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Ricky Gervais: ‘Religion is Based on Lies’

Posted by Adam

Thursday September 24, 2009

Ricky GervaisRicky Gervais believes religion was built on lies.

The British comic — who stars in new movie The Invention Of Lying — says he has been an atheist “all my life” and is adamant people created the idea of a God to make people feel easier about dying.

“I’ve been an atheist all my life,” Gervais tells the UK’s ShortList magazine in its latest issue, “but I always knew that if my mum asked me when she was dying if there was a heaven I’d say yes. I’d lie.

“I think that’s how religion started — as a good lie. If you’re not an atheist you can watch [The Invention Of Lying] without getting angry.

“I watch films about angels, love ’em. I don’t think you have to treat something that comes down on one side as propaganda.”

Gervais insists he isn’t worried that his views about religion could ruin his career.

“I’ve never tiptoed around the subject, not even in America,” he said. “I say it on TV in America; I say it on radio in America. I nail it to the mast. I did Inside The Actors Studio and the students were taken aback.

“They asked, ‘Don’t you think that coming out as an atheist will damage your career?’ And I went, ‘What am I meant to do? Lie?’ In the circles I move in, people haven’t got that prejudice.”

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  • Lee

    “I can see how it might be possible to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how one could look into the heavens and say there is no God.” – Abraham Lincoln

  • http://smokesignalsonawindyday.blogspot.com/ Injun Trouble

    We can take quotes from famous people all day long who may claim they can’t imagine there’s no god. That will never make the idea of a god true.

  • Mikey

    “I can see how it might be possible to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how one could look into the heavens and say there is no Giant Spaghetti Monster.” – Abraham Lincoln

    What’s the difference? If enough people believed that the above statement was true, then anyone who didn’t believe in the Giant Spaghetti Monster would be a “heathen”.

  • Axel

    “It will not do to invesigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity.”
    -Abraham Lincoln

    Lets all up tools and keep on quote mining, shall we?

  • Scott M.

    With a really big multi-mirrored telescope Abe. We’ve looked backwards in time approx. 13 billion years and discovered an inflationary universe where the origins were natural. We’ve ‘seen’ black holes and supernovas. We’ve measured the vastness of wasted vacuum that would kill a human in an instant. We’ve landed rovers on other planets and found them all to be lifeless (so far). We’ve measured the surface temperature of of Venus at approx. 900F which is hot enough to melt lead. We’ve measured the temperature inside craters of the moon and found them only a few degrees above absolute zero.

    In all these places we’ve looked, we’ve found nothing resembling a beneficent God.

    Sorry Abe.

  • TJ

    Good for Ricky! He is telling the truth the way it is and I commend him. He is smart, funny and fearless in his honesty. I, too, am proud to be an atheist. We need to stand up and be counted without fear of reprisal. After all, why should it harm a person’s career to tell the truth? In such a duplicitous, manipulative and greed-driven society fuelled by the dark-age, unenlightened myths of religion, it is so refreshing to hear such enlightened and logical opinions.

    From a fellow Brit – CHEERS!

  • Hector Brenes

    “I can see how it might be possible to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how one could look into the heavens and say there is no God.” – Abraham Lincoln

    Someone quoted that above … So, does that assert that even Honest Abe had his bad days? And did he really say or write that, and if so, in what context?

  • Neil

    You can list all the anecdotes you like, but I’ll still be sitting here waiting for the evidence.

    I love Gervais’ comedy.

  • Laura

    I’m so glad people are finally coming out and saying what they don’t believe in! It’s been considered un-pc for far too long. I’m also tired of being told we have to respect other people’s beliefs. I’m sorry, but if you tell me the earth is 4000 years old, I’m going to tell you you’re wrong. It’s not about what I believe and what you believe. It’s fact versus ignorance.

  • http://www.hilaryfortnum.co.uk Hilary Fortnum

    Perhaps a Heat magazine guide to religion might help here. Perhaps something along these lines?

    http://hilaryfortnum.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=190&Itemid=2

  • http://www.twitter.com/stefftastic Steff

    I like him even more now.
    Although as an atheist I don’t believe religion was invented.. I think it evolved, because we gradually learned that if we didn’t bury a body deep enough, we could all get sick. If we didn’t do things just so, we could lose crops. That sort of thing. We didn’t understand things so we blamed it all on a “higher power,” someone more in control than we were.
    Anyway, it made me smile that he came out with his beliefs so bluntly. Atheism is on the rise these days [yay!] so it’s not as shocking anymore, but the Christian population makes up about a third of the whole world, and a whopping 78% of America. So it’s far from mainstream yet. Bravo Ricky.

  • Sterling

    In reference to the above mentioned quotes by Lincoln, he also said the following:
    “The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.”
    Most folks who use quotes by Lincoln, Einstein, Jefferson, and others are usually Christians and using them to reinforce their “claim” to a Christian God. This is of course based on the western “presumption” that God is by necessity the “God of Abraham”. When Lincoln discusses “god” if you will, he is not referring to Christianity nor a Christian “god” specifically. He is referring to the universal belief that there might be a divine entity watching over us.
    While I am personally atheist, I do believe that there are two arguments going on in the “existence” of God. One is whether there is a divine being of “any kind”, and the other as to whether there is a “Christian God” of Jesus fame. Being as no religion yet devised has ever had any direct “proof” of any of their various Gods, there is no reason to believe that Christianity for the sake of argument has any higher likelihood that their God is real vs any others. After all some other religions have more followers worldwide than Christianity does on a “head count” basis. The “search” for god, should it turn up “god” somewhere in the distant future, might well find that it is Zeus, or Baccus, but since we have only touched on the inner realms of physics more likely to be something we cannot yet even surmise.
    That said though, modern physics with it’s “string theories” and “multiple universes” and dimensions might at some point in the distant future reveal a complex method to the madness of our universe that is controlled from the “outside” in some form far beyond our comprehension to understand at this point. Any theory which can have 24 or so dimensions available (many possibly folding in on themselves in complicated patterns) certainly leaves room for a lot of unknowns. Still nothing points towards anything other than simple natural laws of nature and physics at work so far. The “wonder” of the universe and life is “proof” of nothing except that it exist and is “wonderful”. Also the idea of a “beginning” and an end is a fabrication of the mind of man. We created that to deal with the idea that life as we see it is “born” and then “dies” and need a way for our minds to explain this to ourselves. No logical reason that there “has” to be a beginning or end at all. I am atheist regarding there being “any” god because I can see no proof whatsoever and only “wonder” at the marvels of the universe, but which so far appear to be natural functions of laws of physics and biology. Discoveries in modern biology now show that life on earth had several methods by which it could naturally have formed and in most likelihood used more than one path to do so. So much hard evidence exists for the outright “fabrication” of most all the major religions, especially Christianity and Islam (and don’t even mention the Giant Salamander that created Mormonism) that speaking only for myself, I can in no way ever accept any of them as being legitimate. To me believing in a “God” or “Spirituality” is one thing, and can be distinctly personal. As far as believing on any of the organized religions Clarence Darrow sums up my view when he said:
    “I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose.”

  • Russell

    I must say that as an American Athiest, I wish more of my fellows were more forthright in thier lack of belief and fearless as Mr. Gervais is about his.

  • Tom Green

    Imagine living in a society where you have to pretend to believe in make believe to get anywhere. That’s America right now. Well done Ricky

  • Angie Mintz

    and in the end, what if there IS a God?

  • Laz521

    Yes Angie, and what if he IS the flying spaghetti monster who first created a midget and a tree and there is a beer volcano in heaven? Oh the irony..

  • ian

    But Ricky I think you’ve missed an important point here – Why do people need a comfort to overcome their fear of death? After all if there is no god, there is nothing after death and therefore nothing to fear, so why the fear in the first place?

  • Bob

    To All Atheists: There is no point trying to reason with these people. They are not rational people. Their whole idea of an invisable man in the clouds is irrational. They prefer to live with their head stuck in the sand … in an ignorant bliss.

  • MC

    Thank Tooth Fairy for Ricky Gervais! My new hero – we need more.

  • Benjamin

    “after all if there is no god, there is nothing after death”

    They don’t fear anything after death you buffoon, they fear the process and the concept of going from existing to not-existing. We don’t have this fear because of a “god”, we have this to fight for our survival. It’s only natural that we want to live; we’re hardwired to want to live. If we all wanted to die, well, we wouldn’t be a very productive species?

  • sdcfvg

    America is fucked up, the fact that one can be ostracised from society in certain areas because they don’t share the beliefs of the retarded majority is frankly disgusting. American atheists everywhere need to stand up for their (un)beliefs, the more of you that do the less prejudice you will have to encounter.

  • http://www.zazzle.com/briman232* Brian

    You’re my hero Ricky.

    I think you may all like this atheist site too, check it out…

    Aristotle’s Muse

  • Brian King

    next thing you’ll tell me there ain’t no devil. Wat a bummer I worshipped him/her

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