A pair of atheist television hosts recently found themselves facing down an aggressive Christian caller with a shocking view of children who have been the victims of rape.
Matt Dillahunty and Tracie Harris, co-hosts of the "Atheist Experience" cable access show based in Austin, Texas, had been engaged in a conversation about God's "moral code" with the caller, identified as "Shane." According to Raw Story, Shane was presumably attempting to convince Dillahunty ansd Harris of the existence of God. The conversation, however, took a nasty turn when Shane tried to argue that raped children are "evil."
A clip uploaded to YouTube on Jan. 6 shows the hosts abruptly hanging up on Shane when the startling comment is made.
Immediately before the conversation is cut off, Harris directs the following statement to Shane: “You either have a God who sends child rapists to rape children or you have a God who simply watches it and says, ‘When you’re done, I’m going to punish you.' If I could stop a person from raping a child, I would. That’s the difference between me and your God."
Shane begins his response by saying, “First of all, you portray that little girl as someone who’s innocent, she’s just as evil as you.” Dillahunty then cuts off the call and spits, "Good-bye, you piece of s**t."
It's unclear from the clip what point the caller is trying to make, and his reference to "that little girl" is confusingly specific, as it seems up until then that the conversation had been about a hypothetical victim.
The "Atheist Experience," which attempts to gear itself toward a non-atheist audience, according to its website, tends to foster confrontational debates. In another segment from the show, a female caller rebukes a separate pair of co-hosts and says they are going to hell for being Satan worshipers.