Stephen Fry on meeting God ...

I agree Lillygran. He is simply an entertainer. He surely could have been more.

No, please carry on soon I respect your point of view I just can't subscribe to it. I shall carry on reading with interest.

I think that he is being sincere. Wrong. But sincere.

Saying what he thinks when asked a straight question is not being a clown, Lilygran Would you rather he had pretended to what he did not believe? And his answer could have been left out of the programme if it did not suit the producer.

Juliette - I am so sorry that you have suffered this tragedy in your life. Viruses and bacteria are no respecter of persons, innocence or of goodness. You DS sadly contracted an illness that is random in its targets. I hope you can enjoy the fond memories that you have of him. These random sad events are certainly not a punishment; they are just part of the pattern of the world. I admire you for finding a way of coming to terms with this, and send love and kind thoughts.

No lily he is not a clown. His disagreement with your own views does not make him a clown. It simply makes him someone with a different view on life from yours.

He is an honest man, and they are rather rare and precious.

He has been open about his sexuality, which has helped many to feel good about themselves; and his opening up of the discussion on mental ill health, and his example of forging a successful career in spite of his bipolar disorder is to be applauded.

He expresses very well the views of many people who have serious concerns about the injustices in the world, and doubts about the presence of a benevolent god.

He is also a compassionate man - I watched the programme where he traced the attitudes to homosexuals in a number of countries around the world. His genuine concern for these oppressed individuals and the warmth he showed towards them was impressive and touching and he was clearly very moved by their plight.

It simply does not do to dismiss someone with whom you disagree as a clown.

He is a person whom the British public has taken to their hearts as his honesty and compassion shine through.

Steven Fry is a rich and influential man who could do a great deal of good in many ways. He prefers to be a clown.

Juliette. I am not sure if you want me to answer posts on here or not. If you dont want me to, that is fine.

Juliette I am very sorry for your loss

juliette and anyone else who has suffered terrible loss, big hug.

juliette I am so sorry, please accept my sympathies. There are many of us who have shared your loss and I know that the sorrow never quite goes away even if we learn to "deal" with it.

I shall have to write this down before I go to bed or sleep will be impossible as my head will be all of a whirl.
When DS1 died I couldn't fathom out why it had happened to us. Were we being punished for something, but why take DS why would that all loving God let that good boy die. I even thought about the devil as taught in Sunday School, no surely not , DS was only sixteen, he couldn't have incurred the wrath of the devil. It took a while but after walking round the cemetery where DS is buried and reading old Victorian gravestones where multiple children are laid to rest, it occurred to me that it wasn't God or the devil that had done this terrible thing but disease. Meningococcal Meningitis, nothing more, nothing less. In nearly thirty years I have had no reason to change my mind.

He doesn't send more than they can bear? So how is it that some people are broken by what is "sent" to them, however devoutly they believe?

Everyone is "sent" what is in the hat when their name is drawn. Major physical disasters are the result of natural developments, sometimes aided and abetted by human greed and stupidity.

It is like that piously pompous quote "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb". No, he doesn't. That would be reversing the laws of nature, a miracle, and they are in very short supply. A snowstorm is just as icy to a lamb as to an adult sheep with a thick winter coat Lambs caught in a blizzard die of cold.

(and incidentally the little lamb doesn't have enough wool to make it worthwhile for anyone to shear it, so a shorn lamb is a rare object)

I'm sorry if I used a hackneyed argument there Mishap. Didn't mean to.

Although there is the hymn - "Oh Love that wilt not let me go".

"It is not indiscrimate to believers. To non believers, yes indiscriminate. Most of it from the devil." - is this a wind-up?

No-one could possibly believe that. God sends suffering to believers to test their faith? - how perverse is that? He does not send more than they can bear!! - why send it at all? And the devil sends suffering to non-believers??!! - so the devil doesn't like non-believers either!!??

Jeepers! - now I have heard everything!

soon Sometimes 'commas in the air' are used for emphasis.

soon do you mean that Christians who die prematurely do so because God deliberately wants to test them/their families? Nonsense!

I wasn't quoting anybody soontobe.

Conflict, war and other human disasters are entirely the fault of human beings.

Drought, flood, earthquake and diseases etc are natural disasters but some are caused or made worse by poor stewardship of the natural environment by humans. Super humans: gods or devils, plays no part.

I googled the phrase in case it was a song, but I cant find it.

Who are you quoting jingl?

I understand and know nothing. Like everyone. We grope our way through this world as best we may - and hope to do not harm.

I have heard the spoiled child/parent argument - and it is fine if you dismiss the idea that god is omniscient, benign etc.

But, if he doesn't exist, why doesn't he let me go?

I don't understand it at all.

Sometimes I agree with Stephen Fry. Sometimes I hate God. Sometimes I despair, like tonight when they said on the news the Japanese journalist has been beheaded by IS.

But then I tell myself to grow up. You are thinking like a spoilt child, blaming a parent. Maybe God just couldn't manage a perfect world. Maybe he had to leave some of the work for us to do. Maybe he is not an "all-poweful" God. And maybe some of it is our own fault.

Who knows?