The online article is called “My Argument With God: How I went from Jesus-loving Christian to fun-loving infidel…in one afternoon”. Written by Ricky Gervais, it details how the British actor/comedian rejected his faith.
Fascinating reading? Definitely. The pivotal moment came when Gervais (who created the mega-successful TV comedy The Office) was just eight years old and was asked by his 19-year-old brother why he believed in God.
Here’s what happened next, straight from the article:
“(It was) just a simple question. But my mum panicked. ‘Bob,’ she said, in a tone that I knew meant “shut up”. Why was that a bad thing to ask? If there was a God and my faith was strong, it didn’t matter what people said.
“Oh…hang on. There is no God. He [Gervais’ brother] knows it and she knows it, deep down. It was as simple as that. I started thinking about it and asking more questions and within an hour, I was an atheist.”
That’s it. Gervais made a decision as a child, apparently without talking about it with his mother, brother or anyone else (the article doesn’t say to whom he asked his questions, so I’m assuming the ‘conversation’ took place inside his head). And the rest of the article makes it clear that he never bothered to revisit it.
Astonishing? From one point of view, not at all. I don’t think I’m being paranoid when I write that in most of Europe and North America, Jesus followers are held in contempt by a majority of the media, by the entertainment industry and by most atheists. That’s definitely the case in Canada, where I live. So Gervais made his life easier by joining the majority.
On the other hand, what leaves me stunned is that Gervais has apparently never reconsidered a decision made when he had pretty much no knowledge or experience about anything. Heck, his brain wasn’t even close to fully formed yet. And it’s a decision that even the most militant atheist or agnostic will probably agree is very important.
I wonder; are there any areas of my life where I’ve made important decisions as a child and have been too proud or ignorant to review them? How have these decisions made my life poorer? How have they closed off my mind and my heart to making changes?
Thankfully, one of those areas hasn’t been my spiritual life. I wrestled with questions about God, Jesus and faith for many years. I debated Jesus followers, read several books and finally decided (at age 41) that despite not having all my questions answered, the best thing I could do with my life and future is to follow Jesus, now and for all eternity.
What about you? Did you reject God and His son years ago and never revisit your decision? Are you humble enough to admit it might be worth reconsidering? Post a comment below and let’s have a conversation.
Frank's Cottage 
When choosing a physician or a lawyer, people make the effort and take the time to make sure that they have made a good choice. But because they don’t understand the concepts of eternity and a holy God, they don’t adequately search the Scriptures.
We need to heed Jesus’ words: “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it.”
Good point, Brook. Thanks, as always, for reading and commenting. 🙂
I was not brought up in a strong faith. As a child of about 10, I didn’t think I needed God at all. However, at age 30, all that changed (long story for another time), and I have followed Jesus ever since.
Wonderfully provocative post, Frank!
Great thoughts as usual, Martha. Always appreciate you reading and commenting. 🙂
Very interesting article Frank. No one wants his/her older brother or mother or anyone to think he/she is dumb. It seemed ‘dumb’ to Ricky to believe in God because no one could prove His existence or to try to stretch him into believing it. He didn’t want to be silly and I can understand that if his own mother and brother were skeptical, just how difficult it would be to believe.
I think that is the reason many people don’t believe in God. They can’t prove it, don’t want to really HAVE to be good and don’t want the questions surrounding it. It’s easier and more comfortable not to believe. You’ll be in good company too.
However, believing can be difficult especially when people ask why you do. I have a simple answer, which is that “I know there’s a God. I’ve seen too many miracles and had too many experiences not to believe. I may not be able to explain it, but I know it with all that I am.”
If the snickering doesn’t stop, then the person is bordering on being really disrespectful. I don’t disrespect others. I have a friend who is a Scientologist, another who is Jewish, another who is athiest, Hindu, and on it goes.
I have asked 3 priests at various times how I might bring someone to go to church, believe in God. They all said the same thing. “You can’t make anyone do anything. Don’t preach. Don’t nag. You can only show by example just how happy something makes you and hope other people want to follow because of the goodness it brings (to and through you).” I will never forget those words. They sound like words for Christians, Muslims and all people to live by.
Great thoughts, Sandie. Thanks for reading and commenting. 🙂
As a non-theist I STILL believe I HAVE to be good. Not only for the selfish reason that it feels good to be good, but because it is just the right thing to do. Let me repeat…
“As a human being living amongst other human beings, It. Is. Just. The. Right. Thing. To. Do.”
The act of doing good IS the reward. I don’t know why that’s not enough for some. Ego is suppose. But, the desires of one should never supercede the needs of another.
Let me be clear, I associate no trauma or discomfort with my Catholic upbringing and I have attended so many other types of churches. To me it was all the same. Though, the community and joyful shared experience in the churches I have visited were immutable and irrefutable. I Just don’t get their connection with an afterlife or even why an afterlife is necessary. ?
I lost my ego in a horrific stoicism incident. So, since I’m not overly concerned about where -or- if I go somewhere after I die, non-theism DOES free me from all of the ritual, procedure and ceremony that a believer has to deal with in an organized religion. I totally understand that ritual can be necessary for those who require a tangible representation of a feeling. Still, I don’t make the connection with the need for an afterlife. What’s the difference in “happy-now” vs. “happy later”?
Isn’t it enough to just try to be like Jesus?
So, IF, on my so-called judgement day, my life record is rejected and I’m not allowed an everlasting life. I’ll still have the satisfaction of having tried to live a Jesus-like life on earth.
And I say, “Let the deity-sanctioned immolation begin”!!
Parents can have a big impact on childhood decisions. That’s why it’s important how they raise a child. It seems to me that the mother in the story didn’t spend enough time and effort to tell her son who God is and how the relationship works.
On the other hand, parents can’t force a child to believe or do something that he/she doesn’t really believe in (at least after the age of 18 years). The thing is that parents can portray God in a negative, forceful way and the child will have a false view of God.
Excellent points, Martin. Thanks for reading and contributing. 🙂
How is a negative view the wrong view? It’s clear you haven’t even read your own “holy book”.
What good would a negative view have? Would it just make you cynical and prone to mocking and ridiculing people of faith? Maybe that’s the way some people want to live, but I sure wouldn’t recommend it.
The reverse happened to me when I was young. I began to read the Bible at a young age and at about the age of 12 I remember being jolted into realizing that Jesus actually existed. This began my journey into reading and studying the Bible and developing a deep and lasting friendship with Jesus, who has been a rock for me.
Nice to know that happens, John. Thanks for reading and contributing to the conversation. 🙂
So Frank, why aren’t you questioning the decision he made at such a young age? Yet you question Ricky’s. A bit hypocritical.
He wrote about making the decision, then doing a lot of reading and studying afterwards. To me, that doesn’t sound like a decision that was made and then never reconsidered.
My atheism came about in a similar fashion to Ricky’s. I was at a Christian junior school and we were very much indoctrinated by Christianity. I started to have a fascination about Greek and Roman gods and also pagan gods at the age of about 9.
I considered this and wondered why people had decided to believe in a different gods and why one would be better than another. I asked my Dad what he thought and he said religion is a load of bollocks and the more I thought about it the more I realized he was right.
Nothing has changed that opinion and although that is a crude statement, it is what I believe.
I am 50 now and have never had to reconsider my opinion.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Jayne. I guess, with your comment, you answered the last question in the essay….
I had heard Ricky tell this story on that Actor’s Workshop show, but your point never occurred to me. Personally, I came to non-theism late in life after growing up Catholic (no trauma involved). I left it because it just didn’t resonate with me.
Later in life, I became fascinated with the historic Jesus (and still hold a positive fascination) and began voracious consumption of all the theism I could get my hands on [ documentaries, books about the bible, The Bible, TV evangelist Joel Osteen 🙂 ]. Ironically, that was enough to bring me to my current non-theistic views.
I still watch Joel “religiously”–something about that guy DOES resonate with me. So perhaps there’s some biological predisposition to theism and non, but I choose “non”……..for now.
Oh and Frank, I assure you, any delay of approval of your comment on my blog is 100% attributable to my wordpress ignorance–I/m new here! :0
Thanks for your very mature and detailed comment. I appreciate your openness! 🙂
[…] [My reply to Frank's Cottage's – "RECONSIDERING CHILDHOOD DECISIONS"] […]
Christianity should be a case of “opting in” not “opting out”. Children should not be indoctrinated to the beliefs of their parents.
>Heck, his brain wasn’t even close to fully formed yet.
So why was he being raised with these beliefs? Shouldn’t they be introduced to him when his brain IS fully formed and he can make a proper judgement.
I agree that he was very young to come to this conclusion and concede that it sounds like he dropped his faith to appease his brother, but I don’t believe he should have had this faith in the first place if he’s, as you say, old enough to understand it.
To suggest, however, that he hasn’t questioned this decision in the years following is naive. The whole point of being an atheist or agnostic is that you do ask questions CONSTANTLY. It’s not enough to say “I believe this because the Bible says so and the Bible is the word of God”. We want answers. And if you could offer ONE, just ONE measly piece of evidence, I would return to Christianity with open arms.
Ah, but you will say, that it’s about “faith”.
But then I would say that “faith” is merely an iron-clad insistence that your opinion is correct.
>don’t want to really HAVE to be good
ROT. If you think religion has anything to do with morality, you’re sadly misguided. I am a good person, because I believe that this is what is morally right, not because I wish to be rewarded by your god. We tell children to be good so they’ll be rewarded by Santa Claus. There’s no real difference.
>don’t want the questions surrounding it.
The questions? How about these:
1) Why do you believe in YOUR god – and not any of the other thousands created?
2) Of these thousands of other gods would you agree that they are all fictional apart from your one?
3) Do you think you’d worship a different god if you were brought up in China, for example?
4) Is Satan real, and if so, why did your god create him?
5) Do you believe that the Virgin Mary’s actual body rose into Heaven?
6) If it *rose* into Heaven – where is Heaven? Why can’t we see it with powerful telescopes?
7) Do you actually believe that Noah created an ark capable of housing all the animals of the Earth?
8) How do you separate allegories from “fact” in the Bible if it’s never made clear which is why?
9)Don’t you think it’s weird that the idea of a Virgin Birth pre-dates Christianity by thousands of years?
10) That stone that God created that he can’t pick up…where are we on that?
Personally, I don’t need questions like the above. They’re all pretty nasty and awkward aren’t they? Feel free to give them a go though.
Meanwhile, atheists and agnostics have plenty of awkward questions of their own. Namely, if there isn’t an “intelligent creator” what came before the beginning (or, in your terms, who created God?). The difference between you and me is that I’m quite happy to say “I don’t know”. And then I wait for scientific theories. Then someone will come by and try to DISPROVE that theory. If it doesn’t hold it, it’s rejected.
>easier and more comfortable not to believe.
Why is it easier? I would dearly LOVE to believe that there’s some purpose for us to be on Earth other than reproduce. I would also like the idea of life after death (well, kind of). These were comforting thoughts when I was young and scared. But I outgrew them. Why? Because I questioned them, and realised that, just because something is reassuring, doesn’t mean it’s true. There is no evidence, there is no reason to believe beyond the fact that these superstitions make life more comfortable, less difficult to understand.
>Did you reject God and His son years ago and never revisit your decision?
As above, ALL the time. But do YOU revisit your decision? Do you *seriously* question your faith? Can you provide answers to the questions that are frequently trotted out to test your faith?
Thanks for reading and for taking all the time to write your response, Pete. I appreciate it. 🙂
You make far too many points for me to answer all of them. Suffice to say, we’re going to agree to disagree on most of them. But on four points, I’ll write this:
1. I don’t believe for a moment that I was naive to suggest Ricky Gervais has never questioned his decision to become an atheist. I read the article that this essay is based on very, very carefully. I’ve read other writings by Gervais (and about him, too) and none of them make any sort of suggestion that he’s revisited that decision. So I happily stick with what I wrote.
2. Given the opposition our culture has to following Jesus of Nazareth, the ONLY way children can possibly give Jesus any sort of legitimate consideration is if they learn all about Him from their parents. It won’t take long before they are exposed to a tsunami of mocking anti-Jesus viewpoints and pressure to abandon their faith.
3. On your second-last question, Pete, why do you think it took me so long decide to follow Jesus? I looked at it from all sorts of viewpoints, read all kinds of books and talked to all manner of people. Did you do all that before adopting atheism as your faith?
4. On your final query, please check out the other essays on Frank’s Cottage. Those articles, and others to come, tackle many of the questions frequently tossed out to to test my faith. Can I answer ALL those questions, Pete? Certainly not. Do I need to? Certainly not. Those unanswered questions are the powerful and necessary reminder I need that God is God. And I am NOT. 🙂
>Given the opposition our culture has to Christianity, the ONLY way children can possibly give Jesus Christ any sort of serious consideration is if they learn all about Him from their parents.
But you have said yourself that, for example, an eight year old does not have sufficient brain power to even comprehend the importance of faith or belief. So why should we present these ideas to a child at a young age? Because they’re impressionable? Because they’re more likely to obey?
I confess bafflement at the idea of “faith”, but I have far more respect for “Born Again Christians”, than those people who were introduced to religion at the age of 3 and spend the rest of the life in this faith. Why? Because they were old enough to consider what they entering into.
The fact that you think Ricky Gervais was too young to walk away means you should also think he was too young to walk into it. Or is it a one-way door? He’s old enough to embrace Christianity but not old enough to embrace Atheism?
Incidentally, I wouldn’t trust my mother to give me a lesson on science, so I wouldn’t want her to give me a lesson on religion which, to a Christian, seems far more important. Or maybe the point is that it’s easier to teach Christianity because there’s only one textbook that really matters and every question can be answered with “It says so here”.
>On your second-last question, Pete, why do you think it took me so long decide to follow Jesus Christ? I looked at it from all sorts of viewpoints, read all kinds of books and talked to all manner of people. Did you do that before arriving at your viewpoint?
I went to a Christian school in the UK for A-Levels (what I believe are the English equivalent of the Canadian IBs). We took prayers every morning and did a lot of Bible reading, Religious ‘Education’ was daily. You may think my lack of faith is almost an act of rebellion against this, but it’s really not. I’ve talked to far more Christians about religion than militant atheists (I know none!). Some of my closest friends are Christian and one is currently at Bible College. I’m fascinated by religion, which is why I do not restrict my reading to Christianity or Atheist/Agnostic literature. So, to answer, your question; YES. 😉
>On your final query, please check out the other essays on Frank’s Cottage. Those articles, and others to come (ever Saturday) tackle many of the questions frequently tossed out to to test my faith.
I look forward to it. Your site is incredibly interesting.
I became atheist after reading the bible cover-to-cover for the third time. While the stories are wonderful and the book is essential to understanding Western literature, the god described throughout the bible was for the most part evil. And this filtered down to the believers in this god throughout Judaism, xanity, and Islam.
l feel very sorry for god-believers because they live a dishonest life, based on lies and an imaginary friend. But why did their imaginary friend “create” this world based on violence and death at every turn? Why is evil necessary? I can’t respect a god that allows god-believers to rape children and get away with it for centuries on end.
What’s so interesting, Zaine, is lots of people have come to faith in Jesus Christ because they read the Bible from cover to cover.
In addition, whoever said evil is “necessary”? And if you don’t respect God for giving us the gift of freewill – which lets you blame Him for how we have spit on that gift – then that’s an issue for you to deal with. Why? Because it sounds like you’re very angry.
I was very angry, too. And it got me absolutely nowhere. It’s my prayer, Zaine, that one day you’ll come to realize, as I did, that this anger is better left behind.
In the meantime, thanks for reading and commenting. I appreciate it. 🙂
I made the decision at around 18. I didn’t like that every time I prayed, I asked god for a sign. I knew I didn’t really believe and didn’t like being on the fence.
I put much thought and research into it and have been a happy atheist ever since. I have revisited that decision and never reconsidered that god may exist.