Penn Jillette, everyone's favorite Cato Institute fellow, wrote an Op-Ed for NPR's little touchy-feely "This I Believe" segment. Usually it's about how some grandma learned to trust young people again after a firefighter saved her fuzzy cat, or how finding a seashell on the beach reminded some Midwesterner about the hugeness of the world. Blech.

But this one is actually quite amusing. Usually, they make the individual state a declarative sentence of belief. So here goes:

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?

...

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.

What two words might those be? Oh, yeah.

Read the entire post here.