly, elevates women in ways often overlooked. Together they explore whether the Bible truly offers guidance for equality, or whether its ambiguities have fueled centuries of oppression.

In this 40-minute discussion with Rabbi Ari Edelkop, Kiosk Editorial Review Committee member and Secular Web author Robert Shaw discusses the legacy of Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, whose vision transformed Chabad into a global network with extensive humanitarian programs and a network of emissaries in 100 countries. The conversation with Rabbi Edelkop then turns to contemporary issues from a Chabad perspective, with Edelkop offering his views on the situation in Gaza and the universal ethical principles of the Noahide Laws. The interview also canvasses the humanitarian programs run by Edelkop's synagogue, demonstrating how his community translates its principles into action.

In just under an hour in discussion with returning guest Paul Clark and Hail Satan Podcast host Joseph Rose, Kiosk Editorial Review Committee member and Secular Web author Robert Shaw explores how the character Satan developed over time in Jewish and Christian thought before interviewing Joseph Rose on his insights into modern Satanism.

In this shy of one-hour discussion in Montenegro with returning guest Mark Alsip and Neel Ingman via satellite link-up in Thailand, Kiosk Editorial Review Committee member and Secular Web author Robert Shaw looks into the mystique surrounding John the Baptist. From the persistent claim that John the Baptist's incorrupt right hand is held at the Cetinje Monastery in Montenegro, the interlocuters discuss how much truth lies behind the myriad of claims by various churches to possess relics, from the bones and skulls to the fingernail clippings and even tears of saints, and supposedly even relics of Christ himself.

In this discussion with History for Atheists blogger Tim O'Neill and Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Literature James McGrath, Kiosk Editorial Review Committee member and Secular Web author Robert Shaw takes a deep dive into the life, legacy, and historical mysteries surrounding John the Baptist, a prophet whose influence in first-century Judea may have rivaled, or even eclipsed, that of Jesus himself. Shaw, O'Neill, and McGrath explore the theological puzzles raised by Jesus' baptism, John's apocalyptic message, and the lingering question of whether Christianity might have taken a very different path had John's movement not been violently interrupted. They also meet the Mandaeans—modern-day followers of John the Baptist—and uncover what their existence reveals about the roots of one of history's most transformative religious figures.

In this discussion with former Mormon Ryan Erwin, Kiosk Editorial Review Committee member and Secular Web author Robert Shaw recounts his unexpected deep dive into Mormonism—from scripture study classes and church services, to late-night conversations with missionaries and personal reflections on faith, doubt, and belonging. Along the way, Shaw visits a local temple, grapples with the Church's complex history, and explores what it means to believe in something that many argue defies reason. Shaw is joined by Ryan Erwin, a former Latter-day Saint who grew up in the heart of Utah's Mormon culture. Together, they explore why so many young people raised in the LDS Church are now walking away—and what they're walking toward. It's a thoughtful, personal, and at times surprising exploration of one of America's most distinctive religious traditions.

In this discussion with returning guest Mark Alsip and young-Earth creationist Nick Cowan, Kiosk Editorial Review Committee member and Secular Web author Robert Shaw explores the life-sized replica of Noah's Ark in Williamstown, Kentucky and Mark Alsip's recent protest there, as well as the the broader implications for reason, religion, and the public purse.

In conversation with Internet Infidels Executive Director Keith Augustine, Kiosk Editorial Review Committee member and Secular Web author Robert Shaw explores the reasons to think that biological death ends human consciousness and responds to arguments commonly put forward by afterlife proponents.

In conversation with past-life hypnotherapist Simon Bown, Kiosk Editorial Review Committee member and Secular Web author Robert Shaw explores the limits of identity and time, whether the mind continues on after the death of the body, and what Bown takes to be the evidence of consciousness beyond death, particularly reincarnation, from hypnotic regressions to children who recall ostensible past lives. Are we just matter in motion—or are our minds part of a longer thread?

Check out Freethinker Podcast host Edouard Tahmizian's nearly half-hour interview with biological anthropology doctoral candidate Gutsick Gibbon (Erika) on problems with the feasibility of taking the biblical account of Noah's Ark literally, Kent Hovind's creationist apologetics, and the biological evidence that animals have developed new information over time. The interlocutors canvass how accelerated nuclear decay poses problems for young Earth creationism, how many animals could have fit on Noah's Ark if we treat that account as if it were historical, the infeasibility of surviving daily life on the imagined Ark, Kent Hovind's most annoying creationist argument, and how natural selection acting on random mutations could have produced new genetic information. Tune in for a lively overview of the biological facts that tell against creationist apologists' preferred narratives!

Check out Freethinker Podcast host Edouard Tahmizian's latest interview with freethinking historian Richard Carrier for a half-an-hour-plus discussion of how to assess the historical evidence for the occurrence of New Testament miracles and how Calvinists try to deflect the argument from evil, among other things. The interlocutors canvass arguments to the effect that canonical Gospel miracle accounts written 25-50 years after Jesus' death are historically more reliable than other ancient world miracle claims because not enough time elapsed for legends to accrue compared to accounts often written a century later or more, whether the ancient historian Josephus' recounting of miraculous events during the First Jewish-Roman War a mere decade after their supposed occurrence accrues their occurrence more credibility still, whether early Christian historical documents could ever convince Carrier beyond a reasonable doubt that a miracle occurred, and whether the Calvinist doctrine of predestination makes God the author of evil and thus the efficient cause of all sin. Tune in for a succinct overview of assessing historical miracle claims and facile attempts to deflect a major argument against the existence of God!

Our most excellent Vice President & Social Media Manager Edouard Tahmizian recently composed a work that was so extraordinary that a professional pianist eventually learned it and recorded her performance in 4k! Check it out!

Tune in for host Edouard Tahmizian's return interview with renowned Jesus Seminar biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan for just under half-an-hour as they explore why Mark invented the story that Jesus’ tomb was discovered empty, who wrote the Gospel of Luke, dating when the Gospel of Luke was written, whether Luke was writing as a historian or a propagandist, and whether or not the authors of the four canonical Gospels were engaging in mimesis. Crossan's analysis raises questions (that he addresses directly elsewhere) about how the New Testament still has lessons to teach us today about how to live, such as reflected in the ancients’ still very much alive dilemma between attempting to gain power by force or by persuasion. Check out the discussion to cultivate wisdom over mere information from an erudite scholar who reveals the bigger picture that the historical details illuminate!

Join host Edouard Tahmizian for a fifty-minute interview with long-time biblical scholar and Jesus mythicist Robert M. Price on whether the concept of predestination or determinism can be found in the Book of Acts, whether open theism is plausible, and whether some of the more miraculous events depicted in the Qur'an are credible. Tahmizian proposes a number of questions about these topics to Price. For example, given that a word sometimes translated as "predetermined" crops up in a discussion of events to come, did the author of Acts believe that God causally determined/necessitated Jesus' murder, or that those who brought about his death had the freedom to have done other than what they did do? What do open theists think about the possibility that God doesn't know the future exactly, but just knows about what might happen? Is the open theist position on this question biblically plausible? Tahmizian also asks Price about the origin of the story of Muhammad splitting the Moon in the Qu'ran, whether or not there was a historical Muhammad, and how and when the texts of the Qu'ran came to be put together. Tune in for a wide-ranging discussion about these and other intriguing issues with a noted biblical scholar!

Atheist and Executive Director & Editor-in-Chief of Internet Infidels (the maintainers of the Secular Web for nearly three decades) joins Dale Glover's Real Seekers podcast to provide his own skeptical take on near-death experiences (NDEs). The dialogue includes a review of neutral ways in which near-death researchers can collect testimony of near-death experiences (NDEs) that could provide compelling evidence that something leaves the normal physical body (or that some other paranormal process occurs) during such experiences—though such tests also have the potential to fail to do any such thing.

For various freethought musical compositions, check out Edouard Tahmizian’s musical works for piano or guitar: The Infidel Cha Cha Free Sheet Music by Edouard Tahmizian for Guitar | Noteflight. The Infidel Cha Cha, composed by our most excellent Vice President & Freethinker Podcast Creator Edouard Tahmizian, has now become the official theme track for Internet […]

Check out Freethinker Podcast as host Edouard Tahmizian is joined by freethinking historian Richard C. Carrier for a little under an hour to discuss the reliability of the canonical Gospels, including Luke's gospel and the Book of Acts, and whether Papias can tell us anything about New Testament authors that isn't ahistorical. After speaking to the "genre" of the Gospels and to which historical period he would date them, Carrier addresses the historical reliability (or lack thereof) of the Gospel of Luke and how we know that the Book of Acts is "fake history." The discussion then turns to whether a historical Papias existed and, regardless of the answer to that question, whether we can believe that anything in the writings attributed to Papias provide us with any credible information about a historical Jesus. A lengthy discussion about why some gospels include a story about Jesus transfiguring into a shining, radiant being ensues, followed by a final discussion on John Dominic Crossan's comment that N. T. Wright's reconstruction of a historical Jesus makes for good reading, but is entirely fiction. Tune in for a casual discussion with our returning historian on some particularly problematic conundrums for taking New Testament accounts to be more than ahistorical!

Kiosk Editorial Review Committee member (and Secular Web author) Robert Shaw has announced the return of his Unshaw Podcast on atheism, religion, and everything in between. Join him in September for series two of the Unshaw Podcast!

Join host Edouard Tahmizian for a nearly ninety-minute interview with Jesus mythicist and biblical scholar Robert M. Price on the Book of Revelation, the Gospel of Luke, and the Qur'an. Price fields a number of novel questions from Tahmizian, including whether Christian apologetic rebuttals to the idea that the book of Revelation falsely predicted that the Second Coming of Christ would occur within the lifetimes of Jesus' disciples have any credibility at all, such as the rebuttal that John's relevant Greek wording doesn't necessary translate to "soon" in duration, but can simply mean something more like "without delay," or perhaps "soon in God's time" even if far off on human timescales. The discussion then turns to whether Luke can be profitably read as a historian, and if so, how well or poorly Luke investigated the historical validity of early Christian claims. Finally, the discussion wraps up with a consideration of whether Papias had any knowledge of the teachings of a historical Jesus at all before turning to whether Muslim scholars have any legitimate claim to perfect textual transmission as seen through the absence of variations in translations of the Qur'an, far superior to that of the Old and New Testaments. Check out this wide-ranging interview shedding light on parallels between Christian and Islamic apologetics!

Join host Edouard Tahmizian for this just over thirty-minute interview with return interviewee and former Jesus Seminar member John Dominic Crossan as they review why critical scholars believe that only seven of the thirteen letters attributed to Paul are written by him, with the remaining six letters being anti-Pauline revisions that deradicalize and de-Romanize Paul on issues like slavery and patriarchy. The discussion then turns to the reasons for thinking that Paul—like the Q source, Mark, and John in the Book of Revelation—believed that Christ's second coming would happen in the disciples' lifetimes (i.e., no later than 100 CE), as well as critical scholars' reasons for thinking that references to the Antichrist were clearly references to Emperor Nero for first-century readers. Crossan then turns to why conservative Christian attempts to explain away the obvious—that New Testament proclamations that the end was "soon" were simply wrong—are less pressing than the fact the human exploitation of planetary resources today is threatening life on Earth and could result in the dissolution of our world in a more important sense of "soon." Tune in for this wide-ranging interview with an eminent New Testament scholar whose great storytelling really brings these issues to life for modern readers!

Check out the third Freethinker Podcast—and first-time one-on-one—interview between host Edouard Tahmizian and accomplished New Testament scholar Robyn Faith Walsh. For over half-an-hour Walsh and Tahmizian consider whether the Greek Gospel of Luke looks anything like the work of a true Roman historian like Suetonius, the intent of the author of Luke and the time period in which it was written, whether the empty tomb narratives relay a historical event (or whether William Lane Craig's arguments to that effect give us any reason to think that they are historical), differences between Walsh's take on the New Testament use of mimesis and that of Dennis R. MacDonald, facts that undermine the historicity of accounts of the trial of Jesus, and whether the "the time is near" comment in Revelation 1:3 was meant to convey that the second coming of Jesus would occur in his disciples lifetimes. The discussion ends with a recommendation for listeners to check out Walsh's recent book The Origins of Early Christian Literature and forthcoming work in the Harvard Theological Review that will be available in the near future at academia.edu. Tune in for a one-of-a-kind interview with a top-notch expert on how the New Testament sits within ancient Greco-Roman literary tradition!

Join Freethinker Podcast host Edouard Tahmizian, Rational Science podcaster and ex-Cuban-spy Bill Gaede, and Cypress College philosophy professor Jason Thibodeau for over an hour as they debate the scientific tenability of Gaede’s rope hypothesis. Many multifaceted issues come up in the discussion, such as the special circumstances under which the atoms that are usually connected by the electromagnetic threads (according to the hypothesis) pass through each other, the failure of standard mathematical physics to provide any mechanism through which a magnet or gravity acts, what the concepts of black holes, dark matter, and dark energy actually refer to in physical reality, what happens to anything that enters a black hole, what the hypothesis’ electromagnetic threads and ropes are composed of, how magnetic attraction actually works, and many other technical details of the hypothesis. Tune in for a far-ranging interview on a number of core, fundamental issues with contemporary physics!

Check out Edouard Tahmizian's latest just over an hour interview with long-time biblical scholar Robert M. Price on Price's reasons for thinking that St. Paul was actually Simon Magnus and why Price does not believe that Paul wrote any of the thirteen letters attributed to him, among other things. After Price outlines his grounds for these conclusions, the interlocutors turn the discussion to how far back Price dates the Pre-Pauline Creed in 1 Corinthians 15, how he interprets 1 Kings 22's apparent reference to God working with evil spirits, why God allows demonic possession to occur at all if he wants to eliminate sin, which account provides the clearest example of New Testament mimesis, whether we should date 2 Peter to the 2nd century CE, whether it makes any sense to think that Jesus would've "abolished" the 650 laws of the Jewish Torah, and much more. Tune in for an in-depth discussion of Price's insights into what contemporary biblical scholarship tells us about these fascinating issues!

Tune in to Freethinker Podcast as host Edouard Tahmizian is joined by Internet Infidels President John MacDonald in this 45-minute interview with historian and freethinker Richard C. Carrier. Carrier fields several questions from his interlocutors concerning how he harmonizes certain New Testament passages with his Christ myth theory, whether there's textual evidence that the Book of Mark predates that of Matthew (and, if so, how that sits with the resurrection appearance accounts), whether the Q source existed (and if so, whether Mark used it), whether seemingly anti-Jewish interpolations might really be references to another instance where God's chosen people fail to meet God's expectations, whether there was a grave site 'disappearing bodies' problem spurring the Nazareth inscription, and much more! Check out this gripping interview with our returning historian on facts that some suggest don't sit well with the nonexistence of a historical Jesus.

Tune in to Edouard Tahmizian's over half-an-hour interview with returning biblical scholar Robert M. Price about Christian and Islamic apologetics. In this interview the interlocutors canvass the Christian apologetic claim that St. Paul would have been dismissed by his contemporaries had he made up the existence of 500 witnesses to the resurrected Jesus, how Christian apologists square Gospel claims that Jesus wanted to be baptized by John the Baptist with Jesus' status as the sinless son of God, whether the alleged reference to John the Baptist by Josephus is genuine, why Jesus would curse a fig tree when it was not in season for bearing figs, whether the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Muhammad was a genuine historical event, and why the Hebrews in the first five books of the Old Testament referred to the Abrahamic God as Yahweh rather than Allah if Allah was the true name of God. Check out the rapid fire discussion in just over 30 minutes!

Check out Edouard Tahmizian's roughly hour-and-fifteen-minute interview with legendary biblical scholar Robert M. Price about Price's ongoing participation in Bishop Ray Taylor's Wise as a Serpent! podcast and his forthcoming The Heresy of Paraphrase and Houses of the Holy: A Higher-Critical Survey of World Religions before the interlocutors turn to Price's view on how much (or how little) we can know about what Old Testament books would have been considered part of the Old Testament canon to Jews living during the period in which Jesus would've lived, how the apocrypha were never intended to be understood as disavowed books, the non-Old-Testament origin of the exorcism tradition from contemporaneous faith healers and magicians, whether Jesus was asked to perform miracles (provide signs from God) on demand by nonbelievers to embarrass him in an instance of nonbelievers' confirmation bias, whether there was really a hypothesized oral tradition connecting the time of Jesus to the much later time when the Gospels were written, and more! Tune in for an enlightening discussion of the bewildering relationship between sacred texts and the "history" that is supposed to ground them!

In this roughly two-hour conversation, Skeptic Magazine founder Michael Shermer and constitutional lawyer Eddie Tabash discuss the history of the relationship between church and state in the United States, the Founding Framers of the US Constitution and their arguments for separating church and state, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, how most of the 13 colonies had government-sanctioned religions and religious tests for office, the Constitutional Convention and the First Amendment, the push by some Republicans to hold a new Constitutional Convention and redesign the entire US Constitution, the religious beliefs and attitudes of the current US Supreme Court, and much more! Check out this alarming discussion of the rightward turn that the American experiment has taken in recent years!

Tune in for about an hour as host Edouard Tahmizian queries biblical scholar and Jesus mythicist Robert M. Price about topics ranging from how the Trinity doctrine's identification of Jesus and the Holy Spirit with God sits with the New Testament corpus, to whether or not Erasmus' Textus Receptus—or the 1611 King James Version of the Bible based on it—comes closest to the original biblical writings in light of subsequent historical discoveries. The discussion canvasses a number of different issues, such as Price's take on whether the story of Samson in the Book of Judges merely copies and recontextualizes the myth of Hercules for a Jewish audience, why the Gospel of Mark has four different endings (and whether any of these are faithful to the original Mark), the reasons for the contradictions in the different accounts of the death of Judas, why Matthew says that no one (apart from God) knows the day or hour of Jesus' second coming, and whether the author of Acts intentionally made a memetic parallel between a demon and the spirit of divination within the ancient Greek oracle at Delphi. Check out this wide-ranging interview with an long-time synthesizer of biblical scholarship!

Tune in to this roughly hour-long discussion between host Edouard Tahmizian and biblical scholar Robert M. Price as they discuss Robyn Faith Walsh's suggestion that the Gospels were written by elite cultural producers working within a dynamic cadre of literate specialists, specialists who may not even have been Christians, in light of Richard Carrier's response that the Gospel authors were clearly concerned missionaries. The discussion then turns to why the Gospel authors would do mimesis (mythologizing Jesus) if a significant proportion of their non-literary audience would not pick up on what they were doing, whether Price finds it plausible that early Christians believed (as Carrier maintains) that Jesus was crucified by sky demons in other realms (or that Jesus was a celestial mythical being that was eventually historicized for polemical purposes, as perhaps suggested in the Book of Revelation), whether Church Father Irenaeus was correct that the Book of Revelation was written circa 90-100 CE, whether Papias' account can be trusted as a historically accurate account of the early Gospel authors, whether first-century Israelites would've needed permission from Roman authorities to kill a suspected false prophet (typically by stoning, not Roman crucifixion), and why Gospel miracle accounts would be done in private among people who knew Jesus rather than out in public for everyone to see. Check out this novel overview of some of these debates with a seasoned biblical scholar!

Tune in to Freethinker Podcast with host Edouard Tahmizian for an about an hour-and-fifteen-minute interview with panpsychist philosopher of mind Philip Goff as Tahmizian, Keith Augustine, and Jason Thibodeau query Goff about his reasons for embracing panpsychism, the view that all matter has some degree of a conscious or experiential element to it. Goff expertly fields questions from all three interlocuters about how his panpsychist views differ from those of other philosophers of mind and his rationale for taking this position. He suggests that "physicalist" Galen Strawson holds substantially the same view that he does, their differences largely being semantic ones about the meaning of the term physicalism (or materialism). Goff also responds to criticisms (like those of Massimo Pigliucci) that his picture of the mind is unscientific. He canvasses the hard problem of consciousness, structuralism about physics, why he favors taking the Russellian monist theory of mind in a specifically panpsychist direction, and what it might even mean to say that something like an electron has experiences. Goff also discusses whether arguing from a "top down" cosmopsychism (i.e., that the universe as a whole has experiential aspects, and divides down into our individual consciousnesses) is less problematic than arguing from the "bottom up" that the most fundamental constituents of matter have simple experiential aspects that somehow combine into our more complex, but unified, individual consciousnesses. The discussion then turns to Goff's take on the (classic, Plato-inspired) divine command theory of ethics, fine-tuning arguments, whether there's a middle way between traditional omni-God theism and traditional atheism that may be more attractive than either of those binary choices, whether libertarian free will exists given the possibility of determinism, and how his broader philosophical views impact the question of life's meaning. Check out this wide-ranging interview with a renowned philosopher of mind who has become increasingly prominent in public debates about these issues over the last several years!