Talk:Matt Dillahunty

Information regarding Secular Pro-Life
The information regarding Matt's debate with Wilcox needs to be changed. It wasn't featured on Secular Pro-Life's website, it was only advertised on their website in a blog article leading up to the debate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.139.100.129 (talk) 23:10, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Notability
Dillahunty appears to have been covered in the Austin-American Statesman on 2007-03-18, 2007-05-31, 2006-03-16 and 2006-03-09 (last two appear identical) per this search on 2008-11-06. All of those articles are Pay-per-view, though, and I have no interest in paying to add sources for him. I withdrew my premature AfD, but someone else who cares more about him will have to do the research for appropriate expansion. Jclemens (talk) 04:29, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Maybe you should take a look at this mirror of the article: http://richarddawkins.net/article,765,Saving-believers-Former-Christian-finds-calling-to-preach-the-good-news-of-atheism,Eileen-E-Flynn-American-Statesman

Double Standards...
I would like to point out that there's a swath of information that SHOULD be on wikipedia about the Atheist Community of Austin and The Atheist Experience and The Non-Prophets Radio show. It's broadcast around the world now, has a lot of regular listeners, and face it the same standard for "notability" isn't being applied to christian shows and the like. I suspect a bit of prejudice is involved in the constant deletion of relevant material, and that the reason the pages are so Spartan is because nothing can get added due to constant censorship.--67.58.85.10 (talk) 21:17, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Indeed. Why doesn't pages for the Atheist Community of Austin and The Atheist Experience and The Non-Prophets Radio show, exist? The Atheist Experience is more well known than Matt Dillahunty, so why doesn't the show have one? How are they not notable?
 * Because you haven't created it yet. If you guys are so worried about these pages not existing, then why not collect the credible sourced material and make the articles yourself; is everyone else supposed to just do the work for you?SuperAtheist (talk) 14:06, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

Live Stream
It should be added, that The Atheist Experience is streamed live, on the internet. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-atheist-experience —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.225.29.142 (talk) 12:02, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

This article needs references that appear in reliable third-party publications.
So The Austin American-Statesman doesn't count then? And the Richard Dawkins site? (neither of which are "affiliated with the subject") —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.113.53.4 (talk) 20:19, 11 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I just noticed... What about PBS? (as I noticed, from the lower most external link) Are they unreliable? Are they not a third party? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.113.49.164 (talk) 21:38, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps this could count as notability for the ACA?
The Atheist Experience won The Austin Chronicle's "Best of Austin 2010 Awards" as the Best Public Access TV Show, in the readers choice category.--213.113.51.11 (talk) 04:54, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

Bundle it into an ACA article?
It might make sense to bundle all the ACA stuff (TV show, audio show, blog, notable members) into one ACA article. Matt could keep his own article since he is also noteworthy outside of ACA activities, but other people like Russel Glasser should only be mentioned in a "regular members" sub section of the Atheist Experience section of the ACA article. 82.113.106.192 (talk) 12:47, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I agree it would be a good idea to create an Atheist community of Austin (ACA) article, so feel free to do so. It can perhaps include shows like The Non Prophets and The Godless Bitches. Bundling The Atheist Experience with it is however a bad idea, because it's way past a 'local cable access show' of the ACA nowadays. It is the flagship of the ACA, and having it in a seperate article would be the proper thing to do. Also, Matt Dillahunty should definitely have his own article, because he is not only notible for his participation in the ACA. The same goes for Jeff Dee and Martin Wagner, who are also notible for their artistic career.--Pereant antiburchius (talk) 20:47, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Matt's apparent PhD
I'm not absolutely certain, but I'm fairly certain that Matt isn't a theoretical physicist, as I've heard him say before that none of us [on the show] are physicists. I'm fairly sure his education was in the tech industry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.29.246.73 (talk) 21:04, 9 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Agreed. The host on the Atheist Experience (many times Matt himself) have often stated that none of them are experts on anything, and that none of them are evolutionary biologists or physicists. Matt has, on a few occasions, mentioned that someone present, off screen, is a physicist, but not he or his co-host.--ZarlanTheGreen (talk) 23:53, 9 October 2012 (UTC)

Agreed that Matt doesn't have a PhD, but to say no one on the show is an expert on anything is simply not true. Don Baker has a PhD in computer science, which certainly qualifies him as an expert in SOMETHING. Jen Peeples is an aerospace engineer, which qualifies her as an expert in SOMETHING as well. Matt has never claimed no one on the show is an expert on anything. He and the other hosts claim lack of expertise in fields other than their own.Spookiewon (talk) 13:21, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

Where is the evidence for "Don Baker has a PhD"?

There is no mention of this on this AETV page:

http://www.atheist-experience.com/people/don_baker/

There is no mention of it on his personal page:

http://www.christianitymeme.org/index.shtml Vapourmile (talk) 09:52, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

Gaming
I decided to add a paragraph about his gaming background, particularly because it's something that is discussed pretty frequently on his twitch stream, and he did it professionally for a while. I'm not sure how to reference it though; the information is gathered from two sources; himself on his twitch stream, as well as his old clan's homepage available through archive.org. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.235.139.127 (talk) 20:48, 11 July 2014 (UTC)
 * You can put the sources here so other editors can read them. If they are reliable, they can be posted. I can help you source them. Cheers, ComputerJA ( ☎  •  ✎  ) 23:49, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

Secondary source for Awards section
Maybe this (Patheos) is what is needed in the Awards section? — Brianhe (talk) 08:13, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Request for Comments
There is an RfC on the question of using "Religion: None" vs. "Religion: None (atheist)" in the infobox on this and other similar pages.

The RfC is at Template talk:Infobox person.

Please help us determine consensus on this issue. --Guy Macon (talk) 17:58, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Complaint.
I posted calls for citations in the main article, before they were added, and this resulted in an argument with an admin accusing me of vandalism. Vandalism? For questioning claims with no corroborative evidence in an encyclopaedia? For which no reason to believe them was given? It's a strange encyclopaedia which says asking reasons to believe its claims counts as vandalism. Is WIkipedia becoming a religion?

Vapourmile (talk) 10:14, 24 August 2015 (UTC)]

Southern Baptist? Ministerial ambition?
I am still unable to find evidence for these claims about Matt Dillahunty made on this page. So, why are they even here? Example:

"Raised Southern Baptist, Dillahunty sought to become a minister.[1]"

If you follow citation link, you will see that it does not only fail to provide evidence for the claim of being a Southern Baptist, nor seeking to become a minister, but in fact the evidence found there is irrelevant:

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AASB&p_theme=aasb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=117F829CB4CBAFA0&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

Matt has used this claim, to add an air of validity to his views by couching them in the idea that he was raised as a Christian, he was a Christian, and then, by power of reason, rejected Christianity. However, I have yet to see sufficient evidence to make those claims believable. No Baptist church, to my knowledge, has ever expressed a remembrance of Dillahunty in their congregation. Despite the fact you would have thought there was a very good chance churchgoers from any church, Baptist or otherwise, of whose congregation he has supposedly been a member, will have had plenty of opportunity to comment on these, so far, merely assumed former ministerial ambitions, his membership of their church, his exit from the church or his conversion to atheism. So far the response heard is identical with the response you would expect if these claims were somewhat inflated of completely untrue, i.e. there has been none. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vapourmile (talk • contribs) 10:20, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added tag to http://www.atheist-community.org/lectures/speakers.php?id=118
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150106222601/http://reasonnc.com/beth-presswood/ to http://reasonnc.com/beth-presswood/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110717155131/http://blip.tv/the-atheist-experience-tv-show/matt-dillahunty-the-superiority-of-secular-morality-4192742 to http://blip.tv/the-atheist-experience-tv-show/matt-dillahunty-the-superiority-of-secular-morality-4192742
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2017 tour
Not sure the 2017 tour is good for inclusion here. I searched for reliable third party sources and found this (Metro Vancouver Convention and Visitors Bureau) which might be considered independent, maybe not. Nothing in news media that I could find. ☆ Bri (talk) 17:58, 14 November 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
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Article cleanup/improvement
This article needs a bit of work to become encyclopedic. At the moment it just seems to be a collection of trivia about various events he has attended and then section that summarise his views on some random topics marginally related to his notability. It needs to focus more on an encyclopedic biography and focus less on short-lived internet arguments that he has had. For example, his Atheist Experience work, which is a key part of his notability, just mentions in passing with a 'circa' on the date. Ashmoo (talk) 14:36, 27 February 2018 (UTC)
 * This may be a reflection of the AfD process in Wikipedia. Both this bio and the article on The Atheist Experience have been nominated at least twice. To keep the article, it must demonstrate notability beyind just the television show (technically the person must be independently notable whether or not the article actually shows it but I'm talking in practice). IMO it is good for the bio to retain other aspects of the subject's life; exactly when he started on the show is not super important.
 * By the way, source #2 says he started as a guest host in 2005 and official host January 2006. ☆ Bri (talk) 14:30, 28 February 2018 (UTC)

Please change the name to: Matthew Wade Dillahunty
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAd23O2HzVQ The Atheist Experience - Matt Dillahunty (PBUH) Becomes a Prophet of Islam

Following timestamp 13:10 min: "My name is Matthew Wade Dillahunty. I got it on my driver's license [ ... ].

Please fix it.

213.152.161.117 (talk) 12:27, 14 October 2018 (UTC)

Divorce
Are there any sources related to his divorce? He has mentioned it in several episodes during the last few months.213.152.162.89 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 18:20, 8 December 2018 (UTC)

I tried editing the page to mention his separation and the fact that he has now mentioned a new relationship on the show. I am new to wikipedia edits and not sure what I did wrong, but it reverted back to the original state after a while.

Can we not use the videos as a source? Raphanusraphanistrum (talk) 17:48, 14 January 2019 (UTC)


 * YouTube is generally frowned upon as a source, as is most social media unless its framed like a press release. If its the only source we have though, go for it, but be sure to include the timestamps that are relevant. Zero Serenity (talk - contributions) 20:11, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

Status of Iron Chariots?
The link to said no longer works. I'm only somewhat familiar with the contributor's work, so have no idea on the status of this counter-apologetics project. If anyone has details on what the situation is, that might be helpful to improve the article. Thanks much. -- Surv1v4l1st ▌Talk 03:21, 4 December 2021 (UTC)

Matt leaving the Atheist Experience
This was a big deal as Matt had been there for well over a decade and suddenly left over a conflict. Should this not be covered? Rustygecko (talk) 21:10, 11 September 2023 (UTC)
 * The end date of his hosting is mentioned in the second sentence. That's about as much as reliable sources support. Unless there's more I'm unaware of. ☆ Bri (talk) 21:24, 11 September 2023 (UTC)