Tonight is the first edition (if you don’t count a couple of false starts) of GDAY WORLD BITCH SESSION. Your chance to come on the show and bitch to me about anything you like. I’ll try to do one of these each week. You can bitch to me about stuff that’s been on the show recently, the show in general, life in general, or just bring your own baggage. Your daddy didn’t love you? Bitch to me about it. You can’t get laid? Blame me. You need marital advice? I’m your man.
Tonight was a pretty slow start. I started off by myself, nothing wrong with a little onanism, so I indulged and chatted about Priscillian, the first Christian “heretic” executed by Christians in 385 CE. His crime? He said Christians should lead more ascetic lives, avoid marriage, and retreat from “worldly honors”. At the Council of Toledo in 400, fifteen years after Priscillian’s death, when his case was reviewed, the most serious charge that could be brought was the error of language involved in a misrendering of the word innascibilis (“unbegettable”).
Then I’m joined by Urbaer and we talk about religion. Are Taoism and Confucianism religions or just social philosophies? Should Christianity become a social philosophy and leave behind it’s supernatural aspects?
I also show Urbaer the new TPN homepage which went up tonight. This is version 3.0 of the TPN homepage and we’ve been working on it, on and off, for about 10 months. It’s a relief to finally have it up. Version 2 lived WAY beyond it’s due by date. Mano and his team have done a great job pulling this together.
Finally we are joined by Molly and the Randulo, an American in Paris, who tells us about his wine podcast and the 24-hour podathon he is running on TalkShoe this week to raise money for third-world entrepreneurs.
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The G’Day World Theme Song is “Save Me†by The Napoleon Blown Aparts.
Oooh bitch session… I like bitch sessions.
Speaking of which Colin’s ex referred to me as ‘princess’ yesterday. The nerve!! 🙂
Just to defend my poor standing on this show, I just got home, was in the laundry with my computer and had a sad 2 year old visiting with me. For the record, he was sick of hearing about the Science v Religion as well.
But if it is going to continue, how about you step out of your comfort zone and start showing why the other Religions are bad as well. Why don’t you “convery a Jew” or “Convert a Muslim” or “Covert a hindo”?
Molly
I’ve answered that question before Molly. 70% of Australians consider themselves Christians. I’m happy to start with them.
The band idea was lots of fun but you’d be surprised how few people actually play an instrument. Unfortunately the only ‘band’ instruments I play I suck at! I was always a singer and a classical musician so whilst I can play guitar and drumkit it would be more embarrassing than fun to play them in public.
Shouldn’t that mean that 30% of the time you should be bagging other religions? Cop out if you ask me.
Molly
Go Molly, yeah I reckon cam should (in the interests of balenced journalism of course) denote 30% of cams time bagging other religions beside christianity.
Maybe we could have a right wing christianity hour on the podcast network 🙂
I still Maintain that the idea of religion is like the ideas of Unionism and Politics. Fine in theory but it all goes out the window when people involved start introducting their own adgenda into them.
The idea of the seperation of church and state is a good one too, but thanks to the politicians wanting to attract ‘the christian vote’ (an idea of man not god by the way) the gap between them is closing.
my $0.02
J
John
1. I am not balanced and never said I was going to try to be. TPN is here to make the world a better place (extremely profitably).
2. I’ve been producing the Father Bob show on TPN for a year.
3. Religion is not a good idea in theory. It is a divisive, violent and flawed idea in theory. Humans just make it worse.
cheers
Cam
Awwww Cam,
1) I was only Joking, Ive got as much right to take the piss out of atheists as you have to take the piss out of christians.
2) I certainly wouldnt put fr Bob in the right wing christian basket. Secular humanism is nowhere near right wing christianity.
3) The same thing could be said about politics. It also is also devisive, causes violence and yes humans do make it worse but I dont here you getting on the bandwagon demanding the abolition of politics in the world.
I think the major problem with religion is some of the people who preach it. As father Bob has said, its the clerics in this world who have a lot to answer for. If it is as violent as you say Cam then why doesnt every christian hate every muslim, every jew, every buddist, every hindu etc. Why isnt the war between the catholics and the prodastants (spell) still continuing today. I think it is because the core message of the bible is one of tolerence and of love. The problem is extremists and fundamentalism, and unfortunately Cam you get to meet them in all walks of life. Maybe you should be trying to get rid of them.
I guess this makes $0.04
J
John, the difference, of course, is that politics is just a process by which groups of people make decisions.
Religion, on the other hand, preaches that some people are superior to others and that the people who don’t believe what the religion wants them to believe should either be killed, forced to obey, or will end up in eternal damnation.
Religious apologists like to say stuff like “the core message of the bible is one of tolerance and of love” but that’s just a crock. As I’ve pointed out here many times, the bible (OT) is full of God-authorized violence, bloodshed, intolerance and rape. And according to christians, Jesus *is* that god.
The only religion I can think of that meets your definition of tolerance and love is Buddhism and that’s not even really a religion. It’s more a philosophy and a system of psychology.
“politics is just a process by which groups of people make decisions. ”
Good old wikipedia eh ??
Bit of a minimalist way of looking at things isnt it ??
From the same article
“In a broader sense, any situation involving power may be described as politics. Informally, any political maneouvring in order to enhance one’s power or status within a group may be described as “politics” (e.g. office politics).[3] This form of politics “is most associated with a struggle for ascendancy among groups having different priorities and power relations.”
From this i would sumise that Politics is a method by which one can assert power over a group. It its a means by which you achieve a personally desired outcome, not necessarily the best outcome for the group as a whole.
One of the tools of politics is to only supply people with information that supports a particular arguement, not to give them the whole story.
Which is exactly what you have done here.
Ever thought of running for PM ???
This makes $0.06
J
Hey there Cam,
I wonder if you’re being a bit too black and white the whole Xy thing. To me, it comes across like your saying that Fred Nile type people are as bad as Father Bob type people (and I can’t see you setting up a podcast show with Fred Nile any time soon). To be honest it’s a little bit reminiscent of Christians who say all sin is the same and so, someone stealing a flower out of someone’s garden is as bad as the crimes of Hitler, Stalin or Napoleon. (had to throw that in, 😉 )
Any way, Dave Andrews (www.daveandrews.com.au) might be an interesting person for you to interview. He’s kind of a protestant Father Bob. He’s written the books “Not religion but love” and “Christi-Anarchy”. He might help get some good shades of grey into the discussion.
Chris, I have come to the conclusion that ALL faith-based philosophies are detrimental to the human race. Now, granted, within those philosophies, there are some genuinely good people, like Father Bob, and some downright evil people, like Ted Haggard, and everything in between.
But my point is that any philosophy which tells people to ignore the evidence and believe in spurious myths is detrimental, dangerous and just a little bit evil in its own right.
And, just because you dare to taunt me with the Hitler – Napoleon comparison, I’ll add this: all people who allow themselves to accept faith over evidence are either ignorant (i.e. they haven’t had the benefit of an education, can’t read, and don’t know any better) or they are seriously misguided and are acting, intentionally or not, against the future of the human race.
Rational thinking, an honest assessment of the evidence, and true democracy is the only way the human race will progress.
And I’m even changing my mind about the last one. I’m starting to think a good, benign dictatorship is what we need, at least in this country. Where is Marcus Aurelius Antoninus when you need him?