The Atheist Experience 28.05 with Secular Rarity and Jim Barrows

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Secular Rarity and Jim Barrows walk callers through logical fallacies, getting out of faith mindsets, and ways to learn more about evolution. Luke in AZ states that the existence of god is a rational necessity because everything will be meaningless if god doesn't exist. Why does some god’s opinion of what is meaningful have anything to do with anyone else’s? Lack of knowing what is behind everything does not mean there is a god and shows the fallacy of incredulity. Do you accept this same reasoning for anything else in the world?Art in PA regards god as the ultimate ground of existence. How do you define the “ultimate ground of existence”? Does existence have to exist and is pure philosophical nothing possible? If there was a number other than 17 frequencies to use, what does this do for your concept of god? What do we care about what theology says about science? If your god is the same as “existence”, how does calling “existence” god not lead to problems? What is the difference between Spinoza’s god and a hurricane?Jack in MD argues that the universe was created because it needs an uncaused cause, and free will is the only uncaused cause. We have not been able to rule out all the potential causes so therefore this is an argument from incredulity. What is an example of free will existing without a brain and how do you get to this being an uncaused cause? Does someone with a traumatic head injury that has lost their ability to eat have free will? We do not need to assume free will to make progress, but we do need to assume logic. Patrick in SC would like to know how to get out of a faith mindset. You ask yourself how you know things and why you think they are true. This is not done overnight but is constant because we are always learning new things. Ask yourself if you could get to any conclusion using the same method you use to get to god. Olivia in NJ asks if god was created to cope with the uncertainty of death and to explain what we don’t know. We need to make sure we are not presenting this as if the first believers were doing this maliciously. Humans like telling stories and we need to assign agency to random events. Adam in TX is looking for hardcore evidence for evolution. Start by defining what evolution is, and then must prove that either genes don’t exist, or must prove their frequency does not change over time. Watch the science journals for all the ways that evolution happens. Check out the content by Erika Gutsick Gibbon and Forrest Valkai for helpful information. You can also check out Crash Course for bit size chunks that will help broaden your understanding. Denny in MI went through conversion therapy that did not work and is considering telling his parents who he really is. Your safety and security needs to be weighed along with how hurtful it may be to your parents. Contact Recovering From Religion for help with ideas on how to deal with this. Thank you for tuning in folks! Question of the week is: What is an example of god’s sense of humor?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.