For those of you who care about this sort of thing, here is a link to an essay by comedian, Ricky Gervais, about his reasons for being atheist and how he deals with it in a world that is predominately hostile towards his lack of belief. His views also happen to be mine.
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/12/19/a-holiday-message-from-ricky-gervais-why-im-an-atheist/
13 comments:
Ricky is my hero, he says it perfectly the way that I think it! I even have his working class British accent when I'm thinking it!
Great essay, thanks for the tip!
I love Ricky too. However, I found the article uninspiring. Maybe it's because all Ricky's arguments have been made before and I didn't really learn anything new, or maybe it's because his stand up routines are reliably more poignant and hilarious. This was just a little too bland for me. It kind of sad, I suppose, that Atheist arguments have become as stale as the Theist ones....
@Plan 9- when the Theist arguments don't change, and we have valid responses to basically all of them, why should our responses change?
And a sincere Merry Kill a Tree For Jesus Day, to you, Dan!
From the article, Ricky wrote: "[Science] doesn’t hold on to medieval practices because they are tradition."
Therein lies a perfectly logical argument for vegans. A strong case could be made equating animal consumption to a medieval practice. Most independent research indicates that what we eat has a huge impact on our health, yet we hang on to traditional eating habits.
As an aside, there is a popular justification for animal consumption by calling it normal, although I'd say that 'normal' is fairly subjective, and a better word to use would be 'common.'
God loves atheists, too.
I like Ricky Gervais but when it comes to his religious beliefs, I find it every bit as tedious as if a celebrity went on and on about their Christian beliefs.
It doesn't make sense to talk about "Theist arguments." You can't prove God's existence via argument. You can't know God with logic. He's not approachable that way.
Some atheists are as fundamentalist as some religious fundamentalists. Two sides of the same coin.
I know that God exists, but I don't find a need to prove God's existence to anyone. If someone wants to believe in a universe with no God, why should it matter to me?
Which brings me to one of my favourite questions: do we need religions?
Ricky Gervais is as many other British comedians extremely entertaining and not only that. If one really digs into his jokes and sketches, it is probable he/she is going to find truth about what bothers us every day. That is why I like British comedy, Ricky included.
Gosh. Now I believe in Mr. Gervais. But I still don't believe in the Wall Street Journal. Too pretentious of divinity.
Foye
Though I don't believe that life is the sum of what we can measure with our scientific instruments, I do respect atheists that are open about their belief system. (Yes. It is a belief system.)
Funny. I read this Gervais post after being horrified that there is an ad on this site for "Bold Christian Clothing". Ick!
I enjoy Ricky's comedy and I enjoyed his essay. I found it interesting that on Ricky's blog, he said he didn't intend for this to be "A Holiday Message". The WSJ asked him to write an essay and then slapped that title on it.
I also appreciate rational people and the discussion they provide - including many of the comments on this blog. Kudos to followers of Bizarro! :)
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