A Christian and an Atheist Walk into a Bar

Neil Newton and Philip Thompson
  • 5.0 (3)
  • RELIGION
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY
A Christian and an Atheist Walk into a Bar

Neil Newton and Phil Thompson have been talking about religion, philosophy, politics, music, sports, and pretty much anything they felt like talking about every since they became friends while working together at the University of Pittsburgh in the 20-teens. Though Neil is an Atheist and Phil is a Christian, they found that they agreed on more things than not, especially the evils of instant replay! ACAAAWIAB will explore topics like debt, heaven and hell, the Biblical Jubilee, philanthrocapitalism, and many others. Neil and Phil enjoy these conversations, so they figured there's a chance you will too. Original theme music written, performed, and produced by Neil Newton and Phil Thompson. christianathiest.pod@gmail.com

  1. JUN 1

    Danzilla's Theory of The Big Lebowski

    In Season 2 (ish) Episode 6, Neil relates an encounter with an unhoused person in LA, Dan (or Danzilla), who offered a very unique take on one of our favorite films, The Big Lebowski. We then take a deep dive into what Phil considers to be perhaps the most Big Lebowski story in the Old Testament, Judges 17-18, wherein Micah, a Levite, and the tribe of Dan very confidently get everything completely wrong. We checked the "explicit material" box for this because there are a couple of F-bom...

    49 min

  2. FEB 11 · BONUS

    A Christian and an Atheist Epiphany Special

    We were determined to do another holiday special and this year we wanted it to be about the Magi/astrologers in Matthew 2, which is technically not Christmas but Epiphany. The season of Epiphany begins on January 6 and runs all the way to Ash Wednesday (which this year is also Valentine's Day, so Ash Valentine's Day!) so we are getting this baby in right under the wire!In this Epiphany special we discuss the wise astrologers from the East, Herod and other tinpot despots, and weird divination ...

    42 min

  3. 12/03/2023

    Critical Race Theory: What it Is and (mostly) What it Isn't

    We wanted to do an episode on Critical Race Theory because it’s one of those phrases that has come to mean everything except what it is. We draw a careful (and we would argue obvious) distinction between discussing the history of race relations in the U.S. and Critical Race Theory as a discrete legal movement addressing racism in the American system of justice. Along the way we dive into controversies surrounding important Black Christian writers like Jemar Tisby and Esau McCaulley and ...

    1h 8m

  4. 07/16/2023

    The Creation Story and the Freedom to Disobey

    With both the writers and now the actors who play Neil and Phil on strike, it’s taken a while to get this episode (which was recorded on Easter Sunday 2023) out. Fortunately, the episode was completed by AI and we think you’ll notice a big improvement over the organic episodes. In Season 2 - Episode 3, “Neil” and “Phil” discuss the increasing brazenness around racism and fascism and explore the role disobedience plays in the story of creation and fall in Genesis. I, your Robot Overlord… ...

    48 min

  5. 03/26/2023

    Corporate Prophets and the Freedom to Disobey

    Humans don’t like being told what to do. Shocking, we know!In Episode 2 we explore one of the three freedoms David Graeber and David Wengrow postulate in The Dawn of Everything, the freedom to disobey. We start with how the freedom to disobey is expressed in the Old Testament prophets' relationship to the priesthood and the monarchy, and do a deep dive into I Kings 22 where Ahab and Jehoshaphat plan a battle with Aram. Only one prophet, Micaiah, is willing to say anything contrary to wh...

    56 min

  6. 02/27/2023

    The Dawn of Everything: Introduction to Season Two

    Season 2, Episode 1 is finally here! And y’nz are not gonna believe it, but we have…A PLAN! This season we will use the amazing book by the late David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything: a New History of Humanity to frame many of our discussions about the Bible. We love this book — enough to shamelessly crib from the title for the name of Episode 1. We spend a good bit of time discussing the book and why it’s important, and we give particular attention to what Graeber and...

    1h 1m

  7. 12/24/2022 · BONUS

    A Christian and an Atheist Christmas Special

    In this bonus episode, Neil and Phil compare the story of Hannah in the book of I Samuel to the story of Mary in the gospel of Luke and draw out some themes that turn out to be important throughout the Bible. In the course of the conversation, they discover that the Old and New Testaments have surprising parallels to the Peter Green and Buckingham/Nicks eras of Fleetwood Mac. And speaking of music, as an homage to Vince Guaraldi’s classic music for A Charlie Brown Christmas they’ve composed a...

    39 min

  8. 07/09/2022 · BONUS

    Recent Supreme Court Rulings and the White Power Movement

    We said Episode 10 was the season finale, but then SCOTUS unleashed a series of really stupid and damaging rulings and we needed to talk about it. One of the questions we keep hearing is, "Why do guns have more rights than women?" It seems like an obvious logical contradiction, but historian Kathleen Belew has shown that within the white power movement lots of guns and complete opposition to abortion form a twisted sort of coherence. In this episode we spend a lot of time talk...

    30 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Neil Newton and Phil Thompson have been talking about religion, philosophy, politics, music, sports, and pretty much anything they felt like talking about every since they became friends while working together at the University of Pittsburgh in the 20-teens. Though Neil is an Atheist and Phil is a Christian, they found that they agreed on more things than not, especially the evils of instant replay! ACAAAWIAB will explore topics like debt, heaven and hell, the Biblical Jubilee, philanthrocapitalism, and many others. Neil and Phil enjoy these conversations, so they figured there's a chance you will too. Original theme music written, performed, and produced by Neil Newton and Phil Thompson. christianathiest.pod@gmail.com

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