Stephen Fry on confronting god after death

Dan_Solo wrote: »

I'd like to confront god now please. And call him a cnut.
Could you get onto your angel friends about making an appointment? Ta.

I don't pray to Angels.

However I will pray to Christ Jesus on your behalf.

I pray that he gives you eyes and ears so you can both see and hear the truth.

I pray that he will grant you a will of repentance and grant you the ability to turn from a person of the world to a child of the lord.

Not because it benefits me or God, it's because I would not like you to suffer just because of foolish ignorance and pride.

If your are unwilling for this to happen right now, then I pray that your life is not cut short so you have every chance to come into repentance.

Dan_Solo wrote: »

That's a first. Being fed Douglas Adams as evidence there's a god.
The devil can quote scripture as they say.

Just to be precise I have never argued there is a God.

I have only argued that if there is a God then logic is of little use in trying to understand him.

“God cautions us in Isaiah 55:9 that his ways are not ours and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts (undoubtedly one of the grander understatements).

God is warning us that he is not logical and that believing him to be logical will lead to all kinds of disappointment.

Logic has been defined as 'the science or history of the human mind, as it traces the progress of our knowledge from our first conceptions through their different combinations, and the numerous deductions that result from comparing them with one another.'

Doesn't sound much like God. Yet, we so often strain our relatively minuscule brains to conceive, combine, compare, and deduce. Then we fault God when his conclusions disagree.

The repetition of this useless exercise leads to a form of insanity which ultimately manifests in denial of the existence of such an illogical God.”
― Ron Brackin

Terrlock wrote: »

I don't pray to Angels.

However I will pray to Christ Jesus on your behalf.

I pray that he gives you eyes and ears so you can both see and hear the truth.

I pray that he will grant you a will of repentance and grant you the ability to turn from a person of the world to a child of the lord.

Not because it benefits me or God, it's because I would not like you to suffer just because of foolish ignorance and pride.

If your are unwilling for this to happen right now, then I pray that your life is not cut short so you have every chance to come into repentance.

Since we are being condescending now, do you really think it's wise for somebody who believes in a bunch of fables about talking bushes and sky fairies written by a relatively primitive society of shepards and farmers who lacked even a basic understanding of the earth they lived on, never mind the universe, to be calling somebody ignorant?

Pray all you want. Thankfully you won't be disappointed by learninh the truth when you die, seeing as you'll just be dead.

Dead men don't feel disappointed. They are just dead.

Dan_Solo wrote: »

FFS, you can't say you're not arguing there's a god and then try to tell me there is by quoting the bible. If you're insisting logic is not important, then why not just type "ejifo\shglser" and do a little jig? It would be just as useful in a discussion.

Again, important to be precise here...I didn't quote the bible, I quoted Ron Brackin and I certainly didn't tell you there is a God as you state above.

Perhaps you didn't really read my post?

I am not insisting logic is not important. I am insisting logic is not useful in trying to determine the existence (or non-existence) of God.

Emersyn Deep Destroyer wrote: »

You will pay a lot more heavily if the church pulls all their property from use due to people pushing for the removal of teaching the catholic faith in schools. After all it would be ridiculous to if it wasn't taught in a catholic school owned by the church.

That's a lot of new schools that would have to be built....

We can just write it off against the compensation that the Church owes its victims.

It is quite astounding that educated people believe in any form of religion. The entire concept is ludicrous.

If we were not taught about religion, or cursed by having religious parents, then there would be no religion. Thats not to say we would not find another reason to fight and to hate each other over in its absence.

danrua01 wrote: »

I think you are.

I think it's more that he's unaware/wilfully ignorant of the Pirahã people.

cloud493 wrote: »

No, cos faiths have to be discussed and criticised. Otherwise it isn't faith, its bollocks.

Hahahahaha brilliant

floggg wrote: »

Sorry, but the church coming to new lands was rarely a good package.

The church was more often an agent of destruction in colonized lands - enforcing its views, destroying social and political systems, legitimising appalling atrocities done in the name of progress, and opening up communities for exploration and exploitation by european agents.

The church played a shameful role in many colonisations.

It played a role yes but many colonisations were just a change of management. Some lands were so used to being invaded that it was just a matter of them getting a new tax collector. It all depends on the era but in the early days I think the church was probably a much nicer, more open and less of a tool of power mongering and that their intentions and actions were pretty decent. The Catholic church wasn't really the Christianity that came to Ireland originally, we had our own pretty unique version that saw colleges and hospitals popping up and Ireland becoming known as the island of saints and scholars. Europe was in turmoil, there were never ending power struggles and a culture of violence. That wasn't the fault of the church, sure the church got involved but they were just a player rather than the instrumentors.

You can't really judge people back then by modern standards. It was a different society and what was considered normal was different.

floggg wrote: »

Since we are being condescending now, do you really think it's wise for somebody who believes in a bunch of fables about talking bushes and sky fairies written by a relatively primitive society of shepards and farmers who lacked even a basic understanding of the earth they lived on, never mind the universe, to be calling somebody ignorant?

Pray all you want. Thankfully you won't be disappointed by learninh the truth when you die, seeing as you'll just be dead.

Dead men don't feel disappointed. They are just dead.

Sorry I'm not trying to be condescending, I genuinely will pray for him.

What is this bunch of fables that you talk about?

Where are these sky faires?

Also what primitive farmers are your referring too? How were they primitive?

What basic understanding of the earth and universe did they not have?


As for death, my flesh may die, however my soul and spirit will not.


I have everlasting life, do you?

danrua01 wrote: »

I don't believe in religion but what you're saying is a bit offensive. My mother was, and is, religious, and she has raised me very well. She was definitely not a curse.

People are free to have faith, it can be good for a person. Intelligence doesn't come into it, and it doesn't affect it.

Offence is a very personal thing. You should not allow yourself to be offended by the opinion of another.

The whole "you should respect what others believe" is nonsense, its pandering to the weak of mind. It is precisely this kind of sentimentality which is damaging to the advancement of society.

There is as much truth in the belief of Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy as there ought to be in religion. The notion that a grown adult genuinely believes in Santa Claus would be ridiculed and people would consider them to have mental issues. Believing in an entirely man made fiction such as religion is just as insane.

I genuinely pity people who have wasted their short time on this planet devoting themselves to a cult like Christianity or every other form of the insipid bile contained in various bibles.

I imagine an alien species coming to earth and asking me to explain religion and all I would feel is shame and I could only explain it as the weakest part of humanity.

In reality, the human species is pretty vile and disgusting. Only yesterday I saw a news report on ISIS throwing a blindfolded man from a rooftop several stories from the ground. The victim did not die from the fall, however the baying crowd then stoned him to death. His crime? Well he was alleged to have been gay.

I think no further words need to be said to said to prove how vile all religion is.

TireeTerror wrote: »

Offence is a very personal thing. You should not allow yourself to be offended by the opinion of another.

The whole "you should respect what others believe" is nonsense, its pandering to the weak of mind. It is precisely this kind of sentimentality which is damaging to the advancement of society.

There is as much truth in the belief of Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy as there ought to be in religion. The notion that a grown adult genuinely believes in Santa Claus would be ridiculed and people would consider them to have mental issues. Believing in an entirely man made fiction such as religion is just as insane.

I genuinely pity people who have wasted their short time on this planet devoting themselves to a cult like Christianity or every other form of the insipid bile contained in various bibles.

I imagine an alien species coming to earth and asking me to explain religion and all I would feel is shame and I could only explain it as the weakest part of humanity.

In reality, the human species is pretty vile and disgusting. Only yesterday I saw a news report on ISIS throwing a blindfolded man from a rooftop several stories from the ground. The victim did not die from the fall, however the baying crowd then stoned him to death. His crime? Well he was alleged to have been gay.

I think no further words need to be said to said to prove how vile all religion is.

What if God is that alien? Imagine the shame...:D