Richard Dawkins on Stephen Fry, blasphemy and the law May 10, Fry blasphemy brouhaha has exposed our post-Catholic neurosis May 11, The backlash was mostly about acting out the ritualised shame of being from a persecuted, backward little country.
Religious instinct will outlive evangelical secularists May 30, Populist rants of Stephen Fry and Richard Dawkins insult intelligence as well as the faithful. More News Videos Cop 'When you're close to the abyss your next step is important'. Highlights Irish Times. Commenting on The Irish Times has changed. To comment you must now be an Irish Times subscriber. The account details entered are not currently associated with an Irish Times subscription.
Please subscribe to sign in to comment. All life has come about because of the death of a star. Death and suffering is intrinsic to life and evolution. Mammals — hence we humans — were able to flourish mainly because of the mass extinction of the dinosaurs in all likelihood caused by a huge asteroid hitting planet earth about 65 million years ago.
Evolution only proceeds through death and suffering. Without death there is no new life. The theology of many people of faith has not kept pace with their cosmology. With a medieval mindset, God is seen as the divine clock-maker, mechanically winding up the creation clock at the dawn of time, and then, job complete, withdrawing to contemplate his sic creation. Such a God then intervenes arbitrarily and miraculously by causing earthquake here, flood there, disease elsewhere. This God could also, of course, send along a fine day for the parish picnic for which believers had earnestly prayed!
This is stereotyping to be sure. But the belief in a disengaged, capricious God dispensing blessings and curses upon humanity, a God who fails to respect the laws of nature, lingers in the human psyche. As does the belief that God sends suffering to test us or punish us. First, we have to admit there is no quick and easy philosophical response to the problem of suffering.
That applies to Fry's comments as much as it does to the standard Christian arguments. Fry is not offering a solution to the problem of suffering; when you abolish God, you do not abolish the problem of pain.
In effect, he is saying "There is no solution, so just get on with it. If you take God out of the equation you still have the suffering, pain and apparent meaninglessness. Evolution still provides you with the worm that burrows through children's eyes. What's your answer and solution — apart from suck it up and see? On the other hand, some of the classic Christian responses don't cut the mustard either.
The popular version of the classic 'free will defence' says that a suffering world is a necessary consequence of God giving humanity free will. This does offer one reply to Fry's comment that God "could easily" have created a world without suffering; it looks about as easy as making a square circle. But an obvious response to the free will defence is: well, was it really worth it? Is my human dignity really worth giving someone the ability to torture another human being and burn them alive, let alone the suffering caused by natural disasters?
Besides, when someone is in a place of suffering themselves, the last thing they need is a philosophical defence of God. This relates to the second main issue: the god that Fry describes is not the God that most Christians believe in. This God does not sit aloof from a suffering world, nor is the world the way God intended it to be. It is not as straightforward as saying that human sin causes tsunamis, but Scripture is clear that human sin does destroy relationships in marriage Genesis 3 , in families Genesis 4 and across society Genesis It harms the earth Hosea , and in some mysterious sense the whole of creation is "in bondage to decay" Romans And God's response to this is one of both justice and compassion — to the point of stepping into this troubled world.
A god who does not share in the suffering of the world is not a god worth believing in. It is striking that this God allows, even encourages, questioning. Human protestations against God occupy a large part of the Psalms, and the entirety of the book of Job. And contrary to Fry's assertion, God isn't interested in people grovelling in gratitude at his unquestioning power.
In Psalm 95, God's power evokes celebration, not grovelling, and bowing down in worship is a response to his tender care, not his omnipotence. The Meaning of Life footage from , in which Fry is quizzed by Irish TV presenter Gay Byrne, went viral after it was aired and has now been seen more than seven million times on YouTube. How dare you create a world to which there is such misery that is not our fault.
A spokesman for Mr Fry told The Daily Telegraph there was "nothing for us to say while this is under investigation.
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