Sometimes, when I find myself doomscrolling through clips online, I come across a video of comedian and renowned atheist Ricky Gervais making his argument for science and against religion. He states, “If we take something like any fiction, any holy book, and any other fiction and destroyed it, in a thousand years’ time, that wouldn’t come back just as it was. Whereas if we took every science book and every fact and destroyed them all, in a thousand years they’d all be back, because all the same tests would be the same result.”
Gervais makes the argument that should you have the ability to completely wipe away all scientific research and technology that ever existed, as well as all religious texts, you can expect all of the scientific discoveries to come back exactly as they were, but not the religious texts. He has made this argument on several occasions, and in every instance, the person on the other side of the conversation is dumbfounded and has no actual retort. The most famous of these encounters was with Late Show host and alleged Catholic, Stephen Colbert. Colbert’s only response was, “That’s really good.”
There are two easy ways to refute this argument. The first is that a good number of religious texts are based on stories. It is the documentation of what G-d did for and to mankind. Based on those stories and conversations, we have our society today. Presumably, if we wiped out all recorded history and started from scratch, things would not have worked out in the exact same way as they do now. And while it may be true that scientific discoveries would probably happen again, the people making those discoveries would be different. And just because those people don’t currently exist, does not mean they never did. We just don’t have the documentation stating that they did. That’s how history works; and just because one may live in a world where that history was never recorded, it does not mean that it never happened.
Furthermore, just look at the way Gervais describes religious texts: “any fiction, and holy book.” For this argument to be strong is to look at it from the point of view of an atheist – that holy books are works of fiction. So Gervais sets up a strawman – that historical texts cannot be repeated. He does not even believe that these are historical; instead, he believes that these stories are fiction. Well, yeah, when you wipe away history, it’s very difficult for the exact same history to repeat itself, especially when you don’t even acknowledge that those things actually happened.
The second way to refute this argument and call it “really good,” as Colbert says, is if you concede one of the main tenets of every major monotheistic religion: the existence of an Almighty Being. An Almighty Being can absolutely create a world exactly how it is now. In fact, every day in the blessings of Sh’ma, we thank G-d for renewing His creation constantly, every day. To a believer in a Superior Being, this would be nothing for G-d to rebuild. After all, He built it once (as far as we know).
Granting the atheist’s premise here is a violation of at least five of Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles of Faith:
The existence of a Creator (1)
That G-d is not physical and is not affected by the physical world (3)
The belief in G-d’s eternity (4)
The belief that G-d communicates through prophecy (6)
The belief in the divine origin of the Torah (8)
It is often easy for us to forget that we live in G-d’s world. There are so many luxuries we have in life that make it possible for us to thank science instead of our Creator. But if we are to believe in our religion – or, in fact, any monotheistic religion – we cannot concede this point. The answer to Gervais is not one of wonderment at the depth of his poignancy. It is to dismiss it entirely.
Izzo Zwiren works in healthcare administration, constantly concerning himself with the state of healthcare politics. The topic of healthcare has led Izzo to become passionate about a variety of political issues affecting our country today. Aside from politics, Izzo is a fan of trivia, stand-up comedy, and the New York Giants. Izzo lives on Long Island with his wife and two adorable, hilarious daughters.
