James Talarico

I just can't imagine anything,

more diametrically opposed to my values, my faith, but also to, I would think, the values of the Democratic Party.

I mean, the way you win in a democracy is you persuade people, you win the argument.

But to say, you are now a bad person, you're a villain, I mean, it's making everyone two-dimensional.

I mean, that is inherent in our species.

I mean, we are a moral, believing species.

I mean, that's what separates us from all the other animals is that we can think abstractly, think about the future and the past, tell stories, and then ask questions about what this all means.

Why are we all here on this planet?

Floating rock out in the middle of the vast infinite universe.

Well, and I, you know, oftentimes I feel like atheists or agnostics have very valid criticisms of organized religion.

For sure.

You know, sometimes they see the church more clearly than I can on the inside of how it's not living up to its values.

I think the thing you're hitting on is that there is a baby in that bathwater.

Right.

If we just throw out the whole thing.

Yeah.

I mean, now we're conducting an experiment on humanity in real time of what happens when you take this believing species and rob it of any community to make sense of the world.

I mean, now that's why you're—I honestly believe that's why we see higher rates of anxiety and depression, especially among young people, is because they're growing up in an incoherent universe.

And it's not just religion.

I mean, a big criticism I have of my own side is that, you know, I mentioned earlier this pattern of order, disorder, reorder as the pattern of the universe that these religions are talking about.