Wednesday, May 03, 2006

I can't stop thinking about this essay from NPR. I downloaded it as a podcast some months ago, and only listened to it over spring break on my way home. Check it out.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Why can't you stop thinking about it?

Bridget said...

a lot of it just rings really true. And I really like how it's written.

Ruth said...

It is well-written. But do you agree with his conclusions? Do you really think the world would be better if everyone believed there was no God?

Bridget said...

You know Ruth, I was thinking about this again in church this morning. I don't agree with his conclusions, but I find it interesting that I can agree so much with his questions, and yet come to other conclusions.

Chef Mayhem said...

I wrote a long preachy response to this blog, because being a skeptical kind of guy myself, other skeptics (such as Mr. Jillette) often get me on my soapbox. So I deleted all that stuff.

But anyway I saw P&T a few years ago in the City and Penn hung Teller over 3 foot spikes, loaded a gun and shot it at Teller, locked Teller into an iron maiden, ate glass, and various other bits of mayhem until by the end of the show the two had literally drenched themselves in blood. It was fun! If you went up to ask for autographs at the end, they both just gave you a bloody handprint. Plus, I have all three of the awesome Penn and Teller magic books. So I'm not a Pennhater. I just don't really get into his psuedo-intellectual-skepticism.

Thank you for inquiring about Thorn in a previous thread. Thorn is still eating and pooping friskily, so I think he is doing pretty well. I don't have a large knowledge base about rabbits to draw on, so I'm guess I'll judge how he's doing on his appetite. He did try to bite me once last week, but I forgave the little fuzzball. He is still drawing flies to our patio unfortunately, although a vet has told us that if you are going to have a rabbit hutch, just get used to the flies no matter how clean it is. So I guess that is okay.

Bridget said...

Is a "rabbit hutch" a rabbit house? It sounds like dining room furniture. :)

Chef Mayhem said...

Our rabbit hutch is a box made out of wire and wood that the rabbit lives in. It has a mesh bottom so that his, um, waste products don't have to soil his little bunny feet. We keep it on the patio so he has some fresh air and some natural beauty to spend his days staring at. And also so that we do not pollute our home with his waste products. You will have to come over and spend some quality time with Thorn (but don't worry, quality time with Thorn typically averages out at around 3 to 5 minutes. So it is not a large commitment.)

Matt Haugland said...

I agree with a lot of this. I even think many Christians who don't have a good reason for believing what they believe would be better off taking his approach ("start with no believe of God and then look for evidence of God.")

But I think he goes wrong when he assumes there's no objective evidence for God. There is, but Christians (generally) don't know it or aren't good at articulating it to intelligent non-believers such as Penn.