Subtitled “Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales”
(Simon & Schuster, August 2011, 231pp)
This is an odd book that is superficially about religion and atheism and the author’s own version of a “ten commandments,” but is more about the author himself, entertainingly so, than a serious theological treatise.
Jillette (that’ 2 Ls, 2 Ts) is the talking half of the magician duo Penn & Teller, whose current show, Fool Us, we catch on Friday evenings if our dinner schedule permits. And we saw them once, at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, where their show is filmed, 20 some years ago. I like them, or at least Penn, the one who talks, because he doesn’t take himself serious, he’s funny, and he wants you to understand that magic is just tricks. He contrasts himself with some other magicians who want to spook you into believing that something supernatural is going on. At their Rio show, the pair ends by performing an elaborate magic trick and then showing you exactly how they did it. Which is as much fun to see as the actual trick.
Jillette is also known, via a couple books, as being an unabashed atheist, in a self-deprecating way. All in good fun. This book is his answer to an invitation to create an atheist Ten Commandments. He does so, with a lot of stories and rambling along the way.
