AI Summary
5 min readDaniel Everett went to the Amazon as a Christian missionary determined to translate the Bible for a people called the Pirahã. He ended up living with them for eight years, learning a language unrelated to any other on earth, and emerging as an atheist who had abandoned his faith because the people he came to convert had better arguments than he did. By his own account, they were the happiest, most well-adjusted humans he had ever met, and they had no god, no numbers, no color words, and no concept of sin.
The Missionary Who Lost His Faith
Everett’s path was improbable. In 1968, at 17, he was standing outside a Jimi Hendrix concert trying to sell LSD to get in. A straight-laced classmate showed up with his sister, who had been raised as a missionary in Brazil. Everett was intrigued — not by God, but by the Amazon. He began talking to her father, a veteran missionary, and gradually became a true believer. He went to Bible college, became an ordained minister, and signed up with Wycliffe Bible Translators. After years of training that included a ten-day solo survival hike in the jungles of Chiapas with only a machete and a handful of matches, he arrived at the Pirahã village in 1977.
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (00:13) **From LSD to Missionary** - Daniel Everett describes his conversion from selling LSD at a Jimi Hendrix concert to becoming a devout Christian missionary through the influence of his girlfriend’s father.
- 2 (12:31) **Life with the Pirahã: Hunting and Danger** - Everett discusses the dangers of the jungle, including jaguar encounters and the tribe's hunting practices.
- 3 (21:24) **Learning an Isolated Language** - Everett explains the monumental task of learning the Pirahã language, which is unrelated to any other known living language.
- 4 (33:33) **The Controversy with Noam Chomsky** - Everett details his major academic conflict with Noam Chomsky over the nature of language.
- 5 (57:17) **Why the Missionary Failed** - Everett explains how his attempt to convert the Pirahã to Christianity completely backfired, leading to his own loss of faith.
- 6 (71:10) **The Path to Atheism** - Everett describes the intellectual and practical steps that led him from devout believer to atheist.
- 7 (77:17) **Ancient Religions and the Bible** - The conversation shifts to the broader problems with religious texts, including the story of Paul and the flood myth.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Daniel Everett, PhD, is a linguist and college professor. He is the author of several books, including “Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle” and “How Language Began: The Story of Humanity’s Greatest Invention.”
https://daneverettbooks.com
Perplexity: Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at https://pplx.ai/rogan.
Get a free welcome kit with your first subscription of AG1 at drinkag1.com/joerogan
Use code ROGAN at https://BlueChew.com to get 10% OFF + Free Overnight Shipping on your first order.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More from this podcast
The Joe Rogan Experience →