This is a brief video clip — an excerpt of an interview of Stephen Fry by Gay Byrne. Fry, a well known British atheist, is asked what he would say if he died and met God at the pearly gates. It’s fun to watch the face and expression of Byrne, the interviewer. Stephen Fry’s answer is priceless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5RtDpva7nE
If an error occurs, click here to go directly to Youtube.
Wow. Maybe it’s because I’m getting further less sensitive as my first anniversary of deconversion approaches, but that was the best expressed rant against God that I have ever heard. How can one argue against what he said?
The same way they always have. 1) Claiming an interpretation that gets him off the hook, and then repeat it till it sticks. People say, “I never would’ve made it without God”, but the truth is “God never would’ve made it without you.”
Hey Charles, I too am coming up on my first anniversary of deconversion.
Seeing the interviewer’s awkward and grimaced expressions made me think to myself that I likely would have had similar expressions on my face if someone said those things to me as Fry did. And my grimace would be because, he’s right! And I wouldn’t have liked it! LOL
I thought the same thing, but wasn’t sure if the interviewer was an xian or atheist.
Happy Reality Day!
May I remind you gentlemen that if this Stephen Fry guy is right, then we can laugh with him. If however, he is wrong, I would not want to be in your souls’ shoes. “It is a terrible thing to be judged by the living God!” I cannot help but feel awful about your unbelief. Be thinking people rather than let yourselves be led by your emotions. You who “deconverted” from Christianity, what makes you think that you have now gotten to the truth? What if your new-found light is as deceptive as the one you thought you had as a Xian? Please I beg you, do not play with your souls. Every person on earth breathes, moves and lives because God lets him/her.
Ronald, I appreciate the concern for our souls. I used to feel the same as you — horrified for those who were rejecting the gospel, and scared for their eternal destinies. For those of us who have left the faith, please understand that we spent many years on our journey out of faith, and contrary to popular opinion, it wasn’t the result of “being angry at God” or because we had a “secret sin” we wanted to continue. I can’t be angry at a being that I don’t believe in, and if I had a secret sin, I’d certainly prefer to remain in Christianity where I could keep asking the invisible ghost for forgiveness.
In regard to our pursuit of truth, another blogger named Ubi dubium does a good job of summarizing the odd but fascinating ways that our brains work, which play a huge role in our adoption of beliefs and/or conspiracy theories (definitions below). In my earlier Christian life, I battled things like “confirmation bias” and “backfire effect” while investigating controversial topics within Christianity like Lordship Salvation and the supernatural Gifts of the Spirit. No matter the topic, we all have to realize our human bent in this regard. See below.
Confirmation Bias: (The most important brain glitch to know about for understanding human thought. ) We pay attention to and remember those things that agree with what we already think. We tune out those things that we disagree with. We also remember the unusual and disregard and forget the usual. “LA LA LA, I can’t hear you” is a normal state of affairs.
Patternicity: We are pattern-seeking creatures. We constantly look for patterns, and see them even where none exist.
Pareidolia: a subset of patternicity. Our brains look not only for patterns, but for familiar patterns. Especially faces. That’s why people think they see the virgin Mary on a grilled-cheese sandwich.
Agenticity: we tend to attribute events with unknown causes to some sort of intentional agent by default. That’s why we assume a rustle in the shrubbery is a potential attacker, and why people once thought that thunderstorms were the wrath of the gods.
Backfire Effect: When we have become set in a belief, hearing information that goes against that belief, rather than changing our minds, tends to make us dig in and support that belief all the more.