My favorite comedian

Wikipedia - Tim Minchin

Timothy David Minchin (born 7 October 1975) is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, musician, composer, lyricist, and director. He was born in Northampton, England, to Australian parents, and raised in Perth, Western Australia.

Atheism and skepticism

During his 2009 interview for Australian Skeptics' podcast The Skeptic Zone, Minchin addressed his performance style as one that allows bringing up issues that can be upsetting or judgemental to others, such as the "moral hypocrisy about the idea that the Bible is perfect, the only place that you need to go to for your moral guidance...and about, obviously, prejudice in the church, its role in ostracising homosexuals...your defences are down when you're laughing as well and it's couched in music. All I'm doing is making things consumable that are otherwise difficult to consume."

As the son and grandson of medical surgeons, Minchin addressed alternative medicine claims by relating that unbiased tests for efficacy are the key:

You're in such a strong position when you understand the scientific process because all you say is, "Do you understand that the great breakthrough of humanity was figuring out how to make decisions about things whilst discarding human foibles? So, anecdotal evidence involves all your subjectivity—if we do it like this we don't have that anymore. Why, surely do you understand how powerful that is?" And if they don't, then that's what you have to explain to them. It's an extremely powerful thing and a very basic thing.

Minchin further explained his skeptical outlook:

I've always been an atheist; I've always been an empiricist really. I've never believed in ghosts or psychics or anything like that 'cause it's quite simple—you don't have to know much to go, "Really?" Or, to just apply Occam's Razor, to go, "Is it more likely that souls do circus tricks, or more likely that they're talking to dead people? And if the latter, by what process? What do you mean talking to dead people? Aren't their voice boxes rotten? So without a voice box, how do they talk, and by what means?" It doesn't take much to be skeptical about that. But really understanding, as I'm still learning, why science is powerful, is a new step towards being boring at dinner parties.

When asked if he thought the universe is full of life, Minchin summarised: "The chances of this happening might be one in infinity. Put it this way: the chance that there being intelligent alien life are, for me, infinitely higher than the chance there being a creator god."

In an interview with Independent Investigations Group member John Rael, Minchin explains that what upsets him most about paranormal beliefs is "special pleading" by people who say vague things such as "there is no harm in it". Minchin states that there is very little harm in something like reiki, but asks "where do you draw the line?" when it comes to needing real evidence if a therapy works or not. He states that he is an atheist as well as a skeptic, and cannot understand how someone can be a skeptic and still be religious. "If you apply doubt to anything...the whole religion thing is obviously a fantasy."

In 2012, Minchin appeared in a video hosted on the homepage of the British Humanist Association, describing humanism as important "because having a non-superstitious worldview allows you to go about your own business, making ethical decisions based on a general desire to do the most possible good."