The Atheist Experience 725 with Matt Dillahunty and Tracie Harris 

Best AE joke yet. "You've basically called a bunch of atheists to ask why Jews don't believe in Jesus." It could almost be a Monty Python skit. Brilliant.

"If a man sells his daughter to be a slave, she shall not go free after six years as the male slaves do." So it not only allows slavery, but discriminates against women.

I'm from Sweden and even I can recognize the voice of "Mike" or like in the episode #722 where he called himself Thomas from London. I think his earlier name was Mark. In one of the episodes it seemed like he did do some progress in thinking and question his religion. However, I'm not sure what his doing now though.

I love the way Matt Dillahunty holds these callers feet to the flames!

i wish i could speak as much sense as matt dillahunty ... just amazing .. my favourite atheist :) !!! great show again too :D !!

Wow! Matt's on fire today!

Morality is about doing what's right, no matter what you're told. Religion is about doing what you're told, no matter what's right.

An all powerful genius god can't write an even slightly comprehensible book? WTF? Any book that has to be apologized for, is only good for ridicule. Jehovah must think lying is the ultimate virtue, because his followers seem to devoted to that more than anything.

Matt is a total beast. Best arguments I've ever heard.

These are the best episodes, the ones in the past.

"Praise the lord", a Tracie Harris episode!! They're rare and precious.

The dynamic duo

AUSTRALIA 70.000 YEARS OLD CULTURE, AND WE TALKING ABOUT "JESUS"?!!!

Not sure why Greg from Knoxville is surprised by Matt's answers to his questions...?

Another brilliant masterpiece from the makers of The Atheist Experience! :D (Nice bling ya got there on that finger Matt...)

22:31 to 24:03 < In that portion, Matt couldn't be more spot on about the so called "moral guidance" from the buybull. So well said.

"Is it moral or not?" The simplest questions are the hardest to answer for theists.

Slave #1: "Yup, I got sold into slavery but at least I get my Sundays off" Slave #2: "You're an idiot"

I really think it's time for this show to go big. You have a much larger fanbase than most other public access show. I think you should start a fund raising initiative to try and get your show picked up by a major network like HBO or MSNBC. You could regularly invite well known Christian apologists, free thinkers and have a higher budget. Thumbs up if you'd help contribute to making this happen!

caller mike was cornered and shown his bible to be morally bankrupt lol

Mike first seemed like a rational thinking dude but the more he talked the more relevant it becomes that he ain't so.

Excellent advice, Tracie!

"... I have no interest in stoning you" - "Oh thanks Matt!" =) I like when people thank people for the minimal amount of tolerance.

Did this "Mike" ever call back? That I would like to listen too!

Exodus 21:20-21 is my favorite passage to shock believers in the Abrahamic god: "Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property."

Wow - Matt took down that jerk first caller virtuously by himself in much less time than the two hosts together took to just break even, debate-wise, in last week's episode - and that included the usually formidable Jeff Dees! Way to go, Matt!

Forced raped forever, and forced beaten slavery, and apologists make up excuses and won't answer if it's moral, ever. They fight at lengths not to answer a yes or no question. Always "well blah blah blah" or "look at that bird blah blah blah", Never will they answer... never, not even either "Yes" or "No"... refuse refuse refuse... over and over and over...so so sad. It makes me cry. How is this possible? How?

Matt is great. Matt is good. Thank you for this show amen.

I'm definitely an atheist. Thanks for the great shows. You make mincemeat of the theist suckers. Tracie you da bomb girl.

Man, Matt is very knowledgeable, lots to learn from just watching him answer questions.

Man I've missed these guys!

Mike just plows through and talks and talks, it's annoying.

I like episodes with you Tracie!!!

not too sure where caller greg was going, his questioning seemed all over the place possibly looking for holes and finding none

Legendary episode.

I LOVE this show. LOVE IT.

Traci is a great:)

@TheAtheistExperience Me gusta. I've steamrolled The Atheist Experience for about... a week now? Thoroughly enjoying it. I got into it because of all the bizzarre callers, like Mark for example, but now I've started following the full episodes, and I must say I love the work you're doing. I think (or hope, rather) you're reaching quite a lot of people, and I wish we had a similar initiative here in Norway.

Go to 21:00 for some epic pwnage from Matt. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Its nice 2 c in the earliest episodes both would call in 2 the show b4 they became host.

i wish i could speak as much sense as matt dillahunty ... just amazing .. my favourite atheist :) !!!

20:55-21:00 matt facepalmed.

46:28 "a high majority" LMAO.

Mike can't hear the mike? HILARIOUS

man 3 full episodes in 1 day, its almost too much

Awesome intro music and video, AE

really like to know what passages were being talked about in the call with mike

I love these shows Should have some air time on TV

@thatguysaids lol i'm with ya dude. i've commented on that on a few atheist experience vids. her smile makes me smile.

That first caller really didn't understand the point that Matt was making. If the caller is thinking of the Bible as the word of God then there shouldn't have been horrible laws like slavery being okay, beating slaves being okay or rapist men forced to marry their victims, in it at all if God is moral!

When there is a barking dog on the TV, my dog barks back and goes looking for the dog. He believes there really is a dog in the house that requires his immediate attention. There is no way of explaining to my dog that the dog on the TV is not real. Similarly, there is no way of explaining to a Christian that their soul is not real.

I (heart) Tracie! :P

Looking at the start of the cloyne report and at its recommendation's it appears to say to me that since 1996 when the church said it would learn from it's mishandling of child abuse claims to the period of this report no progress was made it failed to implement a change that would protect the children in its care. The report then goes on to make recommendations for better file keeping, communication and action in a timely manner. In short I find the report lacks significance by itself.

There are several things I love about The Atheist Experience. Firstly, that theme song (what is it, it's awesome.) Secondly, the fact that it's a place to observe intelligent, non-judgemental conversation involving both theism and atheism, amongst intelligent individuals. Finally, Tracie Harris.

Wow. Mike is deep in it. That is sad.

That was one of the most amazing beratements of a theists' cognitive dissonance and avoidance that I've ever seen. You have no idea how often I've wanted to speak those words in a public forum. Fuck, Matt...run for Governor. I'd vote for you.

"methodological naturalist"... I like that.

Just realized how cool the opening animation is.

That's what she said...

Mike has to look at it again...

Great episode, as usual!

22:00 Shit's about to go down. Go Matt!!!

Mike - YOU ARE A MANIAC.

@r0bbinz I can't post links to the study, but it was posted in Wired Magazine in April 2008. Researchers with brain scanners could predict someone's decisions a full 7 seconds before they even made their decision. Essentially, they were able to perform simple, small scale mind reading before the person even realized they had made a decision, because the brain decides the action, but you only realize it consciously when your brain integrates that into your conscious mind.

Free will is the opposite of coercion, not of causality.

"As opposed to what?" best question ever

I bet Mario really felt smart after that call.

Mario: calls an atheist to get advice on dealing with Jews. Classic!

I think the Gospel writers overplayed their hand. There is so much exaggeration and magic surrounding the story of Jesus that we cannot tell truth from fantasy. Maybe it's all fantasy. He obviously didn't curse a fig tree, send demons into pigs, walk on water and fly up into the clouds.

@RedSun875 (My explanation, part two): And it would be very easy to say, "Well, those were aberrations. Those people were crazy, and they perverted the true intentions of those religions." But you have to remember that no one joins a "cult." They join a religious movement, or a self-help group. They're upright and totally sane, most of them. But, very gradually, many of them shed their morals like a cast-off snakeskin and follow their leader, whom they believe is God's representative.

Only because you don't understand it doesn't mean it doesn't make sense.

My catholic ex chastised my drug use from my youth. I said "yeah, i may not be perfect but i do not support rape". she said she didnt, i said "you put money in the plate. some of which (small fraction) reaches relocation programs and legal fees, and buyout settlements. i am superior in this respect"

One has to realize that had Charles Manson maintained a following, stories very similar to Biblical messiah stories could be written about him, with him cast as the good guy. So to ask why Jesus would do what his followers said he did and was going to do when he came back is not much different from asking why Manson did as he did, which will supposedly lead to the Armageddon in revelations. Manson believed that he would start a race war in which all the white people except fort he "chosen people" would be killed, and afterward would peacefully reign over the world. Add to that the fact that his followers saw him as a divine, or semi-divine figure, and you have a story no worse than the Bible.

This has been another Dillahunty Pwnage!

My dog is an atheist, but he is frightened when I test the smoke alarm. He trembles. Does he think the alarm is a demon ? I've no way of knowing. When I take him out walking, we often pass a church and he likes to sniff the grave stones. But he's never shown any interest in the church itself, except to cock a leg at the grave stones.

PROUD TO BE THE ONLY ATHEIST IN MY SCHOOL

I need to get my friend to call in or email you guys. He accepts that the bible teaches slavery, but he says it was okay, and the system could still work today if only it was applied correctly. Disgusting.

I was nervous there at the start. I thought something bad was about to happen to them in his retelling.

Mike is intentionally taking the bible out of it's context because he has a premise that God is always good. No matter what the bible says, he will perform mental gymnastics to justify it. This is called being 'Close Minded'.

Next episode 726 - the first caller "George from Wilmington" is Mark yet again. This is getting fucking ridiculous. He can try to hide how his voice sounds, but his way of speaking is the same.

at 15:05, the context is bride rape. If a young man and woman wanted to get married without the father's permission, the only way they could do it, was to run off together. This was termed rape (which literally means abduction). The bible verse ensures that such couples would be allowed to be married, rather than the father hunting the couple down and killing them for the loss of his honor.

@TheAtheistExperience you guys should fly over to London.

Don always got so many corrections. Hahaha. He’s the cohost sweetie.

Religion is a natural phenomenon.-- Daniel Dennett

For me, the problem with every discussion of free will that I have heard fails in one basic aspect - they fail to define what the "self' is. If you haven't clearly defined what YOU are, you can't very well figure out from the attributes of that whether free will is possible. I think it well may be - but not in a way that would satisfy some people. I begin by defining "me", as my current brain state, which is a complex combination of chemical, electrical, and biological elements acting together as a system. That is me. The me that I am was shaped through experience and genetics to be biased toward certain moral and personal preferences - some biases stronger than others. So, for example, I like some Indian food, but I am a big fan of Chinese and Mexican food, so given a choice, the odds are that I usually will not choose Indian, but since it is not an extremely strong bias, some random firing in my brain or whatever will sometimes get me to choose it, or even something more rational such as having had Chinese and Mexican a lot, and wanting a change. And even then, that is just the interaction of two biases - a bias against always eating the same thing overcomes my bias against Indian food. All of this is unique to the biological system that is me. Therefore, that was a choice made by "me", and uninhibited by outside factors. If we look at something where the bias is much stronger, like murder, it will take something extraordinary to overcome that bias in my brain and get me to do it. For example, if I knew for a fact that a Navy SEAL was determined to kill my child, and I cannot get any authority to accept this or do anything. I know that my ability to defend my child against a highly trained warrior like this is not likely to be sufficient in any fair fight. That's when the part of me that is biased in favor of protecting my child at all costs overrides my bias against murder, and I plant a bomb in his car or some other devious method of killing him. But everything that leads to that choice is an intrinsic part of ME and nothing else. So I would call that a type of free will. However, I did not freely choose to make this comment so long - sorry :-)

@gulbirk Morality is objective- you being the object. The purely selfish perspective is the standard for morality. You know what is good and bad for you and, by extension, you know what is good and bad for everyone else. We all share the same fundamental needs and desires. Morality is about extending to others the same respect you have for yourself.

Love the show, hate the surrounding music. Could definitely do without that part of it.

Her name is on the screen for half of the show, and you still spelled it wrong. =)

@000phill000 I think he honestly thinks he can defeat Matt if he tries enough times, but he doesn't like getting stuck with the baggage of being proven wrong on other points so he needs a "fresh start".

@r0bbinz I'd post a link but RU-vid won't let you post links in full. After Wired.com, it's "/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/mind_decision"

I do understand it. I've read Dennett's book. I understood fully what he was trying to say. I happen to disagree.

3?! OMFG! Unheard of!

@PenIsland34567 Yes that;s my point they all have regular jobs and most likely no one of them works on Sundays so that's why they can do it on Sundays. They don't get any money from this.

All supernatural claims are theoretically possible. The problem is that there are nearly infinite number of them, and they are indistinguishable from fantasy.

@PUMKINMANforever but this would mean that all of the hosts would have to quit their jobs, leave their families and loved ones for long periods of time etc. Dont force anything on them if they dont want to.

The love story between Jack and Rose on the Titanic was totally fictional but the story of the Titanic is of course true. There may have been a real Jesus but he wouldn’t recognise himself today on account of all the attributes that have been heaped on him. Just in my lifetime Jesus has gone from being the son of god to being god.

It would be the father's choice, but it may be that some fathers would not want to kill their own daughters, and would look for any face-saving means of doing so. Austen's sense and sensibility, by the way, contains a satire of bride rape, which had become a common feature of Gothic romances at that time.

Determinism abolishes the concept personal responsibility.

@SoulThriveMusic I think it's a Naval anchor; Matt was in the Navy, and I recall him mentioning as much in another episode.

I love where Matt points out something that bothers me about many Christians. Many of them don't understand their religious scriptures as much as they should for something so important. Like to become Jewish they make you go through all these steps to be sure you know what you're converting too. Many Christian churches don't do that, all they have to do is say "I want to be Christian" then they just get baptized and thats that. I think all of them should requite extensive bible study at least.