I examined my old beliefs in a new light - Dr. Valerie Tarico

Today I spoke with Dr. Valerie Tarico, who is a psychologist, freelance advocate, social commentator, writer, and former evangelical promoting freethought and working to undermine the corrosive power of biblical literalism. She is the author of "Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light," as well as two other books.

We talked briefly about her background, and then moved through various topics, including:

• How the Christian experience eventually feels like you're holding your beliefs together with "duct tape and bailing wire."
• How Christians try to gaslight those who deconvert by saying they hadn't actually been Christians or weren't truly committed to Jesus.
• The distastefulness, abusiveness, and self-serving ideas that stem from the belief that suffering is from god and should be seen as a good thing
• The common experience Christians have of repeatedly asking Jesus to save them, just to be sure it was real.
• How the ideas of personal failure, helplessness, self-recrimination, and judgment get bound up in the Gospel message of "divine love."
• How Christian theology triggers people who struggle with post-traumatic stress from their time brainwashed by Christian theology.
• How teaching kids about demons is like teaching them that there are monsters in the closet.
• How teaching kids about the end times/rapture concepts often instills in them a fear that they will be "left behind" in this world.
• Dealing with the fear of "hell."
• The leaps of logic and tweaking of reality that are part of the Christian worldview, which ultimately help us see its bizarreness.
• Dealing with our imperfect human processing and flaws in our ability to discern what is true.
• The real-world contingencies that govern our well-being.
• Confirmatory thinking and cognitive dissonance.
• The cultishness of Christianity.
• How compassion for others and anger over theodicy were core factors in her deconversion.
• The inexcusable cruelties of the Bible's Yahweh character.
• How to not "miss having a god" once we realize that the story is fabricated and mythological.
• How to help others work through religious indoctrination and trauma.
• The horrific idea that Christians in heaven will be blissfully indifferent to the torture happening in "hell."


Thanks to Dr. Tarico for her strong voice in these subjects, and for the ways she passionately makes a difference in our culture, as well as in the experience of individuals who are working through their deconversion and the process of creating of a healthy worldview.

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Dr. Tarico's website is:
https://valerietarico.com/


Check out Dr. Tarico's books:
https://www.amazon.com/Valerie-Tarico...
and
  / 112322.valerie_tarico  

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Referenced in this video:

Andy Thompson, Why We Believe in gods:
   • Why We Believe in Gods - Andy Thomson - Am...  
and
   • Why we believe in Gods! Dr. Andy Thomson  


Welcome To The Cult Factory: A Conversation with Tristan Harris, by Sam Harris
   • Welcome To The Cult Factory: A Conversatio...  

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** Apologies for the few minutes where the video and audio are slightly out of sync.


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--Tim

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Tim may be reached by email at: harmonicatheist@yahoo.com

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Ending music by Eyal Raz, "Friends"

   • Friends  


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