I think I was 12 years old when a guest speaker came to the church and prayed for me. I didn't realize that I was supposed to fall out when she pushed my head, and people were already laying on the floor "slain in the spirit," so I took a step back every time. I thought there was something wrong with me. I wondered why wasn't the spirit knocking me out, why wasn't I speaking in tongues, why wasn't god talking to me. Because I didn't fall out when I was supposed to, I had a "rebellious spirit." 🙄
10:56 - I think Tai nailed it calling this Jesus stuff an addiction. I believe in some cases it is an addiction. Let’s face it: in AA some people exchange one addiction (ie, drugs, alcohol) for another (the “higher power”)
Hey Tim, I know things are kind of rough for you right now, but even so, you're looking much clearer and healthier these days. I'm not sure what it is, but you just look brighter. Love the catfishing metaphor...definitely feel like I got scammed.
GREAT VIDEO!!!! SO VERY INTERESTING!!!!! Thank you to the beautiful Tai Goodwin, for sharing your story! And thank you dear Tim Mills for all your GREAT questions & comments and for everything that you yourself have shared. ❤❤
I love her story..I was free from 11-12 years old and I found it while going to church,I questioned things I did not understand and was lied to.luckily there was a library close to that church
Brady Goodwin's sister. Wow. I reckon "Ichapod" is one of the most underrated channels on YT. A great interview Tai and Tim. I enjoyed Tai's points about how powerless the faith is to actually change people. Bobby Conway ("Christianity Still Makes Sense") has just posted a short video about how every organisation, not just the church, has scandals. But, given all the claims Christians make about themselves and their faith, how can Christians and churches be involved in scandals just like the rest of the world? They claim to have God dwelling inside of them by virtue of the Holy Spirit, they claim to have the most joyous lives thanks to Jesus, and they spend their times distancing themselves from and disparaging the world. Yet when they get caught in the most scandalous of situations they finger point the world and excuse their own behaviours by saying - "You have scandals too". But that is not the point. By their language, they say they have all the power needed to be far, far better than the rest of us. And yep - Jesus needed humans to write his book? And the best those humans could do under the guidance of Jesus was write a clear, infallible and inerrant book, that even believers argue over and condemn each other with???? What if hell is real? Well every Christian is hell bound, given that for each Christian on the planet, there is always another Christian somewhere who will look at that Christian's theology and label it "damnable heresy". So who knows? Loved Tai's comments about spirituality and contrasts with Brady. More power to them both.
Yep. Christians love to say , "Everyone has faith. Everyone has a religion." And now as you point out some of them have added , " Every organization has scandals." I'm hearing a theme too. And its one showcasing Christianity as merely a regular ole hum-drum, ,run of the mill , earthly community. And that their so called divine Messiah Jesus ,which they insist EVERYONE NEEDS, isn't actually special after all and offers nothing truly significant or worthy of adoration.
Not to mention the “many will say in that day Lord Lord” passage, and the Hebrews passages about “those who tasted of the Spirit and trample under foot the blood of Christ has no more remission of sin,” etc, makes it such that Christians can’t even really have the assurance they boast of.
That part about who to pray to now really hit home because you really do feel like a ship without a sail. It's heartbreaking, especially when you're going through hell in life and have no one to turn to for help. And some church folk say, it's because you're not living right. You hear "the way of the transgressor is hard" and such. But you can never go back because it feels dishonest to do so knowing what you now know. Can't un-ring the bell as it were. 💔 *sigh*
I prefer anti-theist. Believers freak out over the word atheist. Saying I’m anti theist pretty much goes over their heads! They’ll say, what’s a theist? Then I get to explain atheism without saying the word atheism/atheist. I’m black and if you are black you are aware that black people aren’t allowed to be free from religion.
There is a lot of truth in your statement, @andreadiamond7115. I'm black and have been a non-believer my entire life. I grew up in the hood and was the only kid walking around with a boom box blasting heavy metal music. Everyone at school thought I was a devil worshipper. And my birthday is on Halloween so that just SEALED THE DEAL in their eyes!!! 🤣🤣🤣 The cool part is that it made most people leave me alone, which I was totally OK with. And I'm still OK with it to this day. But it is quite difficult for us because it is SO ingrained in our culture here. It's part of the AA identity in so many ways. Lucky for me, I never gave 2 craps about what others though of me. So none of that nonsense bothered me. I'm very happy to see people like Tai and others who are openly speaking out. I honestly believe there are more. But many of them are afraid of the consequences of losing family and community. And dare I say, even identity.
Being an atheist in AA is impossible. I'm glad that AA has basically fell on it's ass. White Jesus didn't just lie to black people it lied to us, too. Tai makes good points and is an excellent speaker.
@@DarqueSyde66 -- Your birthday is on Halloween?? That's the coolest thing ever. You have real joy in your life without god and christians can't handle that. I'm the same way, and like you, what people in the hood say about me matters none to me. Even their "hell" scare tactics are not helping them anymore.
Oh wow, Tim! I know right about where you are (College Park somewhere) when you said... "I could literarilly throw a stone and hit "creep your dollar", I mean Creflo Dollar's church 😅 I lived in Atlanta for over 15 years before moving to Florida and now in West Africa (Nigeria and Ghana). I'm loving these episodes so much. Enjoying listening to Tai. So intelligent! It's just so sad how many of us (intelligent people) fell for the scam that is Christianity 😢
I've often wondered the exact same things myself: if Jesus was God Incarnate, why didn't he leave any clear writings -- writing his own gospel himself? Of course, the answer provided by the Catholic apologist (e.g. Karl Keating, Scott Hahn) is that "It wasn't necessary: he left an infallible church to decide what books were inspired and deserving of inclusion in the canon." Talk about evading the issue ...
Around the 1:34:00 mark, I am appalled. “I’m grateful we were slaves because we wouldn’t be Christian now”. What!? 😮I’m honestly disgusted, I need to shower.
@nauticdixons someone said something and you automatically believed it without checking for yourself if it was correct or not. If that's how you make decisions ,you're going to have a long hard time in life.
At keast she learned alot and has the ability to voice out her critical thinking and the patterns she noticed will help out the other people caught up in the lie.The religious trauma could have been worse
19:32 - again, Tai has an excellent point. Some of these people really are trying to be good and do the right thing but this Christian stuff isn’t the solution. It is a mask that never really addresses the real problem and issues. Personally, I am hoping that society will slowly start to see religion as nothing more than a mask for their true issues as we become more secular and non-religious. Hopefully people will learn to see a regular therapist for problems and not hide behind religion which is just a way of exchanging one set of problems for another
I am in counseling and have been in and out of hospitals since 12 and I'm 47 now and I just got a new therapist because my last one told me I needed salvation and she's licensed for trauma therapy and hypnosis and I have cptsd and religious trauma
@@VanessaLanceyou need to report that therapist as they are not following ethical guidelines or using best practices in therapy practices. Also google “secular therapists near me” to find a decent therapist
Thank you Tai and Tim. This interview really brought me a lot of joy. Three issues Tai raised that were for me very meaningful 1)You don't really get to know Chrisians including oneself because Christianity means wearing a mask (2) unanswered prayers in many cases in spite of persistence (3) Jesus on earth for thirty-three years and not writing down anything (excellent point). That god enslaved my ancestors so that he could bring them the gospel is sick and absolutely revolting. Slavery was heinous, inhumane, traumatic and downright evil. Segregation--white churches and black churches--on a Sunday morning is pivotal to the segregation and marginalization of blacks during the rest of the week. White Christian churches are very wealthy--they own universities, colleges, hospitals, and other institutions e.g. Bob Jones University where they carry out their racism not only re the student population, but also in terms of employment and above all the curriculum. Black books and knowledge about black history are demonized in many of these colleges and universities administered by Christian denominations. I became an atheist when I realized that Christianity is nothing more than the worship of whiteness. It would be good Tim if the conversation regarding segregation in the Churches could be continued including its history and how black Christians had to sit in the balcony and were kicked out of white churches even when they were on their knees.
Agreed, there were so many great points in this talk, I had to take notes. Definitely a conversation that I'll be watching again and again. "Christianity is nothing more than worship of whiteness" - This!! Our communities are some of the poorest AND some of the MOST religious.
Thank God (/S) you deleted the sadistic accusations of your other clearly racist comment. Good to see you were able to rise above creating evil "she's trash" projections.
@@FoursWithin Oh BTW, Jesus was a racist, comparing other than the israelites tribes to dogs when a woman comes to have her daughter healed. What a douchebag...
thank you so much Tia this I had to hear Because I was in evangelical fundamentalism thinking I am dirty and depraved no Ime not Ime whole and I am enough thank you peace carole❤
when i lived with a pastor for almost 4months and saw how she used afterpay to pay for her stuff when shopping and her car had problems most of the time. i was confused. the thing is that in public christians look blessed, but the reality is that they are not. most of them have financial problems, not to mention gossiping, lying and full of drama. i decided to think and got my answers and left religion.
I'm so freaking proud of this woman and I don't even know her! Idk how people of color can align with xtianity because the bible endorses slavery. This woman gets it and I love it! Well done! Live well and be well! ❤
Be the best version of yourself and everyone benefits.... Absolutely! I have had that come to me as well. It is amazing once you get rid of religion, how you can have such great insights yourself.
It took a very long time for me to break away from dogmatic religious practices, but I’m so glad I did. I resonate with EVERYTHING Tai has shared. As a black woman myself, a lot of those stories in the bible made no SENSE!!! Thanks for the information ❤….
Another fantastic interview/conversation, Tim! Thank you for this and for all of your great content. This is my new favorite channel. I love hearing all your guests' powerful stories.
@@HarmonicAtheist thanks for the reply, Tim! Just saw your comment after finishing your interview with Anna McBride. You're doing such important work. Your channel is so refreshing for me. I love your spirit, your compassion and empathy. Very different from a lot of other atheist channels I've listened to over the years. You're incredibly well-spoken, too. Keep going, man! You're helping so many people, I have no doubt.
Tai and Timmy mi Boy, nice, thoughtful discussion. Tai, I am a retired college professor, and from my classroom experience, it is obvious to me that you are not an average bear. I would love to be in a circle of friends with you and your brother. Tim, keep getting weller, that you can be the man your children want to emulate as they mature. May Zeus and Hera bless you both, my friends.
The pushing incident happened to me when I was 17. Tai shared a similar experience of being pushed by a woman who was praying for her. I'm relieved to know I'm not the only one who has gone through this! Lol😂
Love that she brought up that if Jesus was God he should have written his own autobiography. You could even say it’s blasphemous to have the New Testament at all, that if Jesus wanted this new religion, he would have wrote the NT himself.
⚘Ms. Tai, keep letting your light shine...I can feel your happiness.😊💯💙🤟 You made so many good points, and in ways I've never thought of before. ⚘Thank you!
I love this title, I'm about to watch the episode. It reminds me of teenage days where your friend says they've got a girlfriend but you've never seen this girl and your friend says ''she goes to another school'' that reminds me of the excuses for God's absence lol
Agree with you Tim when you mentioned the church being segregated. I remember saying that when I was young and the Elders looked at me like “how could you ask that question?” I was confused
What an excellent interview!! Everyone needs to hear this conversation!!! I tend to get lost in the more technical conversations about god and the bible. This is the most relatable, down to earth conversation I've ever heard. God, if he exists, is NOT changing lives, the bible has NO power to do anything desirable. For decades, I desperately kept asking myself, "what am i missing, why aren't things working out the way the bible said it should" . As it turns out, I did everything right. The problem was NO!T me. It never was
I recall listening to an interview and someone shared thoughts about Howard Thurman meeting Ghandi and Ghandi said to Howard Thurman that he was surprised that he was Christian and worshiped the god of his oppressors
@@TaiGoodwin23 I absolutely love listening to you, when I saw your interview with Brady it was one that I thought would be a good one to share with friends to help them better understand how and why I have chosen to live the rest of my life with my brain turned on.
Soooo grateful she covered the mental health aspect, which is brtual. The only conclusion I ever came to was that I wasn't worth saving, which is why God left me in such intense pain. "How about you get them some f---ing help." EXACTLY. So inspired by Tai and can't wait to check out her business & podcast. 👏❤
@1:08:12 I had one of my parents tell people that I had died in some type of accident. I had people calling me while I was at work and they were in shock when I answered the phone. I was so pissed at my parent. What’s even worse is that they NEVER apologized for telling that lie or said why they told it. 😡😡
When I deconverted, I went immediately to agnostic materialism. I just didn’t see the point of of chasing down the possibility that there might be something beyond the physical. I don’t condemn Tai or anyone who benefits from exploring “spirituality”; I just think my approach is closer to the truth. Having said that, this was a wonderful interview and her story is amazing ! Hang in there there, Tim, and keep up the good work.
This is interesting - I personally think that spirituality and the pursuit of something "more" is a human practice as old as time and it's a part and intrinsic even to some people's health and well being. Of course not everyone. It's a shame though when it becomes destructive and harmful to others.
I'm just glad we are all on a journey to find the truth. There's so much we don't know and for some it's hard to be okay with that. I find that freeing.
@@TaiGoodwin23 I was 5 when I was “saved” and 64 when I deconverted. I think that I felt, though I wasn’t aware of it at the time, that I was much closer to the end of my life than I was to the beginning, so I didn’t want to waste time looking for something that I was confident wasn’t there. Another shortcut I took was to not dwell in the Angry Atheist phase. Looking back on my time as a believer, I wasn’t as emotionally involved as others seemed to be. I “knew” it was true because I was so young when the doctrine was introduced to me, but I didn’t have the emotional connection some of my peers seemed to have. When I finally got the information that convinced me that it wasn’t true, and had the sense that I was being given permission to stop believing, I felt enormous relief; everything finally made sense. I had no interest in investigating anything comparable to the thing that held me down for so many years. Thanks for your story; it was very encouraging to me.
We had all the chick tracts-how exciting and scary to learn about hell, the beast, the rapture. Pure mind killing indoctrination. We were young! Big daddy, this was your life, the beast, support your local jew, are some that stand out in my memory.
I relished the bizarre creepiness of self indoctrinating my brain as a child through tiny horror fundamentalists comics. The fear of demons and hell lurked round every corner, under every bed behind the doors of every neighbor. 👹👺😈☠️👻🔥
@@marym9245 Sounds right. The devil is even silently lurking in photos. He's EVERYWHERE ! 👀 I had nightmares from those lil cult propaganda rags for decades.
1:43 "it's not that he's ignoring, punishing, or testing you... he's just not real." 💥❣that's why he doesn't stop child abuse, genocide or centuries of slavery... No more need to explain/defend this impotent deity! 💛Go Drexel Dragons!! 💛
I think it's a good thing to sometimes give up control to let things just play out and regain some peace of mind, religion encourages this but to the extreme. It's not just "what will be will be and we'll deal with it then" it has become "God will make my life good no matter what, God will use every bad thing for good, God can do anything". It encourages complacency and helplessness, mistakenly presented as humility.
On the topic of having a baby out of wedlock being a sin according to religious beliefs well then why are babies born in wedlock skill born in sin and yet they both need to be saved🤔
The skill of being born into sin is one I'll happily leave for the dogmatists and fundamentalists. No one else wants or needs it. PS - yes, I realize that was a typo.
It's taught we are born with a "sinful nature" with a more fully fleshed out idea in the Catholic idea of "original sin". The OT idea is that children born out of wedlock could not enter the place of worship all the way to ten generations. Disgusting.
Just one reason why I'm grateful my parents chose not to raise my siblings and I in a set religion. Even at age five the idea of god as presented in the church never seemed believable to me. Thirty-nine years later I still haven't changed my mind on that, particularly not after reading the bible and studying a few other religious texts. Even if it were someday proven that the god of the bible existed, the bible itself shows it to be unworthy of my respect let alone my worship. I had to stop myself from punching the wall in my apartment living room when I heard that bullshit about how some people are grateful for slavery since it enabled Africans to hear the gospel.
I like her bit about the tower of Babel and not being able to breath the air at a certain altitude. Some say it wasn’t whether it was a reality of their ability to accomplish this, but rather an attitude course correction. But that doesn’t make sense. It would make more sense to humble them, by letting them try and utterly failing to pull it off. And for a god that supposedly wants us to know him, splitting the languages up is a shit way to have that happen, especially with all the translation error possibilities.
10 out of 10. This was a great interview! Thank you for sharing with us. So much wisdom from both of you. And to meet Brady's sister who obviously helped him! That was cool. For fun I hope that everyone might put their TH-cam search bar - Jeremiah Camara 6 Tricks Preachers Use Every Sunday! (episode 47) SLAVE SERMONS' - It is less than 8 minutes long, and hits every point that Tai brought up here. 🫶🏼🌠💐🥰
One of the most enjoyable interviews so far. Good energy, story telling, etc. I think our outlooks are similar. Following research that started a couple of years ago with properly reading the entire Bible, I’ve come to accept that most of what I once believed is just mythology. Now, appreciating some things about the faith is fine ( I still like gospel music), but I wouldn’t base my entire existence on it.
That doesn't make logical sense. If I want to have a relationship with my son I won't go hide in the closet. I'm gunna make sure he can't doubt my desire.
Everyone knows to build a healthy and robust relationship with your children, you must be hidden so well that there’s no verifiable evidence you exist. That way, the stories of you they have to make up will be much cooler!
I would love to share this video but hesitant because of the title. Is it possible to tone down the titles of the videos? Belief is so strong that the believer will immediately feel their faith is being attacked! A few times I’ve sent videos for family members to watch because they are always sending me religious content knowing I’m deconverted. But when I do it - crickets. This video is great 👍
This has totally knocked my favorite episode out of the water!!!! This has now made it to the tippy top for me! Tim, you cracked me up about the wanting to go to Heaven thing! You were like.... "nah, man. I wanted to go to heaven!" LMAO!!! LOVE IT!!! I LOVED LISTENING TO TAI!!!! Thank you for this! I created a short film that you can find on my channel called The Angels' Playground. It's a short snippet from a much longer narrative and was shot within certain constrains of a contest I was trying to win. That being said, it is about the very notion that the angels are actually the bad guys. A demon befriends a young girl and begins to tell her the truth about the things she has been raised to believe. For the first time, we are hearing from the other side of the argument. GREAT STUFF!!!
@@TaiGoodwin23 Thanks, Tai! Pleased to meet you! I don't know if it's proper to share links in the comments, so I'm a tad hesitant to do so. However, if you go to my channel, you should see a playlist titled SHORT FILMS. It should be the 2nd film on the list and is called The Angels' Playground. It's only 10 minutes long and isn't quite what I wanted to do, but I had to work within the constraints of the particular contest I was entering at the time. Ultimately, I wound up not submitting because when I read the fine print, I realized that they would OWN my intellectual property, and the piddly little prize they were doling out just wasn't enough for me to be OK with that. But I'm proud of it anyway! The main characters are my second and third daughters. I pretty much did everything in the film except appear in it. I'd love to know what you think of it. Good or bad, I take all comments as constructive. In a lot of ways, your story with your daughter and her experience in that church is very close to some of what happens in the full narrative of the film this short is based on. If you can't find it or would otherwise like to stay in touch, please feel free to reach out to me on Facebook or Linked In. My name is Zernul R Shackelford Jr. and the name of my company is Darque Syde of D'Lyte Productions. I'm not hard to find. 😁 I hope to hear from you soon.
When I became a parent and then started teaching children's church I started asking questions and then read the Bible and saturated myself with the Bible and yeah no thank you.
It’s awesome to see Tim’s verbiage evolving! The use of slang for emphasis is refreshing. God…and psychopathic asshole are indeed synonymous. Add some xtra assholes, F bombs, bullshits, shit for brains, etc. I love it!
Holy shit. I thought the bit about god giving Job replacement children was supposed to be bad, but your mother said it was good thing and proved god was a good guy in that story.
Sacred shackles. So many will never escape from the learned Helplessness instilled in the black church from the religion weaponized by the slave masters. But you can still keep your bible, For the same reason you would keep a collection on greek mythology.
I share a verse here and there with someone close to me and the response i get is that its probably a mistranslation. But the person im talking about gets angry and wont read the whole bible and starts ranting about Jesus. Wont read the whole entire bible because they love going to church so much and they say the dont have time to read it because they work a lot which they do but still its hard to have a conversation with someone who only knows a few verses here and there and wont look at it for what it is.
I went to a church counsellor because I was molested and then sa various times by various men. The counsellor said it was my fault because I strayed off the path and God's plan for me. They love to blame the Victim. btw I was molested by a member in a different church from the ages of 10 to 12 I said nothing because I know nothing would happen.
Of course that counselor lied, that’s not true. I’m so sorry for your pain and traumatic circumstances. Those people didn’t protect or defend you. Many so called Christians are being exposed and God will judge them. They make Christians look bad. It’s sad there are several hypocrites in Church. But there are also evil people in the world. I hope you’ve been to better counselors. May the Lord heal you. Amen. ❤
54:10 THIS! After years the don’t even care about you as a person and I think that’s bizarre . They just see you as a soul 😂 this is why it’s possible to go church for years and leave and have 0 friends contacts nada . You left and they erased you . The irony is that they may even think of you and pray for you but never call or get in contact with you 😂
I'm saying this as a deconverted former Christian. The church we attend is predominantly Spanish and black. In a Congregation of about 500, approximately a hundred of us are white. Beautiful people in deception
Not just the clunkiness of the Bible that you mention, but so much of it seems like a total waste of time, like why are you telling us this God? I feel like the Bible should only be like two or three hundred pages instead of the roughly 1,500 pages that it is. And then we’re not just supposed to read it, but 2tim2:15 study it in-depth? That always made it seem rather human, because for it to be God’s and His word, it would be super impactful, and so much of it is fluff horse shit of stuff that is totally irrelevant to anyones life, and then we have to spend our lives studying it (ah, a light bulb goes off). Why would people who want to control us better want all our time eaten up? Enter stage left your favorite political/societal control conspiracy.
I think I was 12 years old when a guest speaker came to the church and prayed for me. I didn't realize that I was supposed to fall out when she pushed my head, and people were already laying on the floor "slain in the spirit," so I took a step back every time. I thought there was something wrong with me. I wondered why wasn't the spirit knocking me out, why wasn't I speaking in tongues, why wasn't god talking to me. Because I didn't fall out when I was supposed to, I had a "rebellious spirit." 🙄
10:56 - I think Tai nailed it calling this Jesus stuff an addiction. I believe in some cases it is an addiction. Let’s face it: in AA some people exchange one addiction (ie, drugs, alcohol) for another (the “higher power”)
Addiction and some form of OCD
What we give ourselves over to is huge. What about love and treating others right?
Hey Tim, I know things are kind of rough for you right now, but even so, you're looking much clearer and healthier these days. I'm not sure what it is, but you just look brighter.
Love the catfishing metaphor...definitely feel like I got scammed.
GREAT VIDEO!!!! SO VERY INTERESTING!!!!! Thank you to the beautiful Tai Goodwin, for sharing your story! And thank you dear Tim Mills for all your GREAT questions & comments and for everything that you yourself have shared. ❤❤
I love her story..I was free from 11-12 years old and I found it while going to church,I questioned things I did not understand and was lied to.luckily there was a library close to that church
Brady Goodwin's sister. Wow. I reckon "Ichapod" is one of the most underrated channels on YT. A great interview Tai and Tim.
I enjoyed Tai's points about how powerless the faith is to actually change people. Bobby Conway ("Christianity Still Makes Sense") has just posted a short video about how every organisation, not just the church, has scandals. But, given all the claims Christians make about themselves and their faith, how can Christians and churches be involved in scandals just like the rest of the world? They claim to have God dwelling inside of them by virtue of the Holy Spirit, they claim to have the most joyous lives thanks to Jesus, and they spend their times distancing themselves from and disparaging the world. Yet when they get caught in the most scandalous of situations they finger point the world and excuse their own behaviours by saying - "You have scandals too".
But that is not the point. By their language, they say they have all the power needed to be far, far better than the rest of us.
And yep - Jesus needed humans to write his book? And the best those humans could do under the guidance of Jesus was write a clear, infallible and inerrant book, that even believers argue over and condemn each other with????
What if hell is real? Well every Christian is hell bound, given that for each Christian on the planet, there is always another Christian somewhere who will look at that Christian's theology and label it "damnable heresy". So who knows?
Loved Tai's comments about spirituality and contrasts with Brady. More power to them both.
Yep.
Christians love to say ,
"Everyone has faith.
Everyone has a religion."
And now as you point out
some of them have added ,
" Every organization has scandals."
I'm hearing a theme too.
And its one showcasing Christianity
as merely a regular ole hum-drum,
,run of the mill , earthly community.
And that their so called divine Messiah Jesus ,which they insist EVERYONE NEEDS, isn't actually special after all
and offers nothing truly significant
or worthy of adoration.
Not to mention the “many will say in that day Lord Lord” passage, and the Hebrews passages about “those who tasted of the Spirit and trample under foot the blood of Christ has no more remission of sin,” etc, makes it such that Christians can’t even really have the assurance they boast of.
I wish I could give this 1000 likes. So dense in the most rewarding way.
That part about who to pray to now really hit home because you really do feel like a ship without a sail. It's heartbreaking, especially when you're going through hell in life and have no one to turn to for help. And some church folk say, it's because you're not living right. You hear "the way of the transgressor is hard" and such. But you can never go back because it feels dishonest to do so knowing what you now know. Can't un-ring the bell as it were. 💔 *sigh*
2h:10 minutes of my day, not wasted. Worth, every second
I thought being an atheist in AA was tough but I always thought being a black American being an atheist has to be way harder.
Same thing in jail unfortunately
I prefer anti-theist. Believers freak out over the word atheist. Saying I’m anti theist pretty much goes over their heads! They’ll say, what’s a theist? Then I get to explain atheism without saying the word atheism/atheist. I’m black and if you are black you are aware that black people aren’t allowed to be free from religion.
There is a lot of truth in your statement, @andreadiamond7115.
I'm black and have been a non-believer my entire life. I grew up in the hood and was the only kid walking around with a boom box blasting heavy metal music. Everyone at school thought I was a devil worshipper. And my birthday is on Halloween so that just SEALED THE DEAL in their eyes!!!
🤣🤣🤣
The cool part is that it made most people leave me alone, which I was totally OK with. And I'm still OK with it to this day.
But it is quite difficult for us because it is SO ingrained in our culture here. It's part of the AA identity in so many ways.
Lucky for me, I never gave 2 craps about what others though of me. So none of that nonsense bothered me.
I'm very happy to see people like Tai and others who are openly speaking out. I honestly believe there are more. But many of them are afraid of the consequences of losing family and community. And dare I say, even identity.
Being an atheist in AA is impossible. I'm glad that AA has basically fell on it's ass. White Jesus didn't just lie to black people it lied to us, too. Tai makes good points and is an excellent speaker.
@@DarqueSyde66 -- Your birthday is on Halloween?? That's the coolest thing ever. You have real joy in your life without god and christians can't handle that. I'm the same way, and like you, what people in the hood say about me matters none to me. Even their "hell" scare tactics are not helping them anymore.
Oh wow, Tim! I know right about where you are (College Park somewhere) when you said... "I could literarilly throw a stone and hit "creep your dollar", I mean Creflo Dollar's church 😅
I lived in Atlanta for over 15 years before moving to Florida and now in West Africa (Nigeria and Ghana).
I'm loving these episodes so much. Enjoying listening to Tai. So intelligent!
It's just so sad how many of us (intelligent people) fell for the scam that is Christianity 😢
Atlanta is a great tv series
I've often wondered the exact same things myself: if Jesus was God Incarnate, why didn't he leave any clear writings -- writing his own gospel himself? Of course, the answer provided by the Catholic apologist (e.g. Karl Keating, Scott Hahn) is that "It wasn't necessary: he left an infallible church to decide what books were inspired and deserving of inclusion in the canon." Talk about evading the issue ...
Around the 1:34:00 mark, I am appalled. “I’m grateful we were slaves because we wouldn’t be Christian now”. What!? 😮I’m honestly disgusted, I need to shower.
She said that? Okay, I can't watch, sorry. I'm at min 2:34 🤮
@@nauticdixons if you watched the time stamp, she was just repeating what people have said.
@@nauticdixons Tai wasn't saying that. She was critical of other people who say that.
@a.b.2405 Oh, I see. I got confused with the quotation marks. Thanks for clarifying, I'm watching now.
@nauticdixons someone said something and you automatically believed it without checking for yourself if it was correct or not. If that's how you make decisions ,you're going to have a long hard time in life.
Poor lady was scammed like the rest of us😢
Yep! I think about all of the people who lived under the fear of hell until they died. 😔
At keast she learned alot and has the ability to voice out her critical thinking and the patterns she noticed will help out the other people caught up in the lie.The religious trauma could have been worse
I want my tithes and offering back.
All I can say is WOW! Tai has all the questions I have...literally! Beautiful interview!
19:32 - again, Tai has an excellent point. Some of these people really are trying to be good and do the right thing but this Christian stuff isn’t the solution. It is a mask that never really addresses the real problem and issues. Personally, I am hoping that society will slowly start to see religion as nothing more than a mask for their true issues as we become more secular and non-religious. Hopefully people will learn to see a regular therapist for problems and not hide behind religion which is just a way of exchanging one set of problems for another
Love is the solution. Treating others as we would want to be treated.
I am in counseling and have been in and out of hospitals since 12 and I'm 47 now and I just got a new therapist because my last one told me I needed salvation and she's licensed for trauma therapy and hypnosis and I have cptsd and religious trauma
@@VanessaLanceyou need to report that therapist as they are not following ethical guidelines or using best practices in therapy practices. Also google “secular therapists near me” to find a decent therapist
Thank you Tai and Tim. This interview really brought me a lot of joy. Three issues Tai raised that were for me very meaningful 1)You don't really get to know Chrisians including oneself because Christianity means wearing a mask (2) unanswered prayers in many cases in spite of persistence (3) Jesus on earth for thirty-three years and not writing down anything (excellent point). That god enslaved my ancestors so that he could bring them the gospel is sick and absolutely revolting. Slavery was heinous, inhumane, traumatic and downright evil. Segregation--white churches and black churches--on a Sunday morning is pivotal to the segregation and marginalization of blacks during the rest of the week. White Christian churches are very wealthy--they own universities, colleges, hospitals, and other institutions e.g. Bob Jones University where they carry out their racism not only re the student population, but also in terms of employment and above all the curriculum. Black books and knowledge about black history are demonized in many of these colleges and universities administered by Christian denominations. I became an atheist when I realized that Christianity is nothing more than the worship of whiteness. It would be good Tim if the conversation regarding segregation in the Churches could be continued including its history and how black Christians had to sit in the balcony and were kicked out of white churches even when they were on their knees.
This is a powerful statement: "Christianity is nothing more than the worship of whiteness."
Agreed, there were so many great points in this talk, I had to take notes. Definitely a conversation that I'll be watching again and again.
"Christianity is nothing more than worship of whiteness" - This!! Our communities are some of the poorest AND some of the MOST religious.
What a nice woman!!😊
Thank God that God isn’t real, otherwise we’d have to ask God to do something to stop God.
He won't even stop the devil, which he created, so there's that
Brilliant interview 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 I can totally relate to Tia’s experience. Thank goodness, her own intelligence set her free. Good stuff Tim and Tia 👍🏽💕
I feel like I've been waiting for this conversation all my life ❤
If God exists he's evil & sadistic, for all the evil things he's created and all the evil he's allows.
Thank God (/S)
you deleted the sadistic
accusations of your other
clearly racist comment.
Good to see you were able
to rise above creating evil
"she's trash" projections.
@@FoursWithin Oh BTW, Jesus was a racist, comparing other than the israelites tribes to dogs when a woman comes to have her daughter healed. What a douchebag...
You're actually making an argument for God and you are him or her or it or they.
@@OxymoronInchief-pj1jr The word was IF. And if a Father is evil, a son or daughter doesn't have to be...
Agreed totally
thank you so much Tia this I had to hear
Because I was in evangelical fundamentalism thinking I am dirty and depraved no Ime not Ime whole and I am enough thank you peace carole❤
when i lived with a pastor for almost 4months and saw how she used afterpay to pay for her stuff when shopping and her car had problems most of the time. i was confused. the thing is that in public christians look blessed, but the reality is that they are not. most of them have financial problems, not to mention gossiping, lying and full of drama. i decided to think and got my answers and left religion.
This was an amazing session. Thank you both.
Awesome insights Tai and Tim! Thanks for this thought provoking discussion!
What a fantastic interview! Tai radiates with light and love and tells her story beautifully. She is a gem. Thanks, Tim and Tai!
I'm so freaking proud of this woman and I don't even know her! Idk how people of color can align with xtianity because the bible endorses slavery. This woman gets it and I love it! Well done! Live well and be well! ❤
Simple answer -- we (POC) don't really read the bible thoroughly. Or we go along with apologetic explanations just like the rest.
Another great interview!
Just listening to Tai Godwin’s upbringing reminds me so much of my upbringing in the church community. I am just in awe of her story.
Feel free to reach out if you'd ever consider sharing your story!
facebook.com/harmonictim
Be the best version of yourself and everyone benefits.... Absolutely! I have had that come to me as well. It is amazing once you get rid of religion, how you can have such great insights yourself.
Good to see more black atheist.
Thanks so much for this, Tim !
Thanks!
Thank you so much!!!
Not even halfway through yet: wow what a great guest. Thank you, Tim and Tai.
This was such a beautiful message. I love your interviews and hearing their testimony.
Thank you for having Tai! Someone new to me! Could relate a lot to her!
It took a very long time for me to break away from dogmatic religious practices, but I’m so glad I did. I resonate with EVERYTHING Tai has shared. As a black woman myself, a lot of those stories in the bible made no SENSE!!! Thanks for the information ❤….
So relatable . What a beautiful story of survival and overcoming .
Tai Goodwin is
breaking free from constraints like superstious intellectually limiting myths . 👍
Well that title hits the nail on the head. This will be good.
Amazing interview
Another fantastic interview/conversation, Tim! Thank you for this and for all of your great content. This is my new favorite channel. I love hearing all your guests' powerful stories.
Thank you so much, James!
@@HarmonicAtheist thanks for the reply, Tim! Just saw your comment after finishing your interview with Anna McBride. You're doing such important work. Your channel is so refreshing for me. I love your spirit, your compassion and empathy. Very different from a lot of other atheist channels I've listened to over the years. You're incredibly well-spoken, too. Keep going, man! You're helping so many people, I have no doubt.
Tai and Timmy mi Boy, nice, thoughtful discussion. Tai, I am a retired college professor, and from my classroom experience, it is obvious to me that you are not an average bear. I would love to be in a circle of friends with you and your brother. Tim, keep getting weller, that you can be the man your children want to emulate as they mature. May Zeus and Hera bless you both, my friends.
That's funny you would use that term - I say that about myself all the time (in a yogi bear voice- LOL)
Excellent, articulate guest.
The pushing incident happened to me when I was 17. Tai shared a similar experience of being pushed by a woman who was praying for her. I'm relieved to know I'm not the only one who has gone through this! Lol😂
I was 12 when some woman pushed me, and I didn't know I was supposed to fall.
I enjoyed your guest so much I wanted the video to go on hours more. Love her❤️
I threw away all my bibles also & totally resonated with her😊❤️
Love that she brought up that if Jesus was God he should have written his own autobiography. You could even say it’s blasphemous to have the New Testament at all, that if Jesus wanted this new religion, he would have wrote the NT himself.
Beautiful, poignant storyteller, Tai 💜
⚘Ms. Tai, keep letting your light shine...I can feel your happiness.😊💯💙🤟
You made so many good points, and in ways I've never thought of before. ⚘Thank you!
What a great guest
I love this title, I'm about to watch the episode. It reminds me of teenage days where your friend says they've got a girlfriend but you've never seen this girl and your friend says ''she goes to another school'' that reminds me of the excuses for God's absence lol
I saw a blăck wiman and couldn't click fast enough!😀 Great interview! 👍
Love this. Thank you both!
Agree with you Tim when you mentioned the church being segregated. I remember saying that when I was young and the Elders looked at me like “how could you ask that question?” I was confused
What an excellent interview!! Everyone needs to hear this conversation!!! I tend to get lost in the more technical conversations about god and the bible. This is the most relatable, down to earth conversation I've ever heard.
God, if he exists, is NOT changing lives, the bible has NO power to do anything desirable.
For decades, I desperately kept asking myself, "what am i missing, why aren't things working out the way the bible said it should" . As it turns out, I did everything right. The problem was NO!T me. It never was
Amazing guest. Great interview
Tai Goodwin is my Shero...hands down... Tim one of the best of the best interviews.
Great interview ♥️♥️♥️👍👍👍
I recall listening to an interview and someone shared thoughts about Howard Thurman meeting Ghandi and Ghandi said to Howard Thurman that he was surprised that he was Christian and worshiped the god of his oppressors
wow!
@@TaiGoodwin23 I absolutely love listening to you, when I saw your interview with Brady it was one that I thought would be a good one to share with friends to help them better understand how and why I have chosen to live the rest of my life with my brain turned on.
Thank you Tai.
Soooo grateful she covered the mental health aspect, which is brtual. The only conclusion I ever came to was that I wasn't worth saving, which is why God left me in such intense pain.
"How about you get them some f---ing help." EXACTLY.
So inspired by Tai and can't wait to check out her business & podcast. 👏❤
Wow Wow Wow! I am her and she is me -- her story is so close to my own journey, its scary. Thank you so much for sharing.
Please feel free to add me on FB and reach out there if you'd consider an interview!
FB: @harmonictim
@1:08:12 I had one of my parents tell people that I had died in some type of accident. I had people calling me while I was at work and they were in shock when I answered the phone. I was so pissed at my parent. What’s even worse is that they NEVER apologized for telling that lie or said why they told it. 😡😡
Omnipresent Greetingz
When I deconverted, I went immediately to agnostic materialism. I just didn’t see the point of of chasing down the possibility that there might be something beyond the physical. I don’t condemn Tai or anyone who benefits from exploring “spirituality”; I just think my approach is closer to the truth. Having said that, this was a wonderful interview and her story is amazing ! Hang in there there, Tim, and keep up the good work.
This is interesting - I personally think that spirituality and the pursuit of something "more" is a human practice as old as time and it's a part and intrinsic even to some people's health and well being. Of course not everyone. It's a shame though when it becomes destructive and harmful to others.
I'm just glad we are all on a journey to find the truth. There's so much we don't know and for some it's hard to be okay with that. I find that freeing.
@@TaiGoodwin23 I was 5 when I was “saved” and 64 when I deconverted. I think that I felt, though I wasn’t aware of it at the time, that I was much closer to the end of my life than I was to the beginning, so I didn’t want to waste time looking for something that I was confident wasn’t there. Another shortcut I took was to not dwell in the Angry Atheist phase. Looking back on my time as a believer, I wasn’t as emotionally involved as others seemed to be. I “knew” it was true because I was so young when the doctrine was introduced to me, but I didn’t have the emotional connection some of my peers seemed to have. When I finally got the information that convinced me that it wasn’t true, and had the sense that I was being given permission to stop believing, I felt enormous relief; everything finally made sense. I had no interest in investigating anything comparable to the thing that held me down for so many years. Thanks for your story; it was very encouraging to me.
We had all the chick tracts-how exciting and scary to learn about hell, the beast, the rapture. Pure mind killing indoctrination. We were young! Big daddy, this was your life, the beast, support your local jew, are some that stand out in my memory.
I relished the bizarre creepiness
of self indoctrinating my brain
as a child through tiny horror fundamentalists comics.
The fear of demons and hell lurked round every corner, under every bed behind the doors of every neighbor. 👹👺😈☠️👻🔥
@@FoursWithin omg I even sent a letter to jack chick asking for a picture. He sent me back a letter declining, said it would be prideful.
@@marym9245
Sounds right.
The devil is even silently lurking
in photos. He's EVERYWHERE ! 👀
I had nightmares from those lil
cult propaganda rags for decades.
@@marym9245
By the way , most chick tracks are
posted online if you want to take
a vivid trip down memory lane .
@@FoursWithin the memories in my head are enough but thank you.
I knooow herrr! ❤
a little bit - LOL
1:43 "it's not that he's ignoring, punishing, or testing you... he's just not real." 💥❣that's why he doesn't stop child abuse, genocide or centuries of slavery... No more need to explain/defend this impotent deity!
💛Go Drexel Dragons!! 💛
Thank you.
I think it's a good thing to sometimes give up control to let things just play out and regain some peace of mind, religion encourages this but to the extreme. It's not just "what will be will be and we'll deal with it then" it has become "God will make my life good no matter what, God will use every bad thing for good, God can do anything". It encourages complacency and helplessness, mistakenly presented as humility.
On the topic of having a baby out of wedlock being a sin according to religious beliefs well then why are babies born in wedlock skill born in sin and yet they both need to be saved🤔
Still*
The skill of being born into sin
is one I'll happily leave for the dogmatists and fundamentalists.
No one else wants or needs it.
PS - yes, I realize that was a typo.
It's taught we are born with a "sinful nature" with a more fully fleshed out idea in the Catholic idea of "original sin". The OT idea is that children born out of wedlock could not enter the place of worship all the way to ten generations. Disgusting.
Just one reason why I'm grateful my parents chose not to raise my siblings and I in a set religion. Even at age five the idea of god as presented in the church never seemed believable to me. Thirty-nine years later I still haven't changed my mind on that, particularly not after reading the bible and studying a few other religious texts. Even if it were someday proven that the god of the bible existed, the bible itself shows it to be unworthy of my respect let alone my worship. I had to stop myself from punching the wall in my apartment living room when I heard that bullshit about how some people are grateful for slavery since it enabled Africans to hear the gospel.
I like her bit about the tower of Babel and not being able to breath the air at a certain altitude. Some say it wasn’t whether it was a reality of their ability to accomplish this, but rather an attitude course correction. But that doesn’t make sense. It would make more sense to humble them, by letting them try and utterly failing to pull it off. And for a god that supposedly wants us to know him, splitting the languages up is a shit way to have that happen, especially with all the translation error possibilities.
10 out of 10. This was a great interview! Thank you for sharing with us. So much wisdom from both of you. And to meet Brady's sister who obviously helped him! That was cool. For fun I hope that everyone might put their TH-cam search bar - Jeremiah Camara 6 Tricks Preachers Use Every Sunday! (episode 47) SLAVE SERMONS' - It is less than 8 minutes long, and hits every point that Tai brought up here. 🫶🏼🌠💐🥰
@1:53:05 that part. We’re all divine
@2:02:44 that part.
One of the most enjoyable interviews so far. Good energy, story telling, etc. I think our outlooks are similar. Following research that started a couple of years ago with properly reading the entire Bible, I’ve come to accept that most of what I once believed is just mythology. Now, appreciating some things about the faith is fine ( I still like gospel music), but I wouldn’t base my entire existence on it.
A beautiful singing voice is still
a beautiful sound.
Oh that Mahalia Jackson !
God is everywhere but he remains hidden because he wants to have a personal relationship with everyone.
That doesn't make logical sense. If I want to have a relationship with my son I won't go hide in the closet. I'm gunna make sure he can't doubt my desire.
Hiding instead of having a two-way personal relationship with someone is called "stalking". It's illegal for a reason.
Everyone knows to build a healthy and robust relationship with your children, you must be hidden so well that there’s no verifiable evidence you exist. That way, the stories of you they have to make up will be much cooler!
Liked because I think it's sarcastic, but with Christian apologetics being as absurd as it is you just never know
@@BlackDeath920 makes perfect sense if you don't exist.
I would love to share this video but hesitant because of the title. Is it possible to tone down the titles of the videos? Belief is so strong that the believer will immediately feel their faith is being attacked! A few times I’ve sent videos for family members to watch because they are always sending me religious content knowing I’m deconverted. But when I do it - crickets. This video is great 👍
This has totally knocked my favorite episode out of the water!!!! This has now made it to the tippy top for me!
Tim, you cracked me up about the wanting to go to Heaven thing! You were like.... "nah, man. I wanted to go to heaven!" LMAO!!! LOVE IT!!!
I LOVED LISTENING TO TAI!!!! Thank you for this!
I created a short film that you can find on my channel called The Angels' Playground. It's a short snippet from a much longer narrative and was shot within certain constrains of a contest I was trying to win. That being said, it is about the very notion that the angels are actually the bad guys. A demon befriends a young girl and begins to tell her the truth about the things she has been raised to believe. For the first time, we are hearing from the other side of the argument.
GREAT STUFF!!!
Would love to see your film.
@@TaiGoodwin23 Thanks, Tai! Pleased to meet you!
I don't know if it's proper to share links in the comments, so I'm a tad hesitant to do so. However, if you go to my channel, you should see a playlist titled SHORT FILMS. It should be the 2nd film on the list and is called The Angels' Playground.
It's only 10 minutes long and isn't quite what I wanted to do, but I had to work within the constraints of the particular contest I was entering at the time. Ultimately, I wound up not submitting because when I read the fine print, I realized that they would OWN my intellectual property, and the piddly little prize they were doling out just wasn't enough for me to be OK with that.
But I'm proud of it anyway! The main characters are my second and third daughters. I pretty much did everything in the film except appear in it.
I'd love to know what you think of it. Good or bad, I take all comments as constructive. In a lot of ways, your story with your daughter and her experience in that church is very close to some of what happens in the full narrative of the film this short is based on.
If you can't find it or would otherwise like to stay in touch, please feel free to reach out to me on Facebook or Linked In. My name is Zernul R Shackelford Jr. and the name of my company is Darque Syde of D'Lyte Productions.
I'm not hard to find. 😁
I hope to hear from you soon.
Anybody who takes the time needed to think through religion will realize it's mythology. Most people don't take the time.
These kinds of people are also “one issue” voters.
Wow Bradys sister xx
When I became a parent and then started teaching children's church I started asking questions and then read the Bible and saturated myself with the Bible and yeah no thank you.
@1:43:40 that’s how the “powers that be” keep the chaos / bs going.
It’s awesome to see Tim’s verbiage evolving! The use of slang for emphasis is refreshing. God…and psychopathic asshole are indeed synonymous.
Add some xtra assholes, F bombs, bullshits, shit for brains, etc. I love it!
I don't know if there's enough TP
for all those extra assholes.
It's so hard for me... still, I'm scared of h e double hockey sticks!
Holy shit. I thought the bit about god giving Job replacement children was supposed to be bad, but your mother said it was good thing and proved god was a good guy in that story.
prayer is just you begging your subconscious to get you to do something about it .
You ate that up😂
Sacred shackles. So many will never escape from the learned Helplessness instilled in the black church from the religion weaponized by the slave masters. But you can still keep your bible, For the same reason you would keep a collection on greek mythology.
Describes my young life to the T
I share a verse here and there with someone close to me and the response i get is that its probably a mistranslation. But the person im talking about gets angry and wont read the whole bible and starts ranting about Jesus. Wont read the whole entire bible because they love going to church so much and they say the dont have time to read it because they work a lot which they do but still its hard to have a conversation with someone who only knows a few verses here and there and wont look at it for what it is.
I went to a church counsellor because I was molested and then sa various times by various men. The counsellor said it was my fault because I strayed off the path and God's plan for me. They love to blame the Victim. btw I was molested by a member in a different church from the ages of 10 to 12 I said nothing because I know nothing would happen.
Of course that counselor lied, that’s not true. I’m so sorry for your pain and traumatic circumstances. Those people didn’t protect or defend you. Many so called Christians are being exposed and God will judge them. They make Christians look bad. It’s sad there are several hypocrites in Church. But there are also evil people in the world. I hope you’ve been to better counselors. May the Lord heal you. Amen. ❤
54:10 THIS! After years the don’t even care about you as a person and I think that’s bizarre . They just see you as a soul 😂 this is why it’s possible to go church for years and leave and have 0 friends contacts nada . You left and they erased you . The irony is that they may even think of you and pray for you but never call or get in contact with you 😂
I'm saying this as a deconverted former Christian. The church we attend is predominantly Spanish and black. In a Congregation of about 500, approximately a hundred of us are white. Beautiful people in deception
Any book that starts with a talking snake and a God named Yaweh can be brushed off as mythology.
That confess your sins part is weird. I think it's nosiness. Clergies want to know everybody's business.
It's how they get the dirt to use it for leverage over people
Not just the clunkiness of the Bible that you mention, but so much of it seems like a total waste of time, like why are you telling us this God? I feel like the Bible should only be like two or three hundred pages instead of the roughly 1,500 pages that it is. And then we’re not just supposed to read it, but 2tim2:15 study it in-depth? That always made it seem rather human, because for it to be God’s and His word, it would be super impactful, and so much of it is fluff horse shit of stuff that is totally irrelevant to anyones life, and then we have to spend our lives studying it (ah, a light bulb goes off). Why would people who want to control us better want all our time eaten up? Enter stage left your favorite political/societal control conspiracy.
She is a wonderful American.
It is brave to reject the cult . Now it’s time to realize there is no god there .