A CEO shares how his studies with a rabbi led him to see that the point of religion is to create and build things, emphasizing the importance of connection and productivity.
The hosts discuss the idea of creating a YouTube series where they go around knocking on doors with missionaries and offering their thoughts on religion. They also touch on the importance of quality time spent with loved ones.
The foundation for the Ten Commandments may have been laid in Egyptian wisdom literature, which does not imply a contradiction with the Christian faith as all religions may be telling the same story. The story of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai may be traced back to his knowledge of Egyptian royalty's rights and wisdom literature.
Despite the push towards secularism, religion plays a vital role in providing the foundation for humans to create their own meaning and set of morals. While pleasure can motivate actions, it is not enough to consistently drive individuals to do the right thing.
In this snippet, the speaker mentions the idea of finding patron saints associated with different aspects such as weight loss, nice cars and healing.
The Church of the SubGenius is an absurdist religion created in the late 1970s as a joke about consumer culture by two like-minded guys. Bob Dobbs, the world's greatest salesman, is the prophet of this religion that pokes fun at mainstream religion and consumer culture.
The speaker reminisces about his desire to fight and his religious curiosity.
The world is inherently evil and the spiritual world is good, but God's power, intelligence, and design can be seen in the creation of the world. Despite the battle between good and evil, evil is not an eternal force since only God has always existed.
The podcast discusses two different experiences of intimate questioning in religious settings, including questions about sex, drugs, and masturbation.
The podcast host wonders how religion has aided people living in war-torn countries where death is omnipresent and the future is uncertain. He acknowledges that it's difficult to think about death and wonders if religion has implications for regulating aspects of everyday life.
This podcast episode discusses the concept of religion and its association with nationalism and other beliefs like being a fan of a football team. The speaker also examines whether atheists can be more theocratic than religious people and talks about the origins of religion according to anthropology.
A group is being accused of making members sign lifetime vows of obedience and giving collateral to join. One young woman was excitedly told by her master that she had to give collateral to join.
The podcast discusses how pagan celebrations and rituals were incorporated into Christian traditions and how certain practices were viewed as sacrilegious by the church.
This essay recounts the history of the Unification Church's (aka the Moonies) business ventures, including the founding of the American Tuna fishing company, and reflects on the author's personal experience with the church's influence in his family's life.
Nicole shares her experience working briefly at the temple and how things started to change after the Phoenix New Times article came out. She was not getting the training she had signed up for so decided to leave before she heard about the raid.
The human concept of an all-powerful, omnipotent being is limited by our own physical form and perspective, making it impossible for us to truly comprehend what it means to be God-like.
In this episode, the speaker talks about their first encounter with a sex magazine and how it opened up a world they didn't even know existed due to the strict religious upbringing they had.
Podcast host expresses frustration with the prayer rules in the Bible, stating that some feel repetitive and unnecessary.
The speaker expresses a belief that Netflix documentaries have ruined religion for viewers, drawing a comparison to the way true crime documentaries can lead people to see suspects in everything.
The guest speaker shares his thoughts on the importance of maintaining objectivity in spiritual and religious practices and how formalized religion can act as a middleman in connecting with a higher power.
Punishing children with religion may give them a negative image and cause spiritual trauma, defeating the purpose of the religion.
The guest speaker shares how her Jewish mother's lack of religious guidance led her to eventually become involved with the church.
Native peoples took on some religious beliefs of the Christian settlers. A woman who lost her partner to death due to frigid weather was afraid of becoming a windigo if she ate his flesh, and she left him in her shelter due to her beliefs.
A woman shares her custody battle experience and how her husband didn't want their sons to attend any religious services, which led to a court allowing supervised visitation for a certain timeframe while she was at church.
Despite financial challenges and personal obstacles, Jim, a pastor in a low-income community, puts his heart and soul into his church with the help of his dedicated partner.