Frivology

This sort of ties into a much broader point I want to make eventually, but I’m going to take it piecemeal for now.  The Atheist Experience is one if my favorite atheist podcasts, and I get a number of them.  That isn’t to say I don’t have criticism.  First, a call-in show should be, IMHO, about 95% calls and about 5% talk about other things.  The reason I find it way more interesting than the NPRish podcasts has to do with the calls.  However, too much time is spent rehashing things discussed previously on The Non-Prophets, or chatting about someone’s pet subject.  Mind you, they aren’t terribly bad discussions and they can fuel what people call in about, but they usually don’t, making the show seem a bit disjointed.  Is it a call-in show, or is it a talk show?  Hard to pinpoint…

Then, there’s the quality of the majority of the calls.  The show has recently become a lot more popular and with it the hosts have been struggling a bit to find a nice balance in the type of calls that they receive.  I’ve only been listening since the popularity boom started to happen (not as a result of YouTube, I found them via a random podcast search for ‘atheist’ on itunes).  This has led to a lot of ‘yeah, me too’ calls, and no matter how hard the AE gang tries to keep it from happening, it does.  Typically, though, they all sound like the same guy.  They’re definitely different people … they just sound the same, oddly enough.  Like one guy in his late teens or early twenties calling again and again to ask for some talking point for his evangelist friend or show his prowess at having defeated someone in a debate, or to bring up some quasi-intellectual, slightly obscure talking point.  I like it better when the whackos call.

A couple of months back, Matt angsted all over about hanging up on a guy named Ed, who was just downright belligerent.  Matt was right to hang up on him (Ed spent most of his time trying to get his point across by simply being louder and more likely to interrupt than matt), but Matt let it get to him.  He talked about it too often.  I wanted to reach through my iPod and throttle him.  It’s okay!  Hang up on people like that.  Go ahead.  They don’t need to take up your time with basically yelling at you to shut up.

Yet, again, though, there is a minor crisis of conscience.  This past Sunday, AE had a professional Christian Apologetic by the name of Matt Slick call in amidst a bunch of technical problems.  Slick tried his damndest to take over the show, complaining every time anyone so much as asked a /question/ that he was constantly being interrupted.  He wasn’t constantly being interrupted, he was taking too long to get to the fricking point.  However, the hosts are taking it a bit personally.

It’s a fine line to walk. Matt D and others who gave feedback are absolutely right that I should have exhibited more patience and let him go through more of the argument without interrupting. I also regret being a little more jokey than usual, appearing to dismiss and ridicule Mr. Slick. However, give an apologist too much air time and he’s liable to pull a Gish Gallop, presenting a long stream of misconceptions that must be gone over in great detail. So as Martin says, Monday morning quarterbacking is easy, and I’ve done plenty of it myself; being in the position makes it trickier to see the long view.

No, you shouldn’t have exhibited more patience.  You exhibited exactly as much patience as someone as frustrating as Slick should be allotted - hardly any at all.  Slick’s tactic was to bludgeon you into agreeing to things that you shouldn’t necessarily agree with, then move on quickly to something else to get you to agree with so you don’t have a lot of time to think.  I kept waiting for him to get to a point, but every time you guys let him talk, he just meandered even further along, then spent a bunch of time complaining that you don’t let him talk.  He wasn’t out to make a reasoned argument.  He was out to attempt to bludgeon you into accepting his terms, take up all the remaining time of the show, then say *POOF*  Therefore, god exists and I win.  Bye guys!

I would be way more happy if AE would just get over this crisis of identity and the guys (and girl) just got to be who they are.  The banter on the Non-Prophets is much more raw, and I would appreciate seeing that rawness in AE.  Screw the tender folks that just think you need to give the apologetics sweets and pat them on the head and bend over backwards to be nice to them so that they’ll talk to you again.  That’s nonsense.  They’re out for blood and you’re out for flowers.  It doesn’t work, and it isn’t the true nature of this group.

Anyways, that’s my rant.  I like the show and I’ll continue listening, but for goodness sake… if any of you guys read this, listen.  Pick a format and stick to it… I just hope you pick being yourselves over trying to be sappy, rainbow-farting “friendly” atheists who apologize for offending everyone.

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