The Atheist Experience

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, The Cross Examiner and Godless Engineer work through questions from theists and those who are questioning their beliefs. 
Vickie in NC feels that what the hosts on the show are saying make sense and she is starting to question her beliefs. You are not alone and are correct in not accepting a claim until you are convinced with the proper amount of evidence. If you want to hold on to the idea of god having a good nature, how do you rationalize the Old Testament atrocities? How horrible would god’s actions have to be before you question the morality of this all knowing god? Why does the New Testament tell slaves to obey their masters and how do you reconcile this with a good god? Try pondering how it would be to be a slave under Old Testament laws. If you look at life without the lens of god, you will realize how full your life is!
Shabazz in KY wants to know what led them to atheism and what they find unbelievable about a creator. On the quantum level, particles will appear and vanish out of existence with no cause. What is your best evidence for a creator and what convinced you the universe was created? What gives you the indication that god is directly involved with the laws of nature such as when it rains? Why do you consider a natural inclination the best reason to believe in your god, and why do you believe what is written in the Quran? The moon is still intact. 

RJ in CO has some corrections on some Biblical references Godless Engineer(GE) made. GE explained Numbers 31 and what the story about the age of the girls (women children) would have meant at the time. What is the morality of keeping young girls for servants and why is there such a heavy emphasis on virginity? When you call into a show where there is a time limit, be ready to make your case. 

Jeff in NC, says the message of slavery in the Bible is misunderstood, the supernatural claims of the Bible being allegories, and talks about how Moses was influenced by the laws of Egypt. If the Bible is full of allegories, why should we listen to the writings of Paul? How do the stories of Paul equate to evidence for god?

Alex in Britain wants to talk about Biblical accuracy, interpretations, and trustworthiness. Ben Clodfelter joins to offer some perspectives where fallacies can be spotted and used as red flags. The Cross Examiner sees that people are raised to believe in the premise, and then when they start reading scripture, it is done through Bible class. This prevents the problematic and controversial verses from being read. If this is supposed to be the most important message ever, wouldn’t the book have been clearer about which passages are metaphors and which are literally true?

Thank you for tuning in this week! There are plenty of volunteer opportunities if you want to get involved. We will see everyone next week!


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00:00 Intro5:26 Lily - (UK) | Hinduism Vs. Christianity
22:33 Caleb - OH | Morality Of The God Of The Bible
29:27 John - CA | The Meaning Of The Lord’s Prayer
42:30 Mike - SC | Intelligent Design
1:24:15 Nick - NC | Religion And Science Can Go Together
1:49:31 John - OH | Evidence For God’s Nonexistence?

SHOW NOTES
Thanks for joining us for The Atheist Experience! Today, Forrest Valkai and Justin discuss Hinduism, the morality of God, and alien intervention.

Lily from the UK asks the hosts if they think Hinduism is more ethical because it lacks a hell concept. The hosts explain that when they talk about the dangers of religion, there’s a spectrum. Even in their most benign state, religious and magical thinking is harmful. Hinduism, as far as the hosts understand, seems more tolerant than Christianity, but at the end of the day, it’s all still dogma, just more or less progressive dogma.

Caleb calls in from Ohio to discuss the morality of God. If the hosts believed in the God of the bible, would they think he was immoral? When the hosts ask him if he agreed with the morality of an unfair punishment by God, Caleb hung up.

John from California calls to say that no one knows what the Lord’s prayer means, but he has figured it out by watching AXP. He considers himself a biblical literalist. He says that the Lord’s Prayer as said by Jesus in the bible contains a Greek word that was never used anywhere else, so we don’t actually know what the translation means. But we have good resources to know how a word was used based on our knowledge of similar languages. John got dropped because he’s a troll.

Mike from South Carolina believes that the world is too finely tuned to not have been designed by a creator. The hosts ask him if there is a reason for natural disasters if they were designed that way. Mike says that they’re punishment because of a fallen world. The hosts point out that his original argument of a finely tuned world fell apart since he had to jump to God’s mysterious reasons for creating things like natural disasters. When the hosts push Mike on all of the terrible things that God has done, like murdering people, he says that it’s not that bad since the people who died went to heaven. 

Nick from NC says that science and the bible work well together and that religion was like the first science. While the hosts can concede that ancient religions were ways to explain the world, they don’t agree that current scientific knowledge and the bible complement each other. Nick says that the Adam and Eve story shows that some actions can impact future generations and others besides the individual. You have to really read into the story to get that conclusion. In the bible, it’s straightforwardly about punishment. Nick mentions that he thinks that gods have been misinterpreted and that they’re actually aliens.

John from Ohio asks what evidence we have for the nonexistence of God. He says that if there was polytheism, chaos would ensue. But the hosts can’t agree with that, because there’s no way to support that claim. How could we know that there would be chaos? John claims that the hosts are militaristic atheists and extremists. John lays out a false dichotomy of the universe being created by a god or the universe was always here. Why isn’t there a third choice? Why can’t we say we don’t know how the universe started? He misunderstands modern physicists and thinks that the big bang theory says that nothing gave rise to something.


 

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00:00 Intro
03:14 Steve-NE | Mosaic Law Protects Women
36:29 Art-PA | Representing Spinoza's God
1:02:30 Tim-NY | Human Simulation Is Evidence Of A Creator
1:42:30 David-CA | God Formed The Planets, Not Gravity
1:52:24 Noah-TX | Why Do People Still Believe?
1:59:05 Zak-MD | How Do We Detach From Religion?

SHOW NOTESIn today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Justin and JMike, shift through the laws of Moses to find how cruel ancient men were before discussing god in a cape that is really just another word for gravity.

Steve in NE proposes that Mosaic law protects women against physical abuse. What happens to the woman under this law if she lies about her virginity? If a woman is stoned as a punishment, how is that protecting women? Why didn't god know that only 45% of women bleed after the first time having intercourse? If women were not property, why is it they could not go free like the way men could? Is war a good reason to rape and enslavement people? Men under this law did not need the brightly colored suits and feathered hats to sell their “property” as concubines.

Art in PA is concerned that Spinoza’s god is being misrepresented. How can god be defined without using the term, “god”? There is no real interesting dispute when language is being used differently to describe something. What would the universe be without this god? What evidence is there for us to conclude that we are manifestations of the mind of god?
Tim in NY argues that just because abiogenesis is real, it does not mean that it is independent of a creator. What evidence is there for us to believe there is a creator to begin with? If one thing creates other things, that does not mean that the first thing also has to have a creator. Extra entities being added will need extra commitments. Why do we need to add the creator stuff into the hypothesis and complicate things? What is the benefit of adding this complication? How do we know there are not an infinite number of gods working together?

David in CA asks the hosts how they think the planets were formed. Justin explains how the accretion disk theory is the current model with gravity pulling things together towards a massive central body. Why do we need to add a creator to this? The caller has a hard time answering whether or not scientists have a good understanding of gravity.
Noah in TX  wonders why so many African Americans still believe in Christianity when the history is easy to research. Justin explains how people are not likely to let go of instinct and centuries of culture until something compels them to do so. Sometimes it can be difficult to convince family members when they know all your flaws already. 

Zak in MD has been an atheist for around 13 years after doing some research and finding that god is a lie. Over the course of time we get conditioned to have an emotional response to things that do not just go away once you leave religion. This takes work and the deprogramming is different for everybody, sometimes taking years to detach. 
Thank you for tuning in this week! Jamie the Blind Limey joins us to close out the show with some final thoughts on caller subjects. 

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In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Secular Rarity and Holy Koolaid, untangle the entangled particles to see that abiogenesis may not have an AI cause. 

Bill in MI has a theory that the purpose of life is to entangle every other particle in the universe in order to resolve uncertainty. We as humans are good at seeing patterns. What patterns are you seeing in the entanglement? Why do you think it was you that discovered this? What are the reasons for gatekeeping with high level academia? 

Tim in NY is 51% believer and 49% atheist because we have seen humans create intelligence but we have never seen intelligence show up. If one structure of the argument has a fallacy, like this black swan, the whole argument chain needs to be reworked if you want to get to a reliable conclusion. Why would the intelligence on this earth not be considered to have arised naturally? There is a difference between an increase of likelihood of existence and actual existence. We have seen amino acids and nucleic acids form on their own in simulated conditions.

Denny in IL talks about how mathematicians and philosophers have defined god as the foundation of existence. When scientists talk about energy, they are talking about something that is measurable and a different definition of what people use for god. This sounds like a classic case of equivocation. Explore some responses people have to presuppositional apologetics. 

Hannah in MS has an argument that morality should be universal and that abortion is wrong when it is not saving the life of the mother because it is killing innocent people. How would you feel if you were forced to use your kidneys to keep someone alive for 9 months? Do you have an obligation to keep this person alive, or do you want bodily autonomy? Why should we preserve life and why is this a universal principle? Why assume sapience and sentience by equivocating this fetus as a fully formed human and why does it have more value than the mother?

Omega Weapon in NY says that by using basic cosmology and logic that most concepts of god can be falsified. For instance it is logically impossible for god to be independent of space time and be the creator of it. You might have to shift some things for the idealists to agree with this, but the argument works.  

Antwion in NC wants to talk about how to let go of the fear of hell and what methods the hosts used. SR found his secular therapist through The Secular Therapy Project.  Holy Koolaid realized how many things there are in life that have been attributed to demons but really are not demons. The phenomenon of sleep paralysis is a prime example of this where hypnagogic hallucinations are experienced. We know exactly what is happening in the brain and can measure it, yet people believe this is caused by demons. What types of things do people mistake for demon possession? If you go out and learn about how these religions evolved, it will help understand how man made these things are.

Thank you for joining us for this live show! We will see you next week and remember to call early!


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