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  • His wife kinda looks like Mona Lisa

  • As a Brit, to hear that we're a fairly secular nation that's left such bronze age myths behind, I find the news welcoming.

    To hear the first caller, from London, I'm ashamed, we still have such idiots lurking around, they should be taken away and put in a padded room.

    They're a danger to themselves as well as others.

  • She kind of scares me. Just kinda.

  • Matt has a secret time machine, thats why he was there 54:15

  • Interesting how it's sometimes more difficult to give an answer to a stupid, senseless question than to an intelligent one, but these two do an admirable job!

  • The guy named Thomas is totally Mark from Austin Stone Church. Accent aside, the voice is nearly identical and notice how the accent occasionally drops out! I do think he's a real Christian, but he's definitely "Mark" from the Stone Church and not some guy from the UK.

  • That Texas governor seems batshit crazy, rain dancing for Jeebus... LOL

  • Thomas is so obviously Mark of the Austin Stone.

  • I can prove to you that fucking your daughter is wrong. The abusers are good moral christians they would tell you., LOL yeah right !

    I never knew or heard of an atheist growing up, did not know they exist.

  • Comment removed

  • first caller was a total idiot...

    last caller was just hilarious XD

  • The Book of the Dead is not a proper book, but that's one example of a really old "book".

  • stupid question: whats a po? lol

  • @dirtykongjon

    - "stupid question: whats a po? lol"

    A river in Italy, but you probably meant Poe.

    Poe's law, named after its author Nathan Poe: "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing."

  • Matt is funny! Saying he's sitting there looking mighty buff while mentioning south park is hilarious :)

  • Chris Langan's conception of God is hardly like the Christian God so it does not really help Thomas' case, which leads me to believe that he's a poe. If anything, Langan's God is basically a form of pantheism.

  • Awesome that you're based in Texas, of all places.

  • Jacob was high

  • Sorry, I'd drink the battery acid.

  • Congratulations, Matt & Beth! I'm so happy for you!

  • This is the same idiot caller on this episode:

    The Real Cost Of Religious Faith-Atheist Experience 696

  • Matt's a cool guy, but I wish he'd sit down and flush out a good way to articulate his views on morality, I agree with him, but he's so terrible at communicating those views that it tends to look like he's struggling.

    The way I do it is ask the person, "Do you agree happiness is generally preferable to sadness or pain?", then "Do you agree that all human beings accept this (there's always individual exceptions to everything)?"

    Done, objective basis for morality we all work off.

  • @AppleGurl192

    - "Matt's a cool guy, but I wish he'd sit down and flush out a good way to articulate his views on morality ..."

    Matt has given whole lectures about secular morality. If you go to this channel's main page and click on Playlists, you can watch a whole debate about "The Source of Human Morality." Most people seem to agree that Matt won that debate.

  • @TheAtheistExperience

    I don't deny he did, but he did it in a very round about way, he could of been much more concise. I'm guessing the article you link to is a fairly long one, what I mean is there's faster and more effective ways to get to the points he wants to get to.

  • @TheAtheistExperience

    Not article you link to, video you mention... Sorry it's late. >_>

  • that caller jacob from los angeles..... XD PURE GENIUS!!! his incredible intelligence is just spewing out of the phone :D he might be drunk or high or something, he should have called under the name "Contradiction" hahaha

  • Aww, Beth is so adorable <3

  • Wtf?! Every second caller sounds like "Andrew" (from the Austin stone) if that's what his real name is. They should get a voice recognition software to spot callers who call again and again under different alias.

  • @Mornys

    Yes, that's exactly the same guy from the Austin stone. It took me 3 seconds to identify him!!

  • That dude at 15 minutes in was hilarious... every type of delusion that one person could hold.

  • Preach, proselytize, or provoke works great, actually. Alliteration is a good way to remember. Way better than acronyms, since I only ever remember the word, and not what the letters stand for. At my last job, we learned our fire protocol through an acronym, "R.A.C.E.". And if there had been a fire, I'd have probably raced from the building.

  • I think I may understand what the guy at the end was saying, probably because I've heard that argument before. I think he was saying that people that lived back then wouldn't make up stories like that, tell them as facts, and then have them passed from generation to generation years later. I think he's under the assumption that if they were untrue they'd have either been told as untrue or people wouldn't still believe them this many years later. Bad argument but I think that's what he meant.

  • Caller at 54:00 needs to read the Gita and the vedas....

    BWhahahahahahaha

  • Thom from the UK (aka 'Mark' from the Stone Church) is a Marcionite in his "chuck the OT" stance.

    My goodness, he's a heretic!

  • "Universal Morals == Provisional morality, and its the result of evolution.

    Micheal Shermer has discussed this in depth in at least two or three books.

    Wow.

  • Pet dragon would be FUCKIN EPIC!!!!

  • Is it just me, or is Beth the Mona Fucking Lisa?

  • soo... that guys argument was... 'god' gave us universal morality, but the morals arent universal due to people having differing opinions, so how can there be universal morality...

    nice bit of cognitive dissonance there.

  • Excellent show Matt!

    i very much enjoy your improved listening skills, then shooting holes in the callers belief systems.

  • No Eyebrows??

  • Thomas doesn't have a real British accent, he sounds like a Canadian pretending. I don't think Thomas is a real Christian, I think he's a Poe.

  • @joyork

    Actually, it's more diabolical than that. This guy calls under various guises. At first, he claimed to be from the Stone Temple Church in Austin Texas, then, after Matt and others told him he was a fool, he started calling back using fake names, voices, etc. There's actually a video of him getting angry at Tracy Harris about the perils of religion. Also, a video where he says: "Maybe I should just think for myself." Followed by an applause by the people in the studio and by Matt.

  • @MultiFuture88 Wasn't it after "Mark's" realization though, that he started doing this fake call crap?

  • @MultiFuture88 Wasn't it after "Mark's" realization though, that he started doing this fake call crap?

  • @joyork I am British and I tend to agree.

    He has a 'twang' to his voice. Couple that with the fact that there are very few extreme Christian believers in the UK.

  • @joyork He was a poe. He's "Mark", and previously called several times claiming he goes to the Austin Stone Church. It is clearly him even if you don't take his horribly clearly fake accent to account. Matt caught him in one of the episodes following this one.

  • @joyork

    Naah I think this guy is the real deal. You can hear it in his annoying little voice that he's very emotional about this. I applaud Matt for handling this clown with such patience. It reminds me of how Penn Jillette was handling that ass Piers Morgan. These guys are very patient.

  • @joyork What do you mean by that?We Canadians do a much better fake Brit accent than that. You should hear my fake German, or Russian.

  • @joyork Besides,it would take a genious to fake that depth of stupidity.

  • @joyork It's the same person that originally called in as Mark from the Austin Stone Church.... apparently honesty and truth is not as important to christians as it used to be, if it ever was important.....

  • ‎"I'm not sure if faith can move mountains but I've seen what it can do to skyscrapers. Never Forget."

  • @Remulakfubar He looks more like Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars

  • im from england,,,how do i call,,,,, and thomas u fukin tool u sound like a ponce,,i thought it was just american christians that was just retarded,but nooooooooooooo,,thers english 1s

  • im from england,,,how do i call,,,,, and thomas u fukin tool u sound like a ponce,,

  • richard dawkins is the MAN ,,,if u dont no who he is youtube him(richard dawkins the god dilushion) (dilushion)--i think thats how u spell it..

  • @stevenut88 Delusion is the correct spelling. I far prefer the Ancestor's Tale, though, it's my favorite book, not just from Richard Dawkins, but from any author.

  • @HisManifest He raped her so now she has to marry him and love, honor, and obey him.

  • @theUSER101 Because, As Ambassador Vreenak said On Deep Space Nine, "It's a FAAAAAKE!!!"

  • "As for your idea of a "pro-life atheist", it must be a rare thing. Atheists don't have the religious drive to consider fetuses as people."

    What? You'll have to run that by me again; this time make more sense though. I do not understand this reasoning you made.

  • @finalfantasy8911 : "pro-life" is usually coined to describe "anti-abortion" people (in great majority, religious people)... as opposed to "pro-choice". If you meant something else, then maybe you should have used different words.

    In this context of anti-abortion, the religious claim that a fetus is a person from the time the egg is fertilized, imbued with a soul given by God etc. Atheists don't care about soul which is just religious babble.

  • "As for the "light" or "hope" for mentally insane people, I'm afraid you're making an analogy with the Christian view about salvation. I guess you're asking a question that does not call for an answer. or you're just enunciating your question in a wrong, religiously biased, sort of way."

    Don't be silly. I'm simply asking what sort of positive outcome do the mentally deranged have to look forward to from an atheist's viewpoint?

  • @finalfantasy8911 : your "light" or "hope" is indeed what I understood of it. Thing is : why should one "have to" look forward to something ? Can't one simply live day after day, taking things as they come ? This probably sounds weird to you but it's actually a strong distinction between Abrahamic religions and Buddhism: the ultimate goal in Buddhism is to extinguish your cravings.

    And taking the "mentally ill" as an example is inappropriate if we can't know what they think.

  • @nickst0ne

    A religion that says "take things one day at a time and hope for a good outcome" is less effective than "Be a good person and believe in god for salvation, and IT WILL come, if not in this life but the next one". In a world as harsh as this one we live in, the latter is more craved for. That everything is assured to turn out right and rewarding in the end; not just struggling with mankind hoping by one's own efforts to survive each day. It brings about a baneful hopelessness.

  • @nickst0ne

    "And taking the "mentally ill" as an example is inappropriate if we can't know what they think."

    As an example for what?

  • Anyone else think Beth looks a lot like the Lisa Gherardini (aka Mona Lisa)? Or is it just me?

  • Great call from Jacob.

  • Any postiive, good-willed, pro-human and pro-life atheist who believes that everything is purely materialistic and that at death, they head into nothingness is living in a self-contrived reality cradled by "luck". If the atheist that I previously described were to have a specific "one bad day", they will quickly shift into a hateful, destructive, sadistic, nihilist with disregard for everything. Of course since humanity is so diverse, a SMALL few will always remain steadfast in their "goodness".

  • @finalfantasy8911 : This is so full of religious prejudice ! Atheists are less prone than religious people to commit crimes, and anybody of any creed can have a bad day. So forget about the small few atheists of your fantasy! Religious people can be hateful, destructive and sadistic EVERYDAY! Not just on bad days.

    As for your idea of a "pro-life atheist", it must be a rare thing. Atheists don't have the religious drive to consider fetuses as people. And "pro-human" means nothing.

  • What would YOU do with another atheist who believes that morality, humanity, and the universe itself is meaningless and begins taking negative actions, like murder, manipulation, etc, based on that belief? What would you do if you tried to change that person, but his individuality was already set in his sadistic nihilism? Its most likely you would ultimately say to lock that person away. How sad that is.

  • @finalfantasy8911 : whether that hypothetical person would be an Atheist or not is irrelevant. If someone was set on committing crimes, then anybody should get that person arrested.

    By the way, your presentation of the question suggests that Atheism might make someone embrace a criminal path. But atheists are actually less prone than the religious to commit crimes. It is a common misconception from the religious that they hold moral values which other people lack. Decency needn't religion.

  • @nickst0ne

    You see, atheism breaks the boundries that religion puts up in an effort to protect man from itself. If your an atheist, odds are your going to believe that everyone should hold and live by a set of ideals that best suits their personal viewpoints. To be free with what they do with their life, without the fear of a god or hell. So what about those who develop nihilistic viewpoints on the world, and though those beliefs commit murder.

    *to be continued*

  • @nickst0ne

    *continuing*

    So for an atheist who so fervently believes in individuality, you would lock someone up because they are a danger to society based on their personal beliefs; WHICH is reasonable yes, but brings up a question: If that criminal locked up doesn't want to change their belief, what do you do with them?

    By the way, when did I indicate that atheists were a congregation?

  • @finalfantasy8911 : First, religion doesnt put efforts into protecting man from itself. Law does that. From atheist point of view, moral values are individual. But we live in a society. So you should not assume that atheists want everyone to live by their own standards. This would be anarchy and (I don't want to waste time elaborating politically on anarchy) very few people want anarchy.

    *to be continued*

  • @finalfantasy8911 : *continuing*

    You suggested that atheists are a congregation by saying "another atheist"... which implies both people identify themselves and each other through this aspect of being atheists.

    As you'll find in many places, the word "atheism" is misleading by suggesting it is an "-ism". But could you identify people by saying they are "not-stamps-collectors" or "not-basketball-players"? Atheists are just not-god-believers.

  • @nickst0ne

    Your reasoning in this matter is all wrong. When I said "from one atheist to another" I am appealing to two people with a similar persepective on a specific matter; and what's wrong with that? If I were to bring up a matter of thought between two who are unemployed, would you object to that as well? Or even to two who are "not-basketball-players" or "not-stamp-collectors"? I used the word atheism because it is understood as "one who believes in no god". Not a congregation at all.

  • @nickst0ne

    I see why you would think I thought that atheism is a type of religion (thanks to brain-damaged religous bigots). Atheism is, as matt had said, how "baldness is related to hair color"; the two are significantely seperate. Much of the religous, however, are not using that kind of analogy, but one liken to how "baldness is related to a hair style you can get at a hair cuttery"; in which baldness is more "involved" with. Basically, I know atheism is not a type of theology.

  • @nickst0ne

    When I said "pro-human" I mean "a positive humanist" or "one who wishes to help humanity achieve ultimate success in a variety of fields (science, health, ideas, etc.). You couldn't even figure that out?! PRO-HUMAN. You know what a human is. The adverb pro- means supporting, in favor of, etc, etc.

  • @finalfantasy8911 : I know what "pro" and "human" stand for. But together, they might mean a great diversity of things and be opposed to a great diversity of other things (since "pro" is often associated with "anti"). Also you description of "pro-human" is not entirely the same as "positive humanist", since some religious people THINK they might be doing something good for others when really they are just advancing a religious agenda which is likely to be destructive.

  • What sort of "light" or hope is there for those who are inherently mentally insane, or criminally insane, and cannot get to normality? What do atheists do and think about those who are doomed to living a life shunned by society? What do atheists do with other atheists who live by a "negative nihilistic" worldview?

  • @finalfantasy8911 : Atheists are NOT a congregation. If they want to act upon other people being "negative nihilistic", they wouldn't act as atheists but as citizens or friends, etc.

    As for the "light" or "hope" for mentally insane people, I'm afraid you're making an analogy with the Christian view about salvation. I guess you're asking a question that does not call for an answer. or you're just enunciating your question in a wrong, religiously biased, sort of way.

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  • If one was to inherit an incurable disease, or caught some sort of incurable disease, what can a man, who doesn't have a cure, do for him?

  • @finalfantasy8911 : if by "incurable disease" you mean a fatal short-or-medium-term incurable disease, then the best one can do is make the other person's life as good as possible during his remaining lifetime.

  • Oh, fuck. Just reached the last caller. Can't breathe.

  • When did people think he was mean to Beth? I didn't pick up on it.

  • So... the Bhagavad Gita is older than the Bible... why isn't Jacob a Hindu?

  • Rapture 2011 - then Tribulation 2011- 2018 - the AntiChrist is about to be revealed...

  • You serve one of two masters - Jesus or Satan

  • a wise thought - an atheist truly has no security - nothing to truly hang onto... from Jesus

  • @typaffmarketing

    Jesus never said your "wise thought".

  • I LOVE your laugh! It's so silly :D :) :) :)

  • A message from Lord Jesus - I am coming for my true believers in 2011 - very very soon. After this - I will cleanse the earth. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. You will believe after proof is shown...

  • """Thomas""" took accent lessons from Dick Van Dyke.

    I say Governor, blimey!

    Coo, rather!

    Pip-pip, cheerio.

  • Hey atheist - who do you call out to when your in serious trouble - like getting in a serious car accident or someone puts a gun to your head? s

  • @typaffmarketing Ambulance in the first case, cops in the second. Now if you're going to try the snarky and foolish canard of claiming a person believes in god if they exclaim "god!" in situations of stress or surprise, then don't bother. That is one of the most stupid arguments I've ever heard. A person's speaking habits cannot simply be changed overnight because their beliefs change. Sometimes I say "oh my gods" being a fan of BSG. But I don't believe that pantheon exists.

  • @typaffmarketing Joe Pesci, or the nearest person most resembling Joe Pesci.

  • Mark is the biggest troll lol

  • Adam's at fault because he decided to betray God.

    Which he decided because he had a corrupt nature.

    Which nature he got from [drum roll]...

  • OK, I bet somebody's already noted this, but I had to chuckle at Matt taking a special guest call from a friend with the same name as a line of...hair care products.

  • Love that little whispered "Don't!" at the very end there. Matt, you just behave yourself!

  • @KeplersDream Aww, but Matty just wanted some lovin' from his pookie bear. :)

  • OMG!!!!!....that last caller was EPIC!!!!please have him on your show again:)

    and beth is hot!

  • At 30: 58 the caller doenst understand that just because you're an atheist it doesnt mean you're rational.

  • I LOVE the argument with Thomas at the start its amazing you can hear the cogs turning :D

  • <3

  • Wow that last caller... I hope thats not for real.

  • Beth is mesmerizing. She has this aura about her...

  • LOOOOL. It doesn't matter if you change your accent Mark;

    Your ideas and positions are still of shitty quality ;)

  • LOOOOL. It doesn't matter if you change your accent Mark;

    Your ideas and positions are still of shitty quality ;)

  • @Remulakfubar I totally thought the same thing when I first came upon the show!

  • Mark, you're not fooling anybody with your crappy accent and phone-sockpuppeting.

  • Haha, he sounds a bit like an Aussie, bless him.

  • I'm REALLY impressed with Matt here! That was the patience of steel!

  • LOL at the last caller ! I tought he was a pow for a moment !

  • Thomas, you are a pathetic, stupid bastard.

  • Matt Dilahunty you are a legend

  • 19:17, is the best! Matt Dillahunty for the win!

  • i fucked a dragon! thousands of years from now people will believe it

  • I HAVE A PET DRAGON!!! well i would but um...

  • I most definitely recognized this as the caller you guys refer to as "Mark". I thought he was a troll in his first persona where he put on a very naive 3rd grader fundamentalist mentality. I'm surprised the producers of the show didn't catch this.

  • hey, Michael Shermer. I have his book "Why people believe wierd things" I love the part were he talks about the repressed memory controversy.

  • Aww! I wish I could go to the convention!

  • Clearly a fake accent. Clearly 'Mark'.

  • @BrissIes Ya the last time mark called he mentioned Chris L. 

  • @BrissIes holy shit, it is mark from stone church lol, i bought the accent untill i read ur post lol, i was dupped by mark!!!

  • Was that Mark pretending to be an English guy? Whoever it was... worst... accent... ever.

  • Telling Matt that he doesn't have a clue about the bible is like telling Jeff he's going to hell.

  • 6:35 i kind of do... both

  • I would so much love going for a beer with Matt.

  • i listened to this with headphones on, right to the very end. did anyone else get alittle bit freaked out by the whispering at 57:42?

  • fucking owned the stupid cunt.

  • That's not a legit british accent. It has hints of Amercian all the way through. I'm British and have lived in America, this "Thomas" guy is a fraud.

  • That first christian caller's accent faded away pretty quick (17 min in)

  • Should have told the last caller that if someone 2000 years from know dug up the Harry Potter series, should they believe it as true?

  • I think it's irrelevant if a christian, atheist, muslim, jew, etc become president. If they have secular policies, strictly follow the constitution, and have rhetoric, experience, leadership, and other aspects of a good president, a person's religious views shouldn't even be concerned with.

  • @j03y2fly someones beliefs will show in there leadership inevitably. i get what you're saying but hear me out. say there is a christian parent, while they raise their child and teach them things and protect them from things, theyre views will show and some of these views stem from a religious background. i.e. child asks about death, christian parent inevitably says that you go to heaven or hell. its a bit long winded but i am just saying that what you suggested is nearly impossible. thank you

  • @Marioiswicked Can you connect your premise to something political when the person uses secular arguments to justify what his believes are politically, as I stated in my initial comment?

  • Yeash this Chris Langon mention again, he's just a I.D. supporter who misapplies formal sciences much like Dembski. I looked at that 'proof' and it's just a pseudo-scientific contradictory argument which evidently shows an ignorance to theory of computation. It's just a bunch of fail. Doesn't even get half the definitions correct.

  • When I hear people say that morality comes only from God, my first though is: psychopath. Normal, healthy people have no problem working out the difference between right and wrong -- if you wouldn't like it done to you, then you probably shouldn't do it to someone else... if you can't work this out for yourself, you've probably got some serious issues.

  • Beth looks like the Mona Lisa, and sadly she has about the same amount of enthusiasm....

  • Im so happy that I am not delusional!

  • @MiamiSteve07 ........sounds like something a this

    theist would say to me xD

  • I would say that granting that there are things that are "always" wrong is accepting that objective absolute morality exists. Much as Matt, I cannot think of any situation where certain actions would be acceptable, but that is *still* relative to us. Maybe somewhere in another galaxy in a million years there is a culture where it may be acceptable for some unfathomable reason that we can't think of now.

    All I'm saying is morality is still relative and subjective, even if we ALL agree.

  • LAST CALLER WAS... LACKING A LOT OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF INTELLIGENCE

  • Hey is "Thomas" actually our old friend Mark posing as a briton? His accent is not that good...

  • @pedazodeboludo lol, refreshed the page and your comment was at the top. That was my first thought, too. The accent is terrible, and as soon as he started talking I knew he wasn't English. The more he said the more he started to sound like Mark.

    Weird thing when Americans who can't do it, attempt an English accent, it tends to sound like a mish mash of Australian and South African. lol

  • @UnitedKingdomify Agreed.

  • @pedazodeboludo I thought the same thing.......Interesting!

  • @pedazodeboludo Yes, he couldn't seem to decide whether he was English, Texan, or Australian.

  • 19:22 Thomas from the UK " You know the bible as well as i do"......Matt "Better evidently".........Thomas " pause, ANYWAY.............." CLASSIC

  • 22:00 - 23:00 Matt disagrees with 'Moral Relativism' not 'Subjective Morality'. It's a bit annoying he messes the terms up.

  • Wow, now I want a pet dragon (sorry Fido)

  • HAHAH JESUSSSSSS changed it OWEEEEeeee jesus christ!!! WAHHHH WAHHHHHH what a dumb bitch

  • bullhonky, they do such an excellent job of answering their email it's unbelievable. they've answered both i've sent in :D keep up the good work! :)

  • I hope she talks a whole lot more then this time. more then 2 comments, so i can form an opinion with some 'accuracy.'

  • I'm so tired of this F-ing guy with the same voice calling with different names.

  • @NoPinocchio and the fake accent. y can't the screeners seem 2 know this

  • @NoPinocchio i think it's entertaining :-) this show is alot more fun when theres theist callers. hope Mark calls back, then later they can have a Best Of Mark DVD out, with all his best work. he can even be on the cover.

  • @LogicUndefined LMAO.... Beth's eyes are distracting was wondering if I was the only one that noticed..

  • chess example is awesome

  • Last caller... I wonder... if we were 2000 years into the future and we dug up a memorystick containing The Loose Cannon. Would he become a Pastafarian then?

    And if he calls again, I hope you ask why he doesn't believe in Thor and Odin, or Zeus or any other god that has much older sets of documents.

  • @TheAtheistExperience Glad you're back. Got a bit worried about you. Not sooo worried that I might turn to a deity and pray, but you know what I mean.