I was IMing with Ginger today (technically yesterday) and she was intrigued by a palm reading she’d gotten from someone, and asked me what I thought about it. I replied that I’d once had a reading by a deeply committed (and she should have been) woman who said erroneously that a major illness or injury would happen to me at age 27 (I’m not even sure I got a sinus infection that winter), and that my life line “wasn’t good” and implied that, basically, I’d be dead now.

With the exception of any lingering religiosity or belief that Mannheim Steamroller is anything but Muzak, there is little dead about me.

Ginger was disappointed, and wondered what, if anything, she could believe in–to which I replied,

“Gravity. It works every time.”

That’s right, folks. Science gets it wrong occasionally, but existence is never wrong–and science is the only way you’ll ever get close to understanding it. Think about it. Gravity works even when you’re not looking. If you don’t think you believe in it, compare the reaction of anybody in the world when something heavy is dropped above them. It doesn’t matter your religious belief, sexual orientation, color, gender, or feelings about the tastiness of broccoli (ugh). Everybody who has a functioning nervous system and motor control will attempt to ward it off.

Compare that to any magic incantation, prayer, curse, invocation, charm, or chant. Even people who don’t believe reality exists will show their belief when it looks like gravity is giving them the blunt end of a heavy object.