Ricky Gervais
 

For those who might have missed it, Ricky Gervais thanks God, then defends the remark to Piers Morgan.

To those, like myself, to whom the second video is unavailable, what happened?

I now realize that there's more to the interview than was in this video. I'm tracking down the rest at the moment...

Here's the rest:

Here Piers, politely enough, cut Gervais off and went to commercial.

The problem is, Gervais' defense of his atheism probably makes no sense to the bulk of religious people. They are incapable of understanding their beliefs as mere beliefs. Hence, atheists are either forced to ignore the bellicose preaching of aggessive theists, as best as they can-- which we all know ain't easy-- or atheists can return the aggression in proportion to theists' agressive rudeness, which only escalates the rancor.

However, atheists still won't win, because aggressive theists will always pardon their own aggression by labeling it something that is wholly justifiable or benign, at best. Instead, they will defensively focus on atheists' aggressive behavior toward them and their religious beliefs as the catalyst for discord between them and so-called nonbelievers.

Here, and in the nonvirtual world, many of them make it quite clear that they have no respect for your right to disagree with them. Ultimately, that is what invites the bulk of the theists who wander into a forum called Raving Atheists Forum. They're certainly not curious about how you could arrive at something as unfathomable as a disbelief in what they believe.

They don't care what you think, why you think it or how you reason not sharing their beliefs and the many conclusions that they draw from their beliefs. You may shut up and pretend to go along the program, if that's the best you can muster, but you just don't have the right to challenge or disagree with them, as far as many of them are concerned. And you will never convince them otherwise. You are their bitch.

I AIN'T NO BITCH! :P

If Lily ever said anything that approximated truth while she was here, it was when she called nonbelievers politically impotent. We're spread too thin to have any political power in terms of electing officials who share our way of thinking. As long as the majority of the nation are Christian, the majority of our politicians will be Christian, and as long as the majority of the government is Christian, non-Christians will have little recourse when they are treated like second-class citizens. This country has never been terribly good toward its minorities.

Incidentally: one of my favorite aspects of the interview was the truly genuine confusion with which Gervais asked: "What...because I'm saying I don't believe in God?" I really don't think he understood why his comment should offend anyone.

I think what makes us politically impotent is that we are always on the defensive, and it almost seems to be by design.

Typically, theists are not called upon to defend their beliefs in our society. It's a given that their beliefs are sacrosanct because that serves all believers in the supernatural, the aggressively devout and the half-hearted, nominal theists alike. Generally, theists are rebuked only when they directly criticize or challenge the supernatural beliefs (and attendant values) of other believers in the supernatural which, in our country, the less strident and more civilized among them scrupulously avoid doing in public.

Atheists, on the other hand, must always defend themselves for having the temerity to question or challenge the religious beliefs of others when they, otherwise, have no supernatural beliefs of their own to protect.

The Golden Globes awards are nothing without Kitten Natividad. :D

:(

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...dgit/fuchs.jpg

WTF???

How is a video "not available in your country"???

Did the producers want to restrict its distribution, some bureaucrat or some government crap??

From some informative blog:

It rarely happens, but it is annoying. :(
President-to-be AJF has kindly transcripted some of it - but can he be trusted to give us poor bastards the full story?

Not according to the American electorate.

I fucking hate Gervais. One trick pony that he is. Not sure if he is that keen on me either.

According to both an earlier and a later segment of that interview, he doesn't care if you like him. He respects your opinion that you fucking hate him as long as you tell the truth, but he will not tolerate you accusing him of eating a squirrel in the park. No: seriously. His words.

Have you never seen that before? I get it fairly often, especially with television clips. I guess a lot of media is owned by America though, you're probably safe.

Thanks for the transription Anthony. :thumbsup:
You're a real gent.