God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales

I was expecting a book-long tract about atheism, but Jillette focuses on the "Other Magical Tales" section of the subtitle to mostly deliver a fine if fairly standard celebrity memoir stuffed with chatty anecdotes and ranty essays about libertarianism, terrorism, and Richard Nixon in addition to some bits about atheism. I agreed with some stuff, disagreed with some stuff, and was entertained throughout by the generous heaping of foul language and the wonderfully obscene way he has of expressing his thoughts and sharing parts of his life.

He admits to being an ass, and I probably wouldn't want to hang out with him in real life, but Jillette certainly is a person worth reading about.

I like Penn Jillette. Possibly more than I really should. The guy's an opinionated loudmouth, and I'm not generally a fan of opinionated loudmouths, even when I agree with what they're saying (and I do agree with Penn on a lot of things, though by no means all of them). Heck, it may be especially true when I agree with them, since I think being an opinionated loudmouth is more often than not counterproductive if you want to bring people around to your way of thinking.

But, somehow, Penn makes it work for him. It helps a lot that he's funny. It also helps that he's self-deprecating about his own obnoxiousness in a way that feels surprisingly genuine, cheerfully admitting that he's just some nut with a big mouth and there's no reason you show more should listen to him over anyone else and managing to give the impression that, far from wanting to browbeat people into submission or silence like most opinionated loudmouths, he'd be honestly delighted if you leapt into the argument and showed him that he was wrong about something. Even more than that, though, it's that he's just so full of exuberance. He comes across as a guy who is completely in love with life and thinks people are great even while he's in the middle of a full-bore, no-holds-barred, profanity-filled rant, which is honestly pretty impressive. Even when he ought to be annoying, I just find him weirdly lovable.

So, yes, I enjoyed this book. As the title suggests, there's a lot about religion (or, rather, against it) in this loose collection of essays, but he also talks about politics and showbiz and various other subjects, and shares a lot of personal stories. It is, at various points, hilarious, touching, goofy, dirty, and provocative, although whether it's provocative in a good way or a bad way probably depends a lot on the reader. I wouldn't recommend it to just anybody -- religious people will no doubt find it as offensive to their beliefs as it's meant to be -- but if you like Penn Jillette, there's a lot of him here to like. show less

I picked this up because I love Penn and Tellers Bullshit, and feel very strongly about skepticism and atheism. Penn Jillette gets high praise from artists and skeptic bloggers alike, and doesn't hide his skeptical agenda. I was very excited to read this.

That's what makes this book such a shame. While there are parts that are genuinely hilarious or poignant, the vast, vast majority is Penn bragging about all his money or all the pussy he gets (understandable, I suppose, but uninteresting and grating), or show what a reprehensible human being he is. One chapter is devoted to objectifying women, discussing how tits are awesome and detailing having sex while scuba diving (with copious use of the C-word, btw). It just came off as show more mysogynistic and empty. He later brags about threatening a female social worker. He asked her to lie. She refused. As a health care worker I sympathize with her: often you are forced to make hard choices, and people will often ask you to do things that will cost your job and/or freedom. Penn threatens her with physical violence and beams over the outcome. These specific examples are meatballs, layered over a plate of generic bigoted, hateful spaghetti. For someone who relishes pointing out logical fallacies, he certainly clings to fallacies and stereotypes heavily himself.

I wish I never picked up this book, because I think I'm done with P&T now. show less

There are not enough hours in the day to spend time reading the puerile rantings of a middle-aged teenager. This book is great for those who think farting is humor, who think grotesqueries are deep profundities, and who don't mind simplistic bombast in place of reasoned philosophy. I am not one of those, and I chose to put this book down before I sullied my mind with any more sophmoric bodily functions 'humor'. It appears Penn is attempting to be everyone's caricature of an atheist - amoral, profane, and overly concerned with the pleasures (and I use that term lightly, since I fail to see how "cock-nailing" could be regarded as a pleasure) of an unrestrained lifestyle. Not recommended for anyone over the age of fifteen.

I'm not sure why I've only now gotten around to reading this, but now it was. A collection of essays, some quite clever, others just clever, and a couple wtf? If you're sensitive, you might want to avert your eyes when reading this. Of course, if you're sensitive, why are you reading Penn Jillette? Maybe you only know him as the big guy ("To give you an idea of how stupid my size is, Teller is about the same size as Art Garfunkel. Teller & Garfunkel are two regular guys; Simon & Penn are waving to each other from about the same standard deviation on opposite sides of the bell curve.") who talks and does magic with the little guy who doesn't. I read one of his novels and like anyone who has seen their show in person, got to meet him show more after the show (same night that wacko shot a bunch of people with the now legal again, thanks corrupt SCOTUS, bump stocks). He talks about why they do that in here, and why they've always done that.

Anyway, it's an essay collection somewhat tied together by Penn's submitted-for-your-approval suggested replacements for a ten commandments version (I wonder which version Louisiana wants to use?) of what a faction says they want but probably haven't read, and probably don't know aren't actually ten (two somewhat different versions in two biblical books, and even more different among translations and interpretations.) I've collected them at the end of this.

He's quite crude at times, but then... the real Penn Jillette folks..., a few times laugh out loud funny. I'm glad there are folks like him out there.

Curated highlights:

[yeah, why is that?]
How come it’s rare to see people on TV saying that god made them lose the stupid ball game or killed that baby in the house fire? How come every time someone says that god told them to kill their whole family, the religious people say right away that the faithful murderer was crazy? You never see religious people saying “I wonder if that murder was a miracle. I wonder if god is speaking to us directly again.” Maybe they really don’t believe this shit either.
Gosh. It's really funny how the G man gets all the credit for the good stuff, yet none for the bad stuff that is part of His Plan.

[an important distinction]
I’m not a cynic, I’m a skeptic—I try to question information but not motives. But when it comes to David Blaine, I question motives.
I like this. and it's odd that when it comes to David Blaine, Jillette bashes the hell out of him, calls his non-magic stunts for the bulls*t they are, but is still a friend.

[audiences]
I love quiet crowds now; I don’t see them as lacking enthusiasm, I see them as paying attention.
I pay attention. Even at a concert, I am generally quiet, paying attention.

[on a recently ex-Orthodox ex-Jew who wanted to eat non-kosher foods]
If the religious can be silly enough to think that eating the right food makes you religious, we can play along for a meal and pretend that eating the wrong food will make you rational.

[on a pastor of his parents' church being run off by the elders when they finally figured out she was a lesbian]
Crimes against nature didn’t bug my dad, but he had a zero-tolerance policy for crimes against privacy.

[modern art]
Modern art is great, it really speaks to me on an intellectual and visceral level, but there’s a little stone in my shoe worrying that it might all be just jive.
I get told to leave the room if I ever (and I almost never anymore) say "that's not art."

My love and respect for the marketplace of ideas (that the only cure for bad speech is more speech)... I don't know about this. It's worse than ever since this was written in 2011.

[on people telling him they are praying for him to find Christ]
I haven’t found Christ. I’m not even looking for him. I don’t need or want salvation. I have no hope of eternal life, but I do have hope that hundreds of millions of pebbles of doubt will grow into boulders, and eventually religion will go away and people will celebrate and cherish and protect the precious life we have here now.

[on the arbitrariness of religion]
If every trace of any single religion were wiped out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again.
This. I've seen this before. Now I know the source.

[on the TSA]
To react to an attack on our freedom with less freedom seems so deeply un-American.

[Seth MacFarlane]
I was on Larry King Live with Seth MacFarlane, the Family Guy guy. I like him. I like the pleasant feelings in my iPhone pocket when I’m with him. It’s the gentle vibration of women I know texting to remind me that, if I get a chance, I could give Seth their cell phone numbers.
Hah!

[be honest with yourself]
To be fair (and it’s always important to be fair when one is being mean-spirited, obscene, sanctimonious, and self-righteous) ...
He is critical of himself equally as much as he is others.

[more on religion]
...every time I heard the English translation of the Shahada, “There is no god but Allah,” I would hear the first four words and think it was great. I really agreed with the first four words, “There is no god . . .” Man, I am so down with that. Agreeing with two-thirds of something religious is a personal best for me.

[on faith]
The Fort Hood guy was Muslim, but a lot of people seem to want to say he “went postal” instead of “he went Islam.” Being a letter carrier is a job; Islam is a faith. Any job deserves respect; faith does not.
Truth.

Ten Commandments according to The Bible [TB], Penn Jillette [PJ]
[TB] 1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
[PJ] 1. The highest ideals are human intelligence, creativity, and love. Respect these above all.
[TB] 2. Thou shalt not make for thyself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
[PJ] 2. Do not put things or even ideas above other human beings. (Let’s scream at each other about Kindle versus iPad, solar versus nuclear, Republican versus Libertarian, Garth Brooks versus Sun Ra—but when your house is on fire, I’ll be there to help.)
[TB] 3. Thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain, for the lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
[PJ] 3. Say what you mean, even when talking to yourself.(What used to be an oath to god is now quite simply respecting yourself.)
[TB] 4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days thou shalt labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the lord thy god. In it thou shalt do no work: thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger who is within thy gates. For in six days the lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
[PJ] 4. Put aside some time to rest and think. (If you’re religious, that might be the Sabbath; if you’re a Vegas magician, that’ll be the day with the lowest grosses.)
[TB] 5. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the lord thy god has given thee.
[PJ] 5. Be there for your family. Love your parents, your partner, and your children. (Love is deeper than honor, and parents matter, but so do spouse and children.)
[TB] 6. Thou shalt not kill.
[PJ] 6. Respect and protect all human life.(Many believe that “Thou shalt not kill” only refers to people in the same tribe. I say it’s all human life.)
[TB] 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
[PJ] 7. Keep your promises. (If you can’t be sexually exclusive to your spouse, don’t make that deal.)
[TB] 8. Thou shalt not steal.
[PJ] 8. Don’t steal. (This includes magic tricks and jokes—you know who you are!)
[TB] 9. Thou shalt not lie.
[PJ] 9. Don’t lie. (You know, unless you’re doing magic tricks and it’s part of your job. Does that make it okay for politicians too?)
[TB] 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to thy neighbor.
[PJ] 10. Don’t waste too much time wishing, hoping, and being envious; it’ll make you bugnutty. show less

It's hard to see and hear Penn Jillette without forming some sort of opinion. Jillette, the large (nearly 6 foot, 7 inches tall and approximately 300 pounds) half of the illusionist-magician-comic duo Penn & Teller, is talented, brash and unabashed. He's never been loath to express his views. And his new book, God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales, is likely to reinforce that what you see is what you get.

One of Jillette's core principles is that there is no God. Not only is atheism an increasingly common subject on his Penn Point video blog, he has frequently been interviewed about it. Likewise, he's not shy about it. Jillette even says in the book's introduction that he's "a loud, aggressive, strident, show more outspoken atheist, and I'm an asshole." (He also admits in it that "there's a lot of rambling" in the book.)

Jillette says God, No! resulted from Glenn Beck having asked him to entertain the idea of an atheist Ten Commandments. As a result, each chapter here consists of stories, some personal and some not, on the theme of Jillette's suggestion for each of the Ten Commandments. Many are actually broader in scope than the original. For example, his version of the Fifth Commandment ("Honor thy father and mother") is "Be there for your family. Love your parents, your partner, and your children." Likewise, the Seventh Commandment's proscription on adultery becomes "Keep your promises. (If you can't be sexually exclusive to your spouse, don't make that deal.)"

It would be unfair to classify God, No! as simply an attack on Christians. Still, Jillette isn't afraid to call it as he sees it. "I haven't found Christ," he writes. "I'm not even looking for him. I don't need or want salvation." Jillette's main focus is simply that he doesn't believe it God. He holds his lack of belief so firmly that even agnostics irritate him. One essay is titled, "Agnostics: No One Can Know for Sure but I Believe They're Full of Shit." In it, he argues, among other things, that most agnostics "are really just cowardly and manipulative atheists."

As noted, several of the essays center on personal anecdotes that don't deal directly with religion or atheism. Thus, we hear of his adventures with ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons on a so-called "vomit comet," an aircraft flight that provides weightlessness for approximately 30 second periods, or his trip to a gay bathhouse in San Francisco. Yet even these stories tend to shed light on or illustrate the thesis of the particular suggested Penn Commandment. Some might question how unrestrained he is in his language or his discussion of sex. There's no doubt Jillette's intentionally blasphemous line about what he would do to Christ's hand wounds and on his crown of thorns would cause conniption fits in even semi-devout Christians. But Jillette has always been brash and unrestrained. At least we know he isn't sacrificing any of his style, thoughts or opinions to the god of marketing. His at times scathing humor is also at work in much of the book.

One of the core elements of God, No! is urging atheists to speak out and step forward. This is where the book becomes a manifesto, a call to action. Jillette even takes a page from some proponents of religion, urging atheists to preach and proselytize.

"Truth doesn't live in the closet. You have to make it clear to everyone, including your children, that there is no god. If you're not doing that every chance you get, then the other side will win. They'll win only in the short term; but we only get to live in the short term. You don't have to fight, but you have to do your part -- you have to tell the truth. You have to be honest. You don't have to force schools to say there's no god, but you have to say it yourself. You have to say it all the time. No one can relax in a closet."

Passages like this and the passion for ideas Jillette displays throughout the book mean he likely will be tagged by many as a "militant atheist," using the term pejoratively. Yet Jillette probably wouldn't take offense. He's equally outspoken about being a Libertarian and, in the eyes of some, militant when it comes to personal and civil liberties. From his perspective, he is simply placing his opinions in the marketplace of ideas, a right that belongs to everyone, asshole or otherwise. And just as God, No! leaves no question about his ideas, it is equally clear that Jillette doesn't care if you think he's an asshole, an atheist or an asshole atheist. He just wants you to think.

(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.) show less

Penn could have titled this "Sexual Adventurism as a Touring Magician" or even "I'm Libertarian and so can You!" That is, atheism is a continuous (invisible?) thread on really whatever Penn feels like recalling and opining on--which is great! He narrates it himself with gust and lets on a lot about his personal life. This was very entertaining.