Daniel Cartier (00:01)
Hey everybody, it's Daniel. I went to an atheist convention this weekend. It was the first one I'd ever been to. And weirdly enough, one of the coolest people I met there was a Christian woman. Alright, more about that in a second. Let's start the show!
Okay, all right. All right, everybody. Well, like I said, my name is Daniel and welcome to my podcast. Sorry, I'm taking my headphones off because I don't like wearing them. know that's kind of cheating, but welcome to There Is No God and We're All Gonna Die. This is
My podcast, I'm a gay liberal atheist living in the Bible Belt, and this is my fourth episode. There is a fly buzzing around my head, so it's a little distracting, I apologize. But he is just another creature living his life. I am gonna let him live his life because I've been doing this weird thing lately where I've been trying to catch the flies and release them because I found out they were pollinators and they're also really kinda cool, and so I feel weird killing them, so.
I'm gonna let this fly live. That's me being spiritual right now. The spiritual atheist who's letting a fly live. Anyways, I'm getting distracted. So I went to this atheist convention. Okay, here's the weird thing. Get ready to have your mind blown. So, as you know, I've been recording this podcast. This is my fourth episode, so I'm still really new to the podcast game. And...
I was really scared to even start doing this podcast because living way out here in the middle of nowhere and the fact that I called the podcast, there is no God and you know, I'm living around rednecks with gun racks and thinking that I might get killed for even having a podcast that has that in the title. It was a little nerve wracking. And so I don't know after like my second or third episode, I was starting to get the hang of it. And then
Just last week, I don't know, maybe on Wednesday or Thursday, I got this email that a half an hour from my house, of all places, there was a huge atheist convention. You cannot make this stuff up. I mean, it's so weird that it happened when it did and where it did because I was free and so...
I was like, okay, fuck it, I'm gonna go. I mean, I have to go. This is my audience. These are my people. And so, you know, I paid the admission price and I drove my little atheist butt over there and it was amazing. It was so incredible. It was so weird that it was happening so close to my house and that I had no idea about it, but I made these really quick.
business cards with like a QR code so people could like go listen to the podcast and I literally printed them on, you know, that glossy photo paper. And so I was like printing out these really jacked up homemade business cards. ⁓ So I kind of felt like this weirdo because I went there and there was all these really big, really established podcasters and stuff, but you know, y'all have to start somewhere. So I just kind of let that go.
And honestly, a couple takeaways about it. It was really refreshing to be around a lot of people who viewed the world in a similar way that I do and that understood what I was saying when I said, know, when I'm saying I'm an atheist, I'm not saying that to be mean to other people and their beliefs.
This just happens to be what I believe and so... ⁓
So when I say I'm an atheist, I'm not saying this... Anyways, okay, what was I saying? Okay. So, it was really cool to be around a lot of people who, when I said... Okay. It was really cool to be around a lot of people who completely understood what I meant when I said, when I say I'm an atheist, I'm not saying it to be mean to religious people. I'm saying it because that's just how I view the world. The idea of... ⁓
God watching over me never really made any sense. The idea that when I die, I'm gonna go to this heaven never really made any sense to me. And so I'm just more comfortable thinking that this is all there is. so I need to show up for every moment and make most. And so I need to show up for every moment and make the most out of that moment. And so I need to show up for every moment and make the most out of that.
And that really is kind of what my atheism boils down to, making the most out of life because it's really the only thing that I know is real. So anyways, it was awesome hearing about all the people. So anyways, it was awesome meeting so many like-minded people. But the weird thing is, one of the coolest people there was this Christian lady.
I'm going to actually tell you a little bit about her because honestly, I'm not going to be able to do her justice just talking about her. What I'm going to do is I'm actually going to read my Facebook post that I wrote this morning because I was so inspired by her speech. And yes, she is a Christian. ⁓ But hear me out. It'll all make sense in a second when I read this letter. So that's what I'm going to do. All right. Let's see here.
Where's my little letter that I, my little Facebook status update that I copied and pasted into a text, into a text document. Okay, so here we go. This is my Facebook post today. Hey everybody. So I went to an atheist convention this weekend, 400 people. To be around so many people who think like I do was refreshing, but surprisingly one of the most, okay, hold on, I need to make this bigger.
Daniel Cartier (06:57)
Okay, so here is my Facebook status update from today. Hey everybody. So, I went to an atheist convention this weekend, around 400 people. To be around so many people who think like I do is refreshing, but surprisingly one of the most powerful speakers was April LeJoy, a progressive Christian woman. Yes, you heard that correctly, she still believes in Jesus.
My goal as an atheist has nothing to do with changing other people's beliefs, so although I don't believe in the God she believes in, I'm genuinely happy for her that she has those beliefs, and hearing her speak was eye-opening. For most of her life, she'd been the equivalent of a hardcore evangelical right-wing Christian nationalist, even protesting against things like gay rights and women's reproductive rights.
A few years back, after some of these issues hit close to home, she denounced her hardcore evangelical roots and began embracing more liberal values.
Her church disowned her, people she'd worshipped with for years said she was demonic, but she remained steadfast in opening her mind and opening her heart. In doing so, she realized she had more in common with liberals. We atheists tend to be very liberal, so she even realized she might have more in common with us. She also realized, even though she still believes in God, we all had a common enemy in the fascist facade that is
MAGA CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM, which by the way has nothing to do with true Christianity. So, I know what I'll be talking about in this next podcast, how atheists and open-minded believers can work together to defeat
God, come on Daniel.
how atheists and open-minded believers can work together to defeat a common foe. How atheists and open-minded believers can work together to defeat, to take on a common foe. How atheists and open-minded believers can work together to take on a common foe. And the reality is, we have a common foe. And the reality is, we have a common foe.
This extreme version of MAGA Christian nationalism that's permeated our entire culture affects all of us, believers and nonbelievers alike. Unless we're all willing to work together to bring about change, we will fail. A wide net needs more people, not less. I was grateful my atheist community gave this woman and other progressive Christians who were there a warm and embracing welcome.
I was also grateful I could give this woman a big hug, tell her about my podcast, which she seemed psyched to listen to, and let her know that my very best friend is also a progressive Christian. ⁓
and let her know that my very best friend is also a Christian.
and let her know, and let her know that my very best friend is also a progressive Christian. I may be an atheist, but I'm not a religious hater. I may be an atheist, but I'm not a religious person hater. The truth is, I love everyone.
I love my friends, I love my friends who believe whatever they believe or don't believe. As she stated so eloquently in her speech, she realized a person's beliefs are not very important anymore. What matters are their values. I could not agree more. My job is an atheist who values things like equality, dignity, women's rights, transgender rights, LGBTQIA rights, racial equality, the environment, income equality,
access to healthcare, science, and so much more that is under attack by this current administration is to show up alongside people who share my values, like this liberal Christian woman and my liberal Christian best friend, so we can reach as many people on the other side.
so we can reach as many people on the other side of the aisle as possible. This includes reaching out to misguided people still following Donald Trump as his corrupt right-wing Christian nationalist administration. This includes reaching out to the misguided people still following Donald Trump as his corrupt right-wing Christian nationalist administration pulls our great country and the world into fascism.
is a friggin police.
on with you.
Go on.
I can hate Donald Trump and his administration all I want, but hating all his followers solves nothing. If anything, I'm sad they're... I'm sad they're...
If anything, I'm sad so many of them are operating on such shitty information from propaganda outlets like Fox News, PragerU, and Breitbart. My belief? The only way we'll ever win is to reach as many of these people as possible and change their hearts. Hardcore liberal atheists such as myself can't do this alone.
We need to be part of much larger and much more loving network. This includes progressive Christians like April and my friend Matt. It also includes open-minded Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans, Native Americans, it includes people of all skin colors, of all faiths, it includes anyone across... it includes anyone. Basically, who believes in anything, who cares about the future of goodness.
Because that's what's at stake, the future of goodness.
I didn't mean for this post to be, I didn't mean for this Facebook status update to be so long. I guess I'm just happy knowing I'm not alone in my beliefs. And even if I don't believe in, and even if I don't believe in someone else's version of a god or a higher power or an afterlife, and even if I don't believe in someone else's version of a god or an afterlife or a higher power, I can still find beautiful, common ground with them. It's still possible for me to find
beautiful common ground with them.
So I'm grateful I had that opportunity. Wishing you... So anyways, that was my Facebook status update today. And yeah, I stand by all of that. There is so much at stake right now. And I think that seemed to be the general vibe of the whole conference. Everybody was there and we were happy to be together. But I think we all realized that the fact that we didn't believe in God
But I just wanted to let you know that I went to this amazing event. It was incredible. Honestly, I feel like it changed my life. And I'm sure I'll be talking more about it in future podcasts and hopefully bringing some of the people I met there on because I want to start having live guests on this show. anyways, on to top 10. Top 10 things I learned at Nanacon. That was the name of the convention, by the way. It was called Nanacon.
And it stands for, what does it stand for? need to tell you. NanoCon, I have to Google it. Now isn't it horrible? I actually went to it and I don't know what it stands for. NanoCon, honestly, y'all, don't know what it stands for. ⁓ Okay, anyways. Here are the top 10 things I learned at NanoCon, which is the name of the convention I went to. Thing number one.
Some of our greatest allies can be people of faith. I think I've already explained that in the reading of the Facebook post that I just said, but absolutely. I think that there are people across the board who believe in goodness, and I don't think that all people who believe in a higher power are, you know, MAGA fascists. If anything, I think that...
MAGA is its own thing. It's like a cult and it really has nothing to do. When I look at my friend Matt, who is my best friend in the whole world and he is very much a progressive, liberal Christian, he is the polar opposite of what a MAGA Christian nationalist is. So for me to be like, I'm going to hate all religious people because I'm an atheist would be horrible. No, I love everybody. And I love the fact that there's people who believe things I don't believe, but we can still have shared values.
So absolutely, some of the greatest allies in our fight for democracy will be people of faith, and I'm grateful for that. So, number two, it's our job not to be dicks to like-minded people of faith. Absolutely. Just because I have a podcast that is called There Is No God and We're All Gonna Die, my hope is that people of faith come and listen to this podcast and realize when I say there is no God, that's just my belief because I truly don't think there is a God, but that
I am not trying to be insulting to the fact that they do believe in God, and I will be the first one to admit. I hope I'm wrong. God, if I'm wrong, that means I get to go to an afterlife and I get to have this special friend up in the sky. I've said it many times. I will probably say it every single episode. I hope I'm wrong. It would be awesome if I was, because then I get this bonus time flying around in the sky when I die. My brain doesn't work that way. So for now, for me at least, there is no God.
and we're all gonna die. And when I die, it's lights out and my body will nourish worms and hopefully I leave behind some goodness. You know, I think we may live on in our deeds. So hopefully I may live on in good deeds that I've done, but you know, that's to be seen. Number three, my beliefs are just a small part of my atheism. My values are what matters. Absolutely. That is totally.
across the board something that I learned going to this convention that, you know, it's cool that we all kind of didn't believe in a higher power. That's great. But that can only go so far. Like I've already said a couple of times since I started recording this episode, there are much bigger fish to fry right now. There are much bigger fish to fry right now. There is Donald Trump. There is his administration. There's all the stuff they're trying to do.
There's all the rights they're trying to take away. There's all the voting districts they're trying to redistrict so that they can win again and again and again because they can't play fair. There's so many things. There's women's reproductive rights. I'm not gonna list off everything again because I already did, but you get the point. Just being an atheist and meeting a bunch of other atheists and commiserating with the fact that we don't believe in God, that would get boring really fast.
So there has to be a reason why our like-mindedness brings us all together and brings in other people who may still believe in a higher power but have the same values as us. yeah, the fact that I don't believe in God, that's just a small part of it. It's just like the tip of the iceberg. So let's see.
Thing number four, this is the fourth thing I learned at the atheist convention. Atheists are fucking fun. I swear to God, you know, I saw a lady dancing around with a hula hoop that had flames coming out of it. I mean, I swear to God, like atheists know how to have a good time. I'm just gonna leave it there, but I had a blast meeting all of these people. They were funny, they were fun, they were engaging, and...
You know, they were all into cool shit, like they all had cool hobbies they were doing, and again, we had friggin' flame dancers. So, yeah, it was pretty awesome. I can't wait to go to another one. Number five. Some of the nicest people I've ever met are at this atheist convention. And I think the reason why is because being an atheist, you're kind of an outcast. I know here in Tennessee, I mean, all my friends love me, even my religious friends.
But I always kind of feel like the odd man out, like, okay, now here's Daniel the atheist, you know, talking about how he's an atheist and everybody else is saying, have a blessed day and bless this and bless that and, you know, God is good and all that stuff. And I don't want to take any of that away from them. But meanwhile, I'm like the guy who doesn't believe in any of it. And so to, I think other atheists kind of feel that way too. And so when we all get together,
yeah, I think that it's refreshing and where we just are so psyched to be with each other that we're just really friendly to each other. So that was really nice, which kind of brings me to the, the, which kind of brings me to number six. the other thing I learned going here was that, the feelings I've been struggling with, being vulnerable, feeling guilty that I'm an atheist.
feeling like I'm a bummer, feeling like I'm in the odd man out, feeling like I'm a killjoy. It seems like those universally across the board, pretty much 95 % of the atheists I talked to there, they've also struggled with those feelings and their feelings that they've been working through in their own journey. So it was pretty cool to hear about that. Number seven, the other thing I learned going to this convention was
I think everybody, matter who they are, and this includes atheists, are desperate for community. I think community is where we meet our people. I think community, whether it's the local bake sale, or it's your recovery group, or it's your church, or it's a group of atheists at a convention, or it's your bowling league, or it's whatever, your book club.
I think humans really like humans. think it's one of my favorite quotes from Harold and Maude. I don't know if some of you young people have, some of you young people may have not seen Harold and Maude, but it's an amazing movie from the early seventies starring Ruth Gordon and I think Bud Hackett. Anyways, he's Harold, who's the younger guy sees Maude, this older woman.
⁓ And she's at this arcade and she's having a lot of fun with a bunch of people and she's just having a great time and later on he's like it was really you're really wonderful with people and she said well, they're my species and I always think about that because growing up I was kind of like I was a goth teen and I was kind of like one of those goth kids from South Park like I was too cool for school and you know
sitting on the bleachers being like, my God, everybody's so stupid. But the reality is, I crave communion with people. I do, I kind of feel like since I don't have a higher power, my higher power oftentimes is the sense of community I get from other people. And I don't think it's much different than the sense of community people express when they go to church. A lot of times,
That's what they're responding to. They're responding to the feeling of being around a bunch of other people who worship like they do and think like they do. And I get that. I think for atheists, you know, we are also desperate for community and we don't have as much of it yet because, you know, it's still kind of edgy to be an atheist. You know, it's not the feel good thing that being, you know, like believing in God or something is. And so.
It was nice to be around that community. And number eight, this is kind of a hopeful thing. It looks like the community that I just described that seems to be lacking, it does also seem like it's starting to take shape. ⁓ There was a lot of really cool things coming up in Nashville that I'm excited to go to. A lot of cool meetups, discussions, ⁓ open mics. ⁓
even like game nights, ⁓ things like people seem genuinely excited to get together with other like-minded people and honestly, a community can't happen unless we take part in it. So I'm very excited to take part in these events. One of the things, I may actually be going to something this Thursday ⁓ where it's actually gonna be taking place at a very progressive church where atheists,
and progressive Christians get together and they discuss topics, which I think is really cool. So why wouldn't I want to go to that? That sounds very interesting to me. So I think I may check it out. ⁓ All right. Number nine. This really isn't anything I learned at the the whatever you want to call it, the big convention, the big godless convention.
But this is just an observation. I made a ton of new friends and I'm very, you can probably tell from my smile, I'm very excited to build some friendships with these new people I met because some really frigging cool people. I met these two guys from Austin. I met this other guy from North Carolina and his wife. I met a bunch of really cool podcasters. I met this woman, April, the Christian woman who became a liberal Christian.
Just tons of cool people. ⁓ And so I'm really looking forward to reaching out to all these people and having some of them come on this podcast and saying hello and talking about what it's like to be an atheist in their neck of the woods, or even what it's like to be a liberal Christian and how they're being treated by their former Christian community. I think all of that stuff is very interesting. So I'm looking forward to hopefully exploring more.
And number 10, and this is the solemn thing I learned. This is the kind of serious part. We have a lot of work cut out for us. This is not a dress rehearsal. We have a lot of work cut out for us right now. The main vibe I got, besides the fact that it was refreshing and fun and that there was a lot of cool people, underneath it all, there was a very serious tone.
The Trump administration and all of his cronies and all these focus on the family groups and all these right-wing Christian nationalists, extreme alt-right, MAGA, fascist news organizations, all of these people organizing together, they are a mighty foe. I will give them that. It's fucking scary what they're doing.
They are literally trampling all over our democracy. And the fact that we have three and a half more years of this scares the flying fuck not just out of me, but out of a lot of people. Everybody at that, pretty much everybody at that convention I went to seemed horrified by it, but even, you know, people like the liberal Christians I talked to, and I'm sure people across the board from all different faiths,
who like I said, believe in goodness and believe in fairness and believe in justice and kindness and empathy and compassion. Things that are now being demonized. Empathy is now being demonized by Christian nationalists. They're saying it's weak. They are literally saying, Christian nationalists now who have Trump's ear. And you know, Trump doesn't fucking believe in any of this bullshit. mean, he literally, Trump is, Trump believes in Trump. That's all he believes in. But,
Enough about that for right now. ⁓ These Christian nationalists, they actually look at something like empathy and they frown upon it. They think that by being empathetic, you are opening the door to sin, basically. You're opening the door to the woman who got pregnant out of wedlock or the gay teenager or the transgender child or the immigrant.
who is illegal. Thinking even that people are illegal, viewing human beings as illegals. I mean, this is the mindset. So yeah, we do have our work cut out for us and we know and
And nobody can do this alone. Like atheists can't do it alone. Liberal Christians can't do it alone. Liberal Muslims can't do it alone. ⁓ Liberal Jewish people can't do it alone. Regardless of what our faith is, if we all have the same values, we really need to work together and put our differences aside. Because let me tell you, the right has a tendency to put their differences aside and mobilize and get shit done. And it's scary shit.
So that was the bad thing, not the bad thing, the sobering thing I learned. Well, I didn't learn it, I've always known this, but it really was driven home talking to people about this pretty much all weekend long. So, let's go on to asshole of the week.
Daniel Cartier (30:29)
Okay, now it's time for one of my favorite things. I'm kind of a douchebag when I'm dealing with assholes.
Okay, so the asshole of the week once again is Sir Donald himself, Donald fucking Trump. ⁓ Yeah, so I'm gonna read this article right here. This is from The Hill. Today, this is nice. It's not nice actually, it's fucking horrible. Trump memo allows federal workers to persuade coworkers their religion is correct. This is not a joke people, this actually is happening.
This is fucking scary. This is what I'm talking about. This is what I was talking about in the last segment. The scariest shit they're doing. Okay, so here it goes. Trump administration released a memo Monday that aims to protect religious expression among federal workers, outlining that employees can attempt to persuade coworkers about why their religious beliefs are correct. I can't even fucking believe this, but hold on. The memo outlined.
conduct that should not result in discipl- the memo outlined conduct that should not result in disciplinary or a corrective action, including displaying in the office Bibles, religious artwork, jewelry, posters displaying religious messages, and other indica- other in- d-sia, I don't know what that word is, of religions such as crosses, crucifixes, and mezuzah. Alright.
It also said that one or more employees could be allowed to engage in individual or communal
It also said that one or more employees should be allowed to engage in individual or communal religious expressions and that employees can engage in conversations on religious topics, including attempting to persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views. Okay, and it goes on to say a bunch of other bullshit about this. I just want to go to the very end. ⁓
An employee may invite another to worship at her church despite belonging to a different faith. ⁓ The memo outlines specific examples of permissible religious expression in the workplace, like having a Bible on a desk or a Star of David and forming a prayer group with employees while not on duty hours. It also gave the example of a park ranger joining her tour group in prayer.
It says at the very end, which is some, really, the federal workforce should be a welcoming place for federal employees who practice religious faith. Allowing religious discrimination in the federal workplace violates the law. It also threatens to adversely impact recruitment and retention of highly qualified employees of faith, the memo said.
Like they can't just fucking go to work. Like they gotta go to work and be all Jesus-y about it. That's the thing. If they're good at their fucking job, just go do your fucking job. You don't have to bring your fucking religion into it. that's so, like they wouldn't take a good paying job if they couldn't also try to save people's souls at the job. What a bunch of fucking bullshit. I swear to God. Anyways, it also said the memo first reported on by Fox News Digital, of course.
follows Trump's executive order on anti-Christian bias, which aims to protect Christians from religious discrimination. Yeah, like Christians are the ones being discriminated against. And I know I just talked about progressive Christians. This is not them. I guarantee you the progressive Christians that I just talked about, the liberal Christian woman at the atheist convention, or my best friend Matt, I guarantee you
They are just as horrified by this as I am because it is so inappropriate on so many fucking levels. So here is me being a douchebag to Donald Trump about it. All right, Donald, so you want federal workers. OK, so here's what I have to say about it. Are you ready? Donald, this is your gay liberal atheist friend, Daniel Cartier, lives in the Bible Belt and has a fucking podcast.
Donald, I can't fucking believe you even are attempting to do this. This is so wrong on so many levels. Okay, so like, poor employee who just wants to go do their fucking job, just do their fucking job, now they have to deal with some douchebag being like, hey, did you know that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior? And by the way, my way of thinking is correct. Like, people don't have enough to do already when they go to work without dealing with that bullshit. That is so fucking wrong on so many levels.
And by the way, nobody should ever have to feel like...
And nobody should ever have to be put in that situation anyways, because also what it's gonna do, it's gonna make the employee who doesn't believe the same way the Jesus person believes, it's gonna make them feel really weird. It's gonna make them feel really kind of cornered. And instead of creating a harmonious environment, it's gonna create a very toxic environment, because I guarantee you, giving permission to some of these crazy Jesus people to
giving permission to some of these friggin' Christian nationalist people who worship you to go into their federal workplace and start trying to save people's souls and bring them over to, you know, whatever they think, it's just opening up this huge can of worms. Not to mention the fact that you are basically, not to mention the fact that you are basically guaranteeing there's gonna be a ton of lawsuits, a ton of lawsuits, which is gonna clog up our court system.
and basically result in a bunch of legal fees and a bunch of bullshit and a bunch of like the federal government having to pay out legal fees. This is so stupid on so many levels and so wrong and so unnecessary. That's the other thing. It's so unnecessary. Why would anybody need to go into their place of work where they should just be doing their fucking job and saving their co-workers soul or telling their co-worker, hey, I know you're Muslim, but
My God is correct. How is that appropriate? Because I'm not just thinking about me as an atheist. I'm thinking about the Muslim person. I'm thinking about the Buddhist person. I'm thinking about the Native American person. I'm thinking about the Wiccan. I'm thinking about the Hindu person. I'm thinking about all the freaking religions somebody could possibly be. Going in to do their freaking job and then dealing with somebody basically confronting them and saying that
they don't have the right religion. Or like that they need to have religion, like in the case of me being an atheist. I know that if I was a federal worker and I went into ⁓ my job to do my job and then somebody was like, well, by the way, you know, my way of thinking is better than yours. I would just be like, you know what? Go fuck yourself. Take your religion and go fuck yourself.
And I would probably go talk to my supervisor and I guess what? They would say, well, Bob can legally tell you that his religion's better now because of this memo from Donald Trump. So, yeah, it's totally fucked up and totally unnecessary and just go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself with this. Again, I know I'm always telling you to go fuck yourself but I can't even stress it how much I mean at this time. Seriously, take this fucking memo and take this whole fucking initiative.
And seriously, go fuck yourself. I will say this. I hope there's a bunch of Satanists who work for the federal government. I mean, I don't believe in Satan. I don't believe in any of it. But I hope for your sake, there's a ton of Satanists who work for the federal government because I, if there are, and any Satanists are listening right now, please pentagram the fuck out of your office. Bring fucking black candles in and pentagrams and a fucking goat's head. I mean, I'm all for it.
because honestly that's how ridiculous this is. And I hope they say, you know what, my Satanism is the correct way of, because that is a religion. I guess they would have every right to do that according to you. So I hope they do. I hope they do. Anyways, that was me being a douchebag to Donald Trump. On with the show. I don't have a second douchebag this week. I mean, I think that was enough. I don't need a second dou-
Sometimes I have a second place asshole, I don't this week. Donald Trump wins again. I'm sure he will win this award many times. Throughout the years, if I continue doing this podcast, you know, for the next 20 years, he will probably be asshole of the week, I don't know, a zillion times. But I need a little sip of tea that my partner, Corey, made for me, my homosexual partner. Mmm. Throat coat tea.
it is so delicious. Well, ⁓ let's do a little bit of self-promotion.
Daniel Cartier (40:35)
Okay, so I don't have a lot of self-promotion today, but I will say that my acoustic album is officially done. It's not out yet, but you can still go to daniolcardier.com and order an advance copy. And if you do, you will get a download of it right now. And it sounds amazing. There's 11 beautiful songs on it. You will also get this bonus collection of songs, which I'm assembling, and it's a bunch of live recordings I've done. ⁓
I will say on the album there's a really beautiful cover of Are You Lonely Tonight, which Elvis made popular. There's a really cool cover of ⁓ Let Me Call You Sweetheart, the old timey song. And there's a bunch of just really beautiful songs. Also, ⁓ if you want to go to my Patreon page and become a member on Patreon, can also get a, I'm going to have a download of the album on Patreon as well. Just go to Patreon.
Let's see, what is it? I should remember what it is, but I don't. Daniel.
Patreon duh Okay, so you just go to patreon slash Daniel Cartier and you can either become a paying member or you can become a free member, but you will get you will get a download of the you'll get at least the download you won't get the download of the the Special collection you will get it down. So if you go to patreon slash Daniel Cartier, you can also get a
download of the album there. ⁓ I'm also developing a website for this podcast. It's taken me a little while to get together. So for now, you can still go to danielcartier.com slash podcast. And you can also while you're there, check out the There is No God and We're All Gonna Die t-shirt and all my art, which benefits Animal Rescue. Because as you know,
I love animals and I love donating to animal rescues and it also helps me take care of my own pack of handicapped dogs that me and Cory care for. All the rest of the money goes towards their vet bills, which are very extensive. So, all right, that's enough self promotion out of me. Let's take some calls. All right, so that's enough self promotion out of me. Let's listen to some voicemails.
Daniel Cartier (43:11)
Alright, let's listen to some voicemails, shall we? Let's listen to some voicemails. Let's listen to some voicemails. Voicemails. Yeah.
All right, let's see who has called and what they want me to talk about. I love that people leave these messages. It's so exciting for me. ⁓ So let's see. All right, here we go.
that is Ian calling from London again. This is his second call. An international man of mystery with a sexy British accent. I love it. I love it. love it. love it. ⁓ Hey, Ian. Thank you so much for calling. It's so nice to hear your voice. ⁓ boy. If I could do duet with a woman and then also if I could do a
Duet with a man? These are great questions. God, there's so many to choose from. Okay, I'm gonna do the woman first. You know, I gotta say, this may be cliche for me to say this, but it is a bucket list wish list. I have a lot of famous, I have a lot of favorite female singers, don't get me wrong. I love Kate Bush, I love Debbie Harry.
I actually have sang with Debbie Harry before we did a duet together in New York. That was very exciting, but that's another story for another day. I love Patti Smith. love, God, there's just too many to list. Cyndi Lauper. But I think who I would want to do a duet with, I have to say, as cliche as it is, I would love to do a duet with Dolly Parton because I think our voices would sound really good together.
She seems really cool. And also, I just really want to meet her. She's one of my heroes, ⁓ living here in Tennessee, seeing all the good work that she does, ⁓ donating so many books to children. And she has this bald eagle sanctuary where she rescues bald eagles. she just seems, she puts so much money into the community and she just seems like a very good-natured person who loves everyone. I don't know anybody who
I if somebody hated Dolly Parton, that would just mean that they were an asshole. I can't imagine anybody hating her. She just seems like a genuinely lovely, sunny, upbeat, positive person. so, yeah, I think I would love to record a song with Dolly Parton. I don't know what we would record, but it would be pretty cool. ⁓ Who knows, maybe someday it would happen. I don't know, but it's a long shot, I know, because she's a huge...
superstar but ⁓ for a male for somebody who's a man
Who would I want to do a duet with for a guy? God, that is a good question too. I've actually had the ⁓ pleasure of singing with a lot of cool guys. I actually jammed with Darryl Hall once. I've certainly spent a bunch of time with Elton John in the past when I had my record deal, although we never sang together. ⁓ but who? Who would I want to sing with? I don't know. This is kind of weird and it's not...
He's dead, so I would not be able to do a song with him now, but I always wanted to work with Rick Okasek from The Cars because they're one of my favorite bands. I grew up listening to The Cars. They were a huge influence on me. Rick Okasek kind of changed the way I view music. He was at the forefront of taking classic rock and roll, but mixing different sounds with it, like new wave and electronic sounds and...
it really influenced the way I view music because nowadays I will still go and I will approach songs, but even if it's a folk song, that doesn't really mean anything to me. Like I have no problem putting offbeat sounds in or experimenting with sounds. I absolutely, that started with my love of New Wave, which did that quite a bit and post-punk, but then also with bands like The Cars. The Cars were...
pretty much my first favorite band and one of the reasons why was because they really took a lot of chances with their production and it ended up sounding really cool because it was still pop, know, pop and rock, had this rock and very really great songwriting. yeah, I think if I could have collaborated with Rico Kacik from The Cars, that would have been awesome. But anyways, I can still enjoy his music, so.
Anyways, let's see what else.
Aww, that was my Cory calling. My Cory called into the show. My Cory called into the show. My better half, my gay lover, called into the show. Well, fuck, I actually thought you were gonna ask me a three plus one. Like, you know, who would you rather fuck?
live with or kill and or open up a bed and breakfast in Vermont. actually thought you were going to give me four celebrities and I was going to have to do it on my podcast. But instead, you're asking me how I feel about meeting my idols. I guess it depends. I mean, I actually have met some of my idols. I mean, like, as as you know, I grew up listening to Elton John and then I got to work with Elton John when he signed me to his record label in the 90s. And that was exciting. I was bummed out that the record
deal didn't pan out the way I wanted it to and I was kind of hurt that he never, when it did not pan out, he never even had like an assistant write me a like, I'm sorry, it didn't work out note or something. So that kind of hurt, but I still am a huge Elton John fan. I mean, I, it's not like I, you know, well, I kind of was bummed out about that for awhile, but I'm over it now. I mean, I honestly think
Well, no, that's another topic for another day. was gonna get into my whole record deal and the saga of that, and that's not what your question was about. ⁓ No, meeting my idols. It can be very disappointing. I actually have met some people that I was like, ew. I won't name names, but I do actually have. I had written this really...
Cool blog post once about all the celebrities I had waited on because I waited tables for years actually after I lost my record deal with Elton John I ended up penniless and like I needed to make ends meet and so I moved out to Los Angeles and found myself waiting tables on Sunset Strip and I ended up waiting on a lot of celebrities like
people that I had known from movies and music and film and TV and a lot of reality show TV stars and models. And so I wrote this blog post called celebrities I'd waited on and honestly it was eye opening. ⁓
here comes the train.
Daniel Cartier (52:57)
And honestly, it was eye opening. was weird which celebrities were really gracious and nice to the waitstaff and which celebrities were kind of nightmares. I was very surprised. And I and I I and I did say that I would not name names, but I will say that in the blog post about waiting on celebrities, I did have the loveliest.
moment with Robert Downey Jr. who is beautiful in person. And I just have to say it because it was such an awesome, I think it speaks volumes about his character. And so I know I wasn't going to say anything. ⁓ anyway, so I was slammed, I was in the weeds, I was waiting tables on Sunset Strip. It was, you know, people everywhere. And I was running around like a chicken with his head cut off. And then Robert Downey Jr. came in with a bunch of people. And they sat at a table and they all ate.
and then they all got up and left and his friends actually paid and they tipped me and it was fine and I thought well that was cool and then about 10 minutes later Robert Downey Jr. comes back into the restaurant and finds me and gives me another $20 bill and he said I just wanted to make sure that they tipped you enough and he handed me the $20 bill
And so there was this moment where we were like face to face. He was just like a foot away from me and y'all, he has the most beautiful eyes. And I just kind of fell in love for a second and then he was gone. And I know he, you know, he has a wife and kids and everything. So it's not like I became this crazy stalker, but I will say that I kind of melted a little bit. And so that was a nice memory. So he's not an idol. It's not like I think, sit around thinking about Robert Downey Jr. But it is a nice moment with a celebrity that surprised me.
⁓ I guess I'll end by saying that it really depends on how big of an idol the person is. Like, I know I just mentioned working with Dolly Parton in the last question. So yeah, it would suck if when I met her, she wasn't the sunny person that I thought she was. luckily, all reports that I've heard are that she truly is a lovely person. hopefully if I ever do get to meet her, because she is kind of like an idol of mine, ⁓
It will be a lovely experience. have a feeling it would be. So, I don't know. I think it really depends on how big of an idol the person is. The bigger the idol, the bigger the risk that will be ⁓ let down. So, I don't know. Life is a risk. Life is a risk. Anyways, I love you, honey. Thanks for that question. Let's see. What else? What else? Hmm.
my god. She's just like, okay, thanks. ⁓ Who was that? That was, ⁓ whoa, Anna, Anna, thanks for calling in. ⁓ Well, that's a great question. How do I manage to be loving towards religious people? And you are struggling with that, it sounds like. ⁓ Well, you know.
I think it just comes down to like, have to take these situations one day at a time and one person at a time. I don't think it would be realistic for somebody who's been struggling with this. I'm not sure what your situation is, but you know, I know for me, like there was a lot of people in my life who were religious and they were lovely people. then I certainly being a gay person over the years, you know, having gone through being a gay teenager in the eighties and
literally hearing people call gay people perverts and sinners and comparing us to child molesters and people who sleep with animals, ⁓ that really affected me. And then being gay bashed when I was 19 and pretty much knowing that some really sick religious people preaching from pulpits had a hand to play in that because it was kind of like making that hatred okay, you know?
I'm, you know, and ⁓ then seeing people laugh about my friends dying of AIDS and, you know, seeing people like, you know, Jesse Helms and Pat Buchanan say horrible things when, you know, my community was dying certainly colored the way I viewed religious people, people like Anita Bryant and homophobic people like that. So I guess, I mean, I would not expect you if you have
faced similar things in your life, wouldn't expect you to just go and start being loving towards all the religious people, especially if they're being hateful towards you. I think self-care is very important. So when I say that I love everybody, it's not like I'm going out and making friendship bracelets for everybody or like, let's all go to the mall and get Frappuccinos. Like, that's not what I mean. What I mean is that I still try to take everybody...
And even if I'm not actively engaging with them, I try to just mentally send them some love and realize that at one point they were a child who did not have fucked up beliefs. Those fucked up beliefs were given to them by somebody else who also had fucked up beliefs that were given to them. And I try to remind myself of that. It's not easy to do. It's very easy to forget sometimes when we're angry and we're reacting to people.
You know, I think it's the difference between like, am I reacting to people or am I responding to them? And I, there is a difference. ⁓ So I guess my advice is to not beat yourself up for struggling with this because I think it makes perfect sense. ⁓ But to maybe look around at all the people you know and try to pinpoint who the religious people are who share your values.
because maybe you don't believe in the things they believe in. But like I was saying earlier in the podcast, do they have the same values as you? Like, for instance, if you're LGBTQIA, are they a religious person who also supports gay people or trans people? Are they a religious person who supports a woman's right to choose? Like that's something that's important to you. If you are somebody who
is horrified at the Trump administration and like all the Christian nationalists, do you know other religious people who are equally horrified by Trump and all the Christian nationalists? Because as I stated earlier, there are Christians who are horrified at Christian nationalists. So I would say start with them. See if there's anybody in your circle of friends that shares your values.
even if they don't share your beliefs that I mean I'm not sure if you're an atheist or not I'm assuming you are from the tone of your question so I would just look at your circle of I would just look at your circle of friends and see if there's some like-minded people who happen to be quote-unquote people of faith but also look around and see if there's some fellow atheists in your
tribe because I think it's also important for you to have people who actually do have your beliefs because that's a big self-care thing. I know for me, I've a lot of times felt like I was the only atheist in the room. So it's very important for me to know that there's some other people who don't view the way I think as being weird. Like they actually view it as being normal. So, yeah, just take it one person at a time. And if you get a bad sense from somebody that they are
religious but not religious in a good way, but in a very hurtful way. You don't have to go and be friends with them. I you don't have to, I mean, you can just maybe close your eyes and be grateful that you don't have those beliefs, but then also you can show them in your mind. I mean, you don't have to outwardly show them this, but you can in your mind, send some empathy to them because they really have been getting, they really have been given
Shitty information they've been given these toxic beliefs by other people Whether it's people they were raised by or even by people who run billion dollar news organizations Fox News ⁓ I do believe that there's been a brainwashing happen brainwash it I do believe there's been a brainwashing that's happened here in America and it's been going on for decades and so
I think some people are very much unwitting casualties of it, like their brains are. So we can send them empathy, even if we're not friends with them. So I don't know if that helped, but hopefully it gave you some ideas and I am sending you a ton of love. All right. Let's see. What else? Who else called me? Who else called me? Let's see.
It is centrist.
six.
Greg, this is such a great question and it's so on topic for everything I was talking about earlier. Yeah, there are people who take the Bible and they've really misconstrued a lot of stuff about it. Yeah, there's a lot of fucked up stuff in the Bible. Let's just be honest. mean, there's like daughters being sold into slavery. There's like people being stoned to death. I mean, there's all sorts of craziness like talking snakes. ⁓ There's also a lot of beautiful
passages in the Bible, I will give it that. There's a lot of beautiful concepts about loving your neighbor and all sorts of things about loving people. I will say that it's very important, as I discovered this weekend, that not all people who read the Bible are hateful. That there are many people who read the Bible and love a lot of things about the Bible who are liberal.
They're progressive. They love gay people. They are. They have pretty much all the same values we have. And that was very refreshing to be reminded of that this weekend. I mean, I'm always reminded of that when I talk to my friend, Matt, who he reads the Bible every day from from what I gather. And he is a very progressive liberal. ⁓ So I think it's important to remind ourselves that there is for all the haters who read the Bible, there's a lot of people who
their hearts are that Christian love you were talking about. I think that's very important for us to remember how I deal with the people who ⁓ are taking this Bible and misinterpreting it and using it as this weapon to take away people's rights and to bully people. I deal with them the same way I deal with bullies because that's what they are. They're bullies. They are people who are taking
this book and they're using it as a baseball bat to beat up people and pulverize people's rights and pulverize people's lives and you know ruin people's lives because that's what a lot of this legislation that they try to pass using the Bible as an excuse that's what it does it ruins people's lives it's no different than a schoolyard bully and why when like
I'll use my gayness as an example. My gayness does not affect anybody, unless I come up to you and try to be gay with you and you didn't want me to. Which I don't have any interest in doing, because I'm not a crazy person. ⁓ But unless I'm doing that, my gayness has nothing to do with anybody else. You know? I just happen to like dudes. I like penises, you know, whatever. I'm not gonna apologize for it. I like dudes. But ⁓
Yeah, it's not gonna affect anybody's life. Who cares? Who gives a flying fuck? Well, obviously they do because they spend a lot of time thinking about it and they spend a lot of time trying to pass laws to take away my rights because the Bible said this or the Bible said that. Yeah, it's so fucked up. It is fucked up on so many levels and they're just being bullied. So I deal with them the same way I deal with any bully. I just say, fuck you. Fuck you.
And fuck your interpretation of the Bible because it's bullshit. It is just fucking bullshit. And I know it's bullshit because I know people who read the Bible and they don't treat it that way. They treat it as a source of love and compassion and empathy for their fellow human beings. And that is the way any religious text, I don't care what it is, should be treated. Whether it's the Quran or the Bible or I don't know all the names of the religious texts because honestly, there's a lot of them.
But at their heart, I've always thought that it was how to coexist with your fellow man. ⁓ So yeah, just that's that's how I deal with them is just, you know, I just continue to fight back. I tell them to fuck off and I continue to fight back and I do my podcast and I let them know what I think. I let them know what I think when they say it's OK to go into.
their federal workplace and start trying to save souls and tell their coworkers that their faith is wrong. I speak up about it. And I love that you're calling into the podcast because you're speaking up about it. It's awesome. I think that the more community we can build with one another, where we can share our views, whether it's people calling into my silly podcast or me pontificating here or us going to a protest or teaming up with
people who are religious but they actually have good values like we do. I mean I think it's all important. think that to cast a wide net it needs to be interwoven. We need to work together. I used this analogy this weekend actually that there was a difference between working alone or working together. When we work together we have this woven net. But when we work on our own
It's just a bunch of strings. You can't catch anything. So the strings have to weave together. So like you calling in here, me answering you, us talking to other people, us going and meeting other people who think like us, us meeting up to, you know, have groups of friends who are like-minded and then, you know, writing to our Congress people and writing to our senators and getting people to go out and vote. I mean, it's all so important.
There's so, I mean, as you know, I mean, you know this, you know this because I know how, you know, I've known you for years and I know how passionate you are as an artist and as kind of a free thinker like me, I know that I'm not telling you anything that you don't know. We have to just show up. We have to show up. And I love what you said about now and here. We're nowhere. And it's weird. We're kind of like nowhere, but we're here.
So that's very cool. Anyways, I love you and I'm, I don't know if I even answered your question, but I love the question anyways, and I'm sure I'll be talking more about it. So thank you so much. Let's see. I think I have one more call, one more voicemail. ⁓ let's see.
Yeah, whoo.
Aww, that's awesome. I actually met that guy at the conference this weekend and I guess he left that message when he was driving back home. I can't remember where he lives, but he lives somewhere not here. A lot of people drove, I mean people drove from Ohio and drove from Texas and drove from all over the place to come to this conference and so I know that he had a trek back to where he was, but this awesome guy, John, jolly guy, super happy, super nice. I love talking to him, I just, I love.
Jolly happy people they they just Make me jolly and happy. So yeah, this guy was really cool ⁓ Thank you so much for calling man. And yeah, it was so great meeting you at that conference. It really was ⁓ And what would what a great question what would I say to a theist which is basically somebody who believes about being an atheist ⁓
There's a lot of things I would say, but I think the main thing I would want to impart is that my belief that there is no God and my belief that when I die, it's lights out. That's just my belief.
in no way when I say that am I making it about anybody else? Like I'm not saying that so that I can be mean to a religious person or make them feel stupid for believing what they believe. I have no interest in that. Life's busy enough. Like I have better things to do than make people feel stupid for what they believe. Like I really don't. That doesn't interest me. If anything, as an atheist, I would want to let them know that, hey, yeah, I don't believe in God.
I get that you do, but tell me about your pets or tell me about your kids or what do do for a job? I would actually just want to know about their life because at the end of the day we're both just people and we're both just here on this planet for a very brief amount of time. The Earth has been around for 4.6 billion years. The dinosaurs were here for 167 million years and humanity's been here for
like nothing for like two or three hundred thousand years like a drop in the bucket like nothing and i know i've said this on the podcast before but i'm gonna say it again because it bears repeating if you condensed the world history 4.6 billion years into 24 hours humanity would show up in the last second think about that the last second so you know here we are
in the last second arguing about whether there's a god or there isn't a god and our lives are just like this blip. It's like we were never even here. We're here for such a short amount of time in the big grand scheme of things that it's like we're nothing. And I actually find a lot of comfort in that today because it means that all my problems are even smaller. I used to make my problems into these big life or death things, but the reality is...
100 years from now, everything that I'm stressed about won't matter to me because I'll be dead. I would like to think that I helped pave the way for a better future for whatever is here 100 years from now. That would make me feel nice. And so I would maybe ask them about that too. Like if it was a religious person, like a ⁓ theist, as you say. I would hope that they were interested in leaving a better world for...
future generations, like a hundred years from now or two hundred years from now, if mankind can even exist for another hundred years. I mean, that's debatable because of what we're doing to the planet. As I said in the last week's episode, we're not destroying the planet. The planet's going to be around long after we're gone. We're destroying it for ourselves. I mean, we are going to be making it uninhabitable for human beings if we keep up the way we're going. But.
That's another topic for another day. I've talked about it before. I'm sure I'll talk about it again. But anyways, I guess that's my I hope that answered your question. I seem to be saying that after all the questions tonight. I don't know why I'm doubting myself so much, but thank you so much for calling. I hope that we can maintain a cool long distance atheist. I hope we can.
maintain a cool long-distance atheist friendship because you were a very awesome guy and I really enjoyed meeting you so thanks for calling and I hope you call back and let me know how you're doing because it would be great to hear how you're doing down where you are so yeah you guys I think I've finished the podcast I think I'm done this this was a very easy episode for me to film because I had such great material to work with having gone to that convention so
Awesome! Before I go, I just want to say a couple things that I forgot to say earlier. I am desperate, desperate, desperate, desperate, desperate for people to call in and leave voicemails. Please call in and leave voicemails. Please, please, please, please, please call in and leave voicemails. Where do you do it? You do it at SpeakPipe.
dot com slash there is no god and we're all gonna die again speak pipe like speak and then pipe like a pipe you'd hit somebody over the head with dot com slash there is no god and we're all gonna g-o-n-n-a die and if you go there speakpipe.com slash we're all
gonna die? There is no God and we're all gonna die. You can leave me a voicemail and you'll be on my podcast and you'll be a podcast superstar. So, yeah, I would love to have your beautiful voice on my show and answer whatever question or if you want to just call up and rant about something, you don't have to have a question. You can call up and be like, this pisses me off or that pisses me off or you know what I think's cool and then give me some fact about the universe.
It can be whatever you want. It's your time when you call up and leave those voicemails. So I just enjoy getting them and I appreciate all of them. And as a new podcast, I'm kind of tackling, I'm kind of like chasing people down at this point. Like it's not like I have this backlog of what you heard right now. I've exhausted all my voicemails, so I need more. So please, please, call up and leave me a voice message. Speakpipe.com slash
There is no God and we're all gonna die. Okay, that's enough out of me. Check out all the stuff I'm doing at daniolcardia.com. I will be back next week with another episode and I friggin' love you guys. All right, thanks you guys. Have a lovely week.