Penn Jillette Religion Quotes

There is no god, and that's the simple truth. If every trace of any single religion were wiped out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again.

Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.

Once you've condoned faith in general, you've condoned any crazy shit done because of faith.

If there's something you really want to believe, that's what you should question the most.

What I have a problem with is not so much religion or god, but faith. When you say you believe something in your heart and therefore you can act on it, you have completely justified the 9/11 bombers. You have justified Charlie Manson. If it's true for you, why isn't it true for them? Why are you different? If you say "I believe there's an all-powerful force of love in the universe that connects us all, and I have no evidence of that but I believe it in my heart," then it's perfectly okay to believe in your heart that Sharon Tate deserves to die. It's perfectly okay to believe in your heart that you need to fly planes into buildings for Allah.

Love and respect all people. Hate and destroy all faith.

It's not arrogant to say that you can't figure out the answers to the universe with your internal faith. It's not arrogant to know that there's no omniscient, omnipotent prime mover in the universe who loves you personally. It's not sad to feel that life and the love of your real friends and family is more than enough to make life worth living. Isn't it much sadder to feel that there is a more important love required than the love of the people who have chosen to spend their limited time with you?

But [he] had lost god, and all his family and friends were staying behind with his imaginary friend. A silly dream goes away and takes with it your whole real life.

Islam is not a kind of person. Islam is an idea. Islam is a religion. And religions are not people. Ideas are not people. All ideas must be attacked all the time, in order to find out what parts of them are true. We must respect people, but that doesn’t mean we have to respect ideas that aren’t true. I don’t even care whether the ideas are dangerous or not. I don’t care if Islam does mean “peace.” I don’t believe Muhammad was any sort of prophet. I don’t believe there are any real prophets. That idea is wrong. And if I say that idea is wrong, that doesn’t mean I have an irrational fear of people who believe that idea. It means that I think the idea is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Science is so important because it's a way to find truth, but the truth doesn't depend on it. Reality exists outside of humans. Religion does not.