The most important thing everyone can do is keep an open mind about God, or the non-existence of God. When one becomes too closed minded about such things, it leads not to debate, but arguments, and hatred instead of civil discussion.. Which is something neither the religious or irreligious need.

My honest, full-hearted belief, though, is that if you seek you may very well find something you need, but may not be looking for.

Who created god? Did god create themself out of nothing?

I don't see how saying "god has existed since the beginning of time; there was nothing before god" makes any more sense than saying "the universe has existed since the beginning of time; there was nothing before the universe."

Oh wow, you opened yourself RIGHT up for inflammatory remarks.  

1 - first of all the lengthy, rational, and logical explanation as to why he is an atheist proves that even if he's stupid, he put a LOT of thought into it. 

2 - No, there isn't.  No it doesn't.  No, no no.  There's NO evidence for God in science, just unanswered questions.  If you admit that "god' as a concept is simply a metaphor for the unknown, sure, I'll accept that, but there's no supporting evidence that there's a higher divine being responsivle for the creation and direction of the universe.  

3 - Yes life is a long shot, but life CAN spring from non-life, scientists have actually recreated albiogenesis in a lab (the process needed to take proteins and acids that are NOT life...and make life.)  When you consider the vastness of space, the frequency of chemical reactions, and the elements on earth, even an infinitesimal chance of albiogenesis is a chance, and is going to happen eventually. 

4 - "There is a creator" is NOT an intelligent conclusion, it's a leap of faith, and leaps of faith have no place in science.  

5 - Nobody's saying everything came from nothing; actually READ some of the works of Stephen Hawking and other astrophysicists rather than just assuming the most simplistic and ignorant answer.  This is a logical fallacy known as the strawman, look it up.  

6 - Most intelligent people believe in god?  actually, I remember a pretty thorough report a few years back about how the top 1% of  the world's most intelligent people were almost entirely atheist.  your assumption is a blanket "we're smarter than you" argument.  Sir, citation needed.  

7 - This last paragraph of yours is just ignorant.  First of all, as blacksaber mentioned, Jews run the entertainment business (whether it's a joke or real, it's still the stereotype), and since America is the entertainment capital of he world, and America is a VERY religious place...well, your argument falls flat in every direction. 

Sorry, you fail. 

If you guys enjoyed reading that, then you'll love this page.

"Why I'm Agnostic" by Steven Mathies

It's a very interesting, reasonable, and articulate piece. Everyone should give it a read. Even if you speed read it, so be it. Though, you're bound to read one or two sentences that'll encourage you to read the entire piece.

Here's an exerpt that I thought expressed my own ideas better than I could ever imagine.

"...a God who could make good children as easily a bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice, and invented hell--mouths mercy, and invented hell--mouths Golden Rules and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people, and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites his poor abused slave to worship him!"

Full page: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/testimonials/matthies.html

One thing I thought was interesting was how he "tried" to believe in god, but could not. I really hope you guys give it a read.

Monogamy means a relationship where a person only has one spouse at a given time. It does not imply marriage or even that the two participants are of the opposite gender.

Not following the text of the bible in a literal sense does not mean people are not Christians - let along making them atheists.

Causality and the conservation of energy are two properties of the universe. There is nothing in science to imply that they exist outside of the universe and therefore there is nothing that implies that the beginning of the universe was governed by them. As such science does not currently show where or how matter or the universe came from - it also does not imply it had a creator.

Where life came from is quite a seperate field of study from where intelligence originated. The study of the origin of life is the study of abiogenesis, there's some very interesting work in the field showing how the basic compounds necessary for life (in an very simple form) to spontaneously form were likely in existence. As for intelligence - the theory of evolution (especially through natural selection) shows how that could have eventually formed.

well, if i look at the people who are banned right now, i do have a theory

True, but what's wrong with double standards, in this context at least. I've had a go at Christianity too. Buddhism (bad spelling I'm sure), would be most appropriate for the common person wishing to lead a "good" life I spose, I haven't researched it enough and live in the UK not many people who can share their untarnished insight here.

fyi, time was created with the universe. This was discovered by our smartest scientists. God did not exist from the beginning of time. God existed BEFORE time. The universe is about 14 billion years old according to NASA. Time was created with the matter of the universe. Since God can create time and matter God must be able to control time. The only way to control time is to be immune to it. i.e. (that is) God is timeless, immortal, always was. Therefore God was not created, but is immortal. This Biblical description of God is in perfect harmony with our most advanced science. For people who believe in God, which is over ninety percent of the world, we have no conflict between science and our believe in God. 

And again, I am reminded of this question: Why should I care what Rick Gervais believes or doesn't believe? This would go for most celebrities actually. If you can end up on TMZ, why does what you think matter on areas that are out of your realm of expertise? And if it is said that it is up to the believer to show why they believe, then in keeping with that, I would count arguments by non-believers to be useless, because they don't add anything really. They do nothing to end up showing anything to my satisfaction. It is said you can't really disprove anything absolutely does not exist in this entire universe, so to go hard core that was is absurd.

Then ignore that it's Ricky Gervais and just read it as a properly interesting, clever, funny and elequent article on religious belief.