Hollywood star Brian Cox of “Succession,” a self-avowed atheist socialist, thinks the Bible and religion in general are garbage.
Speaking on “The Starting Line Podcast” this week, he was asked whether religion is holding humanity back.
“Oh considerably, yes,” he replied. “I think religion does hold us back because it’s belief systems which are outside ourselves. They’re not dealing with who we are. We’re dealing with, ‘Oh if God says this and God does that,’ and you go, ‘Well, what is God?'”
“We’ve created that idea of God, and we’ve created it as a control issue, and it’s also a patriarchal issue . . . It’s essentially patriarchal; we haven’t given enough scope to the matriarchy,” he added.
Listen:
He continued by arguing the Bible isn’t the truth.
“I mean the propaganda goes right way back,” he said. “The Bible is one of the worst books ever, for me, from my point of view. [People may need religion] but they don’t need to be told lies. They need some kind of truth, and that is not the truth. It is not the truth. It’s a mythology, you know.”
It’s Cox’s belief that religion has essentially sold humanity a false story about reality that’s contributed to their “stupidity.”
“Human beings are so f—d, basically… because they’re so stupid,” he said.
Religion has “led us into all kinds of horror,” he continued, referencing the Holocaust, not to mention the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
“The same things are being repeated again and again in belief systems which do not serve,” he said.
He then speculated that the raging conflicts in the Middle East will “never … go away” because it’s fueled by religion.
“People are so stupid… and they cannot see the writing on the wall,” he said.
His specific beef with religion is that it allegedly shields people from analyzing how they themselves are contributing to and creating society’s problems.
“It’s all about this notion of God, the idea that there’s a God that takes care of us all,” he said. “There’s no such thing, doesn’t happen. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about us, and we don’t examine ourselves nearly enough.”
“We don’t look at who we are. We’re always looking outside of ourselves, instead of looking inside ourselves,” he explained of humanity’s relationship with religion,” he added.
He went on to describe the story of Adam and Eve as patriarchal “propaganda.”
“Because it starts with the idea that Adam’s rib – you know that [from] Adam’s rib, this woman was created, and they’ll believe it because they’re stupid enough,” he said, adding that humanity hasn’t evolved enough to rid itself of religion.
As for him personally, he revealed that he’s found his answers through acting, not religion, and that he believes the “one true church” is the theater because it’s “the church of humanity.”
“It’s people dealing with… those false gods we create for ourselves and the notion of the word God anyway, is a conceit,” he said. “It’s a terrible conceit that we don’t really acknowledge.”
Responding to Cox’s rant, some Christians wanted to know why he wasn’t directing the same criticism toward the Quran and other holy books.
Look:
Nothing to say about the Torah or the Quran though? Hmm? Brian?
— Author John A. Douglas (@BlkCrownAuthor) April 30, 2024
I dare him to say the same thing about the Quran, they all like to insult Christianity unprovoked.
— Mr Wick (@JardaniJovonovv) April 30, 2024
Why in America is it okay to be so openly critical of Christians? Meanwhile he would never say something like this concerning the Muslim faith, or Jewish beliefs.
— Eufaula Hazen (@EsmondElkmont) April 30, 2024
Cool story, now do the Quran Brian pic.twitter.com/0DRosPVGft
— @stevenvoiceover (@stevenvoiceover) April 30, 2024
That said, some people did agree with Cox, while one guy said the Bible isn’t “bad fiction” — it’s good “fiction.”
Look:
He not wrong at all
— Ham Sandwich (@AcousticDarvin) April 30, 2024
Sorry. I 100% Agree. The Bible was written when humans did not understand practically anything so they made stuff up. While there are some good moral values to be followed in the Bible and religion it is too often weaponized to fuel hatred and intolerance.
— Bob Wilkerson (@bobiroc) April 30, 2024
Viewing the Bible as fiction is one thing but calling it bad fiction is absolutely absurd; the stories have endured and continued influencing others throughout history for a reason, and any would-be criticism of the prose was simply how everything was written that long ago.
— AnoneySnufftan (@AnoneySnufftan) April 30, 2024
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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