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Atheist Slogans You Should Stop Using

Alex O'Connor | August 22, 2026



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– VIDEO NOTES

Joe Schmid is a PhD student in philosophy at Princeton University. He graduated with a B.A. in philosophy from Purdue University in 2022. He has published articles in metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of time, and the author of books including “Existential Inertia and Classical Theistic Proofs”.

– LINKS

Joe’s channel:​⁠ @MajestyofReason

Felipe Leon’s 200 arguments for atheism: https://exapologist.blogspot.com/2023/03/200-or-so-arguments-for-atheism.html

– TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Tour
00:32 – Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence
07:50 – There Is No Evidence for God
25:27 – Who Created God?
38:38 – I Just Believe in One Less God
49:44 – Science Flies You to the Moon, Religion Flies You into Buildings
01:02:33 – Your Location Determines Your Religion
01:28:33 – Claims Are Not Evidence
01:32:50 – You Can’t Prove a Negative
01:38:35 – What Can Be Asserted Without Evidence Can Be Dismissed Without Evidence
01:43:51 – Faith Is Belief Without Evidence
01:54:59 – Religion Makes Good People Do Bad Things
01:55:32 – Absence of Evidence Is Evidence of Absence
01:56:31 – Theism Is Unfalsifiable
02:01:03 – Science Books Would Come Back, Religions Would Not
02:12:58 – Evolution Disproves God

– CONNECT

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The Within Reason Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/within-reason/id1458675168

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——————————————

Written by Alex O'Connor

Comments

This post currently has 47 comments.

  1. @Thinkerts

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    Alex, if you ever convert like Joe, will you start to defend the morally objectionable teachings of Christianity? Does power automatically justify a horrible act? Is it necessary for a powerful being to be good, too? If God wants us to abandon our conscience on serious moral issues (not just in nonsensical rituals, or self-discipline), what's the point of giving us conscience then? Why would a good God give a person a conscience and then punish them if they don't choose to abandon their conscience to worship him?

  2. @Yoksp79

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    the only reason you think Thor or Zeus or too ridiculous but Jesus or Allah or way more plausible is simply because of the time and place you're born, the latter don't offer that much better arguments or evidence for their existence, both fail

  3. @dan_m7774

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    God announced in the Old Testament his name, and that it would endure forever. Many ancient cultures believed their gods spoke to people and would be remembered forever. However, major modern world religions today worship Yahweh (the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) as the only one of those ancient named deities still actively considered by billions to be a living God today.

  4. @igorkra1

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    2:12…what could come are the basics of religion like thou shall not kill, the harm principle,…like a few short sentence things…the stories of religion is pretty obvious that they would't come back, since there is too many particularities of fiction, for the exact stories to come back. neither do the min points necessarily, since they're made up, hold no inherent neccesary structure….like job from the book of job could die in the end and you have a different point etc…science on the other hand investigates reality itself, it corresponds it's statements to the subject of it's investigations, therefore, it's hard to argue that this knowledge would not come back even if we erase all the science books, even if in another language, or the history of discovery was different.

  5. @freisatz

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    1:33:07

    Regarding "you can't prove a negative", I really don't get the passion this does seem to excite. Also, the segment is very flawed.

    1) nobody claims this

    If you couldn't prove a negative, then you couldn't prove anything, because any proposition A is equivalent to ¬(¬A). Which is why no sane person ever stated something like that.

    2) reductio ad adsurdum has nothing to do with that

    When Joe Schmid tries to validate the (undisputed) fact that you indeed can prove a negative, he refers to the proof strategy of reductio ad absurdum. Well, that is just that, a proof strategy. You can apply it to positivs as well as negatives. Which is to say that it has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

    3) the actual claim is "you cannot prove non-existence"

    I can only speculate, but I assume they are referring to the issue of non-existence (which is coincidentally the context that Alex provides). This is a well known limitation of knowing when it comes to empirical propositions (and it has caused head scratches in the philosophy of mathematical even in the realm of pure logic). Black swans, you know. Also, it isn't actually that deep. I don't see why one would put it on a list of contentious slogans.

    To quote Joe Schmid himself: Oh boy…

  6. @RonRussell-oc8sl

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    I am going to make an if statement out of god by my definition. What I am attempting to answer is; "Who created god?".
    If god is the underlying principles of everything that was and is to be, then by all definitions god is the word and the word is god as seen in the book of john.
    You ask who created the underlying principles of everything, well humans could only ever identify them never create them because principles are the true limitations and expectations of what is to be and what has already happened.

    These very principles dictate why there is something rather than nothing. The principle that answers this is that nothing is not as zero is zero which cannot be something not even empty space itself. If there are principles they must interact with something thus what has created everything going forward if not god through the material veil of existence. God was at the beginning of creation itself rather than the beginning of time for as long as there is a measure there is a principle as unbending as god. Those principles that led to something are not a (necessity, will, or chance) but the interaction of creation itself under the principles of god. Who created god? God is a necessity of creation because god is the principle he is the limitations and expectations of all in all things.

    These principles that make god true were not created they exist as identifiable traits throughout everything which shape our society and shape us. We are created by those principles which limit us to its expectations and logically we naturally fit ourselves into his mold to fit those principles; else we fail in error. Identifying those principles, as many as there are, help us build and continue to further shape our image into the image of god himself a creator of civilizations society and culture. The laws that dictate ourselves are imperfect the laws of god are unbending. Principles which cannot be broken is the guide and change between ourselves and the world around us.

    That is why I believe in god.

  7. @RomaTomatoe

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    49:35 Counterpoint which is kinda obvious in regard to the "We don't have a Dad" point. The absurdity of the claim relies upon the massive presupposition that we must have a Dad, due to our biological understanding of procreation. We have no good evidence to grant a presumption that there must be a god, we just can't figure out which one. I think a better example would be what I would call "The sandwich thief." The fighting parties might be fighting over whom stole a sandwich that was left on a park picnic table. Whether it was a man, a woman, a homeless person, one of the chess hustlers seated nearby. A person could be reasonable in asserting any particular person may have stolen the sandwich, but a person could also be reasonable in saying the sandwich was not stolen by a person at all, and there was some other reason at play, such as a cleaner disposing of what they believed was trash, or an animal gobbling it up.

  8. @by_Nightfall

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    The "some gods are more likely" bit is just nonsense. There's the same amount of evidence for the spaghetti monster that there is for the Abrahamic god.

    I feel like atheist youtube commentary has become so stale that atheists are now resorting to "what if their arguments actually aren't dumb" discussion lmao

  9. @miked5814

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    The argument against claims are not evidence you make: I know this video is old, but it's actually impressive how someone can be so wrong yet so confident. Unbelievable.

  10. @kgrant67

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    I'm not sure which would be a bigger miracle. The bagger at Walmart levitating and floating around the store or they're being a bagger at Walmart at all. If I believe there was a bagger at Walmart it would be a small step to believe that he was levitating and floating around the store!

  11. @fenomeral

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    15:30 Your probability was raised by 100%, funny you didn't stop to ponder about this some more as it looks remarkably Monty Hall-ish (although there's no reason to switch it still made me stop for a moment)

  12. @thijsminnee7549

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    1:02:33 I would like to point out about this argument that besides the exact religion also (some of) you're moral believes change by location. So even if God were to just look at how you lived your life you might still fail the to meet the moral requirements he puts forth solely because if where you were born

  13. @Derntator

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    Phenomenal convo, perspectives and simply a hilarious interaction. But…
    – The understated acknowledgment throughout this whole discussion is taking the consideration of little we as a species Actually know of matter, consciousness, dimensional reality and even perception…..?
    I’m saying this from a “Open minded Cosmic Realist” not the originally raised, now “non-practicing” Catholic.

    Regardless, keep it up Alex
    🇺🇸🫱🏻‍🫲🏾🦾🇬🇧

  14. @bincks2880

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    He's GOD if his tim really is eternal and he really is OMNIPOTENT, he could have personally created every animal ever and made it look like they evolve. Nothing can disprove god but no afterlife.

  15. @gooddaysahead1

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    God is the story written by our deepest needs. If you want to see what the deepest human needs are, reverse engineer God stories. Whatever those stories tell you is exactly what our needs cry out for.

  16. @robertrahe

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    1:28:54 People are mixing 3 questions:

    1. Are claims a type of evidence at all?
    2. Do claims support their own truth?
    3. Should we believe claims without additional support?

    1. Yes. Claims, as testimony from a source, are a recognized type of evidence. The fact that someone asserts P may provide evidence for P, depending on the reliability of the source.
    2. No. A claim is not automatically strong evidence for its own truth. Its evidential weight depends on the speaker’s reliability & the other available evidence.
    3. No. A bare assertion, by itself, is usually not sufficient to justify belief.

    “Claims aren’t evidence” = shorthand for “A mere assertion is not sufficient evidence to justify belief.”

    The problem is that, taken literally, the slogan is technically inaccurate. Testimony is a well-established category of evidence in philosophy, law, history & everyday reasoning.

    1. Claims (as testimony) can be evidence.
    2. Their evidential weight ranges from negligible to very strong.
    3. The proposition P is not evidence for itself. The fact that someone asserts P can be evidence for P, depending on how trustworthy that source is.

    The real question isn’t whether claims are evidence. It’s how much evidential weight they deserve.

  17. @Krappman

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    Cosmic, you totally lost the logic thread on "one god further". Ricky never meant that as proof against a god, but as an explanation of how an atheist feels towards the claims of the god of Abrahamites. Explaining how unconvincing the argument is.

  18. @CbreezyChess

    August 22, 2026 at 8:42 am

    I made it to about an hour before I had to stop watching. This guest is either being intentionally obtuse in an attempt to prove his side is right or he's genuinely mentally deficient

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