Who is God?

Stephen Fry, the English actor, writer and television presenter, made headlines this week by describing God as "utterly monstrous", "totally selfish" and "a maniac".

During an interview with Gay Byrne on The Meaning of Life, on RTÉ One, Fry said that if he met God he would say, "Bone cancer in children? What's that about? How dare you? How dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault? It's not right. It's utterly, utterly evil.

“Yes, the world is very splendid, but it has in it insects whose whole life cycle is to burrow into the eyes of children and make them blind. It eats outwards from the eyes. Why? Why did you do that to us? You could easily have made a creation in which that didn’t exist. It is simply not acceptable.”

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Azarudeen Nazeer: believes “blindly in God”. Photograph: Alan Betson

Atheism, he told Byrne, in a clip from the programme that went viral and has now been watched millions of times online, “is not simply about not believing there is a god, but, on the assumption that there is one, what kind of god is he? It’s perfectly apparent that he is monstrous, utterly monstrous, and deserves no respect whatsoever.”

That’s Stephen Fry’s view. But what does God mean to people in Ireland today? We went out and asked some of them.

Sr Mai Pender

Presentation nun from Wexford; 82

Do you believe in God? Yes. (She laughs.)

Has your faith changed over the years? It got greater and greater. I would die for Jesus now. Eleven years ago I had cancer. I told my superior, "Don't ask Jesus to cure me. Just tells him that if there's more work for me to do I'll stay and do it. If not I'll go to Him."

Why are you in Dublin? I'm on retreat. You don't have to lock yourself away to be with Jesus. I'm enjoying it – if I see a poor person on the street I buy a cup of coffee for them.

What is God? God is a person to me. God, to me, is like you. A real person. Not just imagination or anything else. He's a real man in my life. The most beautiful, lovely and kind man. If not I wouldn't be able to go out and help people. I'm a long time on the streets of Wexford helping people. I don't judge or ask questions . . . I couldn't do it unless I kept close to God.

What did you think of Stephen Fry’s views? They were talking about that around the table the other day. Another sister said that he doesn’t believe in God. I said, “Ah, he just doesn’t know Him.”

Cian Clarke

With input from his friend Conor Taaffe; from Dundalk

Do you believe in God? I wouldn't say so, no. I did when I was younger, and it was the norm. It was something you did.

What did God look like to you when you did believe in Him? God to me looked like Santa – the white beard and long hair. TV implanted that image on me: a big jolly old man looking after you. There was never a face. It was always the neck-down robes and sandals and a bit of a beard.

Do you remember when you stopped believing? When a priest couldn't answer any of our questions correctly. We were quite imaginative children and kept asking him questions . . . I started to doubt his own belief at that point.

Do you have a belief in an afterlife? I hope that when I die I have all my family around me. That's an idea of heaven, isn't it? I don't plan to pray for it. Just fingers crossed.

What did you think of Stephen Fry on The Meaning of Life? Stephen Fry says a lot of the right things. But people are starting to draw lines in the sand, and that's dangerous. People need to get along with each other. That's more important than forcing values on other people. If you want to pray in a mosque or a church, or don't want to pray at all – if you want to pray to Hulk Hogan – as long as it doesn't affect my family or friends I've no problem.

What is God? (His friend Conor Taaffe chips in with, "If anything, God is disconnected at this point.") That's a brilliant one. We'll go with that.

Clary Mayindu

From Democratic Republic of Congo

Do you believe in God? God exists. See what we're surrounded with – the air we breathe and how the universe is well organised. Mathematically it makes sense. There is an intelligent design behind it.

What is God? I see God as a person but a spiritual person, a being. When the Bible says man is created in God's image it doesn't mean physical image but human qualities, for example love."

Has your faith changed? I became a Jehovah's Witness eight years ago. I was Protestant.

Why change? For many people their religion is decided by geography or history. If I was born in Iraq there's more chance I'd be a Muslim. In southern Ireland there's more chance I would be a Catholic. I was born in a Protestant family, so my religion was decided by the lineage. When I re-examined the Bible for myself I had to adjust my beliefs.

How has your concept of God changed? I used to believe bad people would be burned in the fire. But that is not true, because a loving Father could not put even a finger of his Son in the fire.

So God is . . ? God is the sovereign of the universe. He has the right to tell us what to do, because he is the creator.

Jimmy Lee

Retired refrigeration engineer, from Kilmainham

Have you religious faith? I was born a Catholic. I was programmed that way. Now I believe Jesus walked the earth, a prophet like Buddha or Krishna, and they all gave the same message at different times and different cultures.

What was the message? Follow a few simple rules of behaviour and what will be will be.

What do you believe? That we're just spirit in a human form. We're an incredible machine, and we're just programmed from the time we're born with ego and programmed for this material universe. We experience it with five senses, but there's a lot more.

Do you believe in God? Sitting upstairs somewhere? No. We're a tiny speck in the universe. [If he's there] Earth and the humans are just a little hobby for him.

So God is . . ? Asleep. Yeah, he's having a rest . . . When it goes too far maybe he'll wake up.

What did you think of Stephen Fry? Fair play to him. He was brave, and Gaybo took it well. But it's a narrow point of view.

Isobel Hadlum

Student from the UK

Do you believe in God? I'm atheist but not stridently so. I'm not anti-theist.

Did you ever believe? I was kind of religious when I was younger, because I was in the Girls' Brigade, which was quite a religious organisation . . . But my mum is agnostic and my dad very atheist.

What changed? Climate change was something that really triggered nonbelief, because I was like, How could God let this happen? It was so disastrous and detrimental. I could also see how people with faith bend their definition of God to fit around the bad things that happen.

What did God look like to you? I just thought of it as a voice I could talk to. You tend to think in very literal ways when you're young. Theologians and religious philosophers tend to have a more sophisticated notion of God, which is quite interesting. God is "everything" rather than this guy with a beard.

So God is . . ? I think God is what humans want to be. Jung has the idea of the archetype. Humans aspire to be moral beings, and we all want to be in control in a way – and I guess the idea of God fulfils that. It's an end point to all our questions.

Saoirse Kennedy

Works at the GPO in Dublin

Do you believe in God? I believe and I don't believe. I have a different understanding of God than I was taught. At 11 I lost all faith in the church. It's due to the negative religious teaching I had in school.

So what is God? Mine would be more personal. I think attitudes have shifted from the biblical God to a more secular, personal God. I don't need to go to a church to talk to God if I need to talk to him. You're never really alone if you believe in God.

Can you picture God? Not really. I don't put a face to him or her. It's more of a feeling.

Do your friends have religious belief? It's not something that we fall out over. You have to respect other people's beliefs. It's more about moral systems. A person could be atheist and have excellent morals, and someone else can really believe in God and be the most horrible person. It's about being a good person.

So God is . . ? I could go with Nietzsche's "God is me," but actually God is everybody.

Yun Chiu

Student from Taiwan

Do you believe in God? In Taiwan we have traditional religion. One day a year we will say hello to our ancestors. You say, "Hi, Grandpa, how are you? I am good this day," and just talk to them. But I don't know if they're there or not. You just talk to them and ask them to bless us to be happy and healthy.

So is there no creator God? We don't have that kind of religion.

Do you believe in an afterlife? You mean after we die? Maybe there's something, but I don't know. When I die I will know, but I cannot say that now.

So God is . . ? No God. (She laughs.)

Simon Kearney

Dublin City University student, Carlow

Do you believe in God? I do. I still go to Mass.

What did you think of Stephen Fry on The Meaning of Life? You know, I never heard of Stephen Fry until yesterday.

Are your classmates religious? No. One of them fell out with her parents because of their religious belief. Religion is a very touchy subject in our course. They think I'm very religious because I go to Mass and read at Mass. They think that's crazy.

Did you always believe? I had a little phase where I went to Mass with earphones on. I didn't want to go. Now it's what I believe in. Last year, when I was doing my Leaving Cert, I prayed every day that I'd get on well, and I just believe He'll get me through whatever tough time I have in life.

When you pray what do you picture? I always think about my godmother, who died. So God manifests through other people He does. I always ask him to look after people I know who died and to help them guide me to make the right decision. I never picture God. I always picture people I love who are gone.

So God is . . ? The only thing I can think of is "everything".

Azarudeen Nazeer

MBA student from Kerala, India

Are you religious? I'm a Muslim. I go to prayer five times a day.

What does it feel like when you pray? When I'm praying I feel peace in my heart and I can concentrate on everything. I feel peace when I think of God.

What is God to you? There's a presence of God in everyone and everything. In me and you and him, the presence of God is there.

Did you ever question your faith? No. I believe blindly in God.

Do you talk to your friends about religion? I didn't talk about religion with my friends. I don't categorise my friends into religion. I never think like that. I only see their attitude towards me and other people. Their religion doesn't matter.

So God is . . ? God is love. God is everything to me.