Digital Social Hour
Bryan Calcott vs Demon Erasers : Do You Need Religion to Be a Good Person? | DSH #1597
01 Nov 2025
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
Some of the worst people I've ever met in my life have been Christians. Some of the most moral people have all been atheists. And part of the reason why I say that is because an atheist doesn't believe that they're going to be judged for their actions.
I am a Christian and I follow Christ. What that means is to follow Christ.
Chapter 2: Why do some atheists act morally without belief in God?
and operate in love. And one of the biggest things that I think, unfortunately, a lot of Christians don't do is operate in love. I know what's right.
I know what's wrong. And I don't have to believe in the fear of hell and the reward of heaven in order to be motivated to do right towards my fellow man.
Religion doesn't really matter. And he came to show us that basically it is your heart that matters and the way you treat people and the way you love people. Like God is love.
Okay, guys, another debate for you guys today. We have a Christian versus a non-theist today, both with the same name and both have been guests on the show. So, gentlemen, thanks for coming on. With a Y, too. Yeah. We're both Ys.
We're both Brian with a Y. Bro, we got it the right way, dude. I know, man. We got it the right way.
We agree on something. We agree. That's the Brian bondage right there. But yeah, Brian, you shared your story with religion, I think, on our first episode, right? Could you briefly go through that again so Brian can understand what you went through?
So my father was a pastor, so I definitely come from a Christian background. I describe myself now, though, as a non-theist. And what I mean by that is that I believe the human condition is one of uncertainty. And I do not believe that you can conclude there is a God with certainty. However, I also believe that you cannot conclude that there is not a God. with certainty. So I have...
found the most peace in life with admitting that the human condition is one of uncertainty and will always be one of uncertainty and with that i have found that i direct my energy towards living in the moment and really trying to capitalize on every second because to me it's a very real possibility that this life is all we have and
That rather than taking away from the enjoyment of life, I would say actually adds to it. And it makes me even more appreciative to be alive. And the other thing, too, when it comes to meaning and purpose, I can understand the appeal of wanting to believe that there is this loving and all powerful God and that you are this special creature and he's created you for a purpose and you have a plan.
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Chapter 3: How do personal experiences shape beliefs about God?
And one of the biggest things that I think, unfortunately, a lot of Christians don't do is operate in love. And I think you've been shown a pretty poor example. I mean, the fact that your father was, you know, you know, somebody that was a pastor and has like, obviously you've been through, you shared a little bit before about some of the trauma.
I think this is, these are bad examples that, you know, that a lot of Christians unfortunately put out. And it seems that The definition of what Jesus came to show us is that religion doesn't really matter. And he came to show us that basically it is your heart that matters and the way you treat people and the way you love people. God is love.
And so Jesus' example, I think, is a very unique example that I think a lot of people sort of miss. And a lot of Christians, unfortunately, miss. They want to hold everybody to standards and rules. But it literally says in the Bible, it says, you know, all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.
And it says things like, you know, in the text, well, I read you that verse in Jeremiah, which was a pretty one. I guess I'll read that again, because I think that this is kind of a pinnacle understanding of
So do you believe in like heaven and hell? Do you believe in rewards and punishment and ultimately that to being the driving force to motivate people to follow a moral code? Does it say that in the Bible? No, I'm just asking you is what because that's that's my like when I told my father I didn't believe and I told him I didn't believe.
because some of the worst people I've ever met in my life have been Christians, and some of the most moral people have all been atheists. And part of the reason why I say that is because an atheist doesn't believe that they're going to be judged for their actions, and yet they still do good. And we can get to the whole discussion about what defines good if you don't believe in God.
But they still do good, and they don't do it because they think that they're going to stand in front of God and be judged.
And I think that they do it because they think that other people are going to hold a rule against them or some negative thing.
Well, I think it well, I think that it makes them feel good. And I don't think that there's a problem. And granted, there are. And this is kind of what I went through with Jordan Peterson when I was talking about benefits. He said, you know, are we talking about a whim? You know, are we talking about something deeper?
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of love in the context of faith?
And so this is why he truthfully, in the original story, told Eve, partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and ye shall be as gods. And so they changed the story so that they made what you believe to be the devil. to be the liar, and they made Enlil Jehovah, who was actually the liar in the original story, they made him to be the benefactor of mankind.
So when these documents were discovered in 1855, it sent a lot of turmoil through the Christian community. And there was a pastor, and his response was, the devil put these tablets in the desert to test your faith. And that's the kind of mental gymnastics where it's just, to me, if you are being objective,
and you're not emotionally attached to this religion for whatever reasons, you just can't accept that. And I can see some of the arguments that people make, and I can say, okay, well, I can kind of agree with that conclusion, but then there's other things that I also know to be true.
And in order to make all of these things true, the mental gymnastics that you have to jump through, I'm just not okay with that. So what are the tablets called?
that you're referring to? You're talking about the Anunnaki tablets?
Yeah, so they were building a railroad through the desert in Iraq in 1855, and it was very, very flat. And they came across this mound, and they didn't know that if it was a dune or whatnot. So they did testing to see if they could go over top of it or if they had to go through it. And so it was soft, so they said, okay, we have to go through it.
So they started excavating, and they started finding all of these tablets, and they said, hey, this is archaeological. What were they named? I don't know the original name of the tablets. I read this through Genesis of the Grail Kings. That's what I was. I'm telling you that was Lawrence.
So this is like Billy Carson knowledge, and Billy Carson talks a lot about this kind of stuff. Yeah. Which a lot of those tablets and those things were proven to be false in a lot of situations. So the tablets that... that you're talking about, they have since tested and determined that some of these things were false and some of these things were... False in what way?
They weren't as old?
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Chapter 5: What personal experiences shaped the beliefs discussed?
I was the one that decided to go to church as a child when I was a kid. I made my family go because I was trying to finance because I saw a little shadow thing in my room that freaked me out. You ever seen the shadow beings in your room?
Ever saw those ones? When I had sleep paralysis, I saw them.
But to me, it's like the mind is such a powerful thing. where I think we don't acknowledge just what the mind is capable of seeing and capable of doing. I mean, it's like your mind is this quantum fucking machine that... Everybody has the same experiences, though.
Everybody's having a similar experience. I mean, why didn't he see a pink bunny in his room? Why does everybody see the black shadows in their realm?
I mean, have you seen the DMT research that's being done?
Oh, that's totally going into the demonic realm. That's 100% real.
Yeah, I mean, Graham Hancock talked about it on the Joe Rogan podcast.
It's pretty fucking crazy. And he talks about the entities that happen to be all over the Aztec wall with all the snakes that come out of them. Yeah, you know about those guys? The snake heads that are all over the Aztecs? Yeah, bro.
But Graham Hancock, though, he believes in Atlantis and he believes that the flood that was related to the Younger Dryas Comets that came and ultimately wiped away the Atlantis civilization, and that you look at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, and that's ultimately where our civilization that we're connected to started, and it was with the information that came pre-flood.
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Chapter 6: How do morality and culture intersect in discussions of good and evil?
But I, for me, the archaeological... Okay, so check this out. So my belief from the archaeological record is that the Jewish religion that you're referring to did not come after Jesus and that there's clear archaeological evidence that shows that it came after 587 BC.
So telling me about the specific interpretation of it and whatnot, et cetera, et cetera, that is not going to convince me until you can point to actual archaeological evidence that shows that that Jewish religion didn't come about after 587 B.C. and before Jesus. And I'm not trying to be an ass here, but it's like you're making these claims.
I'm saying the archaeological record does not support that in any It seems like you say, well, no, it does, and let me tell you why. Here's the interpretation, and you start going into the interpretation without actually relying on archaeological evidence.
Okay, well, here's what I would say.
Because the Dead Sea Scrolls were 100 AD, and that was before Jesus, was it not?
Yeah, there were some components to it.
So the Dead Sea Scrolls were before Jesus, and the Dead Sea Scrolls were the Jewish religion that I'm talking about.
Yes, and that's the one that I refer to mostly, actually. The Dead Sea Scrolls are fascinating. In fact, the Dead Sea Scrolls talk about the other gods that I'm referring to.
The dead seed schools, the reason why they're so significant, the reason why people think that it gives credibility to the Bible, is because I forget how many mistakes there were, but for the most part, they were 90-something percent accurate. They were very small inaccuracies. So it shows a great tradition of making sure that documents are copied to the exact thing.
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Chapter 7: What role does suffering play in understanding free will?
But that's a different perspective.
And that's what I don't understand.
Okay, well, I'll explain why.
I'm saying that that story came 3,500 years after that story.
Totally get it. Totally get that it's older. And I totally acknowledge that some of these texts are older. The correction comes in with this understanding because the narrative, the biblical narrative, is the only narrative where everything strings together as unified. I don't think it does. Well, I'll tell you right now.
And it goes back to what I told you about the Sunday school example, about here we have Adam and Eve. They had kids. Their kids went out and married. And it's just from a very logical perspective.
Well... Let me give you the biblical narrative. Okay. So the biblical narrative in relation to like, for instance, right now, I don't know about this. Do you know much about Sikhism? No. Okay. So the Sikhism, they believe they're kings and priests. Okay. They believe in baptism. They believe in not cutting their hair, which is a Nazarite vow.
In fact, in Sikhism, the word Nazarene means the speaker. It means the one that speaks. And the Nazar, in fact, they call Christians Nazarenes, I believe, is their term.
Okay.
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Chapter 8: How do personal beliefs about God influence moral behavior?
It's a perversion of Christianity. Like Jehovah's Witness, same thing, perversion of Christianity. Like the Mormonistic view is same thing. It's a perversion. All the religions of the world, even the pagan religions, they're all perversions of Christianity today. But the ones in the Old Testament were perversions of something else.
OK, so there's there was a there was some kind of cataclysmic event and the younger Darius and all this stuff that that what his name talks about. But they like there was some kind of cataclysmic event. And that's why all the temples are all being discovered. We're digging up the temples, bro. What do you think all the pyramids are? You know what the pyramids all over the world?
What do you think that is? Those are towers of Babel, bro. Why do you think there's an unfinished one on your dollar bill? The unfinished tower of Babel. That's what the pyramid is. What do you think the little eye coming down? Like all of the pyramids.
So what it was... My question then, and this is like... It goes back to like the problem with evil too and whatnot. So you would agree that religion is important. It's going to lead you to God, which is going to lead you to heaven.
I know. I don't agree with religion.
I don't agree with religion. You do believe in God. I believe in God. Okay. And you do believe that believing in him is important.
I believe in Jesus. I believe in God. I believe in Christianity.
And you believe that is important.
Sure.
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