In today’s episode of Talk Heathen, Katy Montgomerie and Johnny Angel will work through caller questions of Sharia Law, pronouns, god creating chaos, and judgemental atheists.

First up is Brett in CA who describes a study in Islamic research that showed that 70% of moderate Muslims support Sharia Law. He is concerned about how many people believe it is okay to kill apostates or those who leave the religion. These findings are not surprising; we know that some of these places are not great for human rights. When anyone gives a number that is just percentages, it is easy to conceal the big picture. Progressive minded folks tend not to focus attention on Islam since it is not the dominant religion in the U.S. However, as humanists, we need to care about these things.

Carlos in OK who askes about atheists that appear to be forcing their gay, transgender, and pronoun views on others. Katy explains that the pronoun thing is quite easy because you just address the person by what they request like you would their name. Sometimes when people get misgendered, they just want to make sure the person knows and move on. We don’t know what a person has been through on a particular day or why they would react in different ways to an inadvertent misgendering. The trans person is not trying to force their beliefs on you, but just wanting to be treated like a person. Treat trans people with the respect they treat you with. What is the point in being disrespectful or impolite?

Amanuel in TX says that maybe all religions have it correct since they all say similar things and when bad things happen, we can trace it back to God. What happens when religions make claims about each other? Can they all be right? Why is god not a monster for creating the laws of nature, Covid, and childhood cancer? Why is scripture the ultimate authority? If you choose not to take a risk, why are you not afraid of sparking the wrath of Allah? How do we know which scripture/religion is right and where to spend our time? How will one survive in heaven and not always be on pins and needles with the possibility of a Luciferian thought? Did god create non-believers with the purpose of not believing in order to burn in eternity? If god exists, why should we worship this immoral monster?

David in CA says the atheist community is judgemental. People in the comments and live chat call him stupid. That is not cool, and we do not like this! People on the internet can be horrible, and that includes atheists. Atheists may be judgemental, but they are not uniquely judgemental or abusive. It is not judgemental if we ask you to bring something to the conversation other than giving us homework.

Thank you everyone for tuning in! We will see you next week and try to be decent human beings!