Goodbye Old Studio! | Skeptic Generation | Episode 4 Season 1

Greetings to all you skeptics out there! Welcome to Eric and Vi’s new show, Skeptic Generation! The hosts are dying to talk, so sit down, get comfortable, and enjoy this week's episode of Skeptic Generation!

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Intro
Cockroaches! Renovations! Technical difficulties! Lucky us, we’ve got it all this week. But thankfully we have something to look forward to. Not only do we have awesome callers to talk with, we also have super chats!

Andy - TX
We wrap up our conversation about veganism with repeat caller Andy. Eric and Vi agree that factory farming is immoral, and get deeper into the nuances of harm reduction by discussing the availability of ethically sourced products, slave labor in cashew farming, and monkeys in chains.

NOTE: We have plans to dedicate a few weeks at a future date to vegan atheist activism, but in the meantime will be moving towards other topics in upcoming episodes. If you have requests for vegan atheist guests, leave them in the comments.

Unethical cashew production practices:
https://www.slowfood.com/cashew-nuts-...
https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/04/women-...

Monkeys harvesting coconuts:
https://www.peta.org/features/chaokoh...
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/an...

Sam - UK
Does using philosophical terms in conversation help you communicate, or do you just sound a bit pretentious? Sam Chaos (they/them) calls in to discuss. Eric points out that if you understand the terms, you can communicate well without having to resort to obscure terminology.

Chris - CT
Chris calls in to vent about being forced to play into his employer’s religion at the risk of not being allowed to get his PhD. Vi and Eric suggest taking notes, documenting this abuse of power, and reporting it after he’s graduated.

If you are witnessing religious overreach, please consider notifying the Freedom from Religion Foundation (https://ffrf.org/legal/report) or American Atheists (https://www.atheists.org/legal/report...).

Dakota - WI
As Americans, should we be skeptical of capitalism? Dakota wants to use the same kind of critical thinking we apply to religion to our economic model. Eric has questions about what exactly we should be skeptical of. Vi points out an often overlooked period in American history: when businessmen bankrolled religious pundits in an effort to push back against FDR’s New Deal.

The book suggestion from this clip is Kevin M. Kruse’s “One Nation Under God”: https://history.princeton.edu/about/p...

NOTE: Upon review, this caller seems to have thrown doubt on the existence (or severity) of the Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang, China. We didn’t fully realize this during the course of the actual call, but Skeptic Generation does not endorse this view. If you want to learn more, please visit the shared links below. Good argument for or against any issue should never involve the dismissal of atrocities or violations of human rights.

Council on Foreign Relations: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chin...

Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/e...

Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/new...

Elliot - WA
Vi and Eric have lots of feelings about this call. Elliot (they/them) wants to know our thoughts about progressive, affirming versions of Christianity that try to reconcile LGBTQIA+ rights with Scripture. Vi sets up a steelman of the position, and Eric tears it TF down.

Bottom line: It’s great if you can be an affirming, progressive Christian. But that doesn’t absolve Christianity of the atrocities it has inspired against marginalized groups.
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