It's Magic,
Man
(It's late. Need sleep. I'll let Mr. Jillette do all the
talking for me today. =mike=)
Penn
Jillette: "What I believe."
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.
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