Ricky Gervais

For today's Quote of the Day, I quoted Ricky Gervais, an excerpt from his superb "holiday message," Why I'm an Atheist. I highly recommend that you read the whole thing. It really is good.

And in the six days since it's been posted online at the Wall Street Journal, there have been 5862 comments! Heh, heh. No, I haven't read them all - or even more than a handful. But the column was so popular that they followed up with another, where Ricky Gervais answers some of the questions he received.

It's short, and it's very good, too. I recommend you read it as well (and there are only 704 comments there, so far). In fact, it's so good that I'm having trouble deciding what excerpts to post. How about starting with this?

What does a comedian really know about God anyway?

Since there is nothing to know about god, a comedian knows as much about god as any one else.

Yes, he's right. There are no experts when it comes to gods. There are experts when it comes to religions, true. But that's just being an expert in the history or ideas of a particular belief system.

After all, people who do claim to be experts about God disagree vociferously. Unlike in science, which relies on evidence, there's no consensus in religion. That's because there's no way to tell when you're wrong - or when anyone else is wrong, either - when you rely only on wishful thinking faith.

Science doesn’t concern itself with the non-existence of something. The periodic table of imaginary things would be too big for a classroom- infinitely big in fact, and rather pointless. It’s not trying to prove the non-existence of anything supernatural. All it knows is there is no scientific proof of anything supernatural so far. When someone presents a jar of God it will test it. If it finds some evidence of “godness” it will follow the evidence till it knows everything it can.

The fact that science can say “we don’t know” is exactly my point. Science doesn’t start with a set of convenient conclusions and try to justify them. It follows evidence. In fact, it tries to prove itself wrong. When it can’t, it’s right. Superstition, religion and blind faith cherry pick the evidence and justify the results by changing the goal posts.

This is very good stuff, which - as Gervais well knows - will likely change no minds at all. It still should be said, and said often.

But since it's Christmas, let me close with one more excerpt that really speaks to me:

How do you plan on celebrating Christmas?

Eating and drinking too much with friends and family. Celebrating life and remembering those that did, but can no longer.

They are not looking down on me but they live in my mind and heart more than they ever did probably. Some, I was lucky enough to bump into on this planet of six billion people. Others shared much of my genetic material. One selflessly did her best for me all my life. That’s what mums do though. They do it for no other reason than love. Not for reward. Not for recognition. They create you. From nothing. Miracle? They do those every day. No big deal. They are not worshiped. They would give their life without the promise of heaven. They teach you everything they know yet they are not declared prophets. And you only have one.

I am crying as I write this.