Stephen Fry says God is a maniac - Bible says God is good
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STEPHEN FRY AND CANCER
Stephen Fry was asked what he would say if he were "confronted by God."
Stephen Fry was asked what he would say if he were "confronted by God."
Fry replied, "I'd say, bone cancer in children? What's that about? How dare you create a world to 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 that is so full of injustice and pain. That's what I would say."
Interviewer: "And you think you are going to get into heaven, like that?"
Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world that is so full of injustice and pain. That's what I would say."
Interviewer: "And you think you are going to get into heaven, like that?"
Fry replied: "I wouldn't want to. I wouldn't want to get in on his terms. They are wrong. Now, if I died and it was Pluto, Hades, and if it was the 12 Greek gods, then I would have more truck with it, because the Greeks didn't pretend to not be human in their appetites, in their capriciousness, and in their unreasonableness.
They didn't present themselves as being all-seeing, all-wise, all-kind, all-beneficent, because the God that created this universe, if it was created by God, is quite clearly a maniac ... utter maniac, totally selfish."
They didn't present themselves as being all-seeing, all-wise, all-kind, all-beneficent, because the God that created this universe, if it was created by God, is quite clearly a maniac ... utter maniac, totally selfish."
Old Testament Though often equating evil with forsaking God (2 Chr. 12:14), transgressing his covenant (Deut. 17:2), or not fearing the Lord (Job 1:1), the biblical authors are also concerned with human evil against one’s fellows. Keenly aware of the distinctions between good and evil (e.g., Isa. 5:20; Mic. 3:2; cf. Mal. 2:17), they define evil as a rejection of God’s law, in the sense of both spiritual idolatry (usually expressed as “evil in the sight of the Lord”; e.g., Deut. 4:25; 1 Kgs. 11:6; 2 Kgs. 21:2) and the violation of the rights of others (including the rights of individuals [e.g., 2 Sam. 12:9; Ps. 34:13] and of the community [e.g., Deut. 19:19; 22:21]).
Even Israel’s desire for a mortal king is seen as an evil (1 Sam. 12:19), because it implies a denial of theocracy.
Human beings are described as evil creatures who devise evil deeds of varying degrees (“much evil,” 2 Kgs. 21:6 par.; “more evil …,” vv. 9, 11; Jer. 7:26; all possible evil, Jer. 3:5; or limitless evil, 5:28), in their hearts (e.g., Job 15:35; Ps. 140:2; Eccl. 9:3) or by their will (Jer. 16:12, NIV “heart”). But they are urged to do good, i.e., to love (or fear) God and their neighbor. The author of Deuteronomy, for instance, repeatedly warns the Hebrews to purge the evil from among them (Deut. 13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:19); later prophets echo the same warning (Isa. 1:16, “cease from evil”; cf. Jer. 18:11; Ezek. 33:11). Their summons is not spoken in vain, for people can do good (Lev. 5:4), as some Old Testament heroes believed they had (Joseph, Gen. 44:4; and David, 1 Sam. 25:21). The authors do not excuse human responsibility because of a poor environment, for the Hebrew kings Menahem (2 Kgs. 15:18), Pekahiah (v. 24), and Pekah (v. 28) are held accountable for their unacceptable behavior in spite of their having been exposed to Jeroboam’s evil influence.
The biblical authors struggled with the existential question of the plight of the righteous who strive—seemingly to no avail—to keep the moral law, while the wicked or evildoers apparently prosper. Job, for one, was visited by evil for all his exemplary behavior and integrity (Job 16:11; 30:26).
The Old Testament authors respond to this question in three ways.
(1) God turns human evil into a good result: when Joseph was unjustly confined to a dungeon in Egypt as a result of his brothers’ evil intentions, God used him there to save his family from starvation (Gen. 50:15–22).
(2) God uses evil as a test for the righteous: Job suffered trials nearly beyond his ability to endure, but was declared righteous in the end (Job 42:7ff.).
(3) Evil does not pay in the long run (Ps. 37:16–17; cf. Prov. 10:29; 11:19; 17:13), for God does judge human deeds—both good and evil (Eccl. 12:14). That God’s hand is not always easily discernible in human actions is evident from the psalmist’s ambivalence. He triumphantly exclaims that he will see the “recompense of the wicked” (Ps. 91:8), but he also complains bitterly that he feels he has kept his heart clean in vain since the wicked are “always at ease,” and “increase in riches” (Ps. 73:12–13).
The biblical authors are very reluctant to implicate God in human evil, for God does not delight in wickedness (Ps. 5:4), and he does support his people (Hos. 7:15; cf. Ps. 97:10, RSV, JB). Nevertheless, they interpret physical evils as sent by God, not only to test the faith of the righteous but also to punish the sin of the unrighteous. God also punishes his people by not permitting their “evil generation” to enter into Canaan (Num. 14:22–24; Deut. 1:34–36); he sends an evil spirit to Abimelech (Judg. 9:23) and later to King Saul (1 Sam. 16:14–16; 18:10).
He allows the Babylonians to deport Judah to Babylonia on account of its spiritual idolatry (Ezra 9:13; cf. Jer. 11:17; 18:1–10). But even when God inflicts evil upon his people as a means of punishment for their unfaithfulness toward him, he can be swayed to repentance, as Moses and Jeremiah discovered (Exod. 32:12–14; Jer. 26:3; cf. Jonah 3:10).
The exilic prophet Ezekiel comforted the despondent exiles with the claim that the righteous do not suffer for the iniquity of their unrighteous parents and that God wants the wicked to turn from wickedness rather than to receive his punishment (Ezek. 18).
New Testament Jesus was personally acquainted with suffering and temptation, and he encouraged his followers to pray that God would deliver them from “evil” or from the “evil one” (Matt. 6:13; Gk. apó toú ponēroú), possibly the “evil one” (RSV mg.), Satan (cf. 13:19; 1 John 2:13–14). Locating the source of moral evil in the human heart (9:4; cf. 15:19) as did the prophets of old, Jesus distinguished between people who do good and those who perpetrate evil (12:34–35).
While in Matthew’s narrative Jesus concludes that God does not discriminate with such gifts as rain and sunshine—he gives them to the just and the unjust alike (5:45)—in John’s gospel he emphatically asserts that only those who do good will receive eternal life, and that those doing evil will reap judgment (John 5:29; cf. 3:19–21 for the distinction between the just and the unjust).
Paul’s treatment of the subject of evil is quite extensive. Contrasting those who obey the truth and those who do not, Paul proclaims that the “natural man,” the inventor of evil (Rom. 1:30), will suffer tribulation (2:8–9). Those who have accepted Christ, on the other hand, are exhorted to “put to death” their tendencies toward evil (Col. 1:21; 3:5), to hate evil and to do good (Rom. 12:9) rather than continue practicing evil in the hope that it may produce some good (3:8). They are admonished never to repay evil with evil (12:17) but rather with good (v. 21; cf. 16:19; 1 Cor. 14:20). Having personally wrestled with the incongruity of wishing to do good and instead committing evil (Rom. 7:19, 21), Paul drew strength from Old Testament examples (1 Cor. 14:20) as he preached to other believers with similar experiences.
James and Peter make similar observations about mankind’s struggle to cope with moral evil. James notes that God is neither tempted by evil nor tempts people (Jas. 1:13) and that people are unable to control their tongues because of a “restless evil” (3:8; cf. v. 6 “a world of evil,” so NIV; RSV “an unrighteous world”). Peter warns believers not to use their freedom to commit evil (1 Pet. 2:16), certainly not to repay evil with evil (3:9); rather he encourages them to bless those who wrong them (3:10–12, quoting Ps. 34:12–16).
Theological Reflections
Two difficult questions remain First, how could God, who made the universe and human beings good (Gen. 1:31), have created people with a tendency to do evil? Although logically monotheism does not leave room for the reality of evil (because it excludes dualism and does not accommodate a second deity as creator of evil), the author of Gen. 3 attributes the beginning of moral evil to the disobedience of the first man and woman.
Other biblical authors link the serpent who provided the occasion for sin with Satan, the prince of evil, and place human sin and evil in the larger context of God’s duel with Satan.
Second, why does God, who through his son Jesus Christ has conquered death and, in principle, Satan himself, allow evil to be so rampant and Satan to be so powerful? Believers throughout the ages have asked this question. If God is powerful and good, why does he seem to withdraw behind a wall of moral evil? The New Testament, ultimately, points to the second coming (the Parousia) when the righteous will receive their reward and the wicked the punishment they have earned (Matt. 24:36ff.; 25:31–46).
The Bible does not accept the logical propositions that the existence of a good God excludes the reality of evil and that the pervasiveness of evil cancels the presence of a good God. Instead, the Scriptures confess that the Lord created mankind with the possibility of doing evil and that he supports the faithful in their deepest hour of trials and temptations, no matter how incongruous such a confession may seem to be.
Myers, A. C. (1987). In The Eerdmans Bible dictionary (p. 360). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
