We should hold apologists to a high standard. Just as we should not too easily handout the labels of philosophers or theologians, we should be discerning with the apologist label. This may include a certain level of education, although there are very talented apologists that are self-taught. I am saying that we should expect apologists to be operating within a certain level of knowledge and skill. This last point is important. You can’t be an apologist if you are not doing apologetics. --Stephen Bedard
Penn Jillette, one half of the popular comedy double act, Penn and Teller, said this during an interview:
The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine.
Jillette is a well known atheist and his statement is an attempt to claim that it is the non-religious who have the moral high ground, atheists who are better people. Why? Because they’re good for the sake of goodness, unlike those terrible theists who are basically sexually rapacious psychopaths, only refraining from rape or murder because they believe that God is constantly watching them like a heavenly policeman. So, whom would you rather trust: the friendly atheist magician with the lovely smile, or the theist who is longing to start a land war in Asia and go pillaging and raping, only holding back because they’re afraid their Sky Daddy is watching them? --Andy Bannister
