Faith is Not a Reliable Path to Understanding | Mark - Canada | Atheist Experience 21.23 

I went to Catholic High School, taught by Priests. As the years went by the stories got more and more ridiclous. One day I said to a Priest-teacher, "None of this makes sense." Reply; "Of course it doesn't, that's why you need faith to believe it." I became an atheist shortly after.

Damn I just want to tell this guy: YOU turned your own life around. Be proud of that.

"I'm not the judge" is the biggest intellectual coward move I've ever seen. It's the last line of defense for a theist when confronted with something they *know* is blatantly immoral, but they have literally nothing else to say.

It’s so cute when these callers claim to have done “research”

Matt: How can i be separated from god if god is everywhere? Caller: *crickets chirping*

Flying in a plane does not require faith. Now riding on Amtrak is a different story.

Is anyone else amazed that criminals find God in prison so often and yet the recidivism rate is so damn High?

all you have to do is listen to Mark for five seconds and you can hear that he simply exchanged one addiction for another. His "need" to justify his God, is just as powerful as the "need" for the bottle he "conquered"

This guy is so obviously a lovely thoughtful guy and I’m sad that he doean’t realise that he was a good person who had a bad start and that he deserves the credit for his recovery and the way he’s turned his life around.

Is God good ? I don't know, but given the lack of evidence, he's probably gone for good. He used to be up a mountain, where people could chat to him, then moved up into the clouds. The latest reports indicate that he's outside space and time. We can't go there, so that's probably a good place to hide.

What really bothers me about callers like this one is that he is Obviously a better person than the book he holds in such high regards.

Amazing how theists insist on referring to trust as "faith."

If i do bad things to people i dint ask god for forgiveness i ask the person i did it to...

"The richest most powerful person that ever existed, say...Hugh Hefner..." He's comparing an eternity in heaven to going to a Hugh Hefner party. Sounds reasonable. The irony is that a Hugh Hefner party is about as far away as you can get from Biblical teachings, but that's his best case.

As a recovering alcoholic in aa, I'd love to tell others that I have many yrs clean. I did it as an athiest and without god.

I love how people dismiss the old testament. Jesus said Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. So jesus approved of slavery. That is the new testament. Ephesians I think. Been a while since I read that evil book.

Faith is the holographic head telling you not to pay attention to the man behind curtain.

It’s so sad to see people fighting so hard to not give themselves the credit…seems like they’ve lost all self confidence

I first watched Atheist experience back when I was a Christian back in 2012. At first, I hated these guys because, again, I was a Christian. But because of my curiosity, I watched them. The more I watched them, the more I began to question my Christian faith. Thanks to this show, I eventually became enlightened and left Christianity on October 2013. So I'm thankful for this show.

Theist: "Who created the universe?" Atheist: "I don't know who or what created the universe!" Theist: "I'm not comfortable saying I don't know. I need god." Atheist: "Am I going to hell?" Theist: "I don't know." Now you tell me who is being honest...

Boy he's got some nice tap dancing shoes on.

Faith is a path to nowhere.

I've been debating and studying religious rhetorics for years and here are their top 20 most used arguments for faith: 20 - E 19 - Q 18 - U 17 - I 16 - V 15 - O 14 - C 13 - A 12 - T 11 - I 10 - O 9 - N 8 - 7 - F 6 - A 5 - L 4 - L 3 - A 2 - C 1 - Y

Faith is being convinced that your Church doesn't need a lightning conductor.

When you hear the piolet scream "ALLAH-HU AKBAAR!" just before the plane lurches you lose your faith in the good-will of the piolet.

Religion is a powerful drug. The "Shepherds" who invented organized religion, may have been on to something. Many may disagree, but Big Religion has been a service industry for a very long time, and it's "Shepherds" make a good and soft living at keeping the "Sheeple" hopeful, well herded, and in line!

23:45 Don is hilarious. "The whole things lost on me!"

"My personal life experience" says the 23 year old when he talks down to the 50 year old. Faith is not a "reason" for anything as it does not require reason. The Good Shepherds Matt and Don are trying hard to keep this guy on the straight and narrow (out of jail) as he believes that faith is the only thing keeping him out. Being "good" doesn't require a god or faith.

Whenever the guy in the yellow top laughs you can tell that he is thinking ‘what a load of BS!’. Lol, this makes me laugh also.

8:30 "I could really be in communion with the creator of the Universe" No you couldn't, but I find that line of thinking absolutely terrifying. Especially coming from some credulous cretin who claims to be an ex-con.

The only thing I could tell this guy - if faith in god is the only thing that holds you from becoming a criminal - hold on to it by all means! For normal people faith is just a way to convince oneself to do things one would never do otherwise that’s it!

It sounds like many of his positive views on life and other people are coming from a good place but based on terrible reasons and burdened with unnecessary negative baggage His religion is preventing him from thinking or responding honestly to Matt or Don's questions once he realizes that answering will bring to light the flaws in his thinking and reasoning. Mark is such a sadly perfect example of how an otherwise decent person can have their thinking poisoned and twisted by religion 🙁

Confirmation bias. If I eat a salad and it makes me stop drinking, feel healthy, be a better person, and restores my faith in humanity then the salad must be God.

If every other flight crashed, I would not EVER get on a plane. This has NOTHING to do with "faith".

Congratulations on making a life changing event.. Well done wish you all the best.. I hope you life is much more better now

I’m skeptical that any professional said that a teenager or young adult had a low probability of recovery. The Hugh Hefner reference surprised me.excellent call.

In all honesty, this guy has a really inspiring story of turning his life around, he's just not giving credit to the right guy. He did it, not God.

It's the young people who call in that make my heart hurt. Indoctrination of young people. It's not a pretty reflection in the mirror.

It's really messed up that he's giving credit to God for his recovery.

Keep up the good work, guys.

So basically what he is saying is that he knows God exist because he has faith? Lmao

I’m less “faithful” in the outcome of a flight I fly in a beat up plane by a man in bermuda shorts drinking whiskey in St. Croix (true story) than a pilot leaving LAX on an AA 747 to NY.

As a recovering Mormon it's difficult to deny the positive effect that the church and faith in a loving Heavenly Father had on my life. Similar to Mark from Canada I had desperate times when I relied on God to give me the strength I needed when I had lost faith in myself. So now that I have broken free intellectually from what I consider a cult, rather than poo pooing my previous belief in God, I look at my new found freedom from religion and see it more as a graduation than an escape. I say this because I think it may be asking too much of a person (like Mark from Canada) to deny their past spiritual experiences because we have such a convincing argument against the existence of a God. Sometimes atheists come off as that kid who learns Santa isn't real and then goes around telling all the kids who still believe that they are idiots because they still think a fat man with a bag full of toys comes down their chimney every year.

Love Don, he's got a really funny sense of humour

"Researched the Dead Sea Scrolls". Man, that is determination, to learn to read and write ancient Hebrew just to make a point! My hat is off to this dodo.

There was a lot of nonsense in this call.

Among the many arbitrary expressions used by atheists to describe faith, the ones heard most often are: “faith is the willful suspension of critical thinking… faith is the opposite of reason… faith is blind… faith is believing in things without evidence… faith is not a path to true knowledge… faith is the weakest argument for believing in God.” Many dictionaries define faith as: “a strong belief in god[s] or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.” Faith cannot be the willful suspension of critical thinking because critical thinking would have to be ever-present to maintain willful suspension. Faith is not the opposite of reason. The opposite of faith is mistrust (a lack of trust). The opposite of reason is irrationality. Reason and faith run parallel to each other. Faith and reason have a symbiotic relationship with each other and should not be separated. Faith does embrace the rational and is never to be understood as irrational. Biblical faith is partly dependent on the rationality of our minds. The faith described in the bible is not blind faith. There is a distinction between credulity - being too ready to believe anything - and faith. If faith were based on credulity it would indeed be blind, irrational, and gratuitous. But the intrinsic logic that governs our mind will reject that which is truly irrational or illogical. This is not to say the mind is incapable of irrationality. Emotion and imagination can momentarily disrupt rational thinking. For example: If I’m having heart surgery I am by reason convinced by good evidence that anesthetics will not harm me and that properly trained surgeons will not start operating on me until I am fully unconscious. But the moment they have me down on the table and clap the mask over my face, a panic might begin to set in. I start thinking I might choke. I’m afraid they might start cutting on me before I am completely under. I might die. In other words, I momentarily lose my faith in anesthetics. But, it isn’t reason that takes my faith in anesthetics away because my faith is based on reason. It is my imagination and emotions causing me to lose my faith. The battle is faith and reason - versus - emotion and imagination. One unchanging definition of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Now this verse doesn’t say what atheists THINK it says. Some think this biblical definition of faith demonstrates Christians are opposed to objective empirical evidence, some think Christians believe in things without evidence, and that “things not seen” are by nature not evidence. So, what are the “things not seen” and the “things hoped for”? Here’s a practical example to demonstrate the mechanics of faith: In the past, I have qualified to receive a tax return from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the form of a check. I have physical EVIDENCE that this is true. Therefore, I have a certain amount of SUBTANCE [experience] with the IRS. The IRS has PROMISED me this year that I qualify for another tax return in the form of a check. I have not seen the tax return yet [things not seen] but based on past experience and previous promises, I have TRUST [faith] that the check will arrive in the FUTURE (things hoped for). When my check finally arrives, it will mean their promise has been fulfilled. Here, “faith” was trust in the IRS - trust that the IRS would faithfully fulfill their promises in the future. It’s this kind of trust that leads me to obediently follow the tax laws by filing an earnings statement each year to see if I qualify for a return. In Christian terms “things hoped for” and “things not seen” are similar to faith and reason because they run parallel to each other. The words “not seen” is NOT meant to convey a “lack of evidence,” but to stress the idea of future fulfillment of God’s promises to believers. Believers act on God’s promises even though they may “not see” (in the moment) any indication of those promises coming to fruition. It’s about TRUST. It’s the kind of trust that leads to taking action now. The “things hoped for” just means things promised cannot yet be seen because those events are still in the future.

Addiction to religion cures addition to substances....

After extensive research over many years, I have come to a conclusion. It is possible to walk on water, provided you have enough faith. Try it.

the magic feather was great

I don't know about this caller's mentality, but I experienced an overwhelming sense of emancipation when I shed the last remnants of my Christianity and realized I was an atheist.

lmao at 18.03 you can hear him pause while he's scraping his brain back up together off of the floor!

Mark, I'm an Atheist, and an alcoholic. I go to A.A. I don't believe in a god or gods. It makes me laugh that if I fuck up its my fault, but if I stay sober a god gets the credit. I stay sober because I want to. No magical power is doing it for me.

Matt: How does God wash your guilt and shame away? Mark: That's the whole Christian premise, that by what Christ did on the cross I'm no longer- Matt: I'm familiar with the story, I'm asking you how do you know that's the case? Is it just because you've convinced yourself you don't need to feel guilty? Mark: Umm...That's the other thing, like, through my whole experience of trying all kinds of different secular therapy processes while I was in jail. Self talk and all kinds of other stuff. None of it worked, but when I started reading the Bible and praying, I felt like the weight of the world lifted off of my shoulders. I didn't feel this burden of shame and guilt anymore for these things that I'd done to end up where I was. Matt: Maybe that's a bad thing... None of those secular options worked on Mark because they are methods that are demonstrably within reality and require actual exhaustive effort and comprehension. Which means that if they couldn't work for him but the comfortable delusion of religion did, then he is a repugnant weakling who shirked his responsibility to do what is proper to absolve yourself of guilt and shame. His concern was "how do I live with myself?", and instead of growing the fuck up and doing the actual dignified work to become a mentally and emotionally strong adult who only holds himself accountable, he ran to the hug box that is the God belief. He can't bring himself to pay the difficult penance that should wash away his guilt because that is too hard for him to do, so instead he took the easy option of deluding himself into believing someone else paid for his transgressions already. Once again, he did it because he's an immoral weakling who couldn't bring himself to actually face the reality and consequences of his actions. He hasn't earned the ease of mind, he got it by lying to himself and he should still feel guilty and ashamed for being such a pathetic and selfish coward. He doesn't care about god or what's right and wrong, he only cared about what he desperately needed to sleep at night. Fuck Mark.

'Dumbo's feather '.....excellent. I'll use that.

I have faith that the Almighty will fix my gaming pc today, before 6pm.

He said during my time trying different thinga to help me change. It was god that help but actually he said it him self. During my time off.. So he had already made a mental decision to try an Change. Befor he found god.. So he had conscious decision..

I used to be fucked up on drugs and crime; now I'm fucked up on the Bible and Jesus.

7. good episode on good points very useful thanks guys 13.40 is where he talks about slavery etc very end 2 mins are good comments (about jesus and the loop hole)

Interesting call

This Is Why I Love Matt He Did Nit Tear The Brother Down And Mark Didn't Take Matt As A Devil ... I Love Interactions Like This ... Much Respect To Matt & Mark So Glad Mark Overcame His Addiction ... Best To Everyone .😍💕💕💕

Faith is the decided maintenance of a percieved belief of the nature of reality and the interactions thereof. Nothing more, nothing less.

Jesus was entertaining a crowd in the town square answering questions and so on when some religious leaders brought before him a woman who was allegedly caught in the act of adultery and asked Jesus if they should stone her like the scriptures call for. If he says yeah, go ahead and stone her he would be ignoring his message of forgiveness and love and if he says don't stone her he would be negating the law of Moses. So what should he say? He squatted down and started writing in the dirt with his finger and after a short minute he stood up and said: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." And then he squatted down and continued writing in the dirt. The people in the crowd were struck in their conscience that they weren't without sin and one by one they peeled off and walked away. All of a sudden a rock sailed out of the smaller crowd that was left and it struck the adulterous young woman in the forehead and knocked her down. A nasty bruise was forming and her forehead was bleeding. Jesus stood up and said" "Sometimes you really tick me off Mom."

Seems like 90% of the callers are using this show as a contest of wit's.always challenging the flawless mind set of a true warrior known as Matt.

i had a couple of born again christians talked to down at the beach, both said they were ex drug users and dealers. i told them that I can not hang out with them, since they might revert and try to mug me. They were not pleased.

"i dont know if god acted on me, but he totally did"

I think the caller was sincere, and appears to be a decent human being. (I don't appreciate or agree with the bashing here in the comments, very much non productive.) And very wrong and misguided about a lot of stuff. But sincere.

I disagree that there is nothing we can be absolutely certain about. for example: given what we know about the Empire State Building and the physiology of an 8 pound newborn, we can be absolutely certain that newborn cannot lift the Empire State Building.

It's difficult to believe in something about which we know nothing. It's easier to believe in the Loch Ness monster than God. At least there is a loch and we have pictures of the monster and eye witness testimony. We have nothing about God except wishful thinking and ancient stories.

How's it different from the Mormon Lucky Underwear? I was shocked when I learned that that was a real thing that the LDS Church sells. lol

When making pranks or candid camera, if/when you find religious or otherwise mentally impaied people, you can "drive" the most UNBELIEVABLE pranks, and succeed. Over 6 decades of experience ! ...................

I notice that alot of Canadian callers call to debate in a legitimate way. In the U.S. they usually lead with smugness and gotcha questions along with name calling. I just find that interesting.

Lost is at caller's line about Hugh Hefner being a "richest, most powerful person."

The Bible filter is strong with him

I notice a direct correlation: the more ignorant and less educated and informed the caller, the more arrogant and self-confident ...

Matt , pink is flattering on you

I rely more on my faith then I do on people. my faith has never disappointed me, people have.

Here’s the problem, if “God” decided to interfere and helped this guy turn his life around, why the hell isn’t he helping to prevent others from harming people.

How do you know it’s a placebo effect? Randomised control trials... also known as empirical evidence

What are the 2 passages that have the two different definitions of faith?

The mid-Atlantic Ridge is the mountain range along the boundary of the tectonic plates of the continents at the bottom of the Atlantic in the middle. The middle of the ridge is where the boundary is and where the plates diverge. This isn’t evidence for any flood, let alone a global one.

All faith gets you is a start in the intergalactic game of peek a boo

I'm a recovering drug addict, who found god in prison, and quit using drugs. Turned my life around after 17 years locked up. Attributed it all to god. Of course I ignored the many, many times I got on my knees and begged to be delivered from my addiction. It was ruining not only my life, but harming the lives of those around me. Crickets. Of course later I figured it just wasn't time. I needed to go thru certain trials, blah, blah, blah. Bullshit. If god waited until I was locked up, and let this disease ruin relationships, and destroy lives, he's a dick. I turned my life around. So did this caller. Own it.

I would be interested how people reacted if we were in fact able to prove that there is no God. If something happens or something came to light without a shadow of a doubt for a fact that there was no God and it wasn't even hard to say more, how many people we just completely humble and do horrible things or revert back to old habits

This guy is having brainwashing withdrawals. Keep rockin on Matt.

While youre researching the old hebrew/Arameic then did you notice the word thats been translated as "virgin" is the same word for "unmarried" ?Kind of means the whole basis for christianity can be dismissed .

Not only Talk Origins. Mark should also watch Aron Ra's excellent series on how the flood is debunked by numerous measures.

AA and recovery right here. Tells addicts they can't do it, but god can. Meanwhile, they do it. (Those that are successful). I understand the power of the vicarious redemption, but as Matt pointed out, you SHOULD care if it's true, not just that it can work if you surrender to the idea.

''Why god didn't put us directly to where we will go after this life if he knows everything already?'' This question was asked to zakir naik, and he answered ''But then you would complain because you would have right to say 'But I didn't have the test!'. To prevent this Allah doesn't put you to hell or heaven directly.'' Does any atheist have an answer for that? Thanks.

Woah this one is brutal lol!

Well done matt

You got him on Noah's flood where did all the water go?

The plane exists. The pilot exists. The airport exists. I've seen airplanes fly. There is no credible evidence that god exists. 🎶One of these things is not like the other. 🎶

21:00 More like, "Why does a secular scientist have a more credible degree than a religious charlatan?" The scientific method is how we advance and build upon facts and reach higher levels of understanding, and apologia is how you take what is already believed and justify your beliefs, especially when it goes against subjects that have either been empirically evidenced or exist only as a null hypothesis and needs further study (if anyone even wants to).

Like many people, this individual has merely slipped back into childhood/infancy where he needs that parental authority figure in order to behave.

In John 20:25 Thomas did not believe until he had examined the risen Jesus. I am exactly the same.

I confronted my mother on her religious beliefs and contradictions of it, knowing that people kill in the name of god, parents kill their children when "god" asks them to, and it's all a human sacrifice cult, then I asked her if she would kill me if god demanded her to do it? It took her almost 3 hours long to answer the question with a very disinterested "no" (in very low voice), religion makes me lose hope in humans, how is it possible religious claim to have the high ground in morality?

This caller was very confused about basic logic. He was acting as if belief in it was his choice. Belief isn't a choice. Also, he said he didn't want to push it on any body. If you believed in that, how could you not want to push it on anybody? Because believing in it would mean you believed if someone else didn't believe it, they would go to hell.

Mark is the nexus of control over his alcoholism. He merely externalized that control into a 'god' - but it was always himself.

We have no idea where the universe came from. But I suspect it was over there.