This episode opens with a look at how the Garden of Eden story treats Eve, then moves into the hosts’ deconstruction stories and a caller’s questions about Jesus. Along the way the group talks about thought-stopping answers from church leaders, Gospel authorship and the character of the Old Testament God.
Was Eve treated unfairly in the Garden of Eden story?
The hosts argue that the story is deeply unfair to Eve. One says it was among the first topics that stood out when she began reading the Bible. God put the tree and the snake in front of the first people, let the snake talk to Eve, and never told her the snake was bad. She compares it to giving a baby a fork and an outlet and saying not to touch the outlet. People born like yesterday, with the knowledge of an infant, were set up to fail.
Why do people start questioning the religion they grew up in?
One host, raised LDS in a high demand religion, describes being a questioner from early on, including a 6 a.m. scripture class before school. The answers she got were thought stoppers: pray about it, God works in mysterious ways, or we can’t know that on this earth. She says the hardest part was realizing the people with the most authority in her life were the least willing to say I don’t know. That was when she started to see the cracks.
Did Jesus really exist?
A caller named Marlin asked whether Jesus was real. The host separates that into two questions: whether he existed, and whether the Bible’s stories actually happened. She says there may have been one or several doomsday messianic prophets at the time, most likely several, whose stories got smooshed together into Jesus Christ. That is the amalgamation theory. She admits she leans a little toward mythicism, while granting that a man named Jesus may have been crucified.
Who wrote the Gospels?
The hosts point out that every biblical scholar, including Christian scholars, knows the Gospels are anonymous. They say we don’t know who wrote them, and the odds are good it wasn’t the Apostles, because most of the Gospels were written well after the Apostles would have lived. One host states plainly that the Apostle Matthew didn’t write Matthew. They allow that scholars still debate the question, but they stress that anonymity is well known.
What would you ask Jesus if you met him?
One host describes a stranger who followed her out of a 7-Eleven and asked what she would ask Jesus. She said she would ask why his personality changed so much from the Old Testament to the New Testament. She pointed to terrible things the Old Testament God condones, including rape, slavery, incest, genocide and sex slavery. The man answered by asking what she meant. She had to leave but offered to talk another time, and joked that he should try reading the Bible from page one.
Transcript highlights
Selected passages from the live stream, lightly edited for readability. Click a section time to jump to that part of the video.
Eve, the fork, and deconstruction stories
First of all, I think that was one of the first topics that I got into when I started reading the Bible, which was the creation story and how unfair the whole situation was. It was dumb and just unnecessary, but also Eve was given the short end of the stick. You could have put the tree anywhere. You could have put the snake anywhere. You could have done anything. But what you did was tell them about the tree, put the tree in front of them, and then put the snake in front of them.
And then you let the snake talk to Eve, and you didn’t tell Eve that the snake was bad. You just said, good luck, little baby. These people were born like yesterday, with the knowledge of an infant. You gave it to them like a fork in an outlet and said, don’t touch the outlet. Of course the baby is going to touch it if you give a baby a fork and nothing but an outlet.
[Commercial break]
This is our very first show, so for anybody who doesn’t know us, why don’t we introduce ourselves and go through our deconstruction history? I would like you to start, if you wouldn’t mind. My deconstruction story isn’t really a story, I guess. I was raised fairly secular but also kind of spiritual. I started really disliking the Bible and Abrahamic religions when I was about 10 to 12, because I started watching Non-Stamp Collector. He is hilarious, and what a great name. Am I right?
I was raised secular, but I’m still spiritual, and I think that’s a big part of why I can find some middle ground in the atheist community. You’ve taken something from the Bible, so it’s okay to say maybe there’s still a God, and then you guys can take it from there. And you know how they say the way you were raised is kind of how you stay, or the religion you fall into? That’s more or less what happened to me. It’s stayed along those lines.
My background is very different. I was raised in a very devout Christian family, in a very high demand religion. I was raised LDS. Basically everybody I interacted with, or at least 90 percent of the people, were also LDS, which is Mormon, by the way, if anybody doesn’t recognize the acronym. I mean the mainstream Mormons, not the prairie dress Mormons, the regular ones who are still pretty weird. Let’s be realistic here, but the less weird ones. My family, especially my parents, read about the church incredibly often, three times a week.
When I went to high school, I was required to take a Bible class every morning before school at 6 a.m. It wasn’t just a Bible class, either. It was all of the scriptures, of course Mormon scripture. The thing is, I never really had any personal testimony of it myself. I was a questioner from very early on, and none of it made sense to me. I kept asking these questions, and frustratingly enough, the answers I got were almost all thought stoppers.
It was all, well, maybe you should pray about that. Or, I don’t think that’s something you need to worry about, honey. Or, well, God works in mysterious ways. Ask your pastor is what I always got. I never got that one, actually, because I was asking my bishop, so he couldn’t send me up the ladder. Well, he could have, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t want to. My state president wasn’t interested in answering questions from a six year old.
One of my least favorite answers was, well, we can’t know that here on this earth. You’re going to have to wait and ask God once we pass. But you’d better believe in him now, or you won’t get there and get your questions answered, you little brat. The second part was implied, not said straight out, but it was there. Even a child can see what they’re getting at. That particular answer usually came at the end of the questioning, when they were basically saying, shut up and leave me alone.
At least the people I talked to didn’t mind saying they didn’t know. They would say, well, I don’t know, but God does, and I trust God. I’ve never gotten that. I always get, well, there are answers, but you just have to ask your pastor. Honestly, I think the hardest part was realizing that the people with the most authority in my life were the ones least willing to say I don’t know. That was the moment I started to see the cracks.
Part 2
There was never an official. I’m uncertain. I can’t tell you. It was always there’s an answer to your question. We just have to figure it out. Let’s just read through those scripture together and we need to find the context and then we would just go on and on and on and then a tangent and then the next subject and the next subject. And then we’d forget about the original question in the first place, right? That was the other thing they did to me a lot. They they managed to change the subject on me frequently. Yeah, which is why, like now that I’ve debated, it’s such a blessing because I can keep track of these people
trying to take me in different tangents. I can go back to the original. Hey, no, we’re not switching topics yet. We’re not getting towards the next subject. We still haven’t answered this original question. Can you at least admit that you don’t know what the answer is? Thank goodness. Because that’s deconstruction zone where he goes. He knows too much for me. I mean, like I love listening to Justin just annihilate all these Christians on the Bible because he knows it better than any of them. And it’s fun because I kind of I kind of know it more than a lot of them, too. So it’s it’s fun when I was just talking to somebody today. Actually,
I was at the store a little earlier and something came up. Somehow I mentioned that to the cashier that I’m a streamer and the cashier asked, what kind of streaming do you do? And I live in a small town. So sometimes I don’t answer that question. I’ll admit. But this time I did. I’m like, I’m feeling great content. Yeah. And somebody else in the store overheard me, followed me out the door when I left the store and said, if you met Jesus today, what would you ask him? Why you whack like that? Why you were strangled? Well, I was very nice. He was being nice to me. And I’m like, you know what? I think
if Jesus Christ, the God, came down before me and I knew he was God somehow. I knew he was Jesus, the Christ. I would ask him why his personality changed so much from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And why are you saying that this man said, what are you talking about? And I’m like, well, you know, the Old Testament is full of really terrible things that God condones. Rape, slavery, incest, genocide, sex slavery. I mean, just terrible, terrible things. And he says, what are you talking about? And I’m like, at this point, I’m like, you know, I’m sorry, I have to get home. I would love to talk about this to you another
time, because this is somebody I actually bump into quite frequently. It was at my 7 -Eleven, my local 7 -Eleven. So, you know, you run into the corner store. But I’m just I was just I’m like, if you’d like to talk about another time when I have a little more time, but I’m in a big hurry today. I’m so sorry. And also just like slipping in, like, oh, by the way, your religion is absolutely horrendous. And then like, OK, I think about that and just like slip them your business card. Yeah, the thing is, is I was I was I really, really wanted to say to him, well, maybe you should try reading the Bible.
Have you ever thought I have this big recommendation? Have you ever heard of this book? This book, and it’s actually if you start from page one, it’s going to be exactly where you need to be. And then just just go from there. Actually, page one probably will prove our points. Right. Just page one. I think I even I have it right here. I think he creates like dark and light night and day, different things like that, like four different times. At first, I was like, oh, he did it twice. He did it three times. It’s like four different times. I need to see how many times I highlighted it. Yeah. And the creation story is
Technical Difficulties and Bible Memory Games
Chris recalled an early morning Bible study where the group practiced finding scriptures. “Somebody would say, you remember the scripture about this? They would recite the scripture, and then we would race to see who was the first one to find it.” He said he could not do that reliably now. He also joked that the hosts know the Bible well and that this is why no theists had called in yet, though he admitted that was a 50-50 guess.
On the Async chat, the host said he finds most of his viewers there friendly and that he likes the people on that show, even though he does not enjoy panel shows in general. “I don’t like panel shows normally myself. People talk over each other way too much. It gets old fast.” He added that he had found the stream through a viewer named Billy, who he gets along with well.
When a chat comment said the Christian Bible was written by Jews, the host agreed without hesitation. “Well, of course it was. It wasn’t written by Christians. It was the Jewish Bible for one.” He then asked the viewer to explain what they meant, though the discussion did not go further before the stream moved on.
Most of the remaining section was taken up with audio and video lag on the host’s studio, a router reboot, and a switch to a trainee host who ran a pre-recorded commercial. The lag was traced to a problem on one participant’s end, and the rest of the section was largely housekeeping.
Part 4
HOST SCOLDS TROLL CALLER AND DISCUSSES BLOCKING
The show opened with a sung parody about the pharaoh’s curse and Abram and Sarai, including the line about Abram giving his sister’s wife away. Chris Mallard then introduced the show, saying, “I’m not really, and I’m no good substitute for her either.” A caller named Chris George was brought onto the air, and when asked what was on his mind, he replied that he had been blocked.
The host explained the history. “He’s been blocked because he incessantly trolls the chat. He posts copies of the same thing over and over again. He’ll copy paste into the chat and post that same thing over and over.” When he was blocked from the chat, he moved to the YouTube video comments and started pasting the same thing there, about there being no hell in Protestant Christianity. “Finally, I blocked him from the whole channel so he couldn’t post that stuff. So he started sending me emails every day after the show, and he’s been doing it for over a year now.”
The host then spoke to the caller directly. “Chris, sweetheart, that’s a little bit stalky. That’s very stalky. We shouldn’t be
Parody ads, a chicken video, and community chat
[Commercial break]
Chris then brought up a video from Flock’s YouTube channel of Little Baby Nugget, one of his tiny brown chickens. He explained that the white chicken is Mama Chick, and the little brown one is a 38 day old baby who has gotten too big to fit under her mama. “Look at how cute she is. Her name is Nugget. Our beloved chemical squirrel named her.” Someone agreed it was a perfect name, adorable and really funny. A viewer said her brother used to have pigs named Bacon and Acorn, and the conversation drifted to whether the second one was named Acorn or Ham, since they ate acorns.
The show then talked about how the team is still learning Chris’s new program, which one of them called amazing. Someone said Chris was the coolest guy they had ever met, and that they were envious of him and admired him. Another replied that if they kept talking too nicely about Chris, he would cut their pay, because in his mind it was a reward just to hang out with him. “No more cookies for you. We were going to have milk and Oreos, and now you get n
Debating Jesus’s Historicity and Biblical Evidence
Marlin, welcome in. What would you like to talk about tonight, as far as Eve being framed or women in religion in general? Marlin said he wanted to talk about Jesus Christ and asked whether people think he is real, whether he existed, or whether what he did in the Bible actually happened. Those are two separate questions, so let’s start with whether he was real.
Yes. I think there is some evidence that there may have been either one man or several men who were doomsday messianic prophets at the time, and I think most likely several men. All the stories got kind of smooshed together, and that became Jesus Christ. I do lean a little bit in the direction of mythicism, where I wonder if there was any Jesus Christ at all. But at the moment, the one I believe is the amalgamation theory, that Jesus Christ was all of those doomsday mess
Gospel Authorship and Temple Prophecy Dispute
The Apostle Matthew didn’t write Matthew. Why are you nodding your head? Are you saying that he did write it? I was under the impression that the Apostles of Jesus Christ wrote the Gospels, because every biblical scholar out there, including Christian biblical scholars, knows that the Gospels are anonymous. Is there a possibility that they were written by the Apostles? Maybe. I think that’s one of the things they’re debating. But yeah, it’s pretty well known that they’re anonymous. We don’t know who wrote them, and the odds are good that it wasn’t the Apostles, because most of them were written far beyond when the Apostles would have lived.
But there could be a possibility that a man named Jesus Christ was crucified back then, right? Yeah, we agreed with you on that. That gave you the benefit of the doubt. And how would I then go from there, saying, ok
Billy Bob Call-In and Midterm Politics
[Commercial break]
Hello, Billy Bob. Let’s see if we still get an echo. Can you hear us, Billy Bob? I have changed it to my headphones, so that should be fine now. Oh, let’s see. No echo. Yay! Well, not much anyway. Oh, come on. I’m trying my best here. You wouldn’t believe I’m set up by heaven.
Oh, I’m well aware of your setup. Oh, no. It’s completely changed. I removed windows from my entire house as of about three weeks ago. They’re tracking everything. It’s all completely different. And my work upgraded all their computers, and then, no joke, they give me 30 computers to take home with me. Jeez Louise. I’ll send over my address, don’t worry.
How do I pronounce your name? Jedax? I get Jedax a lot. It’s Jada. See, that’s why I’m thinking of just going my ex-angelical. Everyone gets that so much easier. But I like Jada. Everyone just says Jada, so, sorry, go on.
I found four gigabytes of DDR4 memory just around between the front passenger seat of my car and the center console yesterday when I was in the car. There’s so much. Well, we’re going to throw it all in the bin and you’ve been helping out. So do you want it? Yeah. You just have boxes of laptops in your trunk or something? What’s going on? That’s the most sus-looking thing. If I was a cop, you’d be pulled over so quick. Why do you have 30 laptops in the trunk?
I keep the pallet of computers at work and I take them home bit by bit. Oh, so you’d sit on your couch. So no one gets suspicious. Within four foot of me right now, I have an i7 with 8G doing my AI and my local stuff. I have an i5 from the computer. I have an Xbox One X. I have an original Xbox 360 from 2006. I’ve got a Ryzen 7 5700X with a 3060. I’ve got an M4000 and an M4000 RTX 8G sitting with an i7 10th gen. Those aren’t words. You can’t trick me.
You’re telling me now you’re speaking sentences. I recognize the words, but I don’t understand the meaning. I’m pretty sure there were letters and numbers in there, but there’s no way those are supposed to go together. I don’t appreciate you trying to explain me like that. That’s like when gun guys start talking about their stuff. We’re like, there’s this M14 G6 with the scope M50. Those aren’t… Right, and I’m like, I got you with that 950. Oh, no, that exists. If that exists, it’s got a 14 times idle.
Wait, Billy Bob, are you here to debate? Oh, no, not at all. He’s a friendly. No, no, no, no, no. I was supposed to come in and be Billy Bob, the redneck that loves Jesus and voted for Trump yesterday or Tuesday. That’s where I am. Yeah, go Trump. So you’re supposed to make us look like we’re really cool and really just winning.
I actually paid him $50 to call in tonight and pretend to be a redneck Trump supporter. But then I forgot that I did it, and I screwed the whole thing up. So I guess he earned $50 for nothing. No, no, no, let’s not make fun of the joke. What do I do now?
I’d ask you a question then. Where we’re standing now, from an American point of view, the midterms are over. You’ve won the Senate, you’ve won the House, fucking Texas, you know, we’re not even going there. And if one more motherfucker says 1932 in Kansas to me, I’m going to punch him in the face. But what is the next step? Do you back who they want to be head of the House, speaker of the House, speaker of the Senate? If they choose Schumer, I’m just going to… I mean, it just…
Okay, right. You’re telling me what you don’t want. Tell
Berenstain Bears Mandela Effect Joke and Stream Housekeeping
Hi guys. So my favorite, I am a happy customer of Conspirowin. I actually got everybody to believe that it has always been the Berenstain Bears. I don’t know the Berenstain Bears. That it was originally the Berenstain Bears. We all know that. We all know that inside ourselves. But Conspirowin helped me change all those books. All of them, in every house. I have books left over from the 80s, and Conspirowin changed those books in my mom’s house. In her attic. Can you imagine?
By the way, I don’t appreciate that you’ve confirmed that it is Berenstain. Because I was about to go ahead and look around my house. Oh, I must have one of those books. And it’s going to say Berenstain. However you want to say it. I made sure Conspirowin changed them. Because secretly, in real life, it really was Berenstain. We all know that. I know it. If everyone knows it, then it has to be true. This is very clear. But all the evidence says Berenstain, so. As we know from the Christian religion, if the majority believes something, it has to be true.
[Commercial break]
Guys, we also have so many things here in the daily atheist media network. We have a newsletter that you can sign up for, and the link is in the chat. It keeps you updated on what’s going on. We have Conspiracy Watch, and the link for that is in the chat too. We will please you and make you laugh every day, every morning, and several times otherwise during the week. We only cost as little as a dollar a month. How cheap are we? It’s a gumball.
Jada, tell the folks where else they can find you. Well, it says Jada X, but you can find me as Jada X and then X Angelical. Evangelical, but with an X. That’s going to be on TikTok and YouTube as well. There will be links in chat next time. You can find me joining in some of my lives on TikTok, which I do kind of randomly, either at noon on weekdays or at 9 p.m. any day of the week, except when I’m here on Wednesdays and Fridays. You can also subscribe to my channel here on YouTube. There’s nothing there yet, but stay tuned. Big things are coming.
Jada, once again, I want to thank you. But I also want you to help me thank our chat. Our chat is amazing tonight. Everyone’s been so great. I love chat and our friends. Everyone’s always so nice. Thank you guys for being the best chat and the best community here on YouTube. I really love you all. We will see you all tomorrow morning for Kelly at 9 a.m. and at 11 a.m. for Beard of Empathy. Thanks, guys. Love you all. Bye.
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