Every Day is an Atheist Holiday, by Penn Jillette

A year ago, I posted a review of Penn Jilette's book God, No!  Jillette is back this year with more hilarious stories and more atheistic musings in his new book, Every Day is an Atheist Holiday!  As was the case in God, No!, Jillette continues to be thoughtful, funny, and honest, as well as profane and offensive.  The chapters use various holidays as a springboard for some of Jillette's stories.  And he does tell a good story.

Some of my favorites: A reflection on Father's Day, in which he laments that he "will never experience sending and receiving a Father's Day card on the same day."  He speaks lovingly of his parents, causing me to pause and be thankful for my own, as well as to reflect on my role as a father.  For Groundhog Day, he compares Bill Murray's experience in the movie Groundhog Day, in which he lives the day over and over, to the life of a performer, doing the same routine over and over, relishing in the fact that he gets to say and do something over and over, and for the audience they see and hear it for the first time.

I love Jillette's humility about show business.  At several places he acknowledges that show business is nothing compared to "real" jobs.  He would much rather spend hours and hours working on a movie set or perfecting a routine for his live show, than sit at a desk, answering to a boss he can't stand.  He tells the story of meeting Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine.  "I just kept looking him in the eyes and trying to imagine what it felt like to help save that many lives. . . . Doing card tricks for a living is stupid no matter who you're talking to, but look Jonas Salk in the eyes, and it seems everyone else is doing stupid card tricks for a living."

Every Day is mostly about telling stories.  Any fan of Penn and Teller will love hearing about their early days together and some of their experiences along the way.  But true to the title of the book, Jillette makes his case for atheism.  For Jillette, honesty and integrity rate high.  He just doesn't see much of those qualities in religious people he meets.  Not that he doesn't admire certain religious people: "I like the drag-priests and drag-nuns, and turban/beard guys, and yama yama Jews.  I like that they dress so that they can't back down from that part of who they are."  Jillette just doesn't see the need for God in his own life, and is far from convinced by any philosophical arguments in favor of the existence of God.

Jillette closes the book with some observations of his young son.  He sees his son's reasoning through behavioral decisions, and argues that children know morality isn't determined merely by someone's word.  "They understand that right and wrong are separate from authority."  His son learns to control his temper and refrain from hitting his sister "from the inside because it's the right thing to do.  That's morality outside god, and if there's morality without god, we don't need god for morality."  He acknowledges that religion may support morality, but that "some of the rules religion adds in, like kill gays and atheists, wear magic underwear, and don't eat certain stuff on certain days is not morality.  It's just nutty cult rules. . . . Morality is outside religion.  Morality is above religion."

I wonder if Jillette knows that he has hit on a classic argument for the existence of God.  The presence of similar moral codes across various religions can be seen as evidence for an ultimate source of morality (see C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man, for instance).  I feel certain that Jillette is familiar with the natural law argument, so it's curious that he doesn't mention it, if nothing else to debunk it.

This is a must-read for Penn and Teller fans.  Many readers will be offended by his foul language, his frank sexual descriptions, and his demeaning of religion.  But for the most part, Every Day is hilarious and highly entertaining.




Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy! 

I Sold My Soul on eBay, by Hemant Mehta

Now here's something you don't see every day.  In fact, I'm not sure I've ever seen it: a book by a professed atheist published by a Christian publisher.  WaterBrook Press stepped out into some interesting territory by publishing Hemant Mehta's I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing Faith Through an Atheist's Eyes.  Mehta, the self-described "friendly atheist," wants Christians to be better Christians, and wants churches to be better at representing Jesus and his teachings.  For I Sold My Soul, Mehta visits churches around the country and reports back here.

The premise for the book is rather amusing.  Mehta realized that although he was an atheist, he didn't have much exposure to Christianity.  He decided to explore the Christian faith, but wanted to document and share his experiences.  After hearing about eBay auctions of the grilled-cheese Virgin Mary, and the guy who auctioned off his forehead as advertising space, he thought  eBay would be the perfect venue.  He offered the auction winner the right to determine where Mehta would go to church; every $10 would get one hour in church.

The winning bidder, Jim Henderson, had long been paying atheists and other non-Christians to go to church, sort of like a secret shopper service for churches.  So Mehta's project was a great fit.  Henderson sent Mehta to churches around the country, a mix of large and small, famous and not-so-famous.  Mehta took extensive notes and records his experiences and critiques.

Many of Mehta's observations are quite humorous.  His book is helpful in that, as the subtitle suggests, we  can benefit from looking at our church culture through the eyes of a total outsider.  One Sunday he realizes that two churches he attended read the same verses of scripture.  The pastor explained the use of the common lectionary.  But what about the fact that both churches sang "Open the Eyes of My Heart"?  That's just a popular song, she explained.

Mehta's suggestions and reflections frequently reflect his ignorance about the church and biblical teaching, but he does offer some ideas worth considering.  To an atheist, the most important expression of church, as a social organization, is an impact in the community.  I don't agree, but I do agree that churches should have an impact on the community as an outpouring of the Spirit's work in them.  He thinks we sing too much, but we know that worship through song is integral to biblical worship.  On the other hand, he observed many who arrived late for church, missing the singing, or didn't participate in the singing, as if singing were just a warm-up for the "main event," the sermon.  That sort of rudeness irks him (and me, too, sometimes!).  He also says churches show "a lack of sensitivity to nonreligious people."  He's right, that we should always be seeking to build healthy relationships with people who are not Christians, and we should have civil dialogue with those with whom we disagree, but I think the exclusive claims of Christianity will be offensive to any who are not Christians.

There are some good nuggets of truth in Mehta's book, which can help us to be more effective in reaching unbelievers, but Mehta's writing calls out for a response.  At many points, he expresses his perplexity at some point to which any Christian could bring clarity.  I hope someone filled him in on what he was missing.  From an entertaining premise (hiring oneself out for worship attendance) to a worthy goal (helping churches become better churches), Mehta can help you become more aware of how you relate to that stranger in the next pew.

For more info, including an excerpt, visit the publisher's site.