"Jurassic Park + Jesus = Better Movie?" | The LET'S CHAT Podcast

and then we close the show hello and welcome to the digital free thought Radio Hour in wo radio 103.9 LPFM here in Knoxville Tennessee we're recording this on Sunday morning April 14 2024 I'm Larry rhods or DJ D five and as usual we have our co-host wombat on the line with us hello wombat I'm the wombat welcome digital free thought radio hour is a talk radio show about atheism free thought rational thought humanis and the sciences and conversely we'll also talk about religion religious faiths Gods holy books and Superstition and if you get the feeling you're the only non-believer in your town well you're just not I guarantee it in Knoxville in the middle of the Bible Belt we have a group of over 1100 of us we're The Atheist Society of Knoxville or ask and we'll tell you more about us after the midow break W what's our topic today movies we're talking about movies we're talking about some of our favorite movies and how can make them even better including infusing them with the glory of Jesus Christ oh goodness yeah yeah yeah I thought it would be good you know as we as we wrap up the 365 episodes of this show that we've done let's have some fun with it and discuss some of our more after today I know we gotta let everybody else know but uh why not talk about some of our favorite forms media favorite video games have it be more focused on us and getting and and and transitioning away from just bashing on Christianity as all our friends say also we'll have some listener comments at the end of the show too uh I wanted to talk about our favorite movies sh uh Larry I know you happen to be a big Shrek fan I did not I never knew that was such a thing as uh when you gave me your list of movies and it was like Shrek was one of them yeah yeah it was a top one I've watched it probably five six times but you you came from like the Golden Age of movies you had like the original Pillow Talk you had Gone With the Wind you had like Tiff the true American movie classics and I asked you okay so what's your favorite movie of all time Shrek I was like okay well you know one of it just hit all the buttons I don't know why I love good animation and it was some of the best animation it covered a lot of topics like talking animals and and dragons and and love and just everything and he was a monster My Beauty and the Beast you know kind of thing it it kind of had everything it had a lot of jokes in it and I love that sure it's a good time it's a good time it's a good time it's a sort of movie where doesn't really matter what five minute section you're watching you're gonna have a good time regardless like there's no point where you're just like waiting for the next thing to happen there's always something very meaningful there's always always something good going on you know one of the reasons why I love animation is because every frame every frame costs so much money to make in especially in the early days of Animation that it wasn't necessarily made by committee but it was sort of passed through hey if it's going to cost us a million dollars to make this 32nd piece let's make sure it really really matters or has a lot of weight to it because otherwise we're just going to waste a lot of time if it's just two characters staring at each other we're wasting money so like throw some gingerbread men in there in the background have Easter eggs in there make something happen yeah tell tell us it's not on your to-do list little things like that you know slaying the dragon not of my to-do yet list yet right right right that cost too much money we need something else I did like I did like um a lot of the animations that came out when I was growing up uh CGI stuff I remember I had pix so I grew up started with Toy Story one when Pixar came out and that was around uh preschool for me like I remember when that movie dropped and then per percussively like every four or five years there was a new Toy Story that came out and I had to keep hearing the you got a friend me song I just thought to myself like okay why is this movie come out and then I go there and Andy's a little older and he's my same age and I'm like okay that's fine I guess I'll let this go through then Toy Story 3 comes out I'm like they didn't need to be a three I I saw two there was an end it was beginning all right fine I'll watch the third one oh Andy's a little older he's he's in high school too that's interesting that's weird he's not playing with his toys either I wonder where my toys are and then finally Toy Story 4 came out I'm like there's no need for Toy Story 4 like the toys don't even want a Toy Story 4 and then they finally did it and like and he's in college and I'm like I'm in college and he's just like here can have my toys kids I'm like you grew up with [Laughter] Andy somewhere somewhere somewhere there's like some some some place that has like all my old toys hopefully yeah maybe they've been res being used by a new generation of kids right maybe a junior generation of kids maybe they're a new cup or maybe they're a car panel somewhere who knows hope they got so how how would that movie be made better uh so you know the idea that we had for today's show was we have these two competing interests almost in all cases science fiction and when I say science fiction I just mean literally like having fun with science and the themes of Science and uh Jesus and what I mean by Jesus is like having a spiritual message put into your story where people are more recognizing the fact that they're Immortals and that the only true way to Salvation is through the blood of Jesus Christ let's get them back on the plan the one true plan if you will and you can't really mix those two together without either sounding really preach you or being really hand fisted with it but you do have these two elements that are sort of like salt and pepper right and I wonder like what movies in our favorite Cavalcade of movies would benefit from a little bit more science fiction versus a little bit more Jesus Christ like could we make it a better Shrek if we threw in some science fiction into it and would it actually be better as a result or or what if we threw in some Jesus Christ would that make the movie even better and I wonder which of these two ingredients would consistently be the better spice I'm assuming that when you say uh we throw in a little Jesus Christ into the movie that you're referring to a a Biblical Jesus Christ and not some fictional or guess he is fictional but not some random off-the-wall version of Jesus Christ one that would push a moral story right right right sanctioned by Church exactly so if you had donkey and Shrek they're walking down and they're doing their Shenanigans and then all of a sudden donkey stops and he says listen I cursed in the last scene when we left that gingerbread house and I want to remind us that God does not like cursing and that we should honor our mother and father and then they just nod their heads and then they just keep going to the next scene like wouldn't that be a g yeah nothing like adding a little guilt to a good time yeah it would certainly to me it would bring the movie down it would bum it out you're bummed out like oh what was that bummer okay I mean there's a lot of cool things that you could throw in with Jesus lessons I mean he could be eating like a a meal of fish and realize he doesn't have enough fish and bread for all of his friends so they pray and then next thing you know there's just a bunch of fish and and bread all over the place that'd be a cool way no I think that the problem with it would be that uh just having him appear in there would throw a whole different light on the movie because it would shift the person's Viewpoint while watching it from one of enjoyment and fun and you know and comedy to you know guilt and sin and and death and Redemption and all that stuff but we just the total amount of baggage that would throw into the movie you know but the thing about it is there are churches out there that won't let kids see movies like Shrek sure or uh even Woody Woodpecker I'm sure or any of the other films that are quote of the world because they want to keep them you know sternly and firmly thinking about Jesus and and Heaven and Hell and sin and Redemption all the time it's it's kind of a knowledge bubble that they they they don't want the kids to break out of and of course they wouldn't be able to access the internet or anything like that either but of course some religions are much more Progressive and do allow it so I don't want to dismiss them all I I thought it was funny that you brought this up because um typically whenever anything gets very popular one of two things happen um it gets so popular that Christians either say it's evil and we need to stop having it and it's completely ungodly and it's shouldn't belong in our church and then the next thing that happens which isn't necessarily like the alternative but often times the consequential next step is that it gets so popular that it becomes part to sermons and there's like Christian uh uh plays that are based off of it and people will be like no it was always a Christian movie it was always a Christian thing we've always had this in Christianity and I'm looking at pastors that have given in 2021 or 2001 uh sermons detailing how Shrek is in fact uh a message a Christian family movie because they have references to talking donkeys which is given in numbers 2228 they have the song of Hallelujah which is a song by uh uh um leoner Cohan mentions that there's a secret God or a secret chord that David played that pleased God has a citation for it there's also a green giant and we know how much of the Bible loves Giants stomping on fa creatures portion of the of first uh chapters you first books and then forgotten the rest of the time your favorite movie is a Christian movie this whole time that's all the pastors would tell you they just say oh okay you like Shrek you did you know that was a Christian movie let me explain to you why uh you know for me one of my favorite movies growing up was home alone I don't know if you're familiar with that have you ever oh yeah yeah yeah one and two didn't I don't think they made a three did they they did they made a three there's even a four out they had a different kid it's a different kid this time it's not the same Vibe it's it's not even the same filming it's like almost a looks like it looks like a hallmart special compared to like the old school versions but the the in the similar sense of home alone and Willy Wonka I'll throw these two movies out because everyone in Willy Wonka everyone who remembers Willy Wonka in the Chocolate Factory or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remember only the parts where Wily Wonka comes out and they start doing the crazy Shenanigans in the movies right in the in the Chocolate Factory where there's like kids being sucked up tubes and there's Oompa loomas dancing around but a lot of people don't realz that's like the last fifth of that movie there's a whole four before that movie even begins right the from the whole front part to me was just boring if you know about the last fifth yes the first four fifths are boring but if I didn't know about them then I'm actually really invested in the story that's being brought up and just blown away by how everything like this incredibly long climax of just that's just happens because I was not prepared for that kind of movie happening and that's how I felt when I watched home alone cuz I thought Home Alone was going to be like a sad movie about a kid who's just like left alone because his parents why why did you watch it cuz it was like on TV because we had a substitute teacher and I'm just like I don't know about this movie and my mom never got a chance to see it we never had a lot of opportunities to go to the movie theater so I'm watching it and the whole movie is sad because it's like this kid's home alone and I'm like and his whole family his big family his whole family just left without him and he's just like oh I and I don't even get along with them and they the problem for those who may not have seen it is the family was so large it had like he had like five or six brothers and sisters and is that they were trying to get everything ready to go to the airport and get on the plane and they just didn't notice the little kid wasn't there with them not only that but like it it felt like for a period of time they didn't even know he was gone so like his impact in the family was so minuscule that I just felt like man this is a sad situation not only that plus he has robbers like Rob his home or kidnap him at the same time too like this is a situation I hope he comes out of this okay but the whole time the kids just like you know what what I need to do and this is the part where I start thinking about like the the two modes of thoughts I'm going to make lemons out of lemonade and start figuring out what I can do in my home to like properly protect myself I'm going to get that tape recorder set up I'm going to get that cardbo cut out of that cowboy I'm going to get that those pink hands up on I'm put on the stairs I'm going to make this whole this is my home this is my home it's a whole Rocky situation you know Rocky is also another movie work get really really uh ramped up at the very end but the whole movie is a very slow start but Home Alone very slow start and then finally you have this beautiful Cascade of like built you built up this you had the setting you could have gone in a sad Direction instead you went in a nice engineering science fiction Direction and you're like I'm going to do engineering to protect myself this one kid taking initiative but he's setting up setting up setting up and then then the Neighbors come or the the go the robbers come grab the door knob and it's super hot and they're like ah we're going to kill this kid then they open up the door and the pink hands hit their face you're like oh I remember when he did that then they climb up the stairs and they fall because of the marbles then they're like what's the what the hell's going on in this house we we we're so agitated by this kid we're going to take this kid down and every step of the way the kid's like completely making sure he's one foot ahead of them until the very end when he runs out of his bag of tricks and he finally has that one crazy neighbor help him out I just thought and then the Mom finally comes home she's like oh I finally found you home I'm like that's a cool movie because I feel like the kid was able to take care of himself at the end of the day that was very resourceful yeah very resourceful it changed the way how I saw everything my home afterwards I felt so much more independent as a kid and I felt like in the movie would the crazy neighbor be Jesus maybe maybe what if what I was thinking is you know he spent a lot of time building and Engineering what if he just prayed what if the movie in the in the second act was instead of like I'm going to build a bunch of stuff to prot protect myself he's like you know what I'm just going to rely on the blood of the Lamb to get me out of this tough situation oh Heavenly Father yeah and didn't do anything else sooner or later sooner preferably more than later can you please protect me from these evil people who are coming through my door in fact I am putting all of my faith in you and he just prays and there's like the music coming down and then it's finally a Christmas miracle the the robbers go to the wrong home or something like that and they rob some other kids home and they steal some other kid and he's like thank you God for letting them steal the black neighbors who live next to me and not me amen and then they cut the credits I'd be like hey you know what well you probably just gave somebody an idea so they're probably gonna go out and make it now yeah my misfortunes were given to the brown people next door thank goodness thank you God thank you God thank you no no no I don't think it would make it a better move Christmas classic no no no he said keep science fiction okay and what what they'd probably do in a movie uh if they made it was make the next door neighbors Muslim so they would be praying to the wrong God okay see oh Larry you made the worst movie possible so yes you have the Christian neighbors who forget their one kid and you have the Muslim neighbors who are like totally fine normal citizens but they get janked by robbers because the Christian trade to have their and that teaches you two lessons one you want to be on God's side and you don't want to be not on God's side so right or if you're on not on God's side then you're doomed yeah yeah yeah yeah hit the Bible you got to do what you got to do lessons learned it's all about the lessons Larry that's all what it is okay okay what about Guardians of the Galaxy what how would that make it a better movie why is that your favorite movie first of all oh well I love humor in movie and it's got a lot of humor in it I love science fiction um I love action there's a lot of action in that movie explosions and ship fights and stuff um one of my favorite scenes is how that guy controls his little arrow that answers to his whistles okay that's awesome but I don't know I don't think it would be better by adding religion to it oh you know I don't think any of them would but you that's just me it's very interesting that you bring that up because I would almost recommend and I know you love video games that there's a Guardians of the Galaxy video game have you heard of that game yet no I'll have to look it up I would highly recommend it I'll give you the link to it after the show but there is a Guardians of the Galaxy video game uh released by idias Montreal I believe um it is amazing it's absolutely amazing though your the thing is video games are a lot longer than movies so you will play this video game for roughly 40 hours maybe even 50 hours and when you done with that video game those characters faces and their personality and their voices will become your Guardians of the Galaxy more so than who the people are in the movies like you will like bond with these people yeah at first you'll be like they don't look like how they they don't look like the actors and then at a certain point you'll be like I am these these people and then you think like this is the only way they could ever be and then you go back to and you're like whoa who are you guys this is so weird that was the thing they had but the the villain in that movie is actually uh a pretty good analogy for overdog Matic religions because there's a there's a sequence in the video game and I'm not giving too much away where life becomes very difficult for people in the universe and so someone's offering a a way out that doesn't necessarily resolve the problem but basically distracts you from the problem by focusing on some sort of religious figure right and so a lot of people are now migrating towards this religious figure and it's like up to you and your crew to either contend with that with a hey truth is a hard pill pillow to swallow I have a I only have the truth on our side and it's not very delicious but we need to swallow it so we can deal with our problems versus even members on your crew realizing like you know what it's a lot easier for Junia to just do what this guy's saying and add to his you know his messaging and like that that that message of you know life is difficult but you still got to live it you know like you still got to address it that's such a was such a powerful message to me for that game and you end up saying and doing things as Peter Quill in that game that makes me feel like man at the end I was crying it was just such a good story he goes through so much emotionally and when the video game is over and you go back to the movies you're like who are you dude like I don't have a problem with you as a as a as as a movie cast but I just figured like 60 hours with with these other characters man I'd rather play a sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy the video game than watch another 10 Guardians of the Galaxy movies it's just so good highly recommend it I'll send you yeah I'll definitely try it thank you I need a good recommendation every once in a while I just finish the two Jedi games and I love both of them the second one especially then you'll love third person oh you'll love third person okay okay okay oh and also that woman who way in the future who uh kills the machines are the machines that have turned to animals basically you told me about it yeah Horizon zero Dawn yeah yeah that that's a third person game and I loved it so you'll love this game because there's also a nice little mechanic where um as you fight with your team you have a you have a cassette tape uh that can be set to like old school songs from like the early 80s and if you punch it you get to do a team huddle where you get to like give like a pep talk but it's based based on the conversations that you've had in the past so you have to pay attention to like all the lines and if someone's like having a down day because Rocket Raccoon couldn't find a screwdriver you have to like give a pep talk that's all about finding the right tool for the right job which gets him charged up and if you get like the right messaging lined up he's pumped up everyone else is pumped up and then like they start playing like a brand new song instead of like really fight music it's like I don't give a blank about your reputation and it feels so good to just have everyone like Bond as a team also it's a sort of game where it's like The Goonies maybe we can talk about The Goonies uh next half but no one ever shuts up there's always conversations with your team going on in the background so if you just stand and listen you could listen to like hours and hours at a time but yeah honestly you need to like come on guys we need to do the next thing it's like oh but this guy's yelling at it's like doesn't matter come on guys we need to move forward you're always like the guy who's like trying to keep things going as best as you can even though you're the one human in the group okay cool I'll have to definitely try it it'll be my next game rest man highly recommend highly recommend I give it a 10 out of 10 you will do some really really uh sincere things it's a good game if you love the Jedi games I love this more than the Jedi games in my opinion okay cool cool next movie okay uh we got like four oh we didn't talk about how it would be made better with Jesus no I was I was saying the video game addresses it the video game if you want to know how it is and I want to spoil it for you since we're talking about on the show but you get to see people recognize that Dogma that just distracts you from your problems while a good temporary or feels good temporarily is actually not the long-term solution it's detrimental to you in the long run absolutely is and so the whole game is about understanding listen things aren't perfect things kind of suck life is hard it's not gonna necessarily always get easy but it's the life that we got to live you know everything else this what this guy sing you isn't a is a lie it's just a it's a simulation it's a magic trick we need to focus on us to get better like that's how don't be distracted from your life and hope some a good afterlife that's right listen that's the game you should play next Larry you would absolutely love I definitely will okay cool uh my Let's see we got a quick one let me do one other one Honey I Shrunk the Kids is one of my faves the reason why is because I when I when you're really small the you realize that adults don't see things the way you do and that you're almost living as if you're in your own world where like cabinets aren't as big as you want them to be cups are too big for you plates are too big for you bags of groceries are too heavy for you and you think like man when will I ever get to the age where things finally feel like they're around my size right and so when I saw honey to Shrunk the Kids it was sort of like seeing adults Get shrunk back to a paradigm where they think who this world wasn't made for me but it is the world that for a lot of people you know and so when I saw the trunk kids I felt like yeah finally adults are going to understand how I feel but I also thought to myself man what if we got rid of the science fiction aspects of this and just had to be where the parents Get shrunk down and for them to get right back to the regular size they pray to God and they they confess their sins to the almighty father and they let them know that they are not perfect but they are willing to open up their hearts to the one true of truths the king of all Kings and the glory Glory of all glories or well as usual that that theme overlooks the fact that he allowed him to get in that POS predicament in the first place God gives people tests sorry if he doesn't know the answer to the tests he's not all knowing yeah it's you know people always start at a certain point and say God help me going forward and but they never never back it up to the point where they got into trouble or the car accident or you know lost their job or whatever right why wasn't God looking out for me then I prayed before that been praying for good things to happen to me and how how come this bad thing happened to me a lot of people don't realize that every moral story with God is basically a guy who dug a ditch like a hole in the ditch put like a false top on top of it and waited like eagerly as you're walking towards like the Garden of Eden yeah and just staring at you smiling smiling and you're like what's going on here and then you suddenly fall 20 feet and you break both your legs and he looks over the top and is like I could give you a rope and you're like I'll take a rope please and you climb yourself out the rope and he's like I gave you a rope and you have to be like thank you for giving me the Rope the end and you're like what a weird story yeah like you me in a really bad situation it's like no I tested you and I gave you a rope afterwards that's how we're back Garden Garden of Eden why did he put the tree in the garden and once once they did it why was he walking around the garden looking for him didn't they know where everything you see everything isn't he everywhere at once it's like he's just playing games with him you know he was it's basically when I like pretend to throw a doll for my cat and my cat's like where's the doll I'm like I have the doll still in my hand let's look for it together I put it in my pocket it's the same you ever see those magic tricks when they done on an animal like a dog or something and they're just totally taken back because they have no concept of where it could have been yeah yeah yeah I saw a guy doing it to gorillas at the zoo and that's just so uh well sad actually because they have no concept to what's going on sure sure I can toughly see that I could also say like man animals are super smart and we're not much different you know I think it's just the subversion of our expectations affect Beyond just humans but like that's a really good trick to show like animals know it's up I love the one where they have a mirror in the woods or a jungle and they'll have like a bear walk across it and the bear like what in the world is this I've never seen this before and then after a while they're like oh it's me that's interesting what the what's going on here very few animals have have the ability to recognize himself in a mirror yeah I'm not sure bear does but I mean the one I saw where the bear found the mirror within seconds that mirror was broken on the ground there are there are such things as dumb bears and smart Bears is okay I'll take your word for it I haven't seen a smart one don't let the dumb Bears control your entire IDE all population like we ar with that be that's why that bear is by himself theor okay yeah we need to take a break are you are you ready for it yeah yeah yeah this is the Digital freethought radio rnw oo radio 103.9 LPFM here in Knoxville Tennessee we'll be right back after this short break welcome back to the second half of the digital free thought radio hour I'm dter 5 and we're on W oo radio 103.9 pfm here in Knoxville Tennessee let's take just a moment to talk about the atheist Society of Knoxville ask was founded in 2002 we're in a 22nd year now and we have over 1100 members we have weekly in-person meetings every Tuesday evening in Knoxville's Old City at Barley's Tap Room in Pizzeria look for us inside at the high top tables or if it's pretty weather outside on the deck you can find us on Facebook meetup.com or by visiting our website at Knoxville atheist .org or just Google Knoxville atheist it's just that simple by the way if you don't live in Knoxville you should still go to meet up and do a search for an atheist group in your town don't find one start one start one right W where do you want to pick up I do want to I want to go back to bears real quick bears real quick before we move on bears real quick before because you know I always worry about the alien race that comes visits us for the first time and they're like you know let's just pick it anywhere on the planet doesn't really matter let's just pick and I don't want to pick on anybody let's pick on some people Arkansas we'll just go to Arkansas and then there's a weird little like PL plant plon and they like suck those people up and they're like this is the humanity guys we're gonna run some tests on these people and it'll represent how everybody is on this planet I'd be like don't do that don't do that there no not there please please like look at this they don't even know like we're throwing like we're juggling and they can't even count the number of things and I was like ah come on guys we just lost all our listeners from Arkansas but still I'm just saying you can look at one bear and be like the Bear's like what's going on and be like that's how all bears are it's like don't give okay I AP chance give him a second chance some bears are like oh we don't know this guy we don't know this guy there's a lot of different kinds of bears we're all we're all different some of us have degrees some of us can ride bikes you know we have some of some of them are Yogi some of them are boo boo right right right maybe uh how about let's transition to uh Yogi the bear is a comedy animation that's had a couple of liveaction movie spin-offs in the spirit of how they've done live action Garfield Smurfs taking classic shows from 90s and turned them into live action they did the same thing with Alvin and the chick monk Scooby-Doo you might be familiar with them my thing is this is like a I'll throw them into the same bag because they're all generally of the same quality like they'll take the cartoon characters turn them to CGI and then get some like C tier actors to like be around them them and basically you go to the movies and relive your childhood um my thing is there are some cases where I do feel like I've been given a moral message in in in the stories and then some cases where moral messages are in no way ever clear or close to him and I feel like here's my here's my split Casper the Friendly Ghost that is a movie that always has or a TV show that always has some sort of message along with it with some hint of spirituality right Casper is always trying to make friends with somebody as soon as they realize he's a ghost they're like I don't want to be your friend anymore and Casper's like a but we got along so well and that's how this thing ends and you think to yourself man if I'm just willing to put past my biases maybe I can get to know some really cool ghosts maybe I shouldn't be so afraid and Prejudiced by people all the time I'm like yeah I get that I feel that whereas Yogi Bear is like I'm gonna steal picnic baskets and he does and there's no repercussions whatsoever even the cops try to stop him like like stop trying to make me steal picnic baskets I'm a bear like it's in my it's in my my oh what's it in my jeans yeah house my nature it's in my nature I'm gonna get I'm gonna teach a kid to do the same thing I'm not changing my ways you came to my house you came to my house to bring picup baskets that's my property now I never got I never got the point of a Yogi Bear but I'm just like keep doing what you're doing so like some cartoons are all about that moral Learning lesson and then some some are just like just have fun just have fun and so I like so let's add Jesus to it how would that change I think adding cast I think adding Jesus aspects to the Casper might work pretty well like you could say for example I was talking about Yogi but can I'll do both I'll do both it's easy so for Casper basically when the friend doesn't want to happen Jesus can be like oh but he was a Palestine well why isn't why isn't the Casper and heaven or he shouldn't be still here on Earth yeah oh it was like so okay so every single time no one wants to be Caster's friend they could be like oh but you deserved it because you probably like gay or something like that and then I'll be like Oh okay that's fair totally fair yeah totally fair now I understand why I have a a life time of purgatory ahead of me because I was UN I was unclean unworthy for heaven but not bad enough for hell yeah yeah yeah he has to like you know uh learn how to be a bit more heterosexual and and buy property and and and fit that social expectation and then you'll be able to go you know I'm old enough to have read the comic books long before there was ever a movie okay yeah they used to have the comic books I thought were pretty good of course I was a kid kid at the time Wendy you remember Wendy the the little red witch girl I bague Recollections yeah well that was a spin-off of Casper she was Casper's friend oh so she was friends with a witch there you go that's why he's stuck in purgatory yeah but um you can you can you imagine having Jesus in a in a movie with a little red witch girl right but actually you know I believe the the uh yeah the the Bible talks against witches I mean how did the uh the Puritans treat them because they were Christians you know and they were always looking for a witch you know and even in Europe they had Europe and Witch Trials so I don't think that would have worked out well for Wendy no Jesus was in there in the same context I'm I'm and I want to really nail this down wasn't there a book series where you had these two boys and one boy was kind of lazy and he always had like some something wrong with his life and the other boy was well behaved and he always had something good with his life do you remember the name that was part of U oh it was a a children's magazine that was always laying around schools right right it was like almost boy life or something like that it was like yeah kind of like that but it was more animated and had had stories and tunes and puzzles in it right it's like Simon didn't wash his hands and all of his friends are brown Goofus and Gallant Goofus and G there you go yeah what what if Jesus Christ was always in the Casper cartoons but you never saw him because he was already in heaven and so you have a Goofus and Galla if we threw in Jesus it's basically Jesus in heaven being like I am perfect and everything here is pretty awesome whereas Casper's down on Earth and he's like oh man my friend's a witch and I'm so lonely and it's like Jesus is like my friends are witches and everything's awesome and Casper's like oh I'm so sad and Jesus is like everything's great up here I want I don't have to worry about anybody else but me yeah no Wendy witch was very sweet she was she wasn't evil at all course that goes against The Stereotype right witches are awesome my I when I lived in Knoxville I probably told you about this before but my neighbors who lived right underneath me in our complex are both witches practicing Wick Wick and witches really wow not old WIC and witches they were like in their 60s or 70s and they would leave like fruit on my door when I came home from from work they knew about the radio show that I was doing I'd help them with the laundry they' let me walk their dog um we got along very well they had they we they've invited me over for food before they loved Western jewelry they were like we were kind of like quasi Cowboy witches but yeah they were super cool super cool and when I let them know I was an atheist they're like oh wow that's awesome because we don't meet people like you here very often but Knoxville actually had a lot of flavorful people so really good yeah okay all right all right let's go to the next one we said we talk about Yogi now how do you infuse the only thing that Yogi needed was to repent for his sins so like what and stop doing it can't just repent he doesn't have to stop doing it he has to repent because God doesn't care what you do he just cares if you repent or not right that's the thing you know I I I have these conversations with Christians uh online generally they say uh you just want to you're an atheist because you just want to sin and you know my response is you know if I wanted to sin I'd stay a Christian because I could get for forgiven for anything there you go that's pretty good that's pretty good that's pretty good yeah it's very true because it doesn't matter good people don't know good people don't go to heaven it's only the people that you know pledge their soul to God that go to heaven and and and repent for their for their sinful ways right and the the result would be Yogi steals mountains and mountains of pickup Baskins until he gets to his old age and he's on his death bed as Buu is like looking over him he's like you're gonna make it Yogi and Yogi's like nope this is my time but let me do one last thing before I see the sweet Heavenly pearly gates and he claps his hands together he's like oh Father please forgive me for all the picnic baskets I've stolen in my past I am a repentant bear willing to be washed in the blood of the Lamb please father amen and then God's like okay fine I'm sure a lot of people are are living their life just like that it's like finally did a little while longer and then his whole soul goes up to heaven he's just like ah no regrets boo boo no regrets boo yeah use me an as an example I Did It My Way hey I thought you were gonna say let me pray one last time I'd like to have a pick a neck basket that's so funny no no regrets whatsoever that's the gangster way of going out okay so um man a lot of good movies dude okay so I had a I had a thing when I was growing up where it was very easy to scare me and I know we got some listener comments so we'll do two more movies and then we'll go straight into the comment section but when I was growing up we always had um I always was scared by one movie in particular called Terminator have you ever seen Terminator oh yeah several times okay as a you were probably much older than I when you watch that movie A love bit when I saw that movie and I saw the guy turn into liquid and go through a chain link fence my mind that was Terminator Okay then maybe I saw Terminator 2 and I was too scared to see one but I saw that and I was like oh no because my go-to plan to always get away from people would be like run around a fence cuz those no way you can go through a fence because you're made out of metal there's no way I win and heed through the fence and I'm like oh but if you could do that where can I run and you're already a machine I don't know what to do I'm terrified that scared the life out of me but you know what I didn't try doing instead of running around fences PR to God and whenever I'm chased by a big metal robot that always works well I'm just saying it should in a movie in a movie right send the message out and have kneel down on one knee clap his hands together and be like Oh Heavenly Father there's a giant robot with laser eyes coming after me he's 10 feet away from me please save me from my sins and I shall commit my life to you oh Lord oh Father oh God and then the robot just like turns around and walks away and explodes like that would get out so many pews filled wouldn't you agree like let's just take that movie all the way up until that moment like do Terminator one exactly as is do Terminator 2 all the way up until that scene where he fuses through the fence but have the kid kneel and pray for the robot to go away and then it becomes a Christian movie at the I like I turn at the hat and you're like what happened he like Jesus that's what happened and people will be like oh okay well I think it would work for a certain segment of the society but I think it would make the movie flop in the long run I mean to the to the general people who have I mean the CHR country what are you talking about this is Christian country they would love that they'd eat that up yeah yeah it's much less so now than it was before ever and it's it's it's leaving leaving that stance okay okay Larry you got the last movie what would you like to discuss uh Jurassic Park O classic you know I work with a guy who considers himself a Jurassic Park expert and could literally site the next line of any that you well I mean it had a it had a valid premise that we could if we could find old complete dinosaurs DNA uh we should be able to uh replicate it with current technology matter of fact they're they're working right now to to return mammoths to the Earth did you know that yeah yeah yeah how about this though they they do Jurassic Park but instead of bringing back the dinosaurs they instead discover that the Earth is only 7,000 years old oh and they're just and the dinosaurs never existed the no they did they did but it was just 7,000 years ago and they're like the scientists are like we need to hide this because this goes against every single thing that we know about and so what Jurassic Park is as a movie really is it's just about really clever Christian scientists trying to be like how can we get people to realize that the dinosaur is only 7,000 years old let's bring them back and ask them oh and they bring back the Tyrannosaurus Rex and he goes to the city he's like I'm 6,500 years old and the and all the atheists are like D it Checkmate Christian win and then that's the with credits you're like you got us good and we found the water from Noah's flood down there too that's Jurassic Park 2 and like the next one they'll find the ark and the whole time they're just like we're finding the things and scientists are trying to side them because about Jesus yeah they never cared about Jesus yeah um you know using their faulty logic and faulty science or and pseudo science and and putting out movies saying we found them I'm sure that it's uh coming especially with AI making it so easy going forward you don't need special effects they could just create the movie you know with anything already in it they're built in it yeah you know um I've always I've always thought it was a cool idea to try to bring back old animals um as long as we can their immune system up to date because I'm sure like even common cold would be enough to kill a moth or Mammoth these days but like yeah if they can bring him back and it's stable I'd be like okay that's a neat that's a neat demonstration of a lot of cool things when you have a walk though so what would you bring back I I think Mammoth would be nice just to demonstrate it but I don't think we should be it takes a a certain degree of a lot of engineering to like bring that back and my thought process would be is it the sort of thing where when a mammoth is actually walking around they finally have one in a zoo somewhere in New York that Christians would see that and say oh so science is pretty good like Bible didn't say anything about this science you win or will they be like oh but you know God always allowed for something like this to happen and there oh yeah they'd be an apologetic mode and that's you know that's all I mean when when presenter with packs it they can't repute it then it it doesn't go against their teaching it goes with it you know we we just witness uh you know the scientific discoveries that people say are in the Bible in the Quran you know but they have to stretch to make it match but they do it anyway right or they'd be like hey the guy who's the director of this this this this project he was a Christian therefore you know it's really Christianity who did this like it's just such a tired argument that's part where I just feel like no matter what you do in in science science by the way is never in in the in the in the practice of trying to disprove what cannot be disproven like you're never going to try to prove a negative in science and so because of that a lot of people take that as an open door to believe anything right but what science is really good for is validating what is true and so like if you have something that is a statement you can use science to demonstrate whether or not that statement is accurate or not and test it and if you can then that becomes a much more reliable statement to have sure so the fact is the matter is since we can't apply science to like any of the god claims and a lot of them just fall through the cacks or are outside the scope of science then I feel like we have enough proven or demon demonstrable scientific knowledge that you could live just on that without any of the spiritual junk right a very good quality of life there are countries right now that do that many of the European countries are mostly secular the uh Scandinavian countries are mostly secular yeah China for sure sure but you don't need it you don't need it for medicine you don't need it for how to make you don't need it for how to Ed name name one thing you need it for right well you needed to make those good movies you need Terminator for entertainment for fictional entertainment uh we got some listener comments we'll go through them real quick um friend of ours from the show uh tasty craft says sorry to see you guys go heard about your last episode um that's not coming up until a couple of episodes yeah a couple more weeks couple more episodes we do have a question this one I'm going to throw you this is by lurking who asks how do you feel about the capital G in God well I think you should use it when you're talking about a specific God you know if you're talking about Yahweh and then you refer to him as God then you should capitalize the G but if you're just referring to any God or God period then you don't need a capital G it's just the generic reference to to gods in general you know I heard that I've also seen Pastor say on a Pulpit I never capitalize the S and Satan just disrespect Satan I'm just like well then like in my thought it's like then it's no longer a grammar issue it's just an emotional issue for you and what a weird thing to boast about in front of like 40 people's like I don't follow grammar when it comes to G he goes yeah take that lower case say I'm like okay I'm sure he's really he got you got me you got [Laughter] but in my mind it's always been a job description for me like I understand it in the proper sense of like Lord when you're talking about a very specific person but I mean there were Gods before capital G God there were Lords before capital L Lord and so I see it as a way of imbuing it with more importance but I want people to recognize at least I want people would be more willing to understand when we have like these kinds of conversations that God lord savior like these are job descriptions and like these characters Christ Christ is a job description Christ is a job description they these these people had names and like if you knew what the names were or what they meant maybe that would be more indicative of what those people were because like if you look at even some of the biblical versions of what God's actual name was various versions of them simply just mean one God of these people or like a one of a many God like even Elohim is like the light of the people of of of a certain group of people who all who came from a class of people who are like all vying to try to have the one most powerful God like it I think it's telling that we um obscure or generalize the name of gods that we follow to just job description because that's a much more easier Target for people to imbue their ego and emotions and hopes on rather than like a very specific being that you'll know more and more about in the same same way that a lot of people know who the president is but probably don't know who their governor is or know who their mayor is or people who more directly affect their lives they just they just need the figure head and they don't want to know more about the details right right um especially before they're elected they just can't be bothered to find out about them yeah yeah yeah yeah it's a human nature sort of thing like we don't like to be too generalized anyway uh hopefully that was a interesting answer your question today I'm glad that there's no God is a comic given to us by dark lord uh please forgive me for this rambling uh basically he uh he speaks to um his mother uh falling to alzheimer's when she was 70 and um she started to refuse to eat or drink and that was the end game for Alzheimer she didn't want to be kept alive on a feeding tube ESP at at this point where isn't really uh uh her mom anymore he didn't really feel like it was his mom anymore not not his father's wife so she moved on to palita of care and is being made comfortable until the inevitable end so today he's glad that there's no God because he wouldn't want necessarily for this person to be living in that state for for eternity or being someone who she's not or wasn't for the like the last 20 years of her life like how do you how do you take an Alzheimer's patient and send him to heaven or a baby and what state are yeah and what state are they in if they're going to be in that state are they going to be the version of themselves where before they ever got sick and their family it's it's like God you know you state it as an answer but it brings up a thousand more questions um like like the version of hell that we all think about is not really in the Bible it's all from Dante's Inferno it's a fictional support uh for the concept of Hell matter of fact the hell they Scholars say that the Hell in the Old Testament was just a trash sheap outside of [Music] Jerusalem I agree no I totally agree uh I feel like it's always a tricky situation when people think man Heaven's a good place to be because a lot of times if you had a family reunion are some of the most contentious places for people to be in in the first place to be sure and you're like wait you want to do this forever do you even know how long that is is this going to be are is every okay all right all right there it is I've always said that heaven is only going to be heaven for one person there's only because there's so many different people in the world they're not all going to like the same thing and so you you either make heaven in a way where you mutilate the brains of the other people so that they like the same thing that every that one other person likes so that they all can have maximum whatever happiness and pleasure or you basically have a heaven that's just a a nice Lazy Boy in a white room that's just for one person and only one person can sit there and so if you if you don't know where I'm referencing there is a there was a uh all Bruce Almighty in Incarnation that was going to have Steve Carell uh be the the the lead and Morgan Freeman is God where he finds out that heaven is just for one person it's literally a chair for just one person because you can't have two people in heaven because people are going to have naturally different tastes and so whatever is perfect for one person is not going to be perfect for the second so that God just said fine I'll just make heaven for just one person and here's your chair Steve and he sits down on the chair and he realizes oh man so like where's everybody else they're like you don't have to worry about everybody else it's like so like my mom my dad my friends it's like they weren't saved you were you're in heaven be happy and I'm like I can't be happy if I know that other people aren't happy so obviously the movie didn't go through but he does make good friends with uh a character named Lucy who's just like can you turn down the thermostat it's really really hot here it's like we got used to it we got used to it and he's like I don't know how to control the country but I always thought to myself like you can't make a heaven that's happy for everybody and I can never enjoy Heaven knowing that there's people in hell and so the idea that there's a place just for people who are chosen who are happy to be there knowing that there are people who are not there that can't be loved ones that wouldn't be a heaven to me because one I wouldn't want to be there knowing other people are suffering and two I couldn't hang out with people who are okay with the idea of other people suffering for eternity like in my mind those are people that I want nothing to do with so the further away I am from those people the better the happier I am and if you just told me hey this is all a myth anyway I'd be like that that just solves a lot of problems for me like heaven hell like just it's it's done I don't have to worry about that when I was a kid uh teenager I used in in Western Tennessee a rural town I used to hunt I didn't there was a period of my time when I hunted but it wasn't very long but during that time I kept wondering you know since animals don't go to heaven you know and I love to hunt if I died and went to heaven what would I hunt that's you know a million billion questions about heaven which they don't address in in any kind of scripture the gears are no knows the gears returning for you way earlier than you yourself credit yeah but uh I mean nobody knows the answer but everybody claims especially in religion claims to know the answer uh and different religions have different answers I mean they can't all be right but they can all be wrong especially if Souls don't exist correct I know don't get me started correct correct and the fact is you don't have personal truths right there's just one truth and it's possible that nobody knows it and it's possible that if that's the case we should use the most reliable tools that we have in the meanwhile and the ones that demonstrated the one to be the most reliable are the ones that I'm using to communicate with you the same tools that I'm using to communicate with you right now same tools that our listeners are using to listen to us it's science yeah science very good method very good method not scientists and what the scientists say it's the practice of science the methodology of science yes yes do we have any more listener comments we got four more but we're nearing the end of the show oh let's try one more okay I think this is one sent in by Leo stefanakis he says I think religion will die out before the end of the century what do you think and he puts in some statistics that basically show that the more developed the country is the less religious it is so as countries become more developed isn't it likely that religion will eventually die out yeah I I agree as long as we experience our our progress and and betterment of of society I think that that that premonition is a good one however let's say that this uh this war with the Iran and and Israel goes further much further and involves nuclear war and it gets everybody involved and we all take a a rightand turn back to the past sure I think religion will resurge because it cuts out uh it will cut out our testing and our ability to do science and and teach and share knowledge the internet May survive but it would only be for a few yeah so we have a vested interest in in peace and forward moving forward in progress I think it's two fars it's like access to a high quality life and then also diversity of people around you and if you develop and developed countries have two things that do they do very well they bring in a lot of different people together into the same area and they make it easier to have a higher quality of life and when you're not as struggling anymore and you don't need assets to get hope for man you'd really love that Guardian of the Galaxy game this is exactly what we're talking about you will find that people start leaning Less on super itions and more on tangible methodologies that are reliable that work well for diverse group mindsets to meet a higher standard of life for everybody not just themselves right I guess we do need to close out now where can we find your your I'm on YouTube let's chat let's go very good nice and we're down to a couple more shows now uh next week week after that'll be it 365 shows seven years worth of shows you can find this podcast or this uh show on YouTube and on our website digitalfire thought.com where you can click on the blog button to find all of our articles and atheist songs and this radio show archive all 365 episodes once we get done my YouTube channel handle is at doubter 5 and you can find my book atheism what's it all about on Amazon remember everybody's going to somebody else's hell the time to worry about it is when they prove that heavens and Hells and souls are real until then don't sweat it enjoy your life and we'll see you next Wednesday night at 7 o'clock say bye everybody bye everybody bye everybody good show and a wrap