The Atheist Experience

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Secular Rarity and The Cross Examiner, sort through some wild thoughts from callers. Ulrich in Mexico, believes the expanding universe proves The Bible. If everything points to there being a singularity, why do you think it was not always expanding and did not come from a singular point? There are ways of predicting what happened in the past and god moving the goalposts in the past is not a good argument. Why do you not believe the Bible can be wrong about things? Why would we care if you don’t care to read the truth about your Bible that is written directly in your Bible? How important is it to believe things that are true? What chapter and verse claim who the witnesses are? We don’t know who wrote the Gospels and there is no evidence to support the claims you made.  Joshua in AR had it in his heart to say that Christians need to stop thinking that a belief in god is obvious, and god is necessary to remove guilt from sin. How is sin defined and why do we need to remove guilt from it? Is god responsible for removing those bad feelings that we get whenever we do something wrong? Is it appropriate for a third party such as god to alleviate your guilt after doing something wrong and can this be done without god?Benji in Al has some questions about incest in the Bible.  There are lots of examples of these things happening in the Bible. If you take the Bible literally and believe that we came from just two people, do you think that incest is moral? There are a lot of people who believe these stories in the Bible who vote. If a lot of the Bible is not only untrue, but also bad, why hang on to the rest of it?Dawn Dark-Light in AL is a non-Abrahamic monotheist that believes we are all extensions of the godhood. We have no idea of what you are talking about. This sounds like something that must have demonstrable evidence. Where is the evidence and how did you find this information? How is this different from all other trips that people have? What tool do we have to figure out which claims people are making are correct?Chris in KT wants to talk about a bill that was just introduced that will conflict with church and state, and how to address it. These bills that are blatantly unconstitutional used to be publicity stunts but now that is no longer the case. This kind of thing needs a broad coalition of people! There are many secular and Christian organizations that are against this. Kelley Laughlin, our backup host, joins to close us out for this birthday weekend. See you next week!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, JMike, The Godless Engineer, and Kelley Laughlin take on a variety of challenging and fun calls. Tommi in Portugal wants to talk about the problem of evil and considers it to be the greatest challenge to the Christian faith. Does god desire to have evil in this world? Is it possible for an agent to always make a good choice? Why did god fail in substantiating a world where all the agents always do good? Why is there unnecessary suffering in this world that an omni god created? Is it justice for god to cast a magical incantation on all of humanity just because he got man at someone for eating something? Why does god just not pick the file where everyone makes the right choice?GB in CA has a question about what effect the White House Faith Office will have on the country. It is a direct violation of the First Amendment and irresponsible to have an office of faith where faith leaders can have influence on our policies. This will result in policies being made that are in alignment with the Bible. How would you feel if decisions were being made based on other faiths like Islam? What if a member of the atheist community influenced the government to allocate religious communities less funding than others? Or make it unlawful to go to church? What parallels can be drawn between the current subject and The Handmaid’s Tale? Yoshi in TX who is sometimes an atheist and sometimes a theist depending on the definition of god. Being an atheist in respect to a specific god is fine but saying that god is everything is a way to change the subject. Why do we have to rename something god that is already labeled? Defining god in a way that we can neither prove or disprove turns into a semantic game. Hannah in MS wants to provide a moral argument for the Jewish religion as a foundation for an ethical society. Doesn’t this depend on how much god is worshiped by the society? How can this be explained without using continental philosophy? What context is it okay for an all powerful deity to do what he commanded in Numbers 31:17-18?  There is no context where genocide is okay. When everything happens for a reason, things like the Holocaust happen because they ought to happen.  Kelley Laughlin, our backup host, relieves JMike before taking our next caller, Blaine, an atheist in Ca. He asks about people using religion as a cover for bad behavior by cherry picking. This all depends on how they are using their religion. If the religion is used to judge other people or shield bad actions, then it can be problematic as opposed to when people keep it private. When do you think humanity will get to a point where we don’t need magical thinking? Cade in TX asks for advice on how to deal with the recent loss of his father and dealing with the comments of theists. Kelley shares a personal experience with similar challenges and offers support with empathy. People are just trying to deal with it the best they can and tell you what worked for them to try and provide comfort. Maybe just thanking them for their kind thoughts is all that is needed. Thank you for tuning in this week! Prompt of the week is: If god is so smart, then why is it____?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s episode of The Atheist Experience, Forrest Valkai and Justin dive into the nature of belief, dissect biblical interpretations, and grapple with complex moral dilemmas.Mark from Wiggling irritants asserts that everyone worships something, thus no atheists exist. Hosts Forrest and Justin challenge his definition of worship as simply caring about something, arguing this broadens the term to meaninglessness. They question if his claim is a serious argument or a lazy troll. Is redefining worship a valid reinterpretation, or an attempt to force a false equivalence?Henry from VA claims the nation of Israel proves biblical prophecy, citing Ezekiel 37. Justin refutes this, highlighting unfulfilled prophecies like a Davidic king and reestablished Levitical priesthood with animal sacrifices. Forrest suggests modern Israel's existence is due to Christian politicians, not divine intervention. Does political action fulfill prophecy, or expose its flaws?John from CA presents a unique interpretation: God is food, blending Gnosticism, the Quran, and the Bible. Hosts press him to define his literal God, challenging his claims about scripture's accuracy regarding slavery and genocide. They question the basis of his "Western heterodox church." Can contradictory texts truly define a coherent, moral deity?Adrian from Nice viruses calls in, claiming belief in God for logical and philosophical reasons. The hosts quickly identify the call as a troll, expressing frustration at the waste of time when callers aren't serious. They emphasize the desire for engaging, substantive discussions. What motivates callers to engage in such disingenuous interactions?Everick from Orary rats, deconverting from Mormonism, seeks to understand morality, specifically whether bodily autonomy is absolute in "trolley problem" scenarios like abortion. Hosts acknowledge the complexity of moral principles intersecting. Justin adds biblical examples where life isn't implicitly valued. How do deconverters build new moral frameworks?Mike from Squirrel crotch challenges Forrest's assertion that God created evil, referencing Isaiah 45:7. Justin counters that if God created everything, including Calamity or evil, then God is responsible. They argue God's omniscient creation of Satan, knowing he would be evil, makes God the creator of evil. Is God's foreknowledge synonymous with responsibility?Thank you for joining us this week! We will see you next time!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Secular Rarity and Armin Navabi, add sprinkles to our Sunday(sundaes), swim through the world of proof that atheism is in fact imaginary and not created by a non-god. Kenneth in VA, wonders if proving god should be done in the mystical sense when the scientific method fails. What is the point of talking about it if you are unable to describe this method? Are you feeling something that is god, or are you describing the feelings themselves? If SR has a pet that he is unable to describe at all, what is the likelihood that the pet is real? When something is happening that you are not in control of, is that what you would describe as god? How does being in a highly emotional state affect your perception of whether or not there is a god involved? How would you value these experiences, if it turns out their origin is not from a larger source, but are coming from you?Muslim Intellect in the UK asks: Would the world exist if god did not exist? How did you arrive at the position that the existence of the world proves god? Please describe how this is obvious to you, when it may not be obvious to us or anyone else. Why would we take the Koran seriously when we have not even established there is a god, and that particular god brought us the Koran? The message from Allah is worthless without this happening first. Why should we believe a book that says god is real and how do we know if the claims in the book are true?Mike with no pronouns in SC says that the song, “Imagine” is an atheist anthem and that atheism is imaginary. Why is it a problem for atheists to take a lack of position? How do you decide what question is the biggest question to ask? Somebody that does not have a claim does not need to prove anything. The burden of proof applies to specific claims, not general things. There is no need to mix up concepts and muddy the water. What changed your mind to make you go from a non-believer to a believer? Before your scientific discoveries, was anyone else in your eyes justified in believing in the god that you believe in?John in Canada believes in a non-god creator and uses the laws of energy and math to explain his position. You are making an equivocation on the word, “create”. Did you really think that explaining that things cause other things would prove your point?Jackie in MS wants to build a case that idealism as a metaphysical system makes the most sense out of any system. It is not necessarily true that without our perception, things won’t exist. Language having a limit does not give us a reason to reduce the definitions of words to mean another word. Do the qualities of a rock change when there is nothing to look at that rock? Why is it impossible for the universe to exist before there was any consciousness to describe the perception? Do you think we have done enough to understand this topic? Does omnipotence seem weird or does it just break the rules?Thanks for tuning in this week! Question of the week is: What is really buried under the Kaaba at Mecca?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, The Godless Engineer and the Cross Examiner, don’t pick the cherries under the trees where they discuss Jesus, illusions, young earth, the compartmentalization of religion in people’s brains.Steven in NY says atheists don’t need to fear religion and he believes that this fear of religion is a reverse form of cherry picking. How is cherry picking different from educating about bad stuff being in religion? Why is it cherry picking to notice god’s immorality and point out the moral failures? How about those that do bad things like killing people in the name of religion? Can good things be done without religion? What can you do with religion that you can’t do without it? What is it about the Bible that makes up for all the bad parts? What particular tenant of Christianity overshadows and over rides all of the bad things that god has commanded such as child slavery and the system of rape?Sarah in TX says that Jesus was trying to actively rebel against Yahwey’s teachings. Bart Ehrman’s, How Jesus Became God, illustrates how those two concepts merged together and can help understand the history.  What evidence do you have that this is anything more than fan fiction? Why do you accept this as true and what evidence do you have that any supernatural claim about god is true? Is it more likely for Jesus to really be there than it is for your mind to fabricate something? How is it fair to say something mystical happened when you can’t explain it? What do you think about first admitting that you need more investigation to find evidence before you know the answer? Carl in Wales does a great job by helping the hosts gain an understanding of his delusions before presenting his claim: Atheism is an illusion that appears to be true because nobody can actually say that there is no god. Does this main delusion feel true to you on a regular basis? Does this translate in your mind into taking any actions? We applaud you for calling and suggest recognizing how the role that nature plays in our reality can be a good start. Gemini in NY uses a voice change system to talk about how young earth creation is the case because Genesis and the Bible say so. How can you believe an entire book is true? The caller ends with saying to just pray and we will find out. Show us one documented case of an amputee growing a limb after praying. Call us and we can collectively win Nobel Prizes. Josh in FL wants to discuss people choosing the wrong data set and how one profession may have a higher percentage of theists than another. There is no conflict of interest if religion does not interfere with your professional life. Be cognizant of false authorities that may have claims in areas where they do not have expertise. People who are religious tend to segregate religious claims to one section of their brains. Many flat earthers, for example, have a part of their brain that is not skeptical, yet they have good jobs, pay a mortgage, and have responsible lives. Don’t write somebody off because they are religious and remember that when people deconvert, they don’t get smarter; they were smart before. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, JMike and Justin Deconstruction discover that Jesus is the Devil as they comb through Biblical atrocities with bears and lions mauling presuppositional arguments made by people who believe the L.A. fires are caused by god. Chuck in HA says the hosts on the show sometimes sound like they support Christianity because they say there just is no proof for god. The hosts wasted no time backing the caller into a corner about his beliefs. It turns out the caller was not able to articulate what the Bible describes about god and even claimed that Jesus is the Devil. How do you determine what parts are right and what parts are wrong in the Bible? If you do not believe in Jesus, how do you know that Jehovah is true? Mike in SC wants to know if there are any books in the Bible that Justin thinks are true. Justin gave a handful of examples from the Bible that are true, and a number of contradictions found. If one part of the book is true, how does that make the whole thing true? What about the atrocities? How does making fun of somebody justify bears being called to maul kids or people at all? You must read the text for what it is and not what some goofy website says. God is vengeful and sends lions to kill his own prophets. Why did Jesus not fulfill even one of the Messianic prophecies? Bill in PA wants to know how to defeat presuppositional arguments. Ask them for the argument, and then ask them to support the first premise. They will rarely have an argument for the first premise. Jon in Canada says the fires in LA are caused by god and there is a correlation between sin and fire. How do you know what god’s rules are and what sin is?  Where is the comprehensive list of sins found? What sins are people in California doing that other states are not? If all natural disasters come from god, why is he not focusing on another area? Gabe in TX wants to know how to respond when someone says that atheists have no moral standards. Justin’s opinion is that objective morals don’t exist and people want them to exist so they can point to a behavior and say it is bad. JMike’s take is that there are views compatible with there being no god such as subjective meta views. Can a shoe exist without a person to wear it?  Jim in MO says that the discovery of the new world changed the laws of Christianity, and not Jesus. Remember that Christianity long before this happened already determined they did not have to follow the laws of Moses. The whole book of Hebrews talks about this and how there are new laws being replaced. Even Jesus and the apostles can’t agree with each other. How did the people that came to America have a different belief than the people that came before them? What is the end goal of this dialogue and support for your conclusion? Ben, our backup host, joins to close out the show! Thank you for tuning in this week. Question of the week is, “What would Jesus do?”(Wrong answers only).Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Forrest Valkai and Seth Andrews, work calmly walk through questions from theists, agnostics, and atheists. Arti in the UK wants to know why anything matters if everything is just atoms and nothing else as a helpful topic when talking with their dad. If everything is just atoms, what is the implication and why assume that nothing matters? Why does something need to be eternal to have value? Seth informs the caller that when you get into secular conversations about ethics, that it is still the wild west with people having a lot of different positions due to the lack of data. Patrick in FL wants to talk about objective morality from an agnostic position. He mentions the idea of, “Do whatever you will as long as you don’t infringe on others’ freedoms and liberties in the process.” Both Forrest and Seth come from a position of minimizing harm when it comes to morality. Samar in Pakistan, finds that it gives him comfort to believe in god and seeing his deceased loved ones again in the afterlife. Seth explains how this is one of the key reasons why people believe in the supernatural. What reasons would there be to believe that this is true? If someone finds comfort in another faith, would that faith be just as valid as yours? If you were born in a different place to parents of a different faith system, how would that affect your beliefs? Religion does not just offer comfort; it comes with a lot of shameful baggage as well and is used to justify a lot of evil stuff. Religious people are moral in spite of their religion, not because of their religion. Doing things out of fear of hell and not being concerned about the well being of people makes you a bad person on a leash. Seth outlines what he did to get over his fear of frying in hell and his process of healing.Nikol in Armenia believes that if people don’t have some sort of  punishment such as hell in the afterlife, they will do bad things. What would happen if people are taught to care for others, progress, and the value of life instead of god? Inclusive fitness is what we see in evolutionary biology which is why we see evolution in moral behavior among all kinds of animals. Under religion, how do you guarantee that people will be frightened enough to behave like you want them to? Why do you think there have been no atheist crusades? Seth describes measure called the World (Global) Peace Index that rates over 160 countries and states according to their peacefulness and shows that the less religious countries have a greater quality of life with less crime and misery. Jayson in Australia has two questions about trans people. The first question is if drag is akin to black face. Black face was a way to stereotype, marginalize, and dehumanize black people. This is nowhere close to drag. The second question is about comparing transgender to transracial people. There are a lot of social constructs and none of them behave in the same way. The science deniers like to pretend that science of sex and gender are new liberal concepts even though we have been learning about these things for a century. Thank you for tuning in this week!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Forrest Valkai, The Cross Examiner, and Jim Barrows, work through some logic games with callers before finally reminding everyone that Google exists and to at least try to prepare before calling the show.Patrick in FL wants to know why atheists continue to seek evidence for god. The claims made in the Bible can be tested, but not necessarily god. We don’t need a god built in a laboratory, we just can take individual pieces of evidence that are testable to arrive at the most likely scenario. The hardest thing to do is prove a negative and all we need is one good piece of evidence to show that god exists. Do we understand the rules that god gives us or are we just like ants and mean nothing to him? How is an omnipotent being unable to deal with things himself? Why should we care if you don’t know what your god wants? How can you tell the difference between a god that does not exist and a god that you can’t know?Jackie in MS fails the 60 second test in less than five seconds by referencing someone else and not describing anything in his own words.Brandon in TX has a valid scientific reason to believe in a higher power and uses the first cause argument to support this. The first mover/cause is a fallacy because what caused the first cause? Forrest explains how the big bang(stretch) is what we know of when space and time started. Asking what happened before this could get us into a logic trap. What would that possibly be and how would we test it? If there is no cause for entangled particles having an opposite spin, why would there be one for the universe? Why does god not need a beginning when everything else does? Why can’t this thing that caused the universe have a natural cause? How do we get from the first law of thermodynamics to god?Chuck in HI says that Christians worship the Devil! Are Jesus and the Devil the same entity or are they separate the way the Bible presents them? Why would the Devil say to love your neighbor as yourself? We agree that the Bible says horrible things. Why does Jesus say completely opposite things than what the Devil wants for us in this case? Steve in NE has evidence for Noah’s flood 5,000 years ago of a meteor hitting the oceans. This impact would have been more colossal than what killed the dinosaurs. Why are humans not experiencing the effects of this now? Who did Noah have to have sex with to keep trichomoniasis alive? This explanation is simply not possible with what we know today about the physics of waves. How is there more genetic diversity in chimpanzees than there is for humans? Try and Google your argument before coming on this show. Some of these arguments we have heard for the fiftieth time in a day. You can read original sources for almost everything! Be prepared with your A-game here. Thank you for tuning in this week! Question of the week is: If the Bible had a post credit scene, what would it show?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s episode of The Atheist Experience, Secular Rarity, Armin Navabi, and Justin get into claims about abiogenesis, solving abortion, simulations and more!Caleb from OH says they don’t believe that abiogenesis is possible and because of that, God must have created the universe. Even if we grant their claim that abiogenesis is not true, how do we get to God? Caleb says that information is an important component of life that it comes from a mind. Because they know that information sometimes comes from a mind, they infer that any information must be made from a mind.Christian from the UK calls in to say that if everyone followed the Christian teachings on marriage and divorce, it would negate the need for abortion. If we lived in a world where abortion was never necessary, of course it would be great, but we live in a world where all kinds of medical procedures are necessary. We’d much rather focus on destigmatizing abortion instead of getting rid of it. Christian says that any being that has the potential to be born has the right to live. Even if we grant that, the Bible still doesn’t solve abortion. God murders children and condones the murder of children all the time.Steve calls in from NE to talk about how dark energy is weakening and that points to the fact that we live in a simulation. The hosts point out that just because a force isn’t constant doesn’t mean that there’s an external force tweaking it. According to Occam’s Razor, it’s a lot more likely that we are advancing our understanding as we learn more about these topics, rather than the giant leap that we’re actually in a simulation.Mike from SC asks what the difference is between atheists and a self-aware AI. If atheists don’t believe in a soul, how are we different from an AI that doesn’t have a soul? If an AI is expressing sadness, we know that it’s not going through the same experience as humans expressing sadness. There’s no way that AI can experience the world in the same way we do unless they have neurochemicals and certain biological processes, at which point they wouldn’t be AI anymore.Chloe from MI knows that her reasons for believing aren’t good scientific evidence for God. She’s curious if any atheists have come up with studies to test for the existence of God. This question is tricky because it depends on the definition and attributes of the god. We could make tests more specific if we knew exactly what the god was. There have been tests for phenomena that are religion-adjacent such as testing for a soul and studying near death experiences. Their conclusions point to psychology rather than the supernatural.Jackie calls from MS to discuss the Kuzari argument for Judaism. They say that because over a million people saw the revelation at Mt. Sinai, it must be true. But that’s a claim in itself that has no proof. We don’t have thousands of accounts or individual testimonies, we just have one account in a text that was written hundreds of years after the supposed event.Thanks for joining us this week! Answer this week’s prompt in the comments below: What is a good comeback for “I didn’t come from no monkey.”?Believe in God? Call the show on Sundays 4:30pm-6:00pm CT: 1-512-991-9242 or use your computer 💻 http://tiny.cc/callaxp and tell us what you believe and why!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s thought-provoking episode of The Atheist Experience, The Cross Examiner and Secular Rarity delve into the depths of morality, divine character, and the very nature of human perception. They challenge conventional religious narratives, exploring whether God's actions align with human ideas of goodness and the profound implications of untrustworthy eyewitness accounts, both ancient and modern.Jim in MO questions why God, if real, wouldn't act more like Superman, actively intervening to prevent evil and refraining from punishing those who don't worship him. The hosts draw parallels between biblical figures and flawed comic book heroes, arguing that human authors often conceive more moral entities than the inconsistent God of the Bible. What might a truly moral divine being look like?John in Canada asks the fundamental question of where morals originate if not from God or the Ten Commandments. The discussion highlights that human societies have developed moral frameworks through trial and error, emphasizing that laws and rules, while beneficial for human flourishing, are not inherently necessary for survival. Does well-being serve as the universal principle for all moral systems?Jax queries whether the God of the Bible is evil, given his purported actions, and why, if so, he hasn't already consigned humanity to hell. The hosts examine God's seemingly immoral deeds like mass murder and slavery, suggesting divine incompetence or a "childlike" nature rather than intentional malice. How do believers reconcile God's stated character with his actions?Robert shares a deeply personal dilemma about his religious parents attempting to instill their faith in his young children against his wishes. The hosts liken religious institutions' tactics to tobacco companies targeting youth, underscoring the importance of parental boundaries to protect children from indoctrination. What is the ultimate cost of forcing faith on impressionable minds?Blind Limey provides compelling examples of eyewitness testimony's fallibility, using the Live Aid concert as a modern case study. The hosts elaborate on how memory is prone to distortion, bias, and external suggestion, even when individuals are highly confident in their recollections. How can we truly discern truth when our own perceptions can be so easily manipulated?Thank you for joining us this week! We will see you next time!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.