Last night, Ricky Gervais appeared on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live” to talk about his new Netflix series “Derek” but the conversation — as it always seems to do when someone interviews Gervais — moved to religion.

Fine by me, though, because Gervais got in a wonderful line about why the lack of an afterlife drives him to do even more in this life (beginning at the 2:44 mark):

Gervais: Whenever I’m ill, I think I’m going to die. Everything’s terminal… Morgan: Well, also for you. Because anyone that follows you on Twitter — you have a huge following — they’ll know that you are a pathological atheist, and therefore the thought of death is very final for you. For me, as a good Irish Catholic boy, it’s the start of something new and glorious. For you, that’s it. Gervais: And for me, it’s the end of something glorious, so I have to pack it all in. But, you know, I’m not depressed about it. I don’t want to die any more than anyone else. And I think there’s this strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. It’s the opposite. We have nothing to die for… We have everything to live for.

That’s exactly it. Gervais went on to say how lucky he was to be alive for as long as he does because he gets a chance to enjoy life and all it has to offer. Even Morgan found little to criticize in that.

(via Raw Story)



