for the record, I consider myself to be agnostic as opposed to atheist, but atheism does makes more sense to me than believing in a defined god…
I love the american office but have never seen the British but I’ve always heard it’s better. One of these years I’m gonna have to start with the first season and check it out. And yeah, he was funny as host. I saw that show too. Would much rather have him do the Oscars instead of Franco and Anne Hathaway? wtf? Steve Martin & Baldwin did good tag teaming it, but Franco & Hathaway? Both past SNL hosts, so we’ll see I guess.
An agnostic is just an atheist who needs to grow a pair. 
Funny, I always thought it was just an atheist without the arrogance.
Growing a pair usually leads to war. 
This little post or whatever it is does come across as outrageously pompous. And I had no idea who Ricky Gervais was until you all started talking about the British Office, and then I realized who he was. Now I’m even less impressed with the post. I mean, how did the not-very-funny, always-smiling-smugly dude from the British Office get to write for the Wall Street Journal?
I consider myself agnostic too, if that’s what it means when you don’t have a clue whether or not there’s a god. Actually I would say I’m an apathetic agnostic: I don’t know if there’s a god, and I don’t fucking care either.
I hate the “atheism is arrogant” argument. I’m an atheist. I don’t look down upon Buddhists, Catholics, Jews, Hindus, Shiites, Sunnis, Zoroastrians, Wiccans, Ancient Greeks or Rastafarians for believing what they believe. After lots of thought and reflection, the conclusion I’ve come to is that there is no god. Different people draw different conclusions about the world around them. Isn’t that part of what makes us essentially human?
^yeah I just came to say that although I haven’t met many atheists, most of the ones I have met have had the philosophy that I’m happy with where I’m at spiritually and I don’t really care what you think…I don’t think that’s pompous when most people have been cramming religion down our throats since we were kids, but the strongest atheist I know was my junior English teacher, he was not ashamed to say he did not believe in god but he knew more about religion than just about anybody I know…I think completely understands the reason for it, but he just doesn’t believe in any of it
but I did have one ‘friend’ in high school who was atheist and he was kind of an ass about it, but he was more of an ass about other things than his atheism, he had that attitude that I’m right and therefor no one else can be but that was more true for things outside of his spiritual beliefs or lack thereof
i’m not an athesit, i just don’t care if there is or isn’t a god. if there is, it’s beyond anything that we can comprehend and it’s just a waste of time to even bother.
to quote that corny poet from the string cheese cds, ‘learn and live. act out, reconsider, and give’.
Yahoo Answers - “Nurturing agnostics’ fear of conviction since 1996.” 
It’s not the believing part that seems arrogant, it’s the insisting you’re right part. I’m cool with people believing anything they want. But to insist that they are right and everyone else is wrong is, imo, arrogant-- whether your are catholic, atheist, rastafarian or whatever. There’s nothing wrong with the possibility of being wrong.
And the thing is, atheists DO believe in something that isn’t tangible or proveable. They believe in the universe. Ask any scientist and they will tell you that, in order to accept the idea of the universe, you need to accept something that is infinite, has always existed and will always exist. It’s something we can’t comprehend, we just have to accept it. You know… kinda like the way christians explain god. 
^ Not to be a douche but the universe is more likely finite. Otherwise the night sky would be filled with light from stars an infinite distance away, whose light has had an infinite number of years to reach us, so it is infinitely shining.
But still, you’re right, the size and age of the universe is difficult to comprehend. When I look at a star in the sky and I try to imagine an enormous burning ball of gas, millions of light years away…my mind fails. I can’t appreciate the distance or size. The biggest things on Earth are microscopic in comparison to the sun, and there are objects out there over 20 times as large as the sun. The way electrons orbit the nucleus, planets stars, stars a galactic center and sometimes other stars, and then galaxies orbiting other galaxies and the uniformity of things on the atomic scale all the way to the cosmic scale humbles and amazes me.
^Point on universe noted.
But, yeah, I still accept it even though I can’t comprehend it.
Even if you believe in the big bang, you’re gonna have to accept the fact that the nothing that existed before the big bang is still something… and you really have no idea what that nothing/something is, no matter how smart a scientist you are, or how much faith you have in zeus, allah or jesus.
lol @ “universe is most likely finite”
our galaxy is 6 billion years old. there are 125 billion galaxies in the universe. time and the universe has existed longer than we can possibly comprehend. the universe is larger than we could ever comprehend.
i really fail to see any evidence that demonstrates that the universe is “most likely finite”
yup.
familiarize yourselves with Olbers’ Paradox and see if it makes sense to you.
Spot on Killer Rob, Gervais is going full douche with this one.
If religion is an opiate for the masses. Why not just give opiates to the masses? Methadone: The perfect compliment to the welfare state. I don’t bother with religion. It seems like I could be doing anything else than being worried about fiction. I choose agnostic because it takes to much energy to have convictions about something not existing like atheism. Okham’s Razor, and Pascal’s Wager aside if it makes YOU feel better than go for it.
Funny thing is my wife is 1/2 japanese and 1/2 colombian which equals Catholic and Shinto. She is constantly torn between guilt and serenity. So it makes sense that she married a jewish/protestant by family, and agnostic by choice. Our kid is quite the hybrid. Interestingly he never gets sick
Depends how one defines finite. In terms of space, the Universe is most certainly finite. Well beyond the scope of human comprehension, fo course, yet certainly finite. However, if one considers time as well, then the Universe could very well be considered infinite. As far as we know, the Universe is going to continue expanding forever.
On another, slightly different note, has anyone considered the existence of lack of existence of a smallest particle? Neither possibility makes any sense to me. On the one hand, if there is a smallest particle, then one could simply divide it in half and thus have two smaller particles. Yet, if there is no smallest particle, that implies that there are smaller and smaller particles, which in fact implies an infinite nature to the Universe. Both possibilities make no sense.
Reality does not make any rational sense, as a whole, if you ask me.