Explore every episode of the podcast The Shadow of God: An Atheist Podcast

A thorough chapter-by-chapter critique of Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" in celebration of the 20th anniversary of its first publication. Chapters: 0:00 "Introduction" 0:22 Chapter 5: The Roots of Religion 37:30 Chapter 6: The Roots of Morality: Why Are We Good? 1:06:42 Chapter 7: The 'Good Book' and the Changing Moral Zeitgeist 1:34:35 Chapter 8: What's Wrong With Religion? Why Be So Hostile? 2:03:05 Chapter 9: Childhood, Abuse and the Escape from Religion 2:26:21 Chapter 10: A Much Needed Gap? 2:33:12 Conclusion: The Legacy of 'The God Delusion'

A thorough chapter-by-chapter critique of Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" in celebration of the 20th anniversary of its first publication. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction: My Recollections of "The God Delusion" 7:30 Richard Dawkins: The Man 12:42 Chapter 1: A Deeply Religious Non-Believer 23:49 Chapter 2: The God Hypothesis 1:08:03 Chapter 3: Arguments for God's Existence 1:37:42 Chapter 4: Why There Almost Certainly is No God

A discussion of the importance of emotions in a religious context, and the various ways in which religious institutions seek to manage the emotions of believers. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction: The Importance of Emotion in Religion 6:36 Recap of the Key Features of Emotions 10:11 Stephen Asma's Theory of the Religious Management of Emotions 25:19 Why Do Religions Manage Our Emotions? 29:22 Religious Concepts and the Management of Emotions 37:39 The Motivational Force of Emotions in Religion 49:48 The Strategic Value of Negative Emotions in Religion 1:07:03 The Strategic Value of Positive Emotions in Mormonism 1:26:10 The Strategic Value of Positive Emotions in Daoism 1:51:29 The Social Costs of Emotional Management in Religion 2:12:15 The Individual Costs of Emotional Management in Religion 2:20:37 Conclusion

A philosophical and psychological exploration of the nature of human emotions. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 2:51 The Difference Between Emotions and Moods 11:47 Emotions Are Not (Just) Feelings 22:34 Misleading Conceptual Metaphors About Emotions 34:40 Emotions Are Not (Necessarily) Irrational 46:23 Emotions Are Not Distinct From Ideas 1:01:31 Emotions Are Not Private, Subjective States 1:27:24 Conclusion: The 3 Key Features of Emotions

Explores and critiques various philosophical and theological ideas which insist that God is in some way integral to "truth". Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 3:53 God as the Foundation of Truth 21:14 God as the Source of Truth 36:08 Ipseity, Subjectivity and Truth 56:40 Omnisubjectivity 1:03:48 Alvin Plantinga's Evolutionary Debunking Argument 1:21:01 The Problem of Disagreement 1:30:32 The Problem of Religious Disagreement 1:40:22 John Hick's "The Real" 1:54:31 The Blind Leading the Blind? 2:04:17 Conclusion

Looks at some general types of responses that theists have made to the problem of evil, and their various deficiencies as explanations for the existence of Evil. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 2:59 The Logical Problem of Evil 17:27 The Evidential Problem of Evil 21:26 Is the Problem of Evil Really a Big Problem? 36:10 1. "It's Our Fault" Theodicies 45:51 2. "Big Picture" Theodicies 53:24 3. Character / Soul-Building Theodicies 1:11:10 4. "Relationship Building" Theodicies 1:16:03 5. Skeptical Theism 1:26:05 6. Evil Agent Theodicies 1:31:42 7. "Everything Will Be Okay" Theodicies 1:42:51 8. Denialist Theodicies 1:52:30 Conclusion

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction: The Universality of Religious Beliefs 8:31 Case Study: Buddhism and Christianity 16:06 Can "Truth" Explain the Universality of Religious Beliefs?  22:30 Can "Culture" Explain the Universality of Religious Beliefs? 31:59 The Basics of Cognitive Science 38:37 The 6 Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion 41:52 1. The Epidemiology of Representations 56:41 2. The Hyperactive Agency Detection Device (HADD) 1:03:08 3. Animism and Anthropomorphism 1:15:44 4. Ritual Representations 1:32:15 5. Minimally Counter-Intuitive Ideas 1:49:41 6. Modes of Religiosity 2:00:50 Conclusion

Discusses the features which an explanation must possess to be a "good" explanation, and whether or not religious explanations - whether or not they might be said to be "true" - could ever be counted as good explanations.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction: What makes a good explanation?

5:37 Is It Fair to Judge Religious Explanations Against Scientific Ones?

13:09 Dawes' Six Features of Good Explanations

15:36 1. Testability

38:13 2. Compatibility With Background Knowledge

47:48 3. Past Explanatory Success

55:39 4. Simplicity

1:31:47 5. Ontological Economy

1:46:10 6. Informativeness

2:10:53 Conclusion

Explores the various sociological dynamics that are involved in the creation of "New Religious Movements" in the contemporary world, and what this might be able to teach us about the origins of the world's major religious traditions. Chapters:

0:00 Introduction: What Are NRMs?

3:49 What Studying NRMs can Teach us About the Origins of the World Religions

17:05 Why We Can't Trust Religious Traditions about Their Own Origins

29:25 Becker's 4 Types of Religion

33:00 Sectarian NRMs

46:43 Cultic NRMs

57:43 The Origins of Judaism

1:06:15 The Origins of Buddhism

1:22:42 The Origins of Christianity

1:30:02 The Origins of Islam

1:36:36 The Origins of the Chinese Religions

1:44:50 Why New Religions Emerge: The Erosion of Legitimacy

2:01:22 Charismatic Authority in NRMs

2:27:10 Charismatic Authority in the Origins of the World Religions

2:53:52 Why New Religions Perish or Survive: The Transfer of Authority

Explores the reign of King Josiah of Judah (640-609 BCE) and the violent policies he enacted to spur the development of monotheism.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction: The Contemporary Relevance of Josiah

6:42 The Reliability of Our Sources

12:45 Who Was King Josiah?

19:03 The "Discovery" of Sacred Scripture

27:12 The Religious "Reforms" of Josiah

39:26 The Babylonian Exile

46:46 Josiah's Post-Exilic Legacy

1:04:15 Conclusion: Monotheism and Violence

Explores the nature of divine love, and questions the extent to which God's love could be said to be of any genuine importance to human beings.

Introducing a new series of videos in which I explore a number of the putative benefits of God's existence, explaining why none of these are really of any importance to human beings. In this introduction to the series, I lay the groundwork for the conditions that must be met to say that the existence of God really "matters".

Discusses the many philosophical challenges that the fine-tuning theory faces as a justification for God's existence.

Discusses 7 general reasons why a priori arguments for the existence of God never succeed.

An exploration of the ambiguities and controversies surrounding the nature of "belief" in a religious context.

Explores the linguistic and rhetorical tools that believers use to talk about "mystical" or "religious" experiences, and what this can teach us about the nature of the experiences themselves.

An exploration of the nature of religious institutions. Here I discuss why it is that religious people participate in the various behaviours, practices, rituals and social structures that they do, and why all of these are so central to to the phenomenon of religion. 

An exploration of the nature of religious groups, religious identity and their centrality to the phenomenon of religion. 

An exploration of the nature of religious concepts. Here I discuss why religious concepts in different traditions are so similar, how they are developed, and why it matters.

Clearing up common misconceptions about what religion is and how religion functions.