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Unbelief

Jeremy Steele

95 episodes

17 hours ago

The Unbelief Podcast is your space to question, explore, and release the beliefs that no longer serve you—or maybe even caused harm. Hosted by Jeremy Steele, the Skeptic Pastor, this podcast dives deep into deconstruction, offering progressive and thoughtful insights on ancient spiritual texts like the Bible. Through interviews with leading scholars and candid conversations with those navigating their own faith journeys, the Unbelief Podcast invites you to rethink, rediscover, and rebuild your spirituality on your own terms. If you've ever felt disillusioned by what you were told to believe, this is the podcast for you.

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Religion & Spirituality,

All content for Unbelief is the property of Jeremy Steele and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

The Unbelief Podcast is your space to question, explore, and release the beliefs that no longer serve you—or maybe even caused harm. Hosted by Jeremy Steele, the Skeptic Pastor, this podcast dives deep into deconstruction, offering progressive and thoughtful insights on ancient spiritual texts like the Bible. Through interviews with leading scholars and candid conversations with those navigating their own faith journeys, the Unbelief Podcast invites you to rethink, rediscover, and rebuild your spirituality on your own terms. If you've ever felt disillusioned by what you were told to believe, this is the podcast for you.

Show more...

Religion & Spirituality,

Episodes (20/95)

Unbelief

Deconstructing Satan, Demon Possession and Halloween

From youth-group exorcisms to YouTube deliverance rabbit holes, we trace how demon talk replaces science—and why that harms real people. We do a text-level audit (Job’s ha-satan, Isaiah’s “morning star,” and the God-of-the-gaps habit), contrast Catholic exorcism rules with charismatic chaos, and ask whether “the devil made me do it” just dodges responsibility. Then we reclaim Halloween with a grab bag of “things we weren’t allowed to watch” that won’t send you to hell: Lucifer, The Craft, Scream, and a certain bespectacled wizard.

3 days ago

42 minutes 7 seconds

Unbelief

Does Jesus say people are going to Hell and Do I Have to Believe in the Bible to Believe in God?

What if the real scandal isn’t doubting hell—it’s discovering Jesus didn’t preach it? We push back on evangelical proof texts, tour the Bible’s vocabulary (Sheol = all the dead, Gehenna = a real valley, Hades = Greek myth), and read John 14:6 without pretending Jesus defined “through me” as “agree to our statement of faith.” Then we talk adult faith: you can love God without pretending Genesis is a lab manual. Less fear, more honesty, and a community that won’t shame your questions.

1 week ago

28 minutes 52 seconds

Unbelief

Progressive Youth Ministry?

What if youth group wasn’t about dodgeball, purity rings, and trauma bonding over mission trips? In this episode, we talk with Dr. Andrew Zirschky about Progressive Youth Ministry—what it looks like to raise teenagers in a faith that’s inclusive, justice-oriented, and actually reflects Jesus. We unpack the damage done by purity culture, gender roles, and shame-based theology, and talk about how to spot a youth pastor red flag from a mile away. This is the guide every parent, pastor, and ex-youth-group kid wishes they had.

2 weeks ago

39 minutes 16 seconds

Unbelief

Stopping the Exodus of Young Adults from the Church

This episode is a checklist of why young adults bounce. We tell the story of a would-be missionary crushed by the hell doctrine, trace early Christian views that weren’t eternal-torment, and drag the hypocrisy of flag-waving “martyr” talk. Finally, we map out how to rebuild—open-handed spirituality, evidence-honoring skepticism, and a supportive digital community that doesn’t pass the plate or police your beliefs.

3 weeks ago

42 minutes 21 seconds

Unbelief

Ruth: The Rated R Scene

If the Bible were a Netflix show, this episode would come with a “viewer discretion advised” warning. Ruth takes the lead, flips gender roles, and all under the cover of darkness. Turns out the Bible’s big sex scene is also one of its most feminist. It’s possibly the sexiest, most subversive story in Scripture—and it pushes back hard against purity culture’s shame game. This is an episode you don't want to miss.

3 weeks ago

35 minutes 40 seconds

Unbelief

Fictional Deconstruction with Brian McLaren

What if you stripped faith down to its essence—no megachurch stage lights, no fear-based sermons, no evangelical gatekeeping? That’s what Brian McLaren does in his new novel set on Mars. We talk about how families fight over religion, why the fight doesn’t have to mean dehumanizing, and how spirituality survives once the institutional scaffolding is gone.

1 month ago

41 minutes 26 seconds

Unbelief

What Really Happened in Jesus’ Last Hours and the Female Disciples of Jesus

The gospels aren’t journalism—they’re theology. Dr. Helen Bond helps us dig into what the stories of Jesus’ final hours really meant to the earliest Christians. Along the way, we uncover the often-overlooked women who followed Jesus, the strange ending of Mark’s gospel, and what ancient burial customs can tell us about Good Friday.

1 month ago

45 minutes 39 seconds

Unbelief

The Historical Jesus: The Missing Pieces

The “historical Jesus” isn’t the same as the Sunday school Jesus. Dr. Mark Goodacre shows us why there’s so little hard evidence, how scholarship challenges evangelical readings, and why most pastors never share this from the pulpit. Plus: Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet and the one book you need to make sense of the gospels.

1 month ago

37 minutes 36 seconds

Unbelief

Pharisees Are Good Guys and Jesus Gender Bending

If you grew up thinking Pharisees were hypocrites and Jesus was all about purity culture, buckle up. Dr. Amy Jill-Levine joins us to dismantle the myths: Pharisees were good people, the Bible doesn’t record “what happened,” and the New Testament has space for asexuality, transgender identity, and radical body positivity.

1 month ago

29 minutes 14 seconds

Unbelief

Why People Are Leaving the Church and How to Stay Engaged in Spirituality After Leaving

People aren’t leaving the church because they “hate God.” They’re leaving because the church keeps begging for cash, propping up patriarchy, justifying abusive marriages, and trashing LGBTQ people. In this episode, we talk about the real reasons people walk away and how to stay rooted in spirituality through safe, inclusive community that actually exists.

1 month ago

48 minutes 27 seconds

Unbelief

Virginity Rocks: Deconstructing Purity Culture

Virginity isn't real. We unpack how purity culture weaponized the concept of virginity to control women, why the biology doesn’t back it up, and how the shame attached to sex has wrecked entire generations. Bonus: we share some memes that are funnier than your youth pastor’s abstinence sermon.

2 months ago

35 minutes 45 seconds

Unbelief

Ruth: The Art of Seduction

This isn’t your Sunday school Ruth. Naomi sends her in to seduce Boaz and secure a future for them both. It’s raw, risky, and very much not the evangelical “wait until marriage” narrative. We talk about how this story reframes grief, highlights the resources we already have, and smashes the purity-culture lie that sex is the enemy of holiness.

2 months ago

37 minutes 23 seconds

Unbelief

A PhD in Religious Trauma!?

What happens when theology is weaponized? We talk with someone actually getting a PhD in religious trauma—yes, that’s a thing—and leading a support group for people recovering from it. We unpack how this kind of abuse isn’t “just church hurt” but complex trauma, rooted in communities where doctrine gets twisted into control. And of course, it wouldn’t be evangelical trauma without someone dropping the “synagogue of Satan” line.

2 months ago

36 minutes 32 seconds

Unbelief

Ruth: The Mystery Revealed

Boaz feeds Ruth like she actually belongs—because she does. That’s the point. His generosity breaks the scarcity mindset and shows what it means to embody God’s social safety net. We’ll unpack how Ruth’s full basket challenges us to look at our own hospitality: who gets left out of our tables, and how can we change that? By the end, Naomi finally sees the big reveal—Boaz might be the Kinsman Redeemer.

2 months ago

36 minutes 38 seconds

Unbelief

Jesus Unarmed aka Make Jerusalem Great Again

When Jesus said “turn the other cheek,” He wasn’t telling us to be doormats—He was giving oppressed people a blueprint for resistance. From civil rights history to modern data, we’ll show why non-violence works and why the church needs to stop worshiping at the altar of the sword.

2 months ago

37 minutes 4 seconds

Unbelief

Ruth: The Holiness of Social Welfare and Hard Work

Forget the “God helps those who help themselves” nonsense. Ruth’s story proves God built a social welfare system and stamped it holy. In Ruth 2, she walks into a stranger’s field, risks her safety, and outworks every man there—because God’s law said the rich were required to share. Your favorite “hard work” preacher would hate this chapter.

2 months ago

32 minutes 41 seconds

Unbelief

Q&A: Buddhist Christians, Inclusive Reading of the Bible, Hell Isn’t in There, and the True Translation of the Bible

You asked, we answered: How do you make sense of the Bible after learning how it was written? Can someone follow Jesus and also find truth in Buddhism? Is hell biblical—or just a scare tactic? And what’s the most trustworthy Bible translation? It’s all in here.

2 months ago

46 minutes 44 seconds

Unbelief

Ruth: The Relationship We Are All Looking For

Sometimes God feels absent. Bitter, even. Naomi gets that. But Ruth shows us that when everything collapses, the right person by your side can be sacred. This episode is about that kind of love—the loyal, no-matter-what kind—and what it teaches us about faith and friendship.

3 months ago

35 minutes 53 seconds

Unbelief

Old Maid at 22 Comes Out a Decade Later

She was told her worth was tied to being a wife and mother—and that at 22 was practically a geriatric bride. So she got married, made sure “obey” was in the vows, and followed the evangelical script. Years (and one major deconstruction) later, she’s out as bi, still married, and thriving. Spoiler: the husband stayed. The evangelical friends? Not so much.

3 months ago

58 minutes 30 seconds

Unbelief

Ruth: an Anti-patriarch Bible Book about Inclusion and Political Protest

Ruth isn’t your typical Bible heroine. She’s a Moabite, a woman, and the star of a book that basically tells Ezra and Nehemiah to sit down. This episode explores how Ruth smashes purity codes, upends patriarchy, and makes a case for radical inclusion—without ever preaching a sermon.

3 months ago

34 minutes 40 seconds