I hadn’t thought of that, but now you’ve thrown it out there I can’t unsee it. I wonder if Bob is his great grandma or is it another of his innumerable illegitimate love children?
Tom Bainbridge it’s a bit of a rip off from a Monty python sketch, “How to do it” “This week we’ll show you to build box girder bridges, how to make black & white people live in peace & harmony and how to reconcile the Russians and the Chinese.”
MegaSkiboy A skit from one of Robert's and David's other series' (The Mitchell and Webb look I think) just search up 'Mitchell and Webb god watermelon' or something
This sketch is perfection. Brilliant concept, packed full of jokes and funny oneliners, and every word and beat matters. No wasted time, just shockingly good
@@madnessbydesign1415 Definite top twenty; underappreciated in the world of argument comedy. Absolutely up there with "Look, this isn't an argument!" "Yes it is'.
DeJayHank Well, I meant it more in the way Webb is the internet, since he's expecting to answer a question that people have debated since the dawn of mankind by making a single comment about it.
I know people have already stated their appreciation of this line already, but "I can think of to yes or no answers just off the top of my head", is just so hilarious.
I was about to comment, but then realized the comments thread are an amazing extension of the sketch itself. Mitchell and Webb and not simply awesome, they are META-AWESOME!
@Dexhead Hello commenter from 10 months ago, the person you responded to made their comment 7 years ago. There was probably much more arguing when they first made their comment.
Ah, a humorous and thoughtful commentary on the Media's superficial willingness to interrogate life's biggest questions in a short-form television enactment.
I've noticed some people arguing over the "meaning" of this sketch and, assuming there is one, I think it's quite clever how there are probably multiple meanings. The calm, respectful sides, whilst they come across as more intelligent and realistic, are incredibly impractical because, as yer man says, the question is an unbelievably important one. However, his burning desire for simple answers (whilst it reflects our own, internal demand for satisfactory answers) just can't be satisfied.
actually this question is unbelievably unimportant, because knowing the answer doesn't really change anything. what kind of god? do they interact with the world? why should we care about what the god thinks? there's no evidence for any of these questions either. if a question can't be answered, it isn't worth asking.
@@VineFynn While i agree with most of what you said, history is littered with questions that couldn't be answered then, but have been since just because they where asked.
@@jan675 but the issue of a God is one that by its very nature can't be answered scientifically. It can't be disproven because any seeming contradiction is just handwaved by "God works in mysterious ways" or "Our human minds can't possibly comprehend his Grand plan". On the flipside no evidence can be found to support it because the claim is to the supernatural, so has no evidence in the natural observable world. It relies on faith, not fact. So therefore can't be answered on a factual basis
@@lizardlegend42 Yes, but that doesn't make it "unimportant." You two are rightfully pointing that we don't seem to be able to answer it and thus should assume we have an answer, but if the truth is that a supernatural entity was going to torture you for eternity if you didn't make the right decisions for the next few decades that would obviously be supremely important information for you to have. It sucks that we don't have it and half measures like Pascal's Wager don't actually solve the problem, but it's not "unimportant." It's only unimportant if you assume we're correct that the answer is no, but as has already been pointing out we're just assuming it based on a lack of ability to reach any other conclusion.
RU-vid is watching YouToo no, it does not. Sound is an experience, an interpretation of vibrations, it requires an observer in order to exist. If no one is around to interpret vibration as sound, no sound is made. The tree would create a lot of vibrations, though.
@@Sokrabiades yes, the only difference is that no one was there to observe it but it doesn't mean that it would be any different from all the other times we have observed a tree or any solid object from falling. And until there is evidence to suggest otherwise every tree that falls makes a sound. Just like how until there is evidence to suggest otherwise there is no god/gods. The only other answer gets into whether something is a sound if no one hears it, which is more an argument about definition and interpretation of the question than anything else.
+BlitzTankTV Errrm, David Mitchell IS an agnostic. He's against the angry atheist and distances himself from them. The point of this sketch ist to point out how ridiculous unenlightened (= post Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Kant) black-and-white thinking, typical of the last few instant-this-that-and-the-other generations, is.
I feel a figure in the public eye can make a huge difference to their popularity by being outspoken on being a theist or an atheist so to just say you are agnostic is probably the safe stance as you don't alienate either belief system. Agnostic is a silly stance though because nobody that believes in god and no atheist in the world KNOWS they are right it's about belief. I find it very hard to believe an Agnostic sits perfectly in the middle of the two arguments, you must either 'think I suspect there is a God' or 'It's too farfetched to believe in God'. In my experience most Agnostics are just Atheists that are avoiding offending people.
A lot of people seem to misunderstand entirely how separate agnosticism and atheism is. One doesn't preclude the other. You can be an agnostic atheist you know. All that means is you don't currently believe there is a god because of the lack of evidence and therefore you cannot know one way or the other. Agnosticism is about knowledge and atheism is about lack of belief.
I fucking love these sketches, I watch Question Time now and then, but if it was more like this it'd be compulsory viewing. Robert is fucking hilarious in this
On a serious note, I think the problem is in the framing of the question, what does it mean for something to *exist* in the first place? _sits back, legs crossed, in black leather cushioned chair and takes a long draw on cigarette holder whilst wistfully staring into middle distance_
I actively believe that there isn't a yellow car parked outside my house right now (not looking out the window). I acknowledge the fact that there MIGHT be, as well as cars of any colour, but I've never seen a yellow car there, and statistically there's more of a chance of the spaces being filled with silver, white and black cars, so I choose to firmly place my bets on there NOT being a yellow car there. Atheist.
Emma Olsson nope, atheist. and agnostic isn't an in between state between theist and atheist. its a dichotomy. you either accept the proposition that a god exists or you don't. former you are a theist, latter you are an atheist. theism addresses what you believe and gnosticism addresses whether you believe the claim is knowable. so a person can be a gnostic theist, an gnostic atheist, and agnostic theist or an agnostic atheist.
*****... I'm an atheist, to be more specific an agnostic atheist. the quote you just posted supports my position. whether you believe that nothing is known or knowable about the existence of a god says absolutely nothing about whether or not you believe in a god.
Terncote you either believe something or you don't. its a dichotomy. belief works like a dimmer switch. you have off (no belief at all) and then you have varying degrees of on (varying degrees of certainty of your beliefs) the atheist position is the off position. it doesn't have a belief that a god exists. it is not the positive assertion that a god does not exist. theists are people who accept the proposition that a god exists. deists are a subset of theists (they are still theists). they believe that a god exists but they don't believe that it currently interferes with reality. atheists people who don't accept the proposition that a god exists. anti-theists are a sub set of atheist (they are still atheists) but they adopt a position that god doesn't exist. all of these positions address the proposition whether or not you believe in god. gnosticism and agnosticism address a completely different claim. they don't address belief but knowledge. A gnostic says they know whether or not a god exists and they believe god claims are knowable. An agnostic says they don't know whether or not a god exists and they believe that god claims are unknowable. a person can be a gnostic theist, and gnostic atheist, and agnostic theist or an agnostic atheist.
God does exist he lives in a church down the road.. So just go knock on the door any time of day or night and he will answer it. Lets see how many angry vicars we can create by late night door knocking.
Yeah, I know there are plenty of reasonable people in the US, just not enough to stop the country from going down the shitter. But hey, if you saw through Trump, you'll be quite welcome in other countries that respect democratic principles, instead of relying on the electoral college and gerrymandering to get nutjobs into positions of power.
Instead of asking to to define what is a 'god', how about contemplating this: I say that there is a God, you say that there isn't, let us assume that we arm firm in those beliefs and hold them unto or maybe after death. If you are right, neither of us can say 'told you so', if I am right, you won't be around when I say 'told you so'. I suspect that I won't see you in Church on Friday.
@@harryfaber giving me a messed up version of Pascal’s wager isn’t going to help you in this instance. The Christian God is not logically possible. The bible alone disproves his omni-benevolent nature.
HeatyFrog You're worthless to all debate and discussion on the topic. You're totally extraneous. Every agnostic ever could die without the debate losing anything. Thus, go make the tea for the people actually trying to answer important questions rather than shrugging their shoulders and going "iunno lol"
Josh O'Brien The discussion itself is worthless. You won't ever progress because it's a question that can't be answered. That's what agnosticism is, you must be using the primary school R.E. definition
HeatyFrog lol trying to answer questions is so dumb we should just be okay with no knowledge lol First of all, being agnostic on its own is impossible. I'm an agnostic athiest, as are most. Gnosticism and Agnosticism are epistemological claims separate from the belief inherent in Theism/Athiesm. You can be an Agnostic Athiest. i.e "I don't think there's a god but I'm not 100% certain" or an Agnostic Theist i.e "I think there's a god but I'm not 100% certain" But it is ALWAYS important to try to solve problems and answer questions. Only a child would disagree.
Josh O'Brien Well let me know when you reach a conclusion. People have been trying for thousands and thousands of years but I'm sure we'll get there soon. I'll leave you to stress over your "important questions" and the rest of us will just keep messing around with science and medicine and all that trivial nonsense
When tasked with a question based on something it's impossible to prove, you have to go with the most likely answer, regardless of anyone's feelings or ideals. So no, there is not a god, that is the absolute answer until new information becomes available. Easy.
You kind of glossed over the important part there... "the most likely answer." You have just kind of concluded a priori that is the most likely answer, without anything to back it up... which puts the topic right back to where it started.
In which case you recognise that this is a serious issue and therefore should be addressed both sensibly and seriously. Good. Glad we could reach an understanding.
"Oh make the tea" is my phone alarm sound. It's so weird, it sounds like an alarm is going off mid video and it's not actually his voice it's the weirdest shit ever
I generally dislike it when somebody in the comments merely quotes a good line from the video, but I'm still going to say that I really REALLY love that line: "I can think of TWO Yes or No answers off the top of my head!" I literally LOL'd at that one.
