No Coincidence

No Coincidence

Filed under Coolness

Mar 11

OK, I don’t usually go on and on about my spiritual beliefs, but I will say that I do believe there is a God and that things do happen for a reason. What God is, I’m still trying to figure out, but I’ve narrowed it down to two things: the energy that is like the duct tape that holds the universe together and the ‘Dude’ who is like an amazing chess player who is always 10 steps ahead of you no matter what choice you make. And I think Angels are all around us, both in the people we know and the entities we can’t see.

Anyway, this story made me smile. Here’s the skinny: A guy in Chicago is shoveling snow off his mother’s driveway when he feels chest pains. Does he call 911? Nope. Instead he figures since his chest is hurting and he’s feeling numbness in his jaw and arm, that it is a great time to discuss his wireless calling plan, so he calls AT&T. (It is interesting to note that this guy worked in an ER and was very familiar with the symptoms of a heart attack.)

*Holds tongue about the rant of why the hell don’t men go to the doctor…*

The gal at AT&T who answered the phone ended up calling 911 for him and saving his life. The doctors told the man that he had more than 90% of his heart blocked — how he even walked out the door without losing his breath is a feat in itself.

But ‘rest of the story’ is even better. The phone rep’s name: Kelly Hart. Like I said, there’s such thing as coincidence, and there *are* angels.

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4 Comments

4 Responses to “No Coincidence”

Penn said on March 11th, 2010 at 11:03 pm

This wasn’t to knock your belief in god, but i thought it was an interesting contrast to the assumption that she exists:

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 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
Heather said on March 11th, 2010 at 11:28 pm

Points well taken, Penn. I’m almost tempted to say “Amen”…HA!

I always hate telling people that I believe in a Divine being and angels because they automatically think “Oh, she’s a Christian” or “Oh, she’s religious.” Things could not be further (farther?) from the truth. I despise most religions and the dogma that goes with it.

The thing is, I haven’t really figured it all out. I just feel comfort from believing I’m part of a bigger plan, and yet, I also feel people cause their own heavens or hells here on earth.

I’ve always wondered if the milky way galaxy is just some alien kid’s science project that we’re a part of.

And I love this sentence

“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.”

Rock on Penn. Thanks for writing.
Penn said on March 12th, 2010 at 9:31 am

I love Jell-o..oh and sex…should really try the two together one day…
Heather said on March 12th, 2010 at 10:10 am

LOL!

One day? Why wait?