Penn Jillette' Most Powerful Arguments Against Religion 

For me, the son of a baptist minister, it was the talking snake in Sunday school at 8 years old. I'm 80 now, never needed it, never missed it.

Penn, thank you so much for this. You have put my thoughts into words.

Religion, the oldest magic trick that we all know how it works but people still fall for it.

I love this!

It's wonderful to see all the lights, city decor, bakery specials, music, and family shopping at Christmas time. every year, I just stroll, admiring what people can do in a whimsical winter season. Just focusing on bright holiday scenery is what helps me say to myself, "this year was worth it all, and I'll keep improving into the next." We work hard, and yet the restful holidays is where we all come together- a peace on earth truly.

My Dude, PJ preachin facts! 💪✊️✌️💯

I've been thinking like this since I was 10 years old, I'm 53 now, so thank you. It is validating to others who have similar ideas/thinking✊️🤙🤘✌️🖖

If a god exists, it needs no human to speak for it! If a god exists, it does not need a book to explain itself!

Pen is a prime example of an honest and thoughtful human being to say the very least, more people should follow his path. Love it!

Penn Jillette is a living legend. He spouts truth.

Everyone is born atheist. Religion has to be taught. Atheism doesn't have to be taught.

Logic and facts these are the best arguments

When the "Penn" is the "Teller". If one took the Christ out of Christmas all that is left is "mas". However, "mas" is Spanish for "more".

My punishment for dying in sin is eternal conscious torment. If Jesus took upon himself my punishment, then why is he not now in eternal conscious torment?

Penn is spot on!

There are 3 options regarding the possible existence of God: 1) There is an all powerful God who chooses to allow unimaginable suffering to be inflicted on good and decent people. 2) There is a kind and loving God, but despite what we have been told he's not really all that powerful and therefore kind of useless. 3) There is no God. I am very confident in my choice of option 3. I would love for someone to explain to me that there are any other options.

Lets reclaim the December 25th festival and celebrate it as the return of light. symbolizing knowledge and enlightenment.

superstition - noun 1a: a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation b: an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature, or God resulting from superstition 2: a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary Merriam-Webster

I love this channel. I was wondering if you could create a video in regards to why religious place don't pay taxes taxes in America. I think the deficit of this country would probably be solved in a couple years if they were able to pay into the country that they reside in.

Some say facts and logic don't win people over. Some say a good story wins people over. Yes, in the past when ignorance reigned supreme that was true. But what facts and logic do is keep chipping away, like a sculptor at work.

" I do not take cognizance of anything I cannot check. " -Ayn Rand-

WE ALL KNOW the most powerful argument,,, and its gradeschool level... "There is no physical Proof" ... Yes, we have heard that one once or twice. thanks for the education

👍👍👍

Very well said. Some people seek out offense which seems a little snowflakey to me.

There is a time when everybody comes together. It’s called Halloween.

04:25 The subtitles should read "Martin Luther King was a REVEREND" and not IRREVERENT.

I, too, became an atheist by actually reading the bible. I had a minister father and I was placed in Seminary Education at a very young age. I was a voracious reader, in general, and had to read the scriptures front to back many times over. Simultaneously, I also read many books on philosophy and science which is where the issues came about. I had the wherewithal to recognize the massive number of contradictions, inconsistancies, and truly horrendous ideas being presented as the "word of God". They just didn't comport with reality and science. My personal bibles had many dogears, highlights, and bookmarks with notes on them to denote my many issues with these problematic statements and ideals. The more I spoke to my father about the issues I had found, the more angry and violent he became. He was not big on answers, but very big on "beating the devil out of you" instead. He had relinquished his critical thinking skills long before he had any children, so it was a pointless battle getting him realize how much garbage was in there. It was all true no matter what and you didn't dare question it, so I did my best to keep my mouth shut. It was a rough childhood, but he died when I was 15. I had been a secret atheist for some time already by then, so I was suddenly free to live my life without religion. It was SO much better and intellectually honest to me. I celebrate the people who have also been able to free their minds of it, as well. 🤘

The main difference between believers and non-believers. is that believers will not allow non-believers to not believe. They have a special place for them when the Messiah returns.

Honestly i grew up in multiple religious communities because i moved alot growing up and my family was very religious. Alot of the worst,corrupt and most selfish people i have ever met are religious. And im a ex gang member. So ive met some pretty bad people

The silly thing about Christmas is that it is much older than Christianity. Putting a tree inside buildings, especially temples, goes back to the ancient Sumerians. They did it as a symbol of rebirth at the summer solstice. Gift giving was a Roman practice. They had two holidays around the summer solstice. The most famous was the Saturnalia. At this time people were expected to express good will. A master was expected to serve his slaves for a day, for example, and gift giving was normal. When the Christians took power they tried to eliminate all older celebrations, but they could never stamp out gift giving, good will, and trees. People liked them, so during the medieval period they added the birth of Christ story to it, even though the gospel stories imply that the birth was in spring, but don’t give a date. Thus they co-opted a pagan celebration as their own and renamed it. It would be nice to remove the Christian BS from a holiday that existed from ancient times for better reasons.

Every theist posting here comes across as if it were written by a five year old.

When you suddenly realize that god hasn’t been sending you letters or called you on the phone or answered your phone calls, you simply end the subscription. I live in a country -Sweden - where we take religion more seriously and maybe therefore can leave religion without much trauma, like I often hear Americans cannot (without trauma that is). If reading the bible is boring, The Friendly Atheist have read parts of the bible (Genocide…. I mean Genesis and the next book .. Numbers or whatever) and Dark Matter 2525 have also done some reading showing the absurdity of the hollow book.

I don’t have the stats to prove this, but looking at the USA from Europe (I’m Dutch) I certainly don’t get the feeling that the group of atheists in the US is growing. On the contrary. When I see what happens at this moment in the USA with the election and what an unbelievable non ethical bully like Trump can do to create an image, despite his low standards in basically everything, of being Christ on earth who will ‘help’ the people of the USA (very specific, don’t you think?) and how many people are willing to even accept him as the saviour. I mean, we don’t know the outcome yet, but when you look at the electorate and the polls that say how close of a battle this will be, only because he presents himself as someone he’s clearly not, a devoted Christian, backed up mainly by so called Christians…. I’m afraid atheists still have an extremely long road to go. 😞

Nice video montage. Remember: you do not choose what you believe. You really don’t, and once you realize that then you are ready to see life like Penn. (disagree? Fine. Choose to believe Zeus is God. Renounce all other Gods. You cannot? Right. Bc you don’t choose what you believe. You also happened to be born into the one true religion. Lucky you)

IMHO it wasn't abortion. It was the loss of privilege. When the courts said, "You can't proselytize as a representative of the state. You can't discriminate nor show favoritism on the basis of religion." some saw it as an attack on their faith. How dare the courts not elevate their faith above all others. That's what we're seeing today, conservative Christians claiming to be the victim whenever they're not given special rights to force their religion on others.

That means he must believe that everything made itself -- a scientific and logical impossibility. If he is allowed to believe impossible things then he is in no position to criticise the beliefs of others.

Worst is that Baptist and evangelicals going overseas on conversion programs.

He's speaking on organized religon, not the concept of a hgher power. I agree that religion does more harm than good. The concept of a higher power is neutral at worst and can be a positive factor in someone's life.

It's kind of funny that a "something popped into existence out of nothing" person is talking about "imaginary friends."

Dude, please turn off the stupid captions, they are so inaccurate. MLK was a reverend, he wasn't irreverent. That's a massive difference.

These atheist echochambers are quite odd

The moment I understood that my Christian faith could not rescue (save) me. According to my denomination’s doctrine, unconfessed sin is unforgiven sin. An unforgiven sin earns you eternal damnation. “The wages of sin is death.” During church, there was always communal confession of all sins including sins of omission and unknown sins. One fine Sunday as I rose from the Lord’s Supper, it occurred to me that at that precise moment, I might have committed one of those sins of ignorance, a sin omission or an unknown sin. How would I know? So if Jesus were to suddenly appear at that moment “as a thief in the night,” I would be doomed to hellfire, and rightfully so! After all, God is a jealous god and full of wrath. He demands justice and retribution for sin. I had to face it; a camel has better chance to pass through the eye of a needle than I had of being saved by my omniscient, loving god. Conclusion? I’ll be damned!

Atheism starts at birth.

If there really was a God why would he make his only son a carpenter….could have any job in the world

The Bible commanded men to cut off their wives hands for touching their balls during a fight. That alone is disgusting but the verse also instructs you not to show mercy to her. Think about how absolutely evil that is. The idiot who wrote that knew that a normal person might feel guilty for maiming his wife, so he needed to add the part about not showing her mercy.

I would suggest what Penn suggests that one should read the Bible. However, start with the gospels. This sets the proper context of the rest of the bible. He is wrong about taking hope away and love away. It demonstrates what true love is. It is the unselfish and self sacrificing desire to meet the needs of the person you love. It gives hope and not only hope, but actual possession of eternal life. He gets the part where God makes people suffer is a mistake. He may allow suffering, but he doesn't make them suffer. Everyone experiences some suffering in this life. One can take it two ways. It can crush their spirit or it can build character and virtue. So, hardships and suffering can actually build certain unused muscles in human beings. It also provides opportunities for others to build character and virtue by helping those who suffer to alleviate their suffering and thus practice the action that comes as a result of unselfish and self sacrificing desire to meet the needs of those we love. It increases the love for our neighbor, all this suffering.

Do it on the 'creators' dime.

I wonder if believers think that Santa Claus was based on the Christian god? If not, there's a suspicious amount of similarity between Santa Claus and God. Santa Claus was surely created to encourage kids to behave better. Father Christmas: If you behave yourself during the year, you get rewarded with toys. If you're naughty, you get a lump of coal. God: If you behave yourself while alive, you get rewarded with eternal paradise. If you don't, you get hell.

i waited 11 minutes in vain..

Ok. If no random process creates digital information, where does the information which controls living organisms come from? If there are 16+ quarks and numerous particles andforces which must interact with tolerances of 1 part in 10^8, where does thd precision come from? If you are dxplaining moral principles to children, do you give them sociology, or stories with metaphor? And, if your kids watch you denigrate the "fairy story folk" who are too stupid to not hear the nonsense they are saying and believing in, are you teachiing them to see all people as individuals who deserve relationship, love, compassion, rather than feeling superior and lumping them into a class of "deserve to be looked down upon and ignored"?

Hell is real. He'll find out.

PJ isn't making a lot of sense to me. He would love to take the Christ out of Christmas? I would love to take the Christmas out of existence. A seasonal get-together of friends and family? Let's just have a seasonal get-together of friends and family, if we enjoy that sort of thing. Wasting energy, water, and labor, and good farmland, on cultivating "Christmas trees"? Then just dumping the wood in a landfill at the end of the Christmas season? Wouldn't it be better to put that land, water, energy, labor, to productive use growing food crops? And make new friends and serve that food to our new friends? No Christ, no Christmas, no Christmas tree, no Santa Claus, no flying reindeer. None of that ridiculous stuff that comes from pre-Christian times, that comes from pagan "celebrations."

Even though you want to criticize the Bible, and as a Christian, or someone who was brought up in a Christian-majority society, do not conflate Jewish Scripture with the New Testament. Jewish Scripture (what Christians call "Old Testament") was written for Jews and Jews alone. Concepts such as the Sabbath, mixing wool and linen, are part of Jewish law and apply to Jews only, so someone who is not Jewish should not bother to concern himself with such things. Unlike Christianity and Islam, Judaism does not seek to convert the world. Don't like the dietary guidelines of the "Old Testament" (Jewish Scripture)? If you're not Jewish, then ignore them; they are not meant for you. Instead, look to the New Testament, which is not of Jewish origin, is hostile to both the Jewish people and the Jewish religion, and promotes a concept of God that alien to Judaism. If, as an atheist, you take pot shots at Judaism, and its litrature, but don't criticize any other religion, then your issue is not atheism, but anti-semitism.

Yes , God in the past cared a lot more about humanity than today ...God is very strict but that's why his Kingdom is strong and devoid of corruption , stoning a person bcoz of work on Sabbath was about the rules , when a person cares more about his own rules and not God rules he/she can not be in the system of God . When God 'cared' and tried to show you how it is in Heaven where everyone cares to follow the rules bcoz the punishments are harsh for a reason ...unlike you godless people of today... that only create anarchy in the world with your weak leadership and it is paradise for the criminals today . If God cared like HE did in the past all these criminals would be very rare to see . Also when in the past humanity became too corrupt and uncontrollable God had to do a hard reset , to save the obedient and to get rid of evil doers . He may be soon doing another 'reset' with today fallen world . I hope HE does that very soon .

These are not good arguments.

Arguments against religion are not arguments against God. Atheism is a logical fallacy that assumes God is the religious idea of the creator of the creation to conclude wrongly no creator exists because a particular idea of God doesn’t exist. Atheism is a logical fallacy that assumes God is "sky daddy" to conclude wrongly no creator exists because a particular idea of God doesn’t exist. How well informed humanity have you? The truth that will open your eyes is the Second World War and the Holocaust nazi happened after Spinoza discovered centuries ago the nature of God. God exists because logically it is impossible the existence of the creation or finitude without the creator or infinitude. Do atheists platforms explain the kalam cosmological argument? What has a beginning of existence has a cause because from nothing can not be created something. Logically it is impossible the existence of an infinite number of causes, therefore an eternal first uncaused cause that created what has a beginning of existence must exist. Did you understand why God exists? God exists because not all reality can be created or have a beginning of existence. I challenge you to understand why the most emblematic remark of atheism is "who created god?", that means "who created what is not created?". To end the war the discovery that atheism is a logical fallacy has to be news. Emergency! To overcome a censorship the information that is prohibited has to be shared to be known. Thank you.

what is he talking about? i thought we were already doing "holiday" instead of "christmas." schools used to have christmas break. now it's winter break. christ has pretty much already been taken out of the christmas season. so i don't know what he's talking about. and who is not welcoming atheists into their stores during christmas time to make a buck off of them? are they checking "deist cards" before they're allowed to enter? again, what is this guy talking about? are these clips from the 70's? and who's having prayer meetings on his dime? what does this even mean? ps i am not a christian. christianity has never made a lick of sense to me.

Matter cannot create itself. Therefore, the existence of God is a logical and scientific necessity. If you would like to accept Jesus as your Savior please pray the following prayer "Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins and surrender my life. Wash me clean. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That he died on the cross for my sins and rose again on the third day for my Victory, I believe that in my heart and make confession with my mouth, that Jesus is my Savior and Lord."

I’m not an atheist. Yes the book has issues and isn’t real, but that doesn’t mean that there is no God.

He should have kept reading past Levitacus. There's allot to it. Funny thing is science is starting to actually provide evidence for God. It's not too late. Get to know Jesus . Not in fear, but in love.

Wrong.

But without Christ in Christmas ( since Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus the Messiah ), how would people know about Jesus and what He has done for them .Jesus loves them too and they need to know about this great Love .

They say: If God exists, why is there so much suffering in the world? But if God does not exist, why are they so angry with Him?

The historical Jesus is not easy to ignore say what you like He is still there

Penn, if you were to stand before God, a morally perfect God, what do you think He would say to you? Have you not told lies and stolen? If so, do you think God should allow lying thieves into heaven? Would He not prepare a place for you outside of heaven, lest perfect morality becomes contaminated with lying and stealing? Moreover, you would wind up in the same place with the people of Noah's day. It is said that their thoughts were only 'evil continually.' So, you complain that God took their lives, yet imagine being in hell with really, really violent people for all eternity. Happy now? Christ died on a Cross so that lying thieves might know the goodness of God. Jesus Christ is the light of the world.

Nice Carlinesk ending . Thou shall keep thy religion to thyself.

Wow, nick picking parts of the bible. To get to him you must go through Jesus Christ, simple. You must have faith and belief, if not you dead inside. All the people throughout time have in one or the other, believed in a God. All these people are wrong? It's like saying you don't like Elvis? But millions loved him. Dumb smucks.

Penn Jillette talks about hope and love. Atheist have no hope and their love is just chemical. Flee from these people they have nothing for you but worms. Dont try and fool people with cheap tricks. You've been fooled Jillette.