A viewer reported the offence after the comedian spoke about God during an interview with Irish broadcaster RTE in February 2015. The individual, who wished to remain anonymous, said it was their 'civic duty' to report the comments which he alleges were in breach of the Defamation Act.
May 6, 2017
"Irish police are investigating Stephen Fry for blasphemy after he called God an 'utter maniac' who is 'mean-minded and stupid' on television..."
The Daily Mail reports.
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Loving v. Virginia court shopping?
As crazy as a "Defamation Act" seems, at least the penalty isn't having your head cut off or being stoned to death.
"And don't tell me God works in mysterious ways," Yossarian continued. … "There's nothing mysterious about it, He's not working at all. He's playing. Or else He's forgotten all about us. That's the kind of God you people talk about, a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed. Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of Creation? What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatological mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements? Why in the world did He ever create pain?"
"[T]he God I don't believe in is a good God, a just God, a merciful God. He's not the mean and stupid God you make him out to be."Lieutenant Scheisskopf's wife said
Catch 22
Wow, I didn't know Ireland had blasphemy laws. Sad. We are so blessed to have freedom of speech. We really need to preserve it at all costs. As a Christian I try not to blaspheme but I don't expect the same of unbelievers. Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.
Maybe he can plea bargain the blasphemy charge down to practicing theodicy without a license.
I thought Fry was an atheist. Apparently he's really a theophobe.
At least he doesn't have to worry over being thrown off a building.
All of this is unnecessary.
Simply make Fry attend a religiousness consciousness raising session followed by a walk of shame and a physical beat down by a mob.
You know, exactly as the Left prefers.
One would think the Supreme Being doesn’t need any assistance from the Irish judiciary.
Fry is another atheist who is super pissed off at that darn God for not existing.
He is asking to hear from a christian Apologist.
Sorry about that.
Now we need to discuss curses.
And the Defamation Act is in breach of all common sense and the Enlightenment principles. Honestly, I don't know how modern societies survive without genuine freedom of speech foundations. The type of speech that is punished becomes purely hypocritical.
Sentence him to a lifetime with Sinead O'Connor and be done with it.
"In a responding interview on BBC2 later that day, God asked Stephen Fry where he was when He created Leviathan>"
YH, ha! Nicely done.
Just when I think Ireland can't get any worse...
I won't lose any sleep over blasphemy laws in the West that are relics and enforced in such arbitrary ways-- whatever the course of justice in Ireland, we all know that eventually this process will redound to Stephen Fry's greater glory in the media and amongst the thinkers of good, much to my own distaste.
Will admit, however, that the role of Jeeves suited him perfectly.
The problem with the "Problem of Evil" arguments against the existence of God is what comes out on the other side if you're right. Atheism needs to take Nietzsche's dictum that "When you stare into the Void, the Void stares back at you" as a warning & not merely as a description.
If there's no God to set the moral books straight someday, then you must face the fact that for all those Jewish children murdered by the Nazis, & their ashes scattered to the wind, well, they're dead, and that was a bad thing. For the SS staff who murdered them, if they dodged a Red Army bullet, & managed to die in their bed, well, they got away with mass murder. That's a bad thing, too. But, human justice failed them, and that's all we have, as crappy as it is.
But, on the other hand if there's a God who balances the moral books, you have the hope that after those final minutes of darkness & terror, those children came into the bright light & an angel took them to the bosom of their father Abraham where there will be no more sorrow, ever.
The choice is yours. I've chosen the second option, as it's the only way I get through the day.
Fry's a typical English left-wing atheist. I've never heard him attack England's restrictive free speech laws regarding racism/sexism/blah de blah.
So, if the Irish want to punish him for blasphemy its OK with me.
Maybe, it'll teach him to value free speech.
However, I assume this will go nowhere.
For some reason various comedians seem to think that because they tell a joke, we want to hear their puerile opinions on "life, the universe, and everything".
Just be funny, joke boy.
It's not unlikely that the person complaining was a Muzzie. When we get blasphemy laws here I plan to spend my old age using them to torment Leftists.
Doubtless he was referring to Angra Mainyu not Ahura Mazda.
Wasn't the point of the accusation to get the blasphemy law changed? Accuse someone who is very popular of breaking the law to draw attention to it.
The law in question is not against blasphemy, it is against "defamation" - an up-to-date version of laws against libel and slander. It seems to ban lowering a person's reputation by making false statements. Is God's reputation lowered by by comments in the media? In the Moslem world there is agreement that it is. Elsewhere, due both to belief and unbelief, no, as I see it. Everyone knows there are unbelievers and everyone knows their case, such as it is. Statements about God-the-Meanie have no shock value; they change nothing. You want to debate? - get on the internet, learn the arguments and say something new.
For example, is the state the new God and is the state mean? When the state requires deductibles for heath care that ordinary people cannot pay is the state creating a human version of the tapeworm? and so indicating that it is cruel and unjust. If the state sends people to prison for what Hillary did but lets her off, is the-state-the-new-god unjust? and can we say so? Can we use the defence "Hillary did it?" If we say that in court, is it defamation?
If the state sends people to prison for what Hillary did but lets her off, is the-state-the-new-god unjust? and can we say so? Can we use the defence "Hillary did it?" If we say that "Hillary did it" in court on our own behalf, is it defamation?
Or - can we claim that we are blaspheming? and that there are no laws against blasphemy any more. If we said God created Hillary's shriveled little soul and went on about it and how she can't help herself because it was all preforeordaindestinationed and this indicated that God was mean - would we escape all libel or slander or defamation laws because it was a blasphemous theological opinion not a libel, slander or defamation?
God was stupid, as Mark Twain pointed out, for not prohibiting eating the Serpent instead of the apple. He was mean spirited for turning Lot's wife into a pillar of salt and for ordering the sexual mutilation of so many infant boys.
Doesn't anybody teach Genesis 1 - 3 anymore?
God is easy. Would Fry ever blaspheme the Pro-Choice Cult, mortal gods, special classes, and their twilight faith?
... Uh... have these people SEEN V for Vendetta?
Comfy chair.
Ireland is 14th on the world press freedom index, 2017. The United States is 43.
This looks like a foundation-setting pretextual show of fair-mindedness in advance of prosecutions of the establishment's likely real target, people who make provocative remarks about Islam.
In the 20th century, there was only one piece of legislation supported by the Catholic Church that was not approved by the Dáil Éireann. The legislation in question mandated the weekday closing of the pubs at 10 pm......The English had suppressed the free exercise of the Catholic religion when they had the upper hand. One of the purposes of the Easter Rebellion was to restore the Catholic faith to a dominant place in Irish life. In that they succeeded. The Church was able to maintain the Magdalene laundries and the Irish Christian Brother schools without any undue government interference.
Lefties ought to pay attention to stories like this. They appear to think the totally bogus concept of "hate speech" will only and ever work for them. Europe shows that once you let that genie out of the bottle, it will take whatever side is up - and as Europe has also shown, there is NO side that cannot be up.
My own view is Woody Allen's - "the best thing you can say about God is, He is an underachiever." (Actually, it's not really my own view, so don't prosecute me, okay?}
With everything else and using Gervais as his yang, Fry should get credit at least having acknowledged God as being there.
What kind of political body would take it upon itself to create a statute defending God's feelings?
It's good to see Ireland and Saudi Arabia are on the same page.
Was there ever a single Hebrew or Christian in the Old or New Testaments who were "smitten" for blaspheming? It seems they were the ones questioning and challenging god the most.
Maybe he doesn't like complacency and blind subservience.
If there's no God to set the moral books straight someday, then you must face the fact that for all those Jewish children murdered by the Nazis, & their ashes scattered to the wind, well, they're dead, and that was a bad thing. For the SS staff who murdered them, if they dodged a Red Army bullet, & managed to die in their bed, well, they got away with mass murder. That's a bad thing, too. But, human justice failed them, and that's all we have, as crappy as it is.
But, on the other hand if there's a God who balances the moral books, you have the hope that after those final minutes of darkness & terror, those children came into the bright light & an angel took them to the bosom of their father Abraham where there will be no more sorrow, ever.
The choice is yours. I've chosen the second option, as it's the only way I get through the day.
Try this alternative on for size: Establishing systems of courts, and making justice rein throughout the land by holding the powerful accountable for deviations from conscientious depredations of the people rather than just saying, " Oh well. Governments do bad things! Expecting anything decent from them is evil socialism!"
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