What Questions Would Stephen Fry Ask God at the Pearly Gates?

in Life, Religion | February 2nd, 2015

Sev­er­al years ago, an inter­view­er asked Stephen Fry to look back­ward — to reflect on his life and answer this ques­tion, â€śWhat do you wish you had known when you were 18”? What lessons would you draw in hind­sight?  Some of his answers includ­ed:

  • Don’t set goals for your­self, par­tic­u­lar­ly mate­r­i­al ones. They’re dis­as­trous and will keep you from becom­ing who you real­ly are.
  • Keep your ego in check. You’ll be bet­ter liked, and more oppor­tu­ni­ties will come your way.
  • Get out­side your com­fort zone by trav­el­ing to dis­tant lands and read­ing books in a serendip­i­tous way.
  • Be a giv­er, not a tak­er. It’s more reward­ing.

In the clip above, Gay Byrne, a broad­cast­er with RTÉ, now asks Fry to look for­ward and answer anoth­er ques­tion: Sup­pose there is a God, and you arrive at the Pearly Gates, what would you say to him, her or it? Fry, an avowed sec­u­lar human­ist, isn’t throw­ing God any soft­balls: Why cre­ate a world where kids have bone can­cer? Why cre­ate insects that bur­row into chil­dren’s eyes and ren­der them blind? Why cre­ate a world with so much pain, mis­ery and injus­tice in it? As he answers these ques­tions, and con­cludes that such a God (were it to exist) would be noth­ing short of mani­a­cal, Byrne’s face con­torts, reveal­ing his dis­com­fort. You can watch oth­er scenes from the inter­view here, and catch Fry’s ani­mat­ed primers on sec­u­lar human­ism here.

via The Dai­ly Beast

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Stephen Fry: What I Wish I Knew When I Was 18

Stephen Fry Explains Human­ism in 4 Ani­mat­ed Videos: Hap­pi­ness, Truth and the Mean­ing of Life & Death

Free Online Reli­gion Cours­es

 

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Marlene Dietrich Plays the Musical Saw (aka the Singing Saw) to Entertain the Troops During WWII

in Film, Music | February 2nd, 2015

It’s not my favorite Mar­lene Diet­rich gem on the inter­net. No, that would be her tem­pera­men­tal screen test for The Blue Angel  (1930). But it’s still a pre­cious find. Above, we have an audio clip fea­tur­ing Diet­rich, one of the tow­er­ing movie stars of ear­ly cin­e­ma, play­ing the musi­cal saw. Andrea James writes over at Boing­Bo­ing: “Diet­rich always want­ed to be a clas­si­cal musi­cian. Since her cabaret act and film career left lit­tle time for her to do the required prac­tice, she played the musi­cal saw instead. Through­out World War II she wowed USO audi­ences with the nov­el­ty.” And that’s what we get a taste of here. In oth­er clips avail­able on Youtube, you can find Diet­rich play­ing her “singing saw,” and again play­ing the musi­cal saw on the radio, cir­ca 1945.

via

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Ernest Hemingway’s “Love Let­ter” to His “Dear­est Kraut,” Mar­lene Diet­rich (1955)

Mar­lene Dietrich’s Tem­pera­men­tal Screen Test for The Blue Angel

101 Free Silent Films: The Great Clas­sics

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Auschwitz Captured in Haunting Drone Footage (and a New Short Film by Steven Spielberg & Meryl Streep)

in History | February 1st, 2015

Drones can give us an extra­or­di­nary view of cities still in their prime — cities like Los Ange­les, New York, Lon­don, Bangkok & Mex­i­co City. They can also give us a rare glimpse of places no longer inhab­it­ed, places qui­et­ed by the unspeak­able. We’ve shown you a drone’s-eye view of Cher­nobyl. This week, it’s Auschwitz. Shot by the BBC, this sober­ing footage car­ries us over the mas­sive Nazi con­cen­tra­tion, built in South­ern Poland, where 1.1 mil­lion peo­ple died dur­ing World War II, most of them (90%) Euro­pean Jews. Many died in the gas cham­bers. Oth­ers of star­va­tion, forced labor, infec­tious dis­eases, and sadis­tic med­ical exper­i­ments.

On this web­site, you can also watch a new­ly-released short doc­u­men­tary on Auschwitz. Pro­duced by Steven Spiel­berg and nar­rat­ed by Meryl Streep, it pre­miered last week before 300 Holo­caust sur­vivors in Auschwitz, help­ing to com­mem­o­rate the 70th anniver­sary of the lib­er­a­tion of the camp.

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Relat­ed Con­tent

How Alice Herz-Som­mer, the Old­est Holo­caust Sur­vivor, Sur­vived the Hor­rif­ic Ordeal with Music

Mem­o­ry of the Camps (1985): The Holo­caust Doc­u­men­tary that Trau­ma­tized Alfred Hitch­cock, and Remained Unseen for 40 Years

The Touch­ing Moment When Nicholas Win­ton Met the Chil­dren He Saved Dur­ing the Holo­caust

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