wryan:

Penn Jillette’s overbearing arrogance on this subject makes my teeth feel like they’re dissolving in a vat of acid.

You don’t believe in God? That’s cool. Let’s not dismiss the beliefs of the vast majority of people on the planet as nonsense.

This does not, of course, excuse religious people who dismiss the beliefs of nonbelievers. If anything, faith and non-faith should be a dialogue, where both sides approach each other not with the idea of the other being completely and totally wrong, but with open minds, asking, What can I learn from this person?

Or, y’know, calling it “nonsense” will win over the people with whom you disagree. That works too, bro.

I was just going to leave this post as that picture and not get into this, but I feel this is something that I need to get into. 

Penn’s beliefs as well as my own are that religion is nonsense, something to be dismissed, because it is complete and utter nonsense. Which leaves us at an impasse, because my beliefs are the dismissal of your beliefs as complete nonsense, not much dialogue is going to come from that. Which is the problem with religious debates.

I also feel that there is nothing for me to learn from faith or religion except how horrible people can be in their beliefs.

That doesn’t mean however that I think that all religious teachings are worthless. I just feel that everything good that religion teaches is tainted and far outweighed by all the other teachings.  

wryan:

The first of several posters for the production of Macbeth I’m directing. Designed by the lovely Alli.