Stephen Fry, English actor and comedian, is a committed atheist. In response to the question of what he would say to God upon death, he stated, "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."
In response to the interviewer's second question, "And you think you are going to get in, like that?" only served to fuel his fervor. "But I wouldn't want to," Fry insisted. "I wouldn't want to get in on his terms. They are wrong." He continues, "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. We have to spend our life on our knees thanking him? What kind of god would do that?"
Editors Notes: See this thoughtful response to Fry's comments from Krish Kandiah.
