Brian Cox has never been one to shy away from saying exactly what’s on his mind. And when it comes to religion, he definitely has a lot to say. In a recent interview, the Succession actor called out organized religion (specifically Christianity), the Bible, and how it’s all baloney to him.
On the latest episode of The Starting Line podcast, host Rich Leigh teed up the discussion by asking Cox if he thinks religion holds all humans back. Without missing a beat, the Churchill actor said yes, stating that religion’s belief systems are “outside ourselves. They’re not dealing with who we are.” He also said:
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.
Cox continued on, saying that we have to move towards a matriarchy as the mother’s caring touch and instincts are missing from male-dominated organized religion. This is where he really doubled down on the Bible, stating that people have been resistant to embrace matriarchy because of the male-driven stories like Adam and Eve, and the idea that women came from Adam’s rib. To him, it’s all propaganda and he doesn’t respect people that believe it. As he put it:
The propaganda goes right the way back … it starts with the idea that … out of Adam’s rib, this woman was created, and they’ll believe it cause they’re stupid … They need it, but they don’t need to be told lies, they need some kind of truth, and that is not the truth … It’s a mythology
Of course, his honest opinion was expected to cause a raucous on the internet ⏤ and that it did. On X, CultureCrave posted about the interview and users flooded the replies section to give their own two cents. Many backed up what the actor said while others vehemently disagreed, leaving responses saying things like that they’ll pray for him. Other users found humor in what he had to say. Graeme_games wrote: “I didn’t expect him to start roasting the bible.”
This is just another topic that Cox has been vocal about. Last year, he talked about his dislike of method acting and called out his Succession co-star Jeremy Strong for doing it. So, it’s not surprising that he bashed on religion as hard as he did. And with how passionately he felt about it, this most likely won’t be the last time everyone hears his input regarding it.