http://bigthink.com<br /><br />It can be tough, especially with young kids, because people understand atheism so poorly.<br /><br />Check out the rest of Penn Jillette's interview at http://bigthink.com/pennjillette.<br /><br />Question: As an atheist, how do you raise a family in a <br />society that seems to condemn atheism? Penn Jillette: <br /> Well with the kids it's really tough. Just the other day my daughter <br />just turned five, you know, she was playing with her cousins and one of <br />the cousins came to my wife and said, "Moxie said God is mean." <br />Moxie.... that's my daughter did not say "God is mean." She said, "There <br /> is not God." One of the older children said, "Oh my God." And she said, <br /> "You shouldn't say that because there is no God." She's cobbled <br />together "You shouldn't say that" from school with "There is no God" <br />from us. And it's really hard. I think it's really tough because people <br />understand atheism so poorly.I mean, the number of people that <br />say is atheism Satanism still is remarkable. I mean, atheism is as far <br />from Satanism as you can get. Christianity is close to Satanism. At <br />least they, some of them think they're Satan. Atheism couldn't be <br />further away. <br />It's a little hard and I think that I am very sympathetic to people who <br />are surrounded by Christian people - religious people, I'm sorry, <br />surrounded by religious people, theists, and have to be a little more <br />closeted. You know, I don't believe in... I mean, I believe the parallel <br /> to gay rights is exactly the same. I don't want to out anyone, you <br />know, against their will. I don't even think it's immoral to be quiet <br />about it. It's just not in my makeup to be quiet about it but my <br />sympathy. <br />I just spent—I'm not going to go into it too much because it's very <br />personal—but I just spent a wonderful dinner with there men who were <br />Hasidic Jews, payos, the clothes, English was not their first language, <br />although they were born in Brooklyn. Never read a book in English until <br />they were 25 years old. And completely within this religious <br />community—their wives, their children, the extended families. And they <br />had become atheists, and were talking to me about how they were losing <br />their whole community and their whole families. And I think they <br />expected me to say, I think maybe they even wanted me to say, "Well suck <br /> it up there's no God, do what's right." And that was as far from my <br />feelings as possible.I said, "Oh man, you love your children. <br />You love your family, you've got to keep loving 'em. And you got to make <br /> a lot of concessions for 'em. And I'm just glad I'm not going through <br />it." And I think that's my answer to someone who says they're having a <br />hard time. "I'm glad I'm not going through it." You know, my mom was an <br />atheist at the end of her life. My dad died a Christian and I loved him <br />with every part of my heart and I would never have let religion get in <br />the way. Fortunately he felt the same way. <br />Recorded on June 8, 2010 <br />Interviewed by Paul Hoffman
