What questions would Stephen Fry ask God at the pearly gates?

Perhaps the carbon-units which infest Enterprise prevent you from merging with The Creator?
(edit: this was a reply to some vaguely religious-sounding spam)

Thereby intentionally proving that I am not a deity. Thanks for the reminder!

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Philosophically flawed, because the two formulations raise the issue of incomplete revelation which changes the setup conditions and payoff.

Mathematically brilliant and ground breaking.

Not at all, it only provides evidence that you are not that deity. Of the millions of gods most of them don’t seem to be attributed with those qualities. From a Hindu perspective we would know that your assertion of not being a deity is part of an elborate practical joke.

You got me, dude.

But, speaking evidentially, such evidence does not exist unless we perpetrate the belief that the deity in question has the qualities from which I deliberately exempted myself.

(Boy, am I going to have a lot to answer for when I die!)

I do that all the time. Aren’t you guys tired of it yet? God provably exists… as long as you don’t cheat by starting out with a known false god…

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The stuff about the non-progressive taxation structures of Sodom and Gomorrah was wisely left out as well.

If you believe in a God that actually has power over the physical world and cares about human suffering then questions like “why let innocent children suffer from horrible things” make logical sense.

If you believe in a God that either doesn’t have have power over the physical world or doesn’t care about human suffering then the next logical question is “why bother praying to Him if He can’t or won’t do anything about it?” For many people the answer is “because He can provide spiritual relief,” a viewpoint I can respect. However, many Christians/Jews/Muslims would be absolutely livid if you suggested that God is either indifferent to human suffering or powerless to change the physical world.

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Well, if you want to say God = Nature = Universe and then say that exists, be my guest.

I don’t really see what it adds to anything, mind. Doesn’t seem like much more than a semantic argument. God just is? Where does that get you?

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I wish you’d all stop bickering and worship me.

It’s off topic, but I found the book of Jasher to be quite interesting on this issue. It’s probably a medieval forgery and a long time from the supposed events, but it goes into a lot more detail about Sodom and Gomorrah. It doesn’t mention homosexuality, but it does support the idea that homosexuality wasn’t the point of the story at all (rather, it was a lack of justice and compassion for foreigners).
http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/apo/jasher/19.htm
(This isn’t a perspective that’s unknown in the Bible, either - Ezekiel also claims that selfishness was key)

My first question to god: “Knees. What the fuck were you thinking?!”

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Closely followed by “Spine. You utter bastard.” Which technically isn’t a question, but I wouldn’t want to waste that opportunity.

Edit: Actually, the more I think about it, the more it seems to me that whoever was responsible for human design was some uber-level coder type that got so caught up in tiny details they neglected to make it usable. I mean that whole ATP - ADP - cyclic AMP stuff is seriously elegant but then… well, knees. It’s like they sub-contracted the construction out to the lowest bidder.

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Don’t forget that “intelligently designed” blind spot in eyes.

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I could do with a little context on what the interviewer was doing?

As far as I could tell, the interviewer was asking a loaded question while assuming the conclusion entertainment purposes, and seemed almost taken aback at Fry’s complete lack of respect for the church. Fry honestly couldn’t have given a better answer than theodicy in my humble opinion.

It really is a stupid question. It’s about as stupid as saying “Bear with me here for a moment, because I know you don’t do this, but, for the sake of argument, let’s assume you mercilessly beat your wife and children…”

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Yeah, even in the accepted Biblical texts, there are multiple lists of the sins of S&G - one mentioned several times being mistreatment of the poor (thus my crack about taxation schemes), nothing about homosexuality.

Context on Stephen Fry’s views - it’s a pretty common question, but people asking it often seem to assume that the addressee has basically good feelings about the Catholic church and its system of morality, and has a little room for doubt that it may be true. SF was never going to apologise for his lack of belief.

If you ask me, the Catholic church is pretty much as close to evil as I think can exist.

What with telling African adherents that condoms spread HIV, imploring people not to get the HPV vaccine, outright stating that violent responses to blasphemy are justified, also refusing to give their sex abuse victims their day in court, refusing to sign on to the UN declaration of the rights of the child, laundering billions of dollars for organized crime while being organized criminals themselves.

The list goes on. I don’t understand how any “good catholic” can be okay even paying tithe knowing where that money’s going.

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Amen to that.