As an ex Christian minister it is obvious that her faith is absolute BS. Not once has she said she thinks Jesus was God come in the flesh, was crucified and resurrected. Because it is so stupid. Her "conversion" is political and no doubt economics based. And trying to stay relevant to a conversation the shock value is essential. Her complete ignoring the history and doctrines of the churches is so obvious.
I used to say, "I choose to believe" too. What I actually meant was, "I'm purposefully avoiding any meaningful examination of this information." It was a grown up way of stuffing my fingers in my ears and shouting "Naa, nah, nah, I can't hear you!"
As an atheist, I feel absolutely no need to "fortify" my beliefs against religion. None. What does she think we do, read random religious texts and exclaim "A ha! I'm still not a believer!"? If someone somewhere came up on some irrefutable proof a religion was true we'd hear about it worldwide, no need to go looking for it.
@@Styphon yes, she's also making it sound like what Ricky Gervais described as running into churches and yelling, "It's all bullocks!!" and that's just not the case.
@@Styphon and as I've seen so far, most atheists can explain why we DON'T believe but they seem to struggle with why they DO believe. Very few testimonies are riddled with intricate non sequiturs that tie completely random events together to justify their belief; most are completely emotional at their base and fairly simple stories.
I struggled with suicidal depression before, during, and after being a Christian. It played a factor in my conversion, my leaving, and 2 brief "relapses" after leaving. So I can feel for her desperation. But I also get the strong feeling that, as with me, something deeper is going on. Though depression was a factor, it was the moral bankruptcy of a God character that can demand blood sacrifice and justify incredible injustice in this life, as well as infinite torture afterward, that ultimately forced me out and kept me out. I could only deal with the depression by finding, facing, and healing from what was driving it from underneath. I suspect she may have a similar path. I feel sorry for her, especially because of all the bridges she's burning along the way. There may well come a time when she needs understanding and compassion from the people she's currently strawmanning and maligning. (I wanted to comment this on part 1, but my browser crashed and I forgot.)
Alex has a different approach when he is interviewing someone compared to when he is debating someone. In debates, he pushes back, in interviews he doesn’t push back. See the difference in his interview and then debate with Cliffe and Stuart Knechtle. Alex’s interview technique is a smiling passive aggressive method of politely feeding his interviewee rope, knowing they will tie themselves up in the rope and then politely feeding them more while smiling all the time. He then leaves the audience to notice that the interviewee has avoided the question, deflected to another topic or displayed contradictions in their positions previously stated. When he sees avoidance or deflection, he rejigs the same question with the same intent and sets the interviewee off again. It’s not his brief here to pull them up on their inconsistencies and hypocrisies, he’s not having a debate, he just lets them put it out there and does not interrupt as the interviewee uses the rope exactly how Alex expected them to do and he merely says “Mmmmm” which seems to be his way of saying the unimpressive non-answer shows why he has not embraced Christian authoritarianism. I am looking forward to him moving on from Biblical contradictions and moral relativism and starting to deal with the real politics of Christianity, its inherent authoritarianism and preference for governing by totalitarianism and putting the question to his Christian guest as to why they subscribe to a totalitarian political ideology. But he’s only a philosopher so far and not a political scientist but that will come. We know Ayaan left Islam because she realised it was a totalitarian political ideology and she voted with her feet to live in a liberal social democracy and even be a parliamentary representative of that democratic freedom, so the question for her is why has she merely switched to another totalitarian political ideology for Christianity is as inherently authoritarian as Islam? The culture she had voted with her feet for and embraced is not Christianity, its democracy. She says everything she values in the West is uniquely Christian but the democracy she has actively embraced as the leading character of the West, is obviously not of Christian origin. Ayaan is doing a lot of gaslighting emotivism in her cherry picking embrace of Christianity, turning a blind eye to its anti- democratic and totalitarian ideology but then she can do that as she has been living in liberal social democracies though that may end if she stays in the USA, though she appears to be comfortable with right wing US Christian Nationalism. Careful what you wish for Ayaan.
I like how Alex’s interview style contrasts with his debate style. In interviews, he urges all his subjects to spout any and all of their thoughts/beliefs so all who watch can see their true colors. In his debates, he lures his interlocutors into intellectual corners that they cannot finagle their way out of without admitting their stance is without merit, then he calmly makes statements of truth (not attacks) that make it clear to the observer that his opponent is struggling to justify their beliefs.
She's lost the plot. I can't undersyand why anyone who saw the fallacy of the god delusion would revert/recant and accept the delusion unless....they were being enriched or were playing the field and looking for the most profitable angle to decide on. Either way, she's part of the problem. Ayaan, you've lost the plot and are another contributor to the problem humanity faces in its race to survive. Belief in the god of the stone age does nothing but keep humanity from becoming its best self. Shame on you!
Thanks Brian for talking for me in full. She played the victim card and would burst into tears if she if confronted with any counter arguments. Alex's face showed pure sympathy for her fallacies and fear that she would,
I could not even watch over a few minutes. The dishonesty made me sick. She knows her " fellow atheists" will be ragging on her for this and she wanted to start defending herself . Next she will say we work for the devil, 😂
Funny you should say that. A long time ago I knew a born-again Christian who was just about the most miserable person (much of his own doing) you could ever meet. I told him he seemed so unhappy. He said, “But I have JOY in Jesus!” If only face-palm was a thing back then…
Her “conversion” is to make money. Has nothing to do with her true belief. She’ll publish books and give talks to the sheep and happily take their money
The money is probsbly welcome, but if you listen to her it's pretty much about finding a platform to fight against any and all aspects of Islam for her. The atheists were not intolerant enough for her personal crusade, so she changed venues...
Hitch mentions the immorality of "penal substitution". He mentions the sham behind the whole idea. I've done my time for my crimes, without expecting anyone to rescue me. The very idea of anyone suffering for my mistakes is alien, almost abhorrent and disgraces my humanity. Hitch also mentions Sidney Cartin (Tale of Two Cities) as a true human sacrifice. Hitch is amazing.
@@misterdeity I just found you, which is weird because I've been through every atheist channel for years lol.. I saw you recently on another channel (which I can't remember right now 😂... Horseshit for brains) and I really like your content and arguments. 👍🏼
@ YAY!!! So glad to have you. I’m one of the OGs! There are 18 years of content here for you. Enjoy! ❤️ Btw, do you play guitar? I do as well - for fifty years this year. Yikes!!!
This is basically every right-wing conversion story. You cannot just CONvert, you must also completely disavow your prior position. And so, she must tell us how atheism is religion, etc
Right. So many of these CONversions are for underlying political purposes. Even Musk is distancing himself from Atheism. It's so ignorant and tribalistic on their part.
i think it's evident that Ayaan is struggling with mental health. she is merely self-justifying irrationally, misrepresenting atheism, and generally not making sense - it seems to be a kind of self-protection mode. I appreciate her foundation which exposes and fights against female genital mutilation. I hope she finds some sort of peace without religious superstition...
After I heard Ayan's story a few months ago and watched her interview with Dawkins, I decided to go and read her autobiography. Once I did, I felt awful for her troubled upbringing but I thought to myself this woman was never an atheist. She was just pushed so hard by her radical Islamist surrounding, she just hated Islam. One can easily find other paths; such as use her atheism to get asylum and her Dutch citizenship got in trouble(probably for a reason, I don't have proof but it is very common in the Muslim world). She is now paying more attention in the rising right wing in America and seeing another niche. Shameful!
One more: Im so sorry Bri-Bri, I had to mute Ayaan. Shes _that shockingly bad_ at speaking. Although - possibly in her defense - it could be due to her terrible acting while trying to portray a downtrodden individual "finding hope" finally. Maybe this is how she thinks it ought to sound to convince her marks.
Yeah, THIS version of Ms. Ali is not very well spoken. She's either very new to this thinking style, or really working to be convincing in her act. That conservative think tank she was supposedly involved in really screwed her up.
Agreed. I personally think its part of her schtick (did she not say this while she was an "atheist"?), just _mentioning it_ shouldve been a checked box to her "therapist" (if she saw one at all, let alone a COMPETENT one) and shouldve been communicated to other medical professionals. That type of language isnt some laugh/applause line.
Hey, im new to this series. Earlier i realized this channel has so much history on youtube. I'm still on a deconstruction journey, your channel, is new breath of fresh air, idk, the tv like content, the humor in this video rn and last few recent videos is so good.
Best of luck on your journey! I went through my deconversion back between 2005 and 2007, basically during the hey-day of New Atheism. But yeah, Mr. Deity is awesome, esp. back when he WAS Mr. Deity. Using humor to pick apart the illogic makes the process a lot easier to digest.
Glad you’re finding the content helpful. We are all on the same journey. Happy you found your way out. I know the kind of courage it takes. So pat yourself on the back and enjoy my 18 years of content. 😂❤
@@Crimethoughtfull Thank for the words brother. Yeah, having humour amongst the downfall of an agent you put your whole identity into, your goals towards, your feelings towards, your whole life from youth, is revolved around a god, having that humour helps. We knew the garden of Eden from young, to break the chains (I hate to say it like that) of this God/Gods & the fear associated with this God, it'll take time. I'm not rushing it. We used to believe we deserved hell fire, we believed we were bankrupt yet we failed to connect the dots in order to realize the only reason we were bankrupt and hell fire worthy was because of two other peoples Oblivious mistake made years prior. We walked around telling others they must believe in the beautiful gift of being forgiven for two other people's mistake....WHAT!!
@@brendonbrooke In the words of Hitchens, it is a story of "you were created sick, but commanded to be well upon pain of death". We're taught that we're either born in sin, or at least that the first time we lust after a cookie and steal a cookie from the cookie jar then we're sinners--and Jesus died for ALL sins. "We will invent an illness for you to have and then be the only ones with the 'cure'" kind-of vibe.
Tbh about the one person I would never have considered a .. guiding light of atheism is Ayaan Hirsi. In the Netherlands atheism is a 53% majority position..
I finally figured it out. "Objective morality" is morality unrelated to the well-being of humans. It's the morality that god has, and god doesn't particularly like humans.
[01:00ish] The simplest *pushback* to Ayaan Hirsi's disconnection claim, "In what year and place was this ideal Christian community or civilization-level the correct _'bathwater temperature'_ such that you want us all to adopt and return to everything about it?"
I am 55. I have only known that I am an Atheist for (MAX) 10 years. never believed in a god, but never knew it had a name if you don't believe in something. What is it called when I don't believe in Tinkerbelle? I think I'm an old Atheist.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali openly rejects evidence-based thinking. If ever she was an atheist, she seems to have arrived at it - NOT from intellectualism - but rather from being anti. In her case, anti against the people (Muslims?) who abused her. Simply being anti is not a recipe for durable outcomes.
I am from Somalia same tribe as hers she laid about her life there was never force marriage,her family never mistreated her she lived in Kenya went secular schools her family were not fundamentalist she wanted to immigrate Canada so she found a guy who lived in Canada and then decided to go Holland and laid about her background she is a grifter and a lair
5:00 "not having an open mind" and "prejudging"? Did she not, like me, come to the conclusion that her religion was lacking and wasn't what it claimed?? We went down that path already so how would I be prejudging? She's looking for an argument to justify her hypocrisy. She'll fit right in.
Does she not know most people in the US were raised Christian? A 5 year old immediately believes whatever they are told. They're not going to be putting up barriers, yada yada. They have to find their own way out of it and with a lot of pushback from others later in life.
You have something to you. The little edits on the video. At first i was like, okay what's going on here but now i I think I see it😂. Love your content Mr.Deity
I wholeheartedly agree. Not every conversation needs to be confrontational or turn into a debate, but he now just consistently lets his guests blather absolute nonsense on and on.
Agreed. I cringed during his conversation with Dr Collins. Collins claimed that if you don't believe in God then you MUST believe in the multi-verse. Alex just let it slide. He is too smart to have missed it. I don't understand him...
I AGREE. I do understand the desire to be a "safe space" in which people will "honestly" share their perspectives.. But as you said...at the the expense of anything critical response. Which means we are patronizing people because we don't believe they can/will be honest and forthcoming, if we are honest and forthcoming.
I watch Ayaan in these recent interviews and then i watched her interviews from around 15-20 years ago and the contrast is stark. Back then she was confident and knowledgeable about what she spoke and now not so confident, almost as if reading from a script. Something or someone/s has gotten a hold of her and she seems like a frightened little girl who is making sure she says things in the right way as not to show her hand or she will be punished? In some way. I feel sorry for her, for whatever is going on in her life.
@guiseppesavaglio8136 If any of us were hunted, actually hunted, the way she has been we might be affected by the experience too. I have sympathy for the situation and sorrow for what she has experienced. At the same time, I can't really respect the conclusions she has come to and the reasons she is giving for them.
I also come from muslim culture like Ayan and I couldn't help giggling when she was pushed back on the truisms of religion. She referred to psychological disorders mentioned in the bible, which reminded me of muslims who say the Quran predicted the meeting of the Pacific & Atlantic oceans 😆
9:39 An excellent question from Alex, probably the best in the entire interview. The first thing Ayaan thought of was how she doesn't like how modern atheism has some people who behave like Christians. Setting aside for now how I don't think you could find 10 atheists who would say there is no evidence for god that would ever convince them, while most churches are filled with people who would say nothing could reverse their belief in god. Maybe if what you dislike most about some atheists is how Christian they are, perhaps Christianity isn't the best fit for you Ayaan.
What a great point!!! I’ve even laid down a marker for exactly what evidence would convince me. And it’s nothing beyond what God has already done to convince others - entire populations even! It’s stuff Jesus told us followers would be able to do!
I'm sorry but when somebody tells me that they are reading the gospels and find them fascinating, enriching, or enlightening, I have to question their intelligence, sanity, or honesty.
The thing that frustrated me about this interview was that Alex didn’t press her enough on why Christianity, specifically. I understand how someone born into the faith might accept the story of Jesus, but what about it was so compelling for an outsider like her? She just keeps bringing up Islam and culture and politics, but what exactly changed her mind about the truth of Christian scripture? It can’t just be that she chose to believe - that’s too broad and nonsensical. Why not be a Mormon then? That’s why this all just feels more like a political identity rather than a religious one.
"...you create a counter-faith in non-faith". What the hell! I have heard some daft stuff in my time, but that one takes the biscuit. This is the kind of nonsense-speak one hears dribbling from the mouths of Apologists. She just accused non-believers of creating their own religion. How dare she go down this path of insulting practices. I am slowly realising this lady is becoming the very thing she once despised. At no time have I insulted her, or mocked her choices. At no time have I said anything derogatory about her, yet the moment she converts, she starts with the accusations. Not a good idea Ayaan. Not a good idea.
Being closed minded to beliefs that are without evidence is only perceived as being a negative characteristic by those who believe without evidence. Why would anyone think that blind faith is a virtue?
@@clemstevenson as a former Evangelical, we wore our ignorance with pride, I'm ashamed to say. It's like a game of who can be in the most denial and claim it as faith.
@@CatDaddyGuitar Well, I know from experience that blind faith is not limited to any particular set of religious beliefs. The common factor is a lack of supporting evidence, or a willingness to misinterpret scientific findings to make them fit.
@@CatDaddyGuitar Some clown has just tried to tell me that I cannot choose to believe in things, as though choice is an impossible option. I can believe anything, if there is evidence to suggest that it's true. But, as It is impossible to argue with people who pretend to know the minds of others, I blocked him.
ah, i love to hear about how terrible people were when they were atheist, cos it fascinates me that in their list of faults they never add "i was a compulsive liar and can't be trusted to tell the truth"
Discussions like this one and the one Alex did with Low bar bill really just demonstrate that he needs to push back more. Glad that you arent afraid to call that out. I suppose maybe he's afraid he wont be able to have people come on his show if he's too confrontational, but even then he does not seem to confront stuff nearly enough.
Her reading is just doing research to discover the necessary buzzwords and memes she needs to include in her speech and writings to open the wallets of the gullible right-wing faithful.
don't forget the massive, well funded, right-wing groups eager to syphon money to any minority willing to point accusatory fingers at people that look like themselves.
I can't tell if her hesitant nervous way of speaking is due to English not being her first language, or due to her hoping we can't smell the BS through the screen.
The bit about fortifying yourself against faith was particularly funny to me. I don't need to fortify myself against faith, faith pushes me away with how absurd it is, it takes no effort on my part 🤣
Pure projection. Immediately after telling us she's jumped headfirst into apologetics ocean she jumps amd claims atheists are trapped in an ocean of their own. Just pure bs. Any argument on atheism is a counter argument to a Christian one. There is no tenants of atheism, nothing about atheism you can read independently of it addressing the religious nonsense. They sometimes conflict atheism and science. Of you don't believe in god they expect you to know cosmology, biology, chemistry, physics, etc in order to counter why their arguments are nonsense.
OK, when I first heard of Aayan, she was hanging out with Pat Robertson and other right wing Christians, but not any progressive Christians. That was a red flag to me, especially since she declared herself an atheist, but not hang out with other atheists that much.
Alex sometimes demonstrates how people like Ayaan have truly gained control of the discourse. If you're willing to push back, you may be branded as "one of them intolerant atheists pushing back against Christians wanting to practice their faith" so, out of fear you will lose out on guests, you are then forced to just sit there and let them use your platform as a soapbox. And it can then give the impression that you are silent because the Christian is just speaking truths you can't possibly refute.
I have many preconceived notions. When anything occurs the same way, or I always get the same outcome in similar situations, I acquire preconceived notions about those things. For example, if every time I stick a fork in an electrical outlet, I get a shock, the next time I go to stick a fork in an outlet, I don't go into it with an open mind, thinking, " maybe this time I won't get shocked". So I basically have a preconceived notions, that the natural world will always behave like the natural world.
I’m glad you liked that one! I thought it was funny when I thought it. Thank you for commenting on it. It always makes my fortnight when you guys get the little things.
Ayaan, if you read this, please listen to all the lectures, available on TH-cam, of Col. R.G. Ingersoll. Ayaan may have only hung around the big 4 atheists and yes, they were never believers and Christian like some of us were. I wish she would talk to someone like Mr. D, Bart Ehrman, Dan Barker, or a million other Christians who were devout believers and came to realize that the end of all of this is a void. In the beginning, as a new believer, it seems so incredible. People are all so nice, warm, and loving. It takes time to see that things don't go as you first believe they do. There is a facade, a vale, over the outside. I wish I were Hitch smart. but I fell for it until I was nearly 40. The message of the apologist is very, very weak, but you won't know unless you listen to the atheist opposition.
Reason seems to have little to do with it. Her acquaintances and mutual handholding with the right wing money machine has more to do with it. She has "discovered" there is more money to be made stroking the egos of the rich. Becoming irrelevant is terrifying to her.
This is exactly how someone that has been abused talks. They can’t free themselves from the abuser. It’s sad to see that she had no idea what TF she is talking about.
4:55 What a ridiculous statement. It presupposes that belief is inherent and so constant vigilance is required to maintain the glorious atheist position. Ayaan evidently needs something that her professed atheism couldn't provide but her vulnerability is not the norm, at least for this atheist.
"I need constant reinforcement to believe the world isn't flat. I mean, there is just soooo much evidence to the contrary if you are just open-minded enough and ask for no specifics." Lol. That's basically how she sounds to me.
@@suicune2001Indeed, and the flerfs are very similar, being in need of a community and willing to sacrifice truth just to belong. Theirs is somewhat more cultish than whatever denomination she has chosen, at least I assume so, but it is the same need to belong regardless of evidence.
I’m a lifelong atheist and so were my parents. My two best friends during the first eleven years of my life were brought up christian. Not for one moment did I consider their religion had any bearing on my life, it was just a quirky tradition in their families. So no, religion, spirituality or what have you don’t come naturally, it has to be taught, and stays with people like Ayaan for life, it seems.
@@kellydalstok8900 _So no, religion, spirituality or what have you don’t come naturally, it has to be taught, and stays with people like Ayaan for life, it seems._ Exactly, I couldn't have said it better. My first brush with religion was when I started school - back then British schools generally defaulted to Church of England (anything else and you went to a particular school), and the phrase, "hands together, eyes closed" was singularly baffling. As to the rest they were simply too late, I didn't believe a word of it! So lucky,
The only barrier I have is against someone trying to con me into believing the nonsense. She also sounds like she's using one of those "choose your own adventure" buybulls. So sad really.
Every time I see a rainbow, I get the urge to believe in rainbow glowing pots of gold and leprechauns. I then need to rush home and reinforce my disbelief in such things by reading science books on how light retracts within each raindrop, causing the sunlight to split into its constituent colours. Not believing is such a bind!
Well. She lost me. She honestly fell back on the "Atheism is it's own Faith" argument. I gotta find this interview. Alex is sitting there like a lump in the clips you're showing, but that seems odd. I gotta see him trying to push back against all of this stuff that Ali, herself, has pushed back against. Desperation is a horrible thing. Also, that moustache just ain't workin'.
@@misterdeity Thanks. I just watched the first 15 minutes. I'm gonna have to do it in stages, cuz...It's hard to hear her do the Apologist Greatest Hits, while O'Connor just sits there.
@@guyjperson I actually like the low-pushback interview. I don't think pushing back too hard would have shown much of anything useful-the times where he did push back at all showed she really just hadn't done much thinking/would just go back and use tired excuses that have already been debunked to death. It was way more interesting hearing her talk. It's not like his audience is the type that really needs him to retread the same path again.
@@guyjperson I think he could perceive that she was a mess. You can hear the pain in her voice. She's rationalizing a primarily emotional decision. Despite being able to throw off the shackles of religion once, she's been profoundly damaged by it and sees things through its lens. I would not want to challenge someone's faith who is clearly in such a fragile psychological state.
@@EvanBoyar I haven't completed the full interview, but the 1st quarter didn't show much more than Ali doing an Apologist shtick. I do agree that she was just resting on old arguments. You're right. There's probably no use at this point in her journey to be picking at her. Do you think there's value in her monetizing the journey?
I was willing to sympathize with her until the point where she accused her fellow atheist. Every mainstream atheist I've seen is always trying to communicate, read and enlighten themselves regarding theism. From the Atheist Experience to people like Apostate Aladdin. Pathetic that she had to resort to this, which is very telling
@@ahmadumeta4 Exactly!!! That’s one of the things that got me to do this series. The other was her possibly lying about Hitch. You’re not gonna wanna miss part four.
I’ve watched a few of Alex’s latest videos where he speaks to Christians and it’s infuriating. He needs to locate his spine and use it. He is doing no one any good with his overly polite (weak) British attitude and approach. He just lets the Christian say whatever they want and if he does manage to push back it’s so pathetically weak it’s insulting.
Greetings, Wow....reading the comment section (first time visitor to this channel)...is frankly way more revealing and enlightening than the video.... "Western minds excel at living an abundant life....a lot to say, about a lot of things, a lot of the time - whilst having nothing to offer always... Hypocrisy is revealed from within never without... Love and blessings ❤️🫂❤️
"you don't need proof to believe..." And you simply ignore anything that makes your beliefs seem illogical or ridiculous, obviously. Believing against all odds.
When I watched TMM's video about her discussion with Dawkins, I got the sense that she doesn't really "believe" but, rather, is converting for political reasons. She did mention depression as her reason, but it was brief, or at least TMM's editing gave the impression it was brief. I'm interested in seeing if other parts of this will change my mind or instead make me go "ah, now she's getting into the political grift stuff." I can't discount that depression was a possibility, & maybe she just doesn't want to talk that specifically about such a traumatizing experience, but controversial or not, I'm also unwilling to ignore how many "ex-atheist backstory" cliches she hits & the alarm bells that raises for me. As well, her story about the psychologist proselytizing on her "spiritual bankruptcy" is very troubling, if true. Again, I can't discount the possibility that something similar to that happened. It's not impossible to believe a therapist did something they shouldn't or that Ayaan isn't reporting the meeting perfectly accurately. But, again, it just strikes me how it falls so neatly into the conservative Christian line. "I tried everything, but nothing worked, & even my therapist had to admit I needed to find Jesus."
If you're using your ideology as a pacifier, you're using the wrong ideology. Those who complain about people needing comfort can't get away with pretending that there aren't far more effective ways of identifying what we want out of life - and getting it. Emotional blackmail is what it is. I know about Ali's past, but I think she's jumping from one frying pan into another.
As you alluded to, virtually everything the tribal war God of Abraham says is bad and that we shouldn't do, he has either committed, command, or condoned. Talk about hypocrisy.
"I can't explain the miracles that happened." You can't even show that they *did* happen.
As an ex Christian minister it is obvious that her faith is absolute BS. Not once has she said she thinks Jesus was God come in the flesh, was crucified and resurrected. Because it is so stupid. Her "conversion" is political and no doubt economics based. And trying to stay relevant to a conversation the shock value is essential. Her complete ignoring the history and doctrines of the churches is so obvious.
She is using right wing arguments but tries to hide them by gaslighting atheists.
I used to say, "I choose to believe" too. What I actually meant was, "I'm purposefully avoiding any meaningful examination of this information."
It was a grown up way of stuffing my fingers in my ears and shouting "Naa, nah, nah, I can't hear you!"
This channel is severely underrated, I don't understand why
Me neither!!! Thanks. ♥
". . . fountain of curiosity," I did a slow head turn (of disbelief) when you said that. Oh my, she's really jumped off the deep end with that.
As an atheist, I feel absolutely no need to "fortify" my beliefs against religion. None. What does she think we do, read random religious texts and exclaim "A ha! I'm still not a believer!"? If someone somewhere came up on some irrefutable proof a religion was true we'd hear about it worldwide, no need to go looking for it.
@@Styphon yes, she's also making it sound like what Ricky Gervais described as running into churches and yelling, "It's all bullocks!!" and that's just not the case.
@@Styphon and as I've seen so far, most atheists can explain why we DON'T believe but they seem to struggle with why they DO believe. Very few testimonies are riddled with intricate non sequiturs that tie completely random events together to justify their belief; most are completely emotional at their base and fairly simple stories.
I struggled with suicidal depression before, during, and after being a Christian. It played a factor in my conversion, my leaving, and 2 brief "relapses" after leaving. So I can feel for her desperation. But I also get the strong feeling that, as with me, something deeper is going on.
Though depression was a factor, it was the moral bankruptcy of a God character that can demand blood sacrifice and justify incredible injustice in this life, as well as infinite torture afterward, that ultimately forced me out and kept me out. I could only deal with the depression by finding, facing, and healing from what was driving it from underneath. I suspect she may have a similar path. I feel sorry for her, especially because of all the bridges she's burning along the way. There may well come a time when she needs understanding and compassion from the people she's currently strawmanning and maligning.
(I wanted to comment this on part 1, but my browser crashed and I forgot.)
“What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.” - Doobie Brothers
One of my all-time favorite songs!!! It might be in my top ten. ❤
Alex has a different approach when he is interviewing someone compared to when he is debating someone. In debates, he pushes back, in interviews he doesn’t push back. See the difference in his interview and then debate with Cliffe and Stuart Knechtle.
Alex’s interview technique is a smiling passive aggressive method of politely feeding his interviewee rope, knowing they will tie themselves up in the rope and then politely feeding them more while smiling all the time.
He then leaves the audience to notice that the interviewee has avoided the question, deflected to another topic or displayed contradictions in their positions previously stated. When he sees avoidance or deflection, he rejigs the same question with the same intent and sets the interviewee off again.
It’s not his brief here to pull them up on their inconsistencies and hypocrisies, he’s not having a debate, he just lets them put it out there and does not interrupt as the interviewee uses the rope exactly how Alex expected them to do and he merely says “Mmmmm” which seems to be his way of saying the unimpressive non-answer shows why he has not embraced Christian authoritarianism.
I am looking forward to him moving on from Biblical contradictions and moral relativism and starting to deal with the real politics of Christianity, its inherent authoritarianism and preference for governing by totalitarianism and putting the question to his Christian guest as to why they subscribe to a totalitarian political ideology. But he’s only a philosopher so far and not a political scientist but that will come.
We know Ayaan left Islam because she realised it was a totalitarian political ideology and she voted with her feet to live in a liberal social democracy and even be a parliamentary representative of that democratic freedom, so the question for her is why has she merely switched to another totalitarian political ideology for Christianity is as inherently authoritarian as Islam?
The culture she had voted with her feet for and embraced is not Christianity, its democracy. She says everything she values in the West is uniquely Christian but the democracy she has actively embraced as the leading character of the West, is obviously not of Christian origin. Ayaan is doing a lot of gaslighting emotivism in her cherry picking embrace of Christianity, turning a blind eye to its anti- democratic and totalitarian ideology but then she can do that as she has been living in liberal social democracies though that may end if she stays in the USA, though she appears to be comfortable with right wing US Christian Nationalism. Careful what you wish for Ayaan.
I like how Alex’s interview style contrasts with his debate style. In interviews, he urges all his subjects to spout any and all of their thoughts/beliefs so all who watch can see their true colors. In his debates, he lures his interlocutors into intellectual corners that they cannot finagle their way out of without admitting their stance is without merit, then he calmly makes statements of truth (not attacks) that make it clear to the observer that his opponent is struggling to justify their beliefs.
And the potential for book sales. I can’t think of any better way to sum up part 49 of this 9 part series.
For Hitchen’s sake, Ayaan!
Got stuck in my head too.
I Love It. ❤
She's lost the plot. I can't undersyand why anyone who saw the fallacy of the god delusion would revert/recant and accept the delusion unless....they were being enriched or were playing the field and looking for the most profitable angle to decide on. Either way, she's part of the problem. Ayaan, you've lost the plot and are another contributor to the problem humanity faces in its race to survive. Belief in the god of the stone age does nothing but keep humanity from becoming its best self. Shame on you!
Thanks Brian for talking for me in full. She played the victim card and would burst into tears if she if confronted with any counter arguments. Alex's face showed pure sympathy for her fallacies and fear that she would,
I could not even watch over a few minutes. The dishonesty made me sick. She knows her " fellow atheists" will be ragging on her for this and she wanted to start defending herself . Next she will say we work for the devil, 😂
Is she knowingly being untruthful about atheists constantly bulwarking ourselves against faith? Or is she projecting what she had to do onto us?
Ayaan found... "happiness" with her flavor-of-the-week religion?
She seems EXTREMELY unhappy about it.🤨
Funny you should say that. A long time ago I knew a born-again Christian who was just about the most miserable person (much of his own doing) you could ever meet. I told him he seemed so unhappy. He said, “But I have JOY in Jesus!” If only face-palm was a thing back then…
Her “conversion” is to make money. Has nothing to do with her true belief. She’ll publish books and give talks to the sheep and happily take their money
The money is probsbly welcome, but if you listen to her it's pretty much about finding a platform to fight against any and all aspects of Islam for her. The atheists were not intolerant enough for her personal crusade, so she changed venues...
Hitch mentions the immorality of "penal substitution". He mentions the sham behind the whole idea. I've done my time for my crimes, without expecting anyone to rescue me. The very idea of anyone suffering for my mistakes is alien, almost abhorrent and disgraces my humanity. Hitch also mentions Sidney Cartin (Tale of Two Cities) as a true human sacrifice. Hitch is amazing.
I’m really glad to see someone tackle these interviews, and especially doing it so thoroughly and so well. Thank you for the service!
Much appreciated. I hope people are getting something out of it.
@@misterdeity I just found you, which is weird because I've been through every atheist channel for years lol.. I saw you recently on another channel (which I can't remember right now 😂... Horseshit for brains) and I really like your content and arguments. 👍🏼
@ YAY!!! So glad to have you. I’m one of the OGs! There are 18 years of content here for you. Enjoy! ❤️ Btw, do you play guitar? I do as well - for fifty years this year. Yikes!!!
@misterdeity I do. Wanted to ask, was that your music on the outro? Jazzy. 50! Yikes 😂, me, 41-ish years playing
Ahhh!! It was Aron Ra!! 😂 You mentioned jazz on top of van halen and I commented.. now I remember! Phew.. brain may still have a few more miles...
"Partially infinite series" I like that.
She fled the Netherlands, because she couldn't handle criticism and Dutch directness.
And her buddy Theo van Gogh was a provocateur. I’m not saying he deserved to be murdered, but he sure loved rubbing the wrong people the wrong way.
This is basically every right-wing conversion story. You cannot just CONvert, you must also completely disavow your prior position. And so, she must tell us how atheism is religion, etc
Right. So many of these CONversions are for underlying political purposes. Even Musk is distancing himself from Atheism. It's so ignorant and tribalistic on their part.
i think it's evident that Ayaan is struggling with mental health. she is merely self-justifying irrationally, misrepresenting atheism, and generally not making sense - it seems to be a kind of self-protection mode. I appreciate her foundation which exposes and fights against female genital mutilation. I hope she finds some sort of peace without religious superstition...
After I heard Ayan's story a few months ago and watched her interview with Dawkins, I decided to go and read her autobiography. Once I did, I felt awful for her troubled upbringing but I thought to myself this woman was never an atheist. She was just pushed so hard by her radical Islamist surrounding, she just hated Islam. One can easily find other paths; such as use her atheism to get asylum and her Dutch citizenship got in trouble(probably for a reason, I don't have proof but it is very common in the Muslim world). She is now paying more attention in the rising right wing in America and seeing another niche. Shameful!
Most of her "troubled upbringing" is a lie. She was born into a rich, secular and westwards looking Somalian noble family living in wealth in Kenya.
One more:
Im so sorry Bri-Bri, I had to mute Ayaan. Shes _that shockingly bad_ at speaking. Although - possibly in her defense - it could be due to her terrible acting while trying to portray a downtrodden individual "finding hope" finally. Maybe this is how she thinks it ought to sound to convince her marks.
Yeah, THIS version of Ms. Ali is not very well spoken. She's either very new to this thinking style, or really working to be convincing in her act. That conservative think tank she was supposedly involved in really screwed her up.
The moment Ayaan played the self harm card all bets are off. She needed good psychiatric help then, she needs good psychiatric help now.
Agreed. I personally think its part of her schtick (did she not say this while she was an "atheist"?), just _mentioning it_ shouldve been a checked box to her "therapist" (if she saw one at all, let alone a COMPETENT one) and shouldve been communicated to other medical professionals. That type of language isnt some laugh/applause line.
Really....🤔🫣
Wow.....
The person from this channel presents this case really, really well!! With the proper kind of sarcasm and facts. I have subscribed.
Thanks so much! Glad to have you. I'm sending you blessings, indulgences, and multiple chances to make a first impression!
The sweetest (and most convincing) lies are those we tell ourselves.
I love that line! Where is that from?
I found this: The Devil All the Time, by Donald Ray Pollock. "The devil knows that the sweetest lies are those we tell ourselves."
I love the picture with Matt handling snakes 😂
She doesn't even know what an atheist is.
Hey, im new to this series. Earlier i realized this channel has so much history on youtube. I'm still on a deconstruction journey, your channel, is new breath of fresh air, idk, the tv like content, the humor in this video rn and last few recent videos is so good.
Best of luck on your journey! I went through my deconversion back between 2005 and 2007, basically during the hey-day of New Atheism. But yeah, Mr. Deity is awesome, esp. back when he WAS Mr. Deity. Using humor to pick apart the illogic makes the process a lot easier to digest.
Glad you’re finding the content helpful. We are all on the same journey. Happy you found your way out. I know the kind of courage it takes. So pat yourself on the back and enjoy my 18 years of content. 😂❤
@@CrimethoughtfullHey! I’m still Mr. Deity - always. And I still do at least one or two episodes a year. 😘
@@Crimethoughtfull Thank for the words brother. Yeah, having humour amongst the downfall of an agent you put your whole identity into, your goals towards, your feelings towards, your whole life from youth, is revolved around a god, having that humour helps. We knew the garden of Eden from young, to break the chains (I hate to say it like that) of this God/Gods & the fear associated with this God, it'll take time. I'm not rushing it.
We used to believe we deserved hell fire, we believed we were bankrupt yet we failed to connect the dots in order to realize the only reason we were bankrupt and hell fire worthy was because of two other peoples Oblivious mistake made years prior. We walked around telling others they must believe in the beautiful gift of being forgiven for two other people's mistake....WHAT!!
@@brendonbrooke In the words of Hitchens, it is a story of "you were created sick, but commanded to be well upon pain of death". We're taught that we're either born in sin, or at least that the first time we lust after a cookie and steal a cookie from the cookie jar then we're sinners--and Jesus died for ALL sins. "We will invent an illness for you to have and then be the only ones with the 'cure'" kind-of vibe.
Tbh about the one person I would never have considered a .. guiding light of atheism is Ayaan Hirsi. In the Netherlands atheism is a 53% majority position..
With regard to her I think there is a ton of information we do not have. She doesn't even seem to believe her own words.
I finally figured it out. "Objective morality" is morality unrelated to the well-being of humans. It's the morality that god has, and god doesn't particularly like humans.
Or care in any measurable way!
[01:00ish] The simplest *pushback* to Ayaan Hirsi's disconnection claim, "In what year and place was this ideal Christian community or civilization-level the correct _'bathwater temperature'_ such that you want us all to adopt and return to everything about it?"
Great point! It’s like asking, “when exactly was America great?”
I am 55. I have only known that I am an Atheist for (MAX) 10 years. never believed in a god, but never knew it had a name if you don't believe in something. What is it called when I don't believe in Tinkerbelle? I think I'm an old Atheist.
My intellect has been compromised by despair and i still don't believe.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali openly rejects evidence-based thinking. If ever she was an atheist, she seems to have arrived at it - NOT from intellectualism - but rather from being anti. In her case, anti against the people (Muslims?) who abused her. Simply being anti is not a recipe for durable outcomes.
I am from Somalia same tribe as hers she laid about her life there was never force marriage,her family never mistreated her she lived in Kenya went secular schools her family were not fundamentalist she wanted to immigrate Canada so she found a guy who lived in Canada and then decided to go Holland and laid about her background she is a grifter and a lair
Thanks! - You should do a video on Russell Brand's con-version sometime!
Thanks so much! I've always thought Russell Brand was the worst kind of opportunist. I'll look into it.
Thank you for the 'heart'! 💖
5:00 "not having an open mind" and "prejudging"? Did she not, like me, come to the conclusion that her religion was lacking and wasn't what it claimed?? We went down that path already so how would I be prejudging? She's looking for an argument to justify her hypocrisy.
She'll fit right in.
Does she not know most people in the US were raised Christian? A 5 year old immediately believes whatever they are told. They're not going to be putting up barriers, yada yada. They have to find their own way out of it and with a lot of pushback from others later in life.
@@suicune2001 Really great points! ❤
You have something to you. The little edits on the video. At first i was like, okay what's going on here but now i I think I see it😂. Love your content Mr.Deity
It’s intentional!!! 😂❤
Alex is consistently way too polite. Critical analysis is being sacrificed for the sake of polite conversation.
I wholeheartedly agree. Not every conversation needs to be confrontational or turn into a debate, but he now just consistently lets his guests blather absolute nonsense on and on.
Agreed. I cringed during his conversation with Dr Collins. Collins claimed that if you don't believe in God then you MUST believe in the multi-verse. Alex just let it slide. He is too smart to have missed it. I don't understand him...
it is O.K. I mean, as the very title of the podcast shows, he (for some reason) chose this method for those podcasts.
I AGREE.
I do understand the desire to be a "safe space" in which people will "honestly" share their perspectives.. But as you said...at the the expense of anything critical response. Which means we are patronizing people because we don't believe they can/will be honest and forthcoming, if we are honest and forthcoming.
Agreed, he's essentially just platforming these ideas. No matter how crazy they are, now they have an even bigger audience.
I watch Ayaan in these recent interviews and then i watched her interviews from around 15-20 years ago and the contrast is stark.
Back then she was confident and knowledgeable about what she spoke and now not so confident, almost as if reading from a script. Something or someone/s has gotten a hold of her and she seems like a frightened little girl who is making sure she says things in the right way as not to show her hand or she will be punished? In some way.
I feel sorry for her, for whatever is going on in her life.
She does seem scared.
@guiseppesavaglio8136 If any of us were hunted, actually hunted, the way she has been we might be affected by the experience too. I have sympathy for the situation and sorrow for what she has experienced. At the same time, I can't really respect the conclusions she has come to and the reasons she is giving for them.
@@BrettCoryell That’s exactly where I am.
Matt Dillahunty told me that the two of them are going to debate. That’s gonna be like Godzilla versus my 16-year-old Havanese! Stay tubed!!!
@@BrettCoryell Agreed. Her reasoning as i implied, is not coherent, hence my script analogy.
I also come from muslim culture like Ayan and I couldn't help giggling when she was pushed back on the truisms of religion. She referred to psychological disorders mentioned in the bible, which reminded me of muslims who say the Quran predicted the meeting of the Pacific & Atlantic oceans 😆
9:39 An excellent question from Alex, probably the best in the entire interview. The first thing Ayaan thought of was how she doesn't like how modern atheism has some people who behave like Christians. Setting aside for now how I don't think you could find 10 atheists who would say there is no evidence for god that would ever convince them, while most churches are filled with people who would say nothing could reverse their belief in god. Maybe if what you dislike most about some atheists is how Christian they are, perhaps Christianity isn't the best fit for you Ayaan.
What a great point!!! I’ve even laid down a marker for exactly what evidence would convince me. And it’s nothing beyond what God has already done to convince others - entire populations even! It’s stuff Jesus told us followers would be able to do!
Thanks!
Thanks so much. I am sending you blessings and indulgences. Heck, I’m even gonna send you multiple chances to make a first impression. Enjoy! ❤
I'm sorry but when somebody tells me that they are reading the gospels and find them fascinating, enriching, or enlightening, I have to question their intelligence, sanity, or honesty.
Right?!!! LOL! 😂 ❤
I'm loving this series, Brian!
I appreciate you watching!
I’m loving this comment, comma my fellow Keith!
The thing that frustrated me about this interview was that Alex didn’t press her enough on why Christianity, specifically. I understand how someone born into the faith might accept the story of Jesus, but what about it was so compelling for an outsider like her? She just keeps bringing up Islam and culture and politics, but what exactly changed her mind about the truth of Christian scripture? It can’t just be that she chose to believe - that’s too broad and nonsensical. Why not be a Mormon then? That’s why this all just feels more like a political identity rather than a religious one.
New atheism was only more vocal about the nonsensical BS of theism.
Follow the money, her story will make her very comfortable with her full pockets
"...you create a counter-faith in non-faith". What the hell! I have heard some daft stuff in my time, but that one takes the biscuit. This is the kind of nonsense-speak one hears dribbling from the mouths of Apologists. She just accused non-believers of creating their own religion. How dare she go down this path of insulting practices. I am slowly realising this lady is becoming the very thing she once despised. At no time have I insulted her, or mocked her choices. At no time have I said anything derogatory about her, yet the moment she converts, she starts with the accusations. Not a good idea Ayaan. Not a good idea.
Being closed minded to beliefs that are without evidence is only perceived as being a negative characteristic by those who believe without evidence. Why would anyone think that blind faith is a virtue?
@@clemstevenson as a former Evangelical, we wore our ignorance with pride, I'm ashamed to say. It's like a game of who can be in the most denial and claim it as faith.
@@CatDaddyGuitar Well, I know from experience that blind faith is not limited to any particular set of religious beliefs. The common factor is a lack of supporting evidence, or a willingness to misinterpret scientific findings to make them fit.
@@clemstevenson correct 👍🏼
@@CatDaddyGuitar Some clown has just tried to tell me that I cannot choose to believe in things, as though choice is an impossible option. I can believe anything, if there is evidence to suggest that it's true. But, as It is impossible to argue with people who pretend to know the minds of others, I blocked him.
@clemstevenson that's fresh coming from someone who probably chooses to be ignorant lol
Hi Bri! Yeah, I saw this early but just had to see you being all nummy again, plus feed the algorithm! 👍🏼💙💞💙💖💙🥰✌
You're the best! ❤
ah, i love to hear about how terrible people were when they were atheist, cos it fascinates me that in their list of faults they never add "i was a compulsive liar and can't be trusted to tell the truth"
Discussions like this one and the one Alex did with Low bar bill really just demonstrate that he needs to push back more. Glad that you arent afraid to call that out. I suppose maybe he's afraid he wont be able to have people come on his show if he's too confrontational, but even then he does not seem to confront stuff nearly enough.
Genocide, infanticide, child rape, slavery, and that's just 1 Sam 15:3
LOL! 😂 ❤
I remember when I first read Leviticus at 15 and being surprised at how many sins I'd never heard of. I'd missed out on so much!
@@condorboss3339 well, you had at least 15 more years to try them out before you really needed to get serious 🤣
Ayaan: So, you've abandoned rational thought.
"Feelings..........nothing more than feelings" I love that old song.
@@Trigger-xw9gq Morris Albert? 😬
@@misterdeity Indeed.
One thing she notably hasn't mentioned in any of this is anything about Jesus or really any actual Christian teachings beyond politics.
Her reading is just doing research to discover the necessary buzzwords and memes she needs to include in her speech and writings to open the wallets of the gullible right-wing faithful.
don't forget the massive, well funded, right-wing groups eager to syphon money to any minority willing to point accusatory fingers at people that look like themselves.
How many think this conversion smells a bit 'off'....
Well, as Brian says, it is a CONversion lol
I can't tell if her hesitant nervous way of speaking is due to English not being her first language, or due to her hoping we can't smell the BS through the screen.
@@ziploc2000A large demographic/audience to work with…
She is so right! I constantly create barriers around me to stop dragons breath, it is the same thing! /end of sarcasm.
I honestly used to respect her.
The bit about fortifying yourself against faith was particularly funny to me.
I don't need to fortify myself against faith, faith pushes me away with how absurd it is, it takes no effort on my part 🤣
Pure projection. Immediately after telling us she's jumped headfirst into apologetics ocean she jumps amd claims atheists are trapped in an ocean of their own. Just pure bs. Any argument on atheism is a counter argument to a Christian one. There is no tenants of atheism, nothing about atheism you can read independently of it addressing the religious nonsense. They sometimes conflict atheism and science. Of you don't believe in god they expect you to know cosmology, biology, chemistry, physics, etc in order to counter why their arguments are nonsense.
OK, when I first heard of Aayan, she was hanging out with Pat Robertson and other right wing Christians, but not any progressive Christians. That was a red flag to me, especially since she declared herself an atheist, but not hang out with other atheists that much.
_"Smart people believe weird things, because they're skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons."_ [Michael Shermer]
My old pal!!!
Alex sometimes demonstrates how people like Ayaan have truly gained control of the discourse. If you're willing to push back, you may be branded as "one of them intolerant atheists pushing back against Christians wanting to practice their faith" so, out of fear you will lose out on guests, you are then forced to just sit there and let them use your platform as a soapbox. And it can then give the impression that you are silent because the Christian is just speaking truths you can't possibly refute.
"Jesus and His Dad/Self". Love that. Sometimes those little pop-up blurbs go by without me appreciating them. But I'll remember that one!
I have many preconceived notions. When anything occurs the same way, or I always get the same outcome in similar situations, I acquire preconceived notions about those things.
For example, if every time I stick a fork in an electrical outlet, I get a shock, the next time I go to stick a fork in an outlet, I don't go into it with an open mind, thinking, " maybe this time I won't get shocked".
So I basically have a preconceived notions, that the natural world will always behave like the natural world.
Her pitch now about this being a political thing about Christianity being better equipped to defeat Islam is what she told Christians from day 1.
Yep. See my video, “Fighting Hellfire with Hellfire.”
"Without Pushback" lolol
Ayaan needed a crutch. she found one.
I don't evangelize or even expose . . . I just educate.
i don't bother, (IRL) religists don't qualify for a place on my team, stay christian, no skin off my nose.
11:00 it's a rejection of dangerous ideologies, also.
Amen!!! I’m mean, RAmen!
The right to speak Frehley is Ace!
Still don't hear her saying anything about the bible or Christianity being true. Just convenient, comforting.
Convenientversion?
Her idiot responses get worse as she goes along. Blatant lies, idiot assumptions, faith that is blind and stupid.
".. useless organs of servitude..."
Great line.
I always love that when someone appreciates the writing. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. ❤
Hey Brian! I just want to say the double shot of yourself was quite funny and caught me by surprise.
I’m glad you liked that one! I thought it was funny when I thought it. Thank you for commenting on it. It always makes my fortnight when you guys get the little things.
Did she actually step right up to the line and say that it takes more faith to be an Atheist than a Xian ?
Smelled like it…
Ayaan, if you read this, please listen to all the lectures, available on TH-cam, of Col. R.G. Ingersoll.
Ayaan may have only hung around the big 4 atheists and yes, they were never believers and Christian like some of us were. I wish she would talk to someone like Mr. D, Bart Ehrman, Dan Barker, or a million other Christians who were devout believers and came to realize that the end of all of this is a void. In the beginning, as a new believer, it seems so incredible. People are all so nice, warm, and loving. It takes time to see that things don't go as you first believe they do. There is a facade, a vale, over the outside. I wish I were Hitch smart. but I fell for it until I was nearly 40. The message of the apologist is very, very weak, but you won't know unless you listen to the atheist opposition.
She seems scared.
Reason seems to have little to do with it. Her acquaintances and mutual handholding with the right wing money machine has more to do with it. She has "discovered" there is more money to be made stroking the egos of the rich. Becoming irrelevant is terrifying to her.
This is exactly how someone that has been abused talks. They can’t free themselves from the abuser.
It’s sad to see that she had no idea what TF she is talking about.
I've been an atheist for 40 years. 20 years a Christian. All I can say is, 'huh?'
WTF?!!! ❤😂
4:55 What a ridiculous statement. It presupposes that belief is inherent and so constant vigilance is required to maintain the glorious atheist position. Ayaan evidently needs something that her professed atheism couldn't provide but her vulnerability is not the norm, at least for this atheist.
"I need constant reinforcement to believe the world isn't flat. I mean, there is just soooo much evidence to the contrary if you are just open-minded enough and ask for no specifics." Lol. That's basically how she sounds to me.
@@suicune2001Indeed, and the flerfs are very similar, being in need of a community and willing to sacrifice truth just to belong. Theirs is somewhat more cultish than whatever denomination she has chosen, at least I assume so, but it is the same need to belong regardless of evidence.
SHE NEVER REALLY WAS AN ATHEIST! It’s that simple
I’m a lifelong atheist and so were my parents. My two best friends during the first eleven years of my life were brought up christian. Not for one moment did I consider their religion had any bearing on my life, it was just a quirky tradition in their families.
So no, religion, spirituality or what have you don’t come naturally, it has to be taught, and stays with people like Ayaan for life, it seems.
@@kellydalstok8900 _So no, religion, spirituality or what have you don’t come naturally, it has to be taught, and stays with people like Ayaan for life, it seems._ Exactly, I couldn't have said it better.
My first brush with religion was when I started school - back then British schools generally defaulted to Church of England (anything else and you went to a particular school), and the phrase, "hands together, eyes closed" was singularly baffling. As to the rest they were simply too late, I didn't believe a word of it! So lucky,
I use reason. Therefore, I have no faith. That’s about as separate as those two things can get.
The only barrier I have is against someone trying to con me into believing the nonsense. She also sounds like she's using one of those "choose your own adventure" buybulls. So sad really.
Every time I see a rainbow, I get the urge to believe in rainbow glowing pots of gold and leprechauns.
I then need to rush home and reinforce my disbelief in such things by reading science books on how light retracts within each raindrop, causing the sunlight to split into its constituent colours.
Not believing is such a bind!
Well. She lost me. She honestly fell back on the "Atheism is it's own Faith" argument. I gotta find this interview. Alex is sitting there like a lump in the clips you're showing, but that seems odd. I gotta see him trying to push back against all of this stuff that Ali, herself, has pushed back against. Desperation is a horrible thing.
Also, that moustache just ain't workin'.
I just posted the link in the description. I keep forgetting to do that. D’oh!!!
@@misterdeity Thanks. I just watched the first 15 minutes. I'm gonna have to do it in stages, cuz...It's hard to hear her do the Apologist Greatest Hits, while O'Connor just sits there.
@@guyjperson I actually like the low-pushback interview. I don't think pushing back too hard would have shown much of anything useful-the times where he did push back at all showed she really just hadn't done much thinking/would just go back and use tired excuses that have already been debunked to death. It was way more interesting hearing her talk. It's not like his audience is the type that really needs him to retread the same path again.
@@guyjperson I think he could perceive that she was a mess. You can hear the pain in her voice. She's rationalizing a primarily emotional decision. Despite being able to throw off the shackles of religion once, she's been profoundly damaged by it and sees things through its lens. I would not want to challenge someone's faith who is clearly in such a fragile psychological state.
@@EvanBoyar I haven't completed the full interview, but the 1st quarter didn't show much more than Ali doing an Apologist shtick. I do agree that she was just resting on old arguments. You're right. There's probably no use at this point in her journey to be picking at her. Do you think there's value in her monetizing the journey?
I was willing to sympathize with her until the point where she accused her fellow atheist. Every mainstream atheist I've seen is always trying to communicate, read and enlighten themselves regarding theism. From the Atheist Experience to people like Apostate Aladdin. Pathetic that she had to resort to this, which is very telling
@@ahmadumeta4 Exactly!!! That’s one of the things that got me to do this series. The other was her possibly lying about Hitch. You’re not gonna wanna miss part four.
@@misterdeity Anticipating!
I’ve watched a few of Alex’s latest videos where he speaks to Christians and it’s infuriating. He needs to locate his spine and use it. He is doing no one any good with his overly polite (weak) British attitude and approach. He just lets the Christian say whatever they want and if he does manage to push back it’s so pathetically weak it’s insulting.
He's too much of a fart-sniffer to push back. He's too enamored with the idea of ideas for the sake of ideas to engage properly with this.
Greetings,
Wow....reading the comment section (first time visitor to this channel)...is frankly way more revealing and enlightening than the video....
"Western minds excel at living an abundant life....a lot to say, about a lot of things, a lot of the time - whilst having nothing to offer always...
Hypocrisy is revealed from within never without...
Love and blessings
❤️🫂❤️
"you don't need proof to believe..."
And you simply ignore anything that makes your beliefs seem illogical or ridiculous, obviously.
Believing against all odds.
When I watched TMM's video about her discussion with Dawkins, I got the sense that she doesn't really "believe" but, rather, is converting for political reasons. She did mention depression as her reason, but it was brief, or at least TMM's editing gave the impression it was brief. I'm interested in seeing if other parts of this will change my mind or instead make me go "ah, now she's getting into the political grift stuff." I can't discount that depression was a possibility, & maybe she just doesn't want to talk that specifically about such a traumatizing experience, but controversial or not, I'm also unwilling to ignore how many "ex-atheist backstory" cliches she hits & the alarm bells that raises for me.
As well, her story about the psychologist proselytizing on her "spiritual bankruptcy" is very troubling, if true. Again, I can't discount the possibility that something similar to that happened. It's not impossible to believe a therapist did something they shouldn't or that Ayaan isn't reporting the meeting perfectly accurately. But, again, it just strikes me how it falls so neatly into the conservative Christian line. "I tried everything, but nothing worked, & even my therapist had to admit I needed to find Jesus."
If you're using your ideology as a pacifier, you're using the wrong ideology. Those who complain about people needing comfort can't get away with pretending that there aren't far more effective ways of identifying what we want out of life - and getting it. Emotional blackmail is what it is. I know about Ali's past, but I think she's jumping from one frying pan into another.
Aayan is in the honeymoon stage. Just wait till reality hits.
Most athiest go through childhood being fed theistic bullshut and being told to have unthinking faith. That fails once you do think.
Great video!!
Glad you enjoyed it.
I like that logo Way of the Mister a take off from Ray Comfort's Way of the Master. LOL!
@@tomboughan2718 That’s exactly why I called it that. Good catch!!! ❤️
What brand of Christian did Ayaan choose? Was it a matter of Eenymeenymoe?
It was whatever the recruiters who convinced her came from. 😂
Tigers choice.
As you alluded to, virtually everything the tribal war God of Abraham says is bad and that we shouldn't do, he has either committed, command, or condoned. Talk about hypocrisy.