
We Are Not Saved
We Are Not Saved discusses religion (from a Christian/LDS perspective), politics, the end of the world, science fiction, artificial intelligence, and above all the limits of technology and progress.
Latest episodes

Sep 21, 2024 • 29min
Short Book Reviews: Volume VIII
Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 by: George Chauncey The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised by: James Pethokoukis Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History by: Nellie Bowles Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir by: Werner Herzog The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale by: Art Spiegelman The Master and Margarita by: Mikhail Bulgakov The Buried Giant: A Novel by: Kazuo Ishiguro Naked Defiance: A Comedy of Menace by: Patrik Sampler The Riddle of the Third Mile (Inspector Morse Series Book 6) by: Colin Dexter Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player's Handbook (D&D Core Rulebook) lead designer: Jeremy Crawford

Sep 12, 2024 • 37min
Divine Disappointment and Mortal Shame A Review of "Is God Disappointed in Me?"
Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/divine-disappointment-and-mortal Is God Disappointed in Me?: Removing Shame from a Gospel of Grace By: Kurt Francom Published: 2024 190 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? Our parents expect that we will do certain things—perhaps it’s cleaning our rooms, perhaps it’s becoming a doctor—when we don't, they're disappointed. We have a tendency to view God in the same fashion; He also has expectations, and when we fail to meet them we imagine that He is similarly disappointed. Francom claims this is a false belief. Because of God’s omniscience and infinite love, He cannot be disappointed. When we think He might be it leads to shame, which prevents us from accessing His love. What’s the author’s angle? Francom is the director of Leading Saints, an organization whose primary focus is providing advice and resources for the lay leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He’s also heavily involved with Warrior Heart a Christian men’s organization that runs retreats with a focus on addiction recovery. This book is part of those focuses and a personal expression of Francom’s approach to leadership and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What’s My Angle? I’ve known Francom for going on ten years. As such I’ve been privy to his argument that God cannot be disappointed from his initial epiphany all the way down to his full, book-length treatment of the subject. As I’ve watched the idea develop, I’ve raised numerous objections. To Francom’s great credit most of these objections are at least acknowledged in the book. I suspect that I wasn’t the only one to raise these objections, but I fancy that he first heard of them from me. My name is listed in the book’s acknowledgments but it’s pretty generic. I had hoped for something more like “And thanks to Ross Richey, if not for his relentless criticism, unending negativity, poor character, and dark soul, the book would have been less accurate, but probably more inspiring.”

Aug 14, 2024 • 40min
Short Book Reviews: Volume VII
A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by: Kelly and Zach Weinersmith Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe by: Judith Herrin The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century by: Paul Collins Missing: The Need for Closure After the Great War by: Richard van Emden In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife by: Sebastian Junger Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness by: Steve Magness Eruption by: James Patterson and Michael Crichton The Last Devil to Die: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery (#4) by: Richard Osman He Who Fights with Monsters 8: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon He Who Fights with Monsters 9: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon He Who Fights with Monsters 10: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon

Jul 17, 2024 • 1h 1min
Bad Therapy vs. Resilience
My submission to the Astral Codex Ten Book Review Contest. It was not a finalist. Comments are appreciated. (Especially ones pointing out how much better it is than the actual finalists.) Links to transcript sections: I- Prologue II- The Core Observation III- The Realm of the Potentially Traumatic IV- “Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children!?” V- A Continuum of Parenting, With Sundry Bad Examples, and an Appearance by The Last Psychiatrist VI- Resilience

Jul 10, 2024 • 19min
Debating Brazenness
If Trump can brazen is way through all of his various scandals why can't Biden brazen his way through this?

Jun 20, 2024 • 40min
Short Book Reviews Volume VI
Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by: Matthew B. Crawford Nuclear War: A Scenario by: Annie Jacobson The Pragmatist's Guide to Relationships: Ruthlessly Optimized Strategies for Dating, Sex, and Marriage by: Malcolm and Simone Collins Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by: Salman Rushdie Arkham: (The Weird of Hali #7) by: John Michael Greer Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus by: Robert E. Howard & compiled by: Finn J D John Stories of Your Life and Others by: Ted Chiang He Who Fights with Monsters 6: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon He Who Fights with Monsters 7: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon Astrophilosophy, Exotheology, and Cosmic Religion: Extraterrestrial Life in a Process Universe by: Andrew M. Davis (editor), Roland Faber (editor), and Various

May 29, 2024 • 31min
Hooves, Headsets, and Hedonism
Just look at the episode picture. The episode picture explains all...

May 22, 2024 • 33min
Short Book Reviews Volume V
The Burnout Society by: Byung-Chul Han Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization by: Brad Wilcox The MANIAC by: Benjamín Labatut Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire by: Peter Wilson You Can’t Screw This Up: Why Eating Takeout, Enjoying Dessert, and Taking the Stress out of Dieting Leads to Weight Loss That Lasts by: Adam Bornstein Norwegian Wood by: Haruki Murakami He Who Fights with Monsters 2: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon He Who Fights with Monsters 3: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon

Apr 20, 2024 • 32min
Short Book Reviews: Volume IV
Irish Impressions by: G. K. Chesterton How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide by: Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form by: Paul Lockhart A Little History of Science by: William Bynum Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling by: Michael Port The Goblin Emperor by: Katherine Addison Red Hook: (The Weird of Hali #6) by: John Michael Greer He Who Fights with Monsters: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir by: Beth Moore

Mar 16, 2024 • 42min
Short Book Reviews Volume III
Meganets: How Digital Forces Beyond Our Control Commandeer Our Daily Lives and Inner Realities by: David B. Auerbach The Robot’s Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin by: Keith E. Stanovich Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by: John Vaillant Persian Fire The First World Empire and the Battle for the West by: Tom Holland Submission by: Michel Houellebecq The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by: Rod Dreher Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why by: Phyllis Tickle Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses by: Richard Lloyd Anderson