This I believe...

This was sent by a friend...

Here is the text of a very intriguing essay in the
"This I Believe" series on NPR (a series of short
essays on core beliefs written by people from many
walks of life; recent airings have included Walter
Cronkite and neurosurgeon Ben Carson.) This one aired
today, by Penn Gillette of the magic duo "Penn and
Teller" (Penn is the talkative one). >

Text:
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.

- Penn Gillette for "This I Believe" (NPR)