Stephen Fry on meeting God ...

Daisy

Dear Daisy - do not for one fleeting moment give credence to the idea that your very dear daughter's death has any connection whatsoever with your understandable questioning of your beliefs. We all examine these big questions; it is part of being human.

Daisy I am so very sorry you are having to deal with something I can only imagine as one of the worst things that could happen in my life

Re thinking whether anyone is a believer or not. I certainly don't. I know many people who could or could not be believers - I have no idea, and what's more, I don't care. It makes no difference to my friendship with them, or how I treat them or they treat me.

It makes no difference to illness, misfortune, poverty, plane crashes, bereavement, tsunamis or any of the other nasties. They happen to everyone, and people react to them according to their personalities.

Hear hear Elegran. Sensible as ever

daisy, so sorry to read about your daughter

Your first paragraph is nice Elegran.

Second paragraph. They do happen to everyone. I dont think it would come to your surprise that I think that outcomes, can on occasion, be different.

Sigh. Magical thinking rears its ugly head again.

That second part just doesn't sound right. Like Eric Morecambe and Andre Previn's" the right notes but not necessarily in the right order, "it doesn't sound like English!!!

And here is Stephen Fry talking about the Catholic Church:

youtu.be/I6sz8D411kE

Daisy- I am so so sorry about your daughter. Auto-immune diseases are an abomination in this world. Thinking of you at this really difficult time

daisy how scary. So sorry for you, your daughter who lost her life and everyone around her.

Genesis 1:24. So god created toxicaria or whatever else this horrifying parasite is called. What has free will got to do with that? What purpose does this horrible parasite serve? I'm with Stephen Fry on this.

I do believe in God anD have continued to do so despite my fair share of bad things happening to me including the painful loss of my son as a four year old child. BeLieve me it is agonising to watch your child die in pain, something died in me when I left that hospital. However at the time of him dying I felt an experience I cannot explain, a peace a beautiful feeling and I knew that Jesus was in the room with me and had come to take my son to Heaven and I believe he is there waiting for me and that he is ok. It is this belief, faith that has helped me to cope without him for 30 years and I could not have coped through the terrible grieving without it. I cannot explain the tragedies that happen but I do believe that my faith has helped me. In answer to why it happened to me and not someone else is what is so special about me that it should not happen, why would I be spared particularly. I still miss my son, it was his birthday yesterday he would have been 35 but I believe Christ looks after him and it comforts me. My faith is my own and I do not push it down the throats of others but it helps me.

A simple definition of faith might be that you believe against the odds, without proof

I heard an analogy a while back:

An ant meets an elephant on a jungle track. It knows there's something there, but the something is so big, so enormous, it's beyond the ant's understanding. It simply cannot comprehend what the something is.

Made sense to me. I suppose that makes me an agnostic.

(I think the SF link is priceless. Thank you Grannyknot. I was going to share it on FB but didn't want to offend my Christian friends so I saved it. My SiL1 will love it)

Thank you for your thoughtful and sensitive post, TwiceAsNice. You are telling us what you feel and believe, without any sense of, as you say "pushing it down people's throats." My respect, for what it is worth.

I would reiterate what Ariadne has said TwiceasNice - I am glad that you have this comfort in your loss.

www.bwindifriends.co.uk/ Those who have expressed the view that Stephen Fry is a self-serving waste of space might like to look at this link and to find out about his efforts to spread the message about the dangers of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Not everyone likes his humour, but I think it is unfortunate to dismiss his genuine humanity and compassion for others.

Taking the analogy of the ant and the elephant to its logical conclusion: the elephant steps on and kills the ant without knowing it's there and with no compunction if he does notice it.

If the ant got trodden on, he had probably omitted to worship the elephant and tell him how wonderful he was!

I think Anno is right. Worshiping, sacrifice, etc doesn't seem to have any noticeable effect on world disasters.

I never did believe that God sees every sparrow that falls thing. What about the sparrowhawk wanting his dinner.

It's all beyond me. I'll wait and see what happens when I'm dead.

Thank you very much Ariadne and Mishap I appreciate your comments very much. There is so much about this world we do not know or understand and we must all perceive and believe whatever we feel is ok for us.Thank you. Whatever sad things are going on for Gransnetters I wish you strength however you achieve it.

For people who took issue with Fry's rant (and even if you didn't) try madeleinedavies.co.uk/2015/02/01/a-response-to-stephen-fry/