The self-aware Trimegistus seems to share my incredulity:
I ‘m an unbeliever (I stopped using the term “atheist” when it became a
synonym for “self-righteous asshole”) and the staggering ignorance of
other unbelievers always shocks me. I know I’m not an expert on
theology; I know history, I’ve read Lewis and Sayers and St. Augustine
but that’s about it — and yet I’m like the frickin’ Vatican Curia
compared to the general run of atheists.
One thing I’ve noticed about many atheists of the general run variety is that they cannot follow simple if/then statements. Consider these facepalm-inspiring tweets inspired by this morning’s post:
Milo Yiannopoulos @Nero
Perhaps the neatest skewering of @stephenfry ever, from @voxday#OttawaStrong @Canadastani
Summary: God is real because the bible says god is real! LALALALLALAKALALALALALALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!! #baconVox Day @voxday
Your summary is false. I merely pointed out the God-concept he is attacking is not the Christian God.Dan Sereduick @Globalizer360
Your summary of the Christian god is one that exists in advanced theology, not in ordinary religion.Vox Day @voxday
The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings are NOT advanced Christian theology.#OttawaStrong @Canadastani
Your imagination is not a real place either, but that doesn’t stop your imaginary friend Yahweh.Vox Day @voxday now
Look, you can’t criticize fiction for things that are not there. Sauron is not in Narnia.
It’s not that hard. My critique of Fry holds whether God exists or not. Christian theology is very well-defined. It is explained on multiple levels, from Tertullian and Thomas Aquinas all the way down to children’s novels like the Chronicles of Narnia. And yet, Stephen Fry quite clearly doesn’t know ANY of it.
You don’t have to believe in something to know what it is. I don’t believe in the Labor Theory of Value, but I can explain it to you. I don’t believe in Keynesian Economics, but I can explain multiple variants of it to you. I am skeptical of the Theorum of Evolution by (probably) Natural Selection, Biased Mutation, Genetic Drift, and Gene Flow, but I can explain how it is supposed to work.
The Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ are the core of the Christian faith. And that core is absolutely and utterly predicated on the EVIL OF A FALLEN WORLD. So for Fry to claim that the observable existence of evil somehow condemns the Creator God requires either a) perverted quasi-Calvinism or b) stupendous ignorance.