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.
That response is indeed one way to avoid thinking it through. Do you do that a lot?
Dan
What do you think the "intelligent design" fiasco is all about? It's an attempt to wedge the "proof" of God into science classes, and then into all the rest of public education. The Discovery Institute wrote a plan for that very thing called the "Wedge Document", and they have proceeded to implement that plan. Google it.
Pick one, they're all the same.
If you are claiming that your God 'smote' the Gulf for some specific reason, I'd love to hear what it is.
Student: but there is no God
Teacher: do you know everything there is to know?
S: well...no
t: lets say for the benefit of argument that you do know half of everything there is to know, could it be possible that God exists in the half that you don't know?
Hallmark cards are the high point of his universe?
Penn Jillette is great, he has his beliefs and stands by them. Whether people here like that fact or not, too bad.
He is a very talented performer and a funny guy and I respect that he has his opinion, and thank God we live in a country that allows him to have such an opinion. I'll take a million Penn Jillettes over one Taliban fundamentalist any day.
Most of the atheists of my acquaintance are simply indifferent and don't give concepts of whether there is or is not a God much thought.
I have found that no matter what certainty I arrive at in my thinking it is invariably followed by the question ...."are you sure?"
Therefore I have concluded that thinking in itself is not all that certain, and may be quite limited. Im not sure though.
God did not grant you those rights either. They are inherent in the individual.
Correct. Yours to concede or retain.
Ah...nothing like a little "Moral Relativism" to make one feel Superior to those poor saps who are "trapped" into one morality!
Gee...so which is wrong....Love Thy Neighbor" or "Kill The Infidels"? Must we be sooooo judgemental? Can't we all just have no real moral compass and just drift from situation to situation like a good little braindeal LIEberal? Why is ANYTHING I do wrong...and who says?
Yeesh!
And this is why I disagree with Rush Limbaugh...we cannot leave ANY LIEberals around at all...they are like a virus with shifting Antigens...if you have the chance to eradicate them, do it!
How about, "I played 'em as I saw 'em."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.