Ricky Gervais has provoked the rage of fundamentalist Christians after getting into a row about God on Twitter. The spat began when a user called GodsWordIsLaw tweeted: “Thank God for Christopher Hitchens’ death.” The writer and committed atheist had died a day earlier. Gervais replied with a sarcastic “Perfect”, adding: “This is in the world at the moment people.
Can we change it a bit?” – suggesting that intolerance was rife and that people should adopt a less extreme stance. The seemingly innocuous comment was met with a barrage of abuse from GodsWordIsLaw, who wrote: “Atheism is poison, may God have mercy on your soul before he dropkicks you into HELL.” He added: “Ultimately it will lead to your eternal damnation.
Enjoy this life because it goes fast. Next one is for ever.” The fundamentalist’s attention was then drawn to the cover of the September/October 2011 edition of New Humanist magazine, which featured Gervais in a Christ-like pose with a microphone stand and the word atheist across his chest. The tweeter was so angry that he filmed himself burning a copy of the magazine – the kind of treatment usually reserved for the American flag by radical Muslims in the Middle East.
He uploaded the video to YouTube, where it has been viewed more than 300 times. Others then joined in the abuse. Over eight days, the writer and star of The Office was branded “as evil as they get” and accused of using his celebrity to “indoctrinate thousands of lost souls into a Godless life”.
