Magician Penn Jillette Says ‘God No!’ To God
Filed by KOSU News in Art & Life.
August 16, 2011
Even if you believe in God, you might still be atheist. So argues Penn Jillette in his book God, No! Signs You May Already Be An Atheist and Other Magical Tales.
The louder half of the magician duo Penn and Teller frames his new book as the atheist’s Ten Commandments, but he wanders along the way, from rants about the war on drugs to stories of eating shellfish and bacon cheeseburgers with Hasidic Jews.
Jillette says critics of atheism often assume non-believers are arrogant people. Not so, he says. You may not have to be brave or smart to be an atheist, Jillette argues, but you do have to be humble. Atheists don’t have all the answers, he writes, but in his view, they do have the humility to admit they don’t know how the world was created, or where humans come from, or many other of life’s mysteries.
Jillette joins host Neal Conan to discuss why he prefers atheism to agnosticism and why fellow magician David Blaine needs to lighten up. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]
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