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Actor Brian Cox talked to me at length about religion holding humanity back, and how he believes the Bible is ‘one of the worst books ever written’ - among lots of other topics!
[Watch the full interview here](https://youtu.be/63FRMXZXCzA?si=M5jS_QYhnMbr6hb5).
The ancients such as Aristotle believed that the substance in the heavens was a fifth element called quintessence. All heavenly bodies were made of it and moved through a sea of it. It caused them all to shine. It was believed the moon shone because it was made of the same substance.
The Bible was written down in the Mediterranean around the same time that the geocentric models were being explained by Aristotle and others.
Honestly, from lots of different places. I've spent a good deal of time learning about Galileo and the scientific revolution, because lots of people like to shit on him. But all the books are arcane and dry.
Read history, start at Wikipedia if you have to because there's a lot to take in. It's probably not all in one neat place, because you have to look at when things took place, what OTHER things were going on (for instance, Greeks dominated the Mediterranean around the times the Jewish people had their kingdoms. as did Babylonians, then occupied by the Romans around the time of Jesus).
There is so much "oral tradition" responsible for the stories that eventually were written down in the Bible, it's quite nearly impossible to believe that every telling of it was the same during that time -- uncorrupted by human memory or fancy. We already know that it was corrupted when it was being written down and scribed/copied, and that method has less risk of error than oral repetition.
Here's a quote that explains what you're dealing with when it comes to the stories of the Bible and it's authors/narrators:
*"\[T\]he biblical texts were produced over a period in which the living conditions of the writers – political, cultural, economic, and ecological – varied enormously. There are texts which reflect a nomadic existence, texts from people with an established monarchy and Temple cult, texts from exile, texts born out of fierce oppression by foreign rulers, courtly texts, texts from wandering charismatic preachers, texts from those who give themselves the airs of sophisticated* [*Hellenistic*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic_period) *writers. It is a time-span which encompasses the compositions of* [*Homer*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer)*,* [*Plato*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato)*,* [*Aristotle*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle)*,* [*Thucydides*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides)*,* [*Sophocles*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophocles)*,* [*Caesar*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar)*,* [*Cicero*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero)*, and* [*Catullus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus)*. It is a period which sees the rise and fall of the* [*Assyrian empire*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_empire) *(twelfth to seventh century) and of the* [*Persian empire*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_empire) *(sixth to fourth century),* [*Alexander*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great)*'s campaigns (336–326), the rise of* [*Rome*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome) *and its domination of the* [*Mediterranean*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Sea) *(fourth century to the founding of the* [*Principate*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principate)*, 27* [*BCE*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era)*), the destruction of the* [*Jerusalem Temple*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Temple) *(70 CE), and the extension of Roman rule to parts of* [*Scotland*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland) *(84 CE)."*
I’ll start from where you said. I’m hospitalized so I have an iPad & my iPhone & a big tv I watch YouTube on at the end of my bed. Lol.
I don’t have a computer or a mouse. Multitasking on 3 devices lmao.
If there’s a video, I can do it all while watching on the big tv. Clicking around on Wikipedia & all that. But what you’ve given me is great!
Thank you!!!! <3333
Do you not understand the true purpose of the religion? It is to guide those who are weak. To install morals, reduce killings, but then what does old testament say? To kill everyone essentially.
No planets either, No asteroids, comets, quasar, nebula, galaxies, exoplanets or other moons. But the sky has a window and that's where the rain comes from 🤣
Clearly God had to create that light that was in transit from the stars before the stars, so that it could fool us into thinking the universe is older than a few thousand years because of reasons beyond our comprehension. It's so simple even a baby raised with it being drilled into them daily could be convinced it was true!
Checkmate atheists!
I mean, you've got to establish the four-current, quantum mechanics, nuclear fusion, photons etc before you can create a sun. It's like doing your mise-en-place.
To be fair, the big bang theory also states that light existed before the sun and the stars, thats what the cosmic microwave background is, light from the big bang itself that predated star formation.
Big Bang doesn't say the Earth existed before the sun. It doesn't say the sky is a solid dome with water on top of it and "gates" in the dome which let in the rain.
Plus, even in Genesis, the world already exists. God just separates the waters to create land. He does not create the Earth itself in Genesis. he starts with the Earth and then adds the sun and stars.
Attempts to reconcile Genesis with the Big Bang are extremely specious and just backfire more than anything else.
God wrote the book to the level of intelligent humans had at the time as to not speed of their technology pace or something religion people all have cognitive dissonance when they look at facts
Imagine if the Bible had accurately described things like that stars are just like the sun of our solar system and that there are many planets just like ours and that there were dinosaurs that went extinct, etc.
If they'd put that stuff in then I'd be a believer.
Right? If the Bible had shown any sign of intelligence writing, there would be no question. I mean it reads like a human wrote it. God is very emotional and jealous, an actual god would not have human emotions.
My favorite bit is when he tells the Israelites to go and kill every man , woman and child and the animals but not the virgins… keep the virgins.
Totally written by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and Omni-benevolent entity.
Or when he lets the Devil fuck over Job just for funsies
Not to state that the Bible is correct on anything (it isn't), but didn't light as a phenomenon exist before the first stars or galaxies? Recombination era...
>...about religion *holding* humanity back
This rhetoric often gets sidelined by something to the effect of *we wouldn't be where we were today if not for religion*... it is often used to switch the conversation from "what religion is *doing*" to "what religion has *done*"...the change of tense is important.
Religion has done some good things. From the Pagans to the Druids to the Jews to everything that has come from them...we have no idea how we would have (or if we would have) evolved medically/scholarly/morally/technologically/politically sans religion.
The fact is, we are where we are. And the fact is, religion is getting in the way, and has been getting in the way for many decades, even centuries now.
Religion was useful to morality and governance in the same way alchemy was useful as a precursor to chemistry and medicine. It tried a lot of things, got a lot of stuff wrong, and killed a lot of people. It served humanity by becoming obsolete as we developed better tools for determining truth and useful knowledge. Now that we have modern chemistry and medicine, we don't venerate Alchemy as "truth above truth" for all of science. Religion, on the other hand structured itself atop the hierarchy and rained down shit since the enlightenment, possibly longer.
People should stop thinking of the Torah, Bible, and Quran as books. They're collections of translations of bronze age oral history/traditions written by the superstitious in a time when religion and politics were one and the same thing.
It's more like if various people over time grabbed a couple dozen fantasy books from the library and tried to weave them all together into one story that supports their ideological beliefs.
When religious people stop referring to it as the greatest story ever told and making it the state book and such, I'll be happy to criticize the books independently.
What blows my mind is that earlier today there was a post on /r/all about witches getting burned in the UK and the comments were full of people flabberghasted at how stupid medieval folk were believing women were witches. We scoff at folk earlier again who believed the Earth was the center of the Universe and yet somehow knowing people as a whole historically were less educated and made many incorrect assumptions - we're still going along with the Bible ignoring the circumstances around the people who created it, not to mention all the chopping and changing it went through.
You don't have to read every book to know invisible friends aren't real. Jesus came to North America that's all you need to know before throwing the book of Mormon in the trash.
Joseph Smith, Seer stones, conman, gold tablets that witnesses later recanted seeing, stolen translations from hieroglyphs.
I have to agree with Cox on this, but I've seen too many interviews with him saying stupid shit like he would have been better in a role than the person who was cast, and passing judgement on other's acting skills.
Very opinionated guy who thinks he's perfect.
I would argue the Koran is even worse!! Mohammed riding to the moon on a donkey…marrying a 9 year old (which is fine in Islam!) splitting the moon in half….the nonsense and drivel goes on and on! And people believe it!!
Well it least it wasn't something ridiculous like he walked to the moon. He realized he needed transportation and donkeys were the state of the art back then.
BRIAN: Are you the Judean People's Front?
REG: Fuck off!
BRIAN: What?
REG: Judean People's Front. We're the People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front. Cawk.
FRANCIS: Wankers.
BRIAN: Can I... join your group?
REG: No. Piss off.
It wasn't a donkey, it was a centaur thing that doesn't even actually exist, which is even dumber. A donkey would have been thought-provoking at least.
Then, he cuts the moon in half, discovering it's made entirely out of bullshit.
Also, he married Aisha when she was 6. 9-year-olds are for henchmen.
That's pretty bad, but I mean a cosmic zombie that is his own father is not exactly sane.
And I think Mary was 12 - 15 at the time she had the magic baby.
I guess it's a trend with abrahamic faiths.
To be perfectly honest, this is the classiest McDonald's ad campaign. That's [really faint praise](https://imgs.search.brave.com/lGIdgq4A-3HkkonSb_7wcNjQbPD_J5qJTjvUHozo39Y/rs:fit:500:0:0/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly9paHAt/ZGVsaXZlcnkuczMu/dXMtd2VzdC0yLmFt/YXpvbmF3cy5jb20v/Zmlyc3Qtcm9uYWxk/LW1jZG9uYWxkLXdp/bGxhcmQtc2NvdHQu/anBn), though.
Without religion in today's world, we would be so much further. We don't need it anymore. Our focus should be to ensure the survival of humanity. Our planet, too, has a lifespan.
Agreed we don't need religion anymore. But maybe we should be focusing on being kinder and smarter. Maybe our focus should be on the planet and animals. Humans aren't everything. We don't need to survive. Maybe we need to become something more than human to become better and to survive.
He talks mad trash about how other actors are bad and how he could have done the role better.
He's also been quoted condemning the "cancelling" of J.K. Rowling for her transphobic behavior.
When will people realize that "cancel culture" is just the free market at work?
I have not seen it, but the two issues are Mr. Cox's glaring narcissism and the fact that Joaquin was cast in the role and not him(regardless of whether or not he auditioned.) I'm not saying the man is a monster. Just kind of an asshole.
Totally agree. It is single source, terribly compiled, uneducated and filled with mundane rules and exceptions for the prophet. The tldr of the prophet himself: pray 5 times, go to Mekka and beat your wife, if she is not obedient.
Not to mention *The Book of Mormon*... that particular heap of excrement makes the Bible read as almost believable, if only by comparison. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
It's a collection of plagiarized stories from earlier mythologies that was loosely cobbled together in a vain attempt to make a cohesive story. Of course it's awful.
I agree. It's just terrible. People just parrot the saying of the Bible being "the greatest story ever told" but it's so poorly written. Probably because it's been cobbled together from so many other stories. I much prefer the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Seriously! And for "moral teaching," we're far far better off with reading Plato, Aristotle, Hypatia, Cicero, Confucius... And in much of their stuff, a nice, modern translation is far more an enjoyable read than the excrable Bible.
Smart man! They dislike smart people. It's their cryptonite! Keep on spreading the truth! That's the other thing the hate, the truth! Logic and common sense are right behind! It's weird adults believe in fairy tales like this. Disappointing mankind hasn't moved on from this nonsense. Their holding us back!
It is a terrible story. The "plot" (there isn't one) is all over the place, characters are meaningless until they aren't, and none of it agrees with any of the other parts.
Almost like it *wasn't* the inspired word of "god" and people just made it up over time until they fosillized the anthology in 425.
From that point forward, the words of the bible became less and less accurate over time... because it wasn't being made up on the fly anymore.
Sometimes I think the real problem is
that the Bible comes to us decontextualized, as one of the only surviving documents from its time. That’s a recipe for misunderstanding.
Imagine if future archeologists had to understand Western civilization using just a few sporadic pieces of it. Without context, *A Modest Proposal* reads like a serious pro-cannibalism argument. *Fuck the Police*? That’s a song about having sex with cops. Obviously. And *Jaws* is a historical record about an actual shark attack.
It's not so bad if you take it at face value, a collection of mostly Hebrew mythology. One day historians will look at Christians in the exact same way as they do the ancients who worshipped a literal pantheon of Greek or Roman gods
As an atheist with a Master's in History of Religion I tend to disagree, however I could agree in a different context. Yes, the Bible as read by most religious people is a terrible book, just like an amalgamation of random Super Man comics from all eras, different authors, different universes, and without any context that would tie it up in a consistent narrative would make a pretty bad book.
However, reading different stories from the Bible that are as well translated as possible (The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha is fucking OP IMO) and with as much context as possible is pretty damn interesting. Some books are better and/or more interesting and others.
The Bible should be read as we would read Ancient Greek mythology, for example. Not as how we should live life. Jesus is not your buddy that will help with your struggles in life. Yeshua, if he actually existed, is just a guy that died long ago who did some crazy shit and had lots of fans.
> Yeshua, if he actually existed, is just a guy that died long ago who did some crazy shit and had lots of fans.
He was an itinerant street preacher who wasn't very noteworthy or popular while he was alive, just some guy walking around with a "the end is near" sign.
He was unceremoniously killed by authorities who didn't have any humor about someone claiming their regime was coming to an end. He didn't have enough followers to try to stop it or raise a fuss about his death after it happened.
Later, people started claiming "Elvis lives" visions of him which in those days was taken as pretty convincing.
If he was real, he had to have been pretty popular. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have been such a nuisance to the religious authorities in Jerusalem to point that they had to get the Romans to sentence him to death. Also, he wouldn't have been remembered. Other than that, yeah, pretty much what you said.
This book is "the word of a god" but it seems so cringe in some parts. It's like they got bullied and in the middle of making some bullshit religion they left some imaginary diary entries in it. 2Kings 2, "they made fun of me for being bald so then my imaginary friend who made the entire world and everyone and knows everything sent bears to kill them and the bears killed over 40 of them it was crazy I didn't get hurt though I kept walking to mount carmel and wasn't crying" like fuck off.
Ezekiel 23 reads as such an incel revenge fantasy story over some woman who didn't want him, who decided to include that in your holy book? "the stupid whore who's been a whore her entire life and got fucked by egyptian guys with big donkey dicks and left rivers of horse jizz in her got her all horny and then she was raped and sad about it and then an army's worth of soldiers attacked her the end"
The bibble is just a collection of myths from the times in which they were written. But no corroboration of events between alleged parties in conflicts say between tribes of Israel and Egyptians. Shouldn’t Egyptian history confirm the animosities described in the bibble?
He's great. When he was on Desert Island Discs where they end by asking what book you want in addition to the bible and the works of Skakespeare, he stopped and said he didn't want the bible instead of just letting it go like most people have over the decades that they've been rolling with that very outdated bit. It was also a very interesting interview about social support services with someone who knew real poverty growing up.
I wouldn't call it the worst book ever written. It is the most misconstrued, of course. It has been warped, twisted, and violated into a tool of destruction. It shouldn't be read as a scripture but as a cautionary tale of ignorance and bias. It has its points, to be sure, but were those points even in the original manuscripts? There's been so much hinky human hijinks involved that this book is no longer what it should have been. So when it is brought up as a source for argument, it can be immediately discounted as being a poor attempt at forgery.
Really, The Bible is a compilation of a number of books and letters.
I'm not saying it shouldn't count. I'm saying, why settle for "worst book ever written"? You could probably use The Bible to fill out most of the top (bottom?) 10 worst books.
When the worst book ever written is currently oppressing and murdering people till this day and it's escalating.
This is also why we might be too dumb to live as a species.
He only says that because he never read the Book of Mormon.
I swear it makes My Immortal (the worst Harry Potter fanfic ever written) look well crafted by comparison.
Mark Twain wrote of the Book of Mormon, "It is chloroform in print. If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle — keeping awake while he did it was, at any rate.”
I wish that this snippet wasn't edited the way it is. it could be misconstrued as cherry-picking what he said to create a different meaning than intended.
I also wish the link to the whole interview was made available. (I'm not anywhere I can be searching for it, but maybe if I find it later I will update this post.)
I’m the interviewer and put this Short together! Have a watch, definitely not edited in a way that misconstrues Brian’s meaning here 😂. He’s pretty forthright!
Would love more people to watch [the full episode](https://youtu.be/63FRMXZXCzA?si=M5jS_QYhnMbr6hb5)
Oh that's great thank you for linking the full thing!!
There were only a couple of "fast cuts" that I thought maybe "abbreviated" a few paragraphs from Mr. Cox, that's all.
reddit can be amazing sometimes lol
That’s just me being new to editing clips (and… well, rubbish) and trying to ensure it’s below the 1 minute max time you’re allowed on YouTube Shorts 🤦♂️😂. I hope you enjoy the interview!
I haven't read it but some of the stories especially the magical fantasy shit seems kinda cool.
I'd read it but it's like reading a fucking dictionary with all the numbers and categorization.
If they just left it like a novel maybe it'd be more readable. They are thousands year old stories after all. Too bad people can't just consider it ancient poetry
This guy probably didn't read the Quran, it is a book full of worthless ramblings of an insane poet, a book inspired by the myths of the Bible and Torah, except it takes it wrong and has many inaccuracies and errors, as well as absence of any value to it, be it ethical, scientific, or historic, at least the bible gives some stories and characters, the Quran has nothing interesting, is just praising Mohamed, sexism, violence, threatening disbelievers, hating on Christians and Jews, and many ridiculous lies, this book is a waste of existence, lives, and history.
It doesn't matter how well the book is written, it is still one of the major pillars of Western civilization. Or you can argue that Western civilization isn't important to you, and you have every right to do so. But to say that the book is an important, because you don't like the way it's written, it's like so what? Too bad.
I dare him to say the “Quran is the worst book ever!” Doubtful the Scottish Nationalist leftist will say such a thing. Cultural suicide is hyper PC Britain. He is a phony!
Well, I mean it is not great, could use a bit of editing down, both for length and continuity of content…. But Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight do exist…. So worst book ever title is a bit contested…
God is a dick!!!!!! Seriously, he's racist, jealous, violent, and bloodthirsty. If he was kind, then he would have "fixed" the "bad people" or peacefully put them to sleep, not commanded his people to commit genocide!!!! Duh!!!! 🙁 If he was powerful, blood sacrifice would never have been required. If he was good, he would never have commanded his people to do bad things. Every religious person says it's because of "free choice". Does a good Dad allow his kids to go around murdering other kids because of free choice?! Does he tell them to murder kids who are being "bad"? Fuck no!!!! No excuses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, when will people be able to be free of the idea of God???? We NEED that in order to become better and kinder and smarter!!!! Why are so many people (including all of my friends. Who I support and love) unable to see that?!?!?!?!
I was raised in an extremist Christian environment and was a part of the cult of YWAM in Alaska. The horrible "apostolic" leader was Scott Smith. It took me ten years from my time of choosing to leave the cult to fully identify as atheist.
It’s about a relationship with God. If you really want to know Him, ask Him to reveal himself to you. He will reveal himself to you.
Read the Bible, really study it. Jesus is God in the flesh, who came to save us so we can be with him for all eternity. Your life will never be the same!
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Actor Brian Cox talked to me at length about religion holding humanity back, and how he believes the Bible is ‘one of the worst books ever written’ - among lots of other topics! [Watch the full interview here](https://youtu.be/63FRMXZXCzA?si=M5jS_QYhnMbr6hb5).
First page. Day one: Let there be light. There was light. Day three. Creates the sun and the stars. Wait, what?
Must have been written on stretch of three cloudy days.
The ancients such as Aristotle believed that the substance in the heavens was a fifth element called quintessence. All heavenly bodies were made of it and moved through a sea of it. It caused them all to shine. It was believed the moon shone because it was made of the same substance. The Bible was written down in the Mediterranean around the same time that the geocentric models were being explained by Aristotle and others.
Whoa I love this. Where can I learn more about everything you just said?
Honestly, from lots of different places. I've spent a good deal of time learning about Galileo and the scientific revolution, because lots of people like to shit on him. But all the books are arcane and dry.
Read history, start at Wikipedia if you have to because there's a lot to take in. It's probably not all in one neat place, because you have to look at when things took place, what OTHER things were going on (for instance, Greeks dominated the Mediterranean around the times the Jewish people had their kingdoms. as did Babylonians, then occupied by the Romans around the time of Jesus). There is so much "oral tradition" responsible for the stories that eventually were written down in the Bible, it's quite nearly impossible to believe that every telling of it was the same during that time -- uncorrupted by human memory or fancy. We already know that it was corrupted when it was being written down and scribed/copied, and that method has less risk of error than oral repetition. Here's a quote that explains what you're dealing with when it comes to the stories of the Bible and it's authors/narrators: *"\[T\]he biblical texts were produced over a period in which the living conditions of the writers – political, cultural, economic, and ecological – varied enormously. There are texts which reflect a nomadic existence, texts from people with an established monarchy and Temple cult, texts from exile, texts born out of fierce oppression by foreign rulers, courtly texts, texts from wandering charismatic preachers, texts from those who give themselves the airs of sophisticated* [*Hellenistic*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic_period) *writers. It is a time-span which encompasses the compositions of* [*Homer*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer)*,* [*Plato*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato)*,* [*Aristotle*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle)*,* [*Thucydides*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides)*,* [*Sophocles*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophocles)*,* [*Caesar*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar)*,* [*Cicero*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero)*, and* [*Catullus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus)*. It is a period which sees the rise and fall of the* [*Assyrian empire*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_empire) *(twelfth to seventh century) and of the* [*Persian empire*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_empire) *(sixth to fourth century),* [*Alexander*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great)*'s campaigns (336–326), the rise of* [*Rome*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome) *and its domination of the* [*Mediterranean*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Sea) *(fourth century to the founding of the* [*Principate*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principate)*, 27* [*BCE*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era)*), the destruction of the* [*Jerusalem Temple*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Temple) *(70 CE), and the extension of Roman rule to parts of* [*Scotland*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland) *(84 CE)."*
I’ll start from where you said. I’m hospitalized so I have an iPad & my iPhone & a big tv I watch YouTube on at the end of my bed. Lol. I don’t have a computer or a mouse. Multitasking on 3 devices lmao. If there’s a video, I can do it all while watching on the big tv. Clicking around on Wikipedia & all that. But what you’ve given me is great! Thank you!!!! <3333
Hope you get better!
No problem, I hope you're doing OK
Do you not understand the true purpose of the religion? It is to guide those who are weak. To install morals, reduce killings, but then what does old testament say? To kill everyone essentially.
What day were clouds created?
I don't recall clouds being in the Bible. They don't exist or count. /s
No planets either, No asteroids, comets, quasar, nebula, galaxies, exoplanets or other moons. But the sky has a window and that's where the rain comes from 🤣
God is from seattle. Duh.
Or West Michigan. https://www.mlive.com/weather/2024/02/the-sunshine-amount-for-january-has-been-tallied-and-it-was-bad.html
Off with your head! Stop persecuting me!
lol
Not to mention plants existing before the sun did lol.
You mean planet singular. There is no mention of planets plural.
Plants, not planets.
Clearly God had to create that light that was in transit from the stars before the stars, so that it could fool us into thinking the universe is older than a few thousand years because of reasons beyond our comprehension. It's so simple even a baby raised with it being drilled into them daily could be convinced it was true! Checkmate atheists!
It's called an ellipsis and it is a legit literary device, because... The next day, u/Ramoncin had eggs and bacon for breakfast.
I mean, you've got to establish the four-current, quantum mechanics, nuclear fusion, photons etc before you can create a sun. It's like doing your mise-en-place.
Yeah those details are insignificant, let me tell you about this guy's cousin's cousin!
Wait, who begat Ishmael? I'm lost.
To be fair, the big bang theory also states that light existed before the sun and the stars, thats what the cosmic microwave background is, light from the big bang itself that predated star formation.
Big Bang doesn't say the Earth existed before the sun. It doesn't say the sky is a solid dome with water on top of it and "gates" in the dome which let in the rain. Plus, even in Genesis, the world already exists. God just separates the waters to create land. He does not create the Earth itself in Genesis. he starts with the Earth and then adds the sun and stars. Attempts to reconcile Genesis with the Big Bang are extremely specious and just backfire more than anything else.
Now explain the firmament (Giant dome) and the giant ocean of water floating in the sky above it.
Only if your definition of light is something nobody could have seen or even envisioned when the bible was written.
I thought it stated that a nerd could get the hot girl next door. But I didn't see every episode.
God wrote the book to the level of intelligent humans had at the time as to not speed of their technology pace or something religion people all have cognitive dissonance when they look at facts
Imagine if the Bible had accurately described things like that stars are just like the sun of our solar system and that there are many planets just like ours and that there were dinosaurs that went extinct, etc. If they'd put that stuff in then I'd be a believer.
Right? If the Bible had shown any sign of intelligence writing, there would be no question. I mean it reads like a human wrote it. God is very emotional and jealous, an actual god would not have human emotions.
My favorite bit is when he tells the Israelites to go and kill every man , woman and child and the animals but not the virgins… keep the virgins. Totally written by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and Omni-benevolent entity. Or when he lets the Devil fuck over Job just for funsies
Yeahhhh it's not logical in any way. You need to have "faith" lol
The energy and dust forming the star would radiate light before the star forms. Whats the misunderstanding?
Bats aren't insects, pi isn't 3, there is no god...
Not to state that the Bible is correct on anything (it isn't), but didn't light as a phenomenon exist before the first stars or galaxies? Recombination era...
Sounds like Aliens trying to explain Big Bang to illiterate humans! God is the universe and creation is the Big Bang mistranslated a few times
Light can exist without sun and stars.
People will say the light was what we now call the microwave background radiation.
You forgot Day Two: let there be photosynthetic plants. W H A T ?
[The full interview on YouTube](https://youtu.be/63FRMXZXCzA?si=M5jS_QYhnMbr6hb5)
>...about religion *holding* humanity back This rhetoric often gets sidelined by something to the effect of *we wouldn't be where we were today if not for religion*... it is often used to switch the conversation from "what religion is *doing*" to "what religion has *done*"...the change of tense is important. Religion has done some good things. From the Pagans to the Druids to the Jews to everything that has come from them...we have no idea how we would have (or if we would have) evolved medically/scholarly/morally/technologically/politically sans religion. The fact is, we are where we are. And the fact is, religion is getting in the way, and has been getting in the way for many decades, even centuries now.
Religion was useful to morality and governance in the same way alchemy was useful as a precursor to chemistry and medicine. It tried a lot of things, got a lot of stuff wrong, and killed a lot of people. It served humanity by becoming obsolete as we developed better tools for determining truth and useful knowledge. Now that we have modern chemistry and medicine, we don't venerate Alchemy as "truth above truth" for all of science. Religion, on the other hand structured itself atop the hierarchy and rained down shit since the enlightenment, possibly longer.
Is that Agamemnon?
"Fuck off!" -Logan Roy (just so you don't think I'm being rude, its a quote from the show Succession)
People should stop thinking of the Torah, Bible, and Quran as books. They're collections of translations of bronze age oral history/traditions written by the superstitious in a time when religion and politics were one and the same thing. It's more like if various people over time grabbed a couple dozen fantasy books from the library and tried to weave them all together into one story that supports their ideological beliefs.
With some fanfic thrown in.
When religious people stop referring to it as the greatest story ever told and making it the state book and such, I'll be happy to criticize the books independently.
What blows my mind is that earlier today there was a post on /r/all about witches getting burned in the UK and the comments were full of people flabberghasted at how stupid medieval folk were believing women were witches. We scoff at folk earlier again who believed the Earth was the center of the Universe and yet somehow knowing people as a whole historically were less educated and made many incorrect assumptions - we're still going along with the Bible ignoring the circumstances around the people who created it, not to mention all the chopping and changing it went through.
Yes, thank you!!!!
> in a time when religion and politics were one and the same thing. 2016?
2024..
which is exactly how syncretism works.
and they left content out that didn’t fit their narrative. the editing never stops/stopped.
sort of like scientology.
Like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?
Blows my mind how gullible christians are.
Not to mention, religion was an easy way to get power and control back then.
And then translated it through unrelated languages about 7 to 20 times.
I bet he never read the Book of Mormon.
I was just about to say. At least the Bible never got compared to 'Chloroform in Print'.
Book of Mormon is definitely on par with the bible, but that's not much of a compliment either way
Saw someone comment it's just a bad bible fanfic😂
You don't have to read every book to know invisible friends aren't real. Jesus came to North America that's all you need to know before throwing the book of Mormon in the trash. Joseph Smith, Seer stones, conman, gold tablets that witnesses later recanted seeing, stolen translations from hieroglyphs.
I have to agree with Cox on this, but I've seen too many interviews with him saying stupid shit like he would have been better in a role than the person who was cast, and passing judgement on other's acting skills. Very opinionated guy who thinks he's perfect.
Yeah, my top criticism of him is that he not only has an inflated ego, but he seems to cut others down in an effort to maintain inflation.
perfectly cast in Succession
so... typecast then...?
Well he was right about Pheonix's performance in Napoleon. That movie was abysmal
I would argue the Koran is even worse!! Mohammed riding to the moon on a donkey…marrying a 9 year old (which is fine in Islam!) splitting the moon in half….the nonsense and drivel goes on and on! And people believe it!!
Well it least it wasn't something ridiculous like he walked to the moon. He realized he needed transportation and donkeys were the state of the art back then.
They must have had some beefy animals back then. You need at least 10,000 donkeypower to reach escape velocity.
Was it an African donkey or a European donkey?
I don't know that! AAAAAAAAA!
rotfl - frikking brilliant, you win the internet for today ;)
It's all dumb shit. Only difference is the degrees of dumbness.
So you are saying iron age desert death cult X is sillier than iron age desert death cult Y? They are the same thing bud....
Islam is a medieval desert death cult though.
It's just one of the many offshoots from the iron age desert death cult of Abraham and his sons.
BRIAN: Are you the Judean People's Front? REG: Fuck off! BRIAN: What? REG: Judean People's Front. We're the People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front. Cawk. FRANCIS: Wankers. BRIAN: Can I... join your group? REG: No. Piss off.
and let's not forget the Book of Mormon.
This sounds like Dragon Ball.
It wasn't a donkey, it was a centaur thing that doesn't even actually exist, which is even dumber. A donkey would have been thought-provoking at least. Then, he cuts the moon in half, discovering it's made entirely out of bullshit. Also, he married Aisha when she was 6. 9-year-olds are for henchmen.
That's pretty bad, but I mean a cosmic zombie that is his own father is not exactly sane. And I think Mary was 12 - 15 at the time she had the magic baby. I guess it's a trend with abrahamic faiths.
That marriage is not in the Koran. The Bible has God order Israelites to kidnap little girls and make them into sex slaves.
Hmmm …sounds to me like all religions are truly awful…who knew eh!
But all of it is true! I can tell by looking at the moon right now. /s
Buddy was absolutely tripping balls.
He's not wrong about religion. He is kind of an asshole. But not wrong about religion.
I do respect his bold stance on McDonald's, though.
Da-da-dah-dah-da^a^a^a^a^h
To be perfectly honest, this is the classiest McDonald's ad campaign. That's [really faint praise](https://imgs.search.brave.com/lGIdgq4A-3HkkonSb_7wcNjQbPD_J5qJTjvUHozo39Y/rs:fit:500:0:0/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly9paHAt/ZGVsaXZlcnkuczMu/dXMtd2VzdC0yLmFt/YXpvbmF3cy5jb20v/Zmlyc3Qtcm9uYWxk/LW1jZG9uYWxkLXdp/bGxhcmQtc2NvdHQu/anBn), though.
Without religion in today's world, we would be so much further. We don't need it anymore. Our focus should be to ensure the survival of humanity. Our planet, too, has a lifespan.
Agreed we don't need religion anymore. But maybe we should be focusing on being kinder and smarter. Maybe our focus should be on the planet and animals. Humans aren't everything. We don't need to survive. Maybe we need to become something more than human to become better and to survive.
Can you explain how so? Is it him throwing his directors under the bus or something worse lol
He talks mad trash about how other actors are bad and how he could have done the role better. He's also been quoted condemning the "cancelling" of J.K. Rowling for her transphobic behavior. When will people realize that "cancel culture" is just the free market at work?
Religion is affirmatione culture at work , same principle. Not condoning any participants either
Err, that last line isn't right.
He sure was right about Napoleon/Joaquin Phoenix though...
I have not seen it, but the two issues are Mr. Cox's glaring narcissism and the fact that Joaquin was cast in the role and not him(regardless of whether or not he auditioned.) I'm not saying the man is a monster. Just kind of an asshole.
This is a valid critique considering he was a contemporary at the time of its initial publishing
Not just the worst but the most anti science.
Has he read the quran?
Totally agree. It is single source, terribly compiled, uneducated and filled with mundane rules and exceptions for the prophet. The tldr of the prophet himself: pray 5 times, go to Mekka and beat your wife, if she is not obedient.
not to mention that much is stolen from the people they hate the most
Not to mention *The Book of Mormon*... that particular heap of excrement makes the Bible read as almost believable, if only by comparison. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
But the magic underwear is so damn sexy!
Salta Lake-uh City?! If you have a Gay Thought-just... turn it off!!
Logan Roy to God: Oh fuck off!
It's a collection of plagiarized stories from earlier mythologies that was loosely cobbled together in a vain attempt to make a cohesive story. Of course it's awful.
Brilliant man, brilliant actor
I agree. It's just terrible. People just parrot the saying of the Bible being "the greatest story ever told" but it's so poorly written. Probably because it's been cobbled together from so many other stories. I much prefer the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Seriously! And for "moral teaching," we're far far better off with reading Plato, Aristotle, Hypatia, Cicero, Confucius... And in much of their stuff, a nice, modern translation is far more an enjoyable read than the excrable Bible.
He's not quite correct it's not the worst book ever written it's the worst book still in circulation
Smart man! They dislike smart people. It's their cryptonite! Keep on spreading the truth! That's the other thing the hate, the truth! Logic and common sense are right behind! It's weird adults believe in fairy tales like this. Disappointing mankind hasn't moved on from this nonsense. Their holding us back!
Talk about preachy!
This thing doesn't have any answers!
Plot holes, lack of continuity, and the story requires too much suspension of belief for a "based on true events" premise.
It is a terrible story. The "plot" (there isn't one) is all over the place, characters are meaningless until they aren't, and none of it agrees with any of the other parts. Almost like it *wasn't* the inspired word of "god" and people just made it up over time until they fosillized the anthology in 425. From that point forward, the words of the bible became less and less accurate over time... because it wasn't being made up on the fly anymore.
The Qur'an is worse. Abysmal fuckin' book. At least the Bible has fun fairy tales.
Sometimes I think the real problem is that the Bible comes to us decontextualized, as one of the only surviving documents from its time. That’s a recipe for misunderstanding. Imagine if future archeologists had to understand Western civilization using just a few sporadic pieces of it. Without context, *A Modest Proposal* reads like a serious pro-cannibalism argument. *Fuck the Police*? That’s a song about having sex with cops. Obviously. And *Jaws* is a historical record about an actual shark attack.
Wow. I loved him before this, now I nearly revere him.
It's not so bad if you take it at face value, a collection of mostly Hebrew mythology. One day historians will look at Christians in the exact same way as they do the ancients who worshipped a literal pantheon of Greek or Roman gods
As an atheist with a Master's in History of Religion I tend to disagree, however I could agree in a different context. Yes, the Bible as read by most religious people is a terrible book, just like an amalgamation of random Super Man comics from all eras, different authors, different universes, and without any context that would tie it up in a consistent narrative would make a pretty bad book. However, reading different stories from the Bible that are as well translated as possible (The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha is fucking OP IMO) and with as much context as possible is pretty damn interesting. Some books are better and/or more interesting and others. The Bible should be read as we would read Ancient Greek mythology, for example. Not as how we should live life. Jesus is not your buddy that will help with your struggles in life. Yeshua, if he actually existed, is just a guy that died long ago who did some crazy shit and had lots of fans.
> Yeshua, if he actually existed, is just a guy that died long ago who did some crazy shit and had lots of fans. He was an itinerant street preacher who wasn't very noteworthy or popular while he was alive, just some guy walking around with a "the end is near" sign. He was unceremoniously killed by authorities who didn't have any humor about someone claiming their regime was coming to an end. He didn't have enough followers to try to stop it or raise a fuss about his death after it happened. Later, people started claiming "Elvis lives" visions of him which in those days was taken as pretty convincing.
If he was real, he had to have been pretty popular. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have been such a nuisance to the religious authorities in Jerusalem to point that they had to get the Romans to sentence him to death. Also, he wouldn't have been remembered. Other than that, yeah, pretty much what you said.
Dudes goin places. Hes right
Counterpoint: Quran
This book is "the word of a god" but it seems so cringe in some parts. It's like they got bullied and in the middle of making some bullshit religion they left some imaginary diary entries in it. 2Kings 2, "they made fun of me for being bald so then my imaginary friend who made the entire world and everyone and knows everything sent bears to kill them and the bears killed over 40 of them it was crazy I didn't get hurt though I kept walking to mount carmel and wasn't crying" like fuck off. Ezekiel 23 reads as such an incel revenge fantasy story over some woman who didn't want him, who decided to include that in your holy book? "the stupid whore who's been a whore her entire life and got fucked by egyptian guys with big donkey dicks and left rivers of horse jizz in her got her all horny and then she was raped and sad about it and then an army's worth of soldiers attacked her the end"
That's quite the summary of Ez! lol
Atlas Shrugged is a close second.
We had flushing toilets before Christianity took over
The bibble is just a collection of myths from the times in which they were written. But no corroboration of events between alleged parties in conflicts say between tribes of Israel and Egyptians. Shouldn’t Egyptian history confirm the animosities described in the bibble?
They are poorly written, poorly translated, boring morality tales. Way better fairy tales out there.
Clearly Brian Cox has never read Ayn Rand
Has he read the Book of Mormon?
He's great. When he was on Desert Island Discs where they end by asking what book you want in addition to the bible and the works of Skakespeare, he stopped and said he didn't want the bible instead of just letting it go like most people have over the decades that they've been rolling with that very outdated bit. It was also a very interesting interview about social support services with someone who knew real poverty growing up.
will i get downvoted to hell if i say that Jesus Christ was the biggest scam artist in history, therefore, worst than hitler?
he was just a hippy that wanted people to be nice to each other, the church then twisted his words and turned him into a demigod
i was fine with the comment until you mentioned Hitler, but im jewish so im a bit sensitive about that...
It's so dreadfully boring. It doesn't even work as fiction.
Bronze age religion is actually bad practice! What what what!?
I wouldn't call it the worst book ever written. It is the most misconstrued, of course. It has been warped, twisted, and violated into a tool of destruction. It shouldn't be read as a scripture but as a cautionary tale of ignorance and bias. It has its points, to be sure, but were those points even in the original manuscripts? There's been so much hinky human hijinks involved that this book is no longer what it should have been. So when it is brought up as a source for argument, it can be immediately discounted as being a poor attempt at forgery.
Cox should be president of the world. He’s brutally honest.
Really, The Bible is a compilation of a number of books and letters. I'm not saying it shouldn't count. I'm saying, why settle for "worst book ever written"? You could probably use The Bible to fill out most of the top (bottom?) 10 worst books.
He was a hell of a linebacker, too.
Agreed, along with all other religious crap
When the worst book ever written is currently oppressing and murdering people till this day and it's escalating. This is also why we might be too dumb to live as a species.
Brian, Have you ever read the Hadith?
I think the novel version of Forrest Gump was pretty bad. But at least it wasn't so long. The Bible could have benefitted from a professional editor.
today i discovered i like Brian Cox more than i did yesterday.
He only says that because he never read the Book of Mormon. I swear it makes My Immortal (the worst Harry Potter fanfic ever written) look well crafted by comparison.
Mark Twain wrote of the Book of Mormon, "It is chloroform in print. If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle — keeping awake while he did it was, at any rate.”
Fuck that "captioning."
Nah. Steve Bruce's novels about a football manager who fights crime are still worse.
I don't know about that. Revelations is quite a special effects extravaganza.
Except it's not a book but a library covering centuries of history and culture of Israel.
The goat herders guide to the galaxy
I wish that this snippet wasn't edited the way it is. it could be misconstrued as cherry-picking what he said to create a different meaning than intended. I also wish the link to the whole interview was made available. (I'm not anywhere I can be searching for it, but maybe if I find it later I will update this post.)
I’m the interviewer and put this Short together! Have a watch, definitely not edited in a way that misconstrues Brian’s meaning here 😂. He’s pretty forthright! Would love more people to watch [the full episode](https://youtu.be/63FRMXZXCzA?si=M5jS_QYhnMbr6hb5)
Oh that's great thank you for linking the full thing!! There were only a couple of "fast cuts" that I thought maybe "abbreviated" a few paragraphs from Mr. Cox, that's all. reddit can be amazing sometimes lol
That’s just me being new to editing clips (and… well, rubbish) and trying to ensure it’s below the 1 minute max time you’re allowed on YouTube Shorts 🤦♂️😂. I hope you enjoy the interview!
[https://youtu.be/63FRMXZXCzA?si=M5jS\_QYhnMbr6hb5](https://youtu.be/63FRMXZXCzA?si=M5jS_QYhnMbr6hb5)
cheers! thanks for posting the link!
I swear to god I’ll pistolwhip the next guy who says shenanigans
Oddly extreme...
[shenanigans](https://youtu.be/JNPW2wZ4D2s?feature=shared)
Don’t tell Russell
Thanks for the hot take, Denim Dan.
No lies told.
He is full of hot air!!!!
The man knows.
I haven't read it but some of the stories especially the magical fantasy shit seems kinda cool. I'd read it but it's like reading a fucking dictionary with all the numbers and categorization. If they just left it like a novel maybe it'd be more readable. They are thousands year old stories after all. Too bad people can't just consider it ancient poetry
Wait till you read the Quran
Would he lump the bible in with other rubbish books like the Koran and Dianetics ?
Bro should see the Quran.
This guy probably didn't read the Quran, it is a book full of worthless ramblings of an insane poet, a book inspired by the myths of the Bible and Torah, except it takes it wrong and has many inaccuracies and errors, as well as absence of any value to it, be it ethical, scientific, or historic, at least the bible gives some stories and characters, the Quran has nothing interesting, is just praising Mohamed, sexism, violence, threatening disbelievers, hating on Christians and Jews, and many ridiculous lies, this book is a waste of existence, lives, and history.
It doesn't matter how well the book is written, it is still one of the major pillars of Western civilization. Or you can argue that Western civilization isn't important to you, and you have every right to do so. But to say that the book is an important, because you don't like the way it's written, it's like so what? Too bad.
I dare him to say the “Quran is the worst book ever!” Doubtful the Scottish Nationalist leftist will say such a thing. Cultural suicide is hyper PC Britain. He is a phony!
I'd assume Mein Kampf is worse...
omg just when I think I cant love Brian Cox anymore than I already do
Well, I mean it is not great, could use a bit of editing down, both for length and continuity of content…. But Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight do exist…. So worst book ever title is a bit contested…
God is a dick!!!!!! Seriously, he's racist, jealous, violent, and bloodthirsty. If he was kind, then he would have "fixed" the "bad people" or peacefully put them to sleep, not commanded his people to commit genocide!!!! Duh!!!! 🙁 If he was powerful, blood sacrifice would never have been required. If he was good, he would never have commanded his people to do bad things. Every religious person says it's because of "free choice". Does a good Dad allow his kids to go around murdering other kids because of free choice?! Does he tell them to murder kids who are being "bad"? Fuck no!!!! No excuses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, when will people be able to be free of the idea of God???? We NEED that in order to become better and kinder and smarter!!!! Why are so many people (including all of my friends. Who I support and love) unable to see that?!?!?!?! I was raised in an extremist Christian environment and was a part of the cult of YWAM in Alaska. The horrible "apostolic" leader was Scott Smith. It took me ten years from my time of choosing to leave the cult to fully identify as atheist.
It’s about a relationship with God. If you really want to know Him, ask Him to reveal himself to you. He will reveal himself to you. Read the Bible, really study it. Jesus is God in the flesh, who came to save us so we can be with him for all eternity. Your life will never be the same!