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Penn & Teller ridicule Christ's crucifixion
WorldNetDaily ^ | Posted: January 20, 2003 | unknown

Posted on 01/20/2003 3:07:38 PM PST by Houmatt

The magic-comedy team of Penn & Teller has performed a stunt parodying the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, offending some attendees of a major magicians' convention, reports columnist Norm Clarke of the Las Vegas Review.

The skit, performed last week in Las Vegas, included Teller, dressed as Christ on a full-size cross, entering the room on a cart. According to the column, a midget dressed as an angel "performed a simulated sex act on the near-naked Teller." Penn, in a Roman gladiator costume, unveiled the scene by pulling away a "Shroud of Turin" that covered the cross.

A group of people attending the event, billed as a roast of magician Amazing Johnathan, walked out in protest, says Clarke.

According to Rick Neiswonger, a longtime magician and marketing executive, said "the majority" of the 400 who attended the roast were offended.

"They (organizers) warned everybody that something offensive was going to happen, but my God, where do you draw the line? … This was beyond bad taste," Neiswonger told the Review.

One magician, Lance Burton, defended the stunt in an address at the finale luncheon of the conference.

"I told them, 'You were warned ahead of time.' It was a roast; it was held late at night (midnight)," he said, according to the Review column. "Penn & Teller are my dear friends and I would take a bullet for them, and you can write that."

Amazing Johnathan told the Review he was aware that a number of what he called "gospel magicians" walked out of the performance.

"This was performance art," said Johnathan. "I know that Penn is a practicing atheist, and I agree with him that Christianity can be dangerous. Look at the Trade Center. That was done in the name of religion."

Clarke said in his column that Penn & Teller declined comment.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: amazingjohnathan; amazingjonathan; antichristian; atheist; blasphemy; christianity; crucifixtion; jesuschrist; lanceburton; lasvegas; magic; magicians; moronicstatements; offensive; outrage; penn; pennandteller; performanceart; religioushatred; teller; wherestheoutrage
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To: Houmatt
"This was performance art,"

Standard cop-out tagline. Anything's game in "performance art."

I guess I can add these two clowns to my never watch again list.

121 posted on 01/21/2003 6:07:05 AM PST by al_c
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To: jlogajan; CyberCowboy777
The laws of logic are absolute. Non-contradiction is an absolute standard.

Well, the laws of logic are internally consistent. But the laws of logic are absolutely useless for establishing morality without an axiomatic base. Again, logic is of no use unless basic moral axioms have been established first. In Euclidean geometry (and every other form of math), laws of logic are similarly useless without a set of unprovable axioms. Logic is then used to derive Euclidean geometry from those unprovable axioms (and as Einsteinians know - Euclidean geometry does not correctly describe the universe anyway!). As an atheist, you can use logic all you want - but if you're talking about morality, it's because you have come up with your own arbitrary moral axioms. Stalin was completely logical. You know - in order to establish collective farms, I need to get rid of those in my way... Of course, his moral axioms were far, far different from Christian moral axioms, and were made up in his own mind. Relying on logic for morality is like telling your kids to rely on logic to behave themselves - without telling them the general and handed down principles of good behavior to begin with. That way can (and does) lead to the Lord of the Flies. Most all of the world's worst despots - Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, etc., were quite logical. Most understand that right and wrong exist outside of logic.

122 posted on 01/21/2003 6:23:15 AM PST by yendu bwam
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To: jlogajan; CyberCowboy777
All men have an equal claim to self-defense.

Well, if you make that arbitrary a moral axiom. Most would say, as an example, that a man who relentlessly goes about shooting and torturing and killing innocent little children does not have the same claim to self-defense as someone like St. Francis. But of course, they have moral axioms that set their own ideas of good and bad. Most people get those axioms from God, rather than arbitrarily making them up in their heads.

123 posted on 01/21/2003 6:29:41 AM PST by yendu bwam
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To: HHFi
for which you have only one source, World Net Daily

Does anybody have a credible source? World Nut Daily has been sinking to the Debkaka level of late.

124 posted on 01/21/2003 6:51:38 AM PST by steve-b
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To: jlogajan
All men have an equal claim to self-defense.

Who says? You? There is nothing in atheism from which to distill the existence of such a right. The Darwinist model of mindless, aimless, godless natrual selection and survival of the fittest posits no moral "truths" at all. The only truth it posits is: the stronger, cleverer, and more ruthless get to mate and leave offspring; the rest die. The "right" to self-defense is an abstraction. Darwinist theory gives no place to abstractions.

125 posted on 01/21/2003 6:58:28 AM PST by Kevin Curry
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To: Pablo64
Ah. I thought maybe you were implying that to *not* do something takes no energy.
126 posted on 01/21/2003 7:29:26 AM PST by Undivided Heart
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To: jlogajan
All men have an equal claim to self-defense.

Show how that's derived from materialism. The rule would be survival of the fittest.

127 posted on 01/21/2003 9:08:19 AM PST by Roscoe
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To: Inspectorette
bump
128 posted on 01/21/2003 9:12:56 AM PST by GrandMoM
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To: CyberCowboy777
Your opinions on #93?

A superb and well-written and well-argued post - laden with truth about morality.

129 posted on 01/21/2003 11:49:04 AM PST by yendu bwam
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To: HHFi
If the "educational" cable channels didn't run UFO and strange pheonomena "documentaries" then maybe less sheep would need smart asses like Penn and teller to reveal the trick.

I haven't seen anything in Randi's actions to be outraged by, he seems to be interested in revealing fraud. I don't have a problem if he were even exposing "faith healers". A church music leader that I know jokingly referes to televangelists as the "professional wrestling" of religion. Everyone on tv isn't a fraud but there are a number of charletans.

130 posted on 01/21/2003 1:18:08 PM PST by weegee
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To: rabidone
the guy is a rabid liberal...period.
131 posted on 01/21/2003 1:32:42 PM PST by chasio649
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To: Houmatt; steve-b
Las Vegas Review Journal: Roast attendees take umbrage with stunt by Penn & Teller original article of their sacrilegious stunt.
132 posted on 01/21/2003 1:59:21 PM PST by weegee
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To: weegee
If the "educational" cable channels didn't run UFO and strange pheonomena "documentaries" then maybe less sheep would need smart asses like Penn and teller to reveal the trick.

Those who do not believe in UFO's have never seen one.

133 posted on 01/21/2003 2:31:55 PM PST by Houmatt (The OTHER Axis of Evil: The ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the NEA, and the Rats.)
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To: yendu bwam
Great points from both of you. Thanks. Much better than I could have done.

I was getting a little bogged down.

For him to say each man has an equal claim to self defense and that claim has some moral superiority is to assume some base moral concept of right and wrong. You cannot logically make that distinction and it be an authority if it comes solely from a mans reason. The base truth would have to be reason and reason allows anything.
134 posted on 01/22/2003 10:42:21 AM PST by CyberCowboy777 (Extremism in the Pursuit of Liberty is no Vice!)
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To: Kevin Curry
I meant to put your name on #134.

Again great points.
135 posted on 01/22/2003 10:43:31 AM PST by CyberCowboy777 (Extremism in the Pursuit of Liberty is no Vice!)
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To: Roscoe
exactly

equal claim to self-defense as a moral superiority is assumed, not fact.

If we are going to make assumptions, why not assume God? lol
136 posted on 01/22/2003 10:46:52 AM PST by CyberCowboy777 (Extremism in the Pursuit of Liberty is no Vice!)
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To: Flyer; sinclair
You two know each other? Houston area freepers.
137 posted on 01/26/2003 7:16:27 AM PST by buffyt (Can you say President Hillary?.......Me neither....)
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To: renosathug
"You are confusing them with Siegfried and Roy."

Yenda may have been usuing lieterary licence.

138 posted on 01/26/2003 7:41:52 AM PST by bribriagain
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To: All
i don't get it...

after reading the article numerous times, what message were they trying to send? How did this roast anyone? Where was the magic in the act? How was it entertaining? What was the joke? What did it mean?

i see penn jillette around las vegas all the time. i've never gone up and talked to him, but i've seen him at various concerts from jazz to heavy metal. He seemed like a pretty reasonable guy, but after this...

the quote about the world trade center was asinine. When islam is ridiculed, it's always in poor taste according to the left, when christianity is, it's fine. there's a double-standard and discrimination here. if i ridiculed religion on my job, i'd get fired. why not them?

the line at offending christians was crossed decades ago and i have yet to see material evidence of this "christian violence" of which jlogan speaks. where is it? What are you talking about, moron?

i think christians have shown unbelievable restraint and sometimes i sit at home and wish one of 'em would go haywire, so i could cheer.
139 posted on 01/26/2003 8:24:21 AM PST by 666beast
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To: Houmatt
I know that Penn is a practicing atheist

So was my grandad. Until he was 101 and a few minutes before his death when he saw Christ and believed.

140 posted on 10/09/2003 8:32:44 AM PDT by isthisnickcool (Guns!)
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