The Atheist Experience

Atheist guests Johnny P Angel and Forrest Valkai discuss issues of Genesis, Unicorns, suffering, reproduction, and babies hating god. They explore the misconception of hating God when not believing in its existence. The hosts engage in a lighthearted conversation about discussing fictional characters. They also touch on topics like evolution and reproduction, the concept of suffering in an atheist worldview, and life without belief in God or an afterlife. They address the conflict between Genesis and the theory of evolution and explore the differences between Judaism and Christianity.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Secular Rarity(SR) and Seth Andrews, The Thinking Atheist, wrestle with the foreshadow of Jesus. Christina in Canada calls to inform us that it is humans that are poisoning the earth, not god. What does people not being interested in saving the planet have to do with there being a god? If Allah speaks to you in your dreams, why do you read the prophecies of the Bible and not the Quran? Tethering these things to the real world is the concern. Nikol in Armenia says that if we don’t believe in god, we would live better in this world than others rather than pretend we can help others. The less religious nations are the more peaceful and produce a better living. The changing of our scientific positions is a feature, not a bug. How does god allow all kinds of bad stuff if he is all knowing and all good? The belief in a divine essence produces all kinds of problems that a secular morality does not have. If you stopped believing in a deity today, why and how would you suddenly become more selfish? James in CA describes circumcision as a foreshadow to the blood sacrifice Jesus made. Why does circumcision need to be the penis? What does our immorality have to do with this practice? Why is self mutilation as a reminder that we are not able to meet up to god's standards not a problem? Even 2,000 years ago, we would not just walk up to someone and ask to see the penis so we could cut off the tip, unless of course we had a need of 100 Philistine foreskins. Jimmy in Texas thinks that an atheist view of god is naive and asks the hosts about what their conception of god is. SR does not have a conception of god, but uses the callers’ conception of god for discussion. Seth explains how the argument for any kind of benevolent god falls apart. If a benevolent and omniscient god wanted to have a relationship with us, why would he not intervene and prove himself to us? Would it make sense for a loving parent to be confusing on purpose when clarity is the goal? Why does god need Jimmy to do the heavy lifting by calling a show? Presumptively crawling into our skulls does not mean you know our view or experience. Harvey in Canada asks why the hosts are convinced there is not a god. Which god are you talking about? If we are not really delving into what god is, we have not moved the needle with being convinced. Keep asking questions and being honest with yourself on your journey. If you find something concrete, have your people call our people. Jon in Canada asks what the worst part of Christianity is. Seth answers with a list of awful things and most offensive being how Christianity sells itself as a love relationship when it is in actuality abusive at its core. SR says that at best, there is no methodology for knowing what is true, and the existing method used is what has led to the worst experiences we have had. James in Ca asks if we can demonstrate morality. The question is ridiculous, offensive and lazy. Do we need to be told not to harm in order to know the difference? Thank you for tuning in this week. Question of the week is: What would you give Jesus for his birthday?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Armin Navabi and JMike exist only in god’s imagination as callers discover that you just can’t get to an all powerful god from the Kalem or patterns in books. Peter in IL proposes that if god exists, then we are imaginary and are entirely within god’s mind. What is the reason that brought you to this conclusion and what argument do you have to support this? Describing more details is not the same as providing evidence. How do you know that other scenarios where god exists are not true? Are we being made imaginary to solve the problem of evil? What is the problem with two competing good things? Does god have reasons for evil to exist? It is important to spend time thinking of things that are real, and not just things that could be real. If you study how logical fallacies work and take some time to understand how the scientific method works it will help you build a stronger position. James in MI claims there is evidence for god in the book of Numbers and that Christ, Jesus and Messiah are the three words that prove it. How are the three words evidence for your claim? How do you get from patterns in a book to an all powerful god that is the creator of the universe? If the Quran has patterns as well, why does that not make it the word of god? Why does this only work in English? Robert in CA asks if Arabic has changed as much as English has since the sixth century, when the Quran was written. Early Arabic would be unreadable for Arabic speaking people today. The evolution of the Quran is more complicated than what Muslim narratives say, and it seems that some of it came from pre-Islamic periods and other languages than Arabic. The vast majority of Muslims do not speak Arabic and will need to read the translation of the Quran. There are many competing translators of the Quran and can be different from each other.Roger in the UK asks why the Kalam cosmological argument is not taken seriously, and how to determine the difference between “no evidence” and “non convincing evidence". The difference resides within how language is used. No good evidence for something is essentially the same as no evidence. There is evidence for everything if bad evidence counts. Can you give an example of anything that has no evidence at all? What if someone dreams of a square circle and calls that evidence? What in the Kalam gives you the attributes and characteristics of god such as being all knowing? If you want to just call random things god, then anything can be god. Nothing from the Kalam will prove god based on your own definition of god. Yeshua in the UK believes the universe only exists in the mind of god. How can you support this belief with a coherent sentence? Questioning the hosts does not support the view or produce an argument. Personal incredulity does nothing to support your claims. Thank you for tuning in this week!Prompt for the week is: Name a weird thing that god gets offended by.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Forest Valkai and Jamie the Blind Limey sort through the creationist talking points while someone admits that sicking bears on kids is okay as a regular caller once again tries to prove god by using the seven day week. Jonathon in CO asks how the hosts decide who to talk to. The hosts must consider how productive the conversation will be. They think through who they are actually talking to and what the goal is. Someone with bigoted talking points will always be debated, and it may not be pleasant. If not the caller, somebody listening may change their mind. Mr. Le Cook in Canada uses several premises including the seven day week to claim the Bible proves god, as usual. You know the seven day week dates back to hundreds of years before Jesus, right? Did this become a global practice because of divine intervention? Or was it that one culture steamrolled accross the earth committing genocide against those that disagree? Is the seven day week the only power your god has? Trying to continue to sell your show to other hosts and constantly repeating yourself does not get through. If we changed to an eight day week would you stop believing in god? The only cultural religious practice that matters is yours, just like how your condescending seven day special dish is undercooked, contains empty calories, and lacks any kind of seasoning or reasoning. You are serving us something that is deeply weird and your position is irrational. David in CA asks what the hosts consider to be knowledge and what they consider evidence. We think we know where this is going. Something that is verifiable in everyday life is knowledge, and beliefs can be more subjective. If god exists, then that creature would know what it takes to get someone to someone and present that as evidence. If Jamie’s eyes were to be fully healed, how do you know what god to attribute that to? How did you come to the conclusion there is only one god? If you were born in Saudi Arabia, would you have the same beliefs you have today? How do you deal with the inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and atrocities contained in the Bible? If you derive your faith from the Bible, why do you not practice all of it? Would it be cool for Jamie to sick bears on children who laugh at him being bald? If you think so, we are deeply disturbed by this and are not taking you seriously. CJ in KA claims Genesis 1 contains evolution and that Genesis 2 is scientifically accurate. There are problems with birds coming from water and insects coming from earth. Why are things coming from the wrong places? Why is there no mention of fungi and why are these things in the wrong order? This sounds a lot like post hoc rationalization. How is making a person out of a rib scientifically accurate and not just magic? Did birds come from water like in Genesis 1 or did they come from earth like in Genesis 2? Why should we believe myths of people being made out of clay written by a bunch of goat herders? How do you explain what does not line up with scientific reality such as the timing of day and night? Why is the creation story not made to be something more understandable? Justifying a book is not the same as asking questions. Thank you for tuning in to this crazy show! Question of the week is: What is a modern sin that god did not know about 2,000 years ago?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Jim Barrows and Armin Navabi battle the problem with evil, as they commit blasphemy right after discovering that only men have the breath of life because ideas must be real. Mike in SC asks about free will and the problem of evil. Is violating someone’s freewill the only way to prevent someone from doing something bad? Is it rational to believe in things for which you have no evidence? How do you know that the eyewitness testimonies presented in the Bible are not just part of the story? If god is omnipotent, why do people have to burn for not believing? How is the Bible a guide for life if it can’t even get the answer for what we can and can’t eat right? Can you provide evidence without just repeating what you are saying? Are all the ancient gods that changed cultures and performed miracles real?Michael in GA asks why atheists say that a baby is not a person before it takes its first breath. He also believes that only men have the breath of life since god breathed into a man, not a woman. Your Bible does not even use masculine terminology until after Eve so Adam is gender neutral. Nobody has the right to tell you how to use your body, otherwise we are creating slaves. Bringing up the race of the fetus will do nothing to further your case. In fact, take a wild guess of what that kind of trolling will do for you. Bye!Rami in Hawaii reads out of the Bible as evidence of the holy spirit’s presence. Why do you need the holy spirit to attain positive qualities? Why is it okay to blasphemy against Islam by not believing that Mohammed is the profit, but not okay to blasphemy against the holy spirit? We are all going to hell in somebody’s religion. You know that right? If god is real, he is a narcissistic monster and should be jailed for crimes against humanity. Is it good or evil to create an organism that is spread by mosquitoes and kills billions of people? Did god create everything including malaria? If we are good people, and do not believe in Jesus, what happens to us when we die?Oliver in the UK asks what right atheists have to question someone else's reality, if ideas are real. Just because an idea is real, does not mean that it is true. What makes you think atheists don’t have the right to ask questions? Why would Muslims have the right to say that Allah is real, but don’t think that atheists have the right to say that Allah is not real? Thank you as always for tuning in this week. Question of the week is: Why is god really mad at Satan?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

Secular Rarity and Armin Navabi join the hosts to discuss the validity of Jesus' claim about moving mountains through prayer, the impact of prayer on well-being, the problem of evil and unanswered prayers, the existence of God, strange behavior and scientific explanations, the intersection of mental health and religious beliefs, mass hysteria and demon possession, belief in infinite genders and criticism of atheism, the definition of gender, finding common ground in conversations, and the correlation between religion and mental health.

Renowned atheist activist Johnny P Angel and leading advocate for secularism Sofia Spina discuss the importance of allowing children to question authority, explore objective and subjective morality, delve into the limitations of consciousness, address the harmful effects of misguided religious practices, debate the role of God in promoting peace, and advocate for support for vulnerable individuals. They also touch on topics such as religion at weddings, consciousness in artificial intelligence, and the relationship between consciousness and brain science.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Forest Valkai and JMike hoped to experience miracles as they wrestled with miracles, animals, morality, failed preachers, gender, and apes. Ben in Utah has seen some miracles such as praying and fasting for a person to come back to church that worked, and the person came back. How do you know this happened supernaturally? How do you know there was not something in their life that happened to cause this? If this god is real, what is it doing and why is it useful to us? Apply the same rules of logic that you would for everything else when it comes to god.Levi in Canada asks why it does not undo the concept of morality when atheists believe we are no different than animals. Non-human animals have plenty of morality such as empathy, grief, fairness and equality. The desire to obtain human well being is a source of morality for some, “Survival of the Fittest” causes more harm than good, falls into Social Darwinism, and is complete BS. If there is a being that has the ability to stop harm, wouldn’t you expect the being to prevent the harmful action? If god knows the future and everything that is going to happen, how can we have free will? If god is infallible, then it logically follows that god wants evil to happen. Rick in Canada calls to challenge JMike’s position that Jesus is a failed apocalyptic preacher. Luke and John had to reinterpret what was being expressed in Mark’s account. It is not enough to cite the proof text. How do you know which red lettering in the Bible are the words that Jesus said? Early Christians had apocalyptic messages like Paul, and later believers had to re-interpret that as a spiritual notion. Reality exists outside of the Bible and we can check what happened. Mike in Canada asks if Forest believes that genders are categories that we invent, and inquires about his earlier statement about nature fuzzy that we draw boxes around. Gender varies culturally and generationally so it is impossible to say how a man or woman should behave. Gender is something that we do, and not something that we are. Can you give us a definition of man or woman that is exclusively and solely based on physical characteristics? Just because nature is fuzzy, does not mean Biblical lines can be drawn to classify humans differently than animals. Based on the available data at hand, humans are primates, mammals, and animals. Also, sex and gender are two different things. This is not comparable to the arbitrariness of using the Bible.James in California explains that if god did intervene, he would have to punish all of us because we became immoral. Could you freely not have sinned the last time you sinned? Was it logically possible for Adam and Eve to make the right choice? Could they have freely chosen good over evil? Is god a being that can instantiate any state of affairs that does not contain a contradiction? How are we not just tools for the end?Thank you for tuning in! Question of the week: What is the real definition of the soul?We request pronouns as part of the call screening process on our shows, and we display the pronouns our callers provide. If you see a caller with no pronouns indicated, this is because they chose not to provide us with any, and we respect that decision.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

Hello all you spooky spectators! In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Secular Rarity is joined by our guest co-host, the Cross Examiner. Checkmate Atheists! Joe, our first caller of the show, wants to explain how nouns prove God? This is a new argument! It’s crappy, but we can suppose it is an argument.Jenny is our second caller from Washington. She is curious how to have discussions with believers and how to politely yet firmly shut them down. The hosts discuss discrimination of non-believers and their safety, also what motivates us to have these discussions. Jenny offers her perspective as an atheist and how to stand up for yourself in a dignified way.Third up is Dave from Connecticut who wants to discuss if the Bible has any actual history in it and if so, does that lead to the claims of a God? SR and Cross Examiner show their patience with this call and kindness as Dave goes through his beliefs, why, and how he claim to his conclusions and also, push back against just because a book has real world things in it, doesn’t mean all the things in the book are true/real. Alex is caller four and gives the show a call and wants to talk about how his wife’s family members are still involved in a cult and how her sister has come out as bisexual. Alex wants to discuss with SR and Cross Examiner how to navigate these waters where challenging members beliefs and to support his sister-in-law as a queer person. Navigating these waters are indeed difficult, but good on Alex for standing up for his sister-in-law and working to settle this conflict within the family. Number five and feelin’ alive! Anonymous Joe is calling in to discuss how we have respectful conversations with people esp. with believers.  SR explains that we as atheists, skeptics need to separate the person from the belief. We need to meet them where they are at, but also we have our limits. We aren’t under any obligation to convince anyone, but if we choose to, we must approach it from a compassionate manner, that coming off “holier than though” will not cause a shift in thought. Be patient, be kind, pick your battles.Down to number six! Carlos is calling from Puerto Rico baby! Our fellow atheist gives us a call and discusses just like in the USA, the issue of the rising threat of Christian Nationalists not only in the USA, but also the threat in Puerto Rico. Here in the USA, there are many great organizations like the ACA, the Freedom of Religion Foundation, and others we can channel our advocacy in. Cross Examiner speaks to Carlos wanting to do more advocacy in his home country. Raising awareness about people wanting to force religion into public spheres onto the populace at large, we have to be the ones to fight against it. No Gods, No Masters! WHAT IS THE ATHEIST EXPERIENCE?The Atheist Experience is a weekly call-in internet show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin. 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!We request pronouns as part of the call screening process on our shows, and we display the pronouns our callers provide. If you see a caller with no pronouns indicated, this is because they chose not to provide us with any, and we respect that decision.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Armin Navabi and Jim Barrows unravel circular thinking of callers who just can’t stop using the Bible to prove the Bible.  #islam #bible #faith #religion D in NC is our first caller who asks why in Islam women have to be fully clothed in black, yet men wear white. The whole point is for men to protect their property from other men by covering up their women. In Islam, you can buy and sell your slaves, but not the wives, even though one still has full control over the wives. The Quran clearly says that you must beat your wife if she is disobedient. Death-is-conquered in TX tries to validate Christianity by using one book of the Bible to confirm another. Internal consistency within a book saying something is true does not mean anything. How do we know any of these people actually existed in the first place? How is the Bible being a collection of books any different from The Hobbit? How do you know the people who wrote the books of the Bible are telling the truth? Is it possible that Paul’s Jesus is not the same as Peter’s Jesus? Is there something outside of the Bible that validates these stories? Why does morality prove the existence of god? How is god not evil for burning people that he destined to burn? You believe in an evil god and there is no way around it. Ollie in the UK asks how intolerance can be tolerated under humanism. We don’t need to be militant with secular humanism; we just need to keep asking questions. We need to be careful with what actions we take when it comes to intolerance. If we don’t oppose religious ideas, we are forcing them to live in the bubble they are in. Religion is anti-human so we can not tolerate religion.Joey in TX says that only Jesus can save! Why should we not focus on having as much joy as possible for the moment? What is Jesus saving us from, and can you prove it? How do we know that any of the eyewitnesses died for what they believed? How would you prove that god inspired any of the stories? If we have faith that you are gerbils in a human suit, does that make it true? Why is faith a reliable method to determine if something is true? Any claim can be true with faith. You must tell us why you believe something, not just what you believe. Is it rational to believe something is true without evidence?Mr. Yummy in Canada claims god is good because everything he does is morally acceptable and he is god. How do you define good? So was it cool then that he killed everyone in the world including animals and babies with the flood? God supporting slavery and creating a son just to kill him does not make him good, but makes him a moral monster. Martin in CA has a feeling that he is always being watched and asks how to overcome this. Is this feeling bothering you?  Why get rid of it if it is not bothering you? If you are being watched, you should just give them a good show! Thank you for tuning in this week! The question of the week is: In order to get right with god, one must do what?(Wrong answers only)WHAT IS THE ATHEIST EXPERIENCE?The Atheist Experience is a weekly call-in internet show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin. 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!We request pronouns as part of the call screening process on our shows, and we display the pronouns our callers provide. If you see a caller with no pronouns indicated, this is because they chose not to provide us with any, and we respect that decision.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.