1. Comment #131562 by Matt7895 on February 22, 2008 at 3:04 pm

Darwin was one of the greatest minds this country has produced, I definitely agree with that.

I think he made a very good point about questioning too. As soon as you start to honestly question your faith and the world around you, atheism is the obvious and logical result.

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2. Comment #131563 by HourglassMemory on February 22, 2008 at 3:06 pm

It's a nice little essay by Ricky Gervais.
It's nice to see a famous person talking about his experience with religion and atheism.

It would be great if this was a sort of series of small essays written by famous people, the first being Ricky. who knows, the second one could be Jodie Foster.
But this is just me dreaming around.

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3. Comment #131564 by AllanW on February 22, 2008 at 3:12 pm

Nice little humorous article with an important point to it.

Good on yer Gervais.

I love the idea that other celebs could do the same thing.

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4. Comment #131572 by Kerry M on February 22, 2008 at 3:34 pm

Is he having a laugh?

(Extras joke)

Ricky is refreshingly pro-reason/ science, even when he is hilariously (and sympathetically) illustrating how foolish and and un-reasonable we humans can be.

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5. Comment #131582 by JD Cherry on February 22, 2008 at 3:57 pm

Ricky Gervais is a comic genius. I think it's a good point that children are inquisitive enough that such a simple question as "Why?" would lead to a torrent of other ones.

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6. Comment #131586 by Bruno on February 22, 2008 at 4:04 pm

Did this appear in an American magazine? If so, which one? Or did it run in a British magazine? Or did I miss something?

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7. Comment #131588 by Nails on February 22, 2008 at 4:08 pm

Ricky has a few clips on youtube, including onw here he blatently taks the mickey out of genesis.

Worth a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yixAOfyAXoY

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8. Comment #131589 by Friend Giskard on February 22, 2008 at 4:09 pm

75% of Americans are God-fearing Christians; 75% of prisoners are God-fearing Christians. 10% of Americans are atheists; 0.2% of prisoners are atheists.

This is only because we atheists are too smart to get caught. [evil laugh]

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9. Comment #131595 by Tosser on February 22, 2008 at 4:20 pm

I no longer needed a reason for my existence, just a reason to live. And imagination, free will, love, humor, fun, music, sports, beer, and pizza are all good enough reasons for living.

We could just keep that quote and discard all that's been written on atheist morality and values.

Gervais is brilliant. The Office. Extras. And, if you haven't checked it out, his podcast with his co-writer, Steve Merchant, and Karl Pilkington, the world's most fascinating man.

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10. Comment #131602 by artemisa on February 22, 2008 at 4:46 pm

NIce, honest, and sincere article.

I'm not sure I agree with him in evolution being a result of chance. From what I know mutation happens by chance but selection does not. If I'm wrong I'd enjoy being corrected. In addition he believes in freewill, and being a determinist, it doesn't make sense to me. I know most people believe in having free will, so I don't expect most people to agree with me.

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11. Comment #131605 by corduroy11 on February 22, 2008 at 4:57 pm

Ricky Gervais: my hero!

Seriously, his comedy changed my life. The guy is a genius, a brilliant, down-to-earth, hilarious genius.

He was on The Hour last night (Canadian show) and he told this exact same story.

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12. Comment #131606 by phasmagigas on February 22, 2008 at 5:00 pm

pizza, beers and the rest.

hmm, too many extras, a really good cup of coffee in the morning will do.....life is good. I love it that just by chance some chemical in a plant from another part of the globe can be ingested by myself and make me feel better than i did a minute before, its important to get the water to the right temperature though....

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13. Comment #131610 by corduroy11 on February 22, 2008 at 5:10 pm

Bruno, it was published in the magazine called Best Life. Going by how they spelled the word "laborer" (not labourer) I'm assuming it's an American mag.

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14. Comment #131617 by Radesq on February 22, 2008 at 5:47 pm

I suspect that most good comedians are quite intelligent. It takes some ability to reflect on what is or isn't funny and why. This was a nice, short, appealing article. I would appreciate seeing more like it.

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15. Comment #131624 by defaithed on February 22, 2008 at 6:27 pm

"75% of Americans are God-fearing Christians; 75% of prisoners are God-fearing Christians. 10% of Americans are atheists; 0.2% of prisoners are atheists"

Anyone know a source for that data? (I'd like to confirm it before quoting it all over the place! : )

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16. Comment #131629 by Tosser on February 22, 2008 at 7:33 pm

I did a quick search and have some leads you might want to follow up, but I'm not sure of anything or the authenticity of these.

It appears there was an official govt report:

http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cpus97.pdf

And then one person contacted the publisher of the report for info about religions:

http://holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm

At the very least, the person's homepage seems cool and topical to our interests:

http://holysmoke.org/icr-cult.htm

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17. Comment #131630 by bentleyd on February 22, 2008 at 7:35 pm

defaithed asked:

"75% of Americans are God-fearing Christians; 75% of prisoners are God-fearing Christians. 10% of Americans are atheists; 0.2% of prisoners are atheists"

Anyone know a source for that data? (I'd like to confirm it before quoting it all over the place! : )

As much as I would enjoy quoting that statistic too, it appears to be inaccurate. An atheist website published this statistic of US Federal prisons:
http://holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm
Yes, it shows that 0.209% of prisoners selected "Atheist" on the questionnaire. But if you read further down you see that 18,381 of the 93,112 total respondents (19.8%) answered "Unknown/No Answer". Surely this 19.8% includes atheists, agnostics, and people who just don't care.

This religious website debunks that 0.2% claim in more detail:
http://www.adherents.com/misc/adh_prison.html

It's very easy to lie with statistics. Always examine carefully and consider the source.

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18. Comment #131642 by digitalia on February 22, 2008 at 8:48 pm

haha - I JUST read this article and then his interview on "The Hour" on CBC is replayed tonight. crazy.

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19. Comment #131644 by Slyer on February 22, 2008 at 8:52 pm

Even if you say that all the 20% that are unknown are all atheist and agnostics the statistics are still in our favour. 80% of answered were religious, 20% were atheist/agnostic/unknown.
America is 20% atheist/agnostic yes?
What they claim is that religious people are less likely to commit crimes, but what you see is that they are at the very least as likely, but clearly more likely.
Woah, I just looked at the trends for NZ and the irreligious, I am quite pleased. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_New_Zealand#Statistics

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20. Comment #131646 by dragonfirematrix on February 22, 2008 at 9:11 pm

This is an interesting article.

It interests me because I was raised (oh, forbid) in a baptist home. I think I was born a freethinker because I never really believed in gods, the tooth fairy, etc.

I do not need to go into my conversion (to Secular Humanism) details because those details are obvious to freethinkers.

All I need now say is that I am a Secular Humanist/Atheist, who is finally on the right and correct path.

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21. Comment #131650 by sarah95 on February 22, 2008 at 11:24 pm

What a great article. Short and sweet, not angry, and very well-written.

All statistics aside, I think Ricky made a really good point with the story about his older brother asking the "why" question and his mother's response to it. The tone of voice in her reply betrayed her fear that god may simply be imaginary and that if we are to truly to have moral dignity, we'll have to work hard at individualism, reason, and compassion instead of taking the "god-fearing" shortcut.

That was one of the reasons I questioned my faith as a youngster. All the people who were "teaching me" the faith seemed so insecure(not admitedly, but children can sometimes see through acts better than adults, if not always) about their own faith. If god was so great, I sometimes thought, why do we need to defend him or our faith in him?

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22. Comment #131652 by PJG on February 22, 2008 at 11:40 pm

I just loved "...evolution, a theory so simple and obvious that only England's greatest genius could have come up with it."


Maybe someone can help me.

Many years ago I wrote down a quote, attributed to Darwin:

"Free-will is a delusion caused by our inability to analyse our own motives."

It was one (another!) thing that made me realise that Darwin was, indeed, "England's greatest genius". I have no idea where I read it and now can't find it - except in the book I've written it in.

I have Googled it but have given up... anything with "delusion" and "Darwin" in Google keeps coming up with a bloody book called "The God Delusion" by some "Richard Dawkins" bloke!

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23. Comment #131659 by PJG on February 23, 2008 at 12:31 am

Ricky Gervais and Archbishop of Canterbury

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZGO4Y6WTUM

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24. Comment #131678 by d4m14n on February 23, 2008 at 2:09 am

PJG, you can easily exclude phrases in a search:

darwin free will delusion -"the god delusion"

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25. Comment #131687 by ThoughtsonCommonToad on February 23, 2008 at 2:40 am

Charles Darwin recognized the importance of free will to evolutionary biology. He first wrote about human free will in his M & N notebooks as he became a materialist in 1838, soon after the voyage of the Beagle:

The general delusion about free will is obvious because man has power of action, & he can seldom analyses his motives (originally mostly INSTINCTIVE, & therefore now great effort of reason to discover them.…)
Source:http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/55593?&print=yes

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26. Comment #131688 by WoodyGumDrops on February 23, 2008 at 2:48 am

I love Ricky Gervais. What a legend.

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27. Comment #131690 by issue99 on February 23, 2008 at 2:51 am

http://www.rickygervais.com/flangrobbotherer.php

An article posted on Gervais' website concerning his flanimals books.

A rather angry review and Ricky's brilliant response.

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28. Comment #131692 by ft77 on February 23, 2008 at 2:52 am

By Ricky putting the emphasis on chance rather than natural selection as the guiding force in evolution may have done more harm than good.

People who understand evolution need to remember this when communicating the to others.
As Prof. Dawkins does of course :)

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29. Comment #131693 by the great teapot on February 23, 2008 at 2:53 am

those 15 percent who are neither atheist or god fearing must be the real evil bastards of the world. Never trust a fence sitter.

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30. Comment #131694 by Geoff on February 23, 2008 at 3:00 am

Some hilariously off-topic ramblings in the Amazon comments thread here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R12BLM7FR2357U/ref=cm_cd_pg_prev?_encoding=UTF8&cdPage=1

Other Comments by Geoff

31. Comment #131696 by Quetzalcoatl on February 23, 2008 at 3:07 am

Geoff-

I wonder if any atheists have written negative reviews of the Chronicles of Narnia, criticising them for being peppered with Christian references? Probably not.

The guy probably thinks Harry Potter encourages witchcraft.

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32. Comment #131704 by RascoHeldall on February 23, 2008 at 3:19 am

Nicely-balanced little piece.

Ricky touches on something that I've often thought is probably the case - that there is a large subset of 'believing' religious people who know it isn't true, but keep the lie going for the sake of others, or so that they don't feel out of place culturally.

I was at a tradional(ish) Muslim wedding a while ago and it did strike me - if I was part of this culture and didn't believe, who would I tell? Who would respect my questions? All my close muslim friends have on a number of occasions indicated - usually inadvertently - that they don't deep down think the religious mythology was actually true. But if you take that cue and suggest, for one second, they don't really believe it, they will take offence and claim it as an insult.

How much of religion's success is due to this unspoken fear of being honest with each other, and pressure to be seen to conform? Does ANYONE actually believe it, or is it all simply a massive charade?

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33. Comment #131739 by IanG on February 23, 2008 at 5:19 am

He expanded on some of this with his usual wittiness in a programme on Radio 4, a while ago.

He said it came to him that his Mum, "realised that she couldn't be around all the time to keep an eye on me and keep me out of trouble, so she told me that there was this bloke called God who was watching me whatever I did. She realised that God was a brilliant babysitter. Basically, she made me be good for years without having to watch me all the time. Clever, eh?"

I can't promise that I've got the quotation exactly right as it was a while ago, but this is pretty close.

Other Comments by IanG

34. Comment #131740 by Partisan on February 23, 2008 at 5:25 am

Funny, I can't think of a single Christian comedian. It's hardly surprising as the best comedians need to be willing to question and ridicule anything - as a Christian comedian the first thing you'd go after is your own belief!

Oh...the exception here's Creationists of course, they're hee-llaarrr-ious.

Edit: And Oranges man =]

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35. Comment #131741 by 4horsefins on February 23, 2008 at 5:36 am

Most people here know this, but some are bravely here subjecting their opinions to rationality. This comment will be pointed toward the latter. The purpose of the article is to show that even 8 yr olds can figure this out. It is also worth pointing out that an 8 yr old can have an opinion more valid than that of a biologist, chemist, rocket scientist...The power of indoctrination is so powerful, it can cause people to...I will let the next commenter fill out the rest.

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36. Comment #131743 by ThoughtsonCommonToad on February 23, 2008 at 5:38 am

Partisan
Stephen Colbert is a Catholic Sunday School teacher. Although as to whether he's a believing Christian I have big doubts.

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37. Comment #131744 by Steve Zara on February 23, 2008 at 5:42 am

Funny, I can't think of a single Christian comedian.

Here in the UK: Adam Bloom, I am sorry to say.

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38. Comment #131745 by Shandy on February 23, 2008 at 5:43 am

There's a clip of him talking about his atheism on 'The Hour' here:

http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=1977

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39. Comment #131748 by ThoughtsonCommonToad on February 23, 2008 at 5:51 am

I think Ricky Gervais' work is fantastic. He and Stephen Merchant produced perhaps the best comedy series ever with The Office, and a decent follow up with Extras. Incidentally the Kate Winslet episode of extras in the first series has an atheist theme among others.

EDIT: link to said episode: Extras s01e03

Other Comments by ThoughtsonCommonToad

40. Comment #131750 by SharonMcT on February 23, 2008 at 5:58 am

Shandy:

Thank you for the link. I enjoyed that.

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41. Comment #131755 by dialector on February 23, 2008 at 6:26 am

Article said: 10% of Americans are atheists, .2% of prisoners are atheists.

This statistic is questionable. There are more atheists in prison than that. In prison, if you want to optimize your chance of getting paroled early, you better pretend to be a Christian. All prisoners know this. I would retract this statement if all the prisoners were interviewed once they got out of prison and the numbers remained the same.

Other Comments by dialector

42. Comment #131759 by Geoff on February 23, 2008 at 6:44 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxo81Ok9Urk&feature=related

Other Comments by Geoff

43. Comment #131772 by Saerain on February 23, 2008 at 8:22 am

19. Comment #131644 by Slyer on February 22, 2008 at 8:52 pm

Even if you say that all the 20% that are unknown are all atheist and agnostics the statistics are still in our favour. 80% of answered were religious, 20% were atheist/agnostic/unknown.
America is 20% atheist/agnostic yes?

20% only if you limit your count to the 18-25 age bracket. Taking the entire population into account, a mere 3-9% are atheistic in this great nation of mine, including all those who answer noncommittally in censuses. But considering it was less than 1% before my generation was born, perhaps I should be prouder.

Of course, if the largest age bracket in prisons in 18-25, then your point holds.

Other Comments by Saerain

44. Comment #131777 by phil rimmer on February 23, 2008 at 9:21 am

Re- Adam Bloom

Not exactly Christian, but definitely religious...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBY15jQaAag

Note how the Canadian audience go right off the boil at the God bit.......

Any other Godly comics?

Other Comments by phil rimmer

45. Comment #131831 by jshuey on February 23, 2008 at 12:04 pm

"This religious website debunks that 0.2% claim in more detail:
http://www.adherents.com/misc/adh_prison.html

It's very easy to lie with statistics. Always examine carefully and consider the source."

In almost any poll, there will be a significant %-age (most of the time in the 5% - 10% range)) who answer "Don't know", and a far larger %-age who refuse to answer at all. To read anything contraindicative into this would be wrong.

And...if parole, etc were on these folk's minds, one would think 99.9% would answer "christian" if they thought for one moment it would serve their purpose.

I suspect the numbers reported by the Bureau of Prisons, and later confirmed with eerily similar results by Barra (A CHRISTIAN polling organization, are largely accurate within a reasonable statistical margin for error.

Other Comments by jshuey

46. Comment #131839 by HarryHUK on February 23, 2008 at 12:21 pm

Good article,however I have a problem with free will,I certainly had no say in being here.

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47. Comment #131852 by Paula Kirby on February 23, 2008 at 12:58 pm

I was a little disappointed with this article: I'd have liked him to expand on the hour-long questioning process that led him to discard his religion, rather than just tell us that it happened. As it is, it's just Ricky Gervais telling us that you don't need religion to lead a full life. That's a good message - but I'd still hoped for something a bit more substantial.

Free will, by the way, has no place in his argument. It's an entirely theological concept, necessary ONLY because the religious somehow have to find an excuse for their God potentially hurling us into eternal hellfire.

Other Comments by Paula Kirby

48. Comment #131855 by Radesq on February 23, 2008 at 1:04 pm

Paula, What is the difference between "being aware of having choices and being able to make them" and having free will?

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49. Comment #131857 by Paula Kirby on February 23, 2008 at 1:15 pm

Radesq: Paula, What is the difference between "being aware of having choices and being able to make them" and having free will?

Ah, I see you got to my post before I'd had chance to edit that bit out. The term "free will" has its roots in theology and is very much bound up with notions of sin. Its opposite is seen as determinism, in which we have no control over our choices at all. Most of us dislike that notion and consequently the religious play on it in order to claim that God must exist, because it's the only way we get to be in control of our choices. I think it's unhelpful of Ricky Gervais to use a theological term to describe a natural phenomenon.

The reason I decided to edit out this part of my post is that there IS a legitimate debate about the extent to which we are genuinely free to make choices at all. The human brain certainly has evolved to the point where it can be aware of having choices and can think it's making them, but there are strong arguments to suggest that, actually, a combination of genetics, environment and life experience strongly predispose us to make some choices and not to make others, which does raise the question of just how free our choices are in practice.

The comment I deleted made it sound simpler and more clear-cut than it seems to be in reality.

Other Comments by Paula Kirby

50. Comment #131858 by Steve Zara on February 23, 2008 at 1:18 pm

Paula:
I don't think disappointment is the right reaction. We have someone who is, perhaps, over-hyped, but certainly has high visibility on both sides of the Atlantic being open about atheism. I think that is something to be applauded.

Also, I am afraid I don't think "substantial" is a term ever likely to used in the context of Ricky Gervais (apart from his build).

Oh, and as for free will, there is a long conversation to be had about that, if you wish. (Of course, if there is no free will, you may have no choice!)

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