WOTM: The Unexamined Life
This one is a bit more personal that we're all used to. I've talked about various aspects of my de-conversion before, but never the specifics of what launched me into this whole new life of disbelief, skepticism, anti-theism, etc... There's a beautiful irony of it being, almost directly, the result of my relationship with Dennis Prager, as you'll see.
The more ironic part (which I didn't put in this video — let's call this a Patreon exclusive), is that Dennis never actually read the book he recommended on air (the book I talk about in this video)!!! WTF?!!! That's when I started to have some real suspicions about Dennis. He'd read a review of the book in the NYTimes review of Books and then acted like he'd read the book himself.
Another fun fact: He had a ton of books, and every one I borrowed had highlights and notes, but never past the third chapter. His half-assedness comes across, doesn't it?
Again, thank you all so much! And enjoy! Still more to come!!! B
P.S.: Too many exclamation points?
Comments (13)
Please BriBri, do tell us more about yourself. We want to know everything! (and also how Amy, Jimbo and Sean are doing…)
Nice video!
Nice to get a bit wider perspective on your life, both examined and unexamined! Makes me wish we could spend time together so I could share my own story of how I finally exited "Mormon-dumb" —and the consequences that followed.
Brian I enjoyed this video like all of your videos. Please keep presenting new formats for your content like this. (no pressure)
The "unexamined life" is a lot more fun. At least it's simple.
And less costly! I’ve spent a small fortune on books. D’oh!!!
That PragerU “Go Devils!” joke makes me laugh every time. It’s just such a communication that Dennis is steeped in bad faith and fundamentally not worth being seriously entertained as an arguer, that any response is firmly grounded in mockery.
One of the things that made me suspicious of his intelligence was that he was always the last to get a joke, and hardly ever made any himself. He was also a bit of a coward in real life. When he had control of the mute button on the radio, he was fierce. The few times I really came at him, he was like a little deer.
I actually love hearing about the best parts of people’s de conversion and I loved hearing about your introspection and that it was suggested by a Buddhist friend. The hopeful quality of this is really nice.
I've never been a believer, due to a dad who used to sarcastically comment on the news from Israel and Palestine in the 80s, but nonetheless I had been baptized like almost everybody else where we lived (western Norway). Played guitar myself, and later, I even married my wife in a Spanish Church, near my in-laws' summer house. It wasn't until I became very sick and spent months in a coma and later found out that I had been prayed for by the hospital bed, that I opted out of the Norwegian Chuch (which I never attended), and started googling for arguments to why this whole god-thing was so stupid. I must say, that your arguments are really good and precise! I can use them when debating my religious family-members!
So...when in the process did you stop wearing your temple garments? I’d been wearing my magic necklace, aka tulsi beads, longer than I can remember-almost certainly since before I was six years old. Not wearing that necklace was actually one of the last steps of my deconversion. I was definitely not a believer at the time but I still didn’t feel comfortable without them. They were just such a part of what I did - Hare Krishnas wear them 24/7.
You know what? I honestly don’t remember when I stopped wearing the magic underwear. You’d think that would have been something I’d remember. But I don’t. Weird!
Always interesting to hear someone's deconversion story. Thanks for sharing!