(OPINION) “Succession” actor Brian Cox gave a harsh assessment of religion and its impact on the world in a new wide-ranging interview out this week.
In a new episode of The Starting Line podcast, the Scottish actor, who is a self-professed atheist and socialist, argued that religion has sold humans a false story about reality and contributed to their own “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 went on to say, referencing the Holocaust and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. “The same things are repeated in belief systems which do not serve,” he said.
The actor claimed the conflict in the Middle East is “never going to go away” because it is fueled by these faulty systems that hurt both Muslims and Jews.
Lamenting the lives lost in the conflict, he added, “People are so stupid… and they cannot see the writing on the wall.”
He argued that religion shields humans from examining how they contribute to society’s problems.
“It’s all about this notion of God, the idea that there’s a God that takes care of us all. 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 inside ourselves,” he explained humanity’s relationship with religion. He also criticized the Bible as “one of the worst books ever.”
He pointed to the creation account of Adam and Eve in scripture to complain that “propaganda” from the religious text has contributed to a “patriarchal” society.
“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.”
“It is not the truth, it’s a mythology,” he continued. “We’ve created that idea of God, and we’ve created it as a control issue, and it’s also a patriarchal issue… and it’s essentially patriarchal – we haven’t given enough scope to the matriarchy.”
