Famous (in Ireland) Irish TV Personality, Gay Byrne (that really is his name, not his orientation,it is an abbreviation for Gabriel), recently interviewed well-known and highly popular comedian Stephen Fry on one episode of his TV series “The Meaning of Life” in which he interviews well-known individuals with a set a predictable questions.
Now Stephen Fry, knowing what he might be asked, had a wonderful answer for the God question. When asked how he would react if he found that he was dead wrong (pun intended), and was standing at the pearly gates, what would he then say?
His reply was quite jaw-dropping and as he proceeds to answer, the look of complete shock and embarrassment on Gay Byrne’s face alone makes this a clip well worth watching … it’s only a couple of mins long …
“The moment you banish him, life becomes simpler, purer, cleaner, and more worth living“
… and he is quite right, because once you do abandon the bible as a source of morality, you are in effect abandoning an archaic text that promotes some rather dire stuff we left behind rather a long time ago, for example the bible promotes slavery from cover to cover (even the NT) as acceptable, (it even has specific instructions on how you may beat you slave) but we have long since moved beyond all that.
Intolerance should no longer be tolerated simply because some ancient text suggests it to be a good idea. Instead of a text, we can deploy reason and empathy, and so build a far better future by putting aside the old ideas and primitive constraints that we have long since improved upon.
Side Note … this episode has not yet been transmitted, this is the teaser, it is due to go out tomorrow (1st Feb).