I'm Sorry, Penn

Some people just get mad everytime they hear an atheist voice his/her opinion. A Christian will read it, say something about what the world is coming to, and then move on angrily digging deeper into his/her hole which shelters from reality. It's sad.

Christians, look at what we've done:

"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."

The preceding is a quote from Penn Jillette (the Penn of Penn and Teller). Apparently he has become disenfranchised with the materialistic, leprechaun-like, future-weaving view Christians now have of God. If I were God (a subjunctive which I know will never change), I would be quite angry at this farcical idea, and I'm sure He is.

Multi-million dollar buildings, preachers making $100k+/yr., arena-sized "sanctuaries." It really seems like we, as American Christians, have really looked at God as this love-all, bless-all softy. "I've done this, but God will bless me," or "I know this is wrong, but God can't reject his own." I promise this - He won't reject His own (for actions do determine that category), nor does he hand out millions of dollars. In fact, the only time Christ ever performed a money miracle was to prove to a preacher that he, in fact, should pay taxes!

More of Mr. Jillette...

"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."

Perhaps we should hire atheists to be the full-time preachers instead of the crap we get now. I heard an entire lesson, one of those goofy holiday ones, on all the things the minister was thankful for in his life. It was like a thirty minute greeting card without anything funny at the end! There's more in the above paragraph than in the majority of the sermons I have heard in life! I mean, I'm the first one to be quite thankful for grace, but what if we didn't have it? What if we began to live as if our every action was the deciding factor - heaven or hell? That sounds a little extreme, doesn't it? I don't think so. I think grace was/is there for people who think like that. It is a miserable crutch.

"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."

If you haven't heard the sermon you needed to hear by now, then I don't have much faith in your ability to continue with this blog.

It's so true! We are so enamored with this romantic idea of "in the world - not of it" that we have put off the odor that we are no longer in touch with reality! I know some of you probably wear that trophy like a Star of David (or a scarlet "A"), but you need to know that that is quite scary. If you can't prove your "street-cred'" to the average unbelievers, then you may as well not say anything to them at all. The faith-blanket was never meant to cover laziness.

It's a good thing to be open-minded! Learning is your friend. If the world was so horrible, then why did he spend 5.9 days on it and .1 on man?!

"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."

And again - we have proven ourselves to have missed it again! Our incessant exodus from each other IS NOT APPEALING! I think some of us really believe that every unpleasant situation in which we are found is the direct result of our divine drill sergeant's regimen of examination. I have to give some of the blame to the preachers again. Firstly, it goes to us for our sloth-ridden practices which give God all the sowing and reaping tasks while expecting Him to generously deliver the harvested stock in which we may decandently drown in surplus. But, the preachers have forgotten the reality of hell! They don't preach, write, or even speak on it anymore. You can even go to the "Christian" section in a bookstore and find ridiculous titles like Your Best Life Now by the motivational speaker in disguise, Joel Osteen. It's all about making audiences feel like this hamster wheel really does move forward even if everything looks the same no matter how long you stay on it. If we don't hear about hell, then we're not so worried about going there. And, if we're not worried about it, then we are incapable of giving a rip about whether or not someone else goes. So what do we do? We attempt to cover it all up and accept everything as being the result of a test God is sending instead of an attack by the landlord of hell - SATAN. Why? Because this way we don't have to be bothered with the extra burden of maintaining healthy relationships.

Mr. Jillette, while I do not agree with you, I am quite sorry that you have had to endure such Christians. I promise that these people aren't the example of Christianity because they have not read. They have simply accepted what was given to them, and their attention spans couldn't even hang out long enough to get all of that.

(For Penn Jillette's entire article please click here.)