Steve Brown Etc. » Blog Archive » Penn Says: A Gift of a Bible

Description

Penn Says: A Gift of a Bible

Erik Guzman March 12th, 2009

I've been a fan of Penn & Teller ever since being introduced to them on Saturday Night Live. The bit where they and the camera were upside-down, but the viewer didn't know that until the end was awesome. (I looked for a video to post but couldn't find it.) Anyway, these guys are brilliant and do some of the most creative (and gross) magic I've ever seen. Love it.

(If you're on the front page of the SBE site, click the title of this post to see the video.)

Penn is an atheist and takes pleasure in exposing the BS that often comes along with religion. Even though I don't share his lack of belief, I often find myself agreeing with him or at the very least appreciating his point of view.

My friend John Copeland sent me this video of Penn talking about receiving a gift of a Bible. Penn has impressed me again and I thought I'd share. Good thoughts and a great example of the power of sincerity, respect and caring enough to feel socially awkward. Check it out.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Atheism, Belief, Christianity, Evangelism, Penn and Teller, Proselytising, Respect, Saturday Night Live, Sincerity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “Penn Says: A Gift of a Bible”

Obed March 13th, 2009

Interesting. I had read or listened to (I don't remember which) Penn's piece for the "This I Believe" series on NPR where he discussed his belief that there is no God. I remember respecting is position even as I disagreed with him.

This was a neat video. For one, it reinforced how classy and respectable a guy Penn is. Secondly, the guy who talked to him is a good example of how we should act when witnessing. Plus, Penn made a good point about proselytizing.

Joe Johnson March 13th, 2009

Dug this. I actually offered Jillette's essay (the one Obed wrote about) as an optional text for my English 101 class. Quite a few students chose to respond to it and generally reacted strongly against Jillette — many of them arguing he was close-minded, explaining (very clumsily why there is a God).

I showed this clip before the final today and it really affected a few of them. Leave it to Penn Jillette to come into a state university classroom and tell Christians they should be evangelizing!

George McFly March 16th, 2009

Lorraine says I should grow my hair out like Penn. She says I've been spending too much money on hairgrease.

Hurk or Wild Erik, any thoughts?

I'll give you a coupon for $1.00 off your next purchase of Lucky Charms if you help me.

Brad Haggard March 16th, 2009

Thanks for this video. I was ready to chop up Penn's thoughts because he was an atheist, but then I realized that all of the conversions I've ever read about came about because people were impressed at the sincerity of a group of Christians they met.