Colbert had Ricky Gervais on this evening. He’s not a particular favorite of ours, but we like him well enough. Tonight, he and Colbert got into a mini debate on the existence of God. Gervais, an avowed atheist versus Colbert, the avowed Catholic. No, it wasn’t angry or mean. It was interesting, lively, and thought-provoking.
Colbert asked “Why is there anything rather than nothing?”
Gervais said that was a meaningless question.
They went back and forth for a while, but in the end, the answer is, was, and always will be — we are all agnostics on some level because, unless we think God speaks directly to us — or we are in touch with spirits from “the other side.” We believe what we believe because that’s what we believe. We don’t know anything.
Buddha, Tibet, probably 19th century
Garry said he enjoyed it. For once, something interesting that wasn’t politics and I had to agree. But I’m an armchair philosophy and religion nerd. I can talk about this stuff for hours. I never get bored.
I’m a skeptic, closer to an atheist than anything else. But, as I have no direct knowledge, all I can say is “I doubt it, but I suppose it’s possible.”
Garry would more likely say: “I believe in something, but I’m not sure exactly what.” The same, but different.Nonetheless, he has an inherent buoyancy and optimism which lets him believe things will work out even when it looks hopeless. I envy that.
Yet, I am living proof that miracles happen. If anyone should be dead, it’s me. I can’t close that door without acknowledging that I’ve had some amazing close encounters of the providential kind. I think it’s possible that whatever God is, he has spoken to me at least twice and saved me when I was dying. Let’s not debate this. It’s complicated. Very.
So my husband, who has seen some of the most horrific stuff of which the human race is capable is an optimist and I, who have been saved more than once, am always expecting catastrophe. Go figure, right?
There’s no logic to this kind of thing. We believe what we believe because that’s what we believe. We can all justify our beliefs, but in the end, belief is faith-based. No matter what you call it. A minister I liked asked me what more I needed … a picture ID with God’s face on it? Because if the experiences I’ve had don’t prove to me that something, someone is watching over me … then what will?
I can’t argue the point. I don’t know who — or what — is the watcher. God? Satan? Ganeesh? The Lady of the Lake? Spirit of my ancestors? Buddha? A nameless Power? I have no clue and am not willing to speculate. I do not know the answer. I’m not even sure I’m asking the right questions.
The only thing of which I am certain is I don’t have an answer and neither do you. If I ever find an answer, I promise to let you know.
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Categories: #Photography, Anecdote, Entertainment, Humor, Personal, Supernatural
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
I liked when Ricky said if you destroyed all scientific data and came back in 1000 years, someone would have rediscovered it.
But no one would have re written the bible.
It’s a book rooted in the era in which it was written.
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I think literature is like that. All of it. Even if we don’t realize it. I think MOST things, most knowledge, discoveries, art, culture — everything — is part of the context of the when and where. It’s why stuff written other places — even recently — often doesn’t “feel” right to us. You need to be part of the context, the culture, the gestalt.
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Yep. As I taught students in critical thinking, there’s no disputing personal faith and personal taste. Both are irrational and arguments are rational. They would argue with me 😀
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Some people have to argue. They believe no matter what, you can and probably should argue about it. Garry argues about everything, including simple things like “just push the red button” and “you really have to empty the canister or it will stop working.” He feels there’s always room for negotiation. It made him very good at his job and a very interesting (and probably amusing) Marine recruit.
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19 year olds… It’s part of who they are. 🙂 I can’t say that explains Garry, though.
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Garry is forever 19 or maybe, 21. Except when he’s the Old Man of the Mountain 🙂 He really was 21 when we met. I was 16. I think we will always be young to one another.
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❤ ❤
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I understand Garry. My 4th Grade teacher nick named me Oliver Wendel Holmes.., damned if I know why?
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Not Watson?
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Nope, seems at the ripe old age of 9 or 10 I was ready to debate almost anything. That went away later in life after I discovered Marijuana. After 30+ years of abstinence that tendency is slowly creeping back.
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Inspired by God’s wonders, I can do nothing but believe! 🙂 XO
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I am very ambivalent on the subject, but that’s what admitting “I don’t know” is all about.
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“So my husband, who has seen some of the most horrific stuff of which the human race is capable is an optimist and I, who have been saved more than once, am always expecting catastrophe. Go figure, right?”
These ways of thinking are basically cultural, and ethnic, based on life experiences both past and present. It’s just another version of the “optimist/pessimist” thing. When slavery was in flower the only direction to look was “up.” Optimism. When a people is subjected to periods of down and then up, one can’t help but beware of the next possible “down.” That other thing, right?
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Yeah, well, I come from a people that has been through a lot for a long time, but frankly, I think it’s more about the way we were raised, our life experiences … and possibly, DNA. I think we are wired the way we are wired. It’s not a bad or a good thing. it just IS.
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You are really saying the same thing I said, but just in different words.
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The existence of God – a profound question, I agree that it is faith based and it has to be thus if we are to have free will with an excuse.
Leslie
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One of the permanently unsolved arguments of mankind. But still entertaining and occasionally, productive. Excuses? We ALL have excuses.
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We probably need those excuses.
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Rationalizations and excuses are the fuel of life. Can’t get through a day without at least one good one 🙂
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😉
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As ever, wise words all round.
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If talking about it would change anything, I’ve logged plenty of hours. It stubbornly remains unanswerable 🙂
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Matisse apparently said he believed in god when he was working. I can go with that. The divine that is within 🙂
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If there is such as thing as ‘the divine,” then we all made of the same stuff. Except for you-know-who. He’s made of something different and icky.
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Just to add a little bit more confusion: I believe not to believe … But have you noticed the reversed swastika (= sun symbol) on Buddhas chest?
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Yes. It is a very old traditional symbol in Hinduism. Look it up. Hitler stole it, then got it backwards.
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Food for thought. I really was in a funk last night watching the Late Night guys doing their 45 humor. I actually was ready to leave the room but that would’ve been rude to you (Marilyn).
I DID find Gervais (no, I am not a fan) interesting with his theological exchange with Stephen Colbert. Ricky’s atheism argument really was intelligent.
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