A GREAT essay on atheism by Penn Jilette: your thoughts?

BirdofPrey

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Tesfan Posted:

I think he’s talking about his personal experience and not saying that you HAVE to be an atheist in order to have those things. I myself didn’t interpret it to say “this is a list of reasons why I’m better then you”, more as a response to the tons of comments directed against atheists like “atheists have no morals”, etc.

Of course there are almost as many atheist fanatics as there are religious ones, so I don’t know. Log in to see images!

if that’s what he meant, you have to admit that the sentence “No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.” is at best very badly worded.

not to mention his ‘taking the step’ to decide to believe that there is definitely no god is just as illogical as people deciding that they do believe in god. I guess that doesn’t bother him because he believes atheism is a much preferable way of life, mainly because it allows one to be less judgemental, but that belief by itself is rather judgemental, don’t you think?

Posted On: 06/21/2008 7:23PM

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BirdofPrey

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I don’t travel in circles where people say, “I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith.”

I’m trying to imagine a situation where a religious person would say that, and the only thing i can think of is an angry atheist trying to convince a religious person that he is wrong. I’m thinking we’re beginning to close in on this guy’s real values, which are suspiciously similar to hardcore religious fanatics (i.e. “If you don’t believe what I believe, **** you” ).

BirdofPrey edited this message on 06/21/2008 7:28PM

Posted On: 06/21/2008 7:28PM

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gigerth

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BirdofWar Posted:

I’m trying to imagine a situation where a religious person would say that, and the only thing i can think of is an angry atheist trying to convince a religious person that he is wrong. I’m thinking we’re beginning to close in on this guy’s real values, which are suspiciously similar to hardcore religious fanatics (i.e. “If you don’t believe what I believe, **** you” ).

bop are you a religious person

Posted On: 06/21/2008 7:32PM

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Posted On: 06/21/2008 7:34PM

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BirdofPrey

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gigerth Posted:

bop are you a religious person

for the most part yes, why do you ask

Posted On: 06/21/2008 7:35PM

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A+, would read again

Posted On: 06/21/2008 7:55PM

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Gentlemen

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Posted On: 06/21/2008 8:14PM

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Gentlemen Posted:

oh wow, you ruin everything. (not a troll, but the truth)

You aren’t worth my time or energy, particularly in this sort of thread..but i will be seeing you later.

Posted On: 06/22/2008 1:42AM

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Posted On: 06/22/2008 1:58AM

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LMAO

Posted On: 06/22/2008 2:35AM

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funkyp

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Penn Jillette is pretty much a sack of **** and this essay says absolutely nothing other than ‘hey guys I don’t believe in god, check that ****. mother****ing check it.’ Which is whatever I guess but did he really have to write all those words that provide absolutely nothing of value?

Posted On: 06/24/2008 2:31AM

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nanalatinoje-
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These guys:

n00Biff Posted:

My thoughts are that comedians are probably not the best source of information in your theological questings.

Monkey in a suit with a gun Posted:

Another angry atheist with fist raised to the heavens screaming “I don’t believe in you God!”

If he truly didn’t believe, then why does he feel the need to explain that he doesn’t believe?

I don’t believe in monsters under my bed, and BECAUSE I don’t, I don’t really feel the need to write essays on why I don’t believe in monsters under my bed.

Essays on atheism are overdone, and this one offers nothing more than one written by an annoyed college blogger.

Instead of trying to convince someone to believe what I believe, I’d rather them be happy.

AND NOW TIME FOR SOMETHING AWESOME.

Posted On: 06/25/2008 1:46PM

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Posted On: 06/25/2008 2:55PM

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tl;dr

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Posted On: 06/25/2008 2:57PM

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Tesfan

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BirdofWar Posted:

if that’s what he meant, you have to admit that the sentence “No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.” is at best very badly worded.

Yeah, I agree it’s a little more pushing then I’d like, but I’m a little more lenient toward atheist essays because atheists have taken a lot of **** over the years, so I look at it more of an essay defending his belief rather then attack others. Log in to see images!

EDIT: I take part of that back, I went ahead an re-read the essay I and definitely think that it’s badly wordy, the first paragraph he just comes off as being a jack-bum.

Tesfan edited this message on 06/25/2008 3:18PM

Posted On: 06/25/2008 3:06PM

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FAIL

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I thought it was a well written article until this section…

Believing there’s no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I’m wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don’t travel in circles where people say, “I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith.” That’s just a long-winded religious way to say, “shut up,” or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, “How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do.” So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that’s always fun. It means I’m learning something.

Believing there is no God means the suffering I’ve seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn’t caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn’t bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.

I don’t think those paragraphs are written well at all. If his goal was to say that every nonathiest is irrational, closed-minded, and have less “room for belief” in everything good, he completely lost all credibility with me.

Posted On: 06/25/2008 3:25PM

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nanalatinoje-
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Tesfan Posted:

Yeah, I agree it’s a little more pushing then I’d like, but I’m a little more lenient toward atheist essays because atheists have taken a lot of **** over the years, so I look at it more of an essay defending his belief rather then attack others. Log in to see images!

I think the golden rule effectively summarizes my rebumal to this.

Just because his views have been attacked does not mean that he should do the same. He’s not merely defending his own beliefs, he’s trying to downplay others.

Posted On: 06/25/2008 3:45PM

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Tesfan

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nanathunderjesus gets you LIGHTNING IN YOUR FIST Posted:

I think the golden rule effectively summarizes my rebumal to this.

Just because his views have been attacked does not mean that he should do the same. He’s not merely defending his own beliefs, he’s trying to downplay others.

Fair enough, I guess I’m more trying to explain his possible rational for it, it really does come off with “angst-filled teenage atheist” feel to it.

But yeah, stuff like “Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.” doesn’t fly with me at all.

Posted On: 06/25/2008 4:03PM

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nanalatinoje-
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Tesfan Posted:

Fair enough, I guess I’m more trying to explain his possible rational for it, it really does come off with “angst-filled teenage atheist” feel to it.

Oh, I can definitely understand that. Trying to understand the perspective of another person is very awesome, and something I sadly forgot to do in this case.

Posted On: 06/25/2008 4:06PM

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