Thanks for this Alex, I'll think further about the podcast and try and leave some constructive feedback. I alsoagree that the Watson issue was handled perfectly.
Rod, it seems impossible for a lot of the militant atheists I know to grasp that point. For some reason, they feel that unless a religious or spiritual belief has the tenets of monotheism, it isn't even worth paying attention to in order to debunk. B. Alan Wallace made the point very cogently about Susan Blackmore in Alex's interview with him. For some reason, the work and research they do on the monotheisms (Islam, Christianity, Judaism) is thorough and careful and some of their critiques are spot on. But as soon as other belief systems get involved, thought seems to go out the window: An inability to imagine believing in an afterlife whilst not believing in God, an inability to understand people who have no fear of going to hell or don't even believe in one etc. Intellectuals are often very depraved people.
In some way, this is just due to the nature of the modern world. After colonialism, Hinduism and Shinto were modelled on western religions which is ridiculous. Ah well, rant over.
