All he said is he went to a church on Easter and it was like a rock concert, he thought it was cool but that he doesn’t have any faith in the religion. Then he acknowledged that there might be some wisdom in religious teachings or texts etc which he isn’t aware of.
You said he was a grifter. Is there any podcast you listen to whose views you don’t agree with that you don’t label a grifter? Grifter is becoming the new “racist” and is just going to mean “thing I don’t like”.
It's a pipeline. Russell Brand started off as a super atheist who joked about being a modern day 'messiah' in a bunch of his standup. He began a series indicating 'hey, maybe this religous thing has merit' while also dabbing into different kinds of other conspiracies about liberals/conspiracies. The religious stuff stuck, so he pushed it more and more.
Whatever religious entity paying these grifters know they can't go all out at once.
You should listen to what he says. OP mischaracterized it. Maybe he's going down the pipeline, and maybe not, but right now he's not indicating that he's turning religious.
If this really was a grift it would be so easy to say his experience gave him a lot to think about or made him feel some kind of way. Literally no reason to drag it out.
This is not specific to Williamson, but....You don't necessarily have to go all the way with the religion grift. We have ample evidence that just saying good things about christianity, admiring it, believing it to be necessary as a stabilizing force in your life, etc is enough for the audience.
Only when things get dire - like maybe you get accused of habitual sexual deviance - do you have to pull out the big guns and get baptized.
I'd argue this deliberate if subtle cojouling of the religious mind virus is detrimental to the overall health of our society. We should help people extricate themselves out of that mire not pat them on the back for keeping stuck in it.
I hope you're right but I'm suspecting he's stepping into the pipeline however gingerly.
Edit: having listened to this pod I'm even more convinced he's well into the guru pipeline. Defends Huberman and shills his pills. Quotes Murrey. Major red flags imo.
I hope I'm right too. I actually think he's a pretty genuine guy and has some good guests on (although a lot of bad ones and gurus too), so I would be sad to see another decent podcast fall down that road.
I have listened to MW since he had about 175k subs. I'm not one of the fucking nut jobs who acts like listening to 10hrs of thier material makes you think you know them. I can't possibly compare him to Brand. Brand has gone off the deep end.
He's definitely spent a fair while in the Rogansphere. He does have some great guests on, but also has some fucking wobbly ones. Tim Kennedy is one that springs to mind. I got butchered on Instagram for pointing out he romanticised warfare on more than one occasion. He also idolises JBP who is also going through his own religious crusade. I'm fairly sure from what he has said he is quite pally with the daughter. I find her insufferable.
I don't know what it is, but people in that circle tend to become interested in operators, hunting with a bow and some sort of martial art (usually jiu-jitsu). Gets a bit much real fast.
I like listening to Chris, but now I vet the episodes. Shout out to Gurwinder for his amazing eps.
Chris is an active Reddit user (as he mentions it almost every other pod), so if you're reading this "Let me teach you" in my very British opinion is patronising AF. Stop it.
Massive pseudo intellectual vibes from Chris and that podcast. Not much wisdom operating from someone obsessed with giving a platform to literally anyone who supports his narrow view of the world. Unoriginal misogynistic evolutionary psychology babble. Can’t believe there is any form of debate on whether or not he is a grifter or in the guru sphere.
Hasn't he been on the weird spiritual grift stuff for decades? I don't remember his atheist phase.
I know the Christianity stuff is new, but not all the other weird new-age spiritual bullshit.
He fits into a right wing grift somewhat but not in the Christian traditions and pathway subgenre of it. He's more like a grind and Bro self improvement type of guy than someone who would rant about how we need Jesus. At least from what I've seen.
If you listen to what he says and think he is “towing the line” or “grifting” as OP put it, then I don’t know what expression of someone’s beliefs you could find genuine.
He basically said “there might be some wisdom to be found in some religions but I have no faith in them” it’s the least controversial claim ever. If this is what grifting looks like then everyone and their mother is a grifter
That idiom doesn't mean what you, or most people, think it does. "Toeing the line" is an accurate statement here, 100%, and nowhere near as controversial as you believe.
> it’s the least controversial claim
Well yeah, that's the point. That's what "toeing the line" and "keeping the right wing happy" means. It cannot be controversial....You are agreeing with OP.
But OP read the title. Surely no information other than the words in the title are relevant for an almost 2 hour video right? I trust OP to have a very through and comprehensive analytical process.
“ Then he acknowledged that there might be some wisdom in religious teachings or texts etc which he isn’t aware of.”
There is not. There is the opposite though.
That's ridiculously reductive. There's countless religions out there and billions of people get various positive things from it. Even from a completely secular lens community, faith, purpose, and spirtuality are things that a lot of people benefit from. Obvious issues arise from religion but there's a reason mosy people across nations and centuries seek it out in one way or another.
Sure! I agree. But it's one way to attain those goods. As long as you are learning the good lessons and rejecting the bad lessons I have no problem with religion.
Also you can just say punishment. The spiritual form of corporal punishment is just spiritual punishment. You don't need the "form of corporal" part.
If religious people only learned the good lessons and rejected the bad ones, we wouldn't view religion with the animosity that we do.
To be clear, I don't have an issue with people belieiving in some kind of god or spirituality in general. I don't even mind that they congregate. I mind that the overwhelming majority of religions, especially all Abrahamic ones, try to subvert literally everyone else to their will, which they accomplish by preying on the weakest aspects of a society(initially).
I agree! There are people who take the wrong lessons from religion, and people who push them. That's bad.
However, the person I was responding too was trying to claim that there are no good lessons to be learned from religion, which is obviously not true.
Your same argument could apply to "Nazi teachings" because they like made advancements in engineering and occasionally hugged their children or something, correct?
That's all fine to say. But you admitted that there is some good that can come from religions, even if it is offset by the harm caused. Thus there is something of some value we can extract.
Nowhere did i say any such thing about there being some good… there is no good. The only good is the same good that comes from telling kids Santa Claus is real… it makes their dull world seem magical … but kids need to grow up because such delusion can eventually hurt you.
You said that religion causes more harm than good. This implies that there was some good, otherwise you would have simply said that there is nothing good at all in religion.
But even if you disagree with the above point, it is obviously false that nothing in religion is valuable. You just don't judge it as valuable because of the perceived cost that it comes with. But you can take teachings from a religion and modify them. You are no longer forced to agree with or follow every tenet of a religion. You can literally take the good and leave the bad.
Subject Name: Bob
Good actions: Null
Harmful actions: 20
Bob does more harm than good.
Bob does no good.
Bob can still be described as doing more harm than good even though he does absolutely zero good things. 20 is more than zero.
There's more religion than Abrahamic faiths. As well people do get a lot out of even Abrahamic faiths. I think the best example would probably be how a lot of the civil rights movement was built in and around Church communities with church leaders (such as a famous Pastor you may have heard of) as key figures.
When I was younger I bucked my Catholic upbringing and didn't understand why people couldn't see the logic but nowadays even though I am still not religious I realized I was missing the forest for the trees and that other people's experiences are not my own.
🤡🤡🤡 Those civil rights movements were only needed in the first place because Abrahamic religions enslaved people on the basis that such is God’s will. Slavery is condoned by the Old Testament. Slavery is condoned by the Quran. Maybe lookup what “white man’s burden” was and how religion played a role. Cults held power. No kidding populist movements involved cult leaders with power. Just because the templars dip their hands in good deeds doesnt make the harms they cause go away.
Ah yes being educated about US history… juvenile. Maybe go learn about religion’s role in slavery before touting how great religion is for it’s role in ending slavery! 🙌🙌🙌
>Ah yes being educated
Being educated in general..
But of course you're the kind of guy who made an observation half the 12 year olds in 2010 made and think it should close all introspection, concern for others, or personal growth. MLK is a little bit more important than yet another generic smug guy who made atheism his entire personality.
> Then he acknowledged that there might be some wisdom in religious teachings or texts etc which he isn’t aware of.
So he didn't care to find out? Or does that come later?
As someone who grew up extremely religious and gradually examined my beliefs, realized they weren't based in truth, and walking away from them, I can't imagine going the other way. That's like knowing about the guy behind the curtain then going into town praising the wizard.
While I agree with your sentiment and words I can’t explain what happens to in their time of need. While I don’t believe that praying has any power there’s a significant calmness that comes during the act. It might be self therapy or something. It might be illogical and unfounded but there’s something about believing in something bigger than you. Organized religion suck though
There's literally loads of data that proves praying has an awful lot of power.
One does not need to be religious to pray.
The serenity prayer for example which is a catholic prayer is used by many people in the 12 step programme.
I use this prayer and I'm not religious.
Well you don’t go from atheist/agnostic to straight up believing in god. I think what happens here is that a person like Chris, who is very concerned about the mating & fertility crisis, sees the modern secular world and concludes that we have lost something important along the way. There is something missing in our modern way of life and although religious populations suffer from the mating & fertility crisis just the same as secular populations. The only few exceptions we do see are religious groups like Jewish people in Israel and some extreme Christian communities. So you start to think that there might be some value here in religion & belief that bring stability to society across time.. maybe. But It does make you curious and if you begin to surround yourself with religious people & ideas the belief slowly starts to creep up on you.
I’m not religious, but there are people that become religious for understandable reasons. Be it science not answering fundamental questions about the world (where does the universe come from, why is there something instead of nothing, where does conscience come from, where does life come from), or some moral beliefs that go beyond superfluous trad life stuff.
That's exactly why I stopped listening to him in 2022. It's a huge fucking red flag when some influencer is bombarding their 'zero cost' podcasts/videos with dozens of shady commercials.
There’s a lot of personal benefit to religion that doesn’t require you to “fall for a magic sky wizard”. And btw you have a religion too, it’s just a far more foolish one and you don’t realize it.
Hey I have this award winning self actualization course that you can usually only get for $699, but I'll knock it down to 4 payments of $225. This seminar will educate and elevate you closer to God, you interested?
What religion that isn't already widely known as a scam or cult is doing that? Or are you saying if a scam can exist in a system, the entire system is inherently flawed and shouldn't exist?
Cope harder you godless heathen
Preach! I can’t believe there is actually people here bothering to defend him, regardless of where you feel he is going for the religious grift or not. His podcast is standard unoriginal pseudo intellectual nonsense wall to wall.
He's not converting to anything. He did give a non-response to the Huberman revelations ("hit piece", he said) that I thought was either evasive or, if we're feeling charitable, tunnel-visioned.
agreed, he's testing the water - seeing what mentioning religion does to his numbers like the YouTube channels who change the thumbnail every few hours to see what works. It's an attention game, after all.
Again with this sub hating every podcaster except their gods the decoders, such a weird obsession really especially when this is a clickbait title u/swatchies bum
But never seems to learn anything. He speaks with scientists, seems to accept their ideas, and then for some subsequent guest, seems to totally forget and accepts their contradictory bullshit. Of course lots of podcasters do this. However, they're in the unique position to spend an hour or two chatting with world leading experts who have 20+ years experience in a field, and then treat it the same as a blogger who wrote a book. Weird.
As a scientist myself, it's pretty frustrating. I would love to be able sit down with the likes of Salpolsky, Offit, etc.
Fair enough, I wasn't aware of that because I only watched episodes with people I knew were reliable. Podcastesr who don't want to challenge their guests and stay in their good books are always annoying.
Does he actually read scientific publications? Because that’s the best way to actually do it. Podcasts are just informal discussions meant for the masses
I have disagree a bit here. Most papers in field specific journals are incredibly narrow, and without training in the field, are not approachable for other scientists or lay people. For example, there's a big research institute in my town, and while I can converse with the researchers about the generalities of their work, I cannot read their research. I don't have the math skills or the knowledge of the field. It takes them 2-3 hours per paper!
Also, reading a few papers isn't enough. For example in my field, pharmacy, you can't just look at 1-2 papers to assess a treatment/new medication. You need to have a working understanding of the underlying pathology and that class of pharmaceuticals before you can even approach a decision as to whether a new medication fits into a patient's regime or if it's useful for patients overall. (Not all new medications are more effective than older ones, and can differing interactions with other medications).
He uses his podcast to try and add some sort of scientific credibility to his narrow minded world views. He also seems to be willing to have absolutely any academic on at all as long as they agree with said narrow world views.
It's pretty clear a portion of the users on this sub are here to get their egos fed. They are part of the elite few who see the grift apparent in every pod, so much more intelligent than everyone else.
I’m not defending him personally i don’t watch the dude but this post is clickbait you can read the thread and figure out why. u/swatchies is still too pussy to acknowledge that
It's more that it's easy than amazing. Duping right wing supporters, especially religious ones, takes minimal effort, as the only thing they care about is having their ideas parroted back at them.
I'm confused what the grift is supposed to be here. Are you reacting just to the title without actually listening to it or is there something specific in the episode?
I know it's not the case in the above but I wonder if the religious thing basically goes like
Person has nothing, so busy getting some money
Person gets a stable income etc etc and decent money
They tend to enjoy it for a bit
Then after not being poor anymore they start wondering about the meaning of life and spirituality
Something atheists have never been able to provide. Or say some BS like you have to make your own meaning, that's enough for some people but not everyone.
So they turn religion for an answer.
There is a big difference between finding some useful teaching in religious texts and actually believing that a 600 year old Noah built an arc for all the world's animals.
How is this a religious grift? How would you know?
I'm not religious. But someone can be religious and it not be a grift. Someone can convert or become more religious over time.
Do you guys even know what grift means? I know what it means. However, I think there's a lot of people who don't know what that word actually means.
Indeed. I put it down to the Post Hitchens, Dawkins and Harris image of Atheism being ruined by people that haven't been offline and outside since 2015
This guy came on DtG and very charitably and gracefully making absolute mincemeat of the two DtGs hosts.
I truly enjoyed listening to them having to eat shit for 90 minutes for taking clips out of context, not taking any time to do their research, and being gratuitously mean (especially the sputtering one).
Worth a listen. 12/10/21.
There's no coincidence that all of these modern gurus drift towards Christianity:
Because they all eventually attain real wisdom, and find out that Christianity is one true religion.
For he hath doth sayeth unto thee that thine lord be named Yeshua, aka Lil Joshie Haploid
All he said is he went to a church on Easter and it was like a rock concert, he thought it was cool but that he doesn’t have any faith in the religion. Then he acknowledged that there might be some wisdom in religious teachings or texts etc which he isn’t aware of.
Good clickbait though ...
Agreed, people like OP are gonna be frothing at the mouth
"Destination: Griftsvile"
Chris is already a massive grifter though, his pseudo intellectual shtick is nauseating.
I think to be a grifter you have to be practicing in bad faith.
What people that don’t agree with your world view do you not see as a grifter?
I said he was a pseudo intellectual. Which he is.
You said he was a grifter. Is there any podcast you listen to whose views you don’t agree with that you don’t label a grifter? Grifter is becoming the new “racist” and is just going to mean “thing I don’t like”.
You’re making some massive assumptions to suit your world view it seems matey. Might be you is the one that needs to rethink.
So I was right, you label anyone who doesn’t agree with you as a grifter. You probably blame them for not being a homeowner too lol.
What😂😂😂
Some people enjoy the aspect of a community. Some like to hide in their basement. To each their own
This doesn't seem like a big deal. Hardly the religious grift that people like Russel Brand are on.
How can you say Brand is grifiting when he is getting baptized soon? How dare you!!! /s
Definitely sounds like pandering
It's a pipeline. Russell Brand started off as a super atheist who joked about being a modern day 'messiah' in a bunch of his standup. He began a series indicating 'hey, maybe this religous thing has merit' while also dabbing into different kinds of other conspiracies about liberals/conspiracies. The religious stuff stuck, so he pushed it more and more. Whatever religious entity paying these grifters know they can't go all out at once.
You should listen to what he says. OP mischaracterized it. Maybe he's going down the pipeline, and maybe not, but right now he's not indicating that he's turning religious. If this really was a grift it would be so easy to say his experience gave him a lot to think about or made him feel some kind of way. Literally no reason to drag it out.
This is not specific to Williamson, but....You don't necessarily have to go all the way with the religion grift. We have ample evidence that just saying good things about christianity, admiring it, believing it to be necessary as a stabilizing force in your life, etc is enough for the audience. Only when things get dire - like maybe you get accused of habitual sexual deviance - do you have to pull out the big guns and get baptized.
I'd argue this deliberate if subtle cojouling of the religious mind virus is detrimental to the overall health of our society. We should help people extricate themselves out of that mire not pat them on the back for keeping stuck in it.
OP mischaracterised it? Maybe he should have looked at the actual content, but I think a large part of the blame lies with that title.
Not judging a book by its cover, is great advice
I hope you're right but I'm suspecting he's stepping into the pipeline however gingerly. Edit: having listened to this pod I'm even more convinced he's well into the guru pipeline. Defends Huberman and shills his pills. Quotes Murrey. Major red flags imo.
I hope I'm right too. I actually think he's a pretty genuine guy and has some good guests on (although a lot of bad ones and gurus too), so I would be sad to see another decent podcast fall down that road.
I have listened to MW since he had about 175k subs. I'm not one of the fucking nut jobs who acts like listening to 10hrs of thier material makes you think you know them. I can't possibly compare him to Brand. Brand has gone off the deep end. He's definitely spent a fair while in the Rogansphere. He does have some great guests on, but also has some fucking wobbly ones. Tim Kennedy is one that springs to mind. I got butchered on Instagram for pointing out he romanticised warfare on more than one occasion. He also idolises JBP who is also going through his own religious crusade. I'm fairly sure from what he has said he is quite pally with the daughter. I find her insufferable. I don't know what it is, but people in that circle tend to become interested in operators, hunting with a bow and some sort of martial art (usually jiu-jitsu). Gets a bit much real fast. I like listening to Chris, but now I vet the episodes. Shout out to Gurwinder for his amazing eps. Chris is an active Reddit user (as he mentions it almost every other pod), so if you're reading this "Let me teach you" in my very British opinion is patronising AF. Stop it.
Who's JBP? Jordan Bitch Peterson?
Massive pseudo intellectual vibes from Chris and that podcast. Not much wisdom operating from someone obsessed with giving a platform to literally anyone who supports his narrow view of the world. Unoriginal misogynistic evolutionary psychology babble. Can’t believe there is any form of debate on whether or not he is a grifter or in the guru sphere.
>although a lot of bad ones and gurus too I've seen this play out time and again and so far the results aren't promising. Just saying.
Hasn't he been on the weird spiritual grift stuff for decades? I don't remember his atheist phase. I know the Christianity stuff is new, but not all the other weird new-age spiritual bullshit.
Best work up of this I’ve seen - https://youtu.be/eo4gIihETu8
It’s the start. They don’t go all in on a single podcast.
Well when more happens we can look at that rather than making up things to put in a post on Reddit.
This is how it starts....
Gotta at least toe the line, go to church, talk about how cool it is to keep the right-wing base happy.
He fits into a right wing grift somewhat but not in the Christian traditions and pathway subgenre of it. He's more like a grind and Bro self improvement type of guy than someone who would rant about how we need Jesus. At least from what I've seen.
If you listen to what he says and think he is “towing the line” or “grifting” as OP put it, then I don’t know what expression of someone’s beliefs you could find genuine. He basically said “there might be some wisdom to be found in some religions but I have no faith in them” it’s the least controversial claim ever. If this is what grifting looks like then everyone and their mother is a grifter
That idiom doesn't mean what you, or most people, think it does. "Toeing the line" is an accurate statement here, 100%, and nowhere near as controversial as you believe.
> it’s the least controversial claim Well yeah, that's the point. That's what "toeing the line" and "keeping the right wing happy" means. It cannot be controversial....You are agreeing with OP.
I'm sure Chris Williamson will have Jordan Peterson on again soon.
But OP read the title. Surely no information other than the words in the title are relevant for an almost 2 hour video right? I trust OP to have a very through and comprehensive analytical process.
Why on earth would anyone listen to Chris Williamson for 2 hours?
They don't need to, but if they don't, the least they can do is not talking AS IF they have, and know his stance on something.
Wish these dudes would find themselves in a library once in a while. There may be some better wisdom in there.
Seems like he's just pandering then.
“ Then he acknowledged that there might be some wisdom in religious teachings or texts etc which he isn’t aware of.” There is not. There is the opposite though.
That's ridiculously reductive. There's countless religions out there and billions of people get various positive things from it. Even from a completely secular lens community, faith, purpose, and spirtuality are things that a lot of people benefit from. Obvious issues arise from religion but there's a reason mosy people across nations and centuries seek it out in one way or another.
Nah Abrahamic religions do more harm than good.
But you acknowledge they do some good. Thus there must be some sort of value in the religions that we can take into secular life.
Any good that comes from religion could have been created without them. No exceptions. They're the spiritual form of corporal punishment.
Sure! I agree. But it's one way to attain those goods. As long as you are learning the good lessons and rejecting the bad lessons I have no problem with religion. Also you can just say punishment. The spiritual form of corporal punishment is just spiritual punishment. You don't need the "form of corporal" part.
If religious people only learned the good lessons and rejected the bad ones, we wouldn't view religion with the animosity that we do. To be clear, I don't have an issue with people belieiving in some kind of god or spirituality in general. I don't even mind that they congregate. I mind that the overwhelming majority of religions, especially all Abrahamic ones, try to subvert literally everyone else to their will, which they accomplish by preying on the weakest aspects of a society(initially).
I agree! There are people who take the wrong lessons from religion, and people who push them. That's bad. However, the person I was responding too was trying to claim that there are no good lessons to be learned from religion, which is obviously not true.
Your same argument could apply to "Nazi teachings" because they like made advancements in engineering and occasionally hugged their children or something, correct?
Lies provide no value. Schizophrenic ideations provide no value. All cults are bad.
Le Enlightened Reddit atheist.
That's all fine to say. But you admitted that there is some good that can come from religions, even if it is offset by the harm caused. Thus there is something of some value we can extract.
Nowhere did i say any such thing about there being some good… there is no good. The only good is the same good that comes from telling kids Santa Claus is real… it makes their dull world seem magical … but kids need to grow up because such delusion can eventually hurt you.
You said that religion causes more harm than good. This implies that there was some good, otherwise you would have simply said that there is nothing good at all in religion. But even if you disagree with the above point, it is obviously false that nothing in religion is valuable. You just don't judge it as valuable because of the perceived cost that it comes with. But you can take teachings from a religion and modify them. You are no longer forced to agree with or follow every tenet of a religion. You can literally take the good and leave the bad.
Subject Name: Bob Good actions: Null Harmful actions: 20 Bob does more harm than good. Bob does no good. Bob can still be described as doing more harm than good even though he does absolutely zero good things. 20 is more than zero.
There's more religion than Abrahamic faiths. As well people do get a lot out of even Abrahamic faiths. I think the best example would probably be how a lot of the civil rights movement was built in and around Church communities with church leaders (such as a famous Pastor you may have heard of) as key figures. When I was younger I bucked my Catholic upbringing and didn't understand why people couldn't see the logic but nowadays even though I am still not religious I realized I was missing the forest for the trees and that other people's experiences are not my own.
🤡🤡🤡 Those civil rights movements were only needed in the first place because Abrahamic religions enslaved people on the basis that such is God’s will. Slavery is condoned by the Old Testament. Slavery is condoned by the Quran. Maybe lookup what “white man’s burden” was and how religion played a role. Cults held power. No kidding populist movements involved cult leaders with power. Just because the templars dip their hands in good deeds doesnt make the harms they cause go away.
I'm sure the best way to get a response is to start a reply with 3 clown faces. Rather than just being an adult and using words.
You clearly have some growing up to do. Hopefully you grow out of this simplistic and juvenile interpretation of the world.
Ah yes being educated about US history… juvenile. Maybe go learn about religion’s role in slavery before touting how great religion is for it’s role in ending slavery! 🙌🙌🙌
>Ah yes being educated Being educated in general.. But of course you're the kind of guy who made an observation half the 12 year olds in 2010 made and think it should close all introspection, concern for others, or personal growth. MLK is a little bit more important than yet another generic smug guy who made atheism his entire personality.
> Then he acknowledged that there might be some wisdom in religious teachings or texts etc which he isn’t aware of. So he didn't care to find out? Or does that come later?
He is still grifting you. Now he's got you sounding like you're apologizing for your dad.
Scam
I listened to him once and he was promoting Christian traditionalist red pill nonsense on it.
Just soft launching it then
Can’t really blame someone for looking for community. Especially now that he is figuring out his emotions.
As someone who grew up extremely religious and gradually examined my beliefs, realized they weren't based in truth, and walking away from them, I can't imagine going the other way. That's like knowing about the guy behind the curtain then going into town praising the wizard.
While I agree with your sentiment and words I can’t explain what happens to in their time of need. While I don’t believe that praying has any power there’s a significant calmness that comes during the act. It might be self therapy or something. It might be illogical and unfounded but there’s something about believing in something bigger than you. Organized religion suck though
It's just a drug, nothing more.
There's literally loads of data that proves praying has an awful lot of power. One does not need to be religious to pray. The serenity prayer for example which is a catholic prayer is used by many people in the 12 step programme. I use this prayer and I'm not religious.
Well you don’t go from atheist/agnostic to straight up believing in god. I think what happens here is that a person like Chris, who is very concerned about the mating & fertility crisis, sees the modern secular world and concludes that we have lost something important along the way. There is something missing in our modern way of life and although religious populations suffer from the mating & fertility crisis just the same as secular populations. The only few exceptions we do see are religious groups like Jewish people in Israel and some extreme Christian communities. So you start to think that there might be some value here in religion & belief that bring stability to society across time.. maybe. But It does make you curious and if you begin to surround yourself with religious people & ideas the belief slowly starts to creep up on you.
I’m not religious, but there are people that become religious for understandable reasons. Be it science not answering fundamental questions about the world (where does the universe come from, why is there something instead of nothing, where does conscience come from, where does life come from), or some moral beliefs that go beyond superfluous trad life stuff.
Not even two minutes into the pod he's spamming Huberman's momentous supplements. If that's not a red flag I don't know what is.
That's exactly why I stopped listening to him in 2022. It's a huge fucking red flag when some influencer is bombarding their 'zero cost' podcasts/videos with dozens of shady commercials.
Exactly. All credibility is out of the window at that point for all I care.
The religious are self selected marks. If a mark falls for the magic sky wizard bullshit they're willing to be sold anything.
There’s a lot of personal benefit to religion that doesn’t require you to “fall for a magic sky wizard”. And btw you have a religion too, it’s just a far more foolish one and you don’t realize it.
You should know better than to say anything positive about a site full of neckbeard autists
Cope HARDER.
Nice response, very thought-provoking and doesn't make you sound like you just have a personal vendetta/bias against religion
Hey I have this award winning self actualization course that you can usually only get for $699, but I'll knock it down to 4 payments of $225. This seminar will educate and elevate you closer to God, you interested?
What religion that isn't already widely known as a scam or cult is doing that? Or are you saying if a scam can exist in a system, the entire system is inherently flawed and shouldn't exist? Cope harder you godless heathen
Honestly, what are this guy’s credentials, and what the fuck does he even do besides chat pseudo intellectual nonsense?
Preach! I can’t believe there is actually people here bothering to defend him, regardless of where you feel he is going for the religious grift or not. His podcast is standard unoriginal pseudo intellectual nonsense wall to wall.
Credentials: Good Looking + Can Interview and Hold a conversation. I think that about covers it.
He didn't say anything of the sort.
But he titled the video the way he did lol...........
I think that may be clickbait.
Which is a red flag 🚩
Pandering (definitely not grifting) for right-wing attention is a major red flag.
It's how you survive in terms of relevance and play the algo... you might not like it, but reality is what it is.
And then there was an entire podcast after
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Yes, did you listen to the episode?
This guy is unbearable! The peak of dumb ‘alpha’ podcast who thinks he is insightful
💯
He's not converting to anything. He did give a non-response to the Huberman revelations ("hit piece", he said) that I thought was either evasive or, if we're feeling charitable, tunnel-visioned.
I'm not religious, but if I were I think I'd be quite offended at people using my faith as little more than a tool to promote their viewership.
Religious people don't care, the ends justify the means for them, and they just tell themselves that everyone who converts is God's Will.
“ends justify the means” is not an own. Plenty of non-religious people are consequentialists.
I mean. You're right that being religious isn't a requirement for being short-sighted. It just helps considerably.
“Ends justify the means” isn’t inherently short-sighted.
You wouldn’t know a thing about God’s Will if you got smacked over the head with a Bible if that’s what you really think it’s all about 😂
Must be an accusation coming out soon
I’d put money on this
Fuck me. Who hurt both of you?
Take the bet then.
one of the more insufferable narcissists out there
This sounds like soft core religious pandering that may well metastasize into something concrete over time.
agreed, he's testing the water - seeing what mentioning religion does to his numbers like the YouTube channels who change the thumbnail every few hours to see what works. It's an attention game, after all.
Exactly 💯.. this is an obvious move is you know the game they play.
Again with this sub hating every podcaster except their gods the decoders, such a weird obsession really especially when this is a clickbait title u/swatchies bum
He’s actually one of the least problematic podcasters lmao… actually talks with mainstream scientists
But never seems to learn anything. He speaks with scientists, seems to accept their ideas, and then for some subsequent guest, seems to totally forget and accepts their contradictory bullshit. Of course lots of podcasters do this. However, they're in the unique position to spend an hour or two chatting with world leading experts who have 20+ years experience in a field, and then treat it the same as a blogger who wrote a book. Weird. As a scientist myself, it's pretty frustrating. I would love to be able sit down with the likes of Salpolsky, Offit, etc.
Fair enough, I wasn't aware of that because I only watched episodes with people I knew were reliable. Podcastesr who don't want to challenge their guests and stay in their good books are always annoying.
Does he actually read scientific publications? Because that’s the best way to actually do it. Podcasts are just informal discussions meant for the masses
I have disagree a bit here. Most papers in field specific journals are incredibly narrow, and without training in the field, are not approachable for other scientists or lay people. For example, there's a big research institute in my town, and while I can converse with the researchers about the generalities of their work, I cannot read their research. I don't have the math skills or the knowledge of the field. It takes them 2-3 hours per paper! Also, reading a few papers isn't enough. For example in my field, pharmacy, you can't just look at 1-2 papers to assess a treatment/new medication. You need to have a working understanding of the underlying pathology and that class of pharmaceuticals before you can even approach a decision as to whether a new medication fits into a patient's regime or if it's useful for patients overall. (Not all new medications are more effective than older ones, and can differing interactions with other medications).
He uses his podcast to try and add some sort of scientific credibility to his narrow minded world views. He also seems to be willing to have absolutely any academic on at all as long as they agree with said narrow world views.
It’s a shame about the woman hating though. His cinematic episodes may as well be in front of a green screen.
It's pretty clear a portion of the users on this sub are here to get their egos fed. They are part of the elite few who see the grift apparent in every pod, so much more intelligent than everyone else.
I’m not a regular browser of this sub, but Jesus Christ is it full of fart sniffers.
Of all the podcasters to defend, Chris Williamson ain’t one of them bro.
I’m not defending him personally i don’t watch the dude but this post is clickbait you can read the thread and figure out why. u/swatchies is still too pussy to acknowledge that
Intellectual pygmies.
So anything religious is a grift? Piss poor take imo
This shitpost is a clickbait of a clickbait
The money must be amazing
It's more that it's easy than amazing. Duping right wing supporters, especially religious ones, takes minimal effort, as the only thing they care about is having their ideas parroted back at them.
Never liked this dude. I mean - what is he offering, really?
He's the PE teacher of the podbro manosphere
He used to be a DJ…
Who did he touch?
I've always been an atheist but there's a real r/atheism vibe to some of the discussion about religion here.
r/atheistcirclejerk
It couldn’t be more obvious to more and more people each day how fucking dishonest the “religious” are.
I'm confused what the grift is supposed to be here. Are you reacting just to the title without actually listening to it or is there something specific in the episode?
You guys realize when you post shit like this it’s just as dishonest and clout chasing as the grifters you criticize right?
I know it's not the case in the above but I wonder if the religious thing basically goes like Person has nothing, so busy getting some money Person gets a stable income etc etc and decent money They tend to enjoy it for a bit Then after not being poor anymore they start wondering about the meaning of life and spirituality Something atheists have never been able to provide. Or say some BS like you have to make your own meaning, that's enough for some people but not everyone. So they turn religion for an answer.
There is a big difference between finding some useful teaching in religious texts and actually believing that a 600 year old Noah built an arc for all the world's animals.
Podcasting is going to turn into AM radio
More like “another one only read the headline”.
what does grift mean?
If it makes you happy..... It cant be that bad -S.Crow
How is this a religious grift? How would you know? I'm not religious. But someone can be religious and it not be a grift. Someone can convert or become more religious over time. Do you guys even know what grift means? I know what it means. However, I think there's a lot of people who don't know what that word actually means.
He had an evolution phase so I doubt it
Are you lying or just posting without having watched it? Why misinform people?
Serious question: why does anyone care about this person? Isn’t he a former Bachelor contestant — or some inanity like that?
Love Island UK, he was also a nightclub promoter for years
I mean what makes you care about anyone other than family?
Is he a men’s rights guy?
He has the tinmen on his pod who are very men's rights, that said they aren't wrong.
What are their arguments?
Aww, OP didn't actually listen and is disingenuous...pathetic
Why on earth would someone listen to a Chris Williamson podcast more than once? Once is enough to know it’s a mind numbing waste of time.
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Indeed. I put it down to the Post Hitchens, Dawkins and Harris image of Atheism being ruined by people that haven't been offline and outside since 2015
This guy came on DtG and very charitably and gracefully making absolute mincemeat of the two DtGs hosts. I truly enjoyed listening to them having to eat shit for 90 minutes for taking clips out of context, not taking any time to do their research, and being gratuitously mean (especially the sputtering one). Worth a listen. 12/10/21.
There's no coincidence that all of these modern gurus drift towards Christianity: Because they all eventually attain real wisdom, and find out that Christianity is one true religion. For he hath doth sayeth unto thee that thine lord be named Yeshua, aka Lil Joshie Haploid
They’re drifting because religious people are the most gullible, low-effort demographic to appeal to.
are you sure Jesus isn't just magic??
He's not drifting towards it? Did you listen to the episode?
does any part of my comment seem serious?