Stephen Fry, Job, and the Cross of Jesus

Left: Detail from "Job and His Friends" (1869) by Ilya Repin [WikiArt.org]; right: British comedian and actor Stephen Fry [YouTube]

Stephen Fry, Job, and the Cross of Jesus | Fr. Robert Barron | CWR blog

The objection to God's existence and goodness uttered recently by the British writer, actor, and comedian is nothing new to Christians

The British writer, actor, and comedian Stephen Fry is featured in a YouTube video which has gone viral: over 5 million views as of this moment. As you may know, Fry is, like his British counterparts Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, a fairly ferocious atheist, who has made a name for himself in recent years as a very public debunker of all things religious. In the video in question, he articulates precisely what he would say to God if, upon arriving at the pearly gates, he discovered that he was mistaken in his atheism. Fry says that he would ask God why he made a universe in which children get bone cancer, a universe in which human beings suffer horrifically and without justification.

If such a monstrous, self-absorbed, and stupid God exists, Fry insists, he would decidedly not want to spend eternity with him. Now there is much more to Fry’s rant—it goes on for several minutes—but you get the drift.

To those who feel that Stephen Fry has delivered a devastating blow to religious belief, let me say simply this: this objection is nothing new to Christians. St. Paul, Origen, Augustine, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton and many, many other Christian theologians up and down the centuries have dealt with it.

In fact, one of the pithiest expressions of the problem was formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century.

Continue reading on the CWR blog.