Losing My Religion Joe Armstrong

Author Joe Armstrong is interviewed by Scott R. Stahlecker, host of the leading YouTube channel Atheist View: Life without Religion
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7mNYXFXuBg). 
We talked about Irish rock legends U2. Joe sings Molly Malone! Both Joe and Scott are former committed Christian ‘pastors’ who no longer believe in God.
They discuss the negative view of self that’s inculcated from childhood by Christianity, with its emphasis on sin and the supposed need to be saved. They chat about Catholicism and Protestantism in Ireland and the time of the Troubles in the North of Ireland.
The association between theatre and liturgy is explored, and the Catholic liturgy’s appeal to the senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. The Catholic charismatic renewal of the 1970s is discussed, and its exploration in Joe Armstrong's first memoir In My Gut, I Don’t Believe.
His Uncle Father John Armstrong’s ‘faith story’, his contracting TB and spending 11 years in hospital and then becoming a Catholic priest. The impact of his story on Joe as a young boy and adolescent and their mutual regard.
Joe discusses his difficult relationship with his mother and yet how well she took his decision to leave the priestly path after nine years.
Ireland is compared favourably to MAGA and bible-belt America, with today’s USA having much in common with a past, theocratic Ireland. Whereas Ireland is on an educated, compassionate secular trajectory, America seems to be regressing towards a theocracy.
20 young men joined the Marists Fathers in Dublin in 1980 but, one by one, 17 of them left, before or after ordination. Joe retain good relationships with some former Marists, with two of them attending the recent launch of his second memoir, Saved by a Woman.
They discuss the negative view of Catholicism towards sex, sexuality and the sexual impulse; and the continuum between heterosexuality and homosexuality and how relatively few people are 100 per cent heterosexual or 100 per cent homosexual.
The negative view of women within Catholicism is addressed, with the belief that the ‘first woman’ Eve brought sin into the world and the myth that Mary had herself to be conceived ‘immaculately’ and then she, supposedly, conceived Jesus without having intercourse with a man, retaining her virginity ‘before, during and after’ his birth. (How can a baby be born without the hymen being broken? Or conceived without human male semen?)
Joe is glad he studied theology. It gave him the intellectual basis for his atheism. He says: 'My faith was always predicated by an ‘if’: ‘If’ God exists, it’s got to make a difference in your life. If it’s true, it’s got to make a radical difference to our lives. But it was always ‘if’.'
There is no resurrection account in the earliest form of the earliest Gospel, the Gospel of Mark. What we read of supposed ‘resurrection appearances’ was added many years after the supposed ‘events’ it ‘reports’ upon.
A crunch point for Joe was that the Church teaches a vocation comes from God. 'I was called to diaconate and they suddenly changed the rules in the Vatican about when ordination was to take place. Formally called by the congregation to diaconate, that then had to be put on hold for five months because of the new rules. I wondered if God had called me when the congregation originally called me or if God had changed His mind in light of the new Vatican rules!'
'The second thing that showed me that religious faith was a Big Lie was that the Church admitted that compulsory celibacy for priests was a manmade rule. Yet it elevates its manmade rule over what it claims to be God’s call to the priesthood. Once a priest, always a priest in Catholic theology. Paedophile priests, insane priests, murderer priests all remain priests to their dying day. Yet the Church stops good priests from exercising their priesthood merely because they fall in love and marry someone.'
Once you discar

Podcast of the book launch of Saved by a Woman, the new book in the acclaimed memoir series Losing Religion, Finding Myself by Joe Armstrong, author of the Joe the Human Substack. Humanist celebrant Eamon Murphy, interviews the author, Joe reads extracts from his second memoir, there is live music and recorded songs co-written by Andrea Patron, The Rayne and Joe Armstrong.
Recorded on 3 March 2024 at a live Zoom event. The podcast includes the first ever public performance of their new, yet-to-be-released song ‘So Glad I Married You’, which packs an emotional punch while telescoping a lifetime’s journey into two poignant verses.
Joe Armstrong reads from the 11th episode of Saved by a Woman in which he made his life-changing decision not to return to his priestly path. It’s some 30 years since the events recounted in the book happened, making it easier for the author to share with raw honesty and vulnerability.
One of the joys of writing a memoir is reconnecting with people from your past whom you’ve lost touch with. The book reignites old friendships and brings people together again.
Joe shares about the joy of writing, the buzz he got in his early 20s in 1985 hearing his ‘romantic fiction’ performed by professional actor Dan Riordan on the Gay Byrne Show on RTE Radio One, Ireland’s national broadcaster. He talks about never understanding why anyone would take vows of celibacy, obedience and poverty in order to be a teacher, given that there was no shortage of lay teachers to do the job.
He shares his process of writing his memoirs: reading his journals of the period, identifying key themes and turning points, building a structure for the book, writing it, rewriting it and handing it to his Editor and Chief, his wife, Ruth.
We listen to Every Moment co-written by Andrea Patron, The Rayne and Joe Armstrong. Joe wrote the basic lyrics and melody for this song more than 30 years ago, ten days after he proposed to Ruth. It’s a catchy love song and a marriage engagement song, sung beautifully by The Rayne, with Andrea Patron performing his magic on trumpet.
Joe introduces his second reading from Saved by a Woman, which celebrates his second meeting with Ruth, his attraction to her and his best ever birthday gift, received on his 30th birthday, of a chocolate biscuit, given to him by Ruth.
Eamon asks Joe about his lack of faith in himself to sustain a relationship and wonders where it came from. Joe feels it might have come from his dysfunctional family of origin, explored in his first memoir In My Gut, I Don’t Believe; and his parents’ unhappy marriage, which didn’t inspire him to believe that marriages could be happy.
Audience member Dara Hogan asks if theology faculties should be closed down in universities. Joe disagrees. He is glad he has a degree in theology. It informed his atheism, giving him the intellectual basis for informed unbelief.
PJ Conneely asks Joe about the Irish idea of the priest having his ‘mother’s vocation’. Joe says that was not the case with him. He doesn’t believe anyone has a priestly vocation. In rejecting his own ‘priestly vocation’, he judged all religions were made up and founded on a Big Lie. He contends that professional religious believers who believe, believe in a Big Lie.
Joe shares about his mother’s unquestioning religious faith. As an infant and child, you believe everything your parents tell you. Joe knows men ten or 20 years older than him for whom it was a matter of their mother’s vocation. Some have contacted him since the publication of his first memoir, saying how ogre-like their mother became when they abandoned their priestly vocation, and the public shame they felt at being, as it was then considered, a ‘spoilt priest’.
Eamon Murphy remembers a letter sent to Joe by his mother, reproduced in Saved by a Woman, in which Joe’s mother did not come across as embittered by his leaving. Joe confirms that she took his departure very well, congr

The second part of guest appearance by Joe the Human Substack author, Joe Armstrong, at North West Humanists, Sligo, Ireland, on 3 March 2024, invited by Gill Bell, Convenor, Humanist Celebrant and Biodynamic Psychotherapist. Relaxed interview format, with readings from the second book, Saved by a Woman, in the memoir series Losing Religion, Finding Myself, by Joe Armstrong. Available in Kindle, Paperback and Hardback editions. This is a slightly edited version of the second half of the public event. Both the first half and second half, and the full event, can be seen in three separate videos on YouTube. As well as readings from the second memoir, the Q&A session led to interesting discussions about the indoctrination of children into religion and how hard it is to rewire one's brain after indoctrination. A member of the audience had himself been a student for the Catholic priesthood in the early 1960s, and his experience was difficult; as was the experience of seminarians of that vintage who didn't get ordained. Their was a feeling of shame and embarrassment in the era of the so-called 'spoilt priest' (someone who left before ordination). There was also an interesting discussion on the word spirituality and its ambiguity; how it is meaningful if applied to feelings or moods of the human spirit but meaningless if applied to a so-called 'Holy Spirit' or supposed 'spirits'. 

First Part of Gill meets Joe interview. Joe Armstrong, author of the memoir series Losing Religion, Finding Myself (https://www.amazon.com/-/en/dp/B0C71Q2XK7?binding=paperback&qid=1617184162&sr=8-1&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tpbk) is interviewed by Humanist Celebrant and Biodynamic Psychotherapist Gill Bell (humanistgb@gmail.com), Convenor North West Humanists (Ireland), in Sligo, Ireland, on 3 March 2024, four days before the launch of his second memoir, Saved By A Woman (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0954661028?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tpbk_1&storeType=ebooks&qid=1617184162&sr=8-1), in the series, Losing Religion, Finding Myself. In this, the first half of the interview, Joe reads from and discusses the first book in the series In My Gut, I Don't Belief (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/095466101X?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tpbk_0&storeType=ebooks&qid=1617184162&sr=8-1), exploring how Joe Armstrong transitioned from committed believer studying for the Roman Catholic priesthood to outgrowing all religious beliefs. No longer a believer in any God, he is convinced that this is our one and only life; and that life is even more wonderful freed from supernatural beliefs and superstitions.

Do many priests and bishops feel that religion is a money-making ‘scam’? Are clerics too deeply embedded in religion to reject it? Do priests ‘know well’ that the whole thing is based on nonsense? Are there as many atheologies among non-believers as there are theologies among believers? How difficult is it to be searingly honest in public? Does a lack of self-esteem predispose people to religion? Does religion offer a sense of control – if I say my prayers my sick relative won’t die?
Do people commit to religion believing it’s the best way to be good? How does leaving religion affect your psychological health and relationships? Where will the Church be in 20 to 30 years’ time - what’s the endgame for the Church? Are religious congregations heading for extinction?
Do Humanist celebrants touch people’s ‘souls’ at births, marriages and deaths? Is leaving religion like looking through the Looking Glass? Do former believers undergo a baptism of fire into Humanism? Tolstoy said that abandoning your religion was like walking out into a Russian winter snow without a coat. Is that true? How can you know that you are right to abandon your religion? What does it feel like to realise that, in your head and in your gut, you don’t believe in God? Is it therapeutic writing about the experience of transitioning from belief to unbelief?  
These fascinating questions are addressed in this podcast. They were asked at a live event, by people attending the launch of the acclaimed memoir by Joe Armstrong In My Gut, I Don’t Believe. It was hosted by the Humanist Association of Ireland and compared by Eamon Murphy. For reviews of the memoir, click here. To read or listen to interviews about In My Gut, I Don’t Believe conducted in the media, click here. For the author’s website, click here.
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A million people gathered in Dublin in 1979 for the first ever papal visit to Ireland. Humanist celebrant and former student for the Catholic priesthood Joe Armstrong reads two episodes from his acclaimed memoir In My Gut, I Don’t Believe.
In Episode 9, he offers his perspective on Ireland’s then best-known clerics, Bishop Eamon Casey and Father Michael Cleary, both of whom had clandestine relationships and fathered children, causing scandal to what was then innocent Catholic Ireland. He also reads Episode 29 on celibacy, loneliness and desire in the seminary. ‘I was experiencing my loneliness. My desire for intimacy was heightened. I craved an emotionally interdependent, physically expressive relationship.’
Interviewed by Eamon Murphy at the book launch, hosted by the Humanist Association of Ireland, the author also reads one of the several humorous moments in the book.