Category: Audio Files

HERE I AM WITH PRESIDENT ROMNEY
Parody of Allan Sherman’s “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh”
Lyrics by M. Spaff Sumsion
PERFORMED BY ROBERT LUND

In London’s Westminster Central Hall on March 27, some 2,000 people turned out to hear Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and philosopher A.C. Grayling debate a trio of religious authorities on the proposal “We’d be better off without Religion.” (The motion carried, 1,205 to 778.)

Julia Sweeney, a former Catholic, tells the story of how her faith began to crack after reading a most alarming book ... called the Bible. Her story is excerpted from her play, “Letting Go of God,” which ran in Los Angeles.

She is best known for her roles on Saturday Night Live, especially as the androgynous character “Pat.” In 2006, Sweeney was awarded the Richard Dawkins Award and the American Humanist Association’s “Humanist Pioneer” award, and joined the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America. She also does commercials for the Freedom From Religion Foundation on Air America Radio.

Julia starts with a story about meeting with the Mormon missionaries.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is perhaps the best known of his many allegories, metaphors, and parables. The allegory is told and interpreted at the beginning of Book 7 of Republic.