British actor and comedian Stephan Fry has said that if God exists, he is ‘quite clearly a maniac’ who deserves no respect, in a recent interview on Irish TV.
The 57-year-old is an atheist and didn’t hold back when Gay Byrne asked him what he would say to God when he met him at the pearly gates.
Byrne was almost speechless as Fry began his answer. He started by saying: “I would say: ‘bone cancer in children? What’s that about?’
“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?”
Fry admitted that the world is splendid, but also contains some horrific elements. He said it would be simple enough for God to have created a world that doesn’t contain such horrors.
He finished by saying: “Atheism is not just believing there isn’t a god, but on the assumption that there is one, what kind of God is he? It’s perfectly apparent that he’s monstrous, utterly monstrous, and deserves no respect whatsoever.
“The moment you banish him, life becomes simpler, purer, cleaner, more worth living in my opinion.”
A stunned Byrne could only say that Fry had just given the longest answer he had ever had to the question.
The interview took place on Byrne’s RTÉ One show ‘The Meaning of Life’.
Take a look at the video below.