[Mb-civic] There is no God by Penn Jillette

[Jef Bek]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5015557

There is No God

 by Penn Jillette 
 
 
Morning Edition, November 21, 2005

I believe that there is no God. I'm beyond Atheism. Atheism is not believing
in God. Not believing in God is easy -- you can't prove a negative, so
there's no work to do. You can't prove that there isn't an elephant inside
the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding
before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of
the word "elephant" includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare
tire?

So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no
belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to search for
some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write
e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The Atheism part
is easy.

But, this "This I Believe" thing seems to demand something more personal,
some leap of faith that helps one see life's big picture, some rules to live
by. So, I'm saying, "This I believe: I believe there is no God."

Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I'm not greedy.
I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be
enough. It has to be enough, but it's everything in the world and everything
in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for
more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I'm raising
now is enough that I don't need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I
get joy every day.

Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness
and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I
have to try to treat people right the first time around.

Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas
from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can
agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong. We can all keep
adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don't travel in circles where
people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can
say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to
say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all
obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was brought up and my imaginary
friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do." So, believing
there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm
learning something.

Believing there is no God means the suffering I've seen in my family, and
indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient,
omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing
us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the
future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people,
love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o and all the other things I can prove and
that make this life the best life I will ever have.