There is no God.. by Penn Gillette

topic posted Mon, November 21, 2005 - 7:33 PM by  bunny
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Maybe you caught this on KCRW today - if not, here it is in words. Audio file available on KCRW.org
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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.
posted by:
bunny
Los Angeles
  • Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette

    Tue, November 22, 2005 - 9:09 AM
    Yup. I absolutely agree...
    • Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette

      Thu, February 9, 2006 - 9:31 PM
      > Yup. I absolutely agree...

      Not me. I reserve the right to believe in family, sex, Jell-O (possibly all in the same wading pool,) AND imaginary friends for grownups. I read this pretty good sci-fi novel about a first-contact situation. A ship landed near a natural histroy museum, and the aliens wanted to talk to a scientist. (It was a while ago, I forget the title & most of the details.) The inneresting part was that these technologically advanced, very rational aliens believed in what we might call "intelligent design," and they had a lot of pretty persuasive data to support the idea. (Basically, the extrordinarily finely tuned balance of forces that resulted in habitable environments, and that if you mucked with Planck's Constant or gravity or the strong or weak nuclear forces just a wee bit, you'd get porridge instead of solar systems.)

      I ain't arguing for the existence of a God, I'm just sayin' that I prefer to believe that all things are possible. And of course, in an infinite universe, must exist somewhere. That's kind of why I prefer to self-identify as "agnostic" rather than "atheist." I have agnosia, and I know it.

      Convictions make convicts! Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours! Eris is one hot piece of ass, yo! Word!
      • Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette

        Fri, February 10, 2006 - 6:06 AM
        Agnosmia, huh? How does it feel.
        I'm an Anosmiac, myself.
        What a difference a letter makes.


        • Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette

          Sat, February 11, 2006 - 4:03 AM
          > I'm an Anosmiac, myself.

          So, are you Yakko, Wakko, or Dot? Is there baloney in your slacks?
          • Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette

            Sat, February 11, 2006 - 4:36 PM
            Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
            • Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette

              Mon, February 13, 2006 - 4:50 PM
              I think so Brain, but where are we going to find a tutu that will fit you?

              I have friends who call themselves "Anti-Theists".

              I guess I fall into the Undecided category. Incomplete data.
              Some things would seem to indicate some sort of Intelligent Design, yet there is also convincing evidence that natural and cosmic forces/laws could create all of this by chance.
              I doubt definite proof either way will show up in my lifetime - but I could be wrong.

              I do have to say that the Biblical version of things is a bit hard to swallow. Even the Spaghetti Monster story is kinda suspect, you know?

              I dunno - I'm open to the possibilities, and since it doesn't really matter all that much to me personally how it All came to be, I'm content to remain Undecided.

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