Fiction, Facts and Holy Books are NOT Interchangeable!

"Science is constantly proving itself over and over again. If you take any Holy book or any other Fiction and destroyed it...in a 1000 years time, that wouldn't come back just as it was, but if you take any science book or any fact and destroy it...in a 1000 years they'd all be back, because all the same tests will give the same results."
This came from Ricky Gervais (an Agnostic Atheist), while in an interview with Stephen Colbert (apparently a Christian) back in February:

He makes the statement at about 3:36

And while this sounds nice...the logic behind it is fundamentally flawed in the following ways:

1. Science disproves more than it proves...for every one generally accepted theory/law we have (gravity, thermodynamics, etc) there are countless other DISproved theories that simply don't work because they can't be replicated and observed repeatedly.

2. He assumes holy books are fiction. They are not.

3. He assumes religious literature or maybe even beliefs wont come back in 1000yrs time.

This is possibly the most preposterous, simply because, people who hold beliefs grounded outside of a textual sense don't just forget that belief when their holy book goes away.

For example, I happen to be a Follower of Christ. I've happened to have encounters with the living God that one doesn't simply fake or brush off as a ghost story. People who have also encountered these experiences won't just...die off if their Bibles are suddenly destroyed. A whole new breed of religion will be born, with a whole new set of literature to guide them (ever seen The Book of Eli??)- and the same goes for all other religions grounded in faith and experience.

Meaning, while I would wager that many religions would NOT come back, it would be naive to assume Christianity to be the only one. Islam, and others would definitely come back as well.

4. When he says "science and facts"....well, science isn't fact. It's theory.

Fact: I'm writing my fist blog post right now. Theory: All life began as a single-celled organism.

See the difference?

This is part of HOW his logic is flawed. People that treat science as fact miss the whole purpose of science...to learn...just sayin'.

And lastly,

5. If you destroy every science book out there, in 1000 years it will come back VERY different, because while although the laws of nature haven't changed, and thus the theories/laws of science will follow, the approach to every new scientific innovation will be totally different. (No textbooks, no directions).

Ever try to rebuild a simple lego structure without instructions? Did all the pieces go back the EXACT same way? No, of course not. You figured out how to do it in less pieces or make a small hidden door in that extra space you had.

.....Wait hang on, I have to be culturally relevant...ever try to rebuild a structure in MINECRAFT?!?! lol

I like Ricky Gervais. He's actually quite funny. And I don't dislike him any less cause he said what he said, or cause he's an atheist. But I will debate and unpackage the substance of what a person says or does, if I believe it needs rebuttal.

And in the far-too-often case where people make science their religion (which it is not....Tom Cruise has proved that for us), I will talk about it.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Concerns? Ideas?

Leave a comment, and DON'T be fallacious. :)