Nicholas J. Bridgewater
3 October 2015
In an interview with RTÉ One, Stephen Fry, a well-known British
comedian, writer and outspoken atheist, denounced God and explained why he—and
many other atheists—don’t believe in God. It was particularly helpful because
it lays out the real atheist argument without any reference to science and
logic, which are entirely irrelevant to the question of ‘does God exist’.
Arguments about the existence of God which resort to science fundamentally
misunderstand what God is. They are based on the assumption that there is a
material existence, called the universe or multi-verse (or whatever one prefers),
filled with energy and matter within a space-time continuum. Within this universe
or multiverse, which theists call ‘creation’, many atheists suppose that
theists believe God to exist. In other words, God is part of existence and
hence, His existence should be explained through scientific means. Since there
is no scientific evidence for God, God does not exist.
That argument is fundamentally flawed, because it does not account for
what many or most theists believe God to be. Granted, there are some theistic
beliefs that hold that God is material. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints and other Mormon offshoots believe that God has a body of flesh and
bone, that Jesus is a separate god of flesh and bone and that human beings can
also become gods (with a lower-case ‘g’) and, following the resurrection, their
spirits will be reunited with their bodies and they will also be
materially-existent gods. They also believe in the spirit world, which cannot
be measured by science, but God—being physical in their view—is somehow within
creation. Various ancient religions also believed that God or the pantheon of
gods, were physical and lived on another plain (e.g. Asgard, Olympus, sacred
mountains, etc.). Now, if such gods were physical, science could potentially
prove or disprove their existence. However, most major religions reject such a
view and hold that God is eternally transcendent. What does that mean? It
means, essentially, that God does not exist within
the universe—He exists beyond creation. Since He is neither composed of matter,
nor energy, nor located anywhere within this universe—or any multiverse—then
God’s existence is not a matter for science or scientific speculation. The
concept of a scientific proof for the non-existence of God, then, is entirely
baseless. As Stephen Jay Gould writes:
 |
| The Big Bang and evolution of the universe |
“The net of science covers the empirical universe: what is it made of
(fact) and why does it work this way (theory). The net of religion extends over
questions of moral meaning and value. These two magisteria do not overlap, nor
do they encompass all inquiry (consider, for starters, the magisterium of art
and the meaning of beauty). To cite the arch clichés, we get the age of rocks,
and religion retains the rock of ages; we study how the heavens go, and they
determine how to go to heaven.” (Stephen Jay Gould, Nonoverlapping Magisteria)
Likewise, there are various logical arguments for God’s non-existence.
These stem from attempts to refute the logical arguments for the existence of God. The problem with these are that they
attempt to refute the existence of something unlimited and indefinable, in
terms of definitions which are limited and defined. If there is a question of
causality—what came first—then there must be a concept of firstness and cause.
By defining first and cause, one has essentially used limited conceptions that
are defined by time. God, however, exists beyond time as well as any
conceptions of first and last. God is not some external super-being who, after
an infinitude of time, suddenly decided to bring a physical creation into being
at some defined time. This view might be held by some theists, but is not
representative of most theologies. God did not create the universe at any
particular time, nor did He create the universe directly, as this would imply
some direct connection between the creation and the Creator, which is
impossible. Believers in the Trinity and the concept of Jesus being literally
God—a post-Biblical conception based on Roman pagan ideas—hold that God
appeared in the flesh through Jesus Christ. This might well be criticised by atheists,
for it would imply some direct connection between the created and the
Creator—the mundane and the divine—but such a concept should not be used to
criticise the existence of God. It can only be used to criticise the man-made
concept of the Trinity and a literal understanding of the divine nature of
Jesus Christ. The idea that God was born on earth, lived, died and rose again
on the third day—that is illogical
and should be criticised, but it should not confused with the issue of God’s
existence or belief in God. In short, it is impossible to formulate logical
arguments against the existence of God because such arguments are based on
limited conceptions which cannot define or encompass the illimitable and
indefinable. In the Book of Certitude, Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, states:
“To every discerning and
illuminated heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence, the Divine
Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal
existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. Far be it from His glory
that human tongue should adequately recount His praise, or that human heart
comprehend His fathomless mystery. He is, and hath ever been, veiled in the
ancient eternity of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality everlastingly
hidden from the sight of men. ‘No vision taketh in Him, but He taketh in allvision; He is the Subtle, the All-Perceiving.’ No tie of direct intercourse can
possibly bind Him to His creatures. He standeth exalted beyond and above all
separation and union, all proximity and remoteness. No sign can indicate His
presence or His absence; inasmuch as by a word of His command all that are in
heaven and on earth have come to exist, and by His wish, which is the Primal
Will itself, all have stepped out of utter nothingness into the realm of being,
the world of the visible.”
The Báb, the
Forerunner of Bahá’u’lláh, held that God is an Eternal Essence, that the Primal
Will—also called the Primal Word, the Primal Creation, the Primal Utterance and
the Logos—was originated by the Eternal Essence (God) and it was this Primal
Will which brought creation into being. Thus God did not directly create the
universe but, rather, He uttered (i.e. originated) the Primal Word which
brought everything into existence, as He writes:
“Concerning thy question about
the meaning of the philosopher’s saying, ‘From the One proceedeth only One’:
The statement is incorrect when the Cause is meant to be the Absolute Essence.
For, verily, God hath been and will continue to be independent of all things,
and nothing proceedeth from Him. His eternal praise is that He begetteth not,
nor is He begotten. However, when the intention behind the statement is to
refer to the Primal Utterance, which is created by God by Itself, for Itself,
then verily it is the truth.... There is no doubt that the Eternal Essence hath
ever been immeasurably exalted above any association with His creatures; how
much less could It become the source out of which things proceed.” – The Báb, Tablet to Mírzá Sa‘íd, INBA 14:436-39
(quoted in Nader Saeidi (2008) Gateof the Heart: Understanding the Writings of the Báb (Waterloo, Ont.:
Wilfrid Laurier University Press), pp. 196 – 198).
Likewise, in the Qur’án we find descriptions of God’s transcendence (Qur’án2:255):
“God. There is no god but He—the
Living, the Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him nor sleep. His
are all things in the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede in His
presence except as He permitteth? He knoweth what (appeareth to His creatures
as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall they compass aught of His
knowledge except as He willeth. His Throne doth extend over the heavens and the
earth, and He feeleth no fatigue in guarding and preserving them for He is the
Most High, the Supreme (in glory).”
And in the Bible (Isaiah 55:8 - 9), where God is speaking through the
Prophet Isaiah, He says:
“For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
than your thoughts.”
In his interview, Stephen Fry reveals the actual reason people do not
believe in God and are, thus, atheists. Like most forms of belief, atheism is
based on emotion and a set of personally-held values and appears to exist as a
sort of ‘anti-religion religion’. There are, of course, atheists who simply do
not believe in a god or higher power, but the vocal atheists who appear in the
media or popular culture usually treat atheism as a kind of belief system and
have a vendetta against religion. Their belief system is not really based on a
good reason not to believe in God,
but rather a collection of beliefs about why religion is bad and why the God
taught in mainstream religion is not the kind of deity they would respect or
worship. Richard Dawkins is a good example of this, as are many other such
advocates of an ‘anti-religion religion’. The following are Stephen Fry’s
remarks. I apologise for the offence that they may cause as, indeed, they are
potentially offensive to all theists, but the truth can always be separated
from error so there is nothing to be feared from letting truth and error stand
side-by-side:
Interviewer: Suppose what Oscar believed in when he died, in spite of
your protestations—suppose it’s all true, and you walk up to the Pearly Gates
and you are confronted by God. What will Stephen Fry say to him, her or it?
Stephen Fry: I will basically—what’s known as theodicy I think—I, I’ll
say, 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 that is so full of injustice and
pain? That’s what I’d say.
Interviewer: (bows his head as if Fry has struck a nerve) Do you think
you’re going to get in with that?
Stephen Fry: No, but I wouldn’t want to. I wouldn’t want to get in on
his terms; they’re 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
were—they didn’t pretend not to be
human in their appetites and in their capriciousness and in their
unreasonableness. They didn’t present
themselves as being all-seeing, all-wise, all-kind and all-beneficent because
the God who created this universe—if it was created by a god—is quite clearly a
maniac—utter maniac; totally
selfish—tota... we have to spend a life on our knees thanking him?! What kind
of God would do that? Yes, the world
is very splendid, but it also has in it insects that’s whole life cycle is to bury
into the eyes of children and make them blind. They eat outwards from the
eyes—huh—why? Why did you do that to us? You could have easily made a creation
in which that didn’t exist. It is simply not
acceptable. So, you know, atheism is not just about not believing there’s a
God... on the assumption that there is one, what kind of God is he? It’s
perfectly apparent that he’s monstrous—utterly monstrous—and deserves no
respect whatsoever. The moment you banish him, your life becomes simpler,
purer, cleaner; more worth living in my view.
Interviewer: That sure is the longest answer to that question that I
ever got in this entire series.
 |
| Pluto (Hades) - a pagan Greek/Roman deity |
What can we gather from the above interview? This is a common
situation. Even when I was in school (year 9), I heard a similar statement by a
maths teacher. He butted into a conversation I was having with another student
about the existence of God. His intrusion seems characteristic of the atheist
religion’s missionary zeal to convert theists to their cause, especially
children. The proponents of not teaching religion to children are themselves
the biggest proponents of teaching their own special religion. He said that, if
he died, he would not worry about meeting God as, if God really existed, He
would be forgiving so there’d be nothing to worry about and, if He didn’t,
there would also not be anything to worry about but there’s no proof that God
exists. Thank you, Mr. Atheist, for once again setting an impressionable young
man straight so that he doesn’t fall into the error of believing in God—or no,
actually, no thank you; that was not helpful. In any case, let me summarise
Stephen Fry’s arguments above:
1. God is cruel because of bone cancer in children.
2. The world is full of misery, injustice and pain, which is God’s
fault, not ours—so it’s absolutely evil. God is, therefore, a bad God.
3. At least the Greek gods were honest about being capricious and
unreasonable. God is capricious and unreasonable even though He claims to be
all-seeing, all-wise, all-kind and all-beneficent. In other words, God isn’t
honest about what He says He is.
4. God expects us to be thankful, despite the misery we go through. Why
should we thank Him?
5. There’s an insect which eats children’s eyes out from the inside
6. Life is purer, cleaner, more worth-living, when you become an atheist.
Let’s look at the first:
1. God is cruel because of bone
cancer in children.
For most theists, these arguments would appear quite facile but, since
they ring true for millions of people and, perhaps the majority of the 6.5
million people who viewed the short video, I will pick them apart. The first is
bone cancer or, rather, why do children—who are completely innocent—have to
suffer physically or otherwise? There are two considerations. Firstly, no one
should have to suffer from cancer—period. Human beings are endowed with wisdom
and reason. We are slow, weak creatures, yet we are capable of producing
airplanes which fly thousands of feet into the sky, space craft which can reach
the moon, submarines which can search out the depths of the oceans. We can
harness electricity, radiation and radio waves for our purposes. We’ve
developed fibre optic cables, vaccinations for many of the worst diseases,
computers which can hold the whole of human knowledge, and advanced systems
which allow many societies to enjoy lives free from the extremes of want and
deprivation. Yeah, human beings are capable of a lot of great things. As such,
we are also capable of curing cancer, HIV, and every other disease and
affliction in existence. God gave us such inventiveness, reason, creativity and
wisdom and, as such, He expects us to cure and eliminate every disease and
malady, extend human life and create the best living situation for everyone. If
that’s not happening yet, then we are
to blame as a human race. We are not co-ordinating our efforts well enough and
we are not working hard enough to eliminate cancer and other diseases which
children suffer from.
The second consideration with regards to the first point is this—the
question of suffering. Suffering exists for human betterment. God could have
created a universe where disease never existed in the first place and there was
no form of suffering whatsoever. In that case, our lives would be lived in
complete comfort and then we would die. However, in that scenario, our lives would
also be completely meaningless. What, then, is the meaning of life? There are
two main realms of existence—the physical and the spiritual. Everything that
scientists believe to exist, everything they can measure and ascertain, is the
physical universe. In some religions, physical existence is simply referred to
as ‘this world’ or ‘the world’. In the Bahá’í
Writings, it is referred to as Násút. The spiritual world is often referred to
as the ‘afterlife’, ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’, ‘paradise’, the ‘spirit world’, the
‘spiritual kingdom’, etc. In the Bahá’í
Writings it is referred to as the ‘Kingdom’ or Malakút. The purpose of the
physical world is to prepare human beings for entrance into the spiritual world
(or ‘afterlife’). The afterlife is not, therefore, some kind of glorious
retirement from the real world; in reality, this world is not the main purpose
of our existence. This world, the entire physical existence, is just a
preparation for our real and permanent existence in the afterlife, rather like
nursery school is a preparation for primary, secondary and higher education or
the womb is preparation for ‘life after birth’. Questioning the existence of an
afterlife, then, is rather like questioning whether there is life after birth.
We live on this earth to prepare ourselves for our life in the world to come.
Just as an embryo develops arms, legs, eyes, organs and other functions in the
womb, so too do people develop virtues, spiritual qualities and perfections in
this life in order to prepare them for life in the spiritual kingdom. Our
spiritual progress depends upon developing these qualities and development of
these qualities depends upon our experiences and beliefs while living here in
this world. Spiritual development and suffering are interlinked and one depends
upon the other. Without suffering, we are incapable of spiritual development
and, hence, incapable of achieving our purpose in life. Some degree of
suffering will always be necessary, howevermuch we eliminate disease or
overcome injustice, poverty and destitution. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of Bahá’u’lláh,
put it thus:
 |
| ‘Abdu’l-Bahá |
“Question:
‘Does the soul progress more through sorrow or through the joy in this world?’
Answer:
‘Abdu’l-Bahá.—‘The mind and spirit of man advance when he is tried by
suffering. The more the ground is ploughed the better the seed will grow, the
better the harvest will be. Just as the plough furrows the earth deeply,
purifying it of weeds and thistles, so suffering and tribulation free man from
the petty affairs of this worldly life until he arrives at a state of complete
detachment. His attitude in this world will be that of divine happiness. Man
is, so to speak, unripe: the heat of the fire of suffering will mature him.
Look back to the times past and you will find that the greatest men have suffered
most.”
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
Paris Talks, p. 178)
It is a fact of
life that those who are the most comfortable are often the most devoid of good
character. As Jesus Christ is reported to have said (Mark 10:25): “It is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” In
other words, it is a rare thing for someone who has spent their life
accumulating wealth to achieve his or her purpose in life. Jesus had twelve
original disciples, known as the Twelve Apostles. The chief of these, Simon,
who was known as Cephas (or Petros in Greek), and known to the world
as St. Peter, was completely illiterate. He reckoned the day of the Sabbath by
counting fish. Yet he was the chief Apostle of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the son
of a carpenter/builder from an insignificant town in Galilee. While there are
reports of Jesus reading in the synagogue (Luke 4:16), it is not at all clear
that He was educated. All the remaining disciples were of humble, poor and
uneducated backgrounds. Other disciples of Christ included Mary Magdalene, St.
Mary and other women of humble means, as well as his brothers, notably St.
James, the son of Joseph and Mary and half-brother of Jesus, who became the
first Bishop of Jerusalem and Head of the Church after the crucifixion [source].
James wrote (5:1 - 6):
 |
| St. James the Just, brother of Jesus Christ |
“Go
to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your
riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is
cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat
your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of
you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are
entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the
earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of
slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.”
The most educated
of the early Christians was, perhaps, St. Paul, who was a rabbi and a Roman
citizen who spoke Greek. But none of these characters were rich and comfortable
and none of them lived lives free from suffering. All of them endured numerous
troubles, poverty, persecution and, in some cases, death. Peter was crucified
in Rome on an upside-down cross. James was also martyred, as were all the
remaining disciples. James taught the early church to be selfless, free from
attachment to material wealth and comforts and urged them to help the poor. He
taught that faith without works was dead, that salvation was not a simple
matter of ‘believing in Jesus and believing that His death cleansed one’s
sins’. No, on the contrary; he taught the original message of Jesus Christ:
abandon your material possessions, scatter abroad, teach the good news of love
for one’s neighbour and service to the poor, teach the good news of the coming
of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God on earth, teach the good news
of the Messiah who has come to redeem the children of Israel and mankind. This
was the message that St. James taught and which is summarised in the Epistle of
St. James in the New Testament (James 1:27, 2:5-8, 24, 26):
“Pure
religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from
the world... Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this
world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them
that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and
draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by
the which ye are called? If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well... Ye see then how that by
works a man is justified, and not by faith only... For as the body without the
spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
In short, extreme
wealth and comfort lead to disregard for one’s fellow man, atrophy of virtue
development and, instead, causes bad character traits and vices, such as
ignorance, intolerance, hatred, antipathy, carelessness, recklessness,
prejudice and contempt, attachment to material possessions, selfishness and
egotism. All of these and many, many more, are injurious to spiritual
development. Such evil qualities and traits lead one to fail at life. Even
though one may have a billion dollars in his bank account, if he has no
spiritual qualities, his entire life is vain and useless and, when he dies, he
enters the state of existence called ‘hell’, ‘hellfire’, ‘the bottomless pit’,
or the ‘everlasting abyss’. This is essentially a state in which the soul is
remote from God and spiritually undeveloped. Only through God’s mercy and the
intercession of holy ones and others near to God can the person overcome this
handicap and escape the pain and suffering of remoteness.
Hell, fire, pit,
etc. are all symbols which help to explain how utterly horrible it is to be in
that condition. It’s as if an embryo within the womb has not developed at all
but, instead, comes out without limbs, eyes, ears, or a mouth. Imagine such a
horrible condition and that is what happens when we do not develop any virtues
or spiritual qualities in life. That is real and true suffering because it is
suffering in vain; it is self-imposed suffering. Suffering in this life,
however, leads people to develop good qualities. For example, a poor person
understands what it means to lack food and other necessities and, therefore,
understands the need to help others. Someone who has experienced death in the
family knows how precious each life is. Someone who gets ill can learn the need
to take care of others. When a couple have young children, there is much
trouble and difficulty in raising those children. They suffer much and they
experience joy and they realise that hard work and sacrifice leads to good
outcomes. In every case, there is a hidden benefit in suffering and God does
not test anyone beyond their capacity. It is possible for people not to learn
from suffering, by blaming God, or by causing others to suffer in turn. Our
duty as human beings is to love and care for each other and our own sufferings
help us to realise that and become better people
2. The world is full of misery,
injustice and pain, which is God’s fault, not ours—so it’s absolutely evil. God
is, therefore, a bad God.
Stephen Fry says
there are three things which are absolutely terrible and evil about the
universe: misery, injustice and pain. Let’s think about that for a moment.
Misery is extreme suffering. We have already covered that topic above.
Suffering should be alleviated by one’s fellow man but we are all liable to
experience some kind of suffering and it is good for our spiritual development.
It makes us what we are and allows us to develop the spiritual qualities and
virtues we need to enter ‘heaven’, ‘paradise’ and the ‘good-pleasure of God’ in
the afterlife. Absence of such qualities leads to ‘hell’, ‘hellfire’, the
‘bottomless pit’ and the ‘everlasting abyss’, which means remoteness from God.
Misery is extreme suffering, which could be physical or emotional. There will
always be some degree of emotional suffering, resulting from death or other
circumstances. Such misery affects everyone at some point in their lives and is
an unavoidable part of life that makes us stronger. Other forms of misery,
caused by disease, extreme poverty, war, etc. simply should not exist. Human
beings are capable of eradicating each one of these, one-by-one and will do so,
in the course of time. God has been developing civilization through successive
interventions throughout recorded history and aforetime. Abraham, Krishna,
Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Christ and Muhammad have each laid the foundations of
civilisational progress which is leading to a better world. Now, the Báb (1819 –
1850) and Bahá’u’lláh (1817 – 1892) have laid out the pattern for a new world
order—a new system in which such miseries will be gradually and completely
eradicated. Regardless of how many such tragedies and miseries we eradicate,
however, there will always be some kind of physical suffering and it is up to
each one of us to develop positively as a result and ask God to help and
support us in our time of need.
Next, injustice.
Injustice is a man-made state of affairs, so it is hardly fair to say it is
God’s fault. Is it God’s fault that a tyrant gasses his population or drops
cluster bombs on his own people? Is it God’s fault that Adolf Hitler decided to
eradicate six million human beings? Is it God’s fault that the government of
South Africa decided to implement apartheid? No, not at all. Each and every one
of these things is a result of humans abusing their own free will. In each and
every case, God has given a set of core teachings which are contained in every
religion, and each of these core teachings tells us to live and act justly,
establish justice, destroy tyranny and oppression and love our fellow man.
Gradually, as the world comes to accept the message of Bahá’u’lláh, and the NewWorld Order which He outlined is brought into being, injustice and oppression
will be eradicated from the face of the earth, as promised in the Bible and Qur’án,
as well as the Zoroastrian, Hindu and Buddhist scriptures. The greatest minds
of our age anticipate world peace and world government, and the development of
international organisations such as the League of Nations, United Nations,
European Union, NATO, the World Trade Organisation, etc. are all examples of
steps towards this future of justice and equity. There is a divine standard of
justice, however, and any and all people who suffer injustice in this world
will be compensated for such suffering in the afterlife. Conversely, all those
who commit acts of injustice in this world will be punished for it in the
afterlife, thus maintaining a perfect balance of justice, if they are not
already punished for it in this world. Can a more perfect balance of justice
exist than this?
Pain? Are we to
blame God for pain? Pain is a beneficial and necessary part of our physiology.
If we touch fire, we feel pain. If we did not feel pain, then people would have
died out as a species hundreds of thousands of years ago. Pain tells us that
something is wrong and allows us to deal with it or seek help from others. So,
there really is nothing wrong with pain. That being said, we should consciously
try to remove pain where we can. Once we have been burnt, we know what to do
about it and the next step is to bandage the wound and take a painkiller or
apply a balm. Some degree of pain is needed when giving birth, in order for the
woman to feel contractions and push the baby out. Nevertheless, painkillers
should be taken to alleviate the suffering. As human beings, it is our duty to
help others and help to reduce their suffering, but pain and suffering will
always exist and they serve a beneficial function both physically and
spiritually.
3. At least the Greek gods were
honest about being capricious and unreasonable. God is capricious and
unreasonable even though He claims to be all-seeing, all-wise, all-kind and
all-beneficent. In other words, God isn’t honest about what He says He is.
 |
| The 12 Greek gods |
Capricious can be
defined as ‘subject to, led by, or indicative of a sudden, odd notion or
unpredictable change; erratic’ (source).
In what way is God capricious? Imagine a physician treating a patient. As the
patient starts convulsing, the physician straps the patient down, preventing
him from movement. When he stabilises, the physician unties the patient and
administers some medicine. When the patient awakes, he thanks the doctor for
his care and solicitude. Someone observes the entire scene but draws a
different conclusion. He thinks that the physician is capricious. At every
moment, the physician behaves differently, at one time imprisoning the patient
unjustly, at another time forcing some poison down his throat, at another
freeing the patient on a whim. Finally, the ignorant patient thanks the
physician for his tortures. The observer says: ‘What a fool is that patient. He
puts his trust and faith in that capricious, petty physician, who imprisons him
for no reason, who feeds him poison, who causes him suffering and then releases
him on a whim. Why should he thank that physician for being such a malicious,
unreasonable and capricious being?’ The patient, however, finds the argument of
the observer completely ridiculous and nonsensical. The patient, of course, is
the theist and the observer, the atheist who is ignorant as to what he is
observing. The observer sees only the
negative and is unaware of the positive. The physician is all-seeing, all-wise,
so he knows what he is doing. He is completely aware of the physiology of his
patient and the medicine and treatments needed to heal him. The observer,
however, has no knowledge of medicine and sees only torture, caprice and
unreason. Who is correct? In reality, a true believer in God is aware of the
benefits of the medicine while the unbeliever is ignorant as to its benefits. Bahá’u’lláh writes:
“The
All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth
the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age
hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the
world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that
which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of
the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and
requirements.” –
Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CVI.
4. God expects us to be
thankful, despite the misery we go through. Why should we thank Him?
For the same reason that the patient thanks the physician who healed
him. God gave us life, tests us according to our limits through suffering, and
gives us spiritual rewards. He establishes a divine system of justice so that
we are rewarded for our good deeds and punished for our bad deeds. He punishes
the unjust and rewards the just. Since He created us from absolute nothingness,
taught us love and happiness, why should we not thank Him? In reality, God is
the object of all adoration and the source of all true joy and happiness. We
should be patient and thankful in adversity, knowing that it is true medicine
from a Divine Physician. Bahá’u’lláh
writes:
“All praise to the unity of God,
and all honour to Him, the sovereign Lord, the incomparable and all-glorious
Ruler of the universe, Who, out of utter nothingness, hath created the reality
of all things, Who, from naught, hath brought into being the most refined
and subtle elements of His creation, and Who, rescuing His creatures from the
abasement of remoteness and the perils of ultimate extinction, hath received
them into His kingdom of incorruptible glory. Nothing short of His
all-encompassing grace, His all-pervading mercy, could have possibly achieved
it. How could it, otherwise, have been possible for sheer nothingness to have
acquired by itself the worthiness and capacity to emerge from its state of
non-existence into the realm of being?
“Having created the world and all
that liveth and moveth therein, He, through the direct operation of His
unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon man the unique
distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him—a capacity that must needs
be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the
whole of creation…. Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He
hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory
of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the
radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own
Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled out for so great a
favor, so enduring a bounty.” – Bahá’u’lláh,
Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, XXVII.
5. There’s an insect which eats
children’s eyes out from the inside
 |
| Human botfly |
Stephen Fry is presumably referring to the human botfly (Dermatobia hominis), one of several
species of fly which produce larvae that paratisise humans and other animals,
including other primates. The fly is native to the Americas from Southeastern
Mexico to northern Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. While gruesome in its
relationship to human beings, it is not regarded as being either abundant
enough nor harmful enough to attain true pest status. What happens is the
Dermatobia captures a mosquito and attaches its egg to the mosquito’s body and
releases it. The egg then hatches while the mosquito is feeding and the larvae
enter the person or animal through the bite or drop off the fly when it lands
on the person or animal’s skin. They develop within the animal or person for
eight weeks and then drop out for at least a week to pupate, typically in the
soil. This is all rather horrible and disgusting, especially if it makes it
into someone’s eye. At the same time, it can be treated by first applying
several coats of nail polish to the area of the larva’s entrance which
partially asphyxiates it or covering it in adhesive tape. Applying petroleum jelly
over the location, it can then be removed with tweezers safely after a day. Oral
use of an anti-parasitic medicine has also proved to be successful, leading to
spontaneous emigration of the larva, which is useful in cases where the larva
has made it into the inner canthus of the eye.
This is all sufficiently horrible to make someone completely terrified
but, at the same time, it is rather a minor health concern compared to the
numerous other diseases and maladies afflicting the earth. Given sufficient medical
treatement, it can be removed easily with very minimal effort. The horror
factor, therefore, which makes it an argument against the existence of God, is
completely unjustified. There are very terrible diseases out there, but there
are also doctors and other experts working on cures for those illnesses,
stemming their spread and alleviating the suffering they cause. We, as human
beings, are responsible for each other and have a duty to eradicate such
diseases. I hope that the human botfly is made extinct—if practicable, but it
is certainly not a valid argument. It’s an emotional argument based on
exaggeration.
6. Life is purer, cleaner, more
worth-living, when you become an atheist.
 |
| The Ten Commandments of the Prophet Moses |
That would depend entirely on whether one knows the value and purpose of life. Life exists so that we can develop spiritually. If we can develop a good character, then our lives have meaning. As already mentioned, that usually takes hardship and suffering. Anyone who has ever had to deal with spoilt children, who are given their every desire and whose every whim is satisfied, are the most wretched children one can possibly encounter. They have ruined characters and make everyone they come into contact with utterly miserable. Why do we exist? Do we exist to live in pleasure on earth, enjoying all its material benefits, or do we exist for a higher purpose? God tells us why He created us—love. God loved us before He even brought us into being and it is because of that love that we exist. Just as a parent has children because of love for those unborn children, so likewise does God bring humanity and the whole of creation into existence because of His love for us. He wants us to be happy and He knows how we can achieve happiness. Our hearts are like mirrors. If we turn our hearts away from the sun, no light can shine in the mirror. If a plant is kept in the cupboard, it will die. Likewise, if we turn away from God, His love can never reach us. We can never experience that love, feel it and return it to Him. James, the brother of Jesus Christ, wrote (James 4:8): “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded”. Likewise, Bahá’u’lláh writes: “O SON OF BEING! Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.” (Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, From the Arabic, #5) If God loves us, it becomes us to love Him, just as it becomes a child to love his parents.
Parents give
children what they need, not what they want. A child wants chocolate and
sweets. A parent gives him vegetables and rice. A child wants to play all day
long. The parent sends the child to school. The child wants to hit his brother.
The parent slaps the child on the wrist and puts him in time out. A child wants
to buy new toys every day. The parent only gives the child new toys on special
occasions. A good parent makes sure that a child does not have everything easy.
He or she makes sure that the child experiences difficulties, overcomes
challenges and learns from his mistakes. A good parent punishes a child, sends
him to his room, deprives him of what he wants to do, on occasion and verbally rebukes him. A good parent makes
sure a child does his homework rather than watching all the cartoons he wants.
A bad parent gives a child everything he or she wants. God is like a good
parent, which is why the Bible refers to God as the ‘Everlasting Father’
(Isaiah 9:6). Children cry, children suffer, children get scrapes and burns,
bump their heads and have difficulties, but that is how they become men and
women.
Life, therefore,
cannot be wholesome and have true fulfillment without God. Even if we develop
positive characteristics, we are still shut away and turned away from the light
when we turn away from God. We can do good works, charity, etc. but, without
faith, all our good works are dead. Atheists believe that it is possible to be
moral without being religious. That would depend on where one gets one’s
morality from and what that standard of morality is. In popular culture,
especially in heavily materialistic societies, it is considered acceptable to
say a ‘white lie’ or lie to save oneself from a difficulty. It is also
considered perfectly acceptable to have sex outside marriage; there is lack of
clarity about how old the age of consent should be; adultery is romanticised;
there is moral confusion about abortion, the death penalty, gay marriage, the
role of religion in society, etc. etc. etc. There is, to put it simply, no
universal consensus on what constitutes morality and virtue. Those values which
are proclaimed as universal, such as fairness, equality and justice, kindness
to one’s fellow man, etc. all have their origin in religion. It is impossible
to know what is moral and what is not moral without reference to a universal
standard and that universal standard, if devised by ordinary humans, can only
be subjective and lead to further conflict and contention. A universal standard
of morality can only be derived from a religious and moral code. The moral
foundation of all religions is the same, though the social laws of religion
evolve over time. The essence of Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism,
Christianity and Islam is the same. They only differ in the complexity of their
teachings, the social laws they established, and the cultural milieu in which
they appeared. To be truly moral is to live in line with a divine standard of
morality.
 |
| Chart showing progressive revelation from God through His Messengers |
In conclusion, the
arguments raised by Stephen Fry are primarily based on emotion rather than
logic or reason. There are no valid scientific or logical arguments against the
existence of God (though rational arguments can be made for the existence of a
Primal Will, which brought all of creation into being). All that atheists can
argue is that the God taught in mainstream religions is not just or good and,
therefore, cannot exist. This argument is not valid because their argument is
based entirely on the existence of suffering, which is beneficial to our
spiritual and moral development. God is like a supreme and perfect Physician,
who is All-knowing and All-wise, who understands our needs and our wants. He
diagnoses the malady and provides the divine remedy, which is revealed religion.
This religion is taught to mankind through a Divine Messenger, a Perfect Human
Being, who helps mankind to develop from one stage of civilization to the next
(e.g. Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, etc.).
The moral code which each Messenger teaches is the same while the social laws
differ depending on the circumstances of the time in which they were revealed.
To be truly moral is to follow the moral code of true religion and recognise
the divine source of that spiritual medicine. God loves us and, because of His
love, He created us. He is like a parent who does not always give us what we
want, but always gives us what we need. To truly fulfill our purpose in life, we
must love Him and follow His teachings, just as a mirror turns to the sun or a
plant to the light. Without the light of the sun, we can never grow and
develop. If we succeed in developing the virtues and spiritual qualities we
need on earth, we enter Paradise in the afterlife while, if we fail to develop
these qualities, we enter what religions refer to as Hell, or remoteness from
God. I hope this has been a helpful rebuttal, and I truly hope that atheists
will open their hearts and discover the true essence of religion.
I will end with
these words of Bahá’u’lláh:
“Only
when the lamp of search, of earnest striving, of longing desire, of passionate
devotion, of fervid love, of rapture, and ecstasy, is kindled within the
seeker’s heart, and the breeze of His loving-kindness is wafted upon his soul,
will the darkness of error be dispelled, the mists of doubts and misgivings be
dissipated, and the lights of knowledge and certitude envelop his being. At
that hour will the Mystic Herald, bearing the joyful tidings of the Spirit,
shine forth from the City of God resplendent as the morn, and, through the
trumpet-blast of knowledge, will awaken the heart, the soul, and the spirit
from the slumber of heedlessness. Then will the manifold favors and outpouring
grace of the holy and everlasting Spirit confer such new life upon the seeker
that he will find himself endowed with a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a
new mind. He will contemplate the manifest signs of the universe, and will
penetrate the hidden mysteries of the soul. Gazing with the eye of God, he will
perceive within every atom a door that leadeth him to the stations of absolute
certitude. He will discover in all things the mysteries of Divine Revelation,
and the evidences of an everlasting Manifestation.” – Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXXV.
