By Joshua Stevens, Faith Contributor, Valley Ag Voice
“Bone cancer in children, what’s that about? How dare you, 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? That’s what I would say,” Stephen Fry, an actor and comedian, said in an interview on RTE One’s The Meaning of Life.
The question that Stephen Fry, along with many others, poses here is more than the question of why evil exists in the world. Fry elaborated on his statement, saying, “Atheism is not just about them not believing there is a god, but on the assumption that if there is one – what kind of God is he? It’s perfectly apparent that he’s monstrous, utterly monstrous, and deserves no respect whatsoever, and the moment you banish him, your life becomes simpler, cleaner, and more worth living, in my opinion.”
The issue, in Fry’s estimation, is that God is not worthy of respect, worship, or even acknowledgment, and if we lived as if He did not exist, we would be better off.
What should the Christian’s response to such a sentiment be? Fortunately, a response older than Fry is available to us — “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it,” Job 40:1 (Crossway Bibles, 2001). We cannot pretend to know what God might have asked Fry if he were in Job’s position, but we can ask several questions based on the framework Fry poses in his question.
First, Fry assumes that this world is exactly as God intends it to be. As if it is not constantly changing and shifting. This is, of course, absurd. Have we not all read, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out,” from John 12:31, or “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come,” from 2 Corinthians 5:17? Clearly the world we live in is not a perfect world, and God never claimed it is. Since the fall of man in Genesis 3, there has been a process of reconciliation to bring about the proper order.
Second, Fry seems to make several moral distinctions here. First, that it is good that people live without suffering or pain, and second, that there is, indeed, good. However, there is no substantiation for these claims. He clearly cannot appeal to a higher authority to argue for what may or may not be good. So, how, then, does he decide what is good? The fact remains that outside of God, one cannot establish a rational, cohesive, objective system to determine what is good or not. Or, as Sam Harris pointed out in his book, “However if evil turned out to be as reliable a path to happiness as goodness is. . . It would no longer be an especially ‘moral’ landscape; rather, it would be a continuum of well-being, upon which saints and sinners would occupy equivalent peaks” (Harris, 2012).
Thirdly, what does Fry do with the suffering of Christ? Is he under the presumption that God has not suffered? One of the most common responses to Fry was, “The god Fry doesn’t believe in, I don’t believe in either,” and this is true! Instead of taking a serious crack at the question, Fry props up a strawman of his own making to argue against. He doesn’t contend with the idea of a God who entered human suffering to be a sacrifice so that we may be reconciled with our creator. But this is the very God we believe in. This is the very thing that makes Christianity so special and unique.
I would ask Fry to imagine a god opposite of the one he described, one who does not allow for evil of any kind upon his creation. Where suffering was never thought of, much less experienced. Would he be able to be a part of that world? The fact of the matter is none of us would be. We all would fall short of that standard. The world Fry wants would be void of life. Is that kind of world truly better than the one we have?
Please pray with me,
Thank you, Lord, for the life we have been given, the breath we take, and the world we experience. From sunset to sunrise, Your glory shines all around us. As we begin this new year, we ask for your continual guidance so we may conform more and more to your image. Let us love and live like you did. In Jesus’ mighty name, we pray,
Amen.
Bibliography
Crossway Bibles. (2001). The Holy Bible English Standard Version. Wheaton: Good News Publishers.
Harris, S. (2012). The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values. Black Swan.
