Atheist Experience 24.13 2020-03-29 with Matt Dillahunty & Jenna Belk
The Atheist Experience
The Atheist Community of Austin
4.6 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2020
⏱️ 114 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We look funny today, but it’s because our awesome crew figured out a way for us to continue the show from individual hosts’ and crew members’ homes! Thanks, guys! We start off with a bang: What do we do about church gatherings that could spread the corona virus more? If God isn’t real, why is religion influential? Can you even test science, and do the same forces that “created” the universe still exist? Isn’t there something “higher” that’s apparent? Why is Matt inconsistent with standards of evidence for others’ beliefs vs. his own? Ending the night with a beautiful summary of so much of this show’s history: Why don’t we believe in Jesus and his resurrection? But then technical issues cause us not to end the night, so we talk to Lana about her family’s gross treatment of her transgender daughter. And that ends our show.
SHOW NOTES
Today’s show looks different, because we’re all at home right now! Hosts, crew, all of us! Even me, writing these notes (although that’s no technical feat). Thank you to our wonderful Vern and Mark for making it possible for us to continue doing shows throughout the corona virus pandemic and Austin’s shelter-in-place ordinance.
In relation to the pandemic, Dave in Austria asks a question of alarming importance: What do we do about all of these churches and religious groups having massive gatherings in tight spaces when the way to prevent this pandemic’s spread is staying home and social distancing? What can we do?
Anthony in Florida has a kind of “gotcha” question: If God isn’t real, how is religion so influential? Checkmate, atheists!
In what seems to be another attempt at a wording gotcha, Alex in Saskatchewan asks a couple things: Can we test science? Are the forces that created the universe still in the world? (He lists a few things that aren’t necessarily their own types of forces...there seems to be a misunderstanding here of what a force is.)
A wild(ly confused) agnostic (atheist) appeared! (It’s okay to be confused. It happens.) Shawn in Minneapolis says he’s “between” believing and not believing to our call screener. He seems unable to let go of a concept of something “higher” as his first reason for not being an atheist is along the lines of, “Don’t you channel something higher when you play music?” Hm...I don’t think I do…
You know what’s fun? Being accused of having different standards of evidence for beliefs you disagree with! Omar in California wants Matt to know that that’s exactly what he does! He provides awesome examples and Matt is forced to turn in his Atheist card and walk away in shame.
Our final caller, Aaron in Arizona, wants to know why Matt and Jenna don’t accept Jesus and his resurrection.
HAHA, we lied, that wasn’t the final call. Our show has to run long today...what a strange tech issue! Caller Lana is having issues with her family’s poor treatment of her transgender daughter, and she’s looking for advice.
That’s our show today! If you want to support the show you can check out https://www.patreon.com/theatheistexperience for a monthly subscription to podcasts with NO ADS and other fun goodies, or https://tiny.cc/aenmerch for merch from all of the ACA’s shows! Hosts can be found on Twitter @Matt_Dillahunty and @Belk_Jenna. Thanks for watching/listening!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | So you think that you tell us how to live our lives |
| 0:08.0 | Never questioning the thoughts from which your mind will pour near ice |
| 0:14.0 | You think that suffering is part of some great plan |
| 0:19.0 | It's been devised I wonder, I wonder, I wonder, I wonder |
| 0:27.0 | What will it take for you to start opening your eyes? I wonder, I wonder, I wonder, I wonder |
| 0:39.0 | There I am, first genna, here we are, we are live today is Sunday March 29th 2020 |
| 0:48.0 | Just two days before the most important day in the world, which is my birthday |
| 0:53.0 | Hey happy birthday |
| 0:54.0 | Thank you and then then it's April Fool's Day, which some people would call Atheist Day |
| 0:58.0 | But we kind of already did Atheist Day back March 23rd and before we get started |
| 1:03.0 | A huge special thank you to Vern, Mark and Jim and Eric and Greg and Paul |
| 1:09.0 | And Johnny and everybody else who's been working around the clock behind the scenes |
| 1:13.0 | There's the crew cam, you will see there in the crew cam that there is nobody there |
| 1:18.0 | In front of all of the machines that are in fact running this show |
| 1:22.0 | And that's because Vern went through and helped set up VPN, virtual private networking |
| 1:28.0 | So that our call screeners can call screen from home |
| 1:31.0 | And Mark can run the wirecast stuff from home |
| 1:35.0 | And Vern can run the audio stuff from home and I can be at home, and Jenna can be at home |
| 1:40.0 | And you callers can be at home because we're currently in at least in Austin |
| 1:44.0 | The mayor has produced a stay at home order and that is setting us up so that we're kind of |
| 1:50.0 | I don't know locked in the minor league quarantine, but we didn't want that to inhibit our ability to do a show if it all possible |
| 1:56.0 | I can't begin to express while I sat around and played Doom Eternal and watched Adventure Time |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Atheist Community of Austin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Atheist Community of Austin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.