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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.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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.
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Mon, November 21, 2005 - 9:04 PMFabulous
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Tue, November 22, 2005 - 9:09 AMYup. I absolutely agree... -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Tue, November 22, 2005 - 9:30 AM...and actually the link if you want to read / archive / listen in on NPR.org - From the series "I Believe..."
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Tue, November 22, 2005 - 12:27 PMyeah - I've caught a couple of those. Good stuff.
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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! -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Fri, February 10, 2006 - 6:06 AMAgnosmia, huh? How does it feel.
I'm an Anosmiac, myself.
What a difference a letter makes.
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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? -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Sat, February 11, 2006 - 9:21 AMOMG, I so want to watch that now!
I'm gonna be singing their songs on my bulldozer all day, I know it!
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Sat, February 11, 2006 - 4:36 PMAre you thinking what I'm thinking? -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Mon, February 13, 2006 - 4:50 PMI 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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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Tue, February 14, 2006 - 6:29 PM> Incomplete data.
So, I guess you could call that an agnostic state. Gnosis=knowledge, so agnosis=without knowledge.
> it doesn't really matter all that much to me personally how it All came to be
Yeah, there is that.
Narf! -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 6:23 PMI tend to believe that the human mind is so miniscule compared to how big the Frickin' universe is that we can't help but think that something Must Have created it all, when in reality the universe IS SO Frickin' big, and SO Frickin' old, that every Frickin' possibility and combination are available out in that Big Frickin' universe out there somewhere and we Just Happen To Be Aware of enough of it to get worried about it...
"It's a Great Big Universe and we're all really puny....!"
P.S. Sorry about using the F word.. -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 6:30 PMYep. Just so.
But that doesn't there couldn't be something. In and infinite 'verse Everything is Probable. -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 7:05 PM...Exactly my point...
I think, therefore I ascribe Great Gouts Of Power and Anthropomorphism to that which is beyond my comprehension... -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 7:10 PMChristian is my god.
Karl is my devil.
Or sometimes vice versa - depends on the situation and what they are trying to get me into.
Or out of. -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 8:31 PMKarl is the devil.
Good thing I like red. -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 8:47 PMI would have to run pretty fast to get far enough ahead of you to tempt you into anything. J- is much more fertile ground.
but if you need to keep in practice.... -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 8:56 PMSometimes the devil's job is not to coerce, but to stand on the sidelines applauding... -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 8:58 PMWell, I'm close I often stand on the sidelines drooling. (before falling asleep) -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 9:01 PMSo - if Chris is goad and karl is the devil (or vice versa), who are the rest of us? -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 9:07 PMPrawns!! I mean.. pawns!
We are but mere pawns in their litlle games - at least they think so.
We secretly (ok not so secretly) hold the strings.
We know how to get them where we want them.
mwah-ha-ha-ah -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 9:09 PMYes, the old wag-the-dog scenario. -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 9:15 PMI don't plant thoughts, I read minds.
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 9:48 PMI am quite aware of the position of the Devil's house in the Celestial Hierarchy,.
Below the bottom.
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 9:08 PMChris is goat? What!? Is this an example of Karl planting his thoughts upon you?
he-he
Back to the bar - I need more Amaretto! -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 9:55 PMLOL. Between the goats and the prawns I think we have a whole new religion here! -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 10:27 PMI was at a Mexican restaurant recently - where you can order both Prawns and Goat from the menu.
Not in the same dish, of course.
It was near karl's workplace - anyone interested in a field trip for experimental Mexican food? -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Thu, March 2, 2006 - 11:04 PMSorry, I gave up goat for lent.
Bummer. -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Mon, March 6, 2006 - 7:09 PMGiving up the goat...Sorta like giving up the ghost only...Better for you?
...By the way, go back and look! The word was goad instead of God. And, yes, I can be a goad...
I tend to push people where they wanted to go anyway.... :) -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Tue, March 7, 2006 - 10:32 AMGoad = bad influence that turns out to be a good influence? Good , Bad - it's all in your point of view! -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Wed, December 27, 2006 - 4:24 PMI wandered by here by accident - i was wondering if there was a relationship between the inability to smell and uncertainty about God - and I was just tickled by how civil you all were/are, so I thought I'd tell you about another online community where most everyone is civil (I swear to Big Bird) and there are no ads. www.zaadz.com
But as long as I'm here....
....Suppose that Big Bird came to me and said "I be". Just for the sake of argument. On account of I'm just human, I'd still be left uncertain as to whether I had met The Bird or had had a psychotic episode. But I might think about it enough to see the logic in having faith. -
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Re: There is no God.. by Penn Gillette
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 8:52 AMWell I'll be damned! Anosmia inspired Agnostisism, it very well could be true.
Back in my wild youth, I was indeed an Atheist (note the capital letter "A"), but somewhere along the line it occurred to me that the Atheistic belief system requires a leap of faith of the same magnitude as all the other "theisms".
Where does that tie in to a diminished sense of smell? All of my life I have been confronted with people declaring their unshakable belief in something that I can't hear, see or feel. They are adamant in their insistence that it exist and I am confronted by evidence of its reality every day. To me, people detecting an odor looks a lot like a manifestation of a psychic power. "Science" tells me that it is perfectly reasonable to believe that my wife can tell I was in a strip bar by having a small number of molecules of cigarette smoke and cheap perfume jump onto my clothes, ride home with me, and them jump off of me and run up her nose where special sensors can analyze them.
Why wouldn't I think *anything* has some probability of being real?
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