Name: Douglas Murray on People's Need for Religion
Uploaded: 2022-04-22T17:47:55.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Douglas Murray on People's Need for Religion' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-04-22. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Douglas Murray on People's Need for Religion' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-04-22. Transcript available.

- The Joe Rogan Experience.
- I think we talked about this before
in relation to the communist era in Eastern Europe,
that with that sort of part of the point
that the humiliation of going along
with things you know aren't true,
ends up having an effect down the road
because you just nod anything along.
- Yeah, I have a friend who grew up Mormon,
and one of the things she said to me once,
it was really interesting, she said,
'cause she left the church, and she said,
'I'm really susceptible to bullshit.
It's a real problem.' - Wow.
- And so she started, like, she had gotten mixed up
with some like yogi type people,
and guru type people, and people that were running
like these weird little sort of like self-help things
that were very cult-like, and she goes,
'I have a real problem, I'm very susceptible.'
She goes, 'Because I grew up agreeing to things
that are nonsensical, and because of that,
because I had just like given all of my, you know,
when you just like, all of your opinions are decided
by a church, and the church was written
by a 14 year old boy in 1820.
- Yeah.
- Like it's kind of nuts.
- Yeah, he'd already had a conviction for fraud.
- Yeah, he was already full of shit at 14.
- That was a giveaway.
- Yeah.
- That was a definite giveaway.
- Well, it's, I mean, just if you read the tenets
of the religion, I mean, first of all,
they're wonderful people.
Mormons are so more racist.
- Yeah, I agree, I agree.
I don't like beating up on Mormons.
- They're so nice.
- Because they're so nice.
It's like, actually, if there were more Mormons,
it wouldn't be so bad, you know.
- If you could just take out the crazy,
you got a good religion.
- Yeah.
- I, wow, how much crazy.
Anyway, but--
- But that's, it's sort of the same principle
sort of applies to when people just accept,
you know, like with woke-ism,
when you accept these ideological givens
that aren't logical.
They don't make any sense.
- I wonder if it's the same with societies.
You know, I think that it's a thing
that like post-religious peoples,
just because you've lost the religion
doesn't mean you've lost the religious instinct.
- Right.
- You're still looking for it.
- It seems like that's an inherent part
of being a person.
- I agree, and I don't think,
I don't say it's bad.
It's just, it is part of what we are.
And it seems to me very clear that, for instance,
you know, you take Christianity out
and other things will be put in.
- Mm-hmm.
- And they don't even need to be
identifiable religions.
- Right.
- I mean, our own age has decided
in much of the West that there's this sort of form
of watered down spillover of Christianity,
which will become the sort of religion,
which is the kind of diversity, inclusion, equity world,
where you constantly struggle for greater justice.
- Mm.
- All of which is a sort of very watered down version
of a little bit of Christianity.
- There's a clear genesis to that too in the woke world.
There was a group at a certain point in time,
do you remember when the atheist movement had hit this
atheist plus movement?
Do you remember atheism plus?
- What was that?
- It was weird.
And it was a bunch of these weird virtue signaling male feminist
types that were adding, with atheism, adding a group of core values.
- Oh, wow.
- About, you know, being anti-discrimination, anti-sexist, anti-racist.
- Oh, I see.
- Their own Ten Commandments.
- Yes, and so they called it atheism plus, and I remember watching this guy
give this speech,
this fucking boring speech, on this sort of establishing this idea that because
you don't
have a religion, so we're going to be atheists, but with plus, we can establish
sort of a moral
framework.
- Well, it's totally understandable, and a disaster, of course.
- Even if the ideas are good, it's like you're putting it in an ideology.
You're creating a dogma, you're creating a--
- All those new atheists who sort of started on the 2000s, like our friend Sam
Harris and
others, they, in my experience, they all got a little bit nervous about what
was on their
shoulders.
Christopher Hitchens certainly did.
He started, I think, latterly in his life to get a little bit nervous about
what was happening.
I remember once asking him what about, and he said people were starting to ask
him to officiate
at their weddings.
- Oh.
- Yeah, and that was like, he didn't say anything of what he said was wrong, he
still obviously
believed everything he believed.
But, like, that's a slightly troubling place to be in, because you start to
sense people are
wanting you to replace the vicar, or the priest, and that's not the point.
Then you're in life of Brian territory, aren't you?
Like, you know, you should all think for yourselves, yes, we all think for
ourselves.
It was always a problem of atheism, it was an invitation to not do one thing.
- Yeah.
- But nothing follows from it as to how you should live your life.
It's the start of something, it's not by any means a beginning of a policy.
- Do you think that's just an inherent thing about being a tribal primate, that
we have
this desire to have someone wiser, a leader, and then even better, if you can
have like a
god-like figure who gives you a set of rules that you have to follow, or there
are horrendous
consequences, and it keeps everyone in line.
- Yeah, absolutely.
I always, in the 2000s, I started to think, if somebody came along and declared
prophethood
at the moment, they could do quite well.
I mean, think of those hucksters on US television who still take money from
people, saying that
they can only build the church and have their helicopter if you send in your
dollars.
You know?
Those people still exist.
There's a guy who's still selling his like silver water that he blesses from
the river
Jordan or something, it comes out some hose in his garden in Texas.
- Really?
- You know, yeah, yeah.
And there are people who've been busted repeatedly, and they're still selling
their wares.
I always thought, yeah, if somebody actually made the prophet claim in our era,
I think
people would be surprised how many people would go along with it.
It's what the late George Steiner described a phrase I love, nostalgia for the
absolute.
I love that phrase, a nostalgia for the absolute.
I think a lot of people have it.
I have it.
We all have it to some extent.
And the question is whether you can avoid it taking you to places that
would demoralize you and lead you to a bad place.
- Yeah, it's, I think if someone came along and had a really good cult, like a
real solid
cult, like really well laid out, be rational, think for yourself, be kind,
examine all evidence.
Like people would join into that and then it would...
- Yeah, it always ends up with like a massive orgy.
- Yes, it does.
It always ends up with you gotta give me all your money or you have to fuck
your wife.
- Yeah, exactly.
Like Wild Wild Country.
It's like, oh, it's all about peace.
And it's like, nah, nah, you gotta school the women.
- Wild Wild Country is amazing.
- I love that.
- That documentary is so good.
- I love that.
That guy, Osho, had some really interesting quotes.
- You still see his books in some places.
In the Netherlands, a little while ago, they had his books still in the bookshops.
- Oh, you can buy them on Apple, on the Apple Bookstore.
I've read a couple of books.
- I do like that bit where he says in one of his speeches.
- The people are retarded by the people, for the people, of the people.
But the problem is the people are retarded.
It should be by the retarded, for the retarded.
It's like, oh my God.
A guru saying that.
And there's something about the fact that he's dead now and then he said it
decades ago.
- But we are searching for things at the moment.
- Yeah.
- It seems very obvious to me.
I mean, you know, what plenty of people have called things like the religion of
anti-racism,
the religion of social justice, all that stuff.
They are all something to do, you know.
- Yes.
- At some very, very deep level.
You've had your purpose today.
You've had your five fruit and veg.
You've had your meaning.
- Yeah, you've had your meaning.
You've had your meaning.
You've had your meaning.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.