Episode 103: The Pastor Skeptic

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Jeremy Steele (1:01)

When a kid comes out, there's a 15% chance that they'll try to kill themselves. If they're rejected on religious grounds by their family, that doubles. Why don't we set the bar at only sharing beliefs that don't make them want to kill them? It's a low bar, but I feel like we can clear it.

SPEAKER_2 (1:22)

Yeah.

SPEAKER_4 (1:22)

Right?

Dan McClellan (1:27)

Hey, everybody. I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:28)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:29)

And you're listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and we combat the spread of misinformation about the same. And you may not be able to hear it, but those of you watching this on YouTube will see that we're in a slightly different setting.

Dan Beecher (1:48)

Yeah, it's a this is a whole new configuration for us. We are we are all in the same room. We are here. You and I, Dan, are here together. And we have a special guest. Would you like to introduce our guest?

Dan McClellan (2:00)

Our guest is Jeremy. And I suppose I should have asked you at some point about your last name.

Jeremy Steele (2:08)

But Steele Steele.

Dan McClellan (2:09)

No, I knew that. OK, I'm sorry. I'm the worst with names. But Jeremy is on social media, on TikTok, on YouTube, on Instagram as well. Right. Yeah. As a you, the thing that sticks in my head about your introduction of yourself in each video is that you are a deep skeptic.

Jeremy Steele (2:28)

Yeah.

Dan McClellan (2:29)

And a pastor.

Jeremy Steele (2:30)

Right.

Dan McClellan (2:30)

And I would like to hear more about what deep skeptic means to you. And then introduce yourself a little more thoroughly for the kids.

Jeremy Steele (2:40)

Yeah, for sure. Deep skeptic. So like, I mean, there's some people that are like skeptical. They're just like, I don't know about that. Right. For me, what it means when I say, I mean, deep skeptic is that I, like, I just am not going to accept something until I have some solid data. And if I don't have solid data, we'll leave it open. Right. And I think when I say deep skeptic, I also mean that, like, I'm never going to, like, close down really anything I believe. And so that's it. It's 100 percent. It's the law, whatever. I'm always open to new data. And of the more data I amass about something, the less likely it is that I'm going to sort of let go of that.

Dan Beecher (3:37)

And specifically, we're talking about, like, skeptical even of things like the question of whether or not there's a God, or any of those sorts of things, which is not the most traditional position for a pastor to take.

Jeremy Steele (3:51)

You're not wrong. And people regularly remind me of that online. Yeah, I'm sure they do. Because, you know, I think the question about the existence of God, it's a hard thing to, I mean, like, any data, like anything you get is just completely subjective. Yeah. And so, like, there are days when I'm like, yeah, I think God exists. But it's all experiential. Like, it's like you experience a sense of transcendence or whatever it is that people sort of want to tag to God or the universe or whatever they call it.

But it's always, it's always boils down to experience. Right? You can't measure that.

Dan Beecher (4:37)

Yet.

Jeremy Steele (4:39)

Yet. So I go back and forth. So, and that's, I think for me, there's this really great book by a researcher named Dr. Lisa Miller. She's Columbia. And I think she worked with Yale or Princeton. All the Ivy League schools are the same in my head.