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The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture

WOF 063: Stephen Colbert, Ricky Gervais, and the Debate About God

The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture

Brandon Vogt

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.95.8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2017

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Does God exist? That is the question Catholic comedian and television host, Stephen Colbert, debated with his Late Show guest, the popular actor and outspoken atheist, Ricky Gervais. The YouTube video clip of the two men going "head to head on religion" has gone viral, quickly garnering over 2.5 million views. In this episode of The Word on Fire Show, Bishop Barron breaks down each segment of the discussion and offers helpful insights for everyone fascinated (or haunted) by questions about God. The listener question asks whether atheists or theists bear the burden of proof when it comes to these debates.

Topics Discussed

  • 0:17  - Introduction, Bishop Barron's trip to Georgia for a Pivotal Players promotion
  • 4:00 - Colbert to Gervais, "Why is there something rather than nothing?"
  • 7:36 - What is the difference between asking why the universe exists and h0w the universe exists?
  • 12:05 - Colbert to Gervais, "Do you believe in a prime mover?"
  • 14:05 - Gervais explains what he believes an agnostic atheist is.
  • 16:57 - Gervais to Colbert, "You deny one less God than I do"
  • 20:52 - Colbert to Gervais, "Do you ever have a feeling of great gratitude for existence?"
  • 25:47 - Gervais explains to Colbert that Science is repeatable and holy books are not.
  • 29:20 - Listener Question: Do atheists or theists bear the burden of proof during debates about the existence of God?

Bonus Resources

  • Websites

Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and, again, be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome back to the Word on Fire show. I'm Brandon Vot, the host and the content director

0:07.9

at Word on Fire. And with me is the auxiliary bishop of Santa Barbara, Bishop Robert Barron,

0:13.7

Bishop Barron. Thanks for joining us.

0:15.7

Hey Brandon, it's always a joy to be with you.

0:18.9

Now you recently returned from a cross country trip. You went from California all the way

0:23.8

to Atlanta, Georgia. What were you doing there? I'm telling you a little bit about the

0:27.7

event. Well, it was one of the rolled out events. We called them for the pivotal players.

0:32.9

So as that has been published, we had these events around the country. We had one out here

0:37.8

in Orange County. We had one in New York, one in Chicago, and now Atlanta, then a final

0:43.7

one in Houston. The idea is just to gather some people together to show parts of the video,

0:48.5

to talk about how it was made, encourage them to buy it, etc. You know, so we had the

0:53.8

event in Atlanta. And one of the, I like Atlanta a lot. I've been there a number of times

0:58.0

over the years. And I just find it to be a pretty vibrant church. And it's headed by

1:03.3

an old friend of mine, our spiritual, well, Gregory was my spiritual director when I was

1:08.2

a kid when I was just a first year student at Mundlein back in 1982. So I've known him

1:15.1

for a long time. And he's a very gracious host and a gracious leader of that church,

1:20.7

a very vibrant church. And we had a room full of, I mean, hundreds of people and they

1:25.4

were enthusiastic. So it was a joy, even though it was a quick trip, but travel from where

1:30.3

I am at Santa Barbara, just to get to the LA airport is difficult. But it was a good

1:36.3

trip. Tell us about, I wasn't there, but I heard second hand. There were so many people

1:42.8

who cited word on fire and your own work as pivotal to their conversions. Tell us about

1:48.7

that. Yeah, you know, whenever I hear that, it's what makes me happiest. It's the most

...

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