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Penn Gillette-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.
4 posters
Is believing in God a crutch?
chi_solas- Admin/Forum Promoter
thehungrycaterpillar- Member
Hi,
I am OK with the above post.
In fact this person's ideas seems infinitely better than people who are fanatic about their gods or that only their gods are the best!
Penn does not have a concept of God but still wants to be a good human being. That's all matters to me!
I would have a problem if Penn went around trashing other people's gods but it does not seem like that in the above post.
I don't know what other beliefs Penn has. ....
But the above post seems harmless to me.
I am OK with the above post.
In fact this person's ideas seems infinitely better than people who are fanatic about their gods or that only their gods are the best!
Penn does not have a concept of God but still wants to be a good human being. That's all matters to me!
I would have a problem if Penn went around trashing other people's gods but it does not seem like that in the above post.
I don't know what other beliefs Penn has. ....
But the above post seems harmless to me.
Dragonfly- Forum Promoter
People are entitled to believe what they want to believe.
I think the idea that God is an "omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us" is a very limited view. Certainly if you read the Old Testament, that's the impression that many people are left with. Somehow we managed to anthropomorphize God as having human characteristics (the desire to help or need to provoke a certain response.) If we stopped thinking that God owes us something or that God should/shouldn't be doing things, we'd be able to develop a deeper personal understanding of the force that God is and how that fits into our lives.
But like I said, people are entitled to believe what they want to believe.
I think the idea that God is an "omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us" is a very limited view. Certainly if you read the Old Testament, that's the impression that many people are left with. Somehow we managed to anthropomorphize God as having human characteristics (the desire to help or need to provoke a certain response.) If we stopped thinking that God owes us something or that God should/shouldn't be doing things, we'd be able to develop a deeper personal understanding of the force that God is and how that fits into our lives.
But like I said, people are entitled to believe what they want to believe.
Milarepa- Forum Founder
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.
I see this a lot on certain kinds of anti-religion forums i frequent. As has been said, he's entitled to his view, so am i, hehe,
. He makes the mistake of believing that if there was no belief in God, the above wouldn't happen. Reality check though,
...Humanity fight, kills, maims, over absolutely anything. If it wasn't religion it'd be something else, in fact, it is something else. We fight over soccer, politics, race, even the next door neighbours wife. God isn't the problem, religion isn't the problem, humanity is the problem.
Our problem stems from a socio-psychological standing, and God/religion is but one small portion of many things that humans use an excuse for violence, etc. We cannot, and should not, try to use a concept as God, or religion as the cause of problems. As we're using excuses for our behanviour. It is humanity that does the above quote, and has doen the same in race & politics. It's as absurd as suggesting we do away with those also.
If i kill someone now, and say it's in the name of God, it's because i'm bad. If i kill in the name of my favourite football team, it's not Chelsea's fault, it's mine.
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.
Hard to comment on a guy who is obviously speaking form personal expereince. However, in general, if one was to edcuate themselves, and perhaps try to expereince the divine on their own terms, as opposed to anyone else's, it's possible the above things would be enriched by the creative force.
I experience the creative force under the concept of Reiki, and the small experience of God has enriched the above things for me, and indeed rubbed of on the folks around me.
We're blessed by the creative forces' favour, every single time we use Reiki.
It's curious, he said he'd make this life the best he ever had. Implying he may have more than one, i find that interesting, when set alongside his opinion of the divine.
Take care
Wayne
chi_solas- Admin/Forum Promoter
The writer sure gives a lot of food for thought.
He is a free thinker, I just found this .......
http://www.pennfans.net/view/Video_A...by_Glenn_Beck/
He is a free thinker, I just found this .......
http://www.pennfans.net/view/Video_A...by_Glenn_Beck/