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In this episode we look at several leaders of the New Atheists, including Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Alex O'Connor and more. What valid critiques of Christianity do they have? Do they reflect adequately on some of the shortcomings of historical atheism? How is their fascination with a cultural form of Christianity and antipathy toward Islam consistent with their atheistic beliefs?

We'll also dive into Steven D. Smith's book The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse and explore his concept of "moral smuggling" as it relates to the New Atheists and moral categories in a pluralistic society more generally.

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Since we did an epiphany special last year, this isn’t quite our third annual Christmas Special, but close enough! This year we take a look at the story of Jesus' birth from Luke chapter 2, which (surprise surprise!) is just as challenging to the status quo of wealth and power as chapter 1.

We also explore how to reclaim gift giving as a meaningful act in the age of hypercommercialism and (envelope please!) give a short but hopefully entertaining “Best of” list for 2025! Be sure to listen all the way to the end to hear who our pick is in the category of Best New Pope!

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In part three of the Dumb and Christendumber trilogy we look at the Christian Nationalist attack on empathy. We had this crazy idea that the concept of empathy would mesh well with Jesus teaching in the gospels that we should treat people how we want to be treated. Who could have imagined how right we were?

We take a deep dive into some critiques of empathy, explore some notoriously bad takes on the parable of the Good Samaritan, and in the end, establish that empathy is both a baseline Christian practice and a unifying value held across many belief systems (which is probably why Christendumber hates it so much).