In today’s episode of The Atheist Experience, Jim Barrows wrestles with multiple callers that trigger the best Forest Valkai science rants ever. First caller is Art in PA who says that atheists are quitters because they skip a step. We are at a point where the god explanation is no longer needed. The first attempt to explain the natural world is oftentimes the worst attempt. Atheists have one less assumption than theists do. Mikal in CO asks how to reply to someone that says atheists must have faith for what they believe. Faith and belief are not the same things and we proportion our beliefs to evidence. Not believing someone does not require faith. Atheists do not have the TV on any channel; it is simply off. Elias in TN asks how to respond to people when they claim that sex is binary since gametes production determines sex. What if someone does not have gonads? Does that mean they do not have a sex? This is not new science and is undergraduate level stuff. This has only recently become a hot topic issue that is controversial. The model of sex is useful and helps explain nature, and nature does not care about our explanations. Binary for lack of a better word, is just not good enough. Dan in Canada asks why the Laetoli footprints were huge when Lucy was supposed to be small, and not bipedal. No part of Lucy’s skeleton tells us she was ever a knuckle walker. The size of the foot does not change much about the big picture or disprove evolution. What the footprints tell us is that 3.5 million years ago there was something like us walking in this area. It is recommended you go to https://humanorigins.si.edu/ to learn more. Humans are apes, primates, mammals, and animals! Do you believe any part of the Bible is wrong? Were humans created before or after animals? In the Book of Genesis, is Chapter 1 correct or is it Chapter 2? When you try to justify the many things in the Bible that are not true, it is like carrying around a miltone. Would you use faith based thinking for anything else? Why would you not use faith to start your car?David, an educator in AZ, asks how to respond when students ask about his beliefs. When in a public setting, it would be unethical to talk about religion or politics in any capacity to a captive audience. This would be a misuse of public funds and trust. Answering these questions will change the way the students see you and can take away their objectivity. Thank you for tuning into the show and never stop learning! The question of the week is: What did the caller say to make Johnny P Angel look distraught?

The Atheist Experience 27.21 05-28-2023 with Forrest Valkai and Jim Barrows

SHOW NOTESToday’s Atheist Experience is the “show of hair” with Jmike and Secular Rarity. They sort through philosophical naturalism, because morality changes when god creates evil that is spoken through the unfalsifiable Quran and the all inclusive Catholic Church. First caller is Matt from CA who tells us about The Secular Student Alliance Convention. Vist Secularstudents.org to register before it closes on Wednesday.Rogue Show in SC calls to clarify Jmike’s position on philosophical naturalism. Natural sciences exhaust natural reality. The simplest theory is the one with the least amount of axioms, commitments, and predicates. Unjustified assumptions do not hold up to stacks of evidence. Kevin in GA asks why we think we do not get morality from god and if morality changes over time. We see more benefit and less harm when looking at other moral systems compared to god’s system. Do you think that what is good is in virtue with god’s commands? Will the basics of mathematics be the same in the future?Slave of Christ in TX asks about the problem of evil and says that god is all good for only the chosen ones. Does god intend there to be evil? How do you believe in an irrational god that creates evil? Either god permits the impermissible or there is not anything that is impermissible. How do you resolve this contradiction? Why would you take commands from a villain? If a view is contradictory, would you agree that the view is false?Jamal in Ca does not know if the hosts are really atheists, and asks the hosts what proof is needed to believe god exists. How is what the Quran says about embryology true? There is nothing in this book that is novel. We are going to be tortured in hell for eternity under Allah’s view and so will you unless you can provide some evidence to convince us because our sins are yours now. The Quran places other people’s burdens on you. Mary in FL asks about the difference between ought and is and had some general questions about logical fallacies. Ought and “is” are unrelated except for when the premise contains both an “is” statement and a value. Descriptive premises do not follow value statements, and we can’t get prescriptions from descriptions. There must be more work put in to fill in the gap. Search for intro books about logic, inference rules, formal and formal fallacies, and propositional logic. Xavier in FL wants to know what is wrong with the Catholic Church. The church puts aside money that is specifically used for fighting against holding people accountable for abusing children. Enough said. Thank you for tuning in everyone! The question of the week : If it weren’t for ____________, I would still believe in God.

The Atheist Experience 27.20 05-21-2023 with JMike and Secular Rarity

The Atheist Experience 27.19 05-14-2023 with Johnny P Angel and Dave Warnock

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Jmike and Doctor Ben die for Jesus so immorality won’t cause riots from atheists with meaningless worldviews after disconnecting emotionally from religion. Davis in CO wants to know why people would die for Jesus if it was not true. What does the psychological state of your reasoning have to do with whether it is true or not? When death is the gateway to getting to a better existence, and people honestly believe it, they will embrace it. Huge amounts of people believing in something does not have any bearing on its truth. People are willing to risk their existence for smaller things than a reason for eternity. Patrick in AR experienced his wife having a vision after dying in his arms. After she was revived, he was told her recovery was miraculous. The treatment used at the facility such as epinephrine and CPR increase the chances of survival. We don’t know medically why someone survives in this state for so long, but we also don’t have a reason to believe it is supernatural. Statistically, the outlier events are going to occur, and there will always be someone who asks why that happens to them. Hug the people around you and love them. Trevor in MI has some questions about Biblical interpretations when having conversations with his dad. If you want to be correct about something, then you need to have a principle and intention of what was said. How do you validate anyone’s interpretation? You could follow a weird train of interpretation to the original which turns out to be a different denomination entirely. God is seemingly the author of confusion. Jon in Canada says that god is necessary for morality, and immorality is what causes riots. How do you explain wrong things that occur in god’s world? Can people do good things for bad reasons? What evidence do you have that supports the claim that people being immoral are the cause of riots? Icon in Canada presents a thought experiment where we attach reasonableness to time, where a belief is reduced by a percentage slowly over time. What metric would we use to assign the percentages? Adam in Saudi Arabia finds it unattractive to accept life being meaningless as part of atheism. If an intrinsic value is not forced on something, does that make it any less valuable? If everything has a purpose, then can we agree there is a reason for all events, good and bad? When babies die suddenly, are we going to say they need to die as some sort of a sacrifice for whatever a deity needs to prove? It makes no sense to simultaneously have evil and good if evil is the thing that leads to the good.Shi in the USA asks how to disconnect from religion emotionally after already disconnecting intellectually. What does emotional disconnecting mean to you? You may not need to entirely disconnect in that way.Thank you for tuning in this week! The question of the week is: What do you think is the weirdest prayer god has ever heard?

The Atheist Experience 27.18 05-07-2023 with JMike and Doctor Ben

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Jim Barrows and Christy Powell are live in the studio! They will discover different economic systems through absolute morality before performing a thought experiment with god as the arbiter of morality. This god is responsible for the high level grammar of the Quran and the fine tuning of the universe. We know this because we can’t replicate abiogenesis and the messianic prophecy is all we need for proof of Jesus. Julia in Florida would like to hear input on other gods that we have in our society such as different systems. Economic systems can be one of these things. Look at what you are willing to do to support what you believe. Audience Question- Kathy wants to know about absolute morality. Morality is a judgment of behavior. How do you prove that an animal is acting out of forethought and no instinct? Michael in GA presents a thought experiment. If there was a god, then that god must be the arbiter of all morality. The god of the Bible is not only imaginary but also sounds like a narcist. Omar in CA presents the Quran as the highest level of grammar and is a sign of the original being preserved. What does the highest level of grammar mean? How is the Quran different from any other book? Before voice recordings, how do you prove the voice vocalizations are the same? Why is the Quran superior? Frank in NC asks what the hosts would accept as proof for god. We don’t know what that evidence would be exactly. It is frustrating to see people indulging in antidotes that don’t work in place of real life solutions. What is the evidence for the god you believe in? If we talk about probability, there is a problem with sample size and inherent sampling error. The problem with fine tuning is we only have one universe to draw samples from. If you don’t know what something is, how do you know that it is fine tuned? Mike in WA asks if we have ever been able to replicate abiogenesis. Just because we can’t replicate this, does not mean that it did not happen. Not knowing the answer to something does not prove that something else exists. Over the last 3,000 years, we have no new evidence for the existence of god, and no phenomena has been proven to be supernatural. Are you trying to make the watchmaker argument from design? This will not work for people who think critically. Anthony in MA brings up the Messianic Prophecy argument. If there are a number of books in a series, and the first book is true, how does that make the other books true? There are a number of stories in the Bible that we know did not happen as written. The people who wrote the gospels knew of the prophecies and they were more interested in theology than they were history. Thank you for being here everybody! Question of the week is: If god is so powerful, then why hasn’t she___________?

The Atheist Experience 27.17 04-30-2023 with Jim Barrows and Christy Powell

The Atheist Experience 27.16 04-23-2023 with JMike and Richard Gilliver

SHOW NOTESIn today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Johnny P. Angel and JMike discover that earth is god that communicates to transgender people through prophets with intuition.First caller is Eric in AR who has concluded that earth is god because the earth created us. What is your definition of god? Is the earth conscious with thoughts, goals and intelligence? We can use this same logic to say that our parents are god. Rather than thinking the earth is god, ry thinking that the earth is home. Kevin in GA would like to know why supporting the trans community is important. What do you think the members of the LGBTQ+ community are trying to do? How do you know that someone is not transgender? What is the difference between sex and gender? Expression of gender is not the same as genitalia. Once you speak to a human in the community, you will realize they want the same things you want. When you start making friends and talking with people, you also start seeing life through their eyes. Jamar in PA knows that transgenderism has always been around but has insights that there is a greater emphasis on terms. It is not for us to say that an experience of another is real or not. When somebody tells you something about their own experience, you may argue the source, but not deny the reality of the experience. Rodney in MI declares that atheists are not smart because when we die, there will be a problem with god. Which god? What if it is the wrong god? What if there is a god who set up all these religions to test people of their critical thinking abilities? Look into the arguments against Pascal’s Wager and you will find that there is a joke in there. What do you use to raise the probability that the Christian god exists? Historians do not appeal to supernatural events to verify facts. How is the resurrection the most likely thing to have happened when it is the most improbable event? Do you care about whether or not the text that you read is true?Ronan in Saudi Arabia was born a Muslim started applying philosophical arguments and is now asking why god communicates through prophets. We don’t know what the sure fire way is for a deity to communicate to all of humanity. A shared ghostly experience with many people might be a good method. How can you apply a tool set to your imagination to show that it reflects reality? Andrew in SC disagrees with the hosts when they say that the Christian religion is morally bankrupt and does not believe that all someone has to do is accept Christ. How do you know who is right and wrong and what methodology do you use to prove this? What method do you use to separate opinion from the truth? Would you believe it if your intuition tells you the earth is flat?Thank you for tuning in this week! The question of the week is: It was a real jerk move when god created_______.

The Atheist Experience 27.15 04-16-2023 with Johnny P Angel and JMike

SIn today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Johnny Angel and Christy Powell will work both sincere calls and trolls.First caller is Emmanuel from GA who asks how to come out as an atheist to his parents. It is about setting healthy boundaries. Do you feel like you have to do this? Are the interactions filled with tension? Sharing this part of yourself could make the tensions worse, however, some transparency can be an important step. Make sure your parents know it is about your own beliefs, and not them. Wesley in WV thinks that the hosts witches because they do not believe in angels and are sluggish with the holy spirit. We hope that you get the care that you need and are surrounded by loved ones that will help you work out your thoughts on this subject. Mr. Warlight in AK has proof in the form of stories that leprechauns exist that wear green suits and hide gold. Where are you getting this folklore from? Is there any evidence beyond the story? Where are they documented to show up and why can’t we see them today? If you aspire to be a troll, bring a better game than this. Do some research. Carpe Diem in CO wants to know the distinction between obligation and virtue. If you can do better, then you must do better. If every virtue is imperative then we would wear ourselves out by spending all our time performing virtuous acts. Is there good and evil in the world, or can we step away from these words and look through the eyes of preference?Rick in Canada states that atheists are slowing scientific progress. How do you think scientists do their job? Do you think that a scientist sits at their desk and disproves a theory? Did you examine all the evolution? Examine your sources on some of your data points and recognize there are many tiny contributions to this thing we call science. Chuck in HI believes science is just another religion that says there is no god. Science is the opposite of religion. Science starts with observation; religion starts with the conclusion and works backward. Science is evolving and religion is holding people back. Science delivers the goods and religion causes us to kill each other. Sam in NY has evidence of Jesus performing miracles and resurrecting. Who are the witnesses? There are statements such as the writings of Paul that are not allowed into evidence because they do not meet the hearsay exceptions. Why do we drop the standard of evidence for how we spend eternity? Just because we don’t know something, does not mean there was a supernatural cause. You don’t solve a mystery with a greater mystery. Is there anything you could not believe based on faith? Thank you everyone for tuning in folks! The question of the week is: What is a life hack that god does not want you to know about?

The Atheist Experience 27.14 04-09-2023 with Johnny P Angel and Christy Powell

The Atheist Experience 27.13 04-02-2023 with Forrest Valkai and Paulogia

Welcome to this week's episode of The Atheist Experience. Host Jim Barrows is joined by Talk Heathen regular Secular Rarity. It's going to be a great show, so let's get onto the calls.Unbeliever discusses the difficulties and the benefits of coming out as an atheist in a Muslim family. How do we navigate these conversations and in the long run, is it worth having?What does an open or closed universal system show there is a God? Our hosts and John debate the flaws in this concept, that solipsism cannot be proven or disproven, and adding assumptions where we don’t have answers doesn’t solve anything.Caller Roland asks if having faith in a God the more reasonable explanation for everything vs. the skepticism atheists have. Does existence have a purpose?Romeo is curious, have our hosts heard any “good” arguments for God? Romeo,Jim, & Secular Rarity discuss what is convincing evidence for a God and how does one move from being an atheist into a believer? Are those reasons valid? Ehh, probably not. Also, an evolution argument..again! Science Time! Eli calls in and asks “where does energy and mass come from?” Jim patiently explains the science and how to avoid the argument from ignorance fallacy. Eli admits to having some doubts as well while our hosts how we become more skeptical. Ni and the hosts explore what absolute truth is, the standard for it, scientific proof, and what standard of evidence would be sufficient to prove God is real. Slave of Christ explains what sin is and how it is a “good” standard of immoral acts. Our hosts pushed back against this argument followed with a discussion of ethics, morality, and the areas of gray the bible does not provide answers for. Also biblical slavery defended again—ugh!

The Atheist Experience 27.12 03-26-2023 with Jim Barrows and Secular Rarity

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Johnny P. Angel is joined by Shannon Q!Josh from FL asks how Atheists get around the first mover argument. There are a number of flaws with that argument, which one would you like to hear first?Frank from USA asks if the existence of God is plausible and cites how beautiful the world is as evidence to support their view that it is.Jon from Canada is back and claims they have the ultimate generic proof of god. Just think about maaan. It makes sense if you open your heart to the universe maaaan.Bubblegum Gun from CA asks if we never found transitory fossils, what evidence do you have to support evolution?Aaron from MO claims to have eight steps to prove the existence of a soul. What’s the over-under that step one is actually a stable stepping stone to get to step two?Amanual from TX claims they are able to prove God and the truth of the bible using the very bulletproof chapter of Genesis 1.Fritz from FL is an agnostic who doesn’t want to rule out the possibility of God. Thermodynamics and such.Clarence from OH wants to discuss the dilemma of trying to teach critical thinking and skepticism to children and young people.

The Atheist Experience 27.11 03-19-2023 with Johnny P. Angel and Shannon Q

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Forrest Valkai is joined by Jmike!Frank from the USA claims that if you don’t believe in God, your life is meaningless. The first premise of this fallacious “argument” is the existence of objective morality. Here’s my advice, slow down and think this through.Chris from SC wants clarification on the difference between sex and gender. Cliff from Canada wants to ask, eventually, why we ought to worship God assuming it is real. Mr. Warlight is calling in with an argument for the supernatural that our hosts just CAN’T HANDLE. Abhishek from India wants to know why it’s so important to question religious beliefs and focus on its problems when it does have benefits. Andrew from Canada’s argument for God is the same processes science textbooks go through when they are updated. Why revamp the bible? If it’s outdated in terms of its conclusions about reality, why would it be useful to go back and rewrite it with our current scientifical findings integrated when the bible has nothing to do with modern science? Instead of having a story with inaccurate claims about reality, you now have a story with some inaccurate carry-overs, because they have to be there for the bible to still be the bible, with some modern scientific understandings sprinkled in. Chuck from HI believes that matter, space, stars, and Earth are all eternal. Oxygen is as eternal as everyone’s excitement about Marvel’s Eternals. I would add more, but anything I say would detract from whatever just happened.

The Atheist Experience 27.10 03-12-2023 with Forrest Valkai and JMike

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Johnny P. Angel is joined by Seth Andrews!First up is Mr. Warlight from AK who believes that the hosts whom they’ve previously debated on the show have been closed-minded to their arguments.Mike from WA claims that naturalist claims about the origins of life are irrational. Where have I heard this argument before?Daniel from WI asks the hosts how serious they are about actually finding the truth. The proof for the truth of a global flood is wherever Daniel is.Felix from FL claims that exorcisms are evidence of the existence of hell. There are quite a few sub-claims that need to be justified before we can get to that conclusion.Clark from CA believes that there is a separation between the mind and brain. The claim is that the mind is immaterial and doesn’t need to be connected to a physical form and that this somehow points to the existence of God.David from NY is calling to discuss the book, “The Late Great Planet Earth,” which the caller claims predicts many recent events.

The Atheist Experience 27.09 03-05-2023 with Johnny P Angel and Seth Andrews

Welcome back to the show! Please welcome today’s hosts of the Atheist Experience, Johnny P. Angel and ObjectivelyDan!Dave from WI wants to know if our hosts believe that there is any validity of prophecy. The caller seems to think so.Jon from Canada claims Atheism is a religion because they are woke and believe in things that are based on their own ideas. So is being woke at all relevant? So does that mean that Christian fundamentalist denominations are not actually religions?Frank from NC asks what our hosts think of the idea that God is actually source-energy that jumpstarted the big bang.Michael from UT has faith that aliens exist but in a super unexciting way. We have an example of a planet that can sustain life, therefore it is possible that another planet somewhere in the universe might have life of some variety on it.John from IA had a mystical (hallucination) experience that lead them to agnostic atheism.Pablo from Spain asks why finding the truth is important. Why hunt for the truth when the search for it might negatively impact humanity in the process or disrupt the status quo?Jonah from TN wants to know if reforming the church is an attainable goal. It's one of those things that as an institution will always be lagging behind, but I’d rather work to reform it and get half of its followers to fight for progressive issues than not and have all of them work to maintain injustice.Kennedy from CA asks if became possible for us to scientifically investigate the possibility of life after death, would that sway people away from religion?

The Atheist Experience 27.08 02-26-2023 with Johnny P Angel and ObjectivelyDan

Welcome back to the show! Please welcome today’s hosts of the Atheist Experience, Kenneth and Jmike!Mr. Warlight from Ak claims he can prove the spiritual form of Jesus Christ and even better can do so on the show! No, he can’t.Clark from CA has a transcendental argument for God and asks if moral statements are propositional.Kevin from GA claims that traditional Christian values produce the most moral society. Why are we in such a rush to toss those society-shaping rules aside?Amunuel from TX wants to discuss Kenneth’s position of free will when it comes to the proposition that God created people. Apparently, god created some people to be saved and others to be sent to hell and punished. What an immoral thug that God is.Jon from Canada is back, again. Today he asks what evidence would convince our hosts. Listen to Kenneth’s fantastic reframing of this question.Zach from D.C. asks if Atheists have an argument against Islam. Apparently, Atheism is just doubt and arrogance. If it is arrogant to admit you don’t know something, then I’ll take arrogance any day. “Beware this boy.” - Dickens.

The Atheist Experience 27.07 02-19-2023 with Kenneth and JMike

Welcome back to the show! In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Johnny P. Angel and Phoebe Rose!Scott from (PL) has a justification for biblical slavery and genocide because morality is subjective. Kill or be killed, I guess?Tommy from AL is calling to explain how the Fibonacci number sequence is evidence of intelligent design. How would conclude that this sequence is evidence of an intelligent creator and not just a coincidence in nature?Gary from MD asks why so many people are convinced that they will continue on in an afterlife when they die given that we don’t have any experience with non-existence.Tim from D.C. asks why atheists bust on God and Jesus instead of just accepting God and freeing themselves. Loving God is the only thing that matters. How exactly is that freedom if there is only one acceptable action you can partake in and it's based on the demands of an unsubstantiated god?Mike from WA asks if the formation and combination of 300 amino acids in the “correct” order to form life were caused by random chance.Mack from CA is an atheist who has a Mormon friend who is being abused by their religion and church and doesn’t know what to do to help them.

The Atheist Experience 27.06 02-12-2023 with Johnny P. Angel and Phoebe Rose

Welcome back to the show! In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Forrest Valkai and Johnny P. Angel!Frank from the USA is calling to teach us atheists that God is real and how we are leading ourselves away from salvation. Turns out the evidence is the spirits we met along the way.Mark from NY wants to talk about the great ostracization of Intelligent Design “theorists” by the scientific consensus and mainstream, accredited scientific journals. ID isn’t a theory. It's creationism with a gilded scientific paint job that started peeling off on day one because ID isn’t the same base layer as properly conducted science.Mike from FL is calling to prove the existence of God and ask why our hosts would still refuse to believe in the Christian God even if they became convinced he was real.Emery from CA is non-binary and is wondering if science can explain why a person might identify as non-binary.Chris from NY wants to know if Forrest has any sources that can give help them explain the steps from the Big Bang to life as we know it now. Forrest recommends Astrobiology Primer by Nasa.Amanuel from TX claims that everything written in scripture is ethical. That’s it, I have nothing else. What could you possibly add to that?

The Atheist Experience 27.05 02-05-2023 with Forrest Valkai and Johnny P. Angel

The Atheist Experience 27.04 01-29-2023 with Jim Barrows and Jamie Boone

Welcome back to the show! In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, JMike is joined by Jim Barrows & Student Doctor Ben!First up is Chris from NY who cites a project at Princeton that allegedly has found a link between the pattern of random numbers and major global events.Jon from Canada is calling to talk about Christian oppression, citing Kirk Cameron not being able to get his book in a library or something. Jon adds that LGBTQ+ individuals are getting unfair preferential treatment over Christians. Amazing self-own incoming, see if you can spot it.Mark from NY wants to discuss the God of the gaps and how theists might be able to reframe God so that its definition isn’t just a puddle that fits its environment.Dave from the Netherlands asks if it is God who sends people to hell.AJ from TX claims to have a personal relationship with The Flying Spaghetti Monster. How does that even work given the nature of why the FSM was devised?Xavier from FL claims that morality doesn’t apply to God and has biblical evidence to back it up!

The Atheist Experience 27.03 01-22-2023 with JMike and Jim Barrows and Student Doctor Ben

Welcome back to the show! In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, JMike is joined by MD Aware!Nicol from Armenia is wondering how atheists organize their marriages compared to that of biblical Christians.Joe from KA is calling to express frustration with atheists’ answer to Christians with regards to God creating a world where humans can perform evil. Why would God create a world where evil can take place?Hay Z from LA is calling in to discuss evolution. The caller is having a hard time understanding how the world can be so orderly and a perfect fit for us if God didn’t create everything.Kevin from WI wants to discuss science and the assumptions that scientists make prior to doing the work. Can you trust the findings if said findings are based on unjustified assumptions?

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