There is no term for someone who doesn't believe Elvis is still alive. That's what Sam Harris said today during an in-depth discussion on Al Franken's show. What's wrong, Harris asks, with the term "common sense"? Why does non-belief have to be defined in believers' terms?

My non-belief is not absolute. I have no idea what lies behind the mysteries of life and death but I am not compelled to fill that empty space with a personal god. If there is an omnipotent entity that is responsible for creation and destruction, being and non-being, and space and matter, I think the concept of a personal god trivializes it beyond all possible recognition.

Believers often accuse non-believers of wanting to usurp God's power. They condemn secular humanism as devoid of morality because it is not divinely inspired. But IMO nothing usurps divine power in a more irrational, embarrassing and downright arrogant way than belief in an anthropomorphic god. Our brains are so puny, infused with hormones and other biological influences that color and limit our perception of reality (whatever that is). What an insult to omnipotence to define it in terms that we can understand.