A Moment To Reddit, Science Vs Religion & Skyscraper 4.0 | Ep 52 | Moral Combat

In Episode 52 of The Moral Combat Podcast, Nathan and Zach, both formerly entrenched in the Christian evangelical faith, introduce themselves and the podcast's core focus on religious trauma and atheism-related subjects. The episode features a Reddit segment where they read and react to various posts concerning religious trauma and Christianity, touching on topics such as conflicts between religion and science, the complexities of relationships involving religious trauma, and the unexpected conversions of intelligent individuals to evangelical Christianity later in life. Following the Reddit discussions, the hosts transition to a gaming segment, playing Mario Kart 64, and reminiscing about their childhood video game experiences. The episode skillfully interweaves their personal religious deconversion narratives, critical examinations of Christianity and evangelical culture, and nostalgic gaming anecdotes, creating a candid, informative, and relaxed atmosphere throughout.

Moral Combat, hosted by siblings Nathan and Zach Blaustone, is a heartfelt exploration of life's complexities, with a primary focus on healing from religious trauma. Step into their world as they navigate the realms of music production, confront the lingering echoes of religious trauma, and embrace laughter as a universal healer. With each episode, Nathan and Zach weave together their unique perspectives, seasoned with dynamic personalities that make every discussion an engaging adventure. From unraveling the complexities of personal growth to fostering open communication, healing the scars of religious indoctrination, and embracing the unfiltered authenticity of siblinghood, Moral Combat is your passport to thought-provoking conversations, heartfelt insights, and the pure joy of shared moments. Join us in the combat for morality, one conversation at a time.

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Hey, what's up, everybody? Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Mortal Kombat podcast. My name is Nathan. I am Zack. That's Nathaniel Blackstone. Zachary Boston. Because we are siblings. We are. We're brothers. We're also siblings. We're brothers and siblings. We are related. We are. We were born from the same human. Humans. Humans. Is that how you pronounce the humans? Humans with human hands? Yeah. Human hands. They didn't use the salad tongs. I mean, they did use the salad tongs on. You had a big head and it sucked me out. Yeah. For me, it was the vacuum. No, I'm just kidding. There is no vacuum on me. Our sister, though, I think, was put upside down, the cord wrapped around her neck. We have to talk about that now. Good times. Good times? Yeah. Here. Family is family. Family time, family birth trauma. Here on Mortal Kombat, we talk about religious trauma specific to the Christian evangelical faith. Me and Zachary were both raised in the Christian church from birth, and both have walked away from the faith. Many, many, many, many, many years ago. Zack A lot more recent than me or yeah, I mean, not really that I mean, when we say that you're like, out reason like seven, eight years because we're getting old. I know. We're just getting older. Yeah. Zack turns 31 in like a week. So there you go. I'm 33, the same age Jesus was crucified, if you must know. Yeah. You believe in it, but. Yeah. And so sometimes we talk about the news, recent events, comedy, or we literally talk about trauma and interesting things that we really believe we want to talk about with each other here publicly, with you viewers and it's quite fascinating what talking with your sibling about your own past religious familial trauma can do. It's quite healing the conversation. Zachary. Yes. How are you? I'm all right, man. How are you doing? I'm doing really well. That's good. Yeah, I'm doing so well that it's hard to put into words, but I'll do my best right now. Okay. You have tons. You brought tons. I couldn't put it into words. That's how good I feel. That's amazing. No, I'm fine. I'm even keel. I'm at peace. Even even even keel. Even keel. I mean, I'm in an even keel. Is that a word? Is an a thing saying it's a cause. It's a saying even keel. You'll learn when you go back to school right away. Hmm. That's a good segway. Okay. Updates. Zach, do you have any updates for us before we get started into our topic for today? I have nothing perfect. I've loved date. I finished my first six week acting course at a San Francisco acting academy. It was fantastic. I think I really have found the next thing for nay nay from the bay that I'm going that I'm diving head into. Like my head's going deep into it and it's not literally water. It's like a cement water, you know, It's like you dive in and it's like, Yeah, yeah. You know, you're like, oh, it's like legs are like flailing, like hope. That's what it feels like. Yeah, But I'm diving in headfirst nice. And so I got one week off because I signed up for the next class because I loved it so much, because I was so abusive, creatively abusive. Yeah. Yeah. It's like I failed so hard so many times. I'm going to keep failing love it, and learn how to fail harder. And I'll take a week off and then I start off next week, week after next week. So yeah. How exciting, man. Good for you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Be doing Hamlet again the first week, which is hilarious. Yeah, it is pretty funny. Speak the speech. I pray you. Well, you got to go a little hard in that speech. The speech I prayed you. Yeah, as I pronounced it to you trippingly on the tongue. But I o but if you mouth it as many your players do, I had to leave for the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air with your hand thus, but rather use all gently for in the very tolerant tempest. And as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance. I may give it smoothness. Oh, how it offends me to the soul. They hear a Rumbustious Perry repeated fellow Tara passion to tatters to very rags. This with the years of the Groundlings, who for the most part know nothing but inexplicable dumb shows in no use. I would have a fellow whipped for our doing term again. Get out Herod's Herod, pray you avoid it. Cool. Good for you. And yeah, that's the Hamlet monologue. That's how well I know that one speech to the players. You're welcome. The tough thing about all play dialog like that is it's spoken in such a different type of English. Spoken it well it's just like I can't really know what you're saying. Yes and like so I watched Hamlet a while ago and it was I'm so sorry. I'm forgetting the director and who did it. But he the director that wrote or did this version of it played Hamlet And from the jump, because Shakespeare is awesome. But yeah, like when you're when you're in it, you're like, some people love Shakespeare, some people hate it. For me, I'm like, Wow, this is like, I'm really interested, but it's so hard to follow and understand. And then by the 20 minutes and I'm asleep, Yeah. Because like, there's so many scenes where you're just like, Oh, no, all their own. Oh, no, no saw. And you're just like, you're oh my, Oh, I missed the play. Yeah, 100%. So acting and it's a lot different though if you're the actor. Yeah. You're like, wow, this is a lot. It's a lot. But I'm doing I am. I'm doing it, I'm doing it. I'm the one doing it. Yeah, it's me I up here just I just I That's me. So I am awake. I am a large. I'm speaking. Yeah. And everyone else in the crowd is there. Yeah. There's so many nine year olds just like, holding their like booklet from where they got it, like to their seats just completely out. Yeah. You're like, That's Shakespeare. Maybe that's Shakespeare. Those are. Those are the Groundlings. The Groundlings in the past would be like those are the people that stood at the front of the stage and they're like, too poor to have seats. And they would just yell at the actors while they're acting like big sharp, like at the foot of the stage. The Groundlings. That's the that's the line. I'm saying, God, you like to split the ears of the Groundlings, who for the most part know nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise, meaning that, like they're always yelling at the actors and telling them to do something they don't know. It's, you know, and what a crazy time to think about that, like being an actor in the hallway. And there's like hundreds of people in the ground, like, yelling at you while you're, like, reciting some monologue. And then, yeah, interesting. Fun times. Fun times. Feudalism. Good time. Yeah, some good time if you could time good times. Long hundreds, hundreds of years. Good times, lots of infection, lots of power, lots of imbalance indeed. No checks and balances. And. But there are balances and checks. Zachary, any updates before we jump into our topic? Come on. I had a meeting with a counselor. What type of counselor? I'm meeting with a academic counselor and about continuing my education. I was before the pandemic, I was in school to be a nurse. You know this and the pandemic put that on pause for a long time and such a long time that I didn't. I lost my motivation to be a nurse. And so I didn't wanna go back to school and I and working as a bartender. And it has not been working out. If you've been following this podcast, it has not been working out and so I ever since I got on disability and my life has kind of been shooken up, I thought like, I don't know, I don't know if I want to, you know, be stuck in this, this job life anymore where you're barely making your rent and when you get hurt, it's like, well, we don't know. You might get kicked out, you might lose your house. Yeah. Okay. I'd rather have a job where I'm sufficiently paid and I'm just a little easier living. And so I'm always want be a psychiatrist. And so I kind of talk to the counselor about what that would look like. And it happened to be that the college I would apply to extended their applications one week, which happened to put it at today, the 10th, The 10th that we're recording it today. Yeah, yeah. This meeting was two days ago. And so she told me she's like, if you, if you want to be a psychiatrist you have at your bachelor's and something. And so that's just your next thing and it doesn't wanna be in there. I don't want to be a nurse or it can't be nursing, but I have done all the prerequisite transfer. And so she was like, These are your options. You can choose, learn just about using it, and then you use that to go to med school. And so I quickly was like, I'm gonna do this. And I applied and I applied for a bachelor's in biochemistry. Whoa. Yeah. Don Big ho hum. Go lo red there. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. A bachelor's and biochem and some nurtured and some nerd nerd. And I was thinking about it because. Congratulations. Thank you. What a big. This podcast is beautiful. You for us, for me. And like, I don't even know if you're watching this and you're like, it's not that big of a deal. It's probably not. But for us to be able to have your all of our stories like it shows our process of dealing with our trauma and we're talking about it and it's public and we're editing and we're going through tough times like everyone does. And then Zach's on disability and then you see the process of growth. Yeah. And that decision making and then being like, Let's go for it. Yeah. And I have got I haven't got accepted yet, but I've got my application out and it's the first time I've applied to a you see, what are the chances you don't get accepted. A pretty slim. The only thing that could be kind of iffy is if I just don't meet some of the requirements for biochemistry. But I don't think that's the case. I was basically going to go to the same school for nursing. It's crazy that like as I'm getting into less of an actual like more of a creative outlet as an acting, which is requiring a lot of like reading and writing and studying and memorization and character analysis, script analysis, like really academic stuff like reading and writing analysis. But as I'm getting into like something that's more creative and acting, you're getting into something more academic and love it totally sick. I'm proud of you. Congratulations. Thank you. You will get accepted. Same. We will. You will get accepted. I'm definitely accepted. You will get accepted? Yeah. You will get it. You will be accepted. Shall we get it? So we jump into it. We got some stuff to talk about to. We do? Here we go. Oh. Mm. Um. Moment. You ready? Yeah. Welcome to another edition of a moment to Read. It brought to you by the Moral Kombat. My name is Nathan, and this is my name Is that carry on this edition tomorrow. Come out of a moment to read. If you don't know what that is, it's when we go on to read it and just start searching. Of the most recent over the last month, topics around religious trauma, atheism, we just kind of do a deep dive on our own together or separately into seeing what's out there. When people are saying publicly a lot of read, it seems to be anonymous. So people are getting some things off their chests that are rather wild at times. And there's a significant amount of religious trauma in the Internet and so there's always something to talk about on Reddit. Yeah, and we find posts and you're going to see them pop up to the right of me and maybe to the left of Zach and what we're going to read them and talk about. Indeed. And then we're going to read some comments that people made on their posts and we'll talk about that. We'll talk about those, too. We got about four different posts. We do. Let's let's jump. Jump right on in, baby. First post comes from the thread atheism, which is a frickin phenomenal thread. There is is people are nuts on their I love user solo 13 five eight says Why are so many Christians offended by the most basic science? Interesting question. It is. They say when it comes to things like the Big Bang, I get it. Events like that don't or events like that directly interfere with what Christians believe in. But even basic science will get them so mad sometimes. I grew up in what one would consider the Bible Belt of America, and in almost all of my science classes, one of my classmates would get offended by something over Christianity, like we're talking weather patterns or animal behaviors, basic stuff like that. It got so bad that in my AP bio class, the teacher had to give a disclaimer that basically went like, You don't have to believe in what I'm teaching. You just write down this stuff I tell you to write down and you'll do fine. It's so ridiculous to me. How can you get so tied up in religion that even the most basic facts are so offensive to you? Well, certain. Thank you, Mr. Solo or Mrs. Solo? Solo in general. Are they? Are they? Well done. Thank you. You're in moral combat. We were always correcting our pronouns in-depth. We try our best. Why are Christians always offended of the most basic science, which is a generalization? Or generally? I don't think all Christians, not just so many Christians I know that actually are pretty damn smart. It's just true. Yeah, but they're still a born again Christians. And why? I mean, we know that this is true in our own family. Yeah, some pretty basic science. Science and Christianity don't mesh well and so why? Because science doesn't try to prove there's a God and science doesn't believe the Bible is based off of logic. I think science is trying to prove there is a God, but that's the thing that it hasn't yet. Yeah. So it's like there isn't. Yeah. Until proven otherwise. Yeah. So I think you're talking about logic. Yeah, there's logic in science and there's no logic in Christianity. It's faith. It's faith based. And so when you're like, Oh, hey, well, schooling is going to be logical and you are a faith based student, you're going to be very conflicted when the logic starts to hit your faith, because it's all everything's logic over here. There's not much logic over here. These are going to clash. Yeah, and it always is. I mean, in our upbringing, the evolution was like the worst thing that could ever be taught to children. And we touched on that when we watched the Jesus camp documentary. Right? There was that whole scene about the mother that was talking about what we would do if it was teaching evolution, all of that. It seems that like the most basic of science is it's detrimental to the Christian faith, right? Like basic science, doesn't it? Conflicts so directly with the Christian faith. That's why it's so offensive. That's why it's so dangerous. All right. So Rob Akesson says because accepting some science gives validity to the science that disproves their insane worldview. I'm going to read that again because accepting some science gives validity to the science that disproves their insane worldview. It's very, very it's exactly what I was just saying. Yeah, there's a little bit as science proves, the difference between faith and logic, really, right? It's like the whole faith is believing without seeing. So it's you're believing in something that you ultimately can't prove in science is believing. If you see it, you can't prove it. And however, prove it. Yeah. Ogor MK five Great name says honestly, it's because they have no actual faith. This is an interesting comment. They know they are supposed to believe in the Bible stuff, but they never see the Bible stuff actually happen. They see cars and airplanes and satellite data every day. When they say Bible stuff, I'm assuming like miracles or Bible stuff. They but they never see the Bible stuff. Actually happen. So yeah, like the miracles do happen in the Bible aren't actually happening in today's world. You see cars and airplanes and satellite data every day. They can just accept that their most fundamental beliefs are in dispute, much less wrong. So they do. They only thing that they can, which is attack science. And it looks batshit insane to us, but it makes perfect sense to them. Yeah, it was like it's. When was the last time you experienced talking with a religious person about some basic science stuff that you know, we just talked about on this podcast, right? You just had a conversation with Mom. I have multiple conversations with Christians, which leave it that way. Yeah, that's it. Believes global warming is a hoax and they will see that sentence out loud. And they've been saying that for 15 years. It's all about money. It's just a money game, it's a hoax, and it's just proven by science multiple times. And it's not a hoax by any means. And that's a very common conversation I have with the Christians in my life. Yeah, And it seems like a bleed, too, politically and into like this culture, right? It's like it bleeds into other things. The movie Don't look Up, does a great job at like demonstrating kind of that ignorance. Adam McKay Yeah, yeah, it's a great film. Super good film. Yeah. Just how I mean, we're all so easily manipulated. I think like that's the, the thing is like none of us get out, none of us are can escape the possibility of being. I don't say brainwashed, but like, convinced simply, you know, otherwise or how, you know, how to fall into religion or have no follow. But like how somebody with a rather sound mind and intelligence can become religious. Yeah. Having a science background that happens, you know, And it's like, how does that happen? It's because there's the whole entire religion is based on trying to get you to like you have to deny science to be able to be a Christian and to reap the benefits of the Christian faith. You can't really it's hard to like bleed over, which I guess there's more modern reality now. You have to look at what is the Christianity, what is the church offer? It offers community and it offers community on a weekly basis. That's what it offers. And I think some people that are intellectuals, they kind of fall victim to the church or fall victim to I became a Christian and I don't even how did I get here? I was a scientist and I didn't I was an atheist most of my life. And this isn't really that logical. And I believe in it. It's like, well, you were pulled into a church with people trying to express as much love as possible to you in community. They're going to meet every Sunday and give you this same amount of community every Sunday that you can't get. You're not getting anyone in your life. So if your family's not giving you this love, if your scientific community is not giving you this love, if just your friends aren't giving you this love, but you find it in a church, it'd be pretty easy to think that this Jesus thing must be real. Look at this, love. I'm getting in this community out of fear. Yeah, yeah. Community, friends, husband and wife, finding the love. All of that is. You can find that the church, that's for sure. And it's also so fear based. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I agree with Solo 13 508 It is it's frustrating. It's sometimes there's like a hard stop with people that's like the hard line in our family is that's why we don't talk religion in politics and we still talk science but it's so easy for certain conversations for me to feel like where to be able to accept family or like certain, you know, religious individuals in our family and to be at peace with this relationship and to grow the relationship conversations around science and politics and all of that, or where it's like we draw the line. It depends on what part of science we're talking about. If we're talking about like a new scientific discovery, not about an issue, if we were talking about something with space and not going to issue, we're all going to be interested in it. If we talk about anything to do with the weather and why it's changing so drastically, it's there's probably going to be some sort of issue. We just don't talk about it. It's true. Simple science, right? Yeah. Let's move on. Let's move along. Moving right along here on a moment to Reddit's on the Mortal Kombat podcast at your house. Nathan And Zach was from the Religious Trauma Forum. Our thread on Reddit, which is another great thread if you really want to dive deep into some people's trauma, use their mountain camps. 910 says, I was raised an atheist. My partner just stopped smoking weed, cold turkey, and his religious trauma has come back in full force. What can I say to help console? This is one isn't close to home. Not at all. And we know what they're talking about. We have no idea. We I don't know what part longer posts, but they're great posts and these are real people. And if you ever see this and this is who you are, thank you so much for being vulnerable. Yeah. Hi. Hoping to get some advice? I'm trying to figure out ways to help my partner when he has really limited trauma flare up. My partner had gone in the bad habit of chain smoking weed for a couple of months to deal with this stress and recently and decided to quit cold turkey to break the habit. It's been a rough two weeks. His anxiety has been bad and he's having very bad physical symptoms of withdrawal. Tell me about it. With his anxiety and added anxiety from the bad physical symptoms, his strong religious trauma has reared its ugly head and he's constantly thinking about it, especially when he's having those physical reactions for added context. We are a gay couple. He was raised Catholic, Nuff said. I was very fortunate to have been raised atheists due to this. However, I have no idea what to say to him when he's having these thoughts. Painful about religious mumbo jumbo. He's got lots of thoughts about if this is punishment for something he's done and existential stressors, etc. It's hard to see him so fucked up. I do not want I do not know what the right things are to tell him in these moments. Deep mountain climbers. Nine, nine, ten. So sorry. And I think like going through when when your partners dealing with a lot of depression anxiety here for new year in a romantic relationship and you love them all your heart and you're feeling strong and happy in life and they fall victim to a victim, fall into the depressive anxiety part of life, job loss, sickness, death in the families, loss of pets. You name it. Yeah. When your partner is dealing with severe depression and anxiety, you as the other partner start to you suffer from that. That's part of the that's it like I'm here faults and all no matter whether you know like all of that and so I feel for you because part of that in my opinion part of that love is learning how to be what your partner needs during these New York Times. Sometimes with your partner needs is to get serious help on their own independently, whether there's religious trauma or not. Quitting weed after chain smoking and habitual use of marijuana, quitting cold turkey causes I can't. Some of the worst withdrawals. And it's so like everything has withdrawals that you quit cold turkey, right? That's why you're supposed to like taper off these things feel like a certain personality to that's just like I'm I'm done. Yeah that's how I am. So I get and it's always the same people that are like I'm smoking every second of my life, right? Those people are the ones that are like, I can quit cold turkey. But you smoked more than most people in the room here. Yeah, it sounds like me. Yeah. And my advice for the the partner that was raised atheists and wrote this mountain chemists. 910. You can't say the right thing. Yeah. Religious trauma is different for everybody and you eat this not. Oh, what do I say? It's not about saying anything. I think the biggest fear that people who start with religious trauma is one they've done the wrong thing by leaving the faith because they were raised in that. And also that they've they've they're alone because they've left it. And especially, I would assume, a couple that is a gay couple breaking the biggest rule in the Bible. If anything, you're going to have a lot of that guilt. And so if I were on their side as the atheist, I would say it's you just you let them know they are consistently loved and they have a place in a home no matter what happens, because I feel like the biggest fear I have when it comes to trauma is, is that I'm alone now that I've given up my religion because I used to have a community of people that I could always go to for prayer. I could always go to for whenever. And no matter who I am as a person, they're going to forgive me because I'm a Christian. But now that I'm not, I don't have that forgiveness anymore. And I don't have that self love. And totally. And so that's like what role the eight the atheist partner. Yes and like it's interesting to like hearing when when someone says I've no idea like I have like being raised atheist versus being raised evangelical Christian or whatever. Like those are such stark striking contrast differences like someone's completely opposite upbringings. Like how would that atheist partner know how to manage someone dealing with such severe religious trauma? Religious trauma comes out in almost all the forms of anxiety, like if you suffer from religious trauma. In my experience, like that's where it kind of seeps into. Like all throughout the cracks of your life. Who and why does marijuana help so well with something like religious trauma traumas? Typically, because your your parents probably didn't love you. Unconditional early. And without that unconditional love and support, every area of your life is being judged or gaslit or undermined and so you develop this sort of belief system that there is no such thing as unconditional love or like coddling, if you will, like the the real love of mother and father. That's like we support you no matter what you believe or what you want to do except, you know, like addictions and all that basic stuff. So what happens is you smoke weed and that mother of God and their mother comes over and is like, Hi, baby. Did you want to watch a movie? Did you want to eat some food? Did you want to take the for one, did you want to garden because I'm here with you all day? How about a little massage? How about a little joke? How about a little time that I'm here for you? It's crap. That's Mother Ganja. And when you had a mother that was kind of like our father. That's like, Yeah, The way you're thinking right now is wrong. Is wrong. You should pray. Oh, that person you love, you can't love them because you're having there's something wrong with there's something wrong with. Because gay being gay is a sin. So when you have like that, not love, not love as it your most important love, it's like mother ganja is that's like the mother. I mean, that's like the better. And that's why I love that's why I'm smoking cannabis again, because it's a love hate relationship, because we're constantly wanting to, like, have more control. When you realize it's not about having more control, it's about how can I how can I figure this out? What's really going on? I wish I wish I could ask. I mean, smoking weed, as much as it sounds like this person is always smoking weed, chain smoking it is. Again, you shouldn't be smoking anything that much, I would say. And if you're smoking weed throughout every single day, there might be an issue there. There might be not. I mean, something I don't know. Some will thrive on weed 24 seven and it helps all cultures. Yeah. The thing is, is we all know that's in help. There's some truths here, some truth to inhale. Inhaling any type of smoke is probably not good for your health. Your body does a really good job at breaking down toxins by smoking all day. Every day. You might get cancer. Yeah, you might get COPD, you may get all this, but that's not even what I'm saying. I'm saying more of like the mental, the men, the mental things like being high all the time. If you have a. Yeah. I mean there's a lot of reasons, like cultural or even religious or personal reasons people can I wish, I wish I could ask Mountain Chemist who wrote this post on why they have to quit cold turkey. Why can't they? I think I get it. I mean, you get it because there's there's black and white. There's nothing else in this world. The same way you were raised. Black and white. Black and white. Yeah. That's probably why Yeah the been the eighties is like I don't know I don't know what's up they just like they're make the you know they eat like massive meals and then they won't eat for whatever and then they work out like crazy and then they you know they can't just get a simple workout and they always have to work out for an hour and 20, 45 minutes. Well, it's always like this or that, this or that, this or that. And because you're told in the Bible, lukewarm life is bad. Gamby In between. Yeah. Don't be look like you're not allowed to be balanced. Yeah. And that's like balance is the key Yeah balances. And so to learn balance, sometimes you got to go through fire like so turning something off so aggressively because you want to have control, you know, like in the even the way that they say, I have nothing else to say about anyone else's process or partnership. But my partner had gone in the bad habit of chain smoking weed for a couple of months to deal with his stress and recently decided to quit. Go to the bad habit. Already the person that's smoking weed every day probably already has. Primarily his trauma has such severe guilt from what they're doing. Like they don't need anybody to tell them they have that. They're yeah, they know that they're smoke. They're using a substance so much it's drowning out the other part of everything else about life. But they can function and they can live in it. And it's great and helps with anxiety and it's like a blanket of love. So why wouldn't I use it all the time? But they're thinking this is wrong cause I'm using this all the time. Like, who am I if I'm just using this all the time, I'm nobody. And that's also another part of that concept. We only know we don't we don't know why they do, but this is just from personal experience. And I think that like is there's so many layers to this why somebody would just call Trigger, why they're using it all the time and it's helping them to people use antidepressants every day because it helps them. Right. Like so I if there was I guess if if there was a way to take a marijuana pill in the morning, they kept you like a nice low buzz all day. People take it every day. Yeah. You know, because it wouldn't kill your lungs. It'd be totally healthy. And you just be like, We're good for you for 12 hours. And yeah, I mean, encouragement to the eighties would be to it's an encouraging to have for everybody is like let's focus on the truth like us focus on who we are. How do you how do we figure out who we are? Therapy, meditation, journaling, exercise, putting ourselves into tough positions, creative outlets like adding to our life, not taking away when we take weed away so aggressively. Fears of loss when we didn't have parents that loved unconditionally, fears of loss. So every time we take something out that's comforting. There's this unbelievable amount of loss and it's like, I can't do this. Nobody understands. I just lost everything. And it's like, No, no, no, you didn't lose everything. But I know you're feeling like you just lost everything. That's really, really difficult. And it sounds like when you're in such opposites, like, mean my partner, even though she has a lot of she has her own version of religious trauma, but completely different levels of like being raised in the Christian evangelical faith. We are very different on this. She doesn't have any severe really, I guess, as bad as it really is. And so because of that, she's had to learn how to like, work with my issues, right? Like how to balance. I'm like, and same goes for me with them. And I think that like, what works for us is we're both in therapy or a therapist. We have a therapist in our relationship, a couples therapy, we're reading books and our relationship. But the most important thing is I have been in therapy for like years and I've done massive amounts of not massive, but I've done some really amazing soul searching plant medicine. And I know how difficult it is coming off marijuana after habitually using it for so long. I miss so hard. And that's just the period. Took me about seven days before I felt safe. And then I started to deal after four months, no marijuana. And then I started to have such bad insomnia again, like so bad for sleeping like an hour or night that it was just time to bring the medicine back. And ever since I brought the medicine back, we're sleeping, baby. So I trust the process. Trust the process, trust the process. And quitting weed, cold turkey and smoking. This much is going to have issues. But two weeks after, if you're still not accepting this reality and you're having a tough time like this person is, the issue is so much deeper than the weed. The weed is probably not the issue. And so, like you said, the the next step is definitely start seeing a therapist and if you don't like your therapist the first time, if you don't vibe with them the first time, get a different therapist until you vibe with your therapist so that you can get some help because in reality, the fear and anxiety and panic and depression you're feeling is from something deeper. It's not because your life is terrible. It's not because you did anything wrong or you're guilty. Especially in this situation. It's not because you're guilty that you're feeling this way or you're being punished. It's because you had an upbringing that traumatized you and brainwashed you and your brain is not getting over it. And the only way to get over it is to attack that trauma now. So you got to take that trauma to therapy. Yeah. And if not, maybe some pretty intense plant medicine therapy, too. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And that's like where we get into the gray area where we're not doctors. And yet maybe someday Zach will be going. And we are big believers in this psilocybin plant medicine. We're big believers. These immune cannabis. Marijuana is a plant medicine that is just these are these are like, blessed. These are gifts that there's a place for each one. These are, how do you say in Spanish regardless, right. Dollars as gifts. Regardless. I hope so. If it's not, then you'll know my Duolingo is right and well, not doing well. But I am still on it. I'm still learning Spanish and so every good thing can become a bad thing. But I don't want to say it's bad. It's more of like something that works can stop working and you have to acknowledge when it's not working anymore. It is so hard to stop something that, you know, I'm saying like also having having to be high 24 seven isn't working in some in some ways, yes, absolutely. I think in the bigger picture, of course. But it is working. That's why they're doing it 24 seven because it working. We don't we also just don't know their situation. They might just be fully disassociating and just not even dealing with life. I mean, like busy. You see, my point is that it's like it's like if you drink coffee back to back to back all day long, that would be so bad for you. Like anything that you use back to back to back that you can't let go of. You're chasing. Yeah. You're, you're chasing. And if you chase anything, you'll burn out. Yeah. Just like you can't run forever on a treadmill. Now, you know, if you're going full speed on a treadmill, why don't you walk? No. Yeah. You're going to burn out, fall off the treadmill, hit the wall, twist your ankle, not be able to run again. Yeah, and that sounds like, you know, we all got to go there sometimes. You got to. You got to just, like, commit and you're like, it's 4 a.m.. It's 5 a.m.. And you got to do that for a while. You got to keep doing it. Then all of a sudden you're like, I got to figure my shit out. So you figure it out and so do you. Yeah, good luck with that. And if you would like to be interviewed and you see this podcast, give us a call. Yeah, Yeah. We have our own cell phone business. Cell phone, call it. And just know you're not alone on your cell phone and you're loved by more people than you believe. So loved. Okay, Next, jumping right in. Oh, this is a fun one. Here we go. I'm going to keep reading on map that works IU on snowstorm three. I'm on. You've been on my Hartley last month. I'm 33. Go on the religious trauma thread smoke Storm three says you've been on my heart lately in quotes. Sounds like a song You've been on my heart lately. You've been on my heart lately. And no, no news. But I've been waiting for you too. So maybe you can come down that road where everybody's watching you. When you go in, we can shine like San Francisco through the road. You've been on my heart lately. Smoke Storm three This one fucking sentence ignites so much rage in me. My coworker who I hardly see or talk to because she's at a different location than me, said this to me and followed it up with. I've just been praying extra hard for you lately. And she says this every time I see her. I try to be polite, but my face isn't great at hiding my emotions. It just feels so un genuine. Like you're not saying this because you mean it. I have to fight the urge to punch someone or be rude when they say this. I hate living in the Bible belt. It's not just the Bible. No, It's like triggering. Oh, dude, what a recurring religious trauma this is triggering that sentence. You've been on my heart lately. I don't know. When I saw that, I was like, it wasn't just us. It wasn't just right. No, no, no. I know this is a culture. With that said, this is in the culture is a culture. Maybe I can't tell you how many grown old, old adults, youth pastors and people would. Zach Even on my heart lately praying and offering. I've been praying a lot and I think there's something you want to confess to me. So why is always was this weird that you were full statement is you've been on my heart lately. I've just been praying extra hard for you. Yeah. Why? Why did I do something wrong? It. It feels like it's the. The other party is trying to take power as much as they possibly can, so I'm as you have comments really going on? No, I didn't. I didn't even finish it. Oh, okay. The finishing part goes. I was very fortunate to have been raised. Oh, I'm sorry I didn't finish it. So if that makes sense. Yeah, because I wasn't my bad. Anyway, let's get into these comments because the comments are great. Absolutely absurd. Down, absolute down. Says Ha in quotes, extra hard as though they are pulling you through life on a sled. And the harder they work at it, the better your life becomes in smoke. Storm three The OP who posted this says Bro exactly. All exactly, exactly. I fucking hate the Bible belt. Wrong. I hate it here. Here we come to you. Yeah, yeah. Extra hard. That's that's the idea is it's like. It's like I am so we prayed harder today than it did yesterday. My blood, sweat and tears. It was so hard for me to get down on my knees today to pray for you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just praying so hard. Hard, So much hard. Harder. I'm praying harder. How hard were you praying for my show me Demonstrate happen Blood vessels hard, baby Their life will be better now we better oolleoted Squiggy you ladies gigs related Squeaks says depending on what you are going through, you could say I appreciate your prayers, but I could really use some help. Would you be willing to help me? They probably won't. And their feelings of guilt for being unwilling to do anything of real value will prevent them from reaching out again. Or maybe they surprise you and show you that they can be a decent human. Either way, when women love it such a well executed plan. Do love it? Also have have a thing they can do to help you already in the back of your head? Yeah. Like something you need. Like you need someone help move a couch. I could use some help, though. Tomorrow you move a couch. Could you help me? They'll start praying for you pretty soon. You know, it's funny. It's like I can. I want to make a short right now. It's kind of like. Were you raised in the Christian evangelical faith? Do you have religious trauma, Severe religious trauma? Do you ever have anybody coming up to you telling you that you've been on their heart lately and that they're praying very hard for you? Here's some advice. Here's something that you could do to help get out of that situation. Depending on what you're going through. You could say, I appreciate your prayers, but I could really use some. Would you be willing to help me? They probably won't. And their feelings of guilt for being unwilling to do anything of real value will prevent them from reaching out again. Or maybe they surprise and show you that they can be decent human. Either way. Win, win, win win. We call that a ding, ding, ding ah on this morning on my podcast because that's a great advice and I think I love what you just said. It's kind of like, Oh, thank you so much for praying for me. Honestly. Like I've been going through a lot. Do you think you could actually help me right now? Move my couch? Yeah. Derek You got to have a be something that's like, no one wants to help move the couch. Could you help me move today? Yeah. I'm moving from the East Village all the way across town. See? About an hour? Yeah. And I have a truck. I have a Honda. Do you have a truck? You are. You do have a truck. Because I see your truck out there. All of you Christians have fucking trucks. Trucks and moving them. So help me move, please. Yeah. And if they do, you got some help. It's a great it's just great advice. I love it. I never even thought of that. I always just get so triggered. I can't even respond honestly. Uh. Uh oh. Yeah. I think as a nurse working in the hospital, one of the things that I've had, so I'm talking of my little brother. One of the things that's happened a lot to me is people from because I'm doing this podcast out of the same town and or county we were raised in, which means our parents church and all their friends churches are in the same county, which means every once in a while we run into people of the past and it's like, just like that. Eyes wide. Ever since we started this podcast, it used to be like people would come up to us and they do this all night. Nathan Yeah, or be in the hospital or a patient would come in and somebody from the past, Yeah. Oh. Nathan Yeah, I heard it's one of the, you know, that we've been praying for you for a long time. Our hearts that has been said to me so many times as a nurse, they're like in the bed. Yeah. You know, like having a heart attack. Like, Oh, Ethan, we're praying for you as I'm lying here. Some heparin, There's some blood thinners to save your life. Start praying for me. You're to stop. And so I totally understand, like, how triggering it is. And it's just like so. And then ever since we started this podcast that happened to take the what it was the chemical Heparin. Heparin to take the heparin went up again and you go science. Yeah it's it's is like here is something is going to blow your mind. Science saved your life one at a time. You don't even need faith. It's just going to work every CPR is science. Science, science, science. Science and science and science and science. They didn't make it real. Science is real. It's a hoax. Sorry, I didn't mean it. You. I just cannot resist. That's fine. I kind of forget where I was going with that. Well, I mean, it just happens. It happens the time I'll have another. Oh, yeah. And since we started this podcast, I ran into and we've got two events at our parents church for whatever family stuff. And the same people that used to always tell me they're praying for me, they're not telling me all my work for us, which is kind of like a blessing, you know, It's like no one's really asking us about, like, are you coming back to the faith? It's like you're not coming back. I think they get I think they get it. These dudes are these dudes are crazy. These are in a podcast. Yeah. So either start a podcast about your religious trauma or come on, come on, come on, come on. Your podcast. Yeah. Or have something they can help you with because they might. Yeah. Go for them to start a podcast. Go on a religious trauma podcast or ask them for real help. Yeah, click. Yeah, let's wrap this up. We have our last little Reddit post here and then we'll go on over to the game cam This comes from the atheism Atheist Atheists. I'm a the atheist. You got this thread user to Lenna That's if that's a real name. It's kind of pretty uniform too. Lana Excuse me. Tatiana Can you pass me the salt? I feel like she might use me too. Lana I feel like this would be a really good telemarketer because their name is Tell in it. Yeah, okay. They say, What makes Intel agent educated adults start believing in the Bible? Classic question. And I would kind of we kind of brought it up. Yeah. We can continue. Yeah, yeah, continue. We kind of brought it up the beginning of this Reddit art form as I have some friends as well as my eldest brother who became Christian in their thirties. I'd be like, maybe like you on the podcast next week. Be like, I have something I need to say. I'm going to be leaving the podcast because I'm giving my life back to Christ. I'd be like, And there it is, folks. Thank you for joining us for the last year. And that's a wrap. Yeah, you're trying to cry and I did, and that's a wrap. I will be quitting acting now. I'm not going to be working as a nurse anymore. Take care. Thank you. If you if you needed to. Now the earth is flat. Yeah. They showed no interest in religion before. They're all educated, intelligent people. But like all believers, are unable to provide any logical arguments to support belief. It feels like a switch was thrown in their brain that now demands a belief in religion. I'm not aware of any trauma occurring in their lives at the time they begin to be religious. Is faith a form of compulsion, or are they getting something else out of it? Probably both is so much that's so much like that's it's a big question. It's such a big statement. Can Christians can evangelical Christians be? Because like, the question is so ridiculous. Like, can evangelical Christians be intelligent? And that's again, this is a bad question because really hard because they take logic out of everything. Because like, can you be a Christian is intelligent, you're being evangelical Christian. Does that put you into a different category? I do, yeah. I don't I don't know. Logic and Christianity are hard things to go. The exact real faith that we know as humans. Logic means intelligence, right? Sure. At least the way we define it. So if Christians define it, logic means faith. Then maybe there are no intelligence means faith. Logic is a form of intelligence. Part of it. As nonbelievers, we believe that What if they think logic is not intelligent and actually restraining from logic and just believing one book is the intelligence, right? That's what I'm saying. Yes. And so the question is, is can Christians. But I have no idea. I have no idea to say to this person, well, a 30 year old addicted to Moss 161 agnostic atheist says same stuff that brings them to drugs. Humans do a lot for the happy chemical in their brain. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Just like give that in an upvote. You have that man. I'm going to give you an award. When you and we've talked about this a lot in this class, when you're when you're standing in an in a room with 100 other people, not even that many other people and they're all raised hands screaming the same song on you now singing the same words. You can kind of feel feser to feel that the energy of everybody's singing the same thing and looking at you and yeah, and holy, holy, holy, holy, yeah, Lord. And you're like, What is this? What am I feeling? It's like, Oh, it's, you know, it's like that gold dust, that warmth, that that power. And this. It's real Jesus. It's a thrill. And what I want in that moment for what I would say is go to a concert with just go to like a 200 person concert where everyone knows the singer. Go to Taylor Swift to sing the song with everyone and see how powerful it feels. Yeah, it's not Jesus. Yeah, I think. I think using Taylor said there Beyonce is a good example. Yeah. You walk into there That's a religious concert. Yeah. That is the religion of Taylor Swift. Yeah that is the floor is almost caving in and it's just like, and like, those people are like the whole point of Taylor. She's coming out of the movie and they're going to be in the theater screaming every song. And theaters are begging fans to not scream in theaters. It's like, this is like crazy religious people that are like, our Lord and Savior is Taylor Swift, and they know all the lyrics. Totally good example to like the warm, fuzzy feeling that you can also get at your local church, your local church. You just got to have faith. Is that a bad thing? No, it's not. But is it a slippery slope into the dogma? Yes, 100%. And what did the dogma offer community? They got it. And decaf coffee in Styrofoam cups and donuts. Every Sunday. Every Sunday. Every Sunday. Yeah. And as routine, humans love routine. And if you can routinely feel some sort of love in community, in a building that is based off of this dogma on a weekly basis, you can start to feel kind of like you found the secret. And it is true message. Yeah. When in reality when ground truth it might just be that you don't have that same community and love in your life and you found it somewhere else. And that doesn't make it any more true. Besides the fact that you feel good there. Yeah. When you walk into a church, there's a lot of vulnerability there. Yeah, but it's skewed vulnerability, okay? There's a lot of gender inequality, there's a lot of social inequalities. There's the ways churches are structured are just like top to bottom. It's, you know, you have the pastor and then everything falls underneath for the most part. So you have these leaders that are normally men, 99, 99.99% men that are coming to you to provide guidance or emotional support. A lot of people in a rut walking to a church, you're really emotionally anxiety, depression. That's what we talk about a lot. In this case, you walk in and if you had a really, really soft, sweet, burly man come up to you and be like crying with you, like, it must be so hard to just pray for you right now. More example for you. And you'd be like, this is a powerful shit, man. Like, vulnerability is healing, conversations are healing, being putting it out on the table and just letting it all out and feeling that guilt and being honest about it and feeling it and feeling supported and loved by so many around you. Yeah. And they're like, Hey, come back on a Wednesday night and let's. Let's do this again. Yeah. You're like, Why are you here for me? Never felt so light. Like there's something here. Yeah. You know, I think there's a lot of versions of that church feeling in many different ways. Um, religion just gets that, like, corporate level, like. And here you Walmart, free of debt. Come on in real shoes. It's like Christianity is like, welcome to church. We got everything you need here. Drug addiction, depression, anxiety, the same medicine for everything. The Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah. So you wouldn't go into a hospital with a brain aneurysm and ask for something that would give you, like, less pain in your feet? Yeah, but in the church, it's kind of one way or the highway. Yeah. So it's dangerous. Yeah, but it works. Motor building, healing and conversation. G off again says Gothic is also agnostic. Atheist says social pressure, trauma, anxiety. Which is kind of what I just said. Mm hmm. There are lots of excuses, just never reasoning or logic. Mm hmm. Powerful, simple statement there, which is very true. And just a precious thing. Just going back to the past is how could someone, an intellectual, an intellectual 30 year old get lost into the church and believe it? It's I don't know. I, I think it is the things we're talking about, where it's everyone's life is different. Everyone else has their own struggles. And when you feel that connection and that love in that community, you might that might make you think you're feeling the spirit. I think it's social. We're social creatures. We all think we're individuals or not. We are. But I mean, like we're individuals surrounded by 8 to 9 billion other individuals. We're just versions of each other, literally. And so, uh, to think that we go through this life purely alone is a falsehood. And so when you surround yourself around other people, you start to see social norms. You start to catch on to how like people start to do the same things as one another and they try to one another and they listen to one another and they encourage one another and they respond to one another. Because we're social or interactive creatures. And so I like to take the side of the campus, like how does an intelligent person with logic end up a born again evangelical Christian who might lose that, like leave their significant other or lose friends because of it? You know, uh, is I would think there's like a lot of different reasons, but I when, when you put yourself into social interactions with a group of people, you start to no matter how smart you are, you can do things with the crowd you can do things are part of that group that everyone's doing together because we all work together. We all respond to one another. And there's a lot of phenomenons that show that. Like I was just talking to Megan, my fiance, about how with suicide and this is kind of like left field out of whatever, but like suicide rates tend to go up in higher numbers and areas like there would be more suicides and then they'll be less and less suicides and there's more suicides because it's like if a famous person commits suicide, then all these a lot of other people that aren't famous that see that on TV or whatever, there's like copycats, there's a serial killer, that there's a crazy shooting and there's all these little other serial killer like like shootings or school shootings that happen, right? Like copycats because we're social creatures, because we're kind of going through similar things as one another. And so when hundred people in a church all kind of together are like, we're all going through the same things together and we found the truth together. And you outlier, we'll find the truth to everybody. Gather around him. Yeah. And hold and squeeze and breathe when you're like, I'll see you next Wednesday. Yeah, it's pretty. I actually think it's quite easy for a highly intelligent person to find themselves walking into the evangelical Christian faith. I if they've never had any religious experience growing up. Yeah, I mean, we're just watching in our country now. It's just on every level. There's just a split down the middle, split down the middle, split down the middle. Black and white, black and white, black and white. One way or the highway. There's no in-between. There's no balance. It's an aggressive statement. There's we're improving little bits here and there. Now, how about that? How about that? Do that wraps up a moment to read it. That was fun. That was fun. Um, all right, so why don't we go over to Lee? Game cam. Game cam. Game cam. Here on the Mortal Kombat podcast, we play as of right now, Mario Kart 64 for a long time. And you know what's funny is the more we played it, the more I've wanted to keep playing it. Oh, yeah, No software. This is our childhood. And here, in the case of Mortal Kombat, we believe in Can I do with your inner child? And so as Zach and I started this podcast, one of the things we've always done is play a game at the end of our conversation. Mm hmm. We used to play board games. We played Monte Carlo, we played poker, we played chess, we played checkers, we played all the things you can imagine. And then we bridged into N64. And so here we are playing our original childhood loved game. My and this will be Skyscraper 4.0. Skyscraper 4.0. Who won last time? You're right. You did. I did. And I won the time for that. Here we go. We already go. If you're wondering what that music is in the background that clicked on, that's from yours truly. Amanda, you're gonna go. Oh, nice, nice. Carmen and hot team. I can't believe you actually hit that. Oh, shoot. Oh, shoot, shoot, shoot. Hey, thanks, man. Okay. And we're getting silent anyways. Yeah, that music in the background is from yours truly, Nate From the Bay. I produce lots of music, even though I'm getting into acting. As you know, I used to do that. Some girl. 00200, snap. That was so. And you can tell the times we play where one person grew it. I want to win. No, snap. I was so scared. Oh, you were so out of control. Right now I'm just running from you this whole game. Chill, bro. My God. Star City, This is miserable. Oh, God. Oh. Oh, Stay away from me. I'm finding now is this stressful? Oh, so many red shells. I'm just like. I'm a little bit flabbergasted right now. Now, stop it. The stars do take a banana. Yes. Maybe that was crazy and hot tonight. That is so hard. That was time was really hard. Like I shows our stories from last night. This is our story. I can never I guess we didn't turn it off or just saved it. That was hard. All right. Mess out. A three year reunion. A son. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. I'm out. I'm out. I'm out of here. I got to be really smart. Do you wanna get out of here? You're such a wolverine. I so scary. That's the point, dude. I'm coming for you. This is the sacrifice, my son. Oh, yes. Come on. Right here. It's not. It's not going to happen. It's just not. Yes, you really what you're going to regret right now. I messed it. Oh, dude. Knock, knock it about. Got to go. Oh, no, no, dude. Oh, my goodness. Get smashed, baby. Oh, man, I feel bad. I felt like I was trying to kill you. That game. Sorry. That was fun. So fun. You know, the last two game camps have been the longest yet, and that one might have been one of the quickest yet. There was a lot of fun. Thanks so much. Do you remind me of, like, an Akin from like, one of the first Star Wars is I just I had a really good time right now in the game. Cam. It was fast. It was fast. But I mean, it's important to have fun. Yeah, you had fun. I had fun. Know, too. That was so brutal. That was insane. I don't know what was in my head today, but I. She wanted to kill you all. Played like I literally just ran from you. Like, literally feel like I could play the game at all. That whole game, it was just like, run right? Run an air down and run. Oh, man. Echo garage on. Too little, too late last time. Too soon this time. Yeah. Oh, I was good. I was going. I think that's Kylie. Come on, let's wrap it up. Yeah. Love you, everybody. Thank you so much for being here. We'll see you next week here on the next combat podcast. Over and out. When your morals are in debate and you just can't get them straight, walk down the river where you'll find some combat aid and you get yourself a scissor and you get yourself some scissors. When you're dancing on the moon, you might get someone else in here. There you go Down there, man. Keep talking on in on the moon.