Atheist Experience 24.23 2020-06-07 with Matt Dillahunty & Phil Ferguson

In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, Matt Dillahunty is joined by Phil Ferguson. Phil has been a long time and recurring co-host on the show. Welcome back to the co-host chair Phil! Also happy birthday Phil!Let’s get to calls. The first caller is David from Georgia. He claims that 100,000 years ago, the magnetic field was decaying and caused the Earth to… all of the what? I am not following this caller at all. Phil puts it succinctly: “Wow, that was… profound.”Next up, a different David, this time from New York would like to talk about prostitution and has reasons for believing it is morally wrong. He provides these reasons and doesn’t provide evidence or provide justification for these reasons: 1. Self value (“selling oneself”) 2. Harmful/damaging to one’s self/spiritually/psyche. It sounds more like he has a personal problem with it and seems to be projecting. Paul wants to know why atheism is a better default position than theism. It’s real simple, Paul. We have no evidence for the existence of a god (any god), much like we also have no evidence for the existence of Thor, Odin, Zeus, et cetera. Oh… here comes the argument from experience and god of the gaps. And here comes the intelligent design argument. Todd is an atheist and is wondering how to approach the argument of intelligent design provided by friends and family. ‘I don’t know’ is a legitimate answer to this sort of argument and saying so shouldn’t be seen as a weak position.Tom in Ohio, is hearing voices and claims they are mystical/natural in origin. He has heard these voices since the 70s and have increased in intensity lately. Oh, I feel for you Tom. Please seek and find the professional help you so desperately need. Pack it up folks, we are done being atheists! Miner is up next. He says the story he has is very powerful and says once people hear this story, we won’t be atheists anymore. Are you ready? His story: Some helicopters scared some bobcats off while he was playing guitar on a mountain with a friend. That’s it... Just checking, I’m still an atheist.Mallory from Oregon is up next. Recently deconverted after most of her life passionate about religion. She is having trouble finding joy or interest at the same intensity as religion anymore. Matt provides some really great advice on this. You definitely don’t have to figure this out today, best of luck!RJ claims he can prove god with the mathematical progression argument and statistics. No it won’t. He claims that static growth models and population science gives more relevance to the bible. Claims the current count of human population is impossible. You didn’t do the math right RJ. Stop Googling and go talk to anthropologists and scientists.Jesse from California claims that the brain has a high level of consciousness… then changes the subject when he is actually on air. Dude, that’s really dishonest. Next!Steve has facts and evidence to back up his opinion about god and prayer. Um, ok. How did god lead you to Daniel 8? And you’re done!That’s our show for today folks, stay safe out there! Even though it looks like the shelter-in-place orders are being lifted, please try to continue to keep yourself safe and healthy out there.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.