Succession star Brian Cox says 'the Bible is one of the worst books ever' as he condemns impact of religion on the world: 'People are so stupid'

Brian Cox expressed his skepticism of religion in a new interview, saying it holds back humanity as a tool of patriarchal control, and called the Bible 'one of the worst books ever.'

The Succession star, 77, appeared on the latest edition of The Starting Line Podcast, where he spoke with host Rich Leigh about a number of topics ranging from to wealth distribution to religion to politics. 

Asked by Leigh if religion holds humanity back, Cox replied, 'Oh considerably, yes - 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 ... and it’s essentially patriarchal - we haven’t given enough scope to the matriarchy.'

The veteran actor delved deeper into the issue, citing the biological differences between mothers and fathers.

Brian Cox, 77, expressed his skepticism of religion in a new interview, saying religion holds back humanity as a tool of patriarchal control, and called the Bible 'one of the worst books ever'

'The mothering thing is the thing which is the real conditioning of our lives, our fathers don't condition ourselves because they're too bloody selfish, but our mothers have to, because they have an umbilical - that’s what the umbilical cord is about ...'

Cox continued: 'Even though it’s cut away, there’s an umbilical relationship to your child, and the women have that, men do not have that, they're just sperm banks.'

Cox said that upending a patriarchal approach to society would be challenging, adding that the narratives underpinning such trace back to the Bible.

He said, 'We do because we have to honor them and we have to give them their place and we’re resistant to that because all our ... it’s Adam and Eve I mean the propaganda goes right way back - the Bible is one of the worst books ever, for me, from my point of view.

'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 cause they’re stupid enough.'

Cox conceded that while spiritual people need something to guide them, he believes the Bible isn't the answer.

'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 is not the truth, it’s a mythology you know ... it’s not really to do with what women understand more than anybody.'

After Leigh commented that it could be perceived as a high level of thinking to do away with religion, Cox replied, 'I don’t think it’s so high – I think it’s a level of understanding.'

The Succession star appeared on the latest edition of The Starting Line Podcast, where he spoke with host Rich Leigh about a number of topics ranging to the popular TV series to religion to politics

Asked by Leigh if religion holds humanity back, Cox replied, 'Oh considerably, yes - I think religion does hold us back because it's belief systems which are outside ourselves'

Cox conceded that while spiritual people need something to guide them, he believes the Bible isn't the answer 

Cox referenced the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, and the rising death toll in explaining his attitude on the topic. 

'It’s higher than killing somebody, and killing somebody in this needless pursuit of some kind of thing which doesn’t serve us at all,' he said. 'And the cruelest thing are these children ... that were slaughtered by Hamas and then the more children that way you know ... it’s well to the thousands, probably we’ve gone on 5,000 kids now and the unborn life in these hospitals.

'I mean really, it’s unbelievable that we do this ... even Hamas are going well, "It’s all going a bit too far now isn’t it?'

He added, 'I mean, people are so stupid - they are so stupid - and they cannot see the writing on the wall, you know.'

Earlier in the chat, Cox, a self-described Socialist, expressed his cynicism in regards to humanity while speaking about the topic of wealth distribution. He said that 'hopefully' billionaires won't exist in the future, but he wasn't necessarily optimistic about society evolving.

'Unfortunately we are - we’re still sort of sprogs, you know we’re still those frogs we’re not grown-up, we haven’t grown up,' Cox said. 'We still, we’re not even beyond the baby stage in our existence.

'You know, it’s - human beings are so f***ed basically; basically, they’re f***ed and they have been and they’re not doing anything about it and they continue to be f***ed, because they’re so stupid, really that’s the thing about humanity, it’s so deeply, deeply stupid.'

Cox referenced the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, and the rising death toll in explaining his attitude on the topic

Cox pointed at the 'appalling' series of events in the aforementioned Middle East conflict, saying, 'You know they'll sort it out, but it’s never going to go away because of belief systems - belief systems, which don’t serve equanimity'

The Emmy-winning actor is coming off a career-defining role as media mogul Logan Roy in the HBO series Succession 

Cox pointed at the 'appalling' series of events in the aforementioned Middle East conflict, saying, 'You know they'll sort it out, but it’s never going to go away because of belief systems - belief systems, which don’t serve equanimity.

'It’s all about this notion of God, that 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. 

He added: '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.'