Atheist Debates - Fear is the mind killer

A Facebook post about the evil "Energy attachment" of Pokémon prompted questions about demon possession and playing games with 'magic' involved.

Spellcasting +1

[boterlettersukkel]

Litany against fear Dune - Frank Herbert.

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

[unturbe]

I have a black belt in karate. When my pastor preached that all things oriental such as yoga and martial arts are from the devil, well, that was it for me.

[benkesler]

Getting someone afraid is one of the tried and true methods of scamming them.

[ZenWithKen]

Quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand. Ignorance, prejudice and fear walk hand in hand. Wise words from Mr. Neil Peart.

[thebolas]

I remember playing Magic on the schoolbus during middle school. The bus driver pulled over and came back to our seat. She said "I heard you were playing with magic cards and I wanted to make sure you weren't making the seats fly around."

I don't think I've been as baffled before or since. After a full minute of silence from when the driver got us back on the road I asked the guy I was playing against "Does she think magic is real?" It never occurred to me that an adult could believe in actual magic or that you could buy a pack of it for $3.25.

[grumpyoldman]

I have to say I was very fortunate to have been brought up within a very liberal Catholic environment. I was first introduced to Dungeons and Dragons in 1980 (I was 10), and we actually were allowed to form an after school club and they gave us classroom to gather in and play the game once per week. We would play as long as 4 hours past school time ending and it was sone of the fondest memories I have from my school days.
Despite this happening during the big satanic panic of the 80's, my church never fell prey to it

[HoneyTone-TheSearchContinues]

A couple of years ago one of my grandsons got into Pokémon at about age 5 1/2. It greatly increased his reading and math abilities. He learned to play the game - which is frustratingly complicated to me - and memorized the rules, read all the character cards, figured out how to do the the math in his head, planned and executed strategies, and learned to “read” his opponents (parents, siblings, grandparents ). It was stunning how quickly and how far he matured just because his enthusiasm for the game motivated him to develop the skills needed to hold his own or best the (usually) older and wiser opponents he played against. If that was a demon’s doing, all I can say is: THANK YOU! 😂 😂 😂

[joshuaduncan]

Like Stevie sang: "When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain't the way."

[Boomdude]

As someone who's mom is almost exactly like this lady, I have reason to believe it's genuine, for the pokemon being Pokémon, some phones auto correct it to be that way. As for the Energy, I doubt she has ever even read the rules or played the game, how would she know Energy is a game mechanic.

[cshubs]

Who else remembers the episode of King of the Hill when Bobby was about to use magic to refill the wine during a church talent show? So hilarious the way his parents stopped him, Can't have a 10yo boy show he can do what Jesus "did."

[plexibreath]

I remember only listening to Petra, but also Larry Norman back in the late 1970s. "Fear is the mind killer", I remember that from when I first read it in the Frank Herbert book, it's advice I've headed ever sense.

[HassanRadwan]

The best example of how religion exploits our fears is of course the notion of an eternal Hell. The possibility that you may suffer an eternity of the most horrific torture - even if it may seem irrational - paralyses the mind and keeps one prisoner to the religion, even if one has serious doubts.

[Thunderwell]

The 70s, 80s and early 90s called.
They want their "Satanic Panic" back.

[psyseraphim]

I must not fear, fear is the mind killer, fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear, I will allow it to pass through me and over me. When the fear is gone I will turn the inner eye to see it's path, where the fear has passed there will be nothing only I will remain.

[hammalammadingdong]

Fanatical mom: "The word 'Energy' on a playing card is harmful to my precious children."
Also Fanatical mom: "I'm feeding my kids MacDonald's happy meals".

Irony: 999

[Johnny_Vee]

I didn't realize you're just two years younger than me! Unsurprisingly, I have many similar experiences, the loss of some great old records, the worry of DnD... I think I left religion earlier than you but I feel a new connection to you now.
Thank you for your wise and well thought out words.

[tomschmidt]

I had never thought about this before. It must be terrifying to believe powerful demons are out after you.

[superfly]

She’s just one step away from calling the old, weird cat lady next door a witch. “Let’s throw her in the pond and see if she floats!”

[jadenhansen]

I love that you play Magic the Gathering! It’s now on my bucket list to one day play a few games with you haha

[Lightbulb]

I’m Muslim and I absolutely love this video.. because literally most, if not all, Muslims — including myself — are guilt-tripped into oblivion by fear of things we have no evidence whatsoever.

If I had to be honest, when I first heard about Matt from ‘The Atheist Experience’, I despised him, because of the condescending tone he’d don when interacting with the folks that’d call-in; until I arrived at a period in my life almost three years ago when I delved deeper into becoming a better critical thinker and user of reason. I ended up analyzing the Quran, finding out a lot of what I thought was in there, not to be found therein, but only eisegesis of its contents by means of extraneous literature, which is “bolstered” by circular reasoning and genetic fallacies: the Hadith.

Long story short, I’m still Muslim, but my perspective has changed considerably. I no longer take traditional perspectives seriously, as they are riddled with grotesque fallacies and appeals to fear about sheer nonsense.

Instead, I’ve taken the time to learn Arabic and implement what I learned from studying Philosophy to understand the Quran, which by the way throughout its passages, mentions rhetorically “will you not use reason” more times than “will you not believe.” If the Quran indeed be the truth, as it so frequently says it is, and because it is rhetorically asking to you reason, then surely it should stand the test of reason. So, what I’ve been doing is binge-watching all of Matt’s videos — actually taking the time to hear him out — and this journey has made me grow to respect him, because he is just trying to find what is true by means of good, solid evidence. And noticing this endeavor has made me understand why perhaps Matt sometimes dons an attitude with these calling-in folks: because they’re so sure of themselves that their position is solid, but it’s been refuted as weak or outright false numerous times — if not on both his channel and TAE, then by other men of reason.

Most of his refutations are really good, but they don’t affect my belief in the existence of God because these refutations don’t disprove the existence of God, but demonstrate them as insufficient arguments for the existence of God — though I still disagree with your refutation of the argument from design, not the watchmaker analogy: you’re right, it is a rubbish analogy.
The reason why I’ve been binging his videos is because Matt has a strong commitment to use of reason and evidence, and the Quran is always talking about truth, clear evidence, and use of reason, so surely if Matt is endeavoring for use of reason, the Quran is able to stand the test of his objections. Interestingly, so far, it has, but that is only insofar as I’ve watched Matt’s videos and my cumulative knowledge of all the problems of theological arguments by humans or the Quran.