[chuck]The CoA guys had me on to ramble about stuff I don’t know a whole lot about: female reproductive cycles and anatomy, females getting abortions, and females in general. But hey, it’s a nice break from the never-ending talk of male circumcision going on around these parts.

[chuck]So if you’re into listening to four white guys discuss Mormon racism, this episode of Church of Awesome is for you!

[chuck]I guest once again on the Church of Awesome for a rousing discussion of Green Lantern stories, the deep meaning of the colors of the rainbow, and serious philosophy. It’s an hour or so of nerdy fun that would make the Comic Geek proud.

And notice that link: 666! That’s the same sector where the Black Lantern was discovered. Coincidence? No such thing. Must be a higher power at work.

[chuck]Over at the Church of Awesome I guest on a podcast about fad diets, why they don’t work, and how to actually go about losing weight in a sustainable fashion. They had me on to be the “expert,” but take my dietary and nutritional advice with a huge grain of salt because it is outside my area of expertise — docs don’t get a whole lot of nutrition training, our education is mostly filled with physiology of disease, evidence-based treatments, histology, microbiology, pharmacology, etc etc. Not much room left over in the curriculum for carbs, proteins, and lipids. I feel much more at ease reducing dislocated shoulders, treating high blood pressure, and telling patients why they don’t need antibiotics.

So let me know how many mistakes I made. Re-listening to it yesterday, I think it was more than a few. Maybe I should have communed with the spirits of energy drinks like last time instead of tap water?

[chuck]Back for what is becoming a monthly trip over to Church of Awesome, we discuss the Mountain Meadows Massacre, a dark time in LDS history where a faithful and obedient band of Mormons slaughtered a group of 120 men, women, and children who were traveling through their territory in 1857. Against the backdrop of previous Mormon persecutions, the martyrdom of their prophet, the “Utah War,” and the recent murder of Apostle Parley P. Pratt, tensions were extremely high in the Territory of Deseret. Find out how this tragedy happened and what role the leaders of the church played in it.

If I always sound sick in these Church of Awesome podcasts, I blame it on overwork and pretty much constant stress. The good news is, both these problems should improve significantly in the near future, and these podcasts provide a nice outlet. So hopefully I’ll be able to do more soon.

[chuck]Quick post to let you all know I’ll be on the Church of Awesome this Thursday discussing the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre, the darkest time in LDS history — well, for the gentiles passing through their territory, anyway. It’s a subject I’ve been wanting to research for a while now, and finally (with some prodding by the CoA guys) got down to doing it.

In the meantime, I’m still getting email from people who apparently don’t know we stopped doing podcasts 7 or 8 months ago. This one is from someone named Marcus Rodriguez, who has issued THE ATHEIST CHALLENGE, 10 questions with which to stump atheists.

My general answer is that with the possible exceptions of numbers 9 and 10, these are all remarkably stupid questions, and serve to demonstrate that the questioner has extremely limited knowledge of the world outside Christianity. A few examples: question #3 is a great demonstration of the “is-ought fallacy,” #4 shows the absolute idiocy of the questioner (hey moron, there’s this fancy new site that allows you to actually search the internet for shit you don’t know), #5 is a naked assertion, #7 conveniently forgets Sweden, Norway, and most other European countries, etc etc etc. But have at him.

Earlier this month I did a blog post on 10 questions for an atheist. http://bittersweetend.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/the-atheist-challenge/

Just wanted to give you alittle insight and background behind the questions.