Welcome to the Penn and Teller bulletin board, a great place to keep in touch with
fellow Penn & Teller fans or ask questions about the guys. We welcome your thoughts!
1. Are you guys fans of Penn & Teller because they are amazing, because the are atheists, or both?
2. Does anyone know what (if any) religion P&T grew up practicing?
3. If you are an atheist (or even agnostic), was there an epiphany, or was it a gradual doubt due to general life circumstances?
4. If you are an atheist, why do you not believe in a deity? If you are a theist, why DO you believe in a deity?
Personally, I'm... er, Buddhish, and religions fascinate me. Atheism is especially interesting because there is obviously no worship community and not much of a canon. Feel free to answer any and all questions.
1.Well they are entertainers so i have to say amazing, but they have thought me so very useful stuff, but i have to say i would not be a hard core atheist if i didn't buy the first series when i did
2.Well as George Carlin said once: he was brought up as a Roman Catholic as he got older he started to question these things and thats the reason why he became atheist and i have to say this is the same story with a lot of other atheists and agnostics.
3.Well, yes, you start to question things in life how they are and why they are this way, then you might find out things are too fucked up to fit in a correct line (in a figure of speech, of course) but if you accept life is hard that you need to work hard to make a good life then you got a little change of making life great without a deity or some spiritual thingamajig.
4.Because saying the deity fixed everything is nothing more than ignorance and wrong
just because we cant explain it dosent mean some ass-face thing made it like that.
1. I'm a fan of Penn and Teller because they are EPIC..
2. I don't remember what Penn's was, but I think Teller was always atheist. I almost remember reading that somewhere.
3. I'm atheist, but I don't think there was ever a time when I really believed in God. I mean, I went to church because people made me go until I was 14. Then I started again because I thought maybe I was missing something in my life, but both times, I remember thinking that I was wasting my time and something about the whole thing made no sense. I finally stopped entirely when my pastor couldn't seem to accept the fact that even with his precious Bible, there were some things he just didn't know. Nothing worse than a person who can't admit that they don't know.
4. I don't believe in God because I see no reason to. I think religion was invented to impose order on the chaos of the world in prehistory and to explain mysteries that couldn't be explained. Just as we no longer accept Apollo being the one driving the sun, we should question all the things we think we know about any deities. Makes no sense to scoff at one and blindly accept another. :P
I'm an Atheist (raised Southern Baptist/Methodist) and practicing Pastafarian (LOLZ). I think that faith is fine, but fanaticism is the scariest shit on the planet and fundamentalists are very selective in their faith. The Bible got one thing right: Love your neighbor as yourself. I love you all. Smooches.
I always kind of liked Penn & Teller, but I did forget about them for a while until the BS show.
I was also always an atheist, but didn't know that it was unusual until I was about 17. The only epiphany was when I became aware that so many people believe that stupid crap. Nobody asks an adult why they don't believe in santa, so I never prepared an excuse for not believing in "god" either.
1. Amazing
2. I don't think Penn had any kind of religious "training" in his youth. Teller, on the TAM3 (The Amazing Meeting 3) dvd, mentions going to some kind of religious classes (he doesn't specify denomination or his age at the time) because he was curious about religion and, when he was done, his parents told him that now he knew what religion was all about and, when he was an adult, he could join if he wanted to.
3. Gradual.
4. No proof.
1. Are you guys fans of Penn & Teller because they are amazing, because the are atheists, or both?
I think that I discovered P&T around the same time that I was shedding my religious beliefs (high school, circa 1994). I liked that they didn't take themselves too seriously and were my kind of cool. The fact that they were atheists was just icing on the cake, but it has been partially responsible for keeping me a loyal P&T fan for around 15 years.
2. Does anyone know what (if any) religion P&T grew up practicing?
Penn makes reference to the "Church of the Covered Dish Supper".
3. If you are an atheist (or even agnostic), was there an epiphany, or was it a gradual doubt due to general life circumstances?
It was gradual doubt for me, but not really due to any specific circumstances. The more I thought about stuff, the less likely the supernatural seemed.
4. If you are an atheist, why do you not believe in a deity? If you are a theist, why DO you believe in a deity?
I don't believe in a god for the exact same reason that I don't believe in Superman. There is insufficient evidence to support its existence, and plenty of information that provide better explanations of our surroundings
1. I was a fan before I knew they were atheists. It was secondary. So my answere is they're amazing.
2. Don't know. But I am curious as to why you're "Buddish" & if that was intentional or a typo. Either way it works:)
3.There was no epiphany....no light suddenly went out in my head. It was gradual and based far too many things to breifly list. How about you?
4.I haven't been able to nutshell this one. No positive evidence,and I can't buy the negative reasoning (ie. if you can't explain something it must be supernatural).
"I am curious as to why you're "Buddish" & if that was intentional or a typo."
It wasn't a typo. I agree with the philosophies of Buddhism, but somehow I doubt there are seven hells and a bunch of bodhisattvas sitting up in the sky somewhere. At least I HOPE there aren't seven hells... I like to think that if I end up there, at least I'll see my friends.
"There was no epiphany....no light suddenly went out in my head. It was gradual and based far too many things to breifly list. How about you?"
I still don't know. I was a cradle Catholic, and although I'm positive that's not the right system (at least for me), I haven't decided if I've given up hope of there being a god yet.
3. I'm 16, and i'm an atheist, i first became an atheist in my biology class in 8th grade, it hit me like a ton of bricks, i had decided then and there that i was an atheist. Christianity makes no sense to me and will continue to do so unless i'm proven wrong. :D
4. Because i need fact, proven undeniable fact. :D
1. I like them a lot because I enjoy their humor and their style. I first became familiar with them through Bullshit. It's still my favorite show, and I love the Penn Says stuff as well. (It helps that I agree with their politics; fiscally conservative, socially progressive. Just like I am.)
2. I recall Penn saying that his family was completely non-religious. I don't know about Teller.
3. It was more of a slow process. I didn't become an atheist at once.
4. I don't believe in gods for the same reason I don't believe in Bigfoot, ghosts, etc.... lack of evidence.
