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The Atheist Experience


pellinore

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The Atheist Experience may be well known to US forumites, or most people who are interested in discussing religion and spirituality, but I have just stumbled upon in on YouTube. I am so impressed by the calm and reasonable way Matt and his co-hosts discuss religion with callers, and try to answer the big questions.  This is an example:

https://youtu.be/CQ5E1ewLqwM

 

Edited by pellinore
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Too bad Matt left the show due to disagreement with management. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/25/2023 at 7:40 AM, Davros of Skaro said:

Too bad Matt left the show due to disagreement with management. 

Darn, didn't know that, it was a great show, highly informative.

Matt was truly one of the shining stars, Tracie Harris was the other one I really enjoyed listening to.

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On 2/6/2023 at 11:06 PM, Phantom309 said:

Darn, didn't know that, it was a great show, highly informative.

Matt was truly one of the shining stars, Tracie Harris was the other one I really enjoyed listening to.

Just search "MD The Hang Up", and "MD Atheist Debates" on Youtube for further content.

Yes Tracie was great, and she also reminded me of Ripley from Alien.

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On 1/22/2023 at 6:21 AM, pellinore said:

The Atheist Experience may be well known to US forumites, or most people who are interested in discussing religion and spirituality, but I have just stumbled upon in on YouTube. I am so impressed by the calm and reasonable way Matt and his co-hosts discuss religion with callers, and try to answer the big questions.  This is an example:

https://youtu.be/CQ5E1ewLqwM

 

I have to say I am not very impressed with either one of them.  In the first place you just don't have conversations like that with young teen girls.  In the second place.  Plus he was somewhat rude to the girl.  I'm not even arguing at all about who was right and who was wrong.  It's just that a lot of atheists have this attitude that believers are all idiots.  The truth of the matter is we are all idiots and some more than others.  But he wasn't calm...he wasn't reasonable.  He was getting very irritated by a young teen girl trying to argue with him.  Kind of ridiculous argument to be having with a minor anyway.  just my opinion

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3 hours ago, joc said:

I have to say I am not very impressed with either one of them.  In the first place you just don't have conversations like that with young teen girls.  In the second place.  Plus he was somewhat rude to the girl.  I'm not even arguing at all about who was right and who was wrong.  It's just that a lot of atheists have this attitude that believers are all idiots.  The truth of the matter is we are all idiots and some more than others.  But he wasn't calm...he wasn't reasonable.  He was getting very irritated by a young teen girl trying to argue with him.  Kind of ridiculous argument to be having with a minor anyway.  just my opinion

I'm a  big fan of Anthony Magnabosco, a "street epistemologist" who implements A Manual for Creating Atheists (by Peter Boghosian) very skillfully, having real conversations with all manner of people. I don't see that "young teen girls" would necessarily lack anything interesting to say about ultimate concerns. (You can be a member here at 13 - a few years ago I had a great exchange about the New England Transcendentalists with some high school students from Taiwan, coming here to talk about that was a project of their English class, and I also had some contact with their teacher. Good talks.)

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your phrase "conversations like that," and you aren't objecting to a mismatch between subject and participants but rather to Matt "coming on strong" to somebody he ought to have been gentler with. The great thing about Magnabosco IMO is that he's respectful and non-combative with everybody and on all subjects that come up in his interviews.

Magnabosco fan and all, I nevertheless see a role for Matt but maybe his style isn't a good match with those who would make it seem that he was "punching down."

 

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4 hours ago, joc said:

I have to say I am not very impressed with either one of them.  In the first place you just don't have conversations like that with young teen girls.  In the second place.  Plus he was somewhat rude to the girl.  I'm not even arguing at all about who was right and who was wrong.  It's just that a lot of atheists have this attitude that believers are all idiots. 

Is there evidence she was a "young teen girl". I thought she was a young woman, by her voice.  And as for the idiocy, his irritation is understandable when you have someone using the Bible as a source of superior knowledge compared to modern science. I just choice this video as an example, overall they do a great job countering ignorance. They are often up against decades of indoctrination. 

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I think there are two types of atheist. Those who believe in no gods and go about there lives. Then the atheist who are really just an antitheist. As they'll spend an excessive amount of time telling people how wrong / stupid they are for believing in a or any type of God. Which I think is more about them trying to convince themselves that God doesn't exist. 

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2 hours ago, XenoFish said:

I think there are two types of atheist. Those who believe in no gods and go about there lives. Then the atheist who are really just an antitheist. As they'll spend an excessive amount of time telling people how wrong / stupid they are for believing in a or any type of God. Which I think is more about them trying to convince themselves that God doesn't exist. 

I think you nailed that right on the head!  From my perspective, Belief = Not Knowing.  One by definition cannot Know that what they believe to be true is in fact true.  If they knew it to be factually true, they would not believe, they would know.

I know what I know and it doesn't really require belief at all.  And so, I think all believers are wrong.  But...at the same time, most people believe something, and so it is important to allow other people to believe what they will.  It's called Freedom of Religion.  

I have heard a great number of preachers who's main theme in any sermon is more or less an attempt to prove to the congregation that their beliefs are solid and true.  Trying to convince one's own self and/or others that their belief system is right/wrong is indeed a projection of self doubt in one's own thoughts.  

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3 hours ago, pellinore said:

Is there evidence she was a "young teen girl". I thought she was a young woman, by her voice.  And as for the idiocy, his irritation is understandable when you have someone using the Bible as a source of superior knowledge compared to modern science. I just choice this video as an example, overall they do a great job countering ignorance. They are often up against decades of indoctrination. 

You thought she was a young woman, sounded to me like a teen girl.  It's radio, hard to tell...and...irrelevant in the end.  Now, keep in mind the radio guy has a mute button.  As Rush Limbaugh use to point out frequently, the entire purpose of a call is to make the host look good.  So, saying things like, 'Jesus Christ, if you keep interrupting me I'm going to mute you'  over and over again airing his frustration of how this girl/woman is trying to get her point across doesn't achieve that Rushesque purpose in taking a call.  A better way would be to make a better argument his own self...but all he did was just keep repeating the same thing over and over and over.  

For instance, I would have just started reading Genesis where it says, On the fourth day God created the Sun.  ?????  And then let the other person try to make sense of that in their own head and belief system.  

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4 hours ago, eight bits said:

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your phrase "conversations like that," and you aren't objecting to a mismatch between subject and participants but rather to Matt "coming on strong" to somebody he ought to have been gentler with.

I was more or less referring to the tone of the conversation...talking down  to...rather than the subject matter.  Coming on strong is a nice way of saying 'beating down'.  My point is always about the tone of the speaker.  I wasn't really saying that a grown man shouldn't have conversations with young women or girls...only that who ever they are engaging, especially in the area of belief, should be done in the manner of yourself for instance or Magnabosco.  Never heard of him but I will give a listen.

If we tell a believer that their beliefs are 'wrong' and imply that they are somehow mentally challenged for not accepting what we are saying...then the psychological effect is taken as a threat.  This person is threatening me.  Because, beliefs are creations of our own mind.  And if someone tells us that our creations are stupid and worthless, not only is it insulting to our intelligence, it is a threat to our mental well being, which automatically exports a defensive posture.

If the end result one seeks is to change the perspective of the other, then you must accept their own belief system as valid and thought worthy.  Which, in  practically every post of yours I've ever read has been exactly that.  That then lends toward your own credibility in the eyes and ears of the listeners.   At least it does in mine.

Edited by joc
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