Posted on 11/27/2005 6:32:15 AM PST by machman
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.
Oh please! How is an earthquake, a tsunami, a flash flood, a force five hurrican the result of MAN'S inadequacies. I don't think so. Try again.
Where do you live? Here in the Deep South it's pretty common to credit God for good luck. Even on FR you come across this. This morning there was a thread about a little girl saving her father when a car collapsed on him. One of the first handful of posts mentioned "someone above must've been looking out for him."
One also cannot disprove the existence of God. Therefore believing there is no God is also an act of faith.
This is logic.
Most atheists are cop outs. Believing in God is hard, so they think by not believing in God is easy. In reality, most atheists believe in nothing, because that is what is easy. Not believing in God is hard. Get into a theological discussion with them, and watch them go into a tizzy trying to "disprove" God, with the classic lame arguments.
Then ask them: Can you prove God does not exist? When they say they can't, say: So your belief there is no God is an act of faith on your part.
God bless you machman. I was trying to recall the exact location of this wonderfful verse in the bible. do you know the one that says man's philosophy is flawed? thanks
Has to? No, there doesn't. Why does there have to be?
God did not grant you those rights either. They are inherent in the individual.
Think "New Orleans".
I believe that the Christian religion is very tolerant. This is demonstrated over and over again throughout the world by millions of Christians on a daily basis. Disagreeing with someone and stating facts of what one believes, even if that fact is very detrimental to another (e.g. personal sin separates one from God) is not intolerance. Wanting to separate your personal life from sin and possible influences is not intolerance. Just some quick thoughts ...
Yes with your soul.
What a bunch of crap. How the hell do you know?
For me, the atheist position was one I was forced to accept. I didn't want it. It was scary.
But I accepted it because it was the only logical thing I could do.
Ooops!
So, expanding one's knowledge of the world is now "typically liberal?" It's folks like you who give conservatism a bad name.
So, who is competing for my soul?
The Greek gods or the 300-plus Hindu gods?
Ever seen their show on Showtime called "B***S***"? I've only seen it a few times, but it is definately not a liberal program. They pick topics near and dear to a liberal's heart, and then thoroughly debunk the believe. Like global warming. They do a very nice job of it.
Is Penn Gillette somebody famous?
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