Stephen Fry on God
You may already have seen the video clip from an interview with comedian Stephen Fry, which is due to air on Irish TV show The Meaning of Life this evening. Fry is asked what he would say to God if he died and had to confront him. Part of his reply is to say, “How dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is 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?” He goes on to call God “a maniac … utterly selfish … totally monstrous.”
Where do we begin in trying to think about this? We could ask, “Is there any misery in the world which is not our fault?” We are so individualistic in our thinking that we can fail to realise that “sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12, NIV). In our forefather Adam, we are collectively responsible for the misery – sin and death.
Having said that, I don’t know why particular miseries occur – and Stephen Fry mentions bone cancer in children. What I do know is that God, in his Son, has entered into the misery, bearing my sins and dying the death I deserve to die. While questions remain, and I mustn’t harden my heart to the misery I see, I don’t intend to give up on what I do know because of what I don’t know.