In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Secular Rarity and Jim Barrows walk callers through logical fallacies, getting out of faith mindsets, and ways to learn more about evolution. Luke in AZ states that the existence of god is a rational necessity because everything will be meaningless if god doesn't exist. Why does some god’s opinion of what is meaningful have anything to do with anyone else’s? Lack of knowing what is behind everything does not mean there is a god and shows the fallacy of incredulity. Do you accept this same reasoning for anything else in the world? Art in PA regards god as the ultimate ground of existence. How do you define the “ultimate ground of existence”? Does existence have to exist and is pure philosophical nothing possible? If there was a number other than 17 frequencies to use, what does this do for your concept of god? What do we care about what theology says about science? If your god is the same as “existence”, how does calling “existence” god not lead to problems? What is the difference between Spinoza’s god and a hurricane? Jack in MD argues that the universe was created because it needs an uncaused cause, and free will is the only uncaused cause. We have not been able to rule out all the potential causes so therefore this is an argument from incredulity. What is an example of free will existing without a brain and how do you get to this being an uncaused cause? Does someone with a traumatic head injury that has lost their ability to eat have free will? We do not need to assume free will to make progress, but we do need to assume logic. Patrick in SC would like to know how to get out of a faith mindset. You ask yourself how you know things and why you think they are true. This is not done overnight but is constant because we are always learning new things. Ask yourself if you could get to any conclusion using the same method you use to get to god. Olivia in NJ asks if god was created to cope with the uncertainty of death and to explain what we don’t know. We need to make sure we are not presenting this as if the first believers were doing this maliciously. Humans like telling stories and we need to assign agency to random events. Adam in TX is looking for hardcore evidence for evolution. Start by defining what evolution is, and then must prove that either genes don’t exist, or must prove their frequency does not change over time. Watch the science journals for all the ways that evolution happens. Check out the content by Erika Gutsick Gibbon and Forrest Valkai for helpful information. You can also check out Crash Course for bit size chunks that will help broaden your understanding. Denny in MI went through conversion therapy that did not work and is considering telling his parents who he really is. Your safety and security needs to be weighed along with how hurtful it may be to your parents. Contact https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/for help with ideas on how to deal with this. Thank you for tuning in folks! Question of the week is: What is an example of god’s sense of humor?

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Jim Barrows and JMike find Jewish atheist communities to help not trust their brains for the truth while they travel into the past to discover that oral traditions are partly the root of religions and to finally confirm that gravity is real. Chuck in HI is that humans are here to provide a dwelling place for Jehova and gravity is not real. If he is omnipotent, why can’t he provide his own dwelling place? How would he be omnipotent if he does not know who he is dwelling in? Where do you get your god claim if we do not have the sensors to detect him and you do not have evidence? Whining about things that fly in the face of science does not meet the criteria to make them true. Try and bring your A game next time. Richard in NY is looking for a community of Jewish atheists. Jim points out that both Judaism and Islam are as much a culture as they are a religion and how people have a hard time accepting that. Mike mentions that it is not that weird to grow up never thinking about god. There are many social media platforms available, and if you don’t find what you need, you can create one. Katelyn in WA asks why we should trust our brains for truth when the basis is to survive. Jim explains how we know that our thinking is faulty with the pattern recognition leading to cognitive bias. This and the need to reason better is why we developed science. We build machines that do better things than we do and see that god’s design is flawed. We are most fascinated about why you believe in a god; what is the reason? Why does god not stop suffering or allow us to survive off just sunlight? Why does god not have the ability to make a world where people do not choose evil? Would the most important message in the world be shrouded with ambiguity? Colin in the USA wonders if the religions made laws because they were easier to remember as stories through oral traditions prior to the written word. We like tales and stories, but this is not the only reason why religions made laws. Thank you for tuning in this week! Question of the week is: Name one of god’s unpopular opinions.

Show notes upon receipt

Show notes upon receipt

Show notes upon receipt

Happy New Year from The Atheist Community of Austin! This year we began a new segment called “Share Your Experience,” or as we generically referred to as “question of the week.” This segment is only as good as the comments we get to respond to, and you, the viewers, really rose to the challenge! Here is a compilation of our ten favorite questions and answers.

Dive into this year's best, most viewed calls of The Atheist Experience with 'The Atheist Experience Top 5 Calls of 2023.' Forrest Valkai, Seth Andrews ( @TheThinkingAtheist ), Johnny P. Angel, Jmike, Kenneth, and Dave Warnock in thought-provoking conversations that challenge beliefs and promote critical thinking, and in rare cases, change minds. We're giving our valued hosts, guests and crew this holiday season off, but we still want to be able to bring you some of the moments that have made Season 27 one of the best ones so far! So from all of us at The Atheist Experience and The Atheist Community of Austin, we wish you Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. Join us in January when we resume our live productions.

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Christy Powell and Armin Navabi, meet god in a dream that tells them which gender is god’s gift before finally being told that god is in fact everything which is really nothing. Trees in KS had an experience where they met infinite blackness in a dream and felt immense love being surrounded by faceless Grim Reapers. How do you explain what happened to you in this dream? How do you know it was some kind of god and not something generated from your brain? Calling an experience you had god does not make you a theist. How do you know the difference between an experience in your mind and actually meeting a deity? You can have the feeling of meeting god as an atheist just like you can feel like you are flying when dreaming, but those feelings do not make either of these things true. Jon in Canada describes women as god’s gift to men. Are men god’s gift to women? How can you rectify the problematic ideas about men and women in the Bible? Are you able to provide reasoning to this 1950’s way of thinking? Do you have any data to suggest your suggestion is better than other households? If two parents are better than one, wouldn't it be true then that three parents or even four would be better than two? There is no reason to believe that the nuclear family is superior. What about two toxic parents that are fighting with each other? Jared in KY rushes through a proposition that agnosticism’s claim is a contradiction to itself. What claim are you talking about? We are getting bored of people who think they are intelligent that put words together and then think they are winning. Watch out for theists purposely speaking in philosophical language just to be not understood. Erasmus in CA believes that god talks to people through dreams and visions. Why is it that Muslims have Islam related dreams, Christians have Jesus related dreams, and so forth? What metric do you use to know that dreams are not from your mind? Why is it not possible for dreams to be both clear and unclear? What is your evidence that clear dreams are more than a product of the brain? Having a scientific understanding of dreams will help dispel some of these theories you have. Dreams might just be weird thought noise. Rick, in Canada believes that atheists dodge evidence for god and that energy is god. We are not following your notion of evidence, but do see the word salad you put together. Deep emotional experiences are insufficient evidence for a supernatural claim. Where is the evidence that energy is conscious? If everything is god, then the word god means nothing and loses all utility. Is there anything that is not god? How does matter and energy being everything prove there is a god? How is any of this relevant to the existence of god? TJ in TX asked god for less pain in a prayer and got beaten up in school the very next day. You can hate a character in a book that does not exist. Emotions do not have to be rational or true because it makes no difference to your nervous system. Don’t try to define yourself by how people see you. We are not seeking the approval of theists. Thank you for tuning in this week! Question of the week is: What is a minorly inconvenient way that god punishes people?

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Forest Valkai and Johnny P. Angel works through issues of Genesis, Unicorns, suffering, reproduction and babies hating god. Ray in WV says that asks if the hosts believe we evolved from higher apes He then states that god is sovereign and every human hates god when they are born. The scientific argument is not if evolution happened, but how and why. Why do you think there is a god? How does a baby know there is a god to hate? How can one hate something when they don’t believe it exists? How do you know that god exists? We feel the same way about Yahweh as we do other mythological villains and fictional antagonists. Our explanations for how the universe came about are based on evidence. How much time have you spent talking with people who don’t already agree with what you think? Being a Christian does not give you the ability to have a monopoly on goodness. Camden in NC asks if the innate response of evolutionary reproduction compliments what god says in the bible. Reproduction is one way that we classify what is and is not alive. If something did not reproduce, we would not know about it and evolution is the logical outcome of reproduction. We did not suddenly jump from a worm with no eyes to a human with eyes. Once the earth cooled from this fiery hello, life appeared relatively quick, and this can show that it is possible for life to arise without needing a cause. There are certain biological constants throughout history that have been developed through evolution and can be seen in many cultures. Andrew in FL says religion gives meaning to suffering and that atheism makes suffering meaningless. Atheism does not have the narrative that religion does, however humanism helps reduce unnecessary suffering. What is the issue with not seeing the meaning to human suffering or existence? Religion has been used by powerful groups to convince us that we should just accept that suffering has a greater purpose. What do you think about rooting out the causes of suffering and fixing it? The current work structure is not a call from god, it is a call from capitalism. If you did not believe in a god, and you believed this is the only life you have, what would you do for your life, family, and career? CJ in KS references a previous call where he had evidence for Eve's creation from Adam’s rib and is calling to develop the conversation. He explains that the water mentioned in Genesis is a manifestation of Jesus. The writers of Genesis did not know there would be writers of John. The people who wrote the Bible had access to earlier writings, not the other way around. The later writing does not prove the book is true, but rather develops the theme. Why do you believe the Bible is not just a literary book? How is sin anything that causes death? What about children who die from SIDS? Do you believe in a literal hell? Thank you for tuning in! Question of the week: What is an inappropriate thing to say or do at a holiday party?