michael shermer says it is non-believe in god, not a religion. i don't believe in the flying spaghetti monster. that is not a religion. i'm not a high priest of the flying spaghetti monster religion. atheism is not a religion so if you say stalin was not an atheist, wrong. you just said atheist is non-believe in god, stalin is an atheist, he is an atheist. pol pot does not believe in god, he is an atheist. all these terrible tyrants were atheists by their own definition and can't wiggle out of it. if you want to look at the consequences of religious belief, the wickedness done by atheists is overwhelming. doesn't mean atheists are bad people. i'm not saying anything about atheists, doctor shermer is a good guy, richard dawkins is probably compassionate and uses money for charitable causes and they can be good people. we are talking on average, the broad scope. >> host: throughout your book "there is a god: how to respond to atheism in the last days" you address the lds church. are you a member? >> guest: yes, the church recently tried to get peop

i like michael shermer. i like his debunking of ufos and holocaust denial that i like all that stuff but what is going after religion he's doing something that immoral, even by his own criterion. >> host: mao and stalin. >> guest: yes, great examples. if you want to go anecdotal, there's the anecdotes to go to. so prior to the 20th century europe atheist all the time, when you want to tell the anecdotes come with you want to tell their stories they want to go to the middle ages. the want to talk about the inquisitions. they want to talk about religious wars. they want to talk about witchhunts and the salem witch hunts. they say look at all these bad things religious people were doing. clearly religion is bad. that doesn't rise to the level of anecdotal evidence because there's no control group. if the races came up and said black people are inherently more violent than white people, you would say what you evidence? before the year 1500 in africa, black people committed all the crimes. they committed all the

i like michael shermer, i like his debunking of ufos i like his debunking of the holocaust and dashedter religion is doing something immoral even by his own criteria. >> owen stalin à >> great example. if you want to go anecdotal there's the anecdotes to go to. prior to the 20th century you have atheist all the time when they want to tell the anecdotes when i want to tell their stories they want to go to the middle ages. they want to talk about the inquisitions. they want to talk about religious wars. they want to talk about witchhunts and the salem witch hunts. they say, look at all these bad things religious people are doing clearly religion is bad. that doesn't rise to the level of anecdotal evidence because there's no control group. erasers came up to you and said, black people are inherently more violent than white people even say what you evidence? they would say well in the year 1500 in africa people committed. they committed all the oppression on the assaults all the rates on the steps all about my black people i don't see white people committing those crimes. your answer woul

michael shermer says again and again if it hurts human flourishing religious belief make society better it reduces crime and increases ancrying ans depression, increases economic well-being. he's doing something by his own terms. now i like skeptic magazine and the debunking of ufos and holocaust denial. but when he i he's going after privilege and he's doing something immoral. >> host: great example if you want to go anecdotal, so, prior to that atheists all the time when they want to tell their anecdotes or their stories, they want to go to the middle ages and talk about the inquisition. they want to talk about the religious war, about the state of the witchhunt. look at these things religious people were doing. that doesn't even rise to the level of anecdotal evidence because there is no control group. if someone came up to you and said what people are inherently more violent than white people, you could say before the year 1500 in africa, black people said it all the time, they committed all of the oppression, the assaults, the deaths of. it's a silly thing to say. and that's exactl