The Atheist Experience 29.33 with Forrest Valkai and Friends

The Atheist Experience

The Atheist Community of Austin

Religion & Spirituality, Non-profit, Business

4.6 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Forrest Valkai, Secular Rarity, and The Cross Examiner, later joined by JMike and Objectively Dan, dive into complex discussions on the nature of evidence for God's existence, the reliability of personal experience in validating supernatural claims, and the logical coherence of philosophical arguments for a divine being. They confront callers with critical analysis, aiming to clarify the distinctions between belief, reason, and empirical reality.

Orrick in Mexico argues atheism is fallacious, ignoring human experiences, citing a prayer-answered "blue line" guiding him. Hosts assert personal anecdotes are unreliable, suggesting natural explanations like the brain's problem-solving. How do we distinguish genuine divine intervention from subjective interpretation in stressful situations?

cCaleb in "Wallaby Armpits" (WA), a Catholic, presents the argument that God is "existence itself" and the "unmoved mover," influenced by Thomas Aquinas. Hosts critique this philosophical approach as conflating concepts and lacking empirical basis, highlighting the need for real-world evidence. Can complex philosophical arguments for a necessary being truly lead to a specific, interacting God?

Our Executive Producer Greg James asks the hosts some fun and insightful questions.

Thank you for joining us this week! We will see you next time!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, as I was on the bat cruise with the ACA yesterday, I got to thinking about bats in the Bible.
0:08.0	Did you know that the Bible classifies bats as birds or fowl depending on your translation?
0:13.0	Leviticus and Deuteronomy put them right next to eagles and sparrows.
0:18.0	That's ridiculous, right?
0:20.0	Well, for the time, it's not that ridiculous.
0:22.9	They didn't know the difference between sparrows, eagles, and bats.
0:27.6	But we know that bats are mammals.
0:30.0	They have fur, they nurse their young, they have more in common with us than any sparrow.
0:34.7	But I think this is more than just some sort of trivial taxonomic trip-up. I think it's a sign of a
0:41.9	deeper problem with the Bible. If the Bible can't be trusted to properly classify a simple bat,
0:49.6	then why should it be trusted to answer the broader, deeper questions of morals, laws, and the meaning of
0:56.9	everything? If you think you know, call us, because the show starts now.
1:06.4	Welcome, one and all. Today is August 17th in the year of our Dark Lord 2025.
1:13.9	I'm your host, Forrest Valki, and I'm joined right now by secular rarity and the cross-exameter.
1:20.7	And later on, today, I will be joined by J-Mike and objectively, Dan, we've got five whole hosts ready for you to talk about whatever gods you do or don't believe in.
1:36.9	This is the atheist experience, a product of the atheist community of Boston.
1:40.6	And today, the only time this year we do this we are live at the free thought library
1:46.4	in front of a live studio audience they're great oh you see that one over there is my favorite
1:55.0	oh which one the one right they in the scene no no the other one they know one. They know. They know. Before we get started,
2:03.9	a couple of things I want to say. The first thing that I have to say is that the atheist
2:06.8	community of, atheist experience is a product of the atheist community of Austin, which is a 501c3
2:11.0	nonprofit organization, dedicated to the promotion of atheism, critical thinking, secular humanism,
	...

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