Atheists tend to get a bit of a bad rap online, mostly due to the fact a small, but vocal minority of them spend a considerable amount of time being smug, arrogant shitheads on the internet for no apparent reason. Penn Jillette isn’t one of those kinds of atheists, but his car might be.
You see, next to known eater of dicks Richard Dawkins, Penn Jillette is probably one of the individuals online atheists love to quote due to his habit of making, what could be perceived to be, incendiary comments about religion. Which they then love to turn into memes, like this …
While it’s certainly true that Jillette is a very proud and vocal atheist and has been nearly his entire life since he was kicked out of a youth group for asking questions about the factual accuracy of the Bible, he’s made it clear that he would never actively belittle someone’s faith. In fact, one of Jillette’s most prized possessions is a copy of the Bible sent to him by a fan because he believes the gift was an earnest gesture of goodwill. In other words, Jillette isn’t a dick about his beliefs.
This contrasts slightly with the online atheism movement which loves to quote him so much which has variously been described as unwelcoming and casually misogynistic. The latter of which could hardly be used to describe Jillette considering he invented a hot tub with a special jet in it designed solely to give women an orgasm.
This all said, Jillette has been known to push the envelope with his beliefs for the purpose of prompting reasoned debate. A notable example of this is the time he posted a video openly denying the existence of a God (an unforgivable sin according to some Christians) as part of a dramatically less fun online challenge than the one where you poured ice water over your head and balls.
More amusingly Jillette also bought several custom license plates for his numerous cars expressing his (lack of) faith. Along with one that reads, unsurprisingly, “Atheist” Jillette also owns one that read “Godless”. According to the magician, he originally applied for a license plate that read “Infidel“, which would have no doubt resulted in his car being on the receiving end of what we can only imagine would have been an ungodly amount shotgun blasts from people assuming his car was linked to ISIS somehow because they recognised the word from FOX news. Unsurprisingly, the DMV turned down Jillette’s request, forcing him to instead apply for one reading “No God” which we can’t imagine would sit well with like 50% of Texas but hey, that’s his problem.
