Daniel Cartier (00:00)
everybody, we have a lot to unpack this week. Texas, Trump, Kim Davis, remember her?
And then I'm also going to talk about 10 things that suck about being an atheist.
More on that in a second. Let's start the show!
Daniel Cartier (00:16)
Here it is.
There's no God, there's just you and I
Daniel Cartier (00:35)
Hey everybody, welcome to There is No God and We're All Gonna Die. I am your host Daniel Cartier and I'm a gay liberal atheist living in the Bible Belt. I live here with my partner Cory, our pack of handicapped dogs.
anyways, I hope everybody's having a great week. This is my fifth episode. I'm really proud of myself for making it this far.
Here's the weird thing about me.
Daniel Cartier (00:56)
one of the biggest struggles I'm having doing this podcast. is that perfectionism thing. I don't know if anybody else has this experience. You ever feel like when you're alone, you are so much more eloquent than when you're suddenly around a bunch of people. I really struggle with that.
because I'm always talking to myself, like if you ever filmed me with one of those nanny cams, you know, those nanny cams where they I guess make sure that the nanny isn't like abusing the kids. If anybody ever filmed me with a nanny cam, they would probably just think I was a crazy person because I literally talk to myself all day long.
And here's the thing, when I talk to myself and I'm basically doing this podcast in my house but I'm not being filmed, you guys, I sound like the smartest person in the room. I sound eloquent, I am not stumbling over my words. I am just kind of doing
And then I set up the lights and I admit I put a little makeup on because I'm vain. I'm the first person to admit that I don't want to have like a shiny skull. And I, you know, I touch up the eyes a little bit because why not? You know, maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's.
It's not Maybelline, it's some really cheap stuff I got at Dollar General. But anyways, I do a little bit of that. But you know, once I get everything together, I have my water, I have my notes, I make sure the dogs are all situated. I put up my green screen. There is a green screen behind me. It's not like I have these like geometric shapes behind me all the time.
that are moving around, that's all computer generated.
I hate to destroy that illusion for Yeah, and then I press record, and then suddenly my tongue becomes tied. It's kind of like my tongue becomes like five times bigger, and I just start stumbling over all my words. So anyways, that happens, but let's just calm down for a second.
I'm going to do what religious people do. I'm going to invite the moment into the room. I'm not going to invite God into the room because I don't believe in God. No offense if you do, because you know, I'm never being an atheist to offend anybody else. So right now I'm just going to invite the moment into the room. Just invite the moment in. Hello moment. We're all here. The listeners are here. I'm here. We want you to come into this moment and be a moment where we can all just communicate.
Daniel's gonna communicate to the best of his ability. He's gonna talk about some horrible things the Donald Trump administration is doing. He's gonna talk about some cool stuff that religious people are doing and some not so cool stuff religious people are doing. He's gonna talk about it sucks to be an atheist sometimes. He actually made a top 10 list about that. He's gonna talk about, that Kim Davis crazy person who is trying to like
I'm going to have a little sip of water. I don't want to show the label because It's not like I'm being endorsed by it. Mmm. Water. It's not just for breakfast anymore.
Daniel Cartier (04:20)
Alright, let's do a little bit of self promotion.
All right, that was fun. So yeah, I have a couple of things I want to tell you about. First off, There Is No God and We're All Gonna Die has an official Facebook page now. So go to Facebook, find the podcast Facebook page, and please like and follow After a certain amount of time, I'll be able to start live streaming from there. I'm really excited about that, because then we can have some live.
episodes as well where we can all communicate together because I think community is really important. Also, Acoustic Album again is done. Again, it will be out to the general public at the end of August, but you can still go to danielcartier.com, C-A-R-T-I-E-R, and sponsor the album. You can get t-shirts, original artwork, ⁓ custom song.
spend a lot of money, I'll actually come to your house and I'll do a concert in person. So yeah, there's a bunch of things you can get.
Also, there's art for sale and it all benefits animal rescue and the care of my handicapped dog pack. Lastly, voicemails. I need more voicemails. I have some for this week, so thank you to the people who called. But you guys, I'm a new podcast, so it's not like I have...
thousands of listeners. have a very small listener base right now, and I'm not going to try and hide that. I'm not going to pretend that I'm a bigger deal than I am. I openly embrace the fact that I'm just getting started, and hardly anybody knows about me. That's totally okay. But I'm starting to feel like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, where I'm just...
Hounding people and hounding people to call and leave a voicemail. So I'll have voicemails to Respond to because honestly that is my favorite part of the whole show. I love responding to these voicemails I Genuinely do and yes I know I totally ripped off Sarah Silverman because that's pretty much the bulk of what she does on her amazing podcast and I loved her format so much that I'm like, well when I start a podcast I'm
Totally gonna do that. I actually even use the same voicemail service she does, I think. So you can go to speakpipe.com slash thereisnogodemwereallgonnadie and just press record. You can ask me a question, you can leave a comment, you can rant about Donald Trump, you can rant about me.
starting to wonder why nobody's given me any hate I thought for sure conservatives would be all over my podcast, leaving voicemails every five seconds, but I guess they haven't figured out I exist yet, so I'm sure it will happen. But anyways, in the meantime, yeah, you can rant about anything. You can also, I've made it even easier. You can just go to my website, danielcartier.com, and right on the homepage,
there is a button and you just click that button and it takes you right to that longer web address and you just again press record and leave your voice message. literally takes one minute and there are no wrong questions or comments. I welcome it all at this point. I'm not being selective and if you're really like if that's even asking too much
You can go find me on Facebook and go to Messenger and you can press the little microphone and you can leave me a voice recording that way. So my point is there's so many different ways you can reach me and ask me your questions or give me your thoughts and I welcome all of it.
So that's out of me. Let's see what's happening in the news.
Okay, you guys, just have to say I spent a couple hours yesterday putting that little theme song together and I'm very proud of it. if you are listening to this podcast, I am so glad you're here. But here's the deal. You need to really go check out this episode on YouTube at some point just to see.
what the credits look like. I put a lot of thought into the credits. made all these little action figures out of cut up paper and popsicle sticks and they are dancing around in front of flames and there's MAGA supporters and there's crazy newscasters and there's cows and there's dancing skeletons with...
big muscles and there's a goth girl and there's my dog Cheez-It. Yeah, you need to go look at my wackadoodle the visuals for that little segment I just did because they're really fun. The YouTube version of this podcast, I have to say, it is very fun. It's very visual Anyways, let's talk about what's in the news
so the first thing, Texas,
Daniel Cartier (09:43)
All right, this is from ABC News A showdown is unfolding in Texas as Governor Greg Abbott threatens to remove Democrats who have fled the state in protest of Republican-led effort to create a new congressional map with control of the U.S. House potentially at stake.
Abbott said Texas House Democrats have until 3pm local time on Monday to return to the state house for a special session or risk losing their jobs. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suggested Democrats who
So basically what's happening is Donald Trump wanted to create five new Republican seats and help Republicans keep control of the House in the 2026 midterm elections. Consideration of the bill has been set for Monday but cannot proceed if a quorum. So yeah, it's really screwed up. First of all,
Here's my thought on it. If you have to redraw needlessly out in the open, like shamelessly, because they're not even trying to hide why they're trying to redraw these they want in 2026 to maintain control of the House. And they know that the Trump presidency, which
for all the star-spangled flag-waving that they do, a lot of people are getting pissed off. I mean, they look and the fact that the cost of living has not come down and actually people are losing benefits. And I'm gonna get into some of the other things that are happening around the country that are.
warning signs that Trump's economic brilliance is actually not brilliant at all and people are starting to see that and So now they're like well, we need to redraw the congressional maps because we really need to keep control of Congress Here's a thought Have better fucking ideas
If you have better fucking ideas, you wouldn't have to do all this bullshit. That's always my problem. No offense if you're a Republican, I'm not. Because it seems like Republicans are always pulling this shit. They're always, let's not take care 90,
nine percent of the population, let's just totally kowtow to these billionaires and millionaires and the one percent and act like that's a patriotic thing to do. And then when people are still paying more for groceries and they're losing benefits and real world implications are starting to happen and they start seeing like, yeah, that there's a guy behind the curtain and
the knobs that he's pulling suck and it's actually making your life worse, maybe they'll start voting against you and so why don't we, instead of getting better ideas to help these people, let's just redraw the congressional map. That to me, it's like if that's what you have to do to win, maybe your ideas are just fucking shitty ideas. So, you know, that's what I think when I think about stuff like this. And the Democrats leaving, don't,
fucking blame them for leaving because that's the one voice they have. Protest, we are a nation founded on protest, first of all. those Tea Party patriots will always remind you that we are a country that was founded on protest. Well, yeah, so people still fucking protest and that includes doing things peacefully.
like leaving the state when there's a vote that you think is just completely unconstitutional. You know what? That's so fucked up, I'm not even gonna take part. I'm gonna make it so you can't fucking vote. So that's why Democrats are doing that. And, you know, of course, because these self-serving Republicans are clutching their pearls now because, Democrats are actually showing that they're not just gonna cave in.
And that's annoying to the Republicans because Republicans are just like any other bully. They just want to get their way.
Daniel Cartier (13:38)
So basically, according to NBC News...
The bulk of the 50 plus Democrats who left the state are in Illinois where they've been welcomed by Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker. I'm sorry I can't pronounce that. Others are in Boston and in Albany, New York
In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott is threatening to boot the state Democratic lawmakers from office. I don't think he can legally do that. That's a bunch of fucking bullshit. Maybe he can, but that would be kind of fucked up because then that would be a governor acting like a dictator, if you ask me, or send law enforcement to force them to return to the state. None of that. I don't see how any of that would be constitutional. Like, how would that be constitutional? I guess I need to look up on that, but I mean, that
Would a governor of a state be able to arrest Congress people for protesting, like for leaving the state and not taking part in a vote because they were vehemently opposed to it? And because it clearly was corrupt. That's the thing. They're doing this to highlight the corruption of all of it. So now what? He's going to arrest them and then he's going to what? He's claiming to like fire them when they've been elected.
The way I see it, their constituents who elected them, by leaving and not taking part in this vote, they are actually honoring their constituents, you know, because their constituents elected them, I'm assuming for their principles. And so they are showcasing their principles right now. That is what America is all about. So this Governor Abbott.
who I'm sure he will become an asshole of the week at some point. He is not this week. I have a really good asshole of the week this week. anyways,
so more will be revealed.
my he's calling them out of state felons. He's actually referring to them as felons now. It's just so ridiculous.
So that's happening.
so the other thing that was in the news was Trump, you know, engaged in a huge controversy surrounding the firing of the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Trump accused her, ⁓ her name is Erica McEntarfer? McEn? McEn tar? McEn tarfer? McEn tar? McEn tarfer? I cannot say that name! Erica-
Micken Tarfer, Micken Tarfer. I can't say, I'm sorry, I can't say the name.
Daniel Cartier (16:00)
Okay, so
Trump basically accused her of manipulating the jobs data, calling the July jobs report and prior revisions a scam and rig to negatively his administration and the Republican Party. He claimed, McIntarfer faked the jobs number before the 2024 presidential election to boost his opponents chances.
Trump stated he has directed his team to fire McIntarfer immediately to be replaced more competent and qualified. It's important to note that Trump provided no evidence to support his claims of data manipulation. The BLS, like other statistical agencies, routinely updates its figures to incorporate data that wasn't initially available or to reflect information from more authoritative sources.
These revisions, although sometimes large, part of the normal annual revision process.
So basically, Donald Trump is claiming that this woman who is doing a job that is very closely monitored, that relies on actual
You know what this reminds me of? It reminds me of when somebody has a Facebook page and the Facebook page is maybe three days old. Maybe they have like a pizza parlor in Ohio or they have a roller skating rink in Sioux City or they're this new band and they just released their first single, but it's not on a record label. It's literally just them performing in their garage. But then you go to their Facebook page and they have like
one million followers already? And you're like, well, that's kind of weird. They literally just opened their pizza parlor, and now they have a million followers? What? And then you look at all their followers and it's all people from some other country like Taiwan or something.
And it's like, okay, they literally just paid to get all these likes So basically what Donald Trump is saying, accusing this woman who's in this very high profile job of doing is risking her own reputation.
to make Trump look that all she's trying to do is cook the numbers, even though the numbers all have to be backed up. It's not like she can just start posting numbers like, hey, I'm just gonna friggin' make up, you know, shit. I'm just gonna say, yeah, turns out we didn't hire as many people. Yeah, that's the ticket. there's no way somebody in her position could do that.
And so economists are pointing that out and even people who run companies and people who are in charge of hiring and people who just know about shit are basically saying, yeah, she can't just be making up numbers. But meanwhile, Donald Trump fired her, I guess, and I think he did, I think he totally did fire her and claimed that
It was all a scam and all rigged. And that's the thing about Donald Trump. I think the thing that bothers me the most about this is it goes back to the thing that I'm always complaining about.
my problem is that the MAGA base, I mean, I view it as a cult. I mean, I think it is a cult. But all he has to say is that it's rigged. he doesn't even have to offer any proof. He just needs to say it's rigged.
it's rigged. Yeah, she rigged the whole thing. And he doesn't have to supply any proof. That's my problem with everything about Trump. There's no substance behind anything he says, but yet he gets tens of millions of people to go along with him. you know, basically while they do, it's this blind faith. And, you know, so I'm like just thinking like how much longer can we afford to just run on blind faith?
I mean, I don't think we can do it forever because substance is gonna have to matter at some point. Substance is going to have to matter. And I don't see how it can matter when we continue to have people who are in charge of things, like our president, who can just have shitty job performance numbers, shitty hiring numbers, shitty economic numbers, and he can just be like, it's all rigged.
It's all rigged. you know, I have the best numbers. I have the best whatever, you know, I mean, he has his way of talking. I'm not even going to try to imitate him because it does not interest me. But yeah, so that's happening. And so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. hope that I hope that she sues. I mean, you know, because she should. I hope she sues him for libel. She should sue him for libel.
She should. She should. She should sue him for libel. That's almost like a tongue twister. I have a hard time saying that. And then the next thing that's happening is Trump endorses Lauren Boebert. Boebert. for reelection.
He calls her a MAGA warrior. Okay, a warrior of what? Lies? What is a MAGA warrior? I'm really wondering, what the hell would a MAGA warrior be? I'm actually curious. I want to ask Google, what is a MAGA warrior? Let's ask Google. Because I'm very curious what Google would say a MAGA warrior is.
What is a MAGA Warrior?
Hmm.
Mega Warrior.
It's a war against the weak. That's what it is.
Yeah, basically, it's a war against the weak. That's what it says. Warrior culture. We heard in the US Senate confirmation hearings. need to adopt a warrior culture. This is Pete Hedge, Hedge Seth. I can never pronounce his name either. He pledged to follow President Trump's primary charge to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense.
Yeah, I just think that that whole warrior thing like what is she a warrior about? about lies, about, I don't know, co-signing all of Trump's bullshit, even when he's caught in all the lies.
every single fucking day almost every time opens his mouth is that what she's a warrior for because i wouldn't be bragging about it so anyways yeah that's happening
Daniel Cartier (21:58)
You know I think that's news for now. I think I want to go on to something else.
Daniel Cartier (22:03)
This is a I like to call 10 things that suck about being an atheist.
Praise nothing. Praise nothing. Okay, you guys, I've actually been thinking about doing this for a while. I'm really looking forward to this.
Daniel Cartier (22:35)
So for any of you who are out there who are not an atheist, if you're wondering, is being an atheist just all fun and games and just godless, wild abandonment and partying? No, being an atheist is actually kind of a bummer and I'm gonna list off the 10 reasons why. It kinda sucks being an atheist. I mean, I can't help it, I'm an atheist. This is how my brain works.
So you're listening to this list and you're like, well then stop being an atheist.
That's like telling me to stop believing the sky's blue or that the ground is beneath my feet
Some things are just things that I accept as fact. So me being an atheist isn't something that I can just flick a switch and my brain will just magically start thinking in a way that it hasn't ever thought, my atheist way of thinking.
has come from years and years and years of me examining things and looking around and using my brain and, you know, looking at all the facts But with it comes a lot of stuff that's not so great. So I'm gonna talk about it right Thing number one, religious people think I hate them.
That's such a big one. I don't hate anybody and I'm not gonna get too into it Because I know a lot of you have been with me since the first episode. So you've heard me say this many times I do not hate religious people. My best friend is a Christian I Spent all of last week talking about progressive Christians and how amazing they are and how incredible they were at the atheist convention I just went to
So I'm not gonna spend any more time on that right now if you want to hear more thoughts on it go back to that last episode, I talked very extensively about the fact that I do not hate religious people at all. very grateful in fact that I can hopefully be part of a community vote against Trump and the Christian nationalist agenda in 2026 and in 2028
people voting alongside me may be progressive Christians or progressive Muslims or progressive Buddhists or Wiccans or whatever somebody can be. There's a zillion religions in the world. And so long as those people have the same values as me, great. know, they're for compassion, they're for empathy, they're for healthcare, education, science, research.
a woman's right to choose, LGBTQIA equality, transgender rights, gay rights, lesbian rights, racial equality, income equality. That's all I care about. they can believe in whatever they want, so long as their beliefs aren't hurting anybody. My only problem with religion is when people bring their religion into public life and use it.
as a weapon to bully people and take people's rights away. And it does happen all the time. That's my problem with religion, not with actual religious people I know plenty of religious people who don't like it when religion does that. So yeah, I don't have a problem with religious people so long as they share my values, you great, no complaints.
Thing number two, people think I'm a Satanist. You guys, I don't believe in anything. So I would believe that there's no God, but there is like some devil? that makes no sense. why would I suddenly think that Satan was real if I didn't believe in God? I don't believe in anything that I can't see. ⁓
a alternate
word for an atheist would be a literalist. I'm a literalist. I take things literally. So if I can't see it, probably not going to believe in it. And yes, I know that means I'm not a person of faith, but actually I think I am a person of faith because I have faith in science. I have faith in biology. I have faith in research. I have faith
in the fact that as we discover more, our understanding of the world will grow. And yeah, that means that things that sometimes we will accept at face value, even scientific things, we'll realize later on, you know what? That's not quite right. This is actually more correct. my way of thinking actually allows for room to grow and room to change and room to modify and room to say, like, you know what, we did a little bit more research and now it turns out that
This is the correct way to look at like, for instance, I'll take a really bird brain thing. Like we used to think that the world was flat. We know it's not flat anymore. Now we know it's round. I mean, there's still some people who say it's flat, but we know it's round. And it's because scientists over the years did research and astronomers and people who study planets or whatever, and they discovered that it was round.
so yeah, I mean, we're still discovering species, you know? And so like my view of the world can expand and grow as science and research expands and grows. yeah, I don't believe in Satan though. I don't believe in Satan.
thing number three. I would love to keep existing. I would. I've shared about this many I'll probably say it on every single episode.
because it's something I really believe. I wish I was wrong about the afterlife. I believe it's lights out when we die. I think of all the things that bum me out about being an atheist. The lights out thing when I die kinda sucks. It makes me feel claustrophobic. It makes me feel like, man, you know, I'm gonna just stop existing. I'm getting more more comfortable with it as I get older. When I was younger, it really bothered me. As I get older and closer to death.
I'm starting to become a little bit more comfortable with it. You know, yeah, I'm gonna die and I will stop thinking it won't even be that I'll stop thinking because that will Almost imply that I have some consciousness that I've stopped thinking I won't even be conscious that I stop thinking it'll be like you unplugged a fan from the wall
And the blades just kind of stop and then there's nothing. it's a sedentary object at that point. And my brain, which right now has all sorts of stuff going it's creating thoughts and it's creating drama and music and it's creating the words that I'm speaking to you with. It'll just kind of stop. And then my brain will decompose.
along with the rest of my body and worms will eat it and then birds will eat the worms and then my body will continue to go on just like Celine Dion's heart and it will go on to nourish other things and become part of other life forms and I love that, know, so my body will continue to go on. I believe my body will go on feeding worms.
yeah. This will all go on, the physical part of me, but you know, it'll be lights out. And so, yeah, it's kind of a bummer. I love the idea, that I could go to some club med in the sky this.
place where I get to see my mom and my dad and everybody else, but it's never made any sense to me. And, shared a couple weeks ago, well, where's the cutoff for souls? Like, so if I go to heaven, will mosquitoes go to heaven? Do flies go to heaven? Do gnats go to heaven? And then I even just think about all like the human beings, like, okay, so honey booboo lives forever?
Omarosa lives forever like the fucking guys from Duck Dynasty like I gotta be up in heaven with those fucking idiots like Great. Yeah, sign me up for that Kim Kardashian lives forever, you know, Paris Hilton lives forever Like nothing against these I mean Paris Hilton actually seems like a delightful person and actually Kim Kardashian I've seen some interviews. She actually seems like a nice person. So Kim Kardashian if you're watching this, I'm sorry You're an easy target people always
pull your name out of the bag when they want to talk about how our society is crumbling and so then we talk about the Kardashians and I'm sorry that was mean of me to do that but ⁓ yeah Kim Kardashian gets to live forever the Doc Dynasty guys Omarosa the Octo mom honey boo boo honey boo boo's mom I guess June boo boo or whatever her name is Donald Trump
Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, what, we're all gonna be up in heaven together forever? It doesn't make any sense to me, so yeah, it just lights out. And it's a bummer! It's a bummer that it lights out. It makes me feel claustrophobic, but you know, the saving grace is that I won't be aware of it. I'll be aware when I'm alive that I'm about to die, hopefully, you know, if there's some lead up to it, like, you know, I mean, if I die suddenly, like in a freak,
banana bread making accident, that's one thing, but I always said that the most ridiculous way I could ever die is a banana bread making accident. And I do make a lot of banana bread and it's amazing, but well, I guess that wouldn't be so bad. I would die as I lived making banana bread. But ⁓ yeah, so that's a bummer. And I will say this, I've said this a zillion times and I've said this, I've warned you guys, I repeat myself a lot.
So I'm gonna repeat myself again. I have not said it yet during this episode, so I'm gonna say it now. If I'm wrong, great, sign me up for that. If I do get to go to heaven, sign me up for that. It sounds awesome. It's such a feel-good thing compared to what I believe, and I will openly admit that. So yeah, it's kind of a bummer that I don't believe that.
Which leads me to number four. It's just a bummer being an atheist a lot of times. Like my views are not as fun as the religious people's views. I mean, they get to go to this church and, you know, I've got a friend in God. Yeah, I got a friend. And they hold each other's hands and they're like, they have potlucks and everything. And an atheist, I don't know, I get to do a podcast. You know, I get to go to some atheist conventions, which are great, but they're very few and far in between.
I get to meet up with people on Zoom and whatever, but there's not that sense of community and there's not as much fun stuff to do when you're an atheist. Like a lot of times you're just a person, you know, you're a person who's, you know, believes usually we're pretty liberal. you're a lot of times you're focused on politics and you're focused on all the horrible things that religion is doing to American life and to, the lives of people around the world.
And so yeah, that's kind of a bummer. You know, that there's not like the potlucks and the bake sales and the, you know, fun, huge, big gatherings of thousands of people joining hands and praising something. I mean, that does look like a lot of fun. And, know, again, the whole afterlife thing seems like a lot more fun than just, you know, well, you're just
die and that's it. It's lights out. Yeah, it's kind of a bummer. Which leads me to thing number five, lack of community. Yeah, there's not a lot of atheist community. We exist a lot online, which is fine. I love my atheist friends online. They're great. If you're watching, you know who you are. I love you guys. You guys actually make me feel like I'm not such a freak of nature. Thank you for making me feel that way.
And every once in a while we'll have our conferences like the one I went to two weekends ago. It was great. I had never been to one before. And I actually had that feeling that I think a lot of church people feel when they go to church on Sunday. Like I suddenly felt like I was around my people. And when I talked about being an atheist, they completely understood what I was talking about and I didn't have to explain myself and I didn't have to.
say no offense first. I'm always saying no offense, but I'm atheist because for some reason I think I need to, even though I don't. Like I should just be able to talk about being an atheist without worrying about hurting somebody else's feelings, but I'm such a people pleaser that regardless of who I'm talking to, I will always say no offense, but I'm an atheist. Why do I do that? That is so crazy. Anyways, when I'm around a bunch of atheists, which rarely happens, but when I am, I don't have to do that. And it's lovely. And so,
I wish there was more community
land of atheists, whatever you want to call that. We're working on As I said last week in last week's episode, there's meetups that are happening, game nights and So I'm hoping that more stuff like over time develops because
I'm a people person, I love being around people and yeah. So anyways, that's number five, number six.
Oh, people with invisible friends think I'm crazy. I just, I'm not going to spend too much time on this because I don't want a dog religious people. If you're religious right now, you can block your ears. just kind of go like la la la la la la la. The power of Christ compels you. La la la. You can do something like that. And I love you. I say that with love. so now that they've had their ears blocked, I'm just going to say sometimes it kind of drives me crazy that I'm the crazy one.
I'm the crazy one for basically just believing in what I can see, for believing in science, for believing in the history that we know actually happened, for believing that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old and that it's going to be around for another, I think, 7.59 billion years. And then the sun's going to expand. And then it'll be like the Earth was never here and that we're just this tiny speck in this huge universe.
and that all the religions that we they're just so young when you compare 4.6 billion years to like the 2000 years of it's not even a blip. it's just like a millisecond.
You know, you crammed the entire world's history into 24 hours, mankind would show up in the last second, And religion would show up in a fraction of that second.
But I'm the crazy one for not basing all my life decisions on that fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second. I'm like looking at the whole 4.6 billion years and being like, you know, I think I'm going to like base my life decisions on the fact that human beings are a very young species and anything created by human beings, especially if it's like a religion that nobody can prove. I think maybe I'm going to like leave that to other people.
The fact that I get treated like I'm the crazy person, that kinda sucks. Anyways, if you're religious, can unblock your ears now. And I love you. The seventh thing that sucks about being an atheist is all the people who think we eat babies. I don't know where this...
this rumor started, there's a lot of people who believe in Jesus and other religious deities who are very level-headed and I appreciate the fact that we
are like-minded on a lot of things, and they're not crazy people. But then there are the wingnuts. There's the people way, like, over here who are just believing all sorts of things about anybody who isn't their religion. And they certainly have a lot of screwed up beliefs about atheists. One of the beliefs is that we eat babies. I don't know where came up with this belief about us. I will say this, though.
Holy infant so tender and mild. I mean, it literally sounds like you're ordering something at a restaurant. I'll just say I know that's not what they mean, but I don't even know where that rumor came from. But atheists do not eat babies.
It's kind of a bummer that people say we do. to that point, last time I checked, I have not been going to any godless orgies because that's the other I've seen a lot of accusations that atheists, all they do is go to godless orgies. OK, you guys.
first of all, where are these orgies? There's certainly none around where I live in my little podunk town. But secondly, I don't know, orgies, I was very wild in my youth, but now it's kind of like, ugh. It's just like so many personalities. Like I gotta navigate all these personalities and then it's, I.
As I've gotten older, I've kind of become a germaphobe, so, yeah, I'm not going to any godless orgies right now, but I've been accused of eating babies, and I've been accused of going to godless orgies, and I've also been accused of being a Satanist, so yeah, like, all of that stuff is a bummer. which brings me to thing number... one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
When you share about being an atheist on certain social platforms,
Daniel Cartier (38:32)
you can really get a lot of backlash. I shared...
I think it was a year ago this month, last August, I shared about being an atheist. And it was just a very simple It was just this footage of the sky,
All it was was like these words showing up on the sky. was like a 15 second long video. said, I'll stop reminding you I'm an atheist when you stop shoving your religion in my face and using it to take away the rights of people I love. That's all the video was. 1400 comments later and these comments were really crazy. I mean, some of them were so ugly that Instagram hid them as hate speech. Like people saying,
I hope you burn in hell. can't wait to see your skin boil. which was so weird to me. It was almost like this person, I guess their version of heaven was that they got to go to heaven like sitting in these box seats, like at a basketball game and watch the sinners burn in hell with Jesus. I guess they would get beer and pizza or something like, I don't know. It was very bizarre, but
I will say no offense You know because I just talked about how I've met some amazing Christians my whole podcast last week was about that, but I will say that all the people who came and Basically attacked me For
saying don't use your religion to take away the rights of people I love, I think that's a very reasonable request not everybody believes in your religion. So you should not be able to dictate their civil liberties, like whether they have the right get an abortion or to marry the person they love who happens to be the same gender or to
live as the person they love. Like they've always felt like they were not the gender that they were born into, And then you're using your religion to try and take away those rights. and even to take away the rights of other religions, because that's the other thing.
Take for instance Muslims, some of the most xenophobic things I've seen have been perpetrated against Muslims by Christians. And I don't really see how that's religious. So anyways, I will say that I noticed that all the people who were ganging up on me pretty much without fail, I don't think I saw any Muslims or any Buddhists or any Wiccans or anybody else for that matter show up on that Instagram thread.
and gang up on me. Of all the 1,400 comments, and granted, some of those comments were me responding to people. So let's just say I responded, because I did respond to a bunch of them. So let's just say 1,200 comments from angry religious people. It was all hardcore Christians, the kind of Christians that are not like my friend Matt or like the progressive Christians that I met.
a couple weekends ago at the Atheist Convention. They were right-wing, super conservative, MAGA Christian nationalist, crazy hardcore bullies basically. That is the eighth bummer thing about being an atheist is that people will... ⁓
kind gang up on you on social media sometimes just for sharing the fact that you're an atheist. And that's kind of weird too, because I don't know what kind of recruitment I mean, it's been my understanding that if you're religious, the whole point of you being religious is to save people's souls. I don't really know how you would save my soul by insulting me and saying that, you know, I don't know, it just seems like a very weird sales tactic.
to me, will say that. But that's another topic for another day. It's important to stay hydrated.
number nine, and I think this is one of the biggest bummers, and this is something I actually do struggle with quite a bit. When people die, when somebody shares that their loved one dies or their pet dies, which is also a love one, I don't know why I would differentiate pets from loved ones. Loved ones, be they humans or animals, they're all loved ones. But when that happens and you know.
A loved one dies, be it a human or an animal.
My belief as an atheist is kind of a bummer. can't be like, well, they're in a better place. Well, you know, they're waiting for you. You know, rainbow bridge or, know, you'll see them in heaven again. It's not goodbye forever. It's just goodbye for now.
Sometimes I find myself wanting to say those things because I understand how comforting that is But it's not how my brain works. I lost my dog Edison two months ago and I was heartbroken and people were
saying that rainbow bridge thing to me, you're going to see him again, he's waiting for you and all this other stuff. And it is so comforting hearing stuff like that. but then to be an out atheist who doesn't believe in an afterlife.
I mean, I can't really say that. So a lot of times I'm kind of left with like, well, I don't really know what to say. And then it makes me wonder, well, are people religious just so they have something comforting to say to other people? Nothing wrong with that. Like if that's the only reason why you're religious, more power to you. you you can say thoughts and prayers and they're in a better place and all that stuff. you know, I kind of wish I had that. It would be so nice to have that. I don't have that. And so.
I'm a lot of times left not knowing what to say. I mean, that sucks is not really comforting. Like, you know, my grandmother just passed away. My mom just passed away. that sucks. I'm so sorry to hear that. What I say is a lot of times I say, so sorry to hear that. I'm thinking of you. Let me know if you need anything. That is basically what I've fallen back on.
Because to me, those are all still very comforting things. It lets the person know that I'm still here. I still want to support them in any way I can, like if they need to talk. so I think if I'm getting anything out of this list, maybe I'm actually giving myself some sort of you are actually watching me give myself some advice right now, which is pretty cool. So I think the advice I'm going to give myself is that in the future when
people have loved ones die, be it ⁓ a parent or a grandparent or even a child or a best friend or a beloved pet, I'm just gonna let them know I'm here for them and that I love them and that if they need to talk, I am absolutely here. If they wanna go do something, if they need to be around people or if they need help with anything, like maybe they don't feel like going grocery shopping, like, hey,
give me a grocery list, you know, or do you want a casserole? I'll bring over some of my banana bread. I can bring over some banana bread. I think people, just want to know that other people care. So I guess as an atheist, I can't really say, well, they're in a better place and, you know, they're waiting for you and you'll see them again because that's not really how my brain works.
But I can just forego all that and I don't even need to pretend that that's a thing because for me it's not. So I can just leave that out equation. I don't even need to bring any of that up. Instead I can just be like, hey, what do you need? how can I be of service? How can I How can I show my love for you as a friend? Just let me know what you need.
was one of the biggest things I've struggled with, to be honest with you, was when people passed away. I didn't have that out of well, they're in a better place. I actually have to just,
stick with real world things like how can I help but that's actually beautiful. yeah, I think I'm gonna go with that. So I think I solved one of the bummers, which is pretty cool. Huh, that's cool. this has been very helpful. you are seeing therapy in action right now. Like I am, therapizing is therapizing. Therapizing isn't a word, Daniel. That's not a word.
But you are seeing some self therapy right now. That's what I was looking for, some self therapy. All right. And then, you know, lastly, number 10, there's just a social stigma about being an atheist. I think I've covered it in all the other things. I covered it in the Instagram analogy, I covered it, you know, with people thinking that we eat babies or that we have godless orgies or that we're satanists or that we hate all religious people. I mean, there's so much
misinformation about what it means to be an atheist when really it's just a set of beliefs about our place here on the planet. That's all it is. That's all it is. and because we have those beliefs, we see people with other beliefs using their beliefs to hurt other people. And so then, of course, we're going to speak up about it. And then it seems like we hate religious people when we don't. We just hate bullies. That's that's all.
But the other social stigma about is like for instance, me having this podcast, there is no God and we're all gonna die. Don't get me wrong. I worry all the time like if I have a client, you know, because I have a day job and you know, I have clients and you know, a lot of times I wonder like if they found out that I was an atheist, would they fire me? I mean, you know, it's a valid concern. And because
Atheism is in a religion. wouldn't really be able to be like, well, you know, they're firing me because of my religion. And so I couldn't really claim discrimination. even as a musician. I mean, I record tons of music. have over 800 songs. And right now I'm actually trying to get my songs placed on TV and film and even in national ad campaigns. And I could easily picture.
a company being like, well, we love his song, but he's an atheist. He's like this guy who doesn't believe in God and he has this podcast. And again, nobody's forcing me to do this podcast. So I'm not trying to make myself into a victim or a martyr. But, you know, I could easily picture them being like, you know, let's go with this born again Christian girl who has a song instead because he's kind of too edgy and
The whole no God thing, we don't really want our brand associated with that. And so we're still in that time period where the guy who just kind of believes in science and biology and doesn't really believe in all the other worldly mystical kind of hocus pocusy stuff, you know, he's the edgy one. and so I could picture, say if Nike wanted to use one of my songs or Coca Cola or something, I could picture them like,
checking me out online and being like, yeah, you know what, we're good. We're good. We have some other singers, you know, so yeah, I mean, I think there is a lot of stigma to being an atheist still. But at the end of the day, I only have this one life and I want to live my life authentically. So it's a risk I'm willing to take. yeah, you know, we're here once and if we can't be honest about who we are and we're trying to
present this really watered down version of who we are just so that we can be acceptable to people who we've never met. Like, I don't really see what the fucking point of that is. I wouldn't want to live a life like that. That just would suck. So, here we are. And I'm going to add a number 11. This is number 11. Things that kind of suck about being an atheist. This is like a bonus thing.
is that I just have to keep going. I have to keep going. can't give up. I gotta just keep going. And what I mean by that is like, you know, I just have to keep living. And as far as my sobriety is concerned, like I have to keep being sober and I have to keep not throwing in the towel because honestly, I don't want to give people of faith the satisfaction of saying, you see, if he just believed in God, he would have kept going. And
The stubborn part of me doesn't want to ever give anybody the satisfaction of proving me wrong because, well, Daniel threw in the towel, and well, if only he believed. I can be very stubborn. I'm Irish, and Irish people are very stubborn. But that's just a little funny number 11 that I'm going to add.
Okay, so let's go on to the next segment. Shall we?
Daniel Cartier (50:05)
Okay, so it's time for I'm kind of a douchebag when I'm dealing with assholes.
Alright, so ⁓ every week I choose a different asshole and unfortunately there's always assholes to choose from because I think we'll be dealing with assholes from now until the end of time. They exist. And this week is no different. There is an asshole in the news right now. And I just tell them what I think of them. And I'm kind of a douchebag about it, but that's just because I have learned that over the years ⁓ I just refuse to be bullied anymore.
⁓ I just, I won't. So like when I see somebody being an asshole and usually it's people who, the reason why they're an asshole is because they have views that will take away the rights of other people. I don't allow bullies to be bullies anymore and so I speak up about it and I guess that makes me kind of a douchebag, but whatever. So anyways, the asshole this week is Kim.
This is from the Catholic News Agency. I think they probably might be on her side. I don't know. Anyways, a former county clerk in Kentucky who made national headlines in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples is again asking the United States Supreme Court to hear her case 10 years later. Kim Davis, who was the Rowan County Clerk from 2015 through 2019,
the country's highest court to reconsider same-sex marriages.
she is asking the court to consider her request to use a First Amendment's defense against civil lawsuits that stem from her refusal to issue those marriage licenses. She was found liable for violating the constitutional rights of same-sex couples. Because she did.
violate their rights,
So anyways, yeah, she is asking the court to basically it's very selfish of her. I'm just going to talk to her. Kim.
This is your friend Daniel, the gay liberal atheist from Tennessee, just one state below you. You don't even live that far away.
I am not married, but I have a partner that I love very dearly. If we were ever to get married, our marriage would never affect you. We would actually probably help you because it's been proven that when people get married, it actually helps the economy. just as somebody like just from an economic standpoint, I don't know why you'd be against gays getting married. But I get that you have your personal convictions. But here's the thing.
When you are hired to do a job, you're hired to do that job. And if part of your job is issuing marriage licenses and you're not able to do that because your religious convictions, I'm sorry, then you should not be working that job
I will say this, I'm kind of a libertarian when it comes to certain things like, if there's some cake shop owner who doesn't want to make my fucking wedding cake, well then I don't want their fucking shitty cake. take your bakery and go fuck I wouldn't want them making my cake anyways.
But if you're working for the government and people's tax dollars are paying your salary, you have an obligation to serve all those people who are paying your salary. And if you can't do that, don't fucking work that job. And if the laws change and you don't like the way the laws change, like say if she had been working that job and gay marriage was illegal, and then suddenly the laws changed and it was legal.
Well, honey, that's just the way the cookie crumbles. And so if you have a job and suddenly the laws change to accommodate everybody and you're not willing to accommodate everybody yourself, well, then I guess it's time for a new job, isn't it? Not all this fucking legal lawsuits and 10 years later and now the Supreme Court and blah, blah, blah, because you're making it all about your fucking self. Your religion is a choice.
Being gay is not a choice. I know that you probably don't see it that way, but I know that from a very young age, like I was having gay feelings back when I was fucking eight years old. I had a huge crush on Sean Cassidy. that away with your fucking Bible. The fact that I was like watching him sing, do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do
I didn't choose that when I was a little kid. didn't even understand It's kind of like the way that little girls looked at new kids on the block. God, I am so making myself sound old, but like,
You know, nine year old girls were swooning over new kids on the block or nowadays I'm sure young girls, I don't know who they swoon over like Justin Bieber. I have no idea. I've no nothing about what young kids like now because I'm 56 years old and so I'm a relic. ⁓ what was I talking about? yeah, Kim Davis. So anyways, Kim Davis, take your lawsuit and go fuck yourself. I'm sorry, but you you had your 15 minutes. It's over. Move on.
Maybe take up a fucking pottery class or something or find a hobby. the votes are in. Gays can get married. You shouldn't have been working at that job anymore if you couldn't do your job. End of fucking story. All right. So that's me being a douche bag to Kim Davis.
But there's more. There was somebody who almost made it to be asshole of the week, but they came in second place. Let's see what they did.
Aww. You know, I've chose this woman just to prove a point. Here was this Kim Davis, for the past 10 years making the issue of gay marriage all about herself.
and her small mindedness. But I just wanted to demonstrate that this is not just a problem here in America. So Spain, gay marriage has been legal for a long time. And there are people in Spain who are just still spreading false information and trying to get gay marriage overturned in different countries. So this is a worldwide problem. And it always boils down to people taking their religion and bringing it into somewhere where it's
gay marriage to be overturned, I guess, in Spain. And in her mind, all children need a mother and a father. It always comes down to like, if a child doesn't have a mother and a father, then they're gonna have all these problems. I mean, she goes on to talk about how like, the male figure teaches men how to be manly and the female figure teaches, you know.
Children about like the female being the empath and all this other stuff I'm paraphrasing here because it's a really long thing But my problem with this is that first of all she's basically shitting all over all the kids Who have been raised all over the world by same-sex couples and actually are turning out fine I mean are there gay parents who are bad? Yeah, sure just like there's straight parents who are bad. I think it doesn't come down to like parents being
male and female or like same sex, I think it just comes down to like there's good parents and there's bad parents,
She's basically saying after 20 years of gay marriage in Spain, it's not impossible to rescind the law. Expert says she's an expert. She's an expert. She's an expert at what? Like being a douchebag to gay people? I don't think that makes her much of an expert. I think it makes her somebody who is just kind of being hateful.
And so she wins second asshole of the week. She came in second place. And the only reason why I brought her up was to demonstrate a point that this is not just a thing happening in America. There's people all over the world who are lobbying against marriage equality and dignity of same-sex couples. listen, when I bring up the dignity of same-sex couples, in no way am I trying to take away from the dignity of
straight couples. I love my straight friends and I love my straight friends who have kids. Like I'm not trying to take away their dignity at all. I just don't want to take away from the dignity of same-sex couples. I want all the couples who are raising their kids regardless of what the gender, whatever you want to call it, whatever the gender is like of the two different people in the relationship, whatever it is. I just want all the couples to be treated
Dignity doesn't matter if it's a straight couple a gay couple or or whatever a bisexual couple Dignity so long as they're doing a good job raising their kids that should be the only thing that matters and some people don't even want to have kids You know, I know I don't I'm kids are loud and they're scream and they have their little fingers I'm not a big fan, but I mean I love kids For you know, like a couple minutes and then they I don't know
They have that thing like they when they scream that the kids think that anyways, I won't get into the kids that are like on the trampoline behind my house,
So anyways...
Daniel Cartier (1:00:21)
Now it's my favorite time. Let's listen to some voicemails. Let's listen to some voicemails. Let's listen to some voicemails. Let's listen to some voicemails. Voicemails.
Alright, we're going listen to some voicemails and see who called. Who called the show? Who called the show? Who called into the show?
Uhhh...
Well, Tess, thank you so much for calling Washington. Wow, that's where Corey's from. That's so cool. ⁓ Is there anything Trump could do to finally get his base to see the light and see that he really is just like that, you know, the emperor has no clothes, you know, that that that that story of the, you know, the guy who's just kind of like just.
full of bullshit, then people still think he's amazing. ⁓ I wonder, I'm not sure what Trump could do to get his base to finally see him for who he is. Like, that's such a great question. ⁓ I've often thought of that because it seems like there's been so many times where I've thought, okay, surely now they see, now they see.
I I thought when he mocked a disabled person way back in 2015, I thought, okay, well, it's done. I mean, it's over. The Trump saga is over before it's begun. if anything, that was kind of the galvanizing moment where I think we all saw just how strong this MAGA mindset is. The fact that they were so quick to just start defending him
They were like, you know, he always moves his arms like that. Like he's walking around acting like this disabled person and, then talking about grabbing women by the pussy been so many times, I mean, just the fact that he was BFFs with Jeffrey Epstein
I didn't even get into that in news, but he's clearly trying to Keep it so the Epstein files aren't released After January 6th, I did see a bunch of people who voted for Trump who were disgusted by January 6th And that made me feel a little better about humanity
But it's really sad that even after something like January 6th, which I think is unforgivable, think, you know, first off, it was all based on phony stolen election charges that we all know were just a bunch of lies. It was just Trump lying about the election and he knew he was lying. To this day, he knows that he lost the 2020 election. He knows he lost that.
And yet he still lied about it and he still tried to get people to change their electoral college votes and he still tried to insert himself into all that. And then he did that whole big stop the steal rally as if something was being stolen from him that wasn't being stolen. And let's call the whole rally in Washington, stop the steal. It's like nothing was stolen from you, dude. And you know nothing was stolen from you.
yet you whip this crowd into a frenzy and they showed up at our nation's capital. And I've shared about this before. Like, what if they had found some of the people who they were there to find? Like, what if they found Nancy Pelosi? I honestly think we would have seen people getting killed on live TV. I think they would have ripped her limb from limb. I honestly do. And that scares the flying fuck out of me knowing that there are Americans who
are pretty much capable of that because I think that crowd was out for blood. I really do. I think they would not have restrained themselves had they found some of the people they were there trying to find. And so when we're dealing with that mentality, sadly, think some of them are so far gone at this point. And I think sometimes when you're in a cult, and I do think that,
Trump's whole basically a cult. And when you're in a cult, it's really hard to suddenly admit that you're, you know, that what you believe is just all smoke and mirrors. It's really hard to give up the ghost, I will go back to what I said to a caller last week. I actually said it to a couple callers.
Now I'm not talking about the people who are just so out to lunch that there's just no talking to them. But if there's people in your life who are Trump supporters, but there's still other things about them that are loving, I still try to give people love. I still try to be the love I want to see in the world. And so I haven't cut every Trump supporter out of my life. I have a lot of friends who I know voted for him.
I have a lot of people here in the community. am a gay liberal atheist living in the Bible belt. So I am surrounded by Trump supporters. And I do struggle with that because I see them being so wonderful in other areas of their life, but yet they still are voting for this guy that I find so more morally reprehensible. And I can not match the people I know with their vote. I struggle with that.
I won't lie, I struggle with that.
But I still show up and I'm loving to them because I at least want them to have some liberal voice in their life. And because, you know, I do love them and there is something genuine about that. I mean, I want to be a loving person to as many people as possible while I'm here. I think that's my one of my responsibilities, not my only responsibility, but it's one of my responsibilities as a citizen of the earth while I get to be a citizen of the earth. ⁓
So I guess my advice is I don't know what he could do. I don't know. Who knows? But we can still show up every day and we can still. ⁓
In a weird way, you know what? I don't even care what would change their mind. And I know that's not answering your question, but I'm just more concerned about it doesn't matter how the donkey got in the ditch, how are we going to get it out of the ditch? So I'm just, like, let's just focus on the 2026 midterms, the 2028 elections. let's just focus on getting him out of office. Like, let's just focus on voting them all out. Because I don't think that we can change.
a of these people. And so us wasting any time worrying about it, I think is just a waste of our time when we could be trying to get people registered to vote and trying to get people aware of how important these elections are. So I hope that helped. I am sending you a ton of love and I hope that helps. And I really am grateful for you to call because man, I'm desperate for people to call this freaking podcast. So thank you for calling.
Let's see.
Daniel Cartier (1:09:18)
John, it is so nice to hear from you. And that's a great question. ⁓ I do listen to a lot of music because, as you know, I do music and so I'm around a lot of musicians. Sometimes I go through periods where it's hard for me to listen to music because I'm doing so much of it that it's weird. It's almost like I know this sounds weird, but it's almost like when I worked at McDonald's, I would like work these long shifts. And then the last thing I'd want to do when I got off work was
eat McDonald's food. So sometimes it's weird, like sometimes when I'm doing tons of music, I actually don't listen to a lot of music because I'm already consumed with producing music. And so it's like the last thing you want to do after you've been listening to your own music all day long is to like then suddenly like listen to other people's music. But I do, I do because I know that it helps me.
keep an open mind and I'm just, I'm a music lover too. Like I just, I mean, I've grew up listening to music. And so there are some up and coming singers or singers that have, you know, kind of had some success recently. There's this one girl, Lola Young, who she's more of a big deal in England. I actually think she had a number one hit in England, but I first heard about her because she had this song called,
I wish you were dead. And it was just this ballsy girl and she was singing and she was she just she had this like power about her and she was just very unapologetically in your face and I really love the energy about it and she seemed really bad ass. And so yeah I really immediately became a fan of hers and so then I found myself watching some of her other videos. And so yeah her name's Lola Young.
I think she's pretty awesome. I don't know much about her personally, but I do know that I liked a lot of the music that I heard her do. I'm trying to do a lot of music for TV and film. And so I'm in a bunch of groups where other songwriters get together and we have listening sessions and stuff, and that's really cool.
so yesterday I got to hear this girl and I actually had to just go back, I had to stop the camera and go back, and full disclosure. Her name was Dylan Gray and she had this song called Regret Me. And again, I don't know what it is, I think because I grew up listening to bands like Blondie and I always loved Live Through This, the whole album, like I,
For some reason, I identify a lot with angry women, I guess being a gay guy. And there's not a lot of like angry gay music. like I kind of take the anger that women have and kind of like adopted it as my own. I know that sounds kind of weird, but like so I identify a lot with like this like rocker chick vibe. Yeah. So this woman.
Dylan Gray. She had this song called Regret Me, which was really great. She described herself as like a total like rocker chick. I mean, I grew up listening to Joan Jett, too. Joan Jett is awesome. And so she kind of had that vibe about her. My my girl, Harriet Starling from London, she is somebody who I absolutely adore. She should be so much more famous than she is. I met her
I think 11 years ago now, she came to America and she took part in this ⁓ songwriting thing. was like songwriters from the United Kingdom and songwriters from America. And we all got together to have this week long songwriting where we all would write songs. We would get paired up with different people every day. And so Harriet was one of the people. And I've just been following her music career.
And also this other girl, Mary Jess Leverford, that also wrote with us. She's amazing too. She has this incredible operatic voice, both of them. I became very close with and so I've been following their careers and I'm one of their biggest cheerleaders. I'm always commenting on their posts. I'm very proud of them. You can see I'm smiling right now when I talk about them. And...
Yeah, and actually just met a cool guy yesterday, again, on this listening thing, he has this band called One Cure for Man, and he had this song called The Haunted, and it was just this really dark, the video, it's like he's a clown in the video. I don't know if he's a young person, though, he might actually be my age, I don't know, but I wanna check out some more of his music.
I love discovering new music and I wish that I discovered more of it. I would like to find more time to do things. Like I would like to be able to read more books. I'm reading Cory's book right now and it's taking me forever because I don't have a lot of time to read. when I was a teenager, I would read for hours and hours and hours and now it's like I might be able to read for like a, a half an hour every other day or something. and the same with like discovering new music. Like I need to...
force myself to remember. It's not that I don't want to, it's like, but I have to remember like, okay, when I go to the gym, I'm going to listen to new music, it's like, the art of discovery has become harder and harder, the more we've had to work to make ends meet and
You know, life is just more expensive now and it seems like we're all just so busy and so discovering new music can be very difficult sometimes. Finding the time to do it in between everything else that we do, but it's something that I really love to do. So I appreciate the question and it's a reminder to me that I have to keep seeking, keep seeking, keep seeking other people's music and finding out how we can inspire each other.
Anyways, I love the question and I'm so glad this is your second time calling a repeat caller. I love it. I love it. love it. I love it. And thank you for the kind words about the podcast too. That means the world to me. I'm wearing my like Devo glasses right now. Let's see. What else?
I could barely understand that person. don't know where they're calling from. sounded like they were calling from... Okay, dude, from what I understand, you're asking me how I can say there's no God and that you think it's screwed up and like, you said something like, what do I think made everything? First of all, you need to get better self-reception because I could not understand anything you were saying.
I need to play his- I'm gonna play that message again. I think that's my first hate call. Everybody else has been- I think my first hate call and I can't even understand what the fuck he's saying. Hold on. Which is kind of bumming me out. I was wondering where all the haters were. I guess I finally got one. Maybe people are finally starting to find out about this friggin' podcast. Hold on.
Okay, how can I say there's no God? Okay, he doesn't get it.
What do I think made everything?
Well, he did say thanks, that was nice. He thanked me at least. I got a hateful call, but then he ended with thank you. Well, you're welcome. You're welcome, person, you didn't leave your name. You know, I'm sorry that I don't believe in the God you believe in, and what do I think made everything, I think the Big Bang happened 4.6 billion years ago, and over the last 4.6 billion years, the Earth has been evolving, and I think that, you know,
As the climate changed, the life on Earth changed, and there's been eight mass extinctions that have happened, and there will probably be more. At some point, humans won't be here. I mean, I think we're actually destroying the planet for ourselves. And then, when we die off because we were idiots and we didn't protect the environment and the Earth became unsustainable for us,
Everything's going to die with us, including our religion. then, you know, like, I guess maybe 300 million years from now, there'll be some radioactive cockroach that sprung out of the toxic environment we created. And it'll be a great environment for them. And maybe then at some point, they'll develop enough to develop superstitious beliefs. And then they'll be asking each other, how come you don't believe in God? I don't know. But
Coming back to your point, you know, dude, I just believe what I believe. And I appreciate you calling. I do appreciate you thanking me for listening. And that's very nice of you. I think actually, like, thanks for being the first negative caller. I'm genuinely, I feel like a proud parent or something. Like, my podcast is finally getting people who don't agree with it. And,
I'm not here to be universally loved or agreed with. None of us should be. And good for you for calling and speaking your mind. I mean, you believe what you believe and I think that's great. You're using your voice, so we clearly don't agree. If we ever met in person, what I'd probably ask you about is I would probably ask you.
Okay, You clearly believe in God. don't. I mean, I would ask you, I would probably say, well, what do you think created everything? I mean, and you might give me some like Bible thing about how the earth was created in seven days or something. And I'd be like, okay, well, that's great for you. I don't think that.
my goal is not to take away anybody else's belief. If you believe what you believe, if you believe that the Earth was created in seven days and that there was a talking snake or whatever you believe, don't even know what I'm making assumptions about what your religion is. You might have some different creation belief.
So I apologize for making assumptions, but I would probably just say, well, what do you believe? And then it would be clear that we didn't agree, but then I would be like, well, okay, so that's cool. How's your day been? And yeah, do you have dogs or, know, like, what do you do for a living? I'd probably just then be like, ah, fuck it. We don't agree on that. But like, tell me about your life. Cause I still would probably find you interesting. And I'd still probably want to be a nice person to you because that's just my way.
So yeah, I don't know if that answers your question, but thanks for calling. It was nice to hear from you. feel free to call back from a better, dude, first of all, you need to look at your reception. Your reception is not that great. I had to listen to your message twice.
So that's just me being like, concerned for you because say if you're looking for a job, I wouldn't want you to call up a potential job with that type of reception. So you may want to look into that. All right. Let's see.
⁓
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes
Yes, I'm amazing! I'm amazing! Okay.
⁓ what cheers me up? My boyfriend calling and like complimenting me for two minutes cheers me up, I'll tell you that much. I was like, is there a question here? you just list off like how incredible I am for two minutes. And then you're like, and by the way, what cheers you up? It's like, well, that cheered me up. Thank you, honey. you know I could list off all your.
beautiful qualities as well. You are an amazing person. You're an incredible artist. You're dedicated to your craft. You're a loyal friend. You are. I always say this about Corey. You can tell a lot about a person's character by the quality of friends they keep in. Corey has amazing friends and some of the most wonderful people I've ever met. So that speaks volumes about him. ⁓ And he is just a magnificent person. He's one of the funniest people I've met. He's my person.
He gets me. Like, I don't even have to really explain myself to him. Like, we can just look at each other. We do, actually. We'll be watching TV and something will happen on TV and we'll like just look at each other. Like, yeah, that character's actions were really stupid. Like, we just get each other. But, ⁓ I could go on talking about Cory all day, but I won't. I will answer his question instead. What cheers me up besides my boyfriend calling up and just buttering me up for two minutes before he asks a question? What else cheers me up?
⁓ boy, people helping other people. And I know it sounds a toss away answer, but.
I mean, you hear people say in recovery I'm a gratefully recovering alcoholic.
well, why are you grateful about being an alcoholic? I'm just using this as an example. There's so many other examples I could think of, but this is the one that immediately came to my mind, is that because I had the problem of alcoholism and then I hit rock bottom, hopefully for the last time, and then I got sober six and a half years ago,
I've had the privilege of seeing people who are just coming into sobriety. And then there's people who have more sobriety coming and just helping them get back on their feet. think it's so beautiful when human beings help other human beings or just helping any soul in need. Like, I saw a guy,
I was about a year ago and we were driving along and this guy stopped traffic so we could help a turtle cross the road. anytime that a human being, because we, we like to say like, people are just horrible and the world's just so cruel and so, you know, mean, but then you see these little acts of kindness happening all the time.
remember when the Waverly flood happened. that Waverly is a town, like a couple towns over the town flooded, 20 people died. It was very fast. the town flooded in 10 minutes. it was, it was a, this once in a
Thousand year type of thing my town Got 20 inches of We have the record for the rainfall in Tennessee
We got 21 inches of rain in less than 24 hours and all that water went down to Waverly and flooded the entire town. 20 people died. My friend Cynthia's house got ripped off its foundation and pulled into the middle of the street.
Magically her and her partner Gary and all the animals there was like ten animals in the house that everybody survived which was crazy because they were treading water and there was like only a foot of airspace between them in the ceiling and magically everybody survived But a lot of people didn't and so I was there the next day helping with cleanup and just seeing people show up like
showing up like, how can I help? How can I help? How can I help? And I mean, it was like, you know, just people helping strangers just without any question, bringing their tools, I see human beings and this goes across the board and it doesn't matter whether it's an atheist or a person of faith or whatever. Liberals, conservatives, human beings, I think at their center,
not all of them. Donald Trump. I don't know about him, but, think a lot of human beings, they really want to do good. they want to feel like their day has a purpose. And, I think that's a beautiful quality in humans. And it's something that I definitely aspire to and I get inspired by it. And it does make my heart smile when I see people.
You know, there's those videos online of like, there's like this dog and it's a ⁓ dog that somebody found in an alleyway and it's, covered in fleas and it's all matted and then these people go and they rescue it. And then you see the dog a month later and it's just this healthy dog. And those types of videos make me cry because I'm a big animal person, but you know, I think empathy, empathy and compassion is, you know, it's just,
such a beautiful quality for people to have. And you know that I'm the guy who like is catching flies. I won't get into my fly catching thing right now because I think I've talked enough and I need to wind this, wind this episode up. But you know that I am like now don't even want to kill flies anymore. And so like we live down South and I'm like catching flies and releasing them outside our dogs bring flies in because
they're blind and they're deaf. And so when we open the door to let them out, sometimes the door is open for like 30 seconds because it takes them forever to find the door and get out. And so then flies come in and then we got flies in the house. And then I'm like the crazy person who's not just swatting them because I realize they're really cool animals and they have like three hundred eyes and they can fly really cool. And they're also pollinators. I didn't realize that, but they are pollinators and we need all the pollinators we can get.
And so I've been catching the flies and releasing them. And sometimes I will dedicate like 15 minutes to catching all the flies and releasing them when I could just kill them all. And anyways, that's me being an amazing person. But, I think I'm done. I think that was it. I have no more voice messages. So you guys get a call and leave me some more voice messages at speakpipe.com slash there is no God and we're all going to die or just go to danielcartier.com.
and you can leave me a message there. Thank you for calling, honey. I love you. And thank you for all the compliments that you gave me during the call. That was really nice to hear. Yeah. So I think we're at the end of the show. I think we are at the end of the show.
⁓ Well, I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week. I will be back with another episode. Tell your friends about the podcast if you think it's something that they would like. Please feel free to tell them. And remember, you can go to Daniel Cartier dot com to get There is No God and We're All Going to Die t-shirts. You can also press the button to call the show.
right on the home page and leave a voice message. would love to hear from you. And with that, I think I'm going to sign off. I love you guys. And
That's all I know. Okay. Have a great week you guys. Bye.