Easter Message from Ricky Gervais

So, to combine bits from Andy and xyzwriter, let me see if I have this right.

"Jesus was fully human and fully God." This matches my outsider's understanding of Christianity as well. Jesus is God.

"Jesus died to make it still possible for them to belong to God [sic]".

Jesus died. Jesus is God. Therefore God died. Therefore, no one was around to resurrect Jesus. God/Jesus is dead.

Nietzsche wins!

To deny this would be to deny that Jesus is God or to deny that Jesus ever actually died. If he didn't die, how does that absolve anyone of sin?

And that, without even going into the completely silly philosophy that sacrificing one life can possibly absolve another of sin in the first place. The only absolution for sin is to make restitution to the injured party. Oh, and when there is no injured party, there is no sin.

So, thinking about breaking a commandment but not actually doing so, that's called self-control. Some of us respect that. Coveting thy neighbor's wife but not actually acting on it? Ditto.

Homosexuality? No injured party, no sin. Prostitution? Ditto.

Sin (or crime) lies in deliberately and unnecessarily harming others or acting in an extremely reckless way such that there is a high likelihood of harming others even if it may not be the intent, such as drinking and driving.

In my mind, there is not and should not ever be any such thing as victimless crime or sin.

This is great. Gervais is brave and persuasive. Loved his interview on the Daily Show!!!

For something in a similar vein, check out THAT PLAY ABOUT ATHEISM on amazon. It's a very funny three act play that takes down religious belief in supernatural gods. Yahweh, Baal, Thor, the Flying Spaghetti Monster and "You Know Who" all have speaking parts. 7 Actors, 1 hour. Good for young adult audiences.

I'm confused about the whole relationship between Christianity and the Old Testament. Somewhere along the way, something got interpreted as if Jesus denied a chunk of the old law. I think it was when he said something about someone without sin casting the first stone.

And yet, at no point did he define which old laws were still valid and which were invalid. So, eating pork became OK; not circumcising penises became OK; there was some confusion about Saturday and Sunday; it became OK to stop telling of the escape from Egypt; it became OK to stop putting the Hear O Israel thing on one's doorways and stop wrapping it around one's hand and head; and it may even now be OK to wear a garment made of linen and wool. Some of these were pretty major things.

But, the ten commandments remained in effect.

I'd love to know where anyone thinks this is all spelled out. And, when we're all done with that, isn't that big hideous statue of a guy nailed to a tree with ketchup all around something of a graven image? If not, what about all the altars in the Catholic churches of the world? Wouldn't praying to a bloody mary The Virgin Mary be having another god before god?

So, as for keeping the ten commandments, you may be right about some atheists being better at it than some Christians. Certainly, there are loud bunch who never heard about the whole "love thy neighbor" thing. But, I don't even know why Christians bother to pick and choose their passages from the old testament anyway. Who told them which bits to keep? Nothing in the New Testament indicates what should and should not be kept, unless it's that one spot in Matt 5:17 where Jesus clearly states that the old law remains in effect in its entirety so that pig-eaters are clearly in violation of the law. Christmas ham anyone?

It seems to me that Ricky Gervais is actually less of a sinner than "god" himself.God impregnated Mary, who was married to Joseph. He, "god", committed adultery and coveted his neighbors wife.

Minus a point for not keeping human beings as labor/sex slaves. Jesus was supposedly surrounded by these ("servants" in modern translations) yet never objected to their enslavement. The bible only says treat your slaves well, as if that was possible, and not to covet someone else's slave.(if you think "servants" were voluntary employees, explain why recruiting is against the commandments. Doesn't make sense.).

Actually the "doctrine" states that Jesus was fully human and fully God simultaneously. Not half and half, like a coffee creamer. But since it is nonsense either way, it is probably unimportant.

I find it interesting that a controversial actor/comedian who is rarely well-received would focus most on the "cast the first stone" saying, rather than the Golden Rule. It seems that Mr. Gervais needs to develop a thicker skin.

He makes a very valid point though, that many of us, if not most, are good, honest and caring people, despite being godless heathens who are going to Hell. We would make better Christians than the current lot.

Ricky, I'm think you should re-evaluate your "good Christian" status.

Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37

Loving the Lord your God - no tick.
Loving your neighbor (assumption in your favor) - Tick.

Considering this passage I would say you're at 50%.

Thank you Ricky Gervais! Always nice to see an actor taking a stand for reasonableness. Too many actors (especially Americans) have to duck on this one, they risk loss of commercials, jobs, and being blasted by the hate press (Fox!?). Some part of me wishes that folks could follow some of the 'nice' lessons of the bible, just as there is a great moral message in Harry Potter, the works of Robert Heinlein, and others - while understanding that it is a myth, a contradicting group of sayings, and written and recorded during a history not exactly known for it's understanding of why things happen! If you happen to be a public figure - come out of the closet! Take a chance! We might start turning the tide of religious zeolotry and repression.

The Christian answer to Ricky's post would be that indeed, non-believers can be very good in the sense of making life better by their own lives. Where we part ways would be a two-fold disagreement:
1. I doubt that anyone would claim to have obeyed all of the ten commandments, since Jesus said that to think about breaking any one of them is a sin. (Yes, that is ridiculously impossible, which was Jesus' point--without a Savior we cannot be considered sinless) Even Christians who spend half their week in church still are sinners--Jesus died to make it still possible for them to belong to God)

2. Christians would argue that when anyone (believer or non-believer) does a selfless, caring thing for anther person, nature, etc., it is because we are being influenced by God, not by rules, because it is in the nature of us all to reject another person's rules commanding our lives.

I read that this sight was for the open minded, so hear me out. I have a god, and he follows me everywhere. Im positive he's there, and not because of the bible, but because I can feel him in my heart, in the deepest part of my soul, my god is burning. There are a hundred contraversies in the bible and christian world, and im not intrested in any of them, what im intrested is love, my god loves me. I dont care about being a good christian, I care about becoming closer to my god. My god created me because he wants a compainion, and my time spent on earth is bringing me closer to him. When I die I am confident I will meet him, and I will spend everyday of eternity with him. I honestly dont care about the logic behind any of it. I care that my God loves me. He paid the highest price for me, and I wont deny him.

Hey all! New to the site, guess it's time to get started!

I honestly find this hilarious. I can just imagine some nutjob saying, "WHAT!??! How could an atheist be a better Christian than I? Blasphemy!" As others have said, Jesus preached of peace and kindness, not blind devotion to a deity because we don't understand everything on and beyond Earth. Ricky makes several good points in the essay, and I do applaud any public figure (and anyone for that matter) for saying their beliefs. Too many people get shot down (and literally shot down) because they challenged commonly held beliefs. That's why I've come here, to engage with others who feel as I do and to talk about it.

Scott - You sir, are very persuasive