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This Penn Believes

Sunday, 22 Jul 2007 at 6:38 pm

[Believing there is no God] 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. (This I Believe by Penn Jillette)

I heard this essay on NPR months ago and enjoyed Penn’s clear, straightforward explanation of humanism (even though he never uses that word). It’s a good Sunday sermon to remind me why it’s good to be godless.

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4 Comments

  1. Eric Robeck said,

    July 23, 2007 @ 4:10 pm

    That’s a fabulous essay. Penn encapsulates the freedom inherent in atheism — not the freedom from responsibility, but the freedom to think and love and live.

    Thanks for sharing!

  2. mel said,

    July 24, 2007 @ 8:48 pm

    Thanks, Jonathan!

    … to remind me why it’s good to be godless.

    And I feel compelled to share this gospel with all. I’m not kidding.

  3. Jonathan Blake said,

    July 24, 2007 @ 9:36 pm

    It’s funny how humanism inspires me to more missionary zeal than Mormonism ever did. Perhaps it’s because I came to humanism on my own.

  4. mel said,

    July 24, 2007 @ 10:16 pm

    And perhaps because deep-down you actually believe it based on profound and public evidence? There’s nothing better for courage in conviction than good old-fashioned hard evidence as opposed to spiritual “knowledge”.

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