Police launch blasphemy probe against Stephen Fry for calling ‘God’ monstrous
The Irish police have launched a blasphemy probe into Stephen Fry after a viewer complained about comments he made on TV.
An Irish citizen made the report to the Ennis Garda Station after Fry appeared on The Meaning of Life, a show hosted by Gay Byrne, in 2015.
Police have since contacted the man who made the initial complaint and revealed that a full investigation is set to be carried out under the Defamation Act 2009.
If Fry is found to be guilty of being blasphemous, then he may be required to pay a fine of up to €25,000.
When on the show, Byrne asked Fry what he would say to God if he were to meet them.
Fry started: “Bone caner in Children? What’s that about? How dare you. How dare you create a world in which there is such misery which is not out fault. It’s not right. 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. That’s what I would say,” he added.
When asked if he thinks he would be able to “get into heaven”, Fry retros that he “wouldn’t want to”.
Fry, who was nominated for an award for the speech, explained: “If I died and the 12 Greek Gods then I would have more truck with it. The Greeks didn’t pretend not to be human in their appetites, their capriciousness and their unreasonableness.
“They didn’t present themselves as being all seeing, all wise, all kind, all beneficent because the god who created this universe.
“God was quite clearly a maniac. Utter maniac. Totally selfish. We have to spend our lives 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. Insects, whose whole life cycle is to burrow into the eyes of Children and make them blind,” he added.
The multi-hyphenate explained that he subscribed to Atheism because the God he knew to exist is “monstrous”.
“Atheism is not just about not believing there is a god. But on the assumption there is one, what kind of God is he? It is perfectly apparent that he is monstrous, utterly monstrous and deserves no respect what so ever. The moment you banish him life becomes simpler, purer, clearer and much more worth living in my opinion,” he concluded.
The interview has since been watched over seven million times.
The man who pledged the complaint also reported RTE for publishing the clip, he insisted that he was not offended by Fry’s remarks but felt they qualified as blasphemy under the law.
A police source confirmed to Independent.ie that the investigation was being carried out, but that it was “highly unlikely” a prosecution would emerge.
Ireland is one of the few countries remaining to still have a blasphemy law, but Fry could be convicted in 49 countries for the speech.
The law prohibits the “publishing or uttering [of] matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion”.
A cases involving blasphemy has yet to be bought before an Irish court since it was introduced in 2009.
