By PENN JILLETTE - BIG THINK
Updated: Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:59:27 UTC

Thanks to Colin for the links

Reading the Bible (Or the Koran, Or the Torah) Will Make You an Atheist

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Question: How did you become an atheist?

Penn Jillette: In my church group in Greenfield, Massachusetts at the age of about 16 or 17, I had made a deal with my mom and dad—I was very, very close to my mom and dad. I'm a real momma's boy and got along with them my whole life, hardly even rough periods. And they went to the Congregationalist church: The Church of the Covered Dish Supper in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Massachusetts is an old enough state that you could not charter a town without having a Congregationalist church and this was the first one in out town. I mean, from back 200 years ago....

How to Raise an Atheist Family

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Question:As an atheist, how do you raise a family in a society that seems to condemn atheism?

Penn Jillette: Well with the kids it's really tough. Just the other day my daughter just turned five, you know, she was playing with her cousins and one of the cousins came to my wife and said, "Moxie said God is mean." Moxie.... that's my daughter did not say "God is mean." She said, "There is not God." One of the older children said, "Oh my God." And she said, "You shouldn't say that because there is no God." She's cobbled together "You shouldn't say that" from school with "There is no God" from us. And it's really hard. I think it's really tough because people understand atheism so poorly. ...

TAGGED: ATHEISM, CHILDREN, MORALITY