The Atheist Experience

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[[File:The Atheist Experience logo episode 22.12.png|thumb|right|200px|Atheist Experience logo from episode 22.12]]
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'''''The Atheist Experience''''' is a weekly online (formerly also broadcast on public access television) talk show based in Austin, [[Texas]], paid for and broadcast by the [[Atheist Community of Austin]].<ref>[http://www.atheist-community.org/ Atheist Community of Austin's home page]</ref> The show has been on the air since 1997 and takes calls from viewers as well as featuring discussions about the reasons for not believing in [[God]]. It was hosted by [[Matt Dillahunty]], a former [[Baptist]] seminarian turned [[atheist]],<ref>http://www.atheist-experience.com/people/matt_dillahunty/</ref> and Russell Glasser. Former hosts include Jeff Dee, Martin Wagner (an American artist, cartoonist and film maker), and Ashley Perrien.

The show became notable through some extremely stupid callers, videos of which went viral on [[YouTube]]. Often their callers may engage in [[PRATT]] type arguments, while others would just be hilariously wrong, such as a man who didn't believe that your body could contain naturally-occurring electricity, because you would then be electrocuted in the shower,<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9rh8m-KZSk#t=4m22s</ref> and a [[quote mine]] so tired and old that Glasser was able to bring up the full quote on his laptop before the caller had even started reading it out.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfFXH3VqcCM</ref>

In the summer of 2009, due to renovations in the Austin public access studio, the show was not broadcast live on public access but through self-described "Guerrilla TV" format with a camera set up in Matt Dillahunty's apartment and streamed on the internet. The recordings were submitted to Austin public access for taped broadcast.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKANzIAR7wk</ref> Subsequent changes in Austin public access policy also cut the length of the show by 30 minutes down to one hour.

In March of 2010, they had a live debate with [[Ray Comfort]].<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLA_Nja5kUw Ray Comfort on The Atheist Experience - Full Debate (High Quality)]</ref>

The unofficial blog for the show became a member of [[Freethought Blogs]] on September 29, 2011,<ref>[http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/2011/09/29/introductions-the-show/ Introduction: The show]</ref> although [[PZ Myers]] would expel them on May 2019 because of [[Atheist Community of Austin#Drama|them embracing a transphobic YouTuber known as Rationality Rules]].

In August 2015, the show stopped airing on Channel Austin and switched to a solely online format, with callers instructed to message a Skype account instead of calling a telephone number. Due to this change, the shows went back to the 1 hour 30 minutes format.

==Iron Chariots.org==
[[Image:IronChariots-logo.gif|thumb|left|Iron Chariots wiki logo]]
'''Iron Chariots''' was a [[wiki]] founded by Matt Dillahunty, writing under the name [http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Sans_Deity Sans Deity.] Iron Chariots focused on providing responses to Christian [[apologetics]]. The site also had a forum.

The name is derived from a Biblical verse in which God appears to be stymied by iron chariots:
{{quotebox|And the LORD was with Judah; and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron. — {{bible|Judges|1|19}}}}

This is commonly reckoned to be an amusing contradiction of the idea that God is [[omnipotent]].<ref>[http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/iron.html 170. Can God stop iron chariots?], Skeptics Annotated Bible</ref>

==External links==

* [http://www.atheist-experience.com/ The website]
* [http://www.atheist-experience.com/podcast.php Available in Podcast Form]
* Official [http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAtheistExperience Youtube channel]
* [http://wiki.ironchariots.org Iron Chariots wiki] - Considerably more narrowly focused, much less snarky (currently offline, July 2018), [https://archive.org/details/wikiironchariotsorg-20170712-wikidump.tar Dump of site on archive.org]
* Active fork of the Iron Chariots wiki: [https://religions.wiki Religions Wiki]

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Atheist Experience, The}}
[[Category:Television programmes]]
[[Category:YouTube]]
[[Category:Atheism]]
[[Category:Podcasts]]
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Wikis]]

Categories: Television programmes, YouTube, Atheism, Podcasts, Texas, Wikis