The Atheist Experience 28.50 with The Cross Examiner, Forrest Valkai, and Jim Barrows
The Atheist Experience
The Atheist Community of Austin
4.6 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2024
⏱️ 105 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Patrick in FL wants to know why atheists continue to seek evidence for god. The claims made in the Bible can be tested, but not necessarily god. We don’t need a god built in a laboratory, we just can take individual pieces of evidence that are testable to arrive at the most likely scenario. The hardest thing to do is prove a negative and all we need is one good piece of evidence to show that god exists. Do we understand the rules that god gives us or are we just like ants and mean nothing to him? How is an omnipotent being unable to deal with things himself? Why should we care if you don’t know what your god wants? How can you tell the difference between a god that does not exist and a god that you can’t know?
Jackie in MS fails the 60 second test in less than five seconds by referencing someone else and not describing anything in his own words.
Brandon in TX has a valid scientific reason to believe in a higher power and uses the first cause argument to support this. The first mover/cause is a fallacy because what caused the first cause? Forrest explains how the big bang(stretch) is what we know of when space and time started. Asking what happened before this could get us into a logic trap. What would that possibly be and how would we test it? If there is no cause for entangled particles having an opposite spin, why would there be one for the universe? Why does god not need a beginning when everything else does? Why can’t this thing that caused the universe have a natural cause? How do we get from the first law of thermodynamics to god?
Chuck in HI says that Christians worship the Devil! Are Jesus and the Devil the same entity or are they separate the way the Bible presents them? Why would the Devil say to love your neighbor as yourself? We agree that the Bible says horrible things. Why does Jesus say completely opposite things than what the Devil wants for us in this case?
Steve in NE has evidence for Noah’s flood 5,000 years ago of a meteor hitting the oceans. This impact would have been more colossal than what killed the dinosaurs. Why are humans not experiencing the effects of this now? Who did Noah have to have sex with to keep trichomoniasis alive? This explanation is simply not possible with what we know today about the physics of waves. How is there more genetic diversity in chimpanzees than there is for humans? Try and Google your argument before coming on this show. Some of these arguments we have heard for the fiftieth time in a day. You can read original sources for almost everything! Be prepared with your A-game here.
Thank you for tuning in this week! Question of the week is: If the Bible had a post credit scene, what would it show?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I am an atheist, but I have a Christmas tree in my house. I listen to tons of Christmas music, |
| 0:06.6 | starting earlier in the year than I care to admit. I love Christmas light displays. I exchange |
| 0:11.4 | gifts with friends and family. I even host a huge Christmas cookie party at my house every |
| 0:16.5 | single year. So, no, I am not fighting a war on Christmas. But there are Christians who believe that |
| 0:24.5 | you shouldn't celebrate Christmas. They accurately point out that this is a holiday rooted in pagan |
| 0:30.0 | traditions. They cite Bible verses that forbid Christians from following pagan practices. For example, |
| 0:36.5 | Deuteronomy says that adopting pagan-inspired practices |
| 0:39.9 | to honor God is unacceptable. The Second Commandment forbids making graven images, like nativity |
| 0:45.9 | scenes, they argue. And perhaps the most obvious instruction is Jeremiah, which forbids Christians |
| 0:51.6 | from following the pagan tradition, where pagans, quote, |
| 0:55.4 | cut a tree out of the forest and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with |
| 1:01.1 | silver and gold. They fasten it with hammer and nails, so it will not totter. Yes, they point out |
| 1:07.5 | that the Bible forbids Christmas trees. So it turns out there is a war on Christmas, but it isn't being fought by the people that Fox News want you to hate. |
| 1:17.1 | In reality, the war on Christmas is being fought by Christians. |
| 1:20.7 | Now, obviously, there are Christians who find nothing wrong with following these pagan traditions, but that's the point, isn't it? |
| 1:27.3 | If serious devoted Christians |
| 1:29.6 | disagree on whether Christmas traditions are sinful, how can anyone consider the Bible a reliable |
| 1:36.6 | source of fact? Obviously, this question applies to not just Christmas, but every area where Christians |
| 1:43.5 | disagree about the will of God, from tiny |
| 1:46.5 | issues like whether you can get a tattoo or have a drink, to serious matters like the |
| 1:51.7 | acceptability of divorce, to the biggest issue of all, salvation. If you ask 10 Christians |
| 1:57.9 | whether faith alone can save you, or if you also need good works, |
... |
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