There is No God

I was driving up to HelLA this morning when I heard this wonderful essay by Penn Jillette as part of their "This I Believe" series, entitled "There is No God". Here's an excerpt:

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?"

I highly encourage you to read or listen to the entire essay by clicking the link above. I feel very much the same way that Penn does.

Random thoughts - Robertson, election results, and movies

This just in... Pat Robertson is still an idiot, as indicated by his recent statement on the 700 club:

I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city....

And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there.

In case you haven't been following the Dover story, the school board in Dover, Pennsylvania was packed by idiots that wanted to teach "Intelligent Design" in a High School Biology class. They were all up for re-election and they were all voted off the board in Tuesday's election.

Speaking of elections, San Diego elected another old white guy to replace the old white guy mayor that resigned in disgrace. I voted for Donna Frye, so I lost that one.

The nice thing about the election is that all those terrible initiatives were rejected by the state. I was particularly glad that Proposition 73 was voted down, but I'm also particularly disappointed that the majority of San Diego county continue to demonstrate their conservative-Christian/Republican leanings by voting for these things.

Finally, I'd like to mention that Kara and I have attended two sneak preview screenings in the last two weeks, and both movies were worth watching. First up was The Weather Man, starring Nicolas Cage as, well, a weatherman. Gore Verbinski was trying to make his American Beauty, but the result fell a bit short. The movie was entertaining, but nothing spectacular. One scene with a rambling, stream-of-consciousness narration of the private thoughts within the main characters head was probably the funniest scene in a while.

Then, we saw Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and it blew the other movie away (and pretty much everything else that has come out this year thus far). The movie stars Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer, and a Liv Tyler lookalike (Michelle Monaghan). I went into this movie knowing nothing about it, not even seeing the trailer, so I won't tell you anything about the story. I'll just tell you that it was hilarious and that I will buy it when it comes out on DVD.