In an unusual exchange on the "The Late Show," devout Catholic Stephen Colbert had a conversation with comedian Ricky Gervais, an agnostic atheist, about the existence of God.
Colbert began Wednesday night's "Late Show" conversation with Gervais by saying, “Why is there something instead of nothing?”
Gervais then questioned the very premise of Colbert’s query by countering, “Surely, the bigger question is not why but how. Why is irrelevant, isn’t it?”
Colbert seemed to step back a bit from the debate at times, conceding Gervais’ points that no one can really prove that there is a God and that Colbert "basically" denied "one less God than" he does. "You don’t believe in 2,999 gods,” Gervais said. “And I don’t believe in just one more.”
Colbert said he had a “strong desire” to express his gratitude for his life “towards something or someone.”
“I know the chance is a billion to one that I am on this planet,” Gervais responded, saying that he also feels gratitude but not toward any particular being.
When Colbert brought up Stephen Hawking and said that believing in science is similar to having faith, Gervais disagreed.
“Science is constantly proved all the time,” he said. “If we take something like any fiction, any holy book, 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.”
“That’s good,” Colbert had to admit. “That’s really good.”
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