There Is No God
By: Penn Jillette

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.


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.”

Independently produced for NPR's Morning Edition by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with Emily Botein and Viki Merrick. Photo by Nubar Alexanian.

This I Believe, Inc.

Thanks for sharing.

That is pretty much how I feel... and it still works within my agnostic view.

I'm not an atheist. Now what?

Why just one god?

Yup. I think there is more weight behind the atheists logic/argument but I still maintain the stance that a God (or Gods) to be possible. Neither the theist nor the atheist is in the position to know the answer to the question of God if we are defining said God as omnipotent, all-powerful, etc.

Did you research empirical and a priori truths?

a priori -• adjective & adverb based on theoretical reasoning rather than actual observation.

empirical - adjective based on observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.

As has been stated previously, belief in God may not be proven scientifically and requires a step of faith.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

If you go through life hoping to find a logical, scientific basis for the existence of God you might be in for a big shock when you die

Well, he has some good points. I like the way this guys thinks most of the time, and I LOVE the show "Bullshit" that Penn and Teller do.

However, much of this is a typical protest against the typical strawmen of what faith in God is.

But, he's welcome to his opinon.

I am somewhere between an Atheist and a Deist, and I follow the teachings of the Dharma.

I believe that there is no such thing as an all powerful being, and that there is no one central deity...