Skeptical to the End

Leo Notenboom
3 min readDec 16, 2022
Pearly gates
(Image: canva.com)

Deity: Hello. Welcome. <spreads celestial “hands”>

me: uh … hi. Where am I?

Deity: What’s the last thing you remember?

me: Going to bed, I think. Yeah, that and a weird dream after I fell asleep. And then, all of a sudden, here.

Deity: uh huh.

me: Am I … ?

Deity: Are you …?

me: Am I … dead?

Deity: So it would seem, yes.

me: That means … wait! Are are you … God?!

Deity: Among other things, yes.

me: But that can’t be. I’m an atheist.

Deity: So I’ve seen. And yet, here we both are. Care to update your belief?

me: Shit. Does that mean I’m, you know, heading to <gestures downward>?

Deity: Nope. You and I wouldn’t be having this little chat if you were.

me: But, how’s that possible? I don’t … well, I suppose I didn’t … believe you existed. Doesn’t that mean eternal damnation or something like that? That’s what all the religious folks kept insisting.

Deity: Yes. Well. They’re wrong about that. Many are wrong about a lot of things. Their agenda frequently doesn’t align with mine, if you get my drift.

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Leo Notenboom

Former software engineer at Microsoft for 18 years, now sharing my passions, answering questions & helping folks with technology. askleo.com (since 2003)