Big Al asks: Why in your opinion is Stephen Fry an idiot?

Why? Because Fry, like the most idiotic of idiotic fundamentalists, fails to the the story of Abraham and Isaac for what it is - a story. And an excellent story it is, too. It's exciting and memorable, so memorable that even atheist Fry remembers it. And it teaches a very effective lesson that the Hebrews have adhered to for all generations since: Don't practice human sacrifice, even though your neighbors are doing it.

Why? Because Fry, just like those damnable fundamentalists, confuses "factuality" with truth. Fry and the ultra-fundamentalists see an angry God who demands human sacrifice, and then pulls the chair out from Abraham just as Abe starts to sit down in his Seat of Sacrifice. And Fry and the ultrafundamentalists would have been more comfortable if God had held fast and made sure the boy got killed by his father. But the truth in the story is that people believed in human sacrifice and practiced it the world round. And in spite of this, this scripture story shows that human sacrifice was no longer acceptable. And this was a powerful message, since all the neighbors were still practicing human sacrifice.

But Fry and the ultrafundamentalists, and Hitchens and Dawkins, can only see the shallow, literalist view of the story and don't understand its implications.

If you look at the Abraham-Isaac story (and many other Bible stories) as stories, then they begin to make sense. And this, my friends, goes to show that fiction is often more truthful than fact.

But Fry and his ilk wouldn't understand it.

-Joe-