Posted on 08/17/2011 11:20:58 AM PDT by smokingfrog
Penn Jillette is fond of Christians. Despite the title of his new book, "God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales," the talky half of the magic-comedy duo Penn & Teller finds those who follow Jesus to have compassion.
"If you say bad things about them, they won't kill you — which is all I require out of people I share the planet with," Jillette says. "The fact that I attack Christians is, in a lot of ways, showing how much I trust them."
"God, No!" is filled with hilarious stories from Jillette's life, each told to illustrate his reinterpretations of the Ten Commandments. But like the Christians he admires, this dedicated libertarian is ultimately a kind person — and an atheist who's open to all ideas about the universe.
Your atheism isn't dogma; it's you saying, "I don't know." I think skeptic and atheist groups should be really interested in the truth, which might include UFOs and Jesus Christ — we just don't know that yet.
And you seem skeptical of professional atheists. There's often these talks that people give about how to convince somebody — it's almost like Amway for skepticism. … I find that insulting, condescending and morally wrong — it also doesn't work. ... I never try to convert, ever.
Have you ever received threats because of your views? Atheists often like to get together and brag about how brave they are because of the threats that they've gotten, and I was a part of that. I would sit around with Trey Parker [co-creator of "South Park," "The Book of Mormon"] and [author] Richard Dawkins and talk about our hate mail. It's a weird kind of backward macho thing.
But you don't do that now?
(Excerpt) Read more at expressnightout.com ...
Spot on.
Theists have faith - that is Theists believe God exists without proof
Atheists believe in the non-existence of God.
Agnostics do not “believe” as in having “faith” (belief without proof). Agnostics require proof.
By his definition of his belief set, Jillette would be an Agnostic.
I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, since he is a talented performer. I guess he's more of a jerk than I thought.
Wow! I’ve never heard of that before.
I’m glad at least some of the magicians walked out.
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