# Are call in debate shows (e.g. atheist experience) a positive thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 4, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-call-in-debate-shows-e-g-atheist-experience-a-positive-thing/1023669 "2025-10-04T12:57:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-call-in-debate-shows-e-g-atheist-experience-a-positive-thing/1023669/21 "2025-10-05T01:03:56Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > This might partially explain what seems to be supernatural wisdom compared to what they should have known in those days. Please, tell us more? 'Cause if it’s similar to the identical Islamic claim this’ll be fun. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-call-in-debate-shows-e-g-atheist-experience-a-positive-thing/1023669/22 "2025-10-05T05:52:43Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Maybe you watch more than me, but I haven’t seen this in a long time. Most shows are either explicitly theist callers, or if an atheist calls in, they’ll politely say “we’re just taking calls from believers today” or words to that effect. > If I could find an open call-in show, I’d call in. I don’t watch The Atheist Experience much any more, since I’m not fond of many of their hosts. Matt and Jimmy Snow formed The Line after the great schism, and they have tons of shows, some hours long. One caller run down I just saw had 90% atheists, which might be from overextending themselves. (I’m not particularly interested in listening to atheist callers, so I skip these to save time.) There are tons of slots out there, for sure. > [@Mijin](#): > > Again then, your mileage has apparently varied. A recent example for me was where the host said that the recent DESI satellite data showed that the universe’s expansion was decelerating, and so indicated that a big crunch\* was now more likely than the heat death. > > So, on his Discord channel, I pointed out that this wasn’t accurate and got flamed by about a dozen people. I don’t use Discord, so maybe it is worse there. Like I said, I spend way too much time on this already and Discord would make things worse. But most of the corrections I give are brain farts by the hosts, to be expected in the heat of a discussion, and nothing nearly as controversial as what you said. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-call-in-debate-shows-e-g-atheist-experience-a-positive-thing/1023669/23 "2025-10-05T06:04:50Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > But it does leave me with enough guilt that, as I get older, I try to be a little more responsible about it. Everything has to be exaggerated to make any point at all. I believe that as we mature, we are left with a conscience built around Christian principles, and more importantly, we see that God is the final authority over any man. This is where it gets a little funny; the atheist knows we can’t deny the Bible as written because it is part of our being. I believe they play on this a bit. Being Jewish, I assure you I have not been much affected by Christian morality. The Ten Commandments, and this may come as a shock, were not written by Christians. I’m not sure what you mean by recreational sex. I’ve been more moral in this regard than most pastors out there, given the number of scandals that have come out. Except for premarital sex, which I feel no guilt at all about after 47 years, and which I truly recommend. Our daughters knew our position on this, and they could be honest with us about where and who they were with in a way my wife couldn’t when we were in college and lots of my friends in college couldn’t. I was lucky. Guilt may come from the Bible, but it is channeled through parents. We didn’t want to be those parents and we weren’t. And the Bible, which I have read cover to cover, is not a bit of my being. In fact I didn’t read the unauthorized sequel (the NT to you) until I was in grad school and promised someone on PLATO I’d read the whole thing if they would send me one. Boring! > [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > This might partially explain what seems to be supernatural wisdom compared to what they should have known in those days. Tell me more! Like demons causing mental illness? Like what goats saw affecting the fur color of offspring? The Bible is exactly what you’d expect from ignorant people trying to explain the world as best they could. I don’t scorn the writers of the Bible like some atheists do. They weren’t stupid, they were just wrong, as could be expected when they did not have divine guidance. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-call-in-debate-shows-e-g-atheist-experience-a-positive-thing/1023669/24 "2025-10-05T06:15:44Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > They weren’t stupid, they were just wrong, as could be expected when they did not have divine guidance. Were? Too many of them are worse than that-they are _deliberately_ _ignorant_. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-call-in-debate-shows-e-g-atheist-experience-a-positive-thing/1023669/25 "2025-10-05T07:59:11Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > They weren’t stupid, they were just wrong, as could be expected when they did not have divine guidance. And when they were right, what you’d expect from people explaining the world as best as they could, they did not have divine guidance either. Muslims have a cottage industry retconning science into the Koran . . . and it’s incredibly embarrassing. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-call-in-debate-shows-e-g-atheist-experience-a-positive-thing/1023669/26 "2025-10-05T19:08:58Z")
If they had divine guidance they might have written stuff a little bit closer to reality. Back in talk.origins days I wrote a Genesis-style story which gave real cosmology in simple terms to address those who said it would be too complicated for God to explain. It might be amusing to write Greek myth apologetics, where it could be demonstrated that Apollo really did drive the sun across the sky, in a certain point of view. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-call-in-debate-shows-e-g-atheist-experience-a-positive-thing/1023669.md?page=1)