My Favorite Atheist
…my point is that despite all this, no actor — comic or dramatic, in my estimation — carries within him the power to convey hope, aspiration, faith, and human vulnerability like Ricky Gervais can. To hell with what he personally believes; when you see the things he makes — The Office, Extras, and even the recent, mawkish but charming film, Ghost Town — you witness a talent that radiates the cardinal virtues, disarming all claims of a disinterested universe peopled with fools that function under the pretense that “truth” and “love” have value outside an objective source. What Gervais the writer/actor does artistically belies what Gervais the man believes privately. On a vastly different but still comparable plane, he can do the kind of thing Yeats can: make you understand your own view of nature — your own belief even — while not sharing it.