david silverman is with us he's president of american a fee if they have
the reason rally coming up we'll talk to us about that in a few minutes i'd david
good to talk to you as always on we've been having i'm number discussions on
the show lately on everything from religion to the paranormal we have an
interesting situation with with my producer actually where he is not a
religious guy i won't speak for him and say he's an atheist per se
he's revealed a kind of uh... armed conditional belief in the paranormal in
some cases and we had neil digressed icing on the show the kind of dispel
whether that's something that can exist there not
talk a little bit about these overlap that use exist between a feast
and skeptics which is not a one hundred percent overlap right but it's close in
european
it's real slow so you can my opinion if your
earned nominated if you keep your
as skeptic
and not an atheist you're not a good skeptic
a lot of times of people are skeptics will do is also a okay
behind for the real skeptical about bigfoot
and i'd be real skeptical about
our backs a nation's and uh... uh...
nine eleven truth
but uh... i'm not going to take that skepticism
to the point where i'm going to talk about
what is essentially
the invisible man in the sky and there's a very small section of skeptics in my
opinion
that actually go there
and the skeptics movement
is not about that the skeptics movement is about skepticism
and skepticism usually leads to a bsn
but the skeptics movement is trying very hard not to be calm
and eighty s movement
my point is
that it's inevitable
that skepticism leads to a pizza
and
there's also the the the counterpart of that is that
anything ists sometimes can be dogmatic atheists and not skeptical
uh... so there's this
there this venn diagram
with too
merely overlapping circles
where most skeptics are good most good skeptics are skeptical enough to realize
that there aren't any jobs or that they need some serious
in order to believe in god
um... and most a_b_s_ got to the reviews and through a certain skeptical
process
there are some skeptics that won't take that skepticism
to their religion
and there are some eighty ists
dogmatic and there is the ism
and actually won't think about it critically
one of the main comments we get whenever you're on the show is that
you've got that these are the kind of not my words but the comment that we've
kind of cold out which is david silverman
is kind of aggressively
uh... dismissive of religion he comes off in a very abrasive way and and he
seems to be pushing believe on other people and i'm kind of curious in your
personal life i mean do you think negatively
of people when they tell you that they are very religious in other words visit
influence your opinion of ben
when they're talking about something totally unrelated to religion but you
find out how you know what uh... uh... they're actually bit there there big
time jesus believers for example is that this issue being on boards of directors
and different things
how does that affect your perception of someone when you find out their deeply
religious
it does affect my perception to appoint uh... it tells me that
uh...
they're probably victims
of a certain amount of brainwashing when their children
uh... or wonder if you were in their formative years
unloved how people say that i'm pushing my views on people prabhakar favorites
about retreat dot conspirator docking says it's amazing
if you were eight fierce but definitely in
newark aggressively pushing your views on people but if your religious leaders
believe it's a common double standard is not
is if it's it's really a disappointing double standard and this is where and
and this is that point where i'm talking about were talking about the ups who are
not skeptical
they just say aloha guide keys into he's uh... he's he's talked about it if you
must be pushing his bullies on other people i've been married to a theater
twenty one years okay
i have never
during my twenty one-year marriage trying to convert my wife
i don't care what she thinks i don't care what anybody else thinks is that
true i am going to tell you what i'm going to say who really wants there
though
you really don't care what your wife thing
it's not my business oca july chau height
amid item cares too much of a word but i don't care enough to try and
and and changer because i'm not in secure enough to do that
part of the whole concept of of
of changing people means
it is kind of assault validation thing
i'm in securing my beliefs so i've got to convince you and that's why
christians
that's one of the brisbane reasons christians proselytize so much is
because
they're forced to but also because
uh... that they're afraid
that if they don't
take the aggressor point
though actually find themselves on the defensive now
to your question
if somebody comes to me and
and scenes
uh...
intelligence
ncn and then that comes out
uh... not in a prophet is asian profs alot of
way
uh... i don't think i got that word right
but no i did not not in the preachy fashion but in a conversation about him
that they are
very very religious christians
i will
of
yeah i will think differently album i will uh... and they will think
differently about me when they find out anything ist that's all part of our
makeup
and that's not something from which we should shaadi now that doesn't mean that
there needs to be eighty
and until auditory looking will change the way we look
but doesn't have to be derogatory
and it certainly does not have to leave
to any conversation of trying to convert the other person
before we talk about the reason rally i want to talk about
and science a little bit
and my question is busier trust in science for the trust that i guess i've
gotten the the sense from you over a couple of interviews that you have in
science
is it based on your understanding of science or is that you could based on
your faith
that scientists have got stuff figured out that that that that the question
that makes them
well when he was talking about that you have to actually define what science
meets okay and we're talking about science we're talking about the
scientific method
the scientific method hypothesis test revised
that is a proven
it works all the time
i have faith in that it's not a blind faith it's an experiential faith
based on knowledge
based on experience
i don't think
the word faith
is the right word to use
we're talking about scientist specially when you're talking about
say in science because that makes science sound like
morally
science says this therefore must be true bang science in the process
religion
is a mindset religion is a dogma science is the process by which we learn and
yeah i trust that process because i don't have anything bad about somebody
comes to me and says well
here's this improvement on the scientific method
that seems to
be better
uh... i have no problem in changing that
but i i don't think anybody should be looking at science and faith
as equal they're not equal
science is learning
faith is memorization regurgitation note dat now
irrelevant of what evidence you have
by telephone about the reason rally when where why better
the reason i will be the largest eighties event in world history and it's
in five days
on saturday march twenty fourth uh... in uh... on the national mall in washington
d_c_ i sat down with the public the parts and services commission just a few
days ago and they told me
without have thirty thousand people
is going to be the largest u_p_s_ event in world history
by a factor of ten
eddie is aired ten mention bad religion paul prevents a adam savage from
mythbusters and of course richard dawkins toughly man i was reading james
randi will all be there and it's all
so come to the reason rally get their anyway you can
it's all day ten to six saturday the twenty fourth
all three
and all
awesome
please
com and bring friends
the website is reason rally dot org
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they made us expand ok they said were thirty thousand people
they made an awesome grow uh... that cost us more money we're trying to raise
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v_i_p_s eating as possible
are added silverman president of american atheist good luck with the
rally a great to talk to you as always
all as always david c there