Penn Jillette on his atheist libertarianism

Massachusetts native Penn Jillette is one of the more prominent libertarians in America known for something other than being a libertarian: he's the talking half of the Las Vegas based magician duo known as Penn & Teller. His recent post on CNN.com explains why he is atheist but more importantly a libertarian.

What makes me libertarian is what makes me an atheist -- I don't know. If I don't know, I don't believe. I don't know exactly how we got here, and I don't think anyone else does, either. We have some of the pieces of the puzzle and we'll get more, but I'm not going to use faith to fill in the gaps. I'm not going to believe things that TV hosts state without proof. I'll wait for real evidence and then I'll believe.

And I don't think anyone really knows how to help everyone. I don't even know what's best for me. Take my uncertainty about what's best for me and multiply that by every combination of the over 300 million people in the United States and I have no idea what the government should do.

The driving force of the piece is this appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight.

Jillette has done as much as any entertainer in America to spread the ideas of libertarianism. His show on Showtime, BS, tackled libertarian pet topics like "family values", gun control, taxation, the War on Drugs, recycling, and popular subjects like NASA, sex, stress, and lawn care. BS just completed its tenth and final season. Look for another Penn & Teller project that is sprinkled with libertarianism to pop up on the Discovery Channel this fall.