Stephen Fry speaks about that famous interview with Gay Byrne on The Meaning of Life

You’ve surely seen this…

Fry caused quite a stir a few years ago when he gave a frank response to Gay Byrne when he asked him what he would say to God if he met him at the gates of heaven.

Clip via RTÉ – IRELAND’S NATIONAL PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA

He spoke on The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio 1 on Wednesday morning where he discussed the referendum result and the influence he had on it.

“I feel very proud to have had a small part to play,” Fry said.

“I’m not an Irish citizen and it’s not necessarily my business to tell Irish people how to vote but I did tweet my support for it.”

Fry also spoke to Tubridy about his interview with Gay Byrne on The Meaning of Life about what he would say to God when he would arrive at the gates of heaven.

“He’s a lovely man Gay, he’s a national treasure in Ireland,” Fry said. “I had done the Late Late many times. When I heard he was doing this more intimate interview, I was very pleased to do it and he very sweetly suggested to do it at 1 Merrion Square which is where Oscar grew up and we chatted.

“Then he just threw in this last question ‘Suppose you’re wrong, suppose there is a God, what would you say to him?’  And so, without getting all academic, it’s called the argument from evil. So I sort of said ‘I would be furious with God, what the hell have you been thinking about? If you are the all powerful God, you needn’t have created the world in which children get bone cancer. There’s no good from such a thing, there’s nothing but pain and suffering. It makes no sense, how dare you treat us like that and how dare you make us fall on our knees and praise you everyday.’

“I hadn’t meant of course to offend or upset individual people’s faith because their faith is much stronger than anything I can say. I think it’s an interesting one.”

You can listen to the full interview here.

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