In today’s episode of the Atheist Experience, The Godless Engineer and Armin Navabi, work with callers who think that not only their god is loving, but slavery is not a bad thing. 

Larry in Canada, thinks that the Bible has a different meaning for the word, “slave” than what “slave” means in the original Hebrew. The caller asserts “servant” as a definition for slave and believes this nullifies the atrocity of slavery. He then struggles to understand the basics of dialogue that usually involves more than one person. Why do you think you can just ask the hosts to read from the Bible and not offer their opinions? We are waiting for you to perform a semantic cartwheel that is beautiful enough for us to believe the Bible is against slavery. 

Oblivious in CA says that even though a rational person denies the belief in god, nobody really can deny god. What does it mean for god to be the conscious explanation and answer for all things? Why can’t this god explain something easy like rain? We agree that we can’t deny the existence of something that we don’t know. God is either nothing, or god is everything, both of which are completely pointless to prove, and we don’t have a definition for your “box”. 

Steve in NE made a claim that slaves were just prisoners of war. If people are prisoners of war, is it a good thing to turn them into slaves? Why believe in a god that is not all powerful and does not have the ability to end slavery? The conversation revealed the caller’s belief in ancient aliens influencing the past. Appealing to ignorance in regards to unknown forces does not work when attempting to defend Biblical slavery. 

Simeon in GA believes the god of the Bible is a loving god. We are going to question everything about this god, and will especially question whether this god is loving. How is it loving for god to send people that he created into a place of torture that is also created? Why did god not create things without the ability to sin? It is never okay to kill small children like what your god commanded his people to do. If the Bible says that babies are evil, we don’t want that kind of love. 

David in CO is on a journey to figure out what god is. He addresses the people who try to defend slavery by telling them that this is not learning from our mistakes. Why give the credit of doing all the good things to the evil monster of the Torah?

Hannah in MS wants to discuss the communitarian case against secularism. Secularism is not anti-religion, but rather it allows for a level and fair playing field that does not favor any religion. This topic deserves more time and we hope you will call in again to discuss in depth.

Thank you for tuning in this week! Scott Dickie, our backup host, joins to help close us out. Question of the week is: What is the worst thing to give up for Lent?


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