[00:05] Show Announcer: It's the Kim Monson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
[00:11] Kim Monson: An early childhood taxing district?
[00:17] Show Announcer: The latest in politics and world affairs.
[00:21] Kim Monson: I don't think that we should be passing legislation that is so complicated that people kind of throw up their hands and say, I can't understand that.
[00:30] Show Announcer: Today's current opinions and ideas.
[00:33] Kim Monson: And it's not fair, just because you're a big business, that you get a break on this and the little guy doesn't.
[00:40] Show Announcer: Is it freedom or is it force?
[00:42] Show Announcer: Let's have a conversation.
[00:48] Kim Monson: And welcome to the Kim Monson Show.
[00:55] Kim Monson: Take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body.
[00:58] Kim Monson: My friends, we were made for this moment.
[01:00] Kim Monson: And thank you to the team that I work with.
[01:01] Kim Monson: That's Producer Joe, Producer Luke, Zach, Echo, Charlie, all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting.
[01:14] Kim Monson: And last night was our Colorado premiere of A Climate Conversation out at Rockleys Event Center at 8555 West Colfax.
[01:35] Kim Monson: Well, and so we did our Colorado screening of A Climate Conversation.
[01:40] Kim Monson: All of the stars, the scientists in the film, flew in from North America.
[01:46] Kim Monson: King Gregory from Canada, Gregory Wrightstone from the East Coast, and Ron Stein from the West Coast, and, of course, Walt Johnson, who is the, this was his brainchild, Colton Moyer, who is the director producer.
[02:02] Kim Monson: It was just a great evening again out at Rockley's event center.
[02:06] Kim Monson: And my friends, this is just the beginning.
[02:09] Kim Monson: First of all, there was well over 300 people at the event.
[02:14] Kim Monson: And thank you to all of you who were there.
[02:19] Kim Monson: And this is just the beginning of this conversation.
[02:22] Kim Monson: And thank you to Walt and Rami Johnson for their vision on this and their dedication to an honest conversation about this very, very important topic.
[02:35] Kim Monson: In studio was Joan Anello and Henry Jones.
[02:39] Kim Monson: Joan was married for 60 years to Joe Anello, and he passed on in 2018.
[02:46] Kim Monson: She grew up in North Korea, and Joe was a POW in the Korean War.
[02:52] Kim Monson: And it's a powerful story about Joe and his friend Hershey Miyamura.
[02:58] Kim Monson: And Hershey grew up in Gallup, New Mexico, and also was a Korean War POW.
[03:04] Kim Monson: And Hershey was awarded the Medal of Honor.
[03:08] Kim Monson: And that show will broadcast this Sunday, 3 to 4 p.
[03:19] Kim Monson: Let's get right into everything today.
[03:21] Kim Monson: So the second hour, I continue to try to figure out what's going to be best.
[03:28] Kim Monson: We're actually going to start something after the first of the year for a community for us.
[03:33] Kim Monson: And so there's so much to talk about.
[03:35] Kim Monson: So I've decided that we will put a guest in the second hour.
[03:41] Kim Monson: And today, and normally the second hour, last segment, we'll do call- insor text messages.
[03:46] Kim Monson: However, today we pre- recordedthe second hour because Dr.
[03:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Groteis, who's another brainiac, he's written 19 books, just has published his latest book, which is World Religions in Seven Easy Sentences.
[04:04] Kim Monson: And we thought this subject is worth a complete show.
[04:08] Kim Monson: And so we went ahead and pre- recordedthe second hour.
[04:15] Kim Monson: She was out at the event last night and she wants to weigh in on this open primary opt- outvote that the Colorado GOP Central Committee will be conducting tomorrow.
[04:24] Kim Monson: And so she's going to call in to comment on that.
[04:28] Kim Monson: But so the second hour, I just wanted to let you know it is prerecorded, but it is rich.
[04:37] Kim Monson: And this comes from producer Steve.
[04:46] Kim Monson: It could be crudely or loudly assertive or pushy.
[04:50] Kim Monson: Number two, it could be self- conceited,forward or pushing.
[04:53] Kim Monson: And number three, obtrusively pushy, self- assertiveto a pretentious extreme.
[04:59] Kim Monson: And somehow after he was watching the Republican presidential debate, he came up with, he thought this was an important words.
[05:09] Kim Monson: So this is the sentence I came up with.
[05:12] Kim Monson: Producer Steve apparently thought that several of the Republican presidential candidates were quite bumptious at Wednesday evening's debate.
[05:21] Kim Monson: So your challenge will be to use bumptious today in a sentence.
[05:28] Kim Monson: Our quote of the day, I went to Teddy Roosevelt.
[05:33] Kim Monson: Fridays, I will have a Medal of Honor quote normally from this great Medal of Honor quote book from the Center for American Values.
[05:42] Kim Monson: And those quotes are taken from their Portraits of Valor, which the center is open seven days a week, 10 a.
[05:52] Kim Monson: It is worth, it's a bucket list thing to do.
[05:56] Kim Monson: And I was talking with Henry and Joan yesterday about it because Henry Jones is on the board of the Center for American Values, that there's a real reverence.
[06:05] Kim Monson: And in fact, Drew Dix, who is one of the co- founders,Drew is a Medal of Honor recipient from actions he took during the Vietnam War.
[06:13] Kim Monson: And Brad Padula is the other co- founder.
[06:16] Kim Monson: And Brad is an Emmy Award winning documentary maker.
[06:20] Kim Monson: Drew said kids can, you know how kids are kids and they're on a field trip.
[06:24] Kim Monson: But they walk into the center and most all the time they understand the reverence of these portraits.
[06:32] Kim Monson: The other thing is that they're focusing on is educational programs.
[06:35] Kim Monson: And the Center for American Values is nonpolitical.
[06:38] Kim Monson: It's focused on these values of America, of honor, integrity, and patriotism.
[06:43] Kim Monson: So you can get more information by going to AmericanValuesCenter.
[06:51] Kim Monson: But I was talking with Sparky Turner, the executive director, earlier this week.
[06:54] Kim Monson: and said, you know, I think that I'm going to tell the story a bit about Teddy Roosevelt Jr.
[07:01] Kim Monson: And he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
[07:06] Kim Monson: And she said, well, did you know that Teddy Roosevelt Sr.
[07:10] Kim Monson: also was awarded the Medal of Honor?
[07:13] Kim Monson: And it's like, I did not know that.
[07:15] Kim Monson: And so Teddy Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States.
[07:23] Kim Monson: and he was awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty.
[07:31] Kim Monson: Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt distinguished himself by acts of bravery on 1 July 1898 near Santiago de Cuba, Republic of Cuba, while leading a daring charge up San Juan Hill.
[07:47] Kim Monson: And Teddy Roosevelt, this is the quote, he says, do what you can with what you have where you are.
[07:55] Kim Monson: But I wanted to share that his son, Teddy Roosevelt Jr.
[07:59] Kim Monson: And when I was over in Normandy, uh, learned this story and Teddy Roosevelt Jr.
[08:05] Kim Monson: had been shot in the leg and gassed nearly to blindness in world war one.
[08:09] Kim Monson: And his, uh, his younger brother, Quentin Roosevelt, uh, died in world war one.
[08:17] Kim Monson: And Teddy Roosevelt's and that his brother was Quentin Roosevelt.
[08:24] Kim Monson: was over at Omaha Beach on D- Daywhile Teddy Roosevelt Jr., his father, was on Omaha Beach.
[08:34] Kim Monson: And it's so interesting that, and this is the story that I heard when I was there, that their Higgins boat came in about a mile off where they were supposed to land.
[08:46] Kim Monson: And Teddy Roosevelt, Jr., he was 56 at the time.
[08:52] Kim Monson: He was the oldest man on the first wave of Omaha.
[08:56] Kim Monson: He basically had a cane and was walking back and forth with a map.
[09:02] Kim Monson: And he said, well, the war starts here.
[09:08] Kim Monson: and he then died a few months later of a heart attack, but he was also awarded the Medal of Honor.
[09:15] Kim Monson: And so I just wanted to share that story.
[09:17] Kim Monson: I'd recommend that you do some research on that, because it's just a remarkable story as you start to look at all this.
[09:24] Kim Monson: Last night, as I mentioned, we had, and again, one more time on the quote, do what you can with what you have where you are.
[09:33] Kim Monson: And that's just great, great words for what's going on today.
[09:37] Kim Monson: So last night was the big premiere of a climate conversation out at Rockley's Event Center.
[09:42] Kim Monson: And we realized that this is such an important conversation to have.
[09:47] Kim Monson: And quite frankly, these PPIs, politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties are really coming after your own personal climate, trying to make it more expensive to heat your home, cool your home.
[10:01] Kim Monson: But somebody that's at the forefront of this, staying on top of all the rules and regulations and making sure he's working with providers with great product, is John Lennon, with Johnny Stubbs Heating and Air Conditioning Services.
[10:22] Action Ann: How are you doing today?
[10:24] Kim Monson: And I was driving over to Rockleys event center last night or yesterday evening and there I can start to see the gold on the trees, which means that and I actually have turned on my new furnace, that you, that I got from you at least once twice.
[10:42] Kim Monson: I've turned on twice because it's starting to get chillier, and so if anybody well first of all take, do your furnace checks.
[10:51] Kim Monson: This actually extends the life of your, your equipment.
[10:55] Kim Monson: And that's super important, John Lennon.
[10:57] Action Ann: Definitely, definitely important to maintain and make sure that the system is going to fire and that it's safe to be running.
[11:05] Kim Monson: And the other thing that I think a lot of people don't think about is humidifiers.
[11:11] Kim Monson: We are, Colorado is in a, actually it's called the High Plains Desert.
[11:17] Kim Monson: And so we don't have a lot of moisture.
[11:20] Kim Monson: And humidifiers can really help with health, correct?
[11:24] Action Ann: Exponentially better indoor air quality if you've got a humidifier running in your home.
[11:32] Action Ann: So, and I know a number of people that I visit on a daily, weekly basis, they've got older ones and, you know, their opinion is on them that, well, it never worked.
[11:42] Action Ann: I never noticed much.
[11:44] Action Ann: And it was really more based on the controls that we used to use in the industry to control the humidity, and now that we've got some more advanced controls, we can regulate and maintain a better level of humidity in the home, and it's exponentially more comfortable.
[12:03] Action Ann: And we also, you know, utilities will go down because moist air feels warmer than dry air, so we can run the thermostat a little bit lower.
[12:13] Action Ann: The offset of health, you know, is a big thing.
[12:17] Action Ann: Waking up Without a dry throat and a bloody nose- those are a number of other things.
[12:23] Commercial: You think?
[12:24] Action Ann: They're wildly great for your home and very affordable, too.
[12:33] Action Ann: There's a couple of different options based on square footage of the home and stuff like that.
[12:36] Action Ann: So it's not just one humidifier.
[12:39] Action Ann: And we've got a couple different choices on how to really humidify.
[12:43] Action Ann: And the lowest one we have will put 17 gallons of water in the air a day.
[12:50] Action Ann: And that's, you know, more than any of those standalones that you'll see sitting on the counter, you know.
[12:56] Action Ann: So it really does take a lot of water being put into the air to humidify a home correctly.
[13:02] Kim Monson: Well, and it truly is really important.
[13:06] Kim Monson: And so just ballpark, and I know it depends on square footage and a variety of things, But just kind of ballpark, what are people looking at regarding the price of a humidifier?
[13:15] Action Ann: Anywhere from$ 1, 000to$ 3, 500,depending on square footage at home, and then just the level of system you want.
[13:26] Action Ann: So the Aprilaire 600 bypass humidifier is an evaporative- stylehumidifier.
[13:34] Action Ann: And that's$ 950 or so to install, I think, in most cases.
[13:38] Action Ann: And then we can go all the way up to a steam humidifier, and that's going to be your larger footprint homes.
[13:43] Action Ann: Um, and then that is top of the line.
[13:46] Action Ann: So, and we can always do the steam in any home.
[13:48] Action Ann: Um, but it's not always needed.
[13:53] Action Ann: Um, but it is definitely.
[13:54] Action Ann: It's a top tier product for a reason: it's exponentially more comfortable, a more crisp smell.
[14:00] Action Ann: Um, you'll never notice the difference between an evaporative and steam unless you go from one to the other.
[14:06] Action Ann: So both of them, though, will definitely humidify the home properly, as long as it's sized adequately and we have the right controls on them.
[14:14] Kim Monson: You know, johnny, last night we had the screening of a climate conversation, and someone that I've done work before on audio and visual is tom hurt, and he he's just a real pro.
[14:30] Kim Monson: Um, actually, you know, I said yesterday was my first video work.
[14:35] Kim Monson: I'd done one other video, but anyway, that's beside the point.
[14:38] Kim Monson: But what, as we were talking with the team, I said with audio visual, if it works right, nobody notices because it's done perfectly.
[14:47] Kim Monson: But if it doesn't work, everybody notices.
[14:50] Kim Monson: And I think that's the same with your heating and air conditioning and your, your humidifier.
[14:55] Kim Monson: If it's working, you don't really pay attention, but if it's not working, you want to call Johnny Stubbs heating and air conditioning services immediately.
[15:03] Kim Monson: And so that's why I really think that people, you know, if you, if you prepare, get your heating, um, your furnace check now and consider a humidifier and then you don't really notice, uh, you know, life just goes on.
[15:18] Kim Monson: And the other thing is, is I know that you and Aaron and your team put together this great little gift bag, uh, for people that make their call for their furnace check.
[15:27] Kim Monson: So I'd highly recommend that people reach out to you.
[15:30] Kim Monson: Now, what is your website, John Lennon?
[15:32] Action Ann: So we can be reached at johnnystubservices.
[15:35] Kim Monson: comOkay, and Johnny is J- O-H-N-N-YStubs, S- T-U-B-B-Sjohnnystubservices.
[15:44] Kim Monson: comand I would highly recommend that people get on your schedule now to get that furnace check so that that really first cool morning that their climate is the way they want it to be, Johnny Stubs, or John Lennon, excuse me.
[15:59] Action Ann: That's all right.
[16:01] Action Ann: I go buy a bowl.
[16:01] Action Ann: It works.
[16:05] Kim Monson: Hey, John Lennon, we will talk to you next week.
[16:08] Action Ann: All right, thanks, Kim.
[16:09] Action Ann: Have a great weekend.
[16:09] Action Ann: Oh, you too.
[16:11] Kim Monson: And another great sponsor of the show is the Mangan State Farm Insurance Team.
[16:16] Kim Monson: And Roger was in the studio yesterday, and we did some recordings.
[16:18] Kim Monson: And he's been in the business for 47 years and serving his customers, taking care of his family, and giving back to the community.
[16:27] Kim Monson: And so for help with all your insurance needs, call Roger Mangan at 303- 795-8855.
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[18:29] Kim Monson: Welcome back to the Kim Monson Show.
[18:34] Kim Monson: You're each treasured, you're valued, you have purpose.
[18:36] Kim Monson: Today, strive for excellence, take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body.
[18:40] Kim Monson: My friends, we were made for this moment.
[18:46] Kim Monson: The Harris family has been great goal sponsors of the show for many years and want to say thank you to them.
[18:53] Kim Monson: And then also thank you to the National Shooting Sports Foundation for their goal: sponsorship of the show as well.
[18:59] Kim Monson: As you all know, I think, if you've been listening to the show this week, is there is a very important vote that is being taken by the Colorado State GOP Central Committee tomorrow regarding to opt out of the open primary.
[19:14] Kim Monson: And there are some people who I dearly respect that are pretty adamant saying, no, don't vote to opt out.
[19:23] Kim Monson: But as I look at this, I think that I think it's worth a try.
[19:28] Kim Monson: So, but on the line with us is Colorado State Representative Ken DeGraff and wanted to talk a little bit with with him about this.
[19:41] Kim Monson: This is so important Colorado is From a political standpoint In a very Troubling position I would say So tell us what your thoughts are about this Opt- outvote tomorrow Alright, well Kim, I am 100% Downto torpedoes, full speed ahead For the opt- out, andI appreciate The opportunity to discuss it Well And there's been some real emotion And there's been people that I dearly respect that are recommending the other vote on it.
[20:18] Kim Monson: But yet I'm like, why not give it a try?
[20:21] Kim Monson: Because we're having real troubles here in Colorado.
[20:24] Kim Monson: But then there are some people that are quite, I don't know quite what to say about that.
[20:30] Kim Monson: But I don't think that they are really being very thoughtful about what's really going on.
[20:36] Kim Monson: So continue on, Representative DeGraff.
[20:37] Ken DeGraff: Well, it's very confusing, but I think if you look at the history, then you get some better sense.
[20:44] Ken DeGraff: A lot of the consternation is around the vote about it because it's a 75 percent of the total of the state central committee.
[20:56] Ken DeGraff: That means any non- vote actuallycounts towards voting, towards continuation of the open primary.
[21:06] Ken DeGraff: If somebody doesn't show up to vote, their vote counts towards continuing the open primary.
[21:11] Ken DeGraff: And if you look at it with Prop 108, 2016, foisted on the parties, the parties didn't want it.
[21:18] Ken DeGraff: The chairman didn't want it of the parties having it open to unaffiliated voters in general.
[21:24] Ken DeGraff: The primaries were open to unaffiliated voters, But all they had to do was indicate which party they would like to affiliate with for the primary election.
[21:39] Ken DeGraff: They just had this– I mean, the process was to go in and identify as a Republican.
[21:43] Ken DeGraff: Now, of course, we can identify as whatever we want to, but that was too damaging for fragile egos.
[21:51] Ken DeGraff: So they had to open it up in general to unaffiliated voters, who would remain unaffiliated.
[21:58] Ken DeGraff: So this automatically meant that the mailing had to double up, which goes, and so the estimated estimate is that it costs- and this was several years ago- that probably in 2016- that it cost an extra five million dollars for the counties for the state to send out all of these ballots, 50% of which isautomatically trash.
[22:18] Ken DeGraff: So even if it's$ 5 million without inflation, it'll probably be closer to$ 10 million now after all that.
[22:27] Ken DeGraff: It's still, it is a very fiscally unresponsible thing to do.
[22:32] Ken DeGraff: It's an environmentally irresponsible thing to do as well.
[22:37] Ken DeGraff: But part of that sell, and Kent Theory led that, with$ 2.
[22:41] Ken DeGraff: 4 million out ofthe$ 5 million that was used to push this through.
[22:46] Ken DeGraff: Now, one thing I think that's interesting where people get with, well, this isn't legal, Prop 108 is premised on there being an opt- out option.
[22:58] Ken DeGraff: So thefoundational value of this is that parties should handle this, as this is a function that parties should handle internally.
[23:07] Ken DeGraff: But then if they're not going to handle it internally and use state money, then they have to open it.
[23:18] Ken DeGraff: And the quote was basically that the arguments were about losing their identity.
[23:28] Ken DeGraff: But the big argument was that they said this is an internal party function.
[23:32] Ken DeGraff: And if you're going to ask the state to pay for an internal party function, then you have to let everybody participate.
[23:39] Ken DeGraff: So that should be the life lesson there.
[23:44] Ken DeGraff: We were, the Republican Party was on, was using state money.
[23:46] Ken DeGraff: Both parties were using state money to run an internal party function, which was getting their candidates to the ballot.
[23:57] Ken DeGraff: Because the Constitutional Party doesn't do that, the Libertarian Party doesn't do the open primary, doesn't do the primary.
[24:06] Ken DeGraff: But what's really frustrating to me is when the Republicans were handed this because they testified in general, and the party chairs both testified that this would lose the identity of the parties.
[24:23] Ken DeGraff: But when they said, basically, you can have the money or you can have your identity, they chose the money.
[24:29] Ken DeGraff: And for the Republican Party, the values is really who we are.
[24:35] Ken DeGraff: I mean, it's based on the values of the founding of our republic.
[24:40] Ken DeGraff: The Democrat Party is really valueless in the sense that it's just majority rule.
[24:44] Ken DeGraff: And that's why Marx talks about winning the battle of democracy.
[24:48] Ken DeGraff: It's just what the corporate group wants.
[24:54] Ken DeGraff: It doesn't really have a driving morality, unlike the values of our republic, which is limited government.
[25:01] Ken DeGraff: But that government was to secure the right, the unalienable creator endowed rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness using the just powers that derive from the consent of the government.
[25:10] Ken DeGraff: So those are those are ostensibly our values.
[25:12] Ken DeGraff: Now, we have we have what I'd call a corporate Republican group.
[25:16] Ken DeGraff: And, you know, we have disagreements, and that is what I would say is more of an industrial sovereignty push over an individual sovereignty.
[25:49] Ken DeGraff: And that's where we get a lot of our clash, because over the values, and one group holding to the overall values of the individual, and another part wanting to focus on more industry and being the party of capitalism.
[25:49] Ken DeGraff: But that doesn't historically track with the Constitution.
[25:53] Ken DeGraff: So anyways, I just think we should have this as a life lesson because, you know, taking government money, becoming dependent on the government money was the foothold by which the primary was used to open up to unaffiliated leftists.
[26:08] Ken DeGraff: And that was being used to now that's being used to water down our our identity.
[26:14] Ken DeGraff: Now, this open primary is also linked to SB 23- 101.
[26:20] Ken DeGraff: That was thebill that was— now, I call it the kill caucus bill because that's what it did.
[26:34] Ken DeGraff: I don't know if you'd say it's illegal.
[26:36] Ken DeGraff: It made it where you could not get, no party could get their candidates through except by petition.
[26:44] Ken DeGraff: And that petition ultimately has to go through a gatekeeper, which is Jenna Griswold.
[26:51] Ken DeGraff: And we know that on a regular basis that we see it in election cycle after election cycle where the secretary of state will just remove usually just enough pages to make the candidate ineligible for the ballot with, you know, with no accountability and no recourse, except for, you know, go through the process of suing.
[27:15] Ken DeGraff: And then six months when it's too late, then you get all those names back.
[27:19] Ken DeGraff: It's like, well, it's too bad you didn't make the ballot.
[27:21] Ken DeGraff: So the entire petition process ultimately goes through a single gatekeeper.
[27:26] Ken DeGraff: So this idea that while we need to open it up to all these millions of voters, well you're not opening up anything to millions of voters except the theater of putting candidates in front of them that have been run through the filter of Jenna Griswold with what I would call the genointing.
[27:43] Ken DeGraff: Are those petitions genoited or are they rejected?
[27:48] Ken DeGraff: And that creates a centralization of power, and that centralization of power is also un- Republican.
[28:00] Ken DeGraff: If you rely on– I mean, there are some possible arguments for the petition process.
[28:07] Ken DeGraff: I'm not a fan, but it ultimately puts that candidate at the mercy, in this case, of a socialist.
[28:17] Ken DeGraff: Now, even if it was a staunch Republican, I don't think that would be the right allocation of power.
[28:23] Ken DeGraff: That's centralized power, and it's not safe.
[28:30] Ken DeGraff: And then the other part of SB 23- 101, let's see, therewas killing caucus and assembly.
[28:38] Ken DeGraff: Oh, it would allow caucus, and this is what one of the advocates was promoting.
[28:44] Ken DeGraff: But you could still have caucus for like internal party affairs and basically what I would call rearranging the deck chairs for the orchestra, seeing what the best one was.
[28:55] Ken DeGraff: And then maybe on the rare occasion, the caucus would be for filling a vacancy.
[29:00] Ken DeGraff: But other than that, it would have no purpose.
[29:03] Ken DeGraff: And then you would get to what the other states are.
[29:06] Ken DeGraff: Most of the other states that don't have a caucus and assembly, certainly not one that's rigorous like ours.
[29:10] Ken DeGraff: They just really have no participation because there's nothing to participate in.
[29:14] Ken DeGraff: And so the proponents of this open primary, they decry the caucus and assembly and say it's filled with activists.
[29:24] Ken DeGraff: I say, well, what would you rather have?
[29:27] Ken DeGraff: Would you rather have people who are active or would you have people that are passive?
[29:31] Ken DeGraff: And really what they want is people that are passive.
[29:34] Ken DeGraff: They want people that are passive consumers of the political process, because it is, and this is what you get.
[29:41] Ken DeGraff: and if you look at the money involved in it, it goes easily, it goes just thumbnail sketches of it.
[29:51] Ken DeGraff: It goes, you know, the media, just the mailers goes up into hundreds of millions of dollars and then you have all the media.
[29:58] Ken DeGraff: So there's a lot of interests around this besides just creating a, really creating political theater because that's all it would be.
[30:09] Ken DeGraff: People would be participating at a level of pre- approved candidates that werevetted by the political elite.
[30:15] Ken DeGraff: Now, that our corporate Republicans are fine and actually promote a pure candidacy that is run only through that one single socialist chokehold is very troubling to me.
[30:35] Ken DeGraff: So there's a lot of reasons in this that I feel is un- Republican.
[30:42] Kim Monson: Well, RepresentativeDeGraff, thank you, first of all.
[30:48] Kim Monson: And your research on this is so important.
[30:53] Kim Monson: And I just want to mention, this is pretty easy for you to do this homework.
[30:59] Kim Monson: I spoke at a meetup on Wednesday night, and they said, we need to unite as Republicans.
[31:04] Kim Monson: And I said, well, quite frankly, the operative consultant Republicans have actually they are working with the Democrats.
[31:13] Kim Monson: They would rather fight every day on the ground Republicans than fight the Democrats.
[31:20] Kim Monson: And if you want to know who some of those people are, you can do a little research.
[31:24] Kim Monson: Put in Ballotpedia, put in Colorado Proposition 108, and you will see former officials that are both Republican and Democrat that were for the open primary.
[31:35] Kim Monson: And one of those guys who is a Republican, he actually has a petition gathering firm where he makes millions of dollars on petition gathering.
[31:44] Kim Monson: And so he's a big proponent of only having petitions instead of actually the assembly caucus process.
[31:52] Kim Monson: And also when Representative DeGraff referenced Senate Bill 23- 101, which we didinclude in our Colorado Union of Taxpayers report, it was Republicans that brought that forward.
[32:07] Kim Monson: So just do a little research and you'll start to understand who these Republican operatives are who, instead of really caring about the voice of the people, are really, I think, focused more on themselves.
[32:23] Kim Monson: So, Representative DeGraff, thank you so much.
[32:25] Kim Monson: I saw Action Ann at a climate conversation last night.
[32:27] Kim Monson: Since we prerecorded the second hour, I said, let me give you a couple of minutes.
[32:34] Kim Monson: So, quickly, what is it you would like to say?
[32:37] Commercial: Okay, I want to ask your listeners for the next three minutes to get a paper and pen, okay?
[32:43] Commercial: Because, first of all, they can make a difference.
[32:47] Commercial: Since the vote is tomorrow, they need to go to their county website.
[32:51] Commercial: So they look up the county that they're in for the Republican website and make sure you put in Colorado.
[33:02] Commercial: And then there is an email address to, except like in Douglas County and Arapahoe County, you've got a phone number at your county website, which is douglascounty.
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[33:27] Commercial: So it's easy to find your website for your county.
[33:32] Commercial: And then you need to send an email and basically say that every one of those officers that are on the Central Committee are committed to electing Republicans.
[33:44] Commercial: And because Because there is an article in the July 5 of 22, coloradosun.
[33:52] Commercial: Com website that shows that 57%unaffiliated voted last year in our primary of the total numbers of ballots that were returned.
[34:06] Commercial: So if we're only 24% andthe unaffiliated are only about 40- some percent,that means at least between 10% and 30%Democrats voted todecide who our Republican candidates are.
[34:23] Commercial: And then they go away in the general election after the primary, and we don't get those votes.
[34:34] Commercial: So those representatives that you're going to contact, that are the officers, they need to know that their duty is to represent Republicans and to close the primary because they're not following the bylaws or the rules.
[35:09] Show Announcer: And I thank you so much.
[34:54] Kim Monson: And I wanted to get you on for just a couple of minutes to make that recommendation.
[34:58] Kim Monson: So thank you so much and greatly appreciate how much you care about our state.
[35:03] Kim Monson: We have these conversations because of great sponsors like Karen Levine.
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[35:31] Show Announcer: Kim Monson highly recommends award- winning REMAX realtor KarenLevine.
[35:35] Show Announcer: Call Karen Levine today at 303- 877- 7516 for answerstoall your real estate questions.
[35:43] Show Announcer: That's 303- 877- 7516.
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[36:59] Commercial: It'sFriday, Friday.
[37:00] Commercial: It is Friday.
[37:03] Kim Monson: Welcome back to The Kim Monson Show.
[37:07] Kim Monson: You can emailme at kim at kimmonson.
[37:11] Kim Monson: Another sponsorofthe show is Hooters Restaurants.
[37:14] Kim Monson: They have five locations, Loveland, Aurora, Lone Tree, Westminster, and Colorado Springs.
[37:17] Kim Monson: Great specials for lunch Monday through Friday and a great place to get together with friends.
[37:23] Kim Monson: And again, great story how I met them.
[37:25] Kim Monson: It's a story about freedom and free markets and capitalism.
[37:29] Kim Monson: We have on the line with us Rick Turnquist.
[37:31] Kim Monson: He is one of our legacy essay writers, and he has written a piece that we are publishing in the newsletter this weekend, and it is on the website now.
[37:40] Kim Monson: It's called Exactly Wrong, Democrats and Human Sexuality.
[37:43] Kim Monson: Rick Turnquist, welcome to the show.
[37:53] Kim Monson: Hey, I just wanted to say congratulations.
[37:55] Kim Monson: Your essay from last month, Exactly Wrong, Democrats and Economics, I'm just looking at it.
[38:05] Kim Monson: It has over 11, 000 likes, which meansthere's over 11, 000 people that haveread it.
[38:10] Kim Monson: I know not everybody liked it because I saw some of the Facebook comments coming in.
[38:14] Kim Monson: And when people read it, for them to hit the like button, not everybody does that.
[38:18] Kim Monson: So you really hit something with that.
[38:20] Kim Monson: I'd recommend that people go to my website and read that.
[38:24] Kim Monson: But this one I think is going to hit a nerve as well.
[38:30] Kim Monson: So where do you want to begin with this, Rick Turnquist?
[38:34] Rick Turnquist: Well, let's begin with just the fact that the left is waging a true war on our modern life and on reality itself.
[39:04] Rick Turnquist: And part of what I'm doing with my Exactly Wrong series is trying to illustrate in all the ways that Democrats are wrong on just about every public policy issue, in the hopes that I can convince people to disregard the fact that Republicans are often better at fighting among themselves than against the left and to vote for Republicans next year, because they're truly the last best hope for America.
[39:12] Rick Turnquist: And so as we talk about, as you know, as you mentioned, a lot of comments, a lot of interaction with last month's post, and that's because everybody lives in the real world, and many people are experiencing difficulties in making it from week to week or paycheck to paycheck because everything's getting more expensive, And the things that we enjoy in our modern lives are being phased out or regulated out of existence like gas- powered mowers and gasoline-powered cars and allthese things.
[39:53] Rick Turnquist: If they get what they want, then the American auto industry will basically be going out of business because nobody will be able to afford their products.
[40:03] Rick Turnquist: And all these union workers will end up out of a job because they just can't make these products that people want to buy.
[40:12] Rick Turnquist: So I think the reason that Post got so much action is because it hits a nerve with a lot of people and hopefully it opens their eyes to illustrate the fact that Democrats are exactly wrong when it comes to economics and economic policy.
[40:26] Rick Turnquist: But even more important than economics is who we are as human beings.
[40:30] Rick Turnquist: And this business with the left's war on their gender- bending ideology, as Icall it, they've declared war on reality itself in addition to their war on our modern lives.
[40:43] Rick Turnquist: And so I thought it was important to write this piece.
[40:46] Rick Turnquist: I know a lot of people are going to be angry and hateful to you and me for publishing this and for talking about it.
[40:54] Rick Turnquist: But we need to stand up for truth and reality and science.
[40:57] Rick Turnquist: And so let's take a brief moment to talk about science.
[41:02] Rick Turnquist: The left really, really likes to extol science when it comes to things like masks and vaccinations and shutdowns and climate change.
[41:12] Rick Turnquist: But when it comes to biology, the left is very, very much in denial of what science says.
[41:22] Rick Turnquist: And science, I think, is one of the most abused, used and abused words in the English language today.
[41:29] Rick Turnquist: And so I start off this essay by kind of defining science.
[41:34] Rick Turnquist: And I'm not going to read it all because, A, we don't have time, and B, nobody wants to listen to me read.
[41:39] Rick Turnquist: But I encourage everybody to read through the definition of science.
[41:43] Rick Turnquist: It kind of goes back to what I learned in the sixth grade, that science is actually a discipline that includes observation, evidence, induction, critical analysis, and verification and testing.
[41:56] Rick Turnquist: And I think an integral element of science is questioning and challenging the prevailing or generally accepted viewpoint.
[42:05] Rick Turnquist: And for this reason, there's no such thing as settled science.
[42:11] Rick Turnquist: And in a world where words mean things, these words can only mean those things that they're generally accepted to mean.
[42:19] Rick Turnquist: So we talk about biology, and biology is the science of life or living matter in all its forms and phenomena.
[42:28] Rick Turnquist: And according to the science, there's only two sexes.
[42:31] Rick Turnquist: Two types of organisms are required for reproduction.
[42:35] Rick Turnquist: These two types of organisms are designated as sexes, and they are one or the other.
[42:45] Rick Turnquist: There's not three, four, or 57 types of sexual reproduction cells.
[42:51] Rick Turnquist: And so that's where the male- female binary comes from.
[42:56] Kim Monson: Rick Turnquist, did you ever think that it would be controversial to say what you just said?
[43:08] Rick Turnquist: I actually woke up a little bit early thinking about what I wanted to talk about this morning.
[43:12] Rick Turnquist: And I never thought that we would come to the point in this country where we even had to talk about this kind of stuff.
[43:22] Rick Turnquist: I'd rather focus on issues like taxation and crime, which is what I'm going to write about for next month.
[43:32] Rick Turnquist: But this is something that's so important that we need to understand and realize that it's part of their war on reality itself, and we need to stand up for what's true and what's right.
[43:43] Kim Monson: Well, absolutely and yes, this is a powerful piece, and- And I think I texted you yesterday- I said, okay, fasten your seatbelt on this one because this is out of your wheelhouse.
[43:56] Kim Monson: This is not someplace you really do write about.
[43:59] Kim Monson: You're more over on the economics of things.
[44:05] Kim Monson: He is one of our legacy SAS here at the Kim Monson Show.
[44:10] Kim Monson: You can also find him at toadvancefreedom.
[44:13] Kim Monson: And we havethese important discussions because of great sponsors.
[44:18] Kim Monson: I want to say thank you to the Harris family for their sponsorship of the show, as well as the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
[44:24] Kim Monson: And then, of course, you hear them on a regular basis on the show, and that is Lorne Levy.
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[45:06] Commercial: Call Lauren at 303- 880- 8881.
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[46:37] John Lennon (Johnny Stubbs): It is Friday.
[46:38] Commercial: Welcome back to the Kim Monson Show.
[46:46] Kim Monson: That is Kim Monson, M- O- N- S- O-N.
[46:48] Kim Monson: Signupforour weekly email newsletter.
[46:50] Kim Monson: You can email me at kim at KimMuntz.
[46:53] Kim Monson: Thankyou to all of you who support us.
[46:55] Kim Monson: We're an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom.
[47:01] Kim Monson: If something's a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it.
[47:04] Kim Monson: Last night at a climate conversation, big, big evening last night, I saw Paula Sarlls and she said, Kim, somebody came up and said, I recognize your name.
[47:13] Kim Monson: I hear you on the Kim Monson Show all the time.
[47:18] Kim Monson: She is the president of the USMC Memorial Foundation, and she and her team, Mary, the whole group, are raising the money for the remodel of the Marine Memorial.
[47:28] Kim Monson: You can help them by going to usmcmemorialfoundation.
[47:33] Kim Monson: You can find him at toadvancefreedom.
[47:34] Kim Monson: com, and you canfind him at the Kim Monson Show.
[47:37] Kim Monson: Let's talk a little bit about the LGB part in your essay here, Exactly Wrong, Democrats and human sexuality, Rick?
[47:44] Rick Turnquist: Well, I think it's important to try to bifurcate the LGBT part away from the teen part.
[47:56] Rick Turnquist: And that's because LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, and bisexual.
[48:01] Rick Turnquist: And they're basically the binary sides of the same coin, attraction to and sex with others of the same sex.
[48:13] Rick Turnquist: And from what I understand of history, they've always been around and sometimes they've been openly embraced, and sometimes they haven't been, which is unfortunate.
[48:25] Rick Turnquist: But I have a very libertarian attitude towards the LGBT community and I have friends and co- workers over the yearswho've been gay and have gotten along just fine with them.
[48:38] Rick Turnquist: I've enjoyed some close friendships, in fact, with some gay people, And so I have no problem at all with any of the LGB part of the spectrum.
[48:47] Rick Turnquist: But where I have a problem is with the teen part of it, because they're going against science, nature, philosophy, religion, and the core of our human existence on this planet.
[49:05] Rick Turnquist: And I want to kind of back up and talk a little bit about transgender activists and what they say when they say a person can somehow be the opposite sex.
[49:15] Rick Turnquist: They say that if a girl feels like she's a boy, and of course a girl has no way of knowing what a boy feels like because she isn't one, they will affirm her feeling as if it's reality.
[49:26] Rick Turnquist: And what's more, they'll advocate that the child take permanent life- altering drugs to delaypuberty and other physical changes.
[49:34] Rick Turnquist: And I'm using a girl as an example, but the same thing is true of young boys as well.
[49:38] Rick Turnquist: Taking it even further, they advocate that the child undergoes surgery to physically alter their body by altering normal, healthy tissues and organs to create a poor facsimile of the imagined or desired thing.
[49:54] Rick Turnquist: And I think another way to look at it would be this way.
[50:00] Rick Turnquist: the nature of human beings to have two arms and two legs.
[50:03] Rick Turnquist: And just imagine if there was a social contagion out there that convinces children that having two arms is a choice, and then identifying as a one-armed person is completely normal and acceptable, or even desirable, which is what they try to do with the LGBT agenda to children.
[50:21] Rick Turnquist: Because this is true to them, they advocate a surgery to amputated arm.
[50:25] Rick Turnquist: As an objective observer, you'd say that this is barbaric and insane, and you'd be correct.
[50:31] Rick Turnquist: But these so-called gender-affirming surgeries are exactly the same and are equally barbaric and insane.
[50:37] Rick Turnquist: And the promotion of these and performance of these surgeries, in my opinion, is unconscionable and should be illegal, as it already is the case in so many states, including my new state of Oklahoma.
[50:47] Kim Monson: Well, and I saw a meme at Rick Turnquist.
[50:51] Kim Monson: somebody, there was a meme and it was of a pirate.
[50:54] Kim Monson: And the meme said that I am so grateful that when I was a second grader and was identifying as a pirate, that my parents didn't poke my eye out.
[51:03] Kim Monson: And I thought, well, that pretty well nails it.
[51:08] Rick Turnquist: And the reason that this is such a vitriolic site is because they're targeting children, which are the next generations and the hope for the future.
[51:20] Rick Turnquist: What really got me, what really woke me up to this whole issue is when you interviewed Erin Lee on the radio, and she told the story of her daughter, Amanda, who had been recruited into an LGBT indoctrination session at her school.
[51:38] Rick Turnquist: And I was just appalled that this, and she went to this art club thing, and the person who facilitated the discussion told her not to tell her parents.
[51:50] Rick Turnquist: And in my view, that's exactly the same as a pedophile trying to groom a child and telling the child not to tell their parents what's been going on.
[52:00] Rick Turnquist: So that's kind of what opened my eye to the whole thing.
[52:03] Rick Turnquist: And I just think it's appalling that taxpayer-funded institutions are promoting the T part of the whole agenda.
[52:14] Rick Turnquist: and when we talk about keeping certain things away from children.
[52:27] Rick Turnquist: Or I'm going to just talk about when I think back to when I was a child, I know I would have been horrified, scared, and confused if I had been exposed to a family- friendlydrag show where grown men dress in female attire, bondage, and other fetish gear, and garments that reveal and even accentuate body parts that are normally kept hidden.
[52:46] Rick Turnquist: I saw a video from June Pride Month where some people, men, grown men, were dressed in fetish gear and dog masks and interacting with children, probably looked to be six, seven years old.
[53:06] Rick Turnquist: And I want to be clear, if adult males want to play dress up and put on sex shows in front of each other, that's totally fine with me.
[53:13] Rick Turnquist: Don't expect me to attend and keep it away from the kids.
[53:16] Rick Turnquist: There's already laws, rules, and regulations that seek to prevent minors from having access to pornography.
[53:22] Rick Turnquist: And prohibiting sexual performances of any kind in front of children is exactly the same principle.
[53:28] Rick Turnquist: And I don't see why people should, why this shouldn't even be a fight.
[53:31] Rick Turnquist: It just should be a thing that it's not appropriate for children to keep it away from the children.
[53:39] Kim Monson: And, Rick, we have gotten ourselves jammed up on time on the show, so we'll keep these as teasers for people to read the piece.
[53:48] Kim Monson: And you did address abortion as well.
[53:50] Kim Monson: So quickly, just give us a teaser on that, and then I recommend that people be signed up for the newsletter because we'll roll this all out this weekend and then go to my website.
[53:59] Kim Monson: So how would you like to button this up?
[54:01] Rick Turnquist: Well, I really hate abortion, not only for what it is itself, what it intrinsically is, but also for the fact that it's an issue that I believe is going to be the downfall of our country because it causes such division over what the proper policy should be.
[54:21] Rick Turnquist: That often, I think, people who support everything that we conservatives stand for will vote for Democrats simply because they also believe that a woman should be able to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
[54:35] Rick Turnquist: And I believe that there needs to be some nuance on this issue.
[54:40] Rick Turnquist: And my goal is to make everybody mad by writing this essay.
[54:44] Rick Turnquist: I'm sure I'm going to make some people on the right mad when I say we have to have nuance on this issue, because, whether we like it or not, most people in America think a woman should have the ability to terminate a pregnancy in the early stages.
[54:58] Rick Turnquist: And as the pregnancy continues, the support for abortion declines.
[55:04] Rick Turnquist: And in fact, most Americans oppose late- termabortions.
[55:07] Rick Turnquist: So, yes, I know that there's an all- or-nothingmentality on the issue, but I think that we need to understand that if we don't elect Republicans, no matter what their views on abortion may be, then we're going to have another four or five years of President Biden, or even worse, President Kamala Harris, possibly lose control of the House and never regain control of the Senate.
[55:34] Rick Turnquist: And the disintegration of our country will continue and even accelerate.
[55:43] Rick Turnquist: And several Wall Street Journal editorial writers have have opined on this as well.
[55:51] Rick Turnquist: But I think we need to really figure out a way to address this issue going into next year's election election.
[55:56] Kim Monson: Rick Turnquist, you are so thought provoking and I so greatly appreciate it.
[56:03] Kim Monson: You can find his essays at KimMonson.
[56:06] Kim Monson: My friends, we are getting ready for our number two.
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[56:21] Show Announcer: It's the Kim Monson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
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[56:44] Kim Monson: I don't think that we should be passing legislation that is so complicated that people kind of throw up their hands and say, I can't understand that.
[56:52] Show Announcer: Today's current opinions and ideas.
[56:55] Kim Monson: And it's not fair, just because you're a big business, that you get a break on this and the little guy doesn't.
[57:02] Show Announcer: Is it freedom or is it force?
[57:05] Show Announcer: Let's have a conversation.
[57:07] Show Announcer: Indeed.
[57:08] Kim Monson: Welcome to hour number two of the Kim Monson Show.
[57:13] Kim Monson: You're each treasured, you're valued, you have purpose.
[57:16] Kim Monson: Take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body.
[57:19] Kim Monson: My friends, we were made for this moment.
[57:23] Kim Monson: That's Producer Joe, Producer Luke, Zach, Echo, Charlie, all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting.
[57:33] Kim Monson: And we're doing something very special for this hour.
[57:35] Kim Monson: We are actually pre- recordingit with Dr.
[57:41] Kim Monson: He's the author of 19 books, and he is a Christian philosopher, apologist.
[57:46] Kim Monson: Would you say that that's correct, Dr.
[57:53] Kim Monson: Talk about creativity and innovation.
[57:58] Doug Groothuis: My first book came out in 1986, which was called Unmasking the New Age.
[58:09] Doug Groothuis: And I've had a career of being in the academy and writing and ministering, doing campus ministry.
[58:17] Doug Groothuis: So the life of an academic usually provides for a lot of time to research and write and teach.
[58:22] Doug Groothuis: So I've tried to make the most of that over the years for the glory of God.
[58:25] Kim Monson: Well, I'm excited to talk about this book.
[58:30] Kim Monson: I talk about being intellectually curious and the books that you write are really, I think, made or written for people that are intellectually curious.
[58:40] Kim Monson: So a couple of other things I wanted to mention.
[58:46] Kim Monson: Sign up for our weekly email newsletter.
[58:48] Kim Monson: That way, you will get first look at our upcoming guests, as well as our most recent essays and podcasts.
[58:53] Kim Monson: You can email me at Kim at KimMonson.
[58:56] Kim Monson: comand thank you to all of you who support us.
[58:58] Kim Monson: We are an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom.
[59:06] Kim Monson: If something's a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it.
[59:10] Kim Monson: And my friends, it's never compassionate to take other people's stuff, whether or not it's their rights, their property, freedom, livelihood, opportunity, or lives via force.
[59:18] Kim Monson: And force could be a weapon, policy, unpredictable and excessive taxation, fear, coercion, government- inducedinflation, or this agenda of the World Economic Forum, the globalist elites.
[59:29] Kim Monson: And again, if something's a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it.
[59:34] Kim Monson: In the spirit of the word of the day, we have a word that I was not familiar with, and it is grok.
[59:41] Kim Monson: It's a transitive verb, and it says, number one, to have or to have acquired an intuitive understanding of or to know something without having to think, such as knowing the number of objects in a collection without needing to count them.
[59:55] Kim Monson: Or number two, to fully and completely understand something in all its details and intricacies.
[60:03] Kim Monson: So this is a word that producer Joe came up with, but you have a little history on this, Dr.
[60:07] Doug Groothuis: Yeah, I think it was invented by Robert Heinlein in a novel called Stranger in a Strange Land.
[60:14] Doug Groothuis: And as a philosopher, it's an interesting idea because there's such a thing as intuitive knowledge, things we simply know without a lot of reflection or analysis.
[60:23] Doug Groothuis: And there's a lot of our knowledge, though, that is based on observation and inference.
[60:30] Doug Groothuis: But we know some things simply through rational intuition, like basic moral truths, that it's always wrong to torture the innocent for pleasure, or love is better than hate, things like that.
[60:44] Doug Groothuis: You have to be careful with this idea, though, because someone might claim to have this deep, infallible knowledge of something without giving an argument, and they're wrong.
[60:53] Doug Groothuis: So, you know, a lot of people talk about my truth and your truth, and I just know it.
[61:01] Doug Groothuis: But as thinking beings, we really need to give an account for what we believe and why.
[61:07] Doug Groothuis: So that idea of grokking captures something in what's called epistemology, the theory of knowledge of rational insights that we know directly without argument or observation.
[61:22] Doug Groothuis: Because if you multiply them, you can just start justifying all kinds of ideas about the world that may be unjustifiable and false.
[61:29] Doug Groothuis: So it's kind of a fun word to play around with a little bit.
[61:32] Kim Monson: Well, that's everyone's challenge is to use the word grok today in a sentence.
[61:37] Kim Monson: You mentioned something and this has been a journey for me.
[61:41] Kim Monson: I remember growing up, we heard just kind of what you alluded to.
[61:46] Kim Monson: I have my truth, you have your truth.
[61:49] Kim Monson: And this was, I think, one of the beginnings of chipping away at the foundation of real truth, because there is a real truth.
[61:59] Kim Monson: And we're seeing that now play out in 2023 America and our world where people, there doesn't seem to be a foundation on some of these different issues out there.
[62:17] Doug Groothuis: And I was worried about the concept of truth losing its meaning and salience, with people saying that truth is relative to communities or to races, or to gender.
[62:29] Doug Groothuis: And my argument there was that a statement is true, as if it corresponds to reality, and you don't get to determine what is true.
[62:38] Doug Groothuis: You could discover what's true, you could defend what's true, but truth is not pigmented.
[62:44] Doug Groothuis: Truth is not black or white, or gray, or brown or red or anything else.
[62:50] Doug Groothuis: A statement is true if it connects and matches and corresponds to reality.
[62:54] Doug Groothuis: So it could be very simple, like I'm 66 years old, which is true.
[62:58] Doug Groothuis: It could be something very profound, like the Bible is the Word of God.
[63:02] Doug Groothuis: Well, defending the claim the Bible is the true and living Word of God will take more work intellectually and will be challenged, you know, more than my statement that I'm 66, although I've been told I don't look a day over 64.
[63:20] Doug Groothuis: Jesus said: if you are truly my disciples, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
[63:25] Doug Groothuis: And if you know truth, then you can align with reality and get your priorities right.
[63:29] Doug Groothuis: If you're at war with the truth, then you're going to be fundamentally off base in everything that you do.
[63:34] Doug Groothuis: So we can't relativize truth and say: well, this is my truth and you have your truth and they don't have to get along.
[63:42] Doug Groothuis: So anything we know that's true in science or history or scripture, or our experience, has to agree with all the other truths.
[63:52] Doug Groothuis: We don't just get to pick out our favorite little truths that empower us or make us feel good, or are politically correct, or woke or something.
[63:59] Doug Groothuis: You know, we've got to try to penetrate to reality through reason and observation and intuition.
[64:05] Kim Monson: And I think a clear example is just because somebody feels that two plus two equals five, it doesn't.
[64:15] Doug Groothuis: Well, I think you're a racist because believe it or not, there are people who say that basic mathematics and having a linear approach to life and being punctual and working hard are not universal values for responsible conduct and success, but actually are elements of this horrible, oppressive white supremacy.
[64:40] Doug Groothuis: And it's also a recipe for failure or anybody who follows that.
[64:43] Doug Groothuis: I mean, if you want to succeed in life, you need to be honest and punctual and learn math and learn grammar and get a decent education and so on.
[64:55] Doug Groothuis: And when you read the scriptures, we're told to be responsible people, to tell the truth, to fear God, to love our neighbor.
[65:06] Doug Groothuis: You know to be responsible, keep your promises, be trained up in the truth of God, be disciplined and diligent and diligent in your calling.
[65:18] Doug Groothuis: So I, from way back, I've been really concerned that we know what is true about the most important things.
[65:26] Doug Groothuis: I think all my writing and all my books have been focused on that as as best I can.
[65:32] Kim Monson: Douglas Groteis and I wanted to get to our quote of the day we decided to choose C.
[65:41] Kim Monson: He died in 1963, was a British writer, literary scholar, and Anglican lay theologian.
[65:47] Kim Monson: He had academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University and Cambridge University.
[65:53] Kim Monson: He's the author of all the tales of Narnia, as well as Mere Christianity, Screwtape Letters.
[66:02] Kim Monson: Groteis, when I read, for example, screw tape letters, I have to read it several times because there's a lot in there.
[66:10] Doug Groothuis: Well, he challenges your thinking, but always in a good way.
[66:14] Doug Groothuis: I've been reading him and teaching a class on him for many, many years.
[66:18] Kim Monson: Well, our quote of the day is this.
[66:20] Kim Monson: He said, life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace and difficulties.
[66:25] Kim Monson: And so with that, we're going to go to break here.
[66:29] Kim Monson: We're going to continue the conversation with Dr.
[66:32] Kim Monson: Douglas Groteis, but we get to do this show because of amazing sponsors.
[66:36] Kim Monson: I know each and every one of them personally and I highly recommend them.
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[69:56] Doug Groothuis: But I did want to give a shout out to the Center for American Values, which is located in Pueblo, Colorado, on the beautiful Riverwalk.
[69:35] Kim Monson: One of those is their Portraits of Valor, honoring our Medal of Honor recipients, as well as then educational programs for public school educators, homeschool, as well as they just started a new online program for civics for K- 12,which is great for families, grandparents and parents to work on that.
[69:42] Kim Monson: So you can get more information by going to AmericanValueCenter.
[69:51] Kim Monson: Douglas Groteis, your latest book, World Religions in Seven Sentences.
[70:03] Doug Groothuis: I wrote a book, came out in 2016, called Philosophy in Seven Sentences.
[70:08] Doug Groothuis: And the notion of this is that philosophers deal with ideas.
[70:13] Doug Groothuis: So you can find books out there, with the pairing of numbers and objects about big topics like the history of the world in six glasses, or you've probably seen those kind of books.
[70:26] Doug Groothuis: So I thought: well, what I, what do philosophers have to deal with?
[70:30] Doug Groothuis: So I thought maybe I could take representative sentences from philosophers like Aristotle.
[70:37] Doug Groothuis: All men by nature desire to know and make that an entry point into philosophical reflection in the pursuit of truth.
[70:45] Doug Groothuis: So I wrote that book, and it came out, and InterVarsity, my publisher for these books, was interested in that, and they followed up actually with some other books.
[70:53] Doug Groothuis: There's another one called The Old Testament in Seven Sentences, The New Testament in Seven Sentences, Christian history in seven sentences.
[71:13] Doug Groothuis: But it's rather what you would call a primer, an introduction, a first treatment of a topic.
[71:18] Doug Groothuis: So what I did is I took six other worlds religions.
[71:22] Doug Groothuis: I took Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Islam.
[71:33] Doug Groothuis: And then I started actually with the sentence from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, God is dead.
[71:41] Doug Groothuis: So I address his atheism and respond to some of his reasons for being an atheist.
[71:48] Doug Groothuis: And then I look at these different religions through the lens of significant statements.
[71:54] Doug Groothuis: So I'm not saying that you can reduce Judaism to one sentence.
[72:01] Doug Groothuis: You can reduce Christianity or any of the other religions to one sentence.
[72:03] Doug Groothuis: It's more like an entry point, like a first step into it.
[72:12] Kim Monson: Question, because I was having lunch with a friend of mine recently, And I realized I did not give her a good explanation because I don't think I totally understand it.
[72:21] Kim Monson: What is the difference between atheist and agnostic?
[72:24] Doug Groothuis: Yes, an atheist is someone who denies that there is a God.
[72:33] Doug Groothuis: Putting it positively, atheists emphasize the natural world, the material world.
[72:45] Doug Groothuis: Lewis has a very good discussion of this in the first chapters of his book, Miracles.
[72:53] Doug Groothuis: So it's from a word gnosis, which is Greek for knowledge, and then A, the negation, I don't know.
[73:00] Doug Groothuis: So you can be agnostic about various topics because you feel you don't have an adequate basis of knowledge to make a decision about it.
[73:10] Doug Groothuis: So an agnostic might also consider himself or herself a skeptic.
[73:14] Doug Groothuis: That is, I have reasons to doubt the existence of God.
[73:21] Doug Groothuis: So this term was invented by, I believe it was Julian Huxley, maybe about 120 years ago, maybe more recently.
[73:32] Doug Groothuis: They'll say, well, I'm noncommittal on this subject.
[73:41] Doug Groothuis: But the functional result is you're not living to please and serve God.
[73:47] Doug Groothuis: And you're not loving God with your heart, soul, strength, and mind and your neighbor as yourself, which Jesus said was the greatest commandment.
[73:55] Doug Groothuis: So an agnostic, you know, could be what I call a soft agnostic.
[74:05] Doug Groothuis: or a hard agnostic is in a worse place because the hard agnostic says, I don't know and nobody knows.
[74:11] Doug Groothuis: It's an absolute ban of knowledge whether or not there is a God.
[74:18] Doug Groothuis: And I think it's an unjustifiable claim to make, because we have many good reasons to believe in the existence of God, from science and philosophy and history and so on.
[74:30] Kim Monson: In my Christian faith, I've come up with something that I've called the five R's.
[74:38] Kim Monson: I don't know if I can remember that.
[74:40] Kim Monson: And I think that actually it could be something that would be good for human relationships as well.
[74:51] Kim Monson: So first of all, I mean, you look at everyone out there.
[74:56] Kim Monson: Christ redeemed, went to the cross for everyone.
[75:00] Kim Monson: I mean, I find that pretty remarkable as I walk around and see all of us.
[75:05] Kim Monson: We're, you know, different sizes, shapes, colors, all that.
[75:09] Kim Monson: And I think, actually, Doug, that this is foundational to the American idea as well.
[75:16] Kim Monson: When it goes in the, when Jefferson says in the Declaration that we're all created equal.
[75:20] Kim Monson: I mean, I think those two things connect.
[75:24] Doug Groothuis: And we could do a little comparative religion right here because I, of course, look at Christianity.
[75:28] Doug Groothuis: And I use as the statement where Jesus says, before Abraham was, I am.
[75:36] Doug Groothuis: He's going back to God's name in Exodus 3 when God talks to Moses and Moses says, what is your name?
[75:46] Doug Groothuis: And then recorded in John chapter 8, Jesus is in a dispute with religious leaders.
[76:01] Kim Monson: And they lost their minds on that one.
[76:10] Doug Groothuis: But let me bring up something that's kind of interesting about we're all made in the image of God.
[76:19] Doug Groothuis: Anyone who comes to Christ on his terms can be redeemed.
[76:21] Doug Groothuis: And I recently heard a statement by Vivek Ramaswamy, who's running for president.
[76:31] Doug Groothuis: He doesn't say, I came here from an Indian background and became a Christian.
[76:37] Doug Groothuis: And his first line in his political platform is, God is real.
[76:44] Doug Groothuis: And he said, well, I'm a Hindu, and we're raising our children as Hindus.
[76:48] Doug Groothuis: but I believe as a Hindu that all people are made in the image and likeness of God.
[77:05] Doug Groothuis: Now, I think Vivek is gleaning from his Catholic schooling, but it's very interesting.
[77:13] Doug Groothuis: If you think about the worldview that influenced the founders, It was certainly Christianity.
[77:23] Doug Groothuis: But you have this idea that there's one God, and God created us in his image and likeness, although the Declaration doesn't say image and likeness, but it says created us and given us certain inalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which really means the pursuit of virtue.
[77:39] Doug Groothuis: So that's assuming the equal value before God of all people.
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[77:48] Doug Groothuis: Although Hindus have religious freedom in our country, and they should, and I like a lot of things about Vivek, that is not a Hindu value.
[77:59] Doug Groothuis: There are four castes, and they're hierarchical, and then there's a group of people outside of the caste called the Dalits, who are even considered subhuman.
[78:08] Doug Groothuis: So America has always had something we call civil religion, which is interesting to study.
[78:15] Doug Groothuis: is the idea that America is uniquely favored among the nations, and our leaders should know that.
[78:26] Doug Groothuis: And they should be in the Judeo- Christiantradition.
[78:29] Doug Groothuis: And now we have somebody running for president who is a self- confessedHindu, and he has every right to do that with the First Amendment, freedom of religion.
[78:37] Doug Groothuis: But he's trying to incorporate a Christian idea of the intrinsic innate value of all human beings made in the image and likeness of God into his position, and good for him, but it's not a Hindu value.
[78:50] Kim Monson: So those two things don't match up.
[78:54] Kim Monson: In your book, Hinduism is one of the religions.
[78:59] Kim Monson: So what is the sentence for Hinduism that you have?
[79:02] Doug Groothuis: Well, Hinduism is a very big tent, and I go into the six pegs of the tent, so to speak.
[79:11] Doug Groothuis: But one of the key statements of Hinduism is a statement called, it's a little obscure, it's called, You are that, or used to be translated as, Thou art that.
[79:21] Doug Groothuis: And the notion is that everything is divine and everything is one.
[79:28] Doug Groothuis: So there's a dialogue in one of the Hindu scriptures called the Upanishads, and the point of the dialogue is to convince a young man that he is one with nature, he's one with other people, he's one with god.
[79:42] Doug Groothuis: So this is a very strong distinction between the biblical teaching that there's an eternal creator and a dependent creation, the creator creation distinction.
[79:56] Doug Groothuis: It's one school of hinduism called non- dualismsays: no, everything is a seamless oneness.
[80:04] Doug Groothuis: And you find liberation spiritually by finding your own identity as divine.
[80:11] Doug Groothuis: And there's a statement for this is called Atman is Brahman.
[80:16] Doug Groothuis: That's the way it's put in the Sanskrit, but it's often translated thou art that.
[80:20] Doug Groothuis: So it's not that you are distinct and separate from God or that you're really at odds with God because you've sinned against him.
[80:28] Doug Groothuis: The answer is to go within and to find this universal spiritual presence within yourself.
[80:35] Doug Groothuis: And this is right at the fountainhead of new age spirituality in America.
[80:43] Kim Monson: I did not understand that correlation, but that's exactly what that sounds like.
[80:48] Kim Monson: When I was younger, there was this term that you're going to go out and find yourself.
[80:55] Kim Monson: And I said that to my father and he says, what?
[81:00] Doug Groothuis: I remember my mother too saying, what is this find yourself stuff?
[81:06] Doug Groothuis: But on this tradition and it's one school of Hinduism called Advaita Vedanta, the truth and knowledge and everything you need is ultimately within yourself.
[81:19] Doug Groothuis: And it's interesting when Vivek was talking about his beliefs as a Hindu, He said one thing that was not true.
[81:25] Doug Groothuis: Hinduism teaches we're all made in the image and likeness of God.
[81:28] Doug Groothuis: But then he said God is within all of us, which is a teaching of Hinduism.
[81:33] Doug Groothuis: If you're talking about non- dualisticHinduism, it's not just that God is inside all of us.
[81:43] Doug Groothuis: And we have to shed the false self of being finite and limited and embrace the true self or the universal self.
[81:50] Doug Groothuis: And this is a belief, of course, that is certainly at odds with the biblical teaching.
[81:56] Doug Groothuis: It's really at odds with common sense, because we always make distinctions between ourselves and other people and ourselves in nature.
[82:03] Doug Groothuis: And how is it that, if we are actually one with this universal, unlimited power, that we so seldom feel it or experience it or live it out, makes so much more sense to say that we are finite creatures of God?
[82:29] Doug Groothuis: That's why God came in Christ, was to reconcile us to himself.
[82:36] Kim Monson: Douglas Groteis, and he has this new book out.
[82:39] Kim Monson: It's only been out for a couple of weeks or so.
[82:41] Kim Monson: World Religions in Seven Sentences.
[82:43] Kim Monson: And it doesn't look like a complicated read either.
[82:55] Doug Groothuis: But when I write, if I take you into deep waters, we wade in step by step.
[82:59] Kim Monson: And I guess what I should mean is it's not volumes and volumes.
[83:05] Kim Monson: I'm thinking of all kinds of interesting dinner conversations that one could have around this.
[83:09] Kim Monson: And we get to do this because of great sponsors.
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[85:16] Kim Monson: Welcome back to The Kim Monson Show.
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[85:26] Kim Monson: Thank you to all of you who support us.
[85:29] Kim Monson: We search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom.
[85:35] Kim Monson: If something's a good idea, you shouldn't have to force people to do it.
[85:38] Kim Monson: And my friends, as we are seeing the renaming of mountains and military bases and taking down statues, it's now more important than ever that we help and support those that are raising the money for the remodel for the USMC Memorial Foundation out at 6th and Colfax.
[85:58] Kim Monson: And you can do that by going to usmcmemorialfoundation.
[86:05] Kim Monson: But it's a way to say thank you and recognize those that have given their lives or have been willing to give their lives for our freedom.
[86:11] Kim Monson: So, again, that is usmcmemorialfoundation.
[86:15] Kim Monson: We're doing something extremely special because this is such a big subject.
[86:19] Kim Monson: And so we've prerecorded this particular hour with Dr.
[86:23] Kim Monson: He is a Christian philosopher, a Christian apologist, which that means in defense of.
[86:29] Kim Monson: And his latest book just out, hot off the press, is World Religions in Seven Sentences.
[86:37] Kim Monson: What's the next one you'd like to talk about, Douglas?
[86:40] Doug Groothuis: Well, it'd be good, I think, to go from Hinduism to Buddhism because Buddhism follows Hinduism.
[86:46] Doug Groothuis: And there was a man named Siddhartha Gautama who was in pursuit of enlightenment, and the Buddhist tradition teaches that he discovered enlightenment and he ended up veering away from certain ideas in Hinduism.
[87:03] Doug Groothuis: He continued to believe in reincarnation and karma, but he believed that the central truth of life is that life is suffering.
[87:14] Doug Groothuis: So the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism are first, life is suffering.
[87:27] Doug Groothuis: And there's a path of discipline called the Eightfold Path, that can lead you to detach from the things of the world and eventually leave this world entirely behind and attain a state called nirvana, which is not anything like the Christian view of the new heavens and the new earth, or anything like the Islamic view of paradise.
[87:55] Doug Groothuis: The Buddhists have a hard time actually saying what it is, but it's not a person, place, or thing.
[88:04] Doug Groothuis: The first point of your religion is life is suffering.
[88:06] Doug Groothuis: and Buddhism has sometimes been called the ultimate no to existence.
[88:11] Doug Groothuis: This may sound strange to people, because we hear so much about mindfulness now, which comes out of Buddhism, and the idea of mindfulness is to quiet and still the mind and properly direct the mind so that you're not anxious and you can become more loving and compassionate.
[88:26] Doug Groothuis: Well, there may be some limited wisdom to that, but as a philosopher, what I want to do is get to the root of the religion.
[88:34] Doug Groothuis: And the religion does not say, as christianity says, that it's a good world that god created, but human beings fell into sin.
[88:45] Doug Groothuis: We see that story in genesis one, two and three- and that god can redeem the world- not just redeem your thinking, but redeem your body.
[88:52] Doug Groothuis: So I'm an anglican and we confess every week we believe in the resurrection of the body.
[88:58] Doug Groothuis: We believe that because christ came and lived for us and died for us and rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, he will one day come back and raise the dead and judge and purge and restore the universe.
[89:14] Doug Groothuis: The world has fallen into sin so severely that it took God himself to come to redeem us in the person of Christ.
[89:22] Doug Groothuis: But that redemption includes both the mind and the body and the universe.
[89:27] Doug Groothuis: So if there were no God, I could see how Buddhism would be attractive in a sense, because it says the world is just full of frustrations.
[89:37] Doug Groothuis: You know, one way to put it is we have what we don't want and we don't have what we want.
[89:48] Doug Groothuis: So one way of coping with this is just to stop caring so much, is to detach.
[90:00] Doug Groothuis: And so don't sink your life into things that are going to disappoint you.
[90:08] Doug Groothuis: But the biblical view of this, and you see this in the book of Ecclesiastes especially, is yes, life under the sun is ephemeral.
[90:24] Doug Groothuis: So there is a God who will bring good and justice through history, but it is a world of impermanence and struggles and suffering, but there's a final meaning.
[90:39] Doug Groothuis: So the end of the book of Ecclesiastes says that we should fear God and keep his commandments, because God will bring all things into account.
[90:48] Doug Groothuis: And then the fuller story of that we have in the rest of Scripture, of the gospel message that God so loved the world, he sent his only son, that whoever believes on him might not perish but have everlasting life.
[90:59] Doug Groothuis: So we can have the hope and the knowledge, the justified true belief of eternal life, getting right with God through Christ.
[91:08] Doug Groothuis: And that is the biblical way of dealing with disappointments, suffering.
[91:37] Doug Groothuis: I had defended the Christian worldview and written so many things about it.
[91:43] Doug Groothuis: She had a very tragic form of dementia, and she knew she was going to die of it.
[91:49] Doug Groothuis: and we didn't try to pretend that this wasn't horrible, but neither did we say, well, everything's impermanent.
[91:56] Doug Groothuis: We'll try to detach ourselves from the suffering and hope that when we die we can attain nirvana and not have to be reincarnated again.
[92:06] Doug Groothuis: We went to Revelation 21, 22, new heavens and the new earth.
[92:11] Doug Groothuis: This is after Christ comes again, and there's no curse, no tears, no suffering, and it's this wonderful image of a garden, a city, of beautiful restoration.
[92:20] Doug Groothuis: And it's not just a happy thought to get you through a tough day.
[92:26] Doug Groothuis: So if what we have in scripture about the life, death, and resurrection and ascension of Jesus is true, we have tremendous historical evidence for that, then you can trust what Jesus said about the future.
[92:50] Doug Groothuis: So suffering is really one of the key questions of human existence.
[92:54] Doug Groothuis: And every worldview has to have some kind of response to suffering.
[92:58] Doug Groothuis: The Buddhist view is we suffer, detach from it, and hope that eventually through spiritual discipline you can leave this wheel of suffering, or what's called the wheel of samsara.
[93:13] Doug Groothuis: Buddhism has some insights about consciousness and not investing overly in things that pass away.
[93:26] Doug Groothuis: But as the final story of what reality is and what human hope should be, it falls very short.
[93:36] Kim Monson: I think I've learned through my Christian faith that there is a difference between happy and joy.
[93:47] Kim Monson: Because I think you can be joyful even in suffering.
[93:51] Kim Monson: Happy is more of a something from the outside, I think, that might be happening.
[93:58] Kim Monson: So what do you think about that, Doug?
[94:01] Doug Groothuis: Well, I think the words are used somewhat interchangeably in Scripture.
[94:04] Doug Groothuis: But there's certainly the reality that no matter how unpleasant your situation is, you can take heart that God loves you.
[94:19] Doug Groothuis: And even if you're confused and angry, you can bring that to God.
[94:24] Doug Groothuis: And I've done a lot of writing and talk and speaking in my life on this idea of lament.
[94:30] Doug Groothuis: and biblically we can really pour out our heart before God, our anger, our confusion, and God doesn't reject us because we are questioning.
[94:40] Doug Groothuis: There are about 60 Psalms of Lament out of the 150 Psalms in the Hebrew Bible.
[94:43] Doug Groothuis: And some of them are pretty raw, you know, pretty gritty.
[94:47] Doug Groothuis: And Jesus himself in John 11, when he's at the grave of his friend Lazarus, Jesus was greatly moved in his spirit that Lazarus had died and people were suffering.
[95:04] Doug Groothuis: And he was so attached that he grieved and felt frustrated in a sense at death.
[95:10] Doug Groothuis: But then he raised Lazarus from the dead supernaturally.
[95:20] Doug Groothuis: In fact, there's a Buddhist story that I mentioned in the book of where a woman lost her son and she couldn't give him up.
[95:31] Doug Groothuis: And the Buddha said, go to every house in the village and ask if there's a house that has not been troubled by death.
[95:42] Doug Groothuis: And so she comes back to the Buddha and learns her lesson.
[95:49] Doug Groothuis: She buries, well, she gives her child up to be cremated and follows the Buddha.
[95:55] Doug Groothuis: Now compare that story with Jesus, the tomb of Lazarus.
[95:59] Doug Groothuis: He rises again from the dead and says, I am the resurrection and the life.
[96:04] Doug Groothuis: Whoever believes on me, though he die, yet shall he live again.
[96:11] Doug Groothuis: And it's not just, well, pick the one that seems to work for you.
[96:15] Doug Groothuis: We have really strong reason and evidence and argument to believe the biblical stories.
[96:24] Kim Monson: Douglas Groteis about his most recent book of 19 books, but just hot off the press, World Religions in Seven Sentences.
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[99:26] Kim Monson: And welcome back to The Kim Monson Show.
[99:31] Kim Monson: Sign up for our weekly email newsletter.
[99:33] Kim Monson: And you can email me at Kim at KimMonson.
[99:36] Kim Monson: We did something very special for this hour.
[99:40] Kim Monson: Douglas Groteis regarding his latest book, World Religions in Seven Sentences.
[99:45] Kim Monson: It's not a long book, but I think there's a lot in it.
[99:50] Kim Monson: So we've talked about Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism.
[99:54] Kim Monson: What's the next religion that we should talk about, Douglas?
[99:51] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[99:52] Kim Monson: Douglas Goldstein is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
[100:00] Doug Groothuis: And the statement I have from Taoism is that the Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao, which is taken from one of the principal texts of Taoism called the Tao Te Ching, written by a rather shadowy figure called Lao Tzu.
[100:14] Doug Groothuis: And the reason I included Taoism is not because it's one of the most popular religions.
[100:20] Doug Groothuis: globally, the numbers of Taoists are far beyond, excuse me, far beneath Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
[100:31] Doug Groothuis: But the reason I did is because this idea that the ultimate reality is beyond words and beyond concepts is often heard.
[100:43] Doug Groothuis: And whether or not someone is a Taoist, they may resonate or agree with this idea that the way, the Tao basically means the way.
[101:00] Doug Groothuis: More recently, it tends to be spelled with a D, D-A-O.
[101:06] Doug Groothuis: It's a Chinese word that I could not pronounce properly.
[101:10] Doug Groothuis: So the older translations of the Tao teaching will use a T.
[101:17] Doug Groothuis: But it's a book called The Tao Te Ching, which is a collection of aphorisms and epigrams.
[101:29] Doug Groothuis: But this idea that I wanted to work with is called the ineffability claim.
[101:35] Doug Groothuis: And if something is ineffable, it means that it cannot be represented in words or logic.
[101:44] Doug Groothuis: So when people talk about religion and the ultimate reality, they will often say that this is beyond reason, beyond really rational discussion.
[101:58] Doug Groothuis: But you somehow can intuit this, and I really go to town on that.
[102:04] Doug Groothuis: I'm an analytic philosopher and a lot of my trainings was with a philosopher of religion named Keith Yandel, and he spent a lot of work on this idea.
[102:15] Doug Groothuis: Now, if you say the Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao, it seems like you've already contradicted yourself, right?
[102:22] Doug Groothuis: Because you just uttered a sentence about what cannot be uttered.
[102:26] Doug Groothuis: Now, if you mean that the Tao or the way or the ultimate reality is not the same as statements about it, well, that's a truism.
[102:34] Doug Groothuis: You know, I'm not the same as the statement Doug Grothuis exists.
[102:39] Doug Groothuis: But it represents in religion a kind of irrational orientation that if you're talking about the way of life, words will always fail.
[102:54] Doug Groothuis: And it's more a matter of somehow just resonating with reality, intuiting reality, not really subjecting truth claims to rational analysis.
[103:09] Doug Groothuis: And if you compare, for example, this Taoist idea, the Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao, with biblical religion.
[103:19] Doug Groothuis: So when I look at Judaism, the statement I take is from Exodus 3.
[103:29] Doug Groothuis: He's selected Moses to be the liberator and the lawgiver.
[103:40] Doug Groothuis: And God tells him his name and then makes predictions that Moses will be used by God to liberate God's children from Egypt.
[103:50] Doug Groothuis: Now, if this was a Taoist account, there's no conversation with God.
[103:58] Doug Groothuis: there's no clear reference to a creator in relation to creation in Taoism.
[104:06] Doug Groothuis: There are a few kind of shadowy statements in there, but it's not direct.
[104:10] Doug Groothuis: And the idea that the Tao Te Ching is somehow a rational revelation from God is not on offer.
[104:31] Doug Groothuis: And so much of human existence is about communication through words, whether they're spoken or written or symbols that we use.
[104:41] Doug Groothuis: And one of the most compelling aspects of a biblical worldview is that God is a God who speaks.
[104:52] Doug Groothuis: God said there shall be light and there was light.
[104:54] Doug Groothuis: and God created us, we know from Genesis 1, in his image and likeness.
[105:00] Doug Groothuis: And that means we have the ability to think, to reason, to relate, to create.
[105:06] Doug Groothuis: And so God is a speaking God, and he speaks to people who can hear, at least if we, as Jesus said, have ears to hear and eyes to see.
[105:15] Doug Groothuis: We can perceive what God has communicated in nature and scripture.
[105:19] Doug Groothuis: So we don't have to deny our intellect or, as you said earlier, deny our intellectual curiosity or say that the ultimate reality is based on some kind of non-rational experience.
[105:36] Doug Groothuis: So I find the Taoist approach to be very intellectually unsatisfying.
[105:43] Doug Groothuis: You'll find a few quips in Daoism that you can resonate actually if you have conservative political leanings.
[105:48] Doug Groothuis: There are a few statements in Daoism about the, the lack of wisdom and big government, and so on.
[105:56] Doug Groothuis: You can find some nice statements here and there in Daoism, but this idea that the ultimate reality, the religious truth, is beyond words is, I think, self-defeating, because you're using words to say it and then it simply cuts off who God is and what God has said and what he's done in history.
[106:14] Doug Groothuis: So we need knowledge to live well in everything, in economics, in medicine, in politics.
[106:21] Doug Groothuis: And we, more than anything, need the knowledge of God because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
[106:27] Doug Groothuis: And Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love God with your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
[106:31] Doug Groothuis: And the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself.
[106:36] Doug Groothuis: So we don't want to just be lost in mystical sayings in our life.
[106:43] Doug Groothuis: We need to know who God is, the Ten Commandments, the gospel, the way of salvation.
[106:52] Doug Groothuis: And Taoism, as a philosophy of life, cuts that out.
[106:57] Doug Groothuis: It denies the knowledge of the ultimate reality and substitutes these epigrams, aphorisms, instead of really being a revelation, a rational, intelligible revelation from God.
[107:15] Kim Monson: Okay, we've got just a couple of minutes left.
[107:18] Kim Monson: So how do you want to finish this up regarding your latest book here?
[107:26] Doug Groothuis: Well, it's both an introduction to world religions, and it's also a running argument for the truth of the biblical worldview.
[107:37] Doug Groothuis: A couple of reviewers have said, well, you're pretending it's some kind of objective treatment, but you're really arguing for Christianity.
[107:51] Doug Groothuis: You can compare those other religions to Christianity and say, I've made an argument for the truth, rationality, and pertinence for Christianity in conversation with other worldviews.
[108:05] Doug Groothuis: I'm a committed follower of Christ, have been for 47 years, and I'm also a philosopher of religion who knows something about world religions.
[108:13] Doug Groothuis: So this is a ongoing assessment of some of the world's religions, with a logical critique and with a comparison of the different religions to Christianity.
[108:27] Doug Groothuis: And I believe and argue that Christianity is rationally superior and existentially more pertinent to life.
[108:35] Doug Groothuis: So I would love people to read it with an open mind, see if my arguments make any sense.
[108:43] Doug Groothuis: And I hope that Christians will read it because we live in a pluralistic world.
[108:48] Doug Groothuis: You're going to be talking to Buddhists and Hindus and so on.
[108:56] Doug Groothuis: And some people say, well, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all based on the faith of Abraham.
[109:02] Doug Groothuis: So let's not get fussy about the differences among them.
[109:08] Doug Groothuis: And, in fact, Islam claims to be the successor of Christianity and Judaism.
[109:13] Doug Groothuis: And that's something Christians need to challenge, which I do in the book.
[109:16] Kim Monson: Well, and the book is World Religions in Seven Sentences by Dr.
[109:21] Kim Monson: It seems to me like this would be a great book for book clubs and some great discussion on that.
[109:26] Kim Monson: So, Douglas, it's been great having you in studio.
[109:30] Kim Monson: And our quote for the end of the show is C.
[109:33] Kim Monson: He says this, once people stop believing in God, the problem is not that they will believe in nothing.
[109:37] Kim Monson: Rather, the problem is that they will believe in anything.
[109:40] Kim Monson: So my friends today, be grateful, read great books, think good thoughts, listen to beautiful music, communicate and listen well, live honestly and authentically, strive for high ideals, and like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way.
[109:53] Kim Monson: God bless you, and God bless America.
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