Brickbat: By God!

Dominic Lipinski/ZUMA Press/Newscom

Irish police were investigating actor Stephen Fry for blasphemy. A TV viewer filed a complaint after Fry said in an interview that if he made it to Heaven he would ask God, "How dare you create a world in which there is such misery? It's not our fault? It's not right. It's utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?"

The investigation has since been dropped.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

"We have already seen around the world what can happen when large numbers of people demonstrate outrage about cartoons that they consider blasphemous," Nugent said.

Muslims: Hey, leave us out of this.

[Trigger Hippie]

"How dare you create a world in which there is such misery? It's not our fault? It's not right. It's utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?"

Free will is a bitch, Stephen. Get over yourself.

[some guy]

Why can't we keep the free will but go without all the horrible contagious and genetic diseases? I mean, did God really have to include cancer as a possibility for children? What purpose does malaria serve other than to make a lot of people miserable regardless of what decisions they make? There's plenty of misery out there hard-coded into this world before free will is applied. At best God is indifferent to human suffering.

[geo1113]

How could God be indifferent to cancer for children when there is a place like Saint Jude's?

[some guy]

At best, he's indifferent. At worst he's using misery to make work for some of his followers.

[geo1113]

Glad I am not a miserable bastard like you.

[wef]

You are your own, unique, miserable bastard.

[Bob K]

Because Eve was tempted by the serpent and Adam fell for her womanly charms. Original Sin. It was our own free will that damned us to a life of suffering.

[Shirley Knott]

And thus dog's have heart worm and humans have guinea worms and leprosy and avalanches crush villages.
Yeah, right.
The "it's all your fault for exercising free will" is one of the vilest and most evil 'blame the victim' games ever.

[Bob K]

What is this "blame the victim"? The property owner of Eden in the his contract with the tenets expressly forbid them from eating from the tree of life/wisdom. They violated the terms of the contract and hence suffer the consequences. Adam and Eve are not victims but criminals who are lucky God didn't smite them right then and there.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

He should've, it would have saved us and Him all this trouble.

[ace_m82]

So you'd rather be dead? Well, I hear that's not terribly hard to accomplish...

Unless you don't actually believe that, that is...

[Lost_In_Translation]

The Tree of Life/Wisdom would have been deemed an attractive nuisance by the court system and God would have been held liable for damages to Adam and Eve's psyche. The eviction would be deemed unjustified and Adam and Eve would be compensated for their lack of housing with a new garden of eden, this one with more grapes and fuzzier animals

[Griffin3]

But soon the Section 8 Eden would be run down, populated by undesirables, and scheduled for divine renewal after a finding of moral blight.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You do realize the reason for cancer is because without it we'd concentrate on tribalist differences and not all come together in shared misery and work tirelessly together to cure it. Also to thin the herd.

[Jerryskids]

My brother will tell you the most painful moment in his life was when it came time for his little girl to go back to the hospital for a second round of chemo and when she realized where her mother was getting ready to take her, she ran screaming to her daddy begging for her daddy to save her from those mean people who wanted to hurt her. And he peeled her off his leg and handed her over to her torturers. How do you explain to a little child that those mean people are not hurting her just for the fun of it but are actually trying to save her life? All a child can comprehend is the pain and suffering, the child lacks the understanding of the greater purpose.

Maybe there's something there as an analogy, the relationship of a loving parent to an uncomprehending child compared to the relationship of God to Man.

[some guy]

Maybe there's something there as an analogy, the relationship of a loving parent to an uncomprehending child compared to the relationship of God to Man.

I could buy that, but only in the case where God is neither omniscient nor omnipotent. Otherwise the analogy just doesn't hold up.

[ace_m82]

Or, maybe, just maybe you are trying to judge an omniscient and omnipotent being on the basis of a limited understanding.

After all, the first sin was pride, "For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Comparing yourself to God isn't like comparing a dog to a human, it's more like comparing an ant to a human. Or an amoebae.

[Lost_In_Translation]

More like comparing yourself to a black hole, its nonsensical. There is no "white haired" Zeus judging us and watching over us.

[ace_m82]

More like comparing yourself to a black hole, its nonsensical.

Look at how cute it is, the human can only conceive of God as a force of nature! Because of course you know everything!

See my previous post.

[BYODB]

In the case of Man v. God, God always win's because he designed man to fuck up which inadvertently proved his fallibility as we are supposedly in his image. That awkward moment...

Depending on which God you mean, of course, or ethos that serves the same purpose.

Sure, they could be the inscrutable machinations of a divine being or it could just be the indifferent universe, but if you can't tell a difference between the two...you become an agnostic. If you try to use one of the many, many books on the subject to divine his will it only becomes more bizarre.

[ace_m82]

God always win's because he designed man to fuck up which inadvertently proved his fallibility as we are supposedly in his image.

God made you free to choose good or evil ("made in his image"). As he made you free, it's not his fault you decided something other than him to be your "god" (your highest priority).

You see, God didn't create man like man creates robots or computer programs. God made you free, as (apparently) you have to be free in order to fellowship. But that implies the ability to do wrong.

For a different look at what this could have looked like, had the man and the woman chosen correctly, read CS Lewis' second book in the Space Trilogy, Perelandra.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

It's all because that bitch had to eat that apple.

And/or because you touch yourself.

[wef]

He referred specifically to ophthalmic parasitosis as an example of the merciful gawd's being nice to little children.

[timpslab]

How could God be indifferent to cancer for children when there is a place like Saint Jude's? Didn't got Kodi.

[JaniceMaxson]

This topic is very ticklish. It is necessary to understand that in 2017 such topics as religion, equality and sexual orientation will be very much monitored by the public. And any harsh statements can lead to disastrous consequences. Unfortunately, this is today's reality and nowhere to go. I even wrote an essay on this topic for my dissertation writing service. Stephen Fry walks the razor's edge. And I must understand this.

[Griffin3]

This spam almost fits the topic. Who says artificial intelligence isn't feasible?
Make more sense than some of our commenters.

[Longtobefree]

Fair enough; according to the Bible, two witnesses are required.

[DanO.]

Christian libertarians -- walking, talking contradictions.

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

DanO. -- Proof Lucifer is winning.

[wef]

Proof, only if you are already in on the secret divine revelation. Otherwise, to the poor benighted fools who only rely on evidence and reason, DanO.'s just a normal guy.

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

wef -- Spawn of Lilith.

[wef]

Caught me.

[Lost_In_Translation]

That TV show is awful...

[ace_m82]

And just where does anything Christ says force me to make you be "good" against your will?

To be fair where does anything in the Bible force me to make anyone "good" against their will (pay attention to the italics there)?