Why Should We Follow God? | The Atheist Experience: Throwback

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The Atheist Experience is a weekly call-in television show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin.

The Atheist Community of Austin is a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit organization based in Austin, Texas. The Atheist Community of Austin is dedicated to promoting atheism, critical thinking, secular humanism, and the separation of religion and government.

We define atheism as the lack of belief in gods. This definition also encompasses what most people call agnosticism.

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The views and opinions expressed by hosts, guests, or callers are their own and not necessarily representative of the Atheist Community of Austin.

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[gamemom]

Religious people persecute people far more than anyone else, while having a persecuted mentality.

[bms]

This dude doesn’t choose sh!t regarding belief. He’s convinced it’s true which is why he believes

[seannelson]

It's hard to overstate how harmful and damaging that view of mental illness is. If you have mental illness, you need treatment, not religion. It's frankly disgusting to imply otherwise.

[csadler]

Long story short - he needs an invisible friend.

[sohux]

I became a Christian when I was depressed and thought it healed me. Fifteen years later I was depressed again (and was a very devout Christian working towards a PhD in theological studies). That led me to realize that God is not the medicine for depression. I deconstructed two years later.

[arifsaleem]

I used to see serpents all around me, I tried everything but nothing worked, so at last i brought an imaginary mongoose who scared off all those flying serpents.
I love my imaginary mongoose.

[KyouTGD]

A significant part of Christianity is the belief that nonbelievers are inferior and should be persecuted. This is projection. This guy is just asking "What if other people return the favor? That's not fair!"

[HPTV]

Fear is the greatest reason to believe in God.

[ekipogh]

Your "harmless" beliefs comes with a baggage. And this why you are wrong in believing them.

[lorianabanana]

I have pretty severe ADHD. I was on stimulant medication all through my childhood into my late teens. It led me to some not great places (disordered eating, depression, substance abuse) so I had to quit taking them.

Instead I started exercising, got active jobs, therapy and starting using work arounds to help with things like misplacing items and time blindness. I'm still very clumsey and I lose things but nowhere near as often as I used to.

I'm still on meds, just not stimulants. Medication can be life saving, but some people do better with other methods. Like therapy, community, exercise, charity, learning coping skills etc. Things that alot of churches just happen to offer.

When I was getting sober I had a really hard time because ALL of the recovery groups in my area are either 12 step or church based. I had already been an atheist for years and I constantly had people telling me I was going to die because I wouldn't join their bible study or get off ALL of my meds.

Unfortunately religion has a strangle hold on alot of recovery groups- not just for substances but mental health too. People start getting out, getting active and joining a community. Then they attribute the positive changes to god instead of joining a community and changing their lives. It doesn't prove a god, it proves that doing things differently and finding love & community can make all the difference to your mental health.

[d_camara]

The whole call is: I don't care about reality and i just choose to make believe whatever i like best and everyone should do the same

[petyrkowalski]

He actually said “why should I not believe”. This is unadulterated gullibility. How about looking for some actual evidence before believing.

[saicharand]

The caller simply doesn’t care whether his beliefs are true, there’s no bridging that gap.

The disgusting thing is him trying to pretend his beliefs don’t come with a baggage, which was proven to be most likely false by the end of the call…

[asyetundetermined]

He needs to resume his medication schedule

[paulstevens]

This is from years ago. Great hosts these two were.

[emoryogglethorp]

"I choose to believe" yeah that's what we've been saying this whole time, it's literally make believe, glad that they're finally admitting it LOL

[kellyrestiaux]

I mean, good on Johnathan for not crossing into No True Christian territory for as much time as he spent on its border.

Which god is he talking about? There are thousands of the useless things kicking around

[Josh-mi]

I can't believe something that i don't think is true.
So i can't believe in gods.

[joelonsdale]

"You shouldn't believe things that don't serve you.“... Good luck choosing what you believe!