The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 241 - A Monument To Western Civilization

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Walsh Show, is it racist and Islamophobic to acknowledge the importance of the Notre Dame Cathedral to Western civilization?

00:00:08.200 I can't believe we have to have this conversation, but we will.

00:00:11.100 Also, the state's attorney in the Smollett case admits that Smollett lied to cops.

00:00:16.180 And someone emails me with a question about speaking in tongues.

00:00:20.400 Is it a gift of the Holy Spirit, or is it these days mostly just nonsensical gibberish?

00:00:26.400 We will discuss today on the Matt Walsh Show.

00:00:30.000 Well, I had a great time speaking at Embry-Riddle University here in Daytona last night.

00:00:39.960 It's an aeronautics university, so a number of the students are going to be commercial airline pilots.

00:00:47.680 So afterwards, at dinner, I was interrogating them about the specifics of flying, you know, trying to allay my fears of flying.

00:00:56.180 And it turns out, by the way, in case you were worried about this also, it turns out that it's probably not likely that a plane will accidentally go too high and end up in outer space.

00:01:08.480 So that if you were, it's good to hear, and I'm sure you were worried about it as well, and so you don't have to worry about that.

00:01:13.480 So overall, it was a good experience.

00:01:17.500 Now, there's a lot to get to today, but first, I have to tell you about this, because right now, there are 50 million kids attending America's public schools.

00:01:27.720 And the left really isn't even trying to hide their agenda anymore.

00:01:31.540 They've made it clear that their intention is to indoctrinate the next generation into their ideology, and that's what's happening in many of our public schools.

00:01:39.820 And while that happens, real-world skills like reading and writing and arithmetic and American history have been replaced with things like social justice and gender confusion,

00:01:51.500 not to mention this whole process of, you know, just memorization and regurgitation is sort of the method that's used in these schools.

00:02:00.700 Thankfully, though, you do not have to consign yourself to that.

00:02:04.100 You do have a choice, and that is why Freedom Project Academy was created.

00:02:08.040 That's Freedom Project Academy.

00:02:09.960 It's an accredited classical online school built on Judeo-Christian values for students in kindergarten through high school.

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00:02:26.920 in small classes who teach kids how to think, how to think critically, which is a skill that's lost these days,

00:02:33.300 not just what to think, it's not just about parroting information, it's about learning how to think through problems.

00:02:40.500 So go to freedomforschool.com and request your free information packet today.

00:02:45.000 That's freedomforschool.com.

00:02:46.660 And don't forget to subscribe to their weekly podcast, The Dr. Duke Show, available on iTunes and more.

00:02:52.360 Take back control of your kids' education.

00:02:54.360 Freedomforschool.com.

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00:02:57.080 Freedomforschool.com.

00:02:57.980 Okay, well, the Washington Post has humiliated itself yet again, this time coming after Ben for tweeting that

00:03:09.980 the Notre Dame Cathedral is a monument to Western civilization.

00:03:14.100 That's what Ben Shapiro, by the way, said on his Twitter while the fire was going on.

00:03:20.140 He said that it's a monument to Western civilization, the cathedral is, and to Judeo-Christian heritage, I think was the phrase.

00:03:27.980 Now, this, according to Talia Levin at the Post, is a racist dog whistle, and it's Islamic phobic,

00:03:38.400 and it's incitement, and it's, you know, potentially encouraging violence.

00:03:42.420 So she wrote a whole article about all the so-called far-right people stoking violence over the cathedral burning.

00:03:51.080 And, you know, this is, it's all white, you know, because when you say, when you say Judeo-Christian values, you're essentially a neo-Nazi, right? 0.77

00:04:01.500 Because that's what Nazis would do.

00:04:02.960 They really cared about Judeo-Christian values, didn't they?

00:04:06.440 Now, meanwhile, I haven't really seen anyone stoke violence over the cathedral burning.

00:04:15.600 Certainly not Ben, but I haven't really seen anyone do it.

00:04:19.340 But this criticism has been repeated by a lot of people on the left and in the media.

00:04:23.600 It seems that somehow, against all odds, we, on the right, have become the real villains here with the cathedral, you know, being on fire.

00:04:36.640 Now, it doesn't appear that there are any actual villains in this case.

00:04:39.520 It seems like it was just an accident.

00:04:41.120 That's where all the evidence, that's where all the evidence points.

00:04:44.320 But I don't know how, how did this turn into a thing about the far right?

00:04:47.680 Like, what did we do?

00:04:50.220 We were just, we're just sad about it.

00:04:51.800 That's all.

00:04:52.340 Are we allowed to be sad about, about, about this, this building being partially destroyed?

00:04:57.920 Now, let's just go through a few points here.

00:05:01.060 First of all, of course, Ben is right.

00:05:02.860 The cathedral is a monument to and of and by Western civilization.

00:05:10.560 It's also, of course, a monument to God, a monument to the Catholic faith.

00:05:14.860 But these are not mutually exclusive categories, okay?

00:05:18.720 It's, it's all of those things, all at once.

00:05:22.340 The cathedral is a monument to Western civilization in the same way that you might say that in a, in a, in a slightly different way,

00:05:28.940 the World Trade Centers in New York were a monument to America.

00:05:34.040 And a lot of people around 9-11 said that sort of thing.

00:05:37.580 And it was true. 0.94

00:05:38.760 Now, it's not the only thing that the World Trade Center was.

00:05:42.280 But in a sense, it was also that.

00:05:45.280 That's the significance of it.

00:05:46.800 That's the significance that the World Trade Center had to the United States.

00:05:50.120 And this is the significance that the Notre Dame Cathedral had to Western civilization.

00:05:54.480 And that's why I think, by the way, the parallels that are drawn between, you know, the cathedral and 9-11 make some kind of sense.

00:06:02.320 Now, certainly 9-11 and what happened this week, completely different things, especially with the human cost.

00:06:10.600 You know, 3,000 people died on 9-11.

00:06:12.540 Fortunately, nobody was killed with the cathedral, thank God.

00:06:15.520 But just in the symbolism and the experience of seeing those buildings destroyed, in terms of the buildings, that's where you find that parallel.

00:06:26.140 So there's nothing wrong with pointing that out.

00:06:27.820 And there's nothing wrong with talking about Western civilization.

00:06:31.040 You know, we're told now that to discuss Western civilization, to extol Western civilization, to express any gratitude or feelings of warmth for Western civilization and what it means,

00:06:45.620 that is all racist now, like, you're not allowed to do that.

00:06:50.760 And that's obviously completely absurd.

00:06:53.380 And it should go without saying that all the people who are, you know, who feel that we're not allowed to talk about the virtues and the glory of Western civilization,

00:07:08.100 all the people who make that claim, they're all in the West, right?

00:07:13.380 These are people who are also in Western civilization, living off the fat of the land, enjoying the fruits of being in Western civilization.

00:07:23.900 And it's only because they are so spoiled and because they are, you know, living such a comfortable life, thanks to the civilization they happen to be born into,

00:07:34.160 it's only because of that that they can afford to sit back and be critical about things like this.

00:07:40.520 And that's, of course, the great irony to it.

00:07:42.140 The second point is the other thing that I guess upset folks on the left and got us accused of being Islamophobic is that when the fire was happening,

00:07:59.040 there were some people who thought that it seemed suspicious and were wondering if maybe this was intentional.

00:08:06.920 OK, and that it's not Islamophobic, it's not racist or stoking violence or conspiracy theories.

00:08:15.080 It was a perfectly valid thing to think and question to ask.

00:08:19.420 Now, again, it appears, according to all available evidence, that it was just an accident.

00:08:23.920 But at the time, you know, it's the first Monday of the first day of Holy Week right after Palm Sunday.

00:08:33.100 You know, this is a nine this is a 900 year old building, one of the most significant buildings in all of Christendom that's now on fire burning.

00:08:42.060 There have been other attacks on on churches in France in the past.

00:08:46.500 So it's just, of course, people are going to wonder that there's nothing wrong with wondering that.

00:08:52.080 And this idea that you're not not you're not even allowed to think that.

00:08:56.560 Is just is just, of course, absurd, especially because every single person who turned on the news and saw the coverage,

00:09:04.000 everyone must have for at least a moment thought the same thing like what's going on here.

00:09:07.720 And that's perfectly OK.

00:09:13.380 OK, a quick a quick update here on Jussie Smollett.

00:09:18.040 And then I'm going to get to emails a lot earlier than I usually do, because there are a bunch of interesting ones.

00:09:23.340 It's going to be some some some fascinating conversations.

00:09:26.620 I want to leave time for it.

00:09:27.880 But first, this, according to Fox News, reading from article on Fox News, it says Cook County State Attorneys Kim Fox,

00:09:36.080 state's attorney Kim Fox described Empire actor Jussie Smollett as a, quote, washed up celeb who lied to the cops in text messages released Tuesday by her office in response to a public records request by the Chicago Tribune.

00:09:52.120 Fox compared Smollett's case to her office's pending indictments against R. Kelly.

00:09:56.860 She said in text messages to Joseph Magots, Magots.

00:10:03.740 I'm going to figure out how to pronounce that guy's name eventually.

00:10:06.140 Her top assistant, she said, quote, pedophile with four victims, 10 counts, washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16 counts.

00:10:16.080 Just because we can charge something doesn't mean we should.

00:10:19.920 And then she continued on a case eligible for deferred prosecution.

00:10:23.180 I think it's indicative of something we should be looking at generally.

00:10:29.060 OK, so we have her now there.

00:10:32.020 And there are a bunch of other text messages.

00:10:33.560 I'm not going to go through all of them, but you should go and check out the reports on these text messages because it raises a few questions.

00:10:41.640 One of those questions is, well, I thought she recused herself from the case, but she seemed to still be involved and expressing her opinions about the way things should be handled.

00:10:51.180 Right. So raises that question.

00:10:53.500 But also, of course, right there, she's acknowledging that she knows that he lied.

00:10:59.200 Yet he was still let off the hook.

00:11:00.840 So any notion that was in anyone, if there's any notion left in anyone's head that Jussie Smollett was let go because he's innocent or because they, you know, they uncovered some some evidence that seemed to vindicate him.

00:11:16.120 Now, it was clear all along that that's not the case.

00:11:18.300 But you can look at these text messages.

00:11:21.140 This is the woman who made who made that call, even though she recused herself and should have been making any calls at all.

00:11:26.480 But she acknowledges right there that he lied to cops.

00:11:29.460 So that's all.

00:11:31.380 And his his career should be destroyed based on that.

00:11:35.340 He should not be working in Hollywood ever again.

00:11:38.300 I don't know if that's going to that's actually how it's going to work out.

00:11:40.900 But it's it's it's clear.

00:11:42.460 I mean, everyone involved in the situation that looked at it, including the people who decided to let him off the hook, even they everyone acknowledges he's guilty.

00:11:49.660 Everyone knows it and they let him go anyway.

00:11:52.780 So it seems like there's some real corruption going on there.

00:11:55.660 All right.

00:11:57.520 Yeah, I want to go to my email inbox right now, because, like I said, there are a bunch of interesting ones.

00:12:05.380 MattWallshow at Gmail dot com.

00:12:06.820 MattWallshow at Gmail dot com.

00:12:08.280 So let's see here.

00:12:11.020 This is from from Riley says, you mentioned on your show yesterday how people were criticizing Ilhan Omar for her tweet about the burning down of Notre Dame.

00:12:20.840 I agreed with you that you that it was not something worth attacking her over.

00:12:25.640 I think she's a vile woman, but I didn't see a problem with that particular tweet. 1.00

00:12:29.560 Why have conservative critics come down so hard on her over this, despite the fact that many the many, many other reasons to criticize her?

00:12:36.560 I found this I find this counterproductive and damaging to the conservative message.

00:12:40.400 Well, I agree with you, Riley.

00:12:41.840 That's why I made that point yesterday.

00:12:43.240 I think for whatever reason these days, it's just that there's very little discernment.

00:12:49.300 Right. So we're constantly engaging in this overly simplistic thinking all the time.

00:12:54.260 So the calculation is that Omar is bad.

00:12:57.880 Therefore, everything she says is bad.

00:13:00.160 Therefore, everything she says deserves criticism. 0.68

00:13:03.260 And so, therefore, whatever she happens to say, we have to look at it and find a reason to criticize.

00:13:07.880 But the discerning mind will say, OK, I disagree with so much of what this woman says. 0.70

00:13:13.140 So much of it is deserving of criticism, but not all of it.

00:13:16.500 In fact, as a human being, she is capable of saying reasonable things and even good things.

00:13:22.340 And on those occasions, I should not criticize at a minimum.

00:13:25.720 And perhaps, indeed, maybe I should even give her credit on those occasions.

00:13:29.480 But that little slight nuance in thinking is apparently too difficult for a lot of us to muster.

00:13:36.860 And that's what I've noticed.

00:13:37.940 It's a big problem now that so many people struggle to have any kind of nuanced thoughts.

00:13:46.420 They're not capable of any nuances in thinking whatsoever.

00:13:51.460 Everything has to be as simplistic and black and white as possible.

00:13:55.940 And that's that's that's the thought process here.

00:14:01.060 And I think it's pretty damaging from David says, on a recent podcast, you mentioned that Joel Osteen has a globe as the center focus of his stage.

00:14:10.260 Are you just jealous that his globe is bigger than your globes?

00:14:14.740 Not jealous of that.

00:14:19.020 I'm not jealous.

00:14:19.980 This is from Jake says, dictator overlord Matt Walsh, big fan of your show.

00:14:29.120 Never really been into political podcasts, but you always bring a strong and convincing and typically entertaining argument for Christian values in the political sphere.

00:14:35.780 Plus, I figured if you're going to be a merciless, fascist dictator of the universe in the near future, I might as well get to know where you stand on a lot of these issues.

00:14:42.960 That's good thinking.

00:14:43.600 I have a million questions I'd love to ask, but I'll stick to a single question for the sake of brevity.

00:14:49.220 I'm a born and raised Lutheran from Michigan, and we don't really talk about spiritual gifts much.

00:14:53.940 When I say spiritual gifts, I'm referring specifically to supernatural powers that some churches believe God grants Christians to help them either worshiping him or ministering to others.

00:15:02.440 The most interesting one to me is speaking in tongues and also the interpretation of tongues, a supernatural language that we can't understand, but God can.

00:15:11.560 If you had asked me a couple of years ago, I would have said that gifts like speaking in tongues and prophecy don't exist anymore and that speaking in tongues probably never existed.

00:15:20.260 However, after memorizing 1 Corinthians last year, I said 1 Corinthians, I take my biblical cues from Donald Trump on that.

00:15:29.900 After memorizing 1 Corinthians last year and becoming involved with some friends in a non-denominational church, I've started to question my existing belief.

00:15:37.900 1 Corinthians 12 through 14, particularly 14, seems to suggest that speaking in tongues was a real thing at Paul's time and may still have a place in the church today.

00:15:47.940 If that were true, that would suggest that nearly all Lutheran, Catholic, et cetera, churches are neglecting this gift in their congregation by not making room for it in their services.

00:15:56.720 I'm still skeptical, but I'm trying to understand what's going on when friends of mine tell me they speak in tongues occasionally at church.

00:16:03.720 They say they're driven by the Spirit and can't control it when it happens, but they consider it a wonderful worship experience.

00:16:12.000 Your humble servant, Jake.

00:16:13.780 Okay, well, Jake, I thank you for addressing me correctly. 0.55

00:16:16.760 And because you did that, I promise that when I am dictator, I will execute you last.

00:16:23.680 So you have my pledge on that, unless I change my mind, which I could.

00:16:30.740 As for speaking in tongues, yes, we are clearly told that this was a gift enjoyed by the apostles and some early disciples.

00:16:40.060 Though at Pentecost, there's a discussion to be had about whether the miracle was in the disciples speaking foreign languages or in the hearers hearing their own language, despite whatever the disciples happened to be saying.

00:16:55.540 I think the church fathers were split on that, about was the miracle in the speaking or in the hearing.

00:17:00.840 But in any case, speaking in tongues, however it worked, okay, it did happen back then, and it served a very clear purpose.

00:17:09.200 And I certainly would never rule out the possibility of someone in the intervening years or in modern times having the same gift.

00:17:15.380 So I'm not saying that it's impossible, right?

00:17:18.460 Who am I to say that God can't or won't perform a certain miracle?

00:17:23.880 However, speaking in gibberish is not speaking in tongues.

00:17:28.720 And I'm not aware of any modern cases of someone at a Pentecostal church suddenly speaking in, like, Punjabi or something like that, you know, or even French or, you know, any language.

00:17:41.840 Now, if that happens, that's a miracle for sure.

00:17:44.760 If someone who's never heard or certainly never taken the time to learn a foreign language suddenly starts speaking it fluently, then, okay, you've got a miracle on your hands.

00:17:56.280 And that is speaking in tongues.

00:18:00.480 But gibberish is just gibberish.

00:18:03.380 And that's almost always what's going on when modern people speak in tongues.

00:18:07.980 Now, I'm told anecdotal stories of people breaking into real foreign languages or speaking in gibberish that some foreigner present hears as their own language.

00:18:20.980 Now, if those anecdotes are true, then great.

00:18:23.040 But the vast, vast, vast majority of these cases these days are just nonsense.

00:18:27.640 In fact, linguistic experts have studied the gibberish of those who are speaking in tongues in modern churches.

00:18:36.320 And they found that it's not any kind of language whatsoever.

00:18:41.040 It's not even that it's not a known human language, but that it doesn't follow the structure of any language.

00:18:48.360 It's just not a language.

00:18:50.620 It's the same few sounds repeated over and over again.

00:18:53.980 Okay, it really is.

00:18:55.780 It's just like a toddler babbling.

00:18:57.480 It's nothing.

00:18:59.100 The point being that a linguistic expert could hear a language that they've never encountered before.

00:19:06.720 And they might not understand it, but they could recognize it as a language because they know how languages are structured.

00:19:11.760 But glossolalia in the modern church, which, you know, speaking in tongues, that's the technical term for it, in most cases it seems it's nonsense. 0.64

00:19:24.780 It's simply nonsense.

00:19:26.280 What would be the point of it anyway?

00:19:28.360 Why would God miraculously give people the power to speak nonsense that nobody around them can understand?

00:19:35.760 It seems that there's no function other than the aggrantizement of the person doing it.

00:19:44.120 In fact, these tongue speakers are having the exact opposite effect of those who spoke in tongues in the early church.

00:19:51.200 Back then, people who witnessed it were amazed and stunned and were converted, right? 0.99

00:19:56.540 But these days, anyone who is not inside that particular clique of Christianity, where speaking in tongues is a regular thing, everyone else outside of it, they look at it in embarrassment, and unbelievers walk away with a worse impression of Christianity than they had before.

00:20:13.700 So it has the exact opposite effect.

00:20:17.240 Before it was about evangelizing to nonbelievers and people who, you know, speak other languages.

00:20:22.840 Now it just makes everyone laugh and walk away.

00:20:26.400 So again, what's the point?

00:20:27.620 Why would God miraculously instill in people the ability to babble nonsensically?

00:20:33.200 Is that a miracle?

00:20:34.920 I could do it.

00:20:35.720 I'm not going to.

00:20:36.400 I could do it right now.

00:20:37.320 So it's not a miracle.

00:20:38.480 If I could just do it.

00:20:39.380 If anyone can do it at any point of their own free will and power, then it's not a miracle.

00:20:47.800 And there's no reason to think that it's a gift of the Holy Spirit.

00:20:50.540 Though, again, I'm not claiming that speaking in tongues couldn't happen today or doesn't.

00:20:54.740 I'm just addressing the vast majority of such alleged cases where it's simply nonsensical.

00:21:05.060 And, you know, these gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially these kind of really, if they're real, it's a really dramatic, miraculous gift of speaking in tongues.

00:21:18.320 Now, this is not, it's not a smorgasbord buffet where just anyone is supposed to be able to do it.

00:21:25.880 Like speaking in tongues, if you read in the Gospel and in Acts, it was a particular gift that was given to a certain small number of people for a reason.

00:21:36.520 That was not just for you to be impressed by them or for them or for those people themselves to feel holy or to feel in touch with God.

00:21:47.680 It was not the point.

00:21:49.200 It was a specifical, oh my gosh, specifical.

00:21:54.960 That's what I just said.

00:21:56.240 See, now I'm speaking in tongues.

00:21:57.440 I am now speaking in tongues.

00:21:59.220 I have been reduced to gibberish.

00:22:00.860 It was a miracle.

00:22:02.200 Hallelujah.

00:22:02.560 So, look, it's a specifical thing, all right?

00:22:08.280 Speaking in tongues is a specific gift that was given, could still be given.

00:22:13.460 But now we treat it as just this thing open to everybody.

00:22:17.060 Anyone can do it.

00:22:18.320 And as if the Holy Spirit is like Oprah, right?

00:22:20.980 You speak in tongues and you can speak in tongues and you can speak in tongues.

00:22:23.940 And meanwhile, no one can understand what anyone is saying.

00:22:26.320 So, no, I don't.

00:22:28.880 I mean, look, it's the same thing with, you know, when you've got the entire churches of people falling over and overcome by the Holy Spirit.

00:22:40.820 I'm not saying that all these people are faking.

00:22:43.040 I think some of them are faking.

00:22:45.100 I think there's also kind of peer pressure where if you're in a church like that and everyone's doing it and you feel like you have to do it too, which is another indication this is not from the Holy Spirit, okay?

00:22:56.180 Because the Holy Spirit is not going to put you in a situation where you feel peer pressured to pretend that you have miraculous gifts, right?

00:23:05.520 So, you know, I think there's peer pressure.

00:23:07.520 I think there is some faking.

00:23:09.700 But I also think there's the power of persuasion, right?

00:23:12.240 All right, think about—I'm just going to adjust my microphone here.

00:23:17.940 I'm a mess today, guys, really.

00:23:20.180 Think about hypnotists, okay?

00:23:24.220 Now, do we believe that hypnotists have magical powers?

00:23:27.780 Yet a hypnotist can get people to do all kinds of crazy things.

00:23:31.400 Is it because they have magical powers?

00:23:33.020 No.

00:23:33.600 It's just the power of persuasion.

00:23:36.240 You're convincing someone that you have the power to make them.

00:23:40.340 So I'm going to ring this bell and you're going to bark like a dog, okay?

00:23:43.240 That's not—if you are not susceptible and willing to be persuaded, no one can hypnotize you.

00:23:51.200 Now, it's not like with a hypnotist.

00:23:52.620 It's like something from the cartoons where they wave a watch in front of your face and then your eyes turn into little spirals and you turn into a zombie that will do whatever they say. 0.99

00:24:00.560 No, if you go into a hypnotist and you're skeptical and you're like, this is stupid, then it's not going to work because you are not open to persuasion. 0.92

00:24:08.900 But if you're open to being persuaded and being influenced and you're caught up in the moment, then you're going to feel like you were really hypnotized. 0.94

00:24:18.980 And so that's, I think, what is going on most of the time.

00:24:22.340 It's essentially like hypnosis, which, again, is not of the Holy Spirit.

00:24:31.640 This is from Ken.

00:24:32.880 It says,

00:24:33.260 Hey, Matt, it became clear to me in your response to the woman's email about the rapture doctrine that you are not going to buy into it no matter how much scriptural basis there might be for it.

00:24:42.500 And this seems to be because if it wasn't known in the first century or soon thereafter, it can never be known.

00:24:47.520 I would point out to you that it was the Catholic Church that held the geocentric theory of the cosmos as sacred truth for over 1,200 years based on their, quote, infallible, unquote, interpretation of the same scriptures that you and I have and even put people to death who questioned it.

00:25:00.480 Then Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, and Galileo came along to show this doctrine to be an error.

00:25:06.680 Oh, shoot.

00:25:07.120 How can that be?

00:25:07.980 It was believed for 1,200 years.

00:25:09.440 It must have been right.

00:25:10.600 Oh, I know.

00:25:11.780 Our astronomers are lying to us, and the sun really does orbit the earth.

00:25:15.400 As I recall, the whole Reformation was based on the assumption that serious issues regarding the nature of salvation had arisen over the previous 1,200 years that needed to be put to light.

00:25:25.500 But, hey, what do I know about all this?

00:25:27.000 But then you said that Paul's description of the Son of Man in 1 Thessalonians was metaphorical.

00:25:34.520 You asked, why would Jesus need such theatrics, is how you put it.

00:25:39.060 I wonder how much else of the Bible you consider metaphorical.

00:25:42.040 If this is metaphorical, how much else in Scripture is metaphorical?

00:25:45.720 Maybe Jesus really didn't mean that hell was real, for example.

00:25:49.100 Maybe he meant that hell was just a metaphor for suffering in this life as a result of the unforgiven sin.

00:25:53.100 Maybe heaven itself is a metaphor, since we can't point to it, as you so aptly point out.

00:25:58.860 But, just so we are clear about where Paul got this metaphorical picture of Jesus being theatrical,

00:26:05.280 here is the Lord Jesus Christ himself describing his return in Matthew 24.

00:26:08.960 So, if anyone tells you, there he is out in the wilderness, do not go out.

00:26:13.380 Or, here he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it.

00:26:15.880 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

00:26:20.800 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. 0.98

00:26:23.880 Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.

00:26:28.560 The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

00:26:31.220 Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn

00:26:35.780 when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and glory.

00:26:40.300 Now that you have mentioned it, it sounds really theatrical to me, too.

00:26:43.600 Notice that Jesus says specifically that people will see him as he comes on the clouds.

00:26:47.260 It must be imaginary clouds.

00:26:50.180 By the way, 1 Thessalonians is an exact representation of what Jesus has said here.

00:26:55.040 I never thought of this.

00:26:55.820 Maybe Paul was thinking that Jesus was just being extra hyperbolic.

00:26:58.700 Probably to scare people into thinking, into keeping watch, as that woman's email said,

00:27:04.020 though for what event, who can really say?

00:27:05.880 Certainly not for the rapture, when God's elect will be gathered, etc., etc.

00:27:11.660 One more question.

00:27:12.760 If 1 Thessalonians and the following is metaphorical, what is the metaphor for?

00:27:16.900 Okay, Ken, first of all, I do appreciate the sarcasm.

00:27:20.120 One of the, the sarcasm dripping all over that email.

00:27:23.660 And as someone who speaks sarcasm, I do appreciate that.

00:27:25.900 So I, I, I, I thank you for speaking in my tongue, um, with, with that.

00:27:30.420 And I, I, maybe you were, um, spurred on by the Holy Spirit.

00:27:34.860 Can sarcasm be a gift of the Holy Spirit?

00:27:37.040 I mean, I don't know.

00:27:38.800 Uh, as for the, the geocentric theory, uh, you're right that most Christians were mistaken 1.00

00:27:46.380 on that point.

00:27:47.020 Not just Catholics, but most people across the world and throughout history were mistaken

00:27:51.000 on that point for a very long time.

00:27:52.900 And, you know, uh, uh, understandably so.

00:27:56.500 Science had not progressed yet to the point, um, where, you know, most people would be convinced

00:28:02.880 that the earth revolves around the sun.

00:28:05.320 But what changed everyone's mind and the church's mind was the science, right?

00:28:11.220 Uh, in other words, it, it wasn't that someone had made an innovative new theological discovery

00:28:15.800 in the text of the Bible, but that someone had made an absolutely undeniable scientific

00:28:20.580 discovery.

00:28:21.160 So the earth revolves around the sun.

00:28:22.980 It just does.

00:28:23.800 That's the reality.

00:28:24.660 There's no way around it, pun intended.

00:28:26.600 Uh, and so, and so Christians had no choice but to go back and reassess those verses, which,

00:28:31.160 which seemed to them to indicate geocentricism.

00:28:34.080 But now that they could see that, well, geocentricism is wrong, clearly we, it just, it just is.

00:28:40.120 So you have to go back, look at those verses again.

00:28:42.580 You must've been wrong about them.

00:28:43.860 Uh, that's how that worked.

00:28:45.680 That in my mind is totally different from someone 18 or 19 centuries later discovering

00:28:50.000 some heretofore unknown doctrine in the text of the Bible itself and not based on any external

00:28:55.720 discovery or anything like that, but just based on their own subjective reading of the

00:28:59.300 scripture, which is what happened with the modern idea of the rapture.

00:29:02.520 And, and, and, uh, what I'm, um, disagreeing with is that modern idea that the good people

00:29:09.860 are beamed up to heaven.

00:29:11.040 Everyone else is stuck on earth for a bit, et cetera.

00:29:12.780 That whole scene, which has become so elaborate and specific, but which nobody for 18 or 19

00:29:18.420 centuries of Christianity knew anything about, and which was supposedly discovered in the

00:29:23.140 text after nearly 2000 years.

00:29:24.660 And yes, I have an issue with that.

00:29:25.980 I do.

00:29:26.340 Um, I, I, I, I mean, is it, is it, is it possible that someone 18 or 19 centuries later could just

00:29:33.800 discover something through their plan, the plain reading of the text that no one else noticed?

00:29:38.120 I'm not saying it's impossible, but, uh, it's, it's something I'm going to be highly skeptical of.

00:29:44.660 Yeah.

00:29:46.600 Now I already said that though.

00:29:49.300 I'm not, I said, I'm not sitting here and saying that the end of the world will not involve some 1.00

00:29:56.320 people being up in the sky or whatever else.

00:29:58.840 Maybe it will.

00:29:59.580 I don't know.

00:30:00.100 My whole point is I'm not getting into elaborate and super specific, uh, predictions about what

00:30:05.840 exactly the end of the world will look like.

00:30:07.860 I'm not doing that or when it will come or any of that based on highly metaphorical texts in the

00:30:14.640 Bible.

00:30:14.940 I think it's bad practice to do that.

00:30:16.880 Christians have been doing that for a long time and they keep getting it wrong over and over and 1.00

00:30:19.940 over again.

00:30:20.520 Oh, the end is coming now.

00:30:21.460 The end is coming now.

00:30:22.180 The end is coming now.

00:30:22.860 Oh, we're in.

00:30:23.340 It's the last days.

00:30:24.040 It's coming.

00:30:24.440 It's any minute now over and over again for 2000 years.

00:30:27.100 Christians have been saying that at what point do we stop and just admit, look, I have no idea

00:30:31.200 when the world's going to end.

00:30:32.120 I have no idea what it's going to look like.

00:30:34.260 Uh, and, and that's it.

00:30:35.920 And why does it matter?

00:30:37.120 Why do you even need to know?

00:30:38.620 Why, why get attached to this specific vision of what the end of the world is going to look like?

00:30:43.140 You're probably going to be dead before it happens anyway.

00:30:45.680 And so will I. 0.96

00:30:46.860 And I say probably because every Christian in history up until now has died, uh, up until our 1.00

00:30:53.280 generation has died before the end.

00:30:54.840 So, I mean, odds are we're going to be the same.

00:30:57.520 There's no reason to assume otherwise.

00:30:59.400 There, there were many Christians in history who had many, who had much better reason to

00:31:03.080 assume the end was coming for them from, for them than we do.

00:31:06.140 As I said, the black plague wiped out, um, you know, uh, uh, whatever, whatever the percentage

00:31:13.280 was of, uh, of, of Europeans.

00:31:16.140 I forget what the, a huge percentage of, of Europe was wiped off the map in a few years

00:31:21.800 because of the black plague.

00:31:22.720 Like now, and, and people back then thought, well, this has got to be the end of the world.

00:31:28.060 I mean, everyone, like everyone's dying and this has to be the end.

00:31:31.000 And, uh, but it wasn't, it wasn't.

00:31:32.740 And we, we don't have anything like the black plague.

00:31:34.840 We've got our challenges.

00:31:35.860 We've got nothing like that.

00:31:36.660 So, uh, I, I, so I just don't get it.

00:31:41.880 I mean, and, and when you read, when you read Daniel, when you read Revelation, you, yes,

00:31:46.940 those texts are heavily metaphorical.

00:31:48.780 Of course they are.

00:31:49.460 No one knows exactly what they're saying or what they mean or what they're, what picture

00:31:53.960 they're really painting in a literal sense.

00:31:55.840 Nobody knows that.

00:31:57.100 That's why people have been debating these texts for 2000 years.

00:31:59.600 And, and, and anyone, and anyone who says, oh, I've got the, oh, I got it.

00:32:03.440 No, no, no.

00:32:03.860 I know.

00:32:04.820 Yeah.

00:32:05.120 I finally figured it out, guys.

00:32:06.860 Anytime someone does that, I, I, yes, I would be very skeptical of that.

00:32:10.660 I would be.

00:32:11.720 Uh, what makes you so special?

00:32:13.540 How about that?

00:32:14.140 That should be your question to that person.

00:32:15.660 Okay.

00:32:15.880 So for 2000 years, no one knew exactly what Revelation was saying.

00:32:18.660 You figured it out.

00:32:19.580 What makes you so special?

00:32:20.800 So you're the one, huh?

00:32:22.500 You, you, so you've got the special line with God that nobody else had.

00:32:25.240 Uh, maybe you do, but it's, I'm going to be skeptical of that claim.

00:32:31.020 Um, now you mentioned the, um, the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven.

00:32:39.280 Uh, uh, is that a metaphorical statement?

00:32:43.520 Yes.

00:32:44.080 Obviously you would agree that there's some elephant element of, of metaphor or poetry in

00:32:49.480 that image, right?

00:32:50.940 I mean, heaven doesn't literally have clouds.

00:32:53.720 Heaven is not literally in the clouds, right?

00:32:56.700 Ken, I mean, you would agree.

00:32:57.700 It's not, when you look up in the sky, you see the clouds.

00:33:00.240 Heaven isn't literally there.

00:33:02.420 Uh, it's not, they're not sitting actually on the clouds.

00:33:05.680 So clouds of heaven obviously is metaphorical language.

00:33:10.940 Heaven doesn't have clouds that in, in the sense that we know of them.

00:33:15.580 Uh, and, and that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that is, yes, that's metaphorical

00:33:21.780 language, which is fine.

00:33:24.420 Why is it metaphorical language?

00:33:26.240 Well, because we just don't have the words or the concepts for what heaven is or what

00:33:30.720 it looks like, um, for someone to cross from that dimension into ours.

00:33:35.180 So we use words like a descend and ascend and clouds.

00:33:39.100 And yes, even the word heaven is metaphorical.

00:33:42.500 Now the word heaven is metaphorical, which isn't to say that heaven doesn't exist.

00:33:46.780 I'm saying the concept that the word heaven grasps, grasps for is beyond our grasp.

00:33:56.960 And so we are left with these kinds of words and ideas to approximate it.

00:34:00.980 Now the word heaven, when you say heaven, heavens, that denotes, you follow the etymology of

00:34:05.880 that language that demote, denotes literally the sky.

00:34:09.480 So yes, that is a metaphorical word.

00:34:13.140 Um, we say that heaven is up there, right?

00:34:15.860 The, the big man upstairs.

00:34:17.240 Well, he's not upstairs.

00:34:18.980 It's not really up there.

00:34:20.220 It's not a physical location situated above us.

00:34:23.020 Um, therefore you don't literally have to ascend physically to it, but you do ascend spiritually.

00:34:29.600 But again, these are just, all of these concepts are beyond our understanding.

00:34:33.700 So we are left with this kind of language.

00:34:35.800 We hear that Christ ascended into heaven.

00:34:37.860 Well, as I said, I believe that he did literally go up in the sky, but that was for the benefit

00:34:42.180 of those watching because they wouldn't have understood what they were watching if, if Christ

00:34:46.020 had traversed from this dimension to the other in any other way.

00:34:49.180 Um, you know, it, it, it, it had to be done in a, in a physical way so that people could

00:34:54.820 wrap their heads around it and describe it later and talk about it.

00:34:57.900 And we could kind of understand what was happening.

00:35:01.180 So the whole idea of a rapture, people going into the sky, well, where are they going?

00:35:05.460 Uh, do you think heaven, do you, do you think heaven is actually up near the moon somewhere?

00:35:09.340 So they have to literally fly in the sky to get to it.

00:35:13.060 Why would people need to fly into the sky to get to heaven?

00:35:15.880 Um, there was a point in Christ's ascension, the physical representation of a spiritual

00:35:20.080 reality that we can't grasp.

00:35:21.740 So I get that.

00:35:23.060 But this modern idea of the rapture, it seems like people flying into the sky would, would

00:35:27.880 be just what to, to show off to the poor saps who were left behind.

00:35:31.720 Um, so who knows?

00:35:33.720 Maybe that is what it will look like.

00:35:35.520 I don't, I don't know, but there are some issues there.

00:35:38.560 That's all.

00:35:39.060 Um, and just one other point here that I don't know why people get so afraid of this

00:35:47.000 word metaphor or metaphorical.

00:35:48.760 It's not, yes, there's a lot of metaphorical language in the Bible that doesn't, it doesn't

00:35:53.660 mean that it's not true.

00:35:54.840 It doesn't mean that it's a lie.

00:35:56.100 It doesn't mean that it's fake.

00:35:57.320 It doesn't, it's not what metaphorical means.

00:35:59.180 It just means that there's maybe, maybe when you, often when you hear the word metaphorical,

00:36:05.280 you could probably usually substitute poetic or something instead, a word like that.

00:36:09.680 It's just, it's using simply language that we can get our heads around to describe something,

00:36:19.060 a reality that we can't really get our heads around.

00:36:22.340 And so we're left, we have to use some kind of language to describe it.

00:36:26.660 And so this is the language that we use.

00:36:29.860 Um, so I, I, you know, I don't, I don't get it.

00:36:32.380 I don't, I don't understand why people recoil at, at the notion of metaphor in the Bible.

00:36:38.040 Uh, yes, there's, of course there's a lot of metaphor.

00:36:40.060 Are you going to deny that revelation is metaphor?

00:36:42.780 There's a lot of metaphor.

00:36:43.860 I mean, or do you think that there's literally going to be chariots and stuff and actual,

00:36:48.640 actual real horses, uh, coming out of the sky and things like that?

00:36:53.320 I mean, maybe that that's what will happen.

00:36:56.540 But I, I don't think that's what the book of revelation is trying to tell us that we

00:37:01.800 should be looking out for real horses, right?

00:37:03.380 I think it's a metaphor for something.

00:37:05.780 Um, so, all right.

00:37:09.120 From Stu in Hawaii says, hi, Matt, I'm just listening to your show today.

00:37:14.900 When you talk about the devastating fire in Notre Dame, what the church and its beauty

00:37:18.640 represents and beauty as a fundamental human need.

00:37:21.400 I could not agree more.

00:37:22.220 I grew up in South America, specifically in Venezuela, but I've lived in the United States

00:37:25.680 for over half my life.

00:37:26.980 I grew up Catholic and always remember as kids going to church on Sunday with my grandmother

00:37:30.440 and feeling peaceful and surrounded by beauty and faith inside my community, small church.

00:37:34.720 When I moved to the U.S. as a young adult, I was unimpressed by the ugliness of some churches

00:37:39.120 that looked like a fancier version of a warehouse or a shopping mall.

00:37:42.620 It seemed so obvious that some churches were more like a business instead of a place of worship.

00:37:46.340 At one point, I went to a Christian church for a while because it was close to home out 0.99

00:37:50.400 of curiosity, but the whole scene to me was too over the top with a band playing on stage

00:37:54.420 nonstop, a pastor with headsets, people dancing, euphoric on stage.

00:37:58.120 It looked like a show to me and I simply couldn't handle it.

00:38:01.600 Nowadays, when I go to church, occasionally I go to a small Catholic church nearby that reminds

00:38:05.500 me of my childhood's church.

00:38:07.440 It's simple but tastefully decorated, peaceful, and where I can focus on myself, God, and what

00:38:12.120 I'm there for instead of feeling like I'm watching a performance.

00:38:14.280 I wish all churches made more effort in building slash creating beautiful architecture that

00:38:18.540 inspire us and help us all reflect in God's beauty and the wonders that surround us.

00:38:23.060 Thank you for all you do and keep up the good work.

00:38:27.020 So that's interesting, Stu, because you seem to be, if I followed you here, you're saying

00:38:32.280 that you're not really a regular churchgoer.

00:38:36.500 But even as someone who doesn't go to church regularly, when you do go to church, what you're

00:38:46.600 looking for is a church.

00:38:48.160 You're looking for a churchy church experience, right, for lack of a better term.

00:38:53.400 And, you know, I hear that a lot, actually, from people.

00:38:58.100 That, and this, I think, is one of the problems with the secularization of modern worship, with

00:39:07.280 the, you know, the ugliness of the church buildings and just the way you're talking about where

00:39:13.440 it turns into just the modern church experience is supposed to look like some sort of Broadway

00:39:18.680 show or something.

00:39:21.800 The problem is that, you know, if somebody wants that, they don't have to go to church

00:39:31.420 for it.

00:39:31.960 Like, if you want that, you can go to a motivational seminar at your local hotel conference room,

00:39:38.180 or you could go to an actual rock concert.

00:39:41.100 I mean, if that's all you want, if you're looking for that kind of just experience of

00:39:45.480 watching a show or simply being motivated in an earthly sense, or even just having fellowship

00:39:51.200 with people around you.

00:39:52.200 I mean, there are so many other ways you can get that, that all of a sudden, the church

00:39:56.780 serves no purpose.

00:39:58.840 So when you turn your church service into that, it serves no purpose anymore.

00:40:03.440 You might as well just close up shop, because what are you even doing?

00:40:07.120 You're not giving anyone anything that they can't get plenty of other places.

00:40:11.040 And you know something?

00:40:11.780 They could get a better version of it somewhere else.

00:40:14.120 Like, if you want to turn your church service into a rock concert, here's the thing.

00:40:17.500 It's not going to be a better rock concert than what I could find if I went to a real 1.00

00:40:22.560 rock concert.

00:40:23.580 You know, I've been to plenty of real rock concerts, and with super talented musicians

00:40:27.680 who know how to put on a show.

00:40:29.580 And so if I want that, I can go to that.

00:40:33.500 And as I said, if I want a motivational seminar type of thing, I can go to someone who can give

00:40:38.960 me that.

00:40:39.300 I can read a self-help book.

00:40:40.580 If I just want a fellowship with my fellow man, then I can go to the pub with some friends

00:40:47.720 and have a beer.

00:40:48.520 I mean, and these are all fine things to do.

00:40:51.980 But the church has to offer something different, something that you can't get those other places.

00:40:56.780 And so when you go into an actual church that looks like a church and feels like a church,

00:41:04.180 and everything is very orthodox and religious and focused on religion, and there's religious

00:41:10.520 art and imagery and everything, then you've created a whole experience that is totally

00:41:18.840 different from an experience that someone can get somewhere else.

00:41:22.040 So at a minimum, you've given people a reason to come because they, you are offering them

00:41:30.040 something different.

00:41:31.980 So you don't, look, here's what you don't want.

00:41:34.940 You don't want to be like the Burger King that sets up shop right next to the McDonald's,

00:41:41.120 right?

00:41:41.900 Because, you know, I'm only going to Burger King if I'm driving through town and I'm on

00:41:49.180 the road and there are no other options and I'm like, OK, I guess I got to go to Burger

00:41:52.580 King. 0.99

00:41:53.420 Crap. 0.99

00:41:54.800 But if I'm looking for fast food and there's a McDonald's right there, I'll just go to 0.99

00:41:58.560 McDonald's because when it comes to fast food, at the end of the day, McDonald's, they do

00:42:02.440 it the best.

00:42:03.080 They, you know, just across the board, they've got it down.

00:42:06.320 They know what they're doing.

00:42:09.780 So if you're going to set up a restaurant next to McDonald's, set up a completely different

00:42:13.860 kind of restaurant so that you would give someone a reason.

00:42:17.640 They might say, OK, you know what?

00:42:18.520 I don't actually want fast food at all.

00:42:20.280 Here's a different thing.

00:42:21.160 I'll go there.

00:42:21.640 I'll check that out.

00:42:24.300 I think a lot of churches have just turned into Burger Kings, basically.

00:42:28.780 They've turned into Burger Kings to the world's McDonald's and that's why they're dying.

00:42:37.800 All right.

00:42:38.180 Finally, this is from, oh, this is from Matt.

00:42:43.160 It says, hi, Matt.

00:42:44.060 Nice name, by the way.

00:42:44.900 I have a lot of free time, so I keep, I find myself delving into conspiracy theories online

00:42:49.660 quite often.

00:42:51.520 So biggest interest, aliens, Mandela effect.

00:42:55.680 I don't even know what the Mandela effect is.

00:42:57.920 And shared trips with hallucinogens.

00:43:00.880 So naturally, I have a theological question for you.

00:43:03.480 If we were hypothetically contacted by sentient extraterrestrials, how does that impact Christian

00:43:07.540 doctrine?

00:43:08.660 Past here, you don't have to read on the show.

00:43:11.160 OK, well, I am going to read it on the show if you don't mind.

00:43:12.540 My thoughts on this take a basic logical approach, since I believe the ability to reason is

00:43:17.080 the next greatest gift received by Adam, second only to free will.

00:43:21.160 So my logic goes that God definitely wouldn't create sentient life on two different planets,

00:43:26.560 leaving one blind to the gospel without means of salvation, as it would be obviously cruel.

00:43:31.640 So from that one supposition, I reason that there are either, one, no aliens out there,

00:43:36.780 or two, aliens that are identical to humans, the religion of which functions only for them,

00:43:41.860 sort of similarly to Jews and Christians, since God created us in his image.

00:43:45.600 It would stand to reason he wouldn't create others in different images.

00:43:49.000 Or there are all sorts of sentient aliens out there, and there is no God.

00:43:53.400 The last option scares me, by the way, and the anxiety it causes drives me to do more UFO research.

00:43:58.640 OK, well, hi, Matt.

00:44:01.920 First of all, I appreciate that you admitted that you have a lot of time on your hands.

00:44:05.540 And I really mean that sincerely, because I feel like we live in a culture where everyone

00:44:09.440 is constantly pretending that they're busy, and they're so busy, they have so much to do,

00:44:13.300 they're so tired, they never sleep, they never eat, you know, everyone's constantly,

00:44:16.180 they're so stressed.

00:44:18.540 Meanwhile, all of us actually have a ton of free time,

00:44:21.080 which is why we're online and watching Netflix and stuff all the time.

00:44:24.380 So the fact that you would just admit that, I think, is great.

00:44:28.800 Now, let me put your mind at rest here, but I don't think there's any reason to conclude

00:44:34.000 that the existence of sentient aliens would disprove God.

00:44:37.360 In fact, I think it would make the case for God even stronger.

00:44:40.460 Because think about it, there are 100 billion galaxies in the universe,

00:44:43.880 the known universe, 100 billion galaxies, galaxies, OK?

00:44:47.440 There are 100 billion of them.

00:44:49.520 Just try to wrap your head around that.

00:44:51.140 You can't.

00:44:53.020 There are something like 100 billion galaxies with 100 billion solar systems in each galaxy.

00:44:59.360 And then, so multiply that, and then multiply, you know,

00:45:01.980 however many planets on average are around any given star.

00:45:05.960 You start doing the math, you see that we are just one infinitesimal speck of dust,

00:45:12.040 orbiting a slightly bigger speck of dust.

00:45:14.220 I mean, our sun is, you know, it's bigger than some other suns out there, some other stars,

00:45:22.740 but it is not even close to the biggest star or the biggest class of stars.

00:45:30.080 There are stars that, you know, you could fit like a billion of our suns into some of the other stars that are out there.

00:45:36.780 So, we're just one speck of dust orbiting another speck of dust in a little tiny solar system in a relatively unimpressive galaxy.

00:45:45.500 What are the chances, when you look at the entire scope of things, that all the rest of it is empty?

00:45:52.520 Nothing but emptiness and then just us.

00:45:55.140 I think there's almost no chance of that, mathematically speaking.

00:45:58.540 Does that disprove God?

00:46:00.020 No.

00:46:00.300 Because think about this, one of the most commonly cited, and I think best, even Hitchens said that this was a good argument for God,

00:46:07.480 is the fine-tuning argument.

00:46:10.300 The idea that the universe is improbably calibrated to make life possible.

00:46:14.640 Well, and it is, right?

00:46:16.440 But if the universe is teeming with life, that would seem to underscore the fact that, wow,

00:46:23.160 well, the universe really is finely tuned for life.

00:46:25.060 I mean, it's so big and somehow all this life popped up everywhere.

00:46:28.740 I think that that would speak even more profoundly to the existence of God.

00:46:34.460 If, however, the universe is completely dead, except for just one little speck of dust,

00:46:39.940 then it becomes a lot harder to say that this massive, gargantuan, almost completely dead thing is finely tuned for life.

00:46:46.060 In fact, I think at that point, the argument loses all of its force.

00:46:49.500 It would be kind of absurd, really, to say that a universe that is totally dead,

00:46:55.760 except for this one tiny, barely perceptible corner of it,

00:47:02.060 to say that that's finely tuned for life, it just, I mean,

00:47:06.360 I think the phrase finely tuned there would start to lose its meaning.

00:47:11.880 Now, that wouldn't disprove God either, but it would significantly mitigate one of our best arguments for God.

00:47:22.440 So I wouldn't be afraid at all of the prospect of sentient beings being out there.

00:47:27.080 I think they are.

00:47:28.720 And I don't think it has any effect on faith, except possibly a positive effect.

00:47:35.580 How does it work with their own salvation history and everything?

00:47:38.160 Well, I have no idea.

00:47:38.980 I mean, I just don't know.

00:47:40.440 It's also possible, other option here is that there's a ton of life out there,

00:47:44.980 but no other intelligent life.

00:47:48.240 You said sentient.

00:47:49.560 You know, we talk about what that means exactly.

00:47:51.260 But I think there's probably a lot of intelligent life out there, too.

00:47:55.820 But you don't have to worry about it.

00:47:58.200 And I wouldn't bother studying it too much, honestly,

00:48:02.100 although if it interests you, go for it.

00:48:03.540 But I can tell you this.

00:48:05.960 There have never been any aliens on Earth, and there never will be.

00:48:11.220 I hate to say.

00:48:12.100 I would love if they came.

00:48:13.160 It would be awesome.

00:48:14.120 But it never has happened.

00:48:15.820 It never will happen.

00:48:17.240 We will never encounter life out there in the universe,

00:48:20.460 because the distances are just too great.

00:48:23.420 It's simply you can't...

00:48:26.820 I don't think it's possible to traverse these distances.

00:48:29.380 I think it's just physically impossible.

00:48:31.640 The closest star to us, I think, is like four light years away.

00:48:39.980 Well, as I mentioned on the show a couple days ago,

00:48:42.600 a light year is like five trillion miles.

00:48:48.020 Okay?

00:48:48.680 So we're talking about something that's 20 or 25 trillion miles away,

00:48:53.160 and that's the closest star to us, which is just right next door.

00:48:58.560 And it's quite possible there's no life there.

00:49:00.840 But even if there was life right next door to us,

00:49:03.760 I think we would never find it.

00:49:05.920 We would never know about it,

00:49:07.320 because going across 20 trillion miles of interstellar space,

00:49:12.860 we just...

00:49:13.580 Even if you're going at the speed of light,

00:49:14.940 it would take you four years to do.

00:49:17.240 And we don't even have the technology for people to survive

00:49:21.480 in a spaceship for four years.

00:49:23.160 You know, with the radiation and all that.

00:49:26.040 So anyway,

00:49:27.660 so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

00:49:32.420 We're never going to know.

00:49:33.160 It's just something...

00:49:33.540 It's an interesting thing to think about, though,

00:49:35.160 and speculate about.

00:49:36.320 But I don't think it affects our religion

00:49:39.180 one way or another, really, honestly.

00:49:41.580 So I'll leave it there.

00:49:42.740 Thanks for watching, everybody.

00:49:44.100 Thanks for listening.

00:49:44.800 Godspeed.

00:49:45.100 I'm Michael Knowles, host of The Michael Knowles Show.

00:50:00.280 Rolling Stone magazine celebrates the burning of Notre Dame

00:50:03.360 as an act of liberation.

00:50:05.380 Meanwhile, Library Journal condemns libraries

00:50:07.680 as tools of white supremacy, 0.83

00:50:09.320 and anti-white Democrats only want to nominate a white guy. 0.91

00:50:11.780 We will analyze how the West lost its mind.

00:50:14.460 Check it out at dailywire.com.

The Matt Walsh Show - April 17, 2019

Ep. 241 - A Monument To Western Civilization

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