Fry the blasphemer

[Pat Mustard]

Following his laser-guided smackdown on Gay Byrne's show in 2015, Stephen Fry is being investigated for blasphemy under Irish Republic defamation laws.

Appearing on The Meaning of Life, hosted by Gay Byrne, in February 2015, Fry had been asked what he might say to God at the gates of heaven.

Fry said: "How dare you create a world in which there is such misery? It's 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?"

He went on to say that Greek gods "didn't present themselves as being all seeing, all wise, all beneficent", adding "the god who created this universe, if it was created by god, is quite clearly a maniac, an utter maniac, totally selfish".

The Irish Independent reported a member of the public made a complaint to police in Ennis in the same month the programme was broadcast. He was recently contacted by a detective to say they were looking into his complaint.

The viewer was not said to be offended himself but believed Fry's comments qualified as blasphemy under the law, which carries a maximum penalty of a fine of 25,000 euros (£22,000).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39830447

Yet again, a god so utterly devoid of power that it can't even take offence by itself.

You know, I've got a strange feeling I could name the person who made the complaint. Ennis is not too far from Limerick.

One good thing may come out of this though. The public ridicule of somebody actually complaining may just persuade the government that getting rid of the blasphemy section of the constitution, Art. 40.6.1.i (and the subsequent law) is an unqualified good.

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Gee, wonder what the Irish authorities would think of me rubbing my penis to the point of orgasm in one of Jesus' nail holes ?

According to canon law, doing that would make your little lad a third degree holy relic.

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Dear Ireland,

Please keep your Jesus freaks. We have enough in the U.S.

Love,
Crossless1

We don't actually have too many of them (that's why I'm saying I could probably name the complainant), but our problem is that while the nation is secular (in reality, well north of 50% of the population is arreligious in both deed and thought) the state itself is deeply religious.

One reason is a hangover from deV and the 40s-80s FF and FG governments, the other is that the largest share of TDs are former teachers (at about a third last I could find out), meaning that they spent 8 years in catlick primary school, 5 in catlick secondary school, 4 in catlick university and then went back to either the catlick primary or secondary schools before jacking it in for the politics. Now not all teachers are holy rollers, but the teaching profession as a whole has a well deserved reputation as being the most conservative of all groups in the country (even more so than the farmers). As a result we've got a government that is running roughly forty years behind the country in terms of religion.