Well here we have the viral youtube that so upset Russell Brand of all people. Had to laugh like Hell when the loudest most obnoxious foul mouthed attacker of all things status quo becomes the linebacker for God. God who happens to be the main player in all things status quo. Didn’t Russell Brand used to be married to Katy Perry? Just looked things up. Found the worm in the apple. Hare Krishna!
Gay Byrne:
… suppose it’s all true and you walk up to the pearly gates and you are confronted by God. What would Stephen Fry say to him, her or it?
Stephen Fry:
I will basically (it’s known as theodicy I think) I’ll say, “Bone cancer in children? What’s that about? How dare you! How dare you create a world where there is such misery that is not our fault! It’s not right. It is utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world that is so full of injustice and pain. That’s what I’d say.
And you think you’re going to get in?
Oh, but I wouldn’t want to. I wouldn’t want to get in on his terms. They’re wrong.
Now, if I died and it was Pluto, Hades and if it were the twelve Greek gods, then I’d have more truck with it because the Greeks didn’t pretend not to be human in their appetites, and in their capriciousness and their unreasonableness; they didn’t present themselves as being all-seeing, all-wise, all-kind, all-munificent; because the god who created this universe (if it was created by God) is, quite clearly, a maniac – utter maniac, totally selfish.
We have to spend our life on our knees thanking him? What kind of god would do that?
Yes, the world is very splendid, but it also has in it insects whose whole life-cycle is to burrow into the eyes of children and make them blind. They eat outwards from the eyes. Why did you do that? Why? Why did you do that to us? You could easily have made a creation where that didn’t exist. It is simply not acceptable.
So, you know, atheism is not just about not believing there’s a god – but, on the assumption there is one, what kind of god is it? It’s perfectly apparent that he is monstrous, utterly monstrous, and deserves no respect whatsoever. The moment you banish him your life becomes simpler, purer, cleaner – more worth living in my opinion.
That sure is the longest answer to that question I’ve ever had in this entire series. Thank you so much Stephen.
Well, there wasn’t a thunderbolt was there!