Ricky Gervais: Why get offended?

Ricky Gervais: "When someone thanks God, I don't get offended." And that interviewer laughs.

What's so funny? Gervais is exactly right. When believers disagree with me, I don't get offended by that. So why do they get offended when I disagree with them?

Christians - in America, at least - are used to getting a free pass. They're used to the automatic respect they get as the overwhelming majority in this country (just as Muslims are used to it in Iran or Saudi Arabia). And so they tend to get furious when someone disagrees.

Sorry, but if you're free to disagree with me - and I have absolutely no problem with that - then I'm free to disagree with you. Just as I have no objection whatsoever to you thanking God, or saying "God bless," or putting "Jesus Saves" on your car's bumper, or any other peaceful expression of Christian belief, so should you have no objection to me expressing myself, either.

I don't agree with you. Get over it! You don't agree with me, either. So what? That's your right. And I'm not so insecure in my own thinking that I see your disagreement as a threat.