The Atheist Experience 29.44 with Forrest Valkai and Godless Engineer

The Atheist Experience

The Atheist Community of Austin

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4.6 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 103 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s episode of The Atheist Experience, Forrest Valkai and Godless Engineer dismantle claims regarding prerequisites for end-times prophecy and critically analyze an English teacher's grammatical objections to using singular "they/them" pronouns.
Anson in gerrymandered anuses asserts end times prophecy required the 1948 rebirth of Israel, arguing Paul was mistaken about Christ's imminent return. Hosts critique this "going out of business" scheme, asking why God is constrained by geopolitics and human evil. They reject the claim that atrocities like the Holocaust could be "worth it" for salvation. Why must suffering precede divine intervention?
Jason in misanthropic orangutans, an English teacher, objects to singular "they/them" usage on rigid grammatical grounds, preferring "one" or "we." Hosts note that singular "they" has been standard since the 1300s, citing the Oxford English Dictionary. They argue that refusing a requested pronoun in favor of using a person's name is unnecessarily difficult, dismissive of their identity, and driven by personal comfort. Is linguistic conformity more important than human respect?
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Transcript

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0:00.0	Christianity didn't arise as something entirely new, and emerged from the same cultural ferment that produced the Hellenistic mystery religion spreading throughout the Roman Empire,
0:10.0	adopting their structure of initiation rights, secret teachings, ritual, meals, and promises of personal salvation through participation in a dying and rising God.
0:19.0	The earliest Christians practiced baptism to symbolically reenact the death and resurrection
0:24.0	of their Savior.
0:25.1	They participated in the Eucharist to commune with that divine being and organize themselves
0:29.9	into levels of initiation, where higher-ranking members possess secret knowledge forbidden
0:35.8	to the uninitiated.
0:37.1	The exact features we find
0:38.7	in the cults of Mithras, Isis, Osiris, and Dionysus. Rather than Christianity being unique
0:46.0	among ancient religions, it fits perfectly within the universal trends of Hellenistic religious
0:50.7	syncretism, merging local traditions with foreign elements, promoting monotheism over polytheism, and focusing on individual salvation rather than communal welfare, and welcoming members from all social classes and backgrounds.
1:05.0	If you disagree with me about the origins of Christianity, then please call in because the show starts now.
1:16.4	Dear God, it's happening again.
1:19.6	Hey, everybody.
1:20.9	Welcome to The Atheist Experience.
1:22.9	I'm Forrest Valki, and that was an amazing intro by Godless Engineer.
1:27.0	How are you doing, John? Oh, you know, I'm doing pretty good. I, and that was an amazing intro by Godless Engineer. How are you doing it, John?
1:28.0	Oh, you know, I'm doing pretty good. I had a pretty good Halloween weekend. Great deal at De Los Montos.
1:34.4	And, you know, just all around good right now. You know, even though my own personal circumstances are a little bit weird, I'm doing all right.
1:43.2	Yeah, I get that. I 100% get that. It's a strange time to be
1:47.5	alive. It really is. There's a lot of horrible things going on right now, which we're not allowed
1:53.7	to mention specifics, but there's a lot of horrible things going on right now. And so I encourage
	...

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