Great Clip from The Atheist Experience

Matt Dillahunty is the main host of The Atheist Experience, that I’ve mentioned before. Matt’s a very smart guy. Every now and again he lets his ego get the better of him when dealing with callers but on this occasion he was on fire.

A few weeks back, there was a caller named John. Matt asked whether John thinks that as an atheist he should go to hell. Over and over again, John replies that it’s not his decision and only God can decide. In the end, Matt gets so frustrated with the inability of John to think for himself that he hangs up on him and launches into this fantastic rant:

Right inside of you right now, dealing with those difficult questions, there is a moral struggle where you’re beginning to realise that you are more moral than the God that they forced you to believe, that they’ve conned you into accepting. You don’t believe that I necessarily deserve to go to hell for exercising the ‘free will’ that you think your God gave me. You don’t think that the dictates of a conscience, whether or not somebody believes, is a sufficient justification for eternal torture, and yet you’re just too damn cowardly to say it!

You are better than your God, you are better than your religion, so am I, so is Don (co-host) so is damn near everybody on the planet. I wish you people would wake up and see this. Stop apologising for this! (holds bible up) It’s not the good book, there’s nothing ‘good’ about it. All it does is poison minds. All it does is make you sacrifice your humanity – the only thing that you have that is of any value – in order to sit around in deference to your Gods.

This perfectly sums up what I find most disturbing, dangerous and downright offensive about religion – namely brainwashing, deference and the loss of personal identity.

Part 2 is the best bit but you can watch part 1 here if you like.

An Atheist Weekend

This weekend, I’ve been on a voyage of discovery into the fascinating world of online atheism. What got me started down this rabbit hole was stumbling upon some great YouTube clips from a weekly cable TV show in Austin TX called The Atheist Experience:

The Best Caller Ever
Man Came From a Monkey
Why Don’t We See Real Miracles Today?

Parts of these clips come a little close to making fun out of a caller for their lack of education (which leaves a sour taste in the mouth) but to be fair I don’t think that’s their intention at all. I watched an entire “call in” show from start to finish and these guys are incredibly smart, generous with their knowledge and patient with callers. I learnt a lot.

Then there’s the individual YouTubers who are starting some fantastic debates:

Why I am an Atheist
It’s Tough Being an Atheist
My Dad Confronts Me About Atheism, Again
Child Dies Because Parents are Idiots

Going off on a tangent for a second, how fortunate are we to be living in these amazing times? Complete strangers can come together and discuss this important (and very much taboo) subject. That is the one of the most exciting things about the internet for me.

There are also some fantastic websites out there such as God is Imaginary which has some superb videos.

Finally just for entertainment, have a look at this page:
Caring for the Animals on the Ark

Here’s one of my favourite quotes:

Studies of nonmechanized animal care indicate that eight people could have fed and watered 16,000 creatures. The key is to avoid unnecessary walking around. As the old adage says, “Don’t work harder, work smarter.”

Words really do fail me…