i believe…
 |
Penn Jillette is the taller, louder half of the magic and comedy act Penn and Teller. He is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and has lectured at Oxford and MIT. Penn has co-authored three best-selling books and is executive producer of the documentary film The Aristocrats. |
In this editorial article found on NPR’s wesite,Penn Jillette announces “This I believe: I believe there is no God.” He then goes on to tell us why he believes there is no God. I think that I am a bright fellow, not especially smart but enough to see through colander arguments (arguments that do not hold water). Penn continues to pronounce that,
“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.”
I have read this over and over again and I cannot figure out what he means… it is as though he thinks that being nice and thoughtful to people is the way to happiness. Penn also goes on to say that believing in God leads him to be less solipsistic or the theory that only the self exists or can be proven to exist. He says,
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.
If none of us believe in a God, Penn states we can all agree on reality… What is reality then the one we live were all cultures and people are shaped by their beliefs in God or gods… This is the one common denominator in all cultures… Only since the scientific driven modern age has this view of Atheism really taken root, a beleif that was soon uprooted by the failings of science to answer all the questions of life. We now stand at a crossroads where the hope in science has failed and the hope in God has been refused. So what have we? Penn has his family, and his self-made life, full of love, rainbows, and hallmark cards. We are now falling into the age of self-diety where all we need is around us to make us a God of our own universe… which leads us to want to help others…?
What I believe is the Love of the Creator, who not only knit me together in my mother’s womb, but knew my name and called me his own. Penn leads us to believe that belief in God leads to suffering and conflict, but this was not the intent of the message of Jesus - who preached a revelutionary nessage of love. This love sent him to the cross, and this love will send those who believe to the cross… we must die daily to live a life of love, for loving is not easy nor does it come natural. It is the conquest of the heart to defeat the nature of the flesh -which is the antithesis of love: hatred, jealousy, wrath, envy, et cetera.
I hope that Penn will soon find that the belief in no God is no belief at all, but rather a justification that his way is the best way…
…and man did what was best in his own eyes.” - Dueteronomy 12:8
