I treasure the bracing freshness of a skeptic. Here's Penn Jillette on NPR's This I Believe:

"But, this 'This I Believe' thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life's big picture, some rules to live by. So, I'm saying, 'This I believe: I believe there is no God.'

"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.

posted by John Schaefer @ 12:06 PM At 1:31 AM, AWG said...

I used to like Penn but he's so utterly obnoxious it's hard to take. And when he said that people who don't believe the government line about 9/11 should be "thrown down a flight of stairs" I pretty much washed my hands of his magic act.

At 1:50 PM, CJD said...

There are a few gems in there, to be sure. It just sounds as if he's not rubbed too many shoulders with thinking Christians. Alas, I guess there's not too many of those around to begin with …

At 8:53 AM, No, I love this guy. One, he gives a short course in logic, concerning the unprovability, or disprovability, of negative assertions. Two, he's a skeptic who needs to be heard, like Bertrand Russell. OK, so he's playing the role of Conan Doyle/Houdini a bit too much to the hilt; still, always hiding within a skeptic is a disappointed believer.
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