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The Atheist Experience AI simulator
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The Atheist Experience
The Atheist Experience (familiarly known as AXP) is an American live, weekly televised webcast based in Austin, Texas, United States. Listeners are encouraged to call in to discuss the existence of God and related topics. Calls from theists are usually given priority, as the aim of the webcast is to encourage theists to question their theistic beliefs and thus, theists are often asked to explain what they believe, and why.
In April 1996, Kellen Von Houser took the initiative of forming a group for atheists in the Austin area by e-mailing local atheists. After several informal monthly gatherings, the Atheist Community of Austin (ACA) was formally founded on December 15, 1996, by which time it had attracted around sixty members. By June 1997, the ACA had its own website, a relatively new medium at the time, to reach out to fellow atheists on the internet. The first episode of The Atheist Experience, a pre-recorded pilot, aired on October 19, 1997.
From the second show onward, the episodes were broadcast live on cable access television on every other Sunday, giving the opportunity to viewers to call the show live. Initially the show's length was one half-hour. Ray Blevins was the show's first host, while Joe Zamecki served as the first co-host.
The show length was extended to an hour in September 1998. From December 1999 on, The Atheist Experience began streaming over the Internet, enabling anyone around the world with Internet access to watch. Since November 2005, The Atheist Experience (as well as The Non-Prophets Radio) has also been distributed as a podcast to a global audience.
A YouTube channel, which became the official channel in August 2012, has over 372,000 subscribers and over 182 million video views as of June 2022. On June 24, 2018, the show aired its 1000th episode.
The first episode (pilot) was recorded at Furr's Cafeteria in October 1997. Subsequent episodes were recorded at the public-access television studio at Austin Public (1143 Northwestern Ave). After 18 years, long-standing logistical and technical issues at the public access studio prompted the crew to move to the ACA's Freethought Library (1507 West Koenig Lane) in October 2015.
The Atheist Experience's success has spawned several spin-off shows also produced by the ACA; as of July 2018, these were The Non-Prophets Radio podcast, the Talk Heathen talk show, the Godless Bitches podcast and The Preaching Humanist television show. In December 2018, the new Secular Sexuality live show was launched. Later came SkepTalk, The Line and The Line Edge.
The primary purpose of The Atheist Experience is to have a discussion or debate on the existence of gods or related topics between theist callers and the atheist hosts and co-hosts. The Atheist Experience is therefore primarily geared towards a non-atheist audience, and tends to foster confrontational debates. Moreover, the conversations are intended for theists to hear from atheists themselves, rather than from other theists, what atheists actually believe. Another goal is to familiarize the show's audience with relevant arguments and effective debating tactics.
The Atheist Experience
The Atheist Experience (familiarly known as AXP) is an American live, weekly televised webcast based in Austin, Texas, United States. Listeners are encouraged to call in to discuss the existence of God and related topics. Calls from theists are usually given priority, as the aim of the webcast is to encourage theists to question their theistic beliefs and thus, theists are often asked to explain what they believe, and why.
In April 1996, Kellen Von Houser took the initiative of forming a group for atheists in the Austin area by e-mailing local atheists. After several informal monthly gatherings, the Atheist Community of Austin (ACA) was formally founded on December 15, 1996, by which time it had attracted around sixty members. By June 1997, the ACA had its own website, a relatively new medium at the time, to reach out to fellow atheists on the internet. The first episode of The Atheist Experience, a pre-recorded pilot, aired on October 19, 1997.
From the second show onward, the episodes were broadcast live on cable access television on every other Sunday, giving the opportunity to viewers to call the show live. Initially the show's length was one half-hour. Ray Blevins was the show's first host, while Joe Zamecki served as the first co-host.
The show length was extended to an hour in September 1998. From December 1999 on, The Atheist Experience began streaming over the Internet, enabling anyone around the world with Internet access to watch. Since November 2005, The Atheist Experience (as well as The Non-Prophets Radio) has also been distributed as a podcast to a global audience.
A YouTube channel, which became the official channel in August 2012, has over 372,000 subscribers and over 182 million video views as of June 2022. On June 24, 2018, the show aired its 1000th episode.
The first episode (pilot) was recorded at Furr's Cafeteria in October 1997. Subsequent episodes were recorded at the public-access television studio at Austin Public (1143 Northwestern Ave). After 18 years, long-standing logistical and technical issues at the public access studio prompted the crew to move to the ACA's Freethought Library (1507 West Koenig Lane) in October 2015.
The Atheist Experience's success has spawned several spin-off shows also produced by the ACA; as of July 2018, these were The Non-Prophets Radio podcast, the Talk Heathen talk show, the Godless Bitches podcast and The Preaching Humanist television show. In December 2018, the new Secular Sexuality live show was launched. Later came SkepTalk, The Line and The Line Edge.
The primary purpose of The Atheist Experience is to have a discussion or debate on the existence of gods or related topics between theist callers and the atheist hosts and co-hosts. The Atheist Experience is therefore primarily geared towards a non-atheist audience, and tends to foster confrontational debates. Moreover, the conversations are intended for theists to hear from atheists themselves, rather than from other theists, what atheists actually believe. Another goal is to familiarize the show's audience with relevant arguments and effective debating tactics.