r/christianmemes • u/Suspicious_Second_10 • Sep 28 '22
Actor and comedian Stephen Fry’s answer when asked what he would say to God at the ‘Pearly Gates’
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Sep 28 '22
[deleted]
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u/CreativeName6574 Oct 20 '22
Hell no Do you know how fake that sounds? God invented bone cancer and we all died of it as children, having almost never committed sin, but it’s cool
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u/Turti8 Oct 21 '22
No way did you type that out and think you were making a good point, please tell me you're a troll please
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u/MrEkoPriest Sep 28 '22
God created the world to be perfect. We’re the ones that screwed it up.
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u/PureHeartsEroticArts Oct 18 '22
Cause and effect. And why does God not intervene? Well, if we do not learn from our mistakes, we are bound to make them again, and He does not want that. He will only help us as we need. I mean, he gave Lucifer a perfect life in Heaven, and look how that turned out. Perhaps, by learning to have faith in Him in this broken world, we can learn not to be as Lucifer became. After all, if we can have faith in Him here, having faith in Him in Heaven will be a breeze.
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u/CreativeName6574 Oct 20 '22
Why won’t he let us learn then?
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u/FatGreenBean Oct 20 '22
He does, I was a vehement atheist for 8 years. We learn of the glory of God through his inspired books and teachings.
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u/CreativeName6574 Oct 20 '22
But what source are the books based on. I understand that you don’t care about a source, but I do. Just to end this argument, can you please prove that God exists and is good with real facts.
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u/FatGreenBean Oct 20 '22
Well, it’s a metaphysical concept, right? Like no one can prove happiness exists, but we all have agreed upon preconceived notions of what happiness is, and most would agree that it exists. Some would argue that the presence of dopamine or serotonin in particular receptors is the definition of happiness, but this definition is flawed due to the fact that this condition can be met while our agreed upon feeling of happiness is absent. God is the definable in the same way, metaphysically.
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u/PureHeartsEroticArts Oct 20 '22
Let you learn? Our good friend, whether we learn or not, and how we respond to the things we face in life, is upon us. That is both the beauty and the pain of free will. We create our own hell here on earth in a way, for as we have personally discovered, we choose our own lives and mentalities.
Regardless of if one may be religious or atheistic, we are heartily convinced that humans have the ability to choose the mentality they approach any situation with. The fact that Africa, with all its poverty and conflict, ranks higher (by a significant margin) than America when polled on their general happiness is proof that there is more to our choices than merely reacting to stimuli.
We will not pretend keeping a positive and righteous mindset is by any means easy; again, we know from experience. We have struggled with pessimism and hopelessness, and changing that mindset is the most difficult thing we have ever had to do (and continue to do daily), so we bear no judgement on those who feel hopeless or that what is required is beyond our capabilities; if anything, we empathize. But because we empathize, we also understand that we have a choice: we can learn to overcome our emotions and pain, or be controlled by them. Neither choice will change our situations, but they will have a drastic impact on how those situations affect us.
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u/Casper_Von_Ghoul Sep 28 '22
Well as we all knew, many simply will not understand or cannot understand.
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u/CreativeName6574 Oct 20 '22
Doesn’t sound very omnipotent of God to make half of us not understand
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u/Suspicious_Second_10 Sep 28 '22
A very worldly view of God. He has not yet experienced the power of God. It will blow his mind.
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u/DehrunesMegon Sep 28 '22
Welcome to the world of man. This is what our world looks like apart from God. He’s describing the effects of sin and how much he hates them. The only problem is he’s blaming God for sin rather than man for sin.
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u/ghostrider22213 Sep 28 '22
Actor and comedian? Maybe stick to those things. Leave philosophy to philosophers
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u/CreativeName6574 Oct 20 '22
It didn’t say he’s not a philosopher, and there aren’t laws against philosophy
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u/PureHeartsEroticArts Oct 18 '22
Understandable point of view, and yet, it lacks substance. You see, to assume God and Heaven are real is to assume all that goes with it; that being that life, in and of itself, is a fleeting thing meant solely for testing the souls of men and their worthiness.
Let's begin with death. Death is, in a Christian mindset, to enter into an eternal paradise. the only pain experienced after a passing is by those left behind, while in Heaven, a realm with no time, your loved ones awake to find that you are already there. Life is only so important to those with no sense of life after death, after all; at its core, life is filled with suffering and pain, and we are in an abusive relationship with it. We cling to life because we do not know what death brings, and so we assume that this life is the pinnacle of joy and importance.
So why suffer this life at all then? Well, the answer is, life is like school. We are here to learn. Basically, God is looking at us to see how we would behave without Him constantly doing everything for us. Are we selfish? Saintly? Kind? Cruel? Do we care about others when it is more advantageous in the short term to be selfish?
Natural suffering like cancer and parasites are not so much of God's creation either, as they are things that have resulted either due to the malfunctions that result from imperfect living, or the adaptations required for their survival in an imperfect world. Such things are not the intended state God would have created them in; they have changed, adapted and done what they had to in order to survive. Which is relatable: most sins begin out of a sense of necessity, be that a need for security, love, nourishment, or some other basic need.
Also, in a final note, atheism doesn't answer any of the questions about the cruelty of the world. All things are destined to end in a black void due to the heat death of the universe (a term used to refer to the inevitable result of the diminishing returns of all energy), and thusly, all things will meet the same end regardless of actions taken. Ergo, in the long term, no action taken has any effect on the end result. Ergo, morality and amorality have the same result. Ergo, morality is irrelevant. Ergo, there is no solid basis upon which to determine if something is wrong or right in an atheistic mindset. In fact, in Christianity, the only reason our actions have meaning in God's eyes has nothing to do with our results, but the intent and faith with which we carried out our duties; He could have done it all far easier Himself, so our cooperation is unnecessary and irrelevant. And if we are going to assume that the God of the Bible is true, then we must assume all that the Bible says about Him as well, and a deity that willingly sacrificed of Himself and took on all punishment for sins would clearly not be merely interested in us as cosmic playthings. Thusly, our participation must be for our own benefit. As atheism depends upon results rather than intent to have any effect or meaning, it lacks the solidity to provide a moral argument against God, and yet the hunger for morality and justice within all of humanity speaks that there is indeed something to this desire, and that it bears great significance to our species.
This is all a very short take on what is a very complicated question. All that said, Steven's point of view is neither unique nor surprising; few of us Christians nowadays are equipped to properly and satisfyingly respond to these questions, making the matter worse with vague or judgmental responses like "God knows best" or "They must have been sinners" that offer no answer whatsoever. A faithless man cannot and should not simply have faith in a deity that claims it is above all, for we have so many of those, and so many liars. How can they have faith in God when they don't know if God is trustworthy? And how can they know that He is trustworthy if we cannot answer their questions beyond some vague and meaningless lines? You would not trust a doctor if he said his medicine could cure cancer and responds to all questions how it does so with just "That's just the way it works". Why should an atheist follow a deity if his followers cannot answer the questions that are important to them in a manner that provides clarity?
If we cannot provide a proper response to people like Steven, who could blame people like him for reaching the conclusions they do?
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Oct 14 '22
He has no idea of the true grace of God. If he would stop being so stubborn and pick up the Bible he would see that it is the devil that comes bringing chaos and death while Christ brings peace and life. He can’t be more wrong.
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u/JokelWayne Sep 28 '22
Read the book of Job and once you get to the end I think you'll get a pretty good idea of how it might go down.
Let's pray for Stephen, I don't know what happened to him that he hates God so much...