Here is an essay by Penn
Jillette (Pen & Teller)
entitled, "There Is No God"
(http://www.npr.org/templates
/story/story.php?storyId=5015
557).
Morning Edition, November 21,
2005 ยท
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.
I've always admired Penn &
Teller and I can dig what
he's sayin'here but I think
his argument is vague and
confusing. Penn is notorious
for his pranks so I guess you
have to take this for what
it's worth. Let's have a
critical examination of this
essay because this is the Guard Against Santana Proliferation blog and the sole purpose is to substantiate artistic freedom and protest the dull, conformist, commercial world of Santanaganda with satire and humor.
Penn states, "Not believing
in God is easy -- you can't
prove a negative".
OK a better way of putting
this would be to say THERE
ARE NO ABSOLUTES. God may or
may not exist and there may
or may not be an elephant in
my car. PLEASE REFER TO THE
HITCH HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE
GALAXY for further analogies
of probability.
As far as proving a
'negative' I'm not sure how
to interpret this. But
consider the following:
If red is not blue and blue is not red and at least one balloon is bluethen not all balloons are red
This is called inductive
reasoning where a conclusion
can be drawn from several
facts. The statement 'not all
balloons are red' is a
negative statement at least
in syntax.
Next, Penn says that in order
to seek existence of God we
must wipe the slate clean.
"Anyone with a love for the
truth outside of herself..."
What Penn is basically saying
is that in order to find the
path to enlightnment we must
first shed the skin of all
that has been learned thus
far.
"She needs to search for some
objective evidence of a
supernatural power."
I am pretty sure that Santa
Claus doesn't exist but I
can't say 100% because I
can't prove it. Not one lung
cancer death can be directly
associated with smoking
cigarettes but common sense
tells us it is bad for our
health. I don't need
objective evidence to live my
life, to believe or
disbelieve. So what is Penn's
deal anyways?
"I have love, blue skies,
rainbows and Hallmark cards,
and that has to be enough."
"It seems just rude to beg
the invisible for more."
I get the feeling that Penn
is being a little satirical
but he raises a good point:
Why do we need to question
the existence of God? Why
can't we simply live our
lives and enjoy fruits of
nature?
Ever thought about the
possiblity of going
"unrecognized"? What if your
entire life every good deed,
every clever utterance, everyfunny joke went completely
unnoticed, well we'd feel
pretty miserable. Penn's
argument is that he is so
humble and happy with the
moment that to him-- he's
already in heaven.
But the study and celebration
of a higher power provides
our restless brains with
fortification because we are
sentient mortals and we
desperately need structure
and discipline to combat the
chaos and anonymity of
nature.
Religion or spirituality
colors our lives with
familiar places reassuring us
that we are not alone and we
are part of a greater whole.
You may think that a flower
is beautiful. Your friend's
may think that it is
beautiful but does IT know
it's beautiful?
We can't truly own anything
because we don't have the
reassurance or the objective
evidence that whatever object
of materialism recognizes our
existence. Therefore we must
organize a pretense in order
to establish precedence.
"Believing there's no God
stops me from being
solipsistic."
Had to look this one up in
the dictionary. Ok and I'm
out of time so we'll have to
finish this disussion after
Christmas.
Merry Christmas everyone...
be on the lookout for Santana
Claus!
Jillette (Pen & Teller)
entitled, "There Is No God"
(http://www.npr.org/templates
/story/story.php?storyId=5015
557).
Morning Edition, November 21,
2005 ยท
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.
I've always admired Penn &
Teller and I can dig what
he's sayin'here but I think
his argument is vague and
confusing. Penn is notorious
for his pranks so I guess you
have to take this for what
it's worth. Let's have a
critical examination of this
essay because this is the Guard Against Santana Proliferation blog and the sole purpose is to substantiate artistic freedom and protest the dull, conformist, commercial world of Santanaganda with satire and humor.
Penn states, "Not believing
in God is easy -- you can't
prove a negative".
OK a better way of putting
this would be to say THERE
ARE NO ABSOLUTES. God may or
may not exist and there may
or may not be an elephant in
my car. PLEASE REFER TO THE
HITCH HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE
GALAXY for further analogies
of probability.
As far as proving a
'negative' I'm not sure how
to interpret this. But
consider the following:
If red is not blue and blue is not red and at least one balloon is bluethen not all balloons are red
This is called inductive
reasoning where a conclusion
can be drawn from several
facts. The statement 'not all
balloons are red' is a
negative statement at least
in syntax.
Next, Penn says that in order
to seek existence of God we
must wipe the slate clean.
"Anyone with a love for the
truth outside of herself..."
What Penn is basically saying
is that in order to find the
path to enlightnment we must
first shed the skin of all
that has been learned thus
far.
"She needs to search for some
objective evidence of a
supernatural power."
I am pretty sure that Santa
Claus doesn't exist but I
can't say 100% because I
can't prove it. Not one lung
cancer death can be directly
associated with smoking
cigarettes but common sense
tells us it is bad for our
health. I don't need
objective evidence to live my
life, to believe or
disbelieve. So what is Penn's
deal anyways?
"I have love, blue skies,
rainbows and Hallmark cards,
and that has to be enough."
"It seems just rude to beg
the invisible for more."
I get the feeling that Penn
is being a little satirical
but he raises a good point:
Why do we need to question
the existence of God? Why
can't we simply live our
lives and enjoy fruits of
nature?
Ever thought about the
possiblity of going
"unrecognized"? What if your
entire life every good deed,
every clever utterance, everyfunny joke went completely
unnoticed, well we'd feel
pretty miserable. Penn's
argument is that he is so
humble and happy with the
moment that to him-- he's
already in heaven.
But the study and celebration
of a higher power provides
our restless brains with
fortification because we are
sentient mortals and we
desperately need structure
and discipline to combat the
chaos and anonymity of
nature.
Religion or spirituality
colors our lives with
familiar places reassuring us
that we are not alone and we
are part of a greater whole.
You may think that a flower
is beautiful. Your friend's
may think that it is
beautiful but does IT know
it's beautiful?
We can't truly own anything
because we don't have the
reassurance or the objective
evidence that whatever object
of materialism recognizes our
existence. Therefore we must
organize a pretense in order
to establish precedence.
"Believing there's no God
stops me from being
solipsistic."
Had to look this one up in
the dictionary. Ok and I'm
out of time so we'll have to
finish this disussion after
Christmas.
Merry Christmas everyone...
be on the lookout for Santana
Claus!
posted by swif at 10:21 AM
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