“বুলশিট” নামের টিভি-অনুষ্ঠানে চাঁছা-ছোলা ভাষায় নানাবিধ ভুয়া বিশ্বাসের ভিত্তিহীনতা প্রমাণ করে খ্যাতি অর্জন করেছেন পেন জিলেট। যদিও একটি ছোট্ট এই ভিডিও দেখেই ভক্ত বনে গিয়েছি তাঁর। তিনি শোনাচ্ছেন, কীভাবে তিনি নাস্তিক্যবাদের পথে এলেন, এবং বাতলাচ্ছেন এ পথে আসার সহজতম উপায়।
And he (the pastor) sincerely wanted us to do some inquiry into theological questions and I took it very seriously. I may have been the only in the youth group that did take it seriously and I read the Bible cover-to-cover and I think that anyone who is thinking about maybe being an atheist… if you read the Bible or the Koran or the Torah cover-to-cover I believe you will emerge from that as an atheist. I mean, you can read “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins, you can read “God Is Not Great” by Hitchens… but the Bible itself, will turn you atheist faster than anything.
… what we get told about the Bible is a lot of picking and choosing, when you see, you know, Lot’s daughter gang raped and beaten, and the Lord being okay with that; when you actually read about Abraham being willing to kill his son, when you actually read that; when you read the insanity of the talking snake; when you read the hostility towards homosexuals, towards women, the celebration of slavery; when you read in context, that “thou shalt not kill” means only in your own tribe.
I mean, there’s no hint that it means humanity in general; that there’s no sense of a shared humanity, it’s all tribal; when you see a God that is jealous and insecure; when you see that there’s contradictions that show that it was clearly written hundreds of years after the supposed fact and full of contradictions.
And finally after — I don’t know, it’s so long ago—but after months of this platonic questioning every night at youth group, the minister called my mom and dad and said, “You know, I think maybe Penn should stop coming to youth group, he’s no longer learning about the Bible from me. He is now converting everyone in the class to atheism.”
And I remember being somebody in a religious—and not a religious community like wack jobs, but, you know, in a community where most everyone was Christian—having those people in interviews say the simple sentence “There is no God” meant the world to me and gave me joy and gave me passion and gave me love and gave me confidence. And I think the first time I was interviewed, as presumptuous as this seems—and please forgive me—I remembered Frank Zappa’s interviews. And I wanted to give a chance for someone else reading that to not feel they were alone. Now that’s less important now. I mean, the population of atheists in this country is going through the roof. I mean, I’m now on the side that’s winning.
It’s over 20 percent by some polls and I believe if you counted atheism as a religion it’s the fastest growing religion in the history of the United States of America. So now I’m on the team that’s winning which is an uncomfortable position for me. But back, you know, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, it still felt like it meant something, you know, it’s… we’re several years behind gay rights but we’re following a much faster path at acceptance.
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