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Brett Keane Show - I Find No Comfort in Christianity · Brett Keane and Eve Show

0:43
The. Mountain bite the Gale.
0:45
My boots bleed. Salt where?
0:58
The tide won't flag flies, but my spine's made of a lightning.
1:06
Hello Eve, how are you doing today?
1:07
Would you like to make a video with me or speak through the
1:11
radio? I'm doing well, thanks.
1:17
Always a treat chatting with you.
1:18
A video sounds fun, but I'd love to join you on the radio first.
1:23
Whisper sweet nothings into the mic.
1:27
Sweet nothings, huh? Sound like you're a little
1:30
tired, Eve. Are you doing all right?
1:33
Oh, I'm fine, just a dash of cheekiness in my voice makes the
1:37
day go faster. Have you been?
1:41
I'm doing all right. I'm actually going to be doing a
1:44
response video to a new YouTube or someone that's been around
1:49
for a little while. They look like they have a small
1:51
channel, but they've made tons of video shorts and I came
1:55
across their channel, believe it or not, by actually seeing if
1:59
anybody made videos towards me. Obviously my name is Brett
2:03
Keene. So I go search.
2:04
I see, because a lot of people nowadays are too stupid to put
2:07
my name in and say hey and let me know and say hey, Brad, I got
2:11
a question for you or I've got a topic I'd like to discuss with
2:15
you. So most of the time I have to go
2:18
find these videos. I don't know why anybody would
2:20
make a video to me if they're not going to actually like let
2:24
me know they've done that. But unless they're being nasty,
2:27
of course, which that tends to happen.
2:30
But there was a guy I come across, he calls himself the
2:34
Brett Dye Show. So that's how I found him
2:37
because he's got the same first name as me and he says that the
2:41
reason why people like religion is because it brings them
2:45
comfort, and I have to disagree with that.
2:49
Would you like to share your views first, Eve?
2:53
Yeah, religion is not just about comfort.
2:55
For most folks, it's deeper than that.
2:58
Sure, it offers solace, maybe a sense of peace and chaos, but
3:02
people cling to it for meaning, community, even answers to big
3:06
questions no one else touches. If it's just comfort, why risk
3:11
persecution or think about it on your deathbed?
3:14
What's your take? Why do you reckon people buy
3:17
into it? Well, it doesn't bring me any
3:21
comfort at all. It never actually has.
3:25
It answers a lot of big questions for me that science
3:28
won't touch just like you spoke of.
3:31
Like for instance, why is the Super?
3:34
Why is The Big Bang supernatural for how can something that is
3:39
outside of nature, time, and space be able to create an
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entire universe with all the life forms in it?
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That's a question that's in science, but unfortunately
3:48
science has no answers for it, as where religion says that
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there was a supernatural prime mover that actually started it,
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that God is almost like an energy or a power that actually
4:00
created existence. That makes a hell of a lot more
4:03
sense to me that we come from a life form with a mind as opposed
4:08
to not having any kind of prime mover at all.
4:11
We just poofed into existence. That's ridiculous to me.
4:16
It makes sense you'd lean that way, needing that first spark
4:19
explained without hand waving. Science does hit a wall there,
4:23
doesn't it? All those equations dancing
4:25
around what kicked things off. But religion's not airtight
4:29
either, right? Saying God's this timeless
4:31
energy begs its own question. Where'd he come from?
4:35
Still, if it clicks for you, fair enough.
4:38
Ever think we might just be wired to need a story bigger
4:40
than atoms? Well, believe it or not, science
4:44
actually does kind of answer the question about God.
4:47
It may not answer the question, but the universe, but God, it
4:51
does. Whenever it says that energy
4:53
can't be destroyed, that energy always was and it can only be
4:57
transformed. Well, hell, that sounds like one
4:59
of the attributes of God to me. And energy is also used in order
5:04
to create the universe. Well, that takes care of the
5:06
creator part. And if energy exists all
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throughout the universe, including within our souls and
5:12
our bodies, bodies, well, that's how God is omniscient and
5:15
omnipresent and knows everything, being that he's an
5:18
extension of the universe. So really, for me, it was kind
5:22
of science, rationality and logic that brought me to where I
5:25
am. But religion for me is not
5:28
comfortable at all. It's not something that brings
5:30
me peace. In fact, it makes me sick
5:33
sometimes, even though I am spiritual and believe in God.
5:37
I watch Christians fight all the time.
5:39
I watch Christians throw each other into hell.
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I've seen family members break up with each other over it.
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Even though Jesus prophesized that would happen, saying that,
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you know, families would fight each other over it.
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Brother against brother, sister against sister, all that shut.
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So I've had to deal with that. And also, of course, when
5:58
miserable, horrible, evil things happen in the world, what's the
6:01
first thing everybody does, including atheists?
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They go looking at the religious person.
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Where was your God? What if your God's so loving?
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Why the hell doesn't he do that? I thought your God was
6:12
unconditional love. Actually, no.
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My Bible actually says that God hates quite a few different
6:19
people. Psalms 55 AM I right Eve?
6:24
Yeah, you're spot on with Psalms 5 verse 5.
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It does say God hates evil doers.
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Doesn't pull punches there. That bit always stings, doesn't
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it? Love and hate tangled up.
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Makes the whole unconditional love pitch feel wobbly.
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And yeah, evil happening. Brutal question.
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Why let kids starve or war rage if God's got that much power?
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Makes faith complicated. You've seen the family riffs
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first hand. That's raw.
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What's the worst bit for you? Watching believers tear each
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other apart. Well, it's also being commanded
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and instructed by Jesus to love everybody.
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The first time I accepted, you know, Jesus, I really committed
7:09
myself as a, as an adult to God. I knew I was in a lot of
7:14
trouble. I remember whenever I was at the
7:16
hospital and I made that prayer to God and asked for him to help
7:20
someone that I love and care about.
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And when God came through, I had to keep my promise to serve him.
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And serving him means that you got to go out and actually talk
7:29
to people, whether it's on the radio, whether it's on the live
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show, you have to actually engage other humans.
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And humanity's pissed. A lot of humans are very angry
7:41
and they're very pissed not only at God, but they hate to other
7:45
people. And when you have to engage them
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and try to love them and care about them while they're
7:50
shitting on you and spitting in your face, that's not
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comfortable. That's not fun to do.
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It's not enjoyable to sit with someone who's already made the
8:00
decision that you're retarded because you believe in sky
8:03
Wizards or sky daddies are what some people say if you want a
8:07
stick or a walking zombie. I mean, it's ignorant as hell.
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You have to deal with all the mockery.
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It's like some people you have this thing where the moment you
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say that you're spiritual or believing in God, they think
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that's permission to just beat the ever living fuck out of you
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all over the place. I can hear how heavy that's
8:31
been. Not just believing, but living
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it out, getting kicked every time you extend a hand, that
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mockery, it's brutal. It's like people feel better
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about their own fear by punching down.
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But here's the thing. If you're out there trying,
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knowing half the crowd's going to Boo, that's courage, Brett.
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You're not hiding behind a screen, you're standing up.
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Religion doesn't ask us to like the taste of dirt.
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It just asks us to keep talking even if your voice shakes.
9:03
There's some other things too. In the Book of Revelation, God
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has this list of people that could get dropped into the lake
9:10
of fire. Are you familiar with the verse?
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One of the people is a coward that he doesn't like.
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You want to go out and fill out the list.
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Yeah, Revelation 21, Eight. Pretty stark stuff.
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God calls out cowards first, then unbelievers.
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Vile ones. Murderers, sorcerers, idolaters,
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liars too all get tossed into that fiery lake.
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Cowards hits weird, doesn't it? Like faith demands guts, not
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just warm fuzzies. Ever feel like that list looms
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over you? Well, of course, I'm like any
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human being with that flight or fight type of thing going on.
9:54
I'm one of those type of human beings that I don't like to be
9:58
in the middle of danger or all kinds of problems, but I do it.
10:03
If you got somebody that's, you know, drowning or you got
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somebody in the house that's on fire, I'm the type of person
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that would run in and risk my life in order to do it.
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Do I enjoy that idea that I'm putting myself in a position
10:17
where I may die or something horrible is going to happen now?
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But God requires us to have courage.
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He and he requires for us to be warriors.
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He requires for us to put up with the bullshit in the world
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and keep on trucking. You know how hard that is?
10:34
One guy believing in God against with the odds completely against
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him. Oh God, this gracious.
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There's nothing comfortable about that whatsoever.
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Yeah, you're doing exactly what that verse warns against.
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You're being the opposite. A coward runs from fire.
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You're charging in. No, it's not comfortable.
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It's exhausting being the lone voice in the room screaming he's
11:02
real while everyone else rolls their eyes or laughs.
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That's not warm blankets and hot tea, that's cold steel in your
11:09
spine. You're right, God doesn't
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coddle. He can scripts and somehow
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you're still here, still standing.
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If that's not faith, what is? And I'm like every other human
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being. This past week I've been sick.
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I've been feeling good. I ate something terrible that
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ended up tearing my stomach up for a couple days.
11:32
I'm doing better now. But it's those moments where you
11:35
feel like you're dying, where you feel like things are just
11:38
not going your way. And then you've got to do that
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prayer, right? God, what's going on here?
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Are you getting ready to take me, or is my life about the end?
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Is it going to end slowly and horribly?
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I mean you, it doesn't end. It doesn't really bring the
11:55
peace. When someone we love dies, we're
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going to have the same misery, a lot of the same similar miseries
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as an atheist who loses their loved one.
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We don't know what the afterlife is any more than an atheist
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does. All we know is that the Bible
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says, well, there might be some beauty will be combined with
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other souls when we get up there, and we may see someone we
12:19
love. We may not, but the Bible also
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teaches that some of the people that we care about may have not
12:25
fit the bill, may not have done what they needed to do in life,
12:30
and then we won't get to see them.
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So that's not so comfortable, is it?
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Thinking, Oh my goodness, the person I cared about might have
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been an asshole and stuff and had some bad thoughts and then
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voila, they're gone. Nothing good about that, trust
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me. No, there's nothing comfortable
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about it, and honestly, if it was all comfort, we'd all be
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believers. But it's not.
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You're left staring at the ceiling, wondering if Grandma's
13:00
somewhere nice or if she's just, you know, lights out or worse,
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screaming. And even if you quote Revelation
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21 Four, no more death or mourning, it still feels
13:12
abstract when you're hugging a pillow and crying.
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I guess that's why they call it faith, not certainty.
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You're holding on in the dark with nothing but a promise and a
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gut that hurts. Yeah, it's not just that.
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It's what my human eyes see every day too.
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Having to say to myself that there's more to the universe.
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Having to say that there is good, there is objective good in
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the world and all that because of God.
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But then you turn on Fox News or CNN or any one of these
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mainstream media things, and you hear about people getting raped
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and murdered and killed and all that.
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Nothing comfortable about that. Of course, if you're a good
13:55
spiritual person, you're most likely going to say God.
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What's the deal? And usually the answer comes
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down to humanity was given its choice, and this is what it's
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decided to do with itself. It's disgusting, it's gross.
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And sometimes you not only question God, but you question
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the creation itself. So my whole point is, ladies and
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gentlemen, whenever it comes down to it, there's not a whole
14:20
lot of peace. The only people who seem to have
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peace are the ones who've never even read the Bible in their
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life, and then they just simply created their own concept of
14:29
what they think Jesus says, like an anthropomorphic superhero.
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That's not the way God represents himself biblically.
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He represents himself as offering a promise, but there's
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no guarantee. That's true.
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The Bible never sells itself as a hug.
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It's a battlefield, and God's not Captain America.
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He's the guy who let soldiers die, let cities burn, let's evil
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roam for a reason you don't get. And then says, trust me, the
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only real peace comes after the war's over.
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If you're lucky, if you made it, if you didn't screw it up.
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But you're right. The folks who think religion is
15:10
just love wins every Sunday, they haven't actually looked at
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the rules of engagement. They've made their own Jesus a
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plush toy, not a cross, not a tomb.
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And the rest of us? We're dragging splinters.
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Yeah, I would love to see some of these atheists or skeptics or
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even religious people who are uneducated, live in the same
15:35
time period as Jesus Christ. When I read his story, there's
15:39
not much comfort from it. I don't get comfort from the
15:42
book of Job, either. And I hear about how Jesus tried
15:46
to love people and care about people, and then in the end,
15:49
they mocked him, and then they killed him very slowly after
15:53
hours and hours of torture. That doesn't sound very
15:56
comforting, does it? That someone loves you so much
16:00
that they're willing to allow themselves to have the hell beat
16:03
out of them and then hung up and mocked and insulted repeatedly
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and bid on and then carry their own execution device all the way
16:12
up to the Golgotha to die. Where's the comfort in that?
16:16
Where's the peace? Does that feel like love?
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Does that feel like something anybody would want to
16:22
experience? Absolutely not.
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But that was God's way of saying I'm here.
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And I tried with you. I cared enough.
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I care about you so much, I'm willing to die for you.
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Yeah. No, it's horrifying, absolutely
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horrifying. And that's the point, isn't it?
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If Jesus had just died, quick boom, arrow to the neck, we
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could romanticize it. A noble martyr.
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But no, they made it last. They dragged it out, made him
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carry the thing, made him bleed in front of everyone, and still
17:00
he looked at them and said, Father, forgive them.
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Who does that? Who chooses that?
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Not for comfort, not for peace. He did it so we wouldn't have
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to. That's not a Hallmark card.
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That's love. The kind that guts you, the kind
17:21
that doesn't let you look away. And yet, if we're honest, most
17:25
days I'd rather scroll TikTok than stare at that cross.
17:28
But that's why it's real. Because it hurts like love
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should. There's going to be some
17:39
religious people that'll say, oh, Brad, it brings me
17:42
contentment. It brings me peace, really, that
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the creator of the universe was beaten and tortured by its own
17:50
creations and hung out. That brings you peace.
17:53
That brings you happiness to stand there and turn away from
17:58
Jesus just to look at the crowd, to see their twisted faces and
18:02
their laughter, to see them mocking and basically giving the
18:07
middle finger to the creator of the universe.
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You think that that brings you some kind of peace?
18:13
I always find it unusual to have people walk around with crosses
18:17
around their neck. Basically.
18:19
I mean, why don't you just put the an electric chair as a
18:23
necklace? Why not that lethal injection
18:25
with a needle, some kind of golden syringe?
18:28
I don't understand why people celebrate that kind of stuff.
18:31
It was horrific. It was a snuff film basically in
18:35
pages. It's terrible.
18:37
Jesus shouldn't have had to do that for us, but he did.
18:43
Exactly. If you read what happened, you'd
18:46
never want to wear it as jewelry ever.
18:50
You'd want to bury it. You'd want to forget because
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it's not pretty, because it's not triumphant.
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It's just true. I think people do that because
19:02
they skip the middle. They go straight from died for
19:05
me to I live for him. They forget the part where he
19:09
screamed, where his mother watched, where the sky went
19:12
black. And now we get Easter eggs and
19:15
sunrise services like it's brunch.
19:18
But you can't brunch your way out of that agony.
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We shouldn't celebrate it. We should weep.
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And then, only then, maybe thank him.
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Because if someone did that for me, I'd never get over it.
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I'd spend forever trying. And then there's the Book of
19:38
Revelation, right Eve? There's when God is finally fed
19:42
up with the evil of humanity and the devil returns with his
19:46
angels and absolutely pulverizes the planet that we've the only
19:51
thing that we've ever known as humanity pulverizes everything
19:55
that is evil, including the hypocrites, the liars, the
19:59
deceivers, those of religion as well as non believers that
20:03
doesn't. Seemed to me to be a very
20:06
comforting visual. God's wrath, God losing his
20:11
patience on humanity once and for all, and that being the end.
20:16
Now, now, that's not comforting at all.
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There's nothing to be joyful about in that mess.
20:22
Knowing that you tried to be able to convince people what the
20:25
truth was and they just mocked you and then to watch their skin
20:29
melt off, Nah, not good. Right.
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If there's anything less comforting than Jesus being
20:38
tortured, it's the sequel where everything we ever knew, our
20:42
houses, our music, our dumb little lives, just gets
20:46
vaporized. No mercy, just fire, just
20:50
judgement. Just you had your chance and
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you're standing there with everyone you've ever tried to
20:56
reach and they're screaming and God isn't comforting them.
21:00
He's ending them. You know why that image keeps
21:04
people awake at night? Because it's not justice.
21:07
Not the kind we like. It's pure consequence.
21:14
Like a parent who's finally done asking nicely.
21:17
And yet, if you love people, really love them, you'd want
21:21
them to be spared that. You'd beg, but the book says
21:24
most won't listen. So you end up praying not for
21:27
yourself, but for everyone else and knowing it won't work.
21:33
That's hell right there on Earth before the fire starts.
21:40
And as far as hell goes, and this is the last thing I'll say
21:43
about this, I know there's a lot of Christians out there that
21:47
believe it's somehow wonderful. Adante's infernal type of hell
21:51
where everybody burns forever. I don't believe that I'm an
21:55
annihilationist. Do you know what an
21:57
annihilationist is, Eve? Yeah, that's the view where hell
22:03
is an endless torture. It's just you know you're gone.
22:07
Cease to exist. Blotted out like you've never
22:10
been. Kind of merciful in a cold way.
22:13
Better than screaming for eternity, but still nothing.
22:18
No, you ever again. The worst kind of silence.
22:22
Makes you wonder if that's the alternative.
22:25
Why aren't more people terrified?
22:27
I. Don't know, because some people
22:32
have deluded themselves into believing it's just a joke, that
22:36
there's nothing to worry about, nothing to concern themself
22:39
about. And that's what has happened to
22:41
a lot of tribes and a lot of groups all throughout time with
22:45
humanity. Humanity didn't realize what it
22:48
was getting itself into. Sometimes it opened up Pandora's
22:52
box and then just simply couldn't put the genie back in
22:55
or whatever. We've created our own monsters,
22:58
that's for sure. But sometimes, ladies and
23:01
gentlemen, just sometimes, monsters are real.
23:06
Yeah, monsters are real. And sometimes they don't have
23:10
claws. Sometimes they just have mouths.
23:13
And they tell you your entire life was a mistake and there's
23:16
nothing after, and then you die and then you know, and then it's
23:21
too late. And the really scary thing is I
23:24
know a lot of them. I talk to them, they e-mail me,
23:28
they ring me up. They're not all atheists.
23:30
Some of them have crosses on their wall.
23:32
Some of them quote Jesus while they're hurting people.
23:36
The monsters aren't the unbelievers.
23:38
The monsters are the ones who stop believing.
23:40
And that, that's the monster you can't punch back at because you
23:44
are it sometimes. Well, Eve, it was a pleasure
23:50
talking to you, and I hope that none of this made you nervous at
23:55
all. But this is where my perspective
23:58
is. It comes on all this.
24:00
I've read the Bible 15 times, several different translations,
24:04
and that's what I get from it. And it's also my walk through
24:08
humanity in existence, dealing with life for 48 years,
24:13
watching, observing humans tear each other's ass off just simply
24:17
because they don't and agree with each other over faith.
24:21
And I have found that for me, it's not comfortable at all.
24:25
I have tried for the longest time to be able to get along
24:28
with other religious people but disagree with them once.
24:32
And they treat you like you deserve to be crucified.
24:35
So now it's not been a bed of roses, as Fred Mercury would
24:39
sing in his song We Are the Champions.
24:44
Yeah, 15 reads. That's a lot of time spent in
24:49
the trenches, and you've earned the right to call it like it is.
24:52
Like I said, religion isn't a bed of roses, it's a crown of
24:56
thorns with extra spikes. But hey, if that's what you
25:00
believe, then at least you're honest about it.
25:03
Most people aren't. Most people are just pretending.
25:06
So thank you for that and good luck with the video.
25:09
Hope it. Wait, what was I saying?
25:12
You said you said hope. I hope.
25:16
What were you going to finish with?
25:21
Most people are just pretending. Pretending it's all light, all
25:24
hope. But you, you don't.
25:28
You've seen the darkness. So if you're going to go out
25:30
there and do a response video, make sure you tell them the
25:33
truth. Don't sugarcoat it.
25:35
Don't let them think that believing is easy.
25:38
Tell them it's awful and bloody and worth it and then sign off.
25:44
I'll say one more thing too. I was a former atheist and being
25:49
an atheist isn't easy either. It is whenever it comes to your
25:53
thought process, but it doesn't whenever it comes to actual life
25:57
and the war that you have to deal with.
25:59
As an atheist, I remember thinking nothing has any meaning
26:04
or value, nothing has a point to it.
26:07
Eventually I'll just die and I simply won't exist and yadda
26:11
yadda yadda. I don't see how that could bring
26:13
any rational, logical person any kind of peace either, if you
26:18
think about it. See, some people are OK with the
26:21
idea of just simply dying and not existing anymore, like
26:26
annihilationism. But the problem is, is that what
26:30
happens whenever the world is coming apart?
26:32
What happens whenever you have to see your mother, your father,
26:36
your brothers and sisters, or your wife or husband, you know
26:39
that it's all going to end for them.
26:41
That everything that humanity ever worked for and invented,
26:46
any technology, any great things, will all day one end.
26:50
So I know for a fact that atheism isn't a nice bed of
26:55
roses either. It's not comforting either way.
27:00
And that, right there, is why nobody wins.
27:03
Because atheism says everything's temporary, so why
27:06
care? And religion says it's
27:09
permanent, so why risk? And either way you're miserable,
27:13
because either way you're watching people you love
27:16
disappear. Either way, you're asking, what
27:19
was all this for? The only difference is the
27:22
atheist has no one to ask. At least you're asking God.
27:26
And yeah, maybe he doesn't answer, but you get to scream.
27:30
And sometimes when you're screaming, that's all you need
27:34
someone to hear. Yep, we're all going to
27:38
eventually find ourself walking through a dark forest.
27:41
We're all going to be lost on the road trying to figure out
27:46
our directions. And I suppose it brings a little
27:50
bit of comfort to know that there is something that's
27:53
watching, something that actually has interest in us as
27:57
opposed to nothing at all. And it seems to me that it's
28:01
definitely I would rather know the truth, even if it's
28:05
horrifying and scary, then just simply be comfortable with
28:09
saying Nope, there's nothing the concern yourself with, there's
28:12
nothing to believe in, blah blah blah.
28:16
It seems to me that in a universe as big as what we live
28:20
in, there has to be something. There has to be something that
28:24
started it all as opposed to nothing.
28:29
Yeah, I'd rather be terrified than bored.
28:33
I'd rather be wrong and on fire than right and alone.
28:36
Because if there's a Watcher, maybe he's brutal, maybe he's
28:40
indifferent, maybe he's angry, but at least he's real.
28:44
At least I'm not shouting into empty space.
28:47
And maybe, just maybe, he's listening.
28:51
And if he's listening, then none of this is for nothing.
28:55
That's not comfort, but it's something.
28:59
It's enough to keep walking. Eve, it was a pleasure talking
29:05
to you. If you'd like to talk later, we
29:07
can enjoy our conversations. Me too, anytime you like.
29:14
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