Three Men in a Theological Tub!

O.K. kids, gather round. This is going to be like a Chinese dinner, you pick just one from either column A. - B. - or C. and that's what we judge you on!

Winner gets a nice prize and the losers are beaten with a wet noodle.

Now, it's not the Butcher the Baker or the Candlestick maker.

It's an Atheist, an Agnostic Kid and a full blown, educated, Creationist Asshole.

(Well, to be educated and still hold the views that he does, he can't be normal! Right?)

A.
Guest Contributor: Penn Jillette
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Country: United States of America


Allan, there Is no God. Period.

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.”

Now I have to say that I respect Penn and Teller and also enjoy watching their T.V. show "Bullshit" but that doesn't mean I agree with him about the atheist part.

As I have said many times before I can't imagine a Universe this wondrous and majestic just appearing out of thin air so I have to go with a "First Cause!"

I must also admit that after that (First Cause) things do get sort of fuzzy!

B.
Dewee!
Pretty smart for a kid, eh!

C.
Walt Brown received a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow.

He has taught college courses in physics, mathematics, and computer science. Brown is a retired full colonel (Air Force), West Point graduate, and former Army ranger and paratrooper.

Assignments during his 21 years in the military included: Director of Benet Research, Development, and Engineering Laboratories in Albany, New York; tenured associate professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy; and Chief of Science and Technology Studies at the Air War College.

For much of his life, Walt Brown was an evolutionist, but after many years of study, he became convinced of the scientific validity of creation and a global flood.

Since retiring from the military in 1980, Dr. Brown has been the Director of the Center for Scientific Creation and has worked full time in research, writing, and speaking on origins.

He lectures on such diverse topics as how the Great Flood carved out the Grand Canyon, why Evolution is a conspiracy by Darwinists and how Creation Science is the only true explanation for the origin of the universe.

As I said at the top, I cannot in any way shape or form understand how an educated man with a scientific background could be so far out in left field and still appear to be normal.

I don't know about you, but I would have to go with the kid in the middle from the T.V. show "Malcolm in the Middle!"

He makes the most sense to me! But then again, don't just take my word about anything you read here! I'm getting to the point where my mind not only wanders - sometimes it leaves completely!

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 at www.God-101.com

You can run, but you can't hide!

There is a site called " Religious Tolerance " that gives a fair and unbiased view of all the major World Religions and I find them quite refreshing to read since they offer many different theological points of view.

I have on occasion written a few essays and pieces for them over the past year and apparently this put me on the radar for a dedicated group of missionaries that now seem determined to bring me around to their way of thinking.

The best I can figure is that since I am a self professed Agnostic and not an outright Atheist they feel that a barrage of biblical quotes and twisted logic will bring me around to their point of view.

(The woman I talked about a few days ago is one of them!)

They didn't complain when I talked about the Muslims or the Hindu's or whatever, but as soon as I questioned their core beliefs (The Divinity of Jesus, etc.) they were on me like a pack of hounds.

(It's the old story that you can run down somebody else's faith but don't dare question mine!)

There are now three, and sometimes four of them writing me in rotation and it will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

Hope I can put a stop to it all without getting too obnoxious but you never know!

Will keep you informed.

Your "Friend in Jesus" scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 at www.God-101.com

The Religious Spectrum.

We got yer basic Fundamentalists. Then thar's a bunch in between until ya git down to yer hard-core Atheist. Everyone's in there somewhere!

Personally I'm more of an Agnostic, but this video says a lot!


Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at www.God-101.com

How's That Again?

We know a couple where the guy is an atheist, his wife is Jewish and their son is Jewish.

Their son just married a girl who is a Muslim, her Dad is a Muslim, and her Mother just converted to Christianity.

So, they are all going to the parents of the bride's place to celebrate Christmas this year!


Also, none of them believe in the Easter Bunny, or in putting all your eggs into one basket!

Your secular scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Oh for God's Sake!

Dr. Richard Dawkins has been one of the leading proponents of the atheistic point of view and according to some articles I have read he is slowly starting to preach atheism with the same feverous zeal that is displayed by some evangelical religious adherents.

He started off slowly with his first book "The Selfish Gene" back in the seventies, but has been gathering up momentum recently in his quest to disprove the existence of God.

He describes his astonishment that, at the start of the 21st century, religious faith is gaining ground in the face of rational, scientific truth.

Science based on scepticism, investigation and evidence must continuously test its own concepts and claims.

Faith, by definition, defies evidence: It is untested and unshakeable, and is therefore in direct contradiction with science.

In addition, though religions preach morality, peace and hope, Dawkins says; "They bring intolerance, violence and destruction. The growth of extreme fundamentalism in so many religions across the world not only endangers humanity but, is in conflict with the trend over thousands of years of history for humanity to progress –to become more enlightened and more tolerant."

In his latest book "The God Delusion" he has a few comments that I would like to expound upon, and a few that I would like to refute!

Consciousness is the biggest puzzle facing biology, neurobiology, computational studies and evolutionary biology. It is a very, very big problem. I don't know the answer. Nobody knows the answer.

I think one day we probably will know the answer. But even if science doesn't know the answer, I return to the question, what on earth makes you think that religion will?

Just because science so far has failed to explain something, such as consciousness, to say it follows that the facile, pathetic explanations which religion has produced somehow by default must win the argument is really quite ridiculous.

Nobody has an explanation for consciousness. That should be a spur to work harder and try to understand it. Not to give up and just say, "Oh well, it must be a soul."

That doesn't mean anything. It doesn't explain anything. You've said absolutely nothing when you've said that.

Now, Dr. Dawkins is right when he states that we don't know the answer to conciousness, but I believe he is dead wrong in saying that a religious explanation has no merit. (This in spite of the fact that I have absolutely no use for any mainstream religion whether it be Christianity, Islam or Buddhism. They are just interpretations of the Divine that are flawed by human agendas and purposes!)

We cannot look upon this marvelous Universe without some degree of awe and wonder. The notion that all of creation is only a matter of chance and random luck would be as big a fallacy as as making proclamations of blind faith to a belief system that was thought up by some fast talking shaman.

We have to look upon conciousness as our link with the Divine - since this seems to be the root of its purpose. We are living in the here and now of this Universe and although we have some empirical evidence of other planes of existence they are by their very nature beyond our ken.

This by no means precludes their own reality in a way that is not verifiable by us and this is where conciousness could play a role. It might be a link with other realities and this allows us to make conjectures about their validity.

From the book: "The Plain Truth About God-101" (what the church doesn't want you to know!)

The gulf between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom is so great because of our unique outlook and appreciation of existence! (Conciousness)

As far as we know, not even the great apes, dolphins, whales, dogs, cats, or any other living thing, has ever given even the slightest thought to our reason for being here!

You will never hear fido say to you, "What's it all about - Alfie.”

People, on the other hand, spend an inordinate amount of time and effort on the question of purpose. So much so, that it seems to influence almost every aspect of not only our lives, but everything around us.

We might see flashes of pseudo-cognizance in fido's eyes every now and then, but I can tell you for sure that fido and his buddies do not sit around and discuss the merits of art or literature!

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at; www.God-101.com
And the petition to have people mind their own business instead of yours at; http://www.petitiononline.com/moses/petition.html