Richard Dawkins on Stephen Fry, blasphemy and the law

Stephen Fry gives his views on the existence of God during an appearance on 'The Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne' in February 2015. Video: RTÉ

Sir, – As a gesture of solidarity with Stephen Fry, I quote a sentence from my book, The God Delusion: "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

Every one of these adjectives is amply documented, with full biblical citations, in Dan Barker's book, God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction.

I shall be giving a public lecture in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, on June 12th, and I shall therefore be available for arrest on a charge of blasphemy. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD DAWKINS,

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New College,

Oxford.