Ricky Gervais as David Brent in "The Office" (BBC.co.uk)
“When confronted with anyone who holds my lack of religious faith in such contempt, I say, ‘It’s the way God made me.’” -Ricky Gervais
I hadn’t realized Ricky Gervais was an atheist, but now the message is clear. He defended his lack of faith in this Wall Street Journal open letter. Gervais, comedian and mastermind behind my favorite television series, “The Office,” talks about the difference between the existence of god — which he denies — and the existence of faith — which he says is real and undeniable.
“The existence of God is not subjective,” he says. “He either exists or he doesn’t. It’s not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can’t have your own facts.”
Gervais explains that he’d been a very religious child who attended church to please his mother and stay out of jail. He then goes on to cite a few coincidental statistics: “75 percent of Americans are God-‐fearing Christians; 75 percent of prisoners are God-‐fearing Christians. 10 percent of Americans are atheists; 0.2 percent of prisoners are atheists.”
I personally like what Gervais is saying and how he’s saying it. Too few atheists have their voices heard. He’s obviously not preaching hate — quite the opposite, it seems. And he makes the point that atheism doesn’t correlate with crime. I’ve heard too many people question atheists’ moral standards because they have no god on which to base their behavior. There’s something admirable about a person who isn’t trying to please a deity — he’s just treating others as he’d like to be treated.
On a related note, has anyone seen “The Invention of Lying”? If you like movies with religious themes, this is a good one to check out. I could do without all the Jennifer Garner screen time, though.
Firstly, Ricky Gervais is awesome (though I must admit I don’t like the original Office series).
But also, what he’s saying speaks a lot of truth. I’m not atheist myself. I don’t quite have any religion but spirituality/religion is a subject that interests me a lot. I first off like that he’s not being snarky about it. Far too much I read blogs by atheists who seem to just have a personal vendetta against every last Christian on the planet. No other religion. Just Christian. It’s refreshing when I always find atheists who aren’t acting like they know everything. That are being respectful of the beliefs of others.
And he’s right. Either God exists or he doesn’t. And that’s why I’m kinda on my own little “spiritual journey” if you will.
I wonder though if those statistics are completely correct. I find myself (as I learn more about Christianity) feeling like the majority of those who claim to be Christian shouldn’t be calling themselves such.
Sombra, I wondered about those statistics as well. Would love it if he’d linked so survey data. Also, I just came across this CNN post from yesterday that compares the most religious cities with crime rate. Seemed related to the question about religiosity among prisoners. Have a look, if you’re interested: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/20/my-take-religious-cities-are-among-the-most-violent/