{"id":178,"date":"2016-02-20T12:58:39","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T18:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oddlysincere.com\/?p=178"},"modified":"2025-02-14T21:59:01","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T03:59:01","slug":"its-_not_-self-damning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oddlysincere.com\/?p=178","title":{"rendered":"It’s NOT Self-Damning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I had another realization before I got up this morning, and I want to share it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a total<\/em> aside, I didn’t realize until today how much agreement <\/em>I have with Penn Jillette<\/a>. I really <\/em>need to listen to and read more of what he’s said publicly about atheism. He has a talent<\/em> <\/em>for explaining things in a way that’s simultaneously <\/em>easy-to-understand, compelling, and <\/em>non-judgmental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

That “non-judgmental” part is why I’m writing this post. About four years ago, Jillette went on a satellite radio show as a guest of Ron Bennington<\/a> and said something that I’ve seen quoted again and again. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I share the quote, I want to write that if you follow that link, I encourage you to read the entire <\/em>interview. I think only reading this one quote leads people to believe (as I <\/em>did before today) that Jillette subscribes to a belief that’s commonly ascribed to atheists: that we believe that we are mentally superior <\/em>to theists. In another interview with Bennington,<\/a> Jillette talks about a “really hideous misconception that if you’re an atheist, you think you have answers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the quote I’ve seen in so many places:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what\u2019s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. <\/span>The fact that these people think that if they didn\u2019t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I completely agree <\/em>with everything in that quote, except for the final sentence. <\/em>The realization I had this morning is that I don’t<\/em> think it’s self-damning. More precisely, I don’t think believers think what that quote ascribes to them. Jillette is correct that, given a full and careful analysis, it’s what’s implied <\/em>by that. However, I’ve decided that pointing that out (while ignoring the likelihood that they simply have never thought it through that completely) is disingenuous. <\/em>It’s “a way to score easy points on” people you disagree with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m actually willing to bet that Jillette (in hindsight) regrets saying that. <\/em>Everything else I’ve seen\/heard shows him to be a reasonable person, who isn’t as interested in demonstrating that he’s “right” as he is in learning what’s true. <\/em>To his credit, he fully acknowledges<\/em> (in that same interview) that his point of view would likely make him slow to accept hard evidence that disagreed with what he believes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I think that\u2019s a little bit grandiose, I couldn\u2019t claim that [ed: that he “stays open to all ideas all the time”]. I certainly try that. You can find certain ideas. I think if you gave me a lot of information that showed me beyond a doubt that a certain race was inferior to another race you\u2019d have a lot trouble getting that information through to me. I think there\u2019s certain ways I was brought up that you\u2019d have to hammer for a long time. But I\u2019d like to think that at some point I\u2019d come around.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The more I read from this guy, the more I like him. I really think that the comment about “self-damning” is an exception made in a recorded interview <\/em>that reflects the kind of human <\/em>weakness that we all <\/em>fall victim to from time to time. I know I <\/em>do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had another realization before I got up this morning, and I want to share it. As a total aside, I didn’t realize until today how much agreement I have with Penn Jillette. I really need to listen to and read more of what he’s said publicly about atheism. He has a talent for explaining things in a way that’s simultaneously easy-to-understand, compelling, and non-judgmental.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,9],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-non-belief","tag-deep-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddlysincere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddlysincere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddlysincere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddlysincere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddlysincere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/oddlysincere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":510,"href":"https:\/\/oddlysincere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddlysincere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddlysincere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddlysincere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}