Penn Jillette: There is No God.

[The Giant-Size Man Thing]

NPR's "This I Believe" Essays. This particular one was done by Penn Jillette, of Penn and Teller.

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.

It really sums up what I think is true. It's kind of a nice way of looking at life, when you think about it. Make life the best it can be now, be kind to other people, listen to other people. It's not about the higher-power or the afterlife. It's about living in the here and now.

[Kensai]

commander said:

NPR's "This I Believe" Essays. This particular one was done by Penn Jillette, of Penn and Teller.

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.

It really sums up what I think is true. It's kind of a nice way of looking at life, when you think about it. Make life the best it can be now, be kind to other people, listen to other people. It's not about the higher-power or the afterlife. It's about living in the here and now.

All that you jsut said is summed up in the golden rule: Love others, as you love yourself. Of course, Everyone seems to forget this. It's human nature to be indifferant. That's the problem. It's not religion, or anything like that, but we as humans who incessiantly ask ourselves "What's in it for me?"

[The Giant-Size Man Thing]

I hate to think that's the case, but it probably is. I'd like to think that it's just a cultural thing that humans are greedy, self-centered assholes, but it could be an inherent flaw. But it could easily be fixed. What religion does is just give incentive. Ooh, afterlife is good if you do good, so do good. If you do bad you get bad afterlife so don't do bad. It's just that a person shouldn't have to use that as an excuse to do good. They should just do good, and people can decide to do good without a reward. Many people do. Why can't the rest of us?

[Kensai]

commander said:

I hate to think that's the case, but it probably is. I'd like to think that it's just a cultural thing that humans are greedy, self-centered assholes, but it could be an inherent flaw. But it could easily be fixed. What religion does is just give incentive. Ooh, afterlife is good if you do good, so do good. If you do bad you get bad afterlife so don't do bad. It's just that a person shouldn't have to use that as an excuse to do good. They should just do good, and people can decide to do good without a reward. Many people do. Why can't the rest of us?

WE're always told to live for the moment, to please yourself. No one is ever told that you can find fufilment in helping that person who's car broke down, or givinng that legless vet the $5 for a Bic Mac. It all comes down to what you choose. You can choose to help, or choose to live for the moment. Your call.

[The Giant-Size Man Thing]

Then that's a culture problem. We should be teaching and telling people to help one another for fulfillment, not to do everything just for ourselves.

[Xtermo]

Yeah, but that kind of thing is terrible for capitalism... The Western world would never stand for it.

[The Giant-Size Man Thing]

What? Being kind to people is bad for capitalism? I know that's sarcasm, but I bet that is how a lot of people feel about it. One of the big ideas is let the charities and churches handle it, but where do the charities and churches get their volunteers and money in the first place?

[Xtermo]

Actually, I was being a lot more serious than perhaps you think. Seriously, man- prosperity doesn't sell. In order to sell, there must be a need, and if everything's all awesome and sunshiney already, no one will waste the effort.

So we create the fear that if you don't spend money, the economy will fail and you'll be poor. We tell people that if they're not good to other people, they won't get a good seat in the hereafter. We tell people that who they are is inadiquate, and that they'll either have to change or get fucked up the ass with a razor-dildo.

And, of course, to a certain degree we really are completely inadiquate. But I think there has to come a point at which people will have to stop all this stupidity and say, "You know what? I'm fucked up. I can admit it. But I really don't give a shit because you guys are all fucked up too."

Otherwise, the stick up America's ass will grow so big, it'll grow into and pop our collective brain and make us act like idiots, with kids running around blowing each other away, having entire subcultures that say, "Everyone else is wrong and they're all against us," and a government that's more worried about toppling dictators they don't like (nevermind the fact that we put them into power or that there are dozens of other equally evil men in power in less interesting places we won't touch) than the prosperity of their own people, and an economic bubble on the brink of being burst, because there are people elsewhere who are willing to take American jobs for less, because they consider themselves lucky to have a paying job as opposed to becoming a little crybaby shit when the government stops paying their rent and doesn't set the minimum wage of employment at $500 / hour plus benefits like they wish. Oh wait...

If everyone would just be kind to one another instead of looking out for #1, MS wouldn't be turning a several thousand % profit on each license of most of the products they sell. If people would be reasonable to one another, maybe that poor black family in the ghetto would get some help from their neighbors, instead of just being afraid they'll get shot by them. If loving one another were human nature, really there'd be no need for swelling capitalism and a strong government because people would have each other's backs and fucking with one person would mean fucking with the world. But honestly, humanity survives for now by looking out for #1, so anything else is just idealism. There will always be somebody to mess things up for everyone else because mankind has always lusted after power and prosperous times breed the power-hungry. (Of course, so do times of desperation- but the kind and extent of power is different in that situation.)

Really, God and the Church is a small part of this all... It's just another thing to be afraid of for most people who claim to be involved. And personally, I think that if you're involved in the Church out of that fear, you're probably only adding to the list of assholes that have evolved it in an insane direction over the span of the last 1900 years. Believe or don't believe. That's totally your call. But don't believe because some guy scared you into it in between the other guys who scared you into buying a new car (How else could you impress the ladies, after all? You're a total loser! Without our awesome new gigantic truck, they'd never notice an idiot like you.) and the one who scares you into thinking that you can't possibly live on the money you have now, so we'd better protest. (Nevermind the fact that even if you're only making minimum wage, you're still in the top 20th percentile of wealth in the world. Oh, that's right- you have to afford that truck and pay the Church for your ticket to Heaven, too. You really do need a $2 an hour raise to keep up with that and your current expences. Nevermind. Forget I said anything.)