Joe Rogan on Religious Scammers

But like, I don't know, and they had this lunatic on. He's not all the time. They're paid half hour shows, but this Peter Popoff guy, with the fucking Miracle Springwater, the prosperity preachers, talk about a fucking Bill of Goods man. You know, that guy Creflo Dollar, his name is fucking Creflo, I'm guessing that's not his Christian name, but it's his evangelical name is Creflo Dollar. I kind of think he made that name up, right? I would hope so. That was the dude, you tweeted about him years ago, that was the dude who was out in the world getting donations because he needed to update or upgrade his G4 to a G6. And I was like, G6 Christ, this fucking, this guy, it was going to say, I need donate because I need to spread the gospel. And so you need to give me money so that, because my G4 just ain't cutting it anymore, I need to upgrade. I wish he had gotten a 737 MAX 8, but that's just me. It's just so amazing that that hustle still works. The prosperity ones are so gross because they go after people that are so poor and destitute that they can't pay their bills. And they tell them, if you just send me money, God will pay you back 10 fold. And I know what you're saying, you don't have any money, but you do, you do, you take that money, you send it to Jesus and Jesus will bring prosperity in your life. And then they have all these folks that are giving testimonials about how I was down on my luck, I didn't have money for rent, I didn't have money for food, but I knew that Jesus needed this money. So I sent Jesus the money and Jesus paid me back 10 fold. And now my life is filled with joy and prosperity. Am I being hateful when I say that that is what religion preys on? The, the, the, the, the poor, the, no people searching for answers. Yeah, but I think for some people there's like, I mean, this is older, wiser me, right? When I was younger, I would agree with you a hundred percent. But I think at this point, I think there's some benefit to like having community and having this environment where everybody goes to be humbled and everybody goes to agree that they're going to be good people that follow the ethics of Jesus. And he put a little money in the dish and you know, they have to keep the operation running. And there's a lot, I think there's a lot of churches that do a lot of good. But I think for every one or two that do a lot of good, there's these motherfuckers that are just stealing money and driving Rolls Royce. Hypocrites, just hypocrites. Giant fucking castles, you know, like that Joel, whatever his name is, what's that guy's name? Osteen. Yeah, that guy. In Houston. That motherfucker, he owns a huge arena. He, they, they do the show near and he caught a rash of shit when he didn't let all the hurricane victims stay in his place. Yeah. See, he was holed up in his $10 million mansion. I'd be amazed it was only 10 million. Well, it's not his only property. Yeah, I'm sure. He has several houses. It's just so distorted. The whole idea of it all, so distorted. But I think, I think there's a lot of community churches that do a lot of good where they, they provide people with comfort. You know, it doesn't necessarily have to make any sense. It doesn't make any sense, but it provides them with comfort. I appreciate, like I respect people of faith. I think it must feel wonderful. I don't know how it feels, but I, it must be wonderful to believe in something like that. So devoutly without any evidence, without any indication or proof whatsoever that what you so firmly believe in is true. But it's the hypocrisy of it that I just can't abide by. Right, like these prosperity guys. Like the prosperity guys, like people who used to have a, or claim to have some kind of holier than thou moral code that now think like the Pimp president's cool. It's like, I get it, but like, but your whole thing was like that Bill Clinton was the biggest scumbag in the world. And he needed to be impeached and castrated. But like, let's have some consistency. It's hypocrisy that I can't abide by. Let's have some consistency is all. Well, particularly with Trump, because Trump was, this is not a knock on him, but he was a lifelong Democrat. I mean, he only really became a Republican when he thought about running for president. Yeah, and he was an independent for a minute, then he was a Democrat again, then he was a Republican. It's a pure hustle. I mean, the glass has been cleaned and squeegeed and you could see right through it. That's why it works on the evangelicals. That's what I'm saying. That's their whole, he's like the Pimp Joel Osteen. Like he's like, that's what it is. Well, he found his hustle. Yeah, and I don't wanna be mean about this, but I think it's accurate that there's a level of intellect that just subscribes to that kind of stuff that, like I had a friend, she was in the Mormon church for a long time and she left the church, but she was really honest about it. She said, I have a problem that I'm susceptible to bullshit. Like she's susceptible, because she grew up a fundamentalist and so she's susceptible to, you know, to like yoga type people, like, Gurus crystals and the lights, feel the light, she's susceptible to all that shit and she would recognize her susceptibility, but she was being really honest about it. You know, that she's like, I have a real problem. I grew up believing something that doesn't make any sense and I believed it wholeheartedly. And she goes, and that sort of formulated a big part of how I ascertain what is accurate in the world. So she's left with these like childlike skills of being able to discern what's bullshit and what's a hustle. She's like a little kid. I have a great amount of respect for people who grow up in a cult and who can make their way out of it. I mean, can you imagine when you're a child, you're most impressionable and you're steeped in that. That's all you know. Like you don't know that there is an alternate perspective and you're able to grow up and say, oh, wait, there's a whole big world out there. Maybe I'm not being told the truth. I think that's incredibly powerful. It's really hard, I think, to break with the only thinking that you've ever known in your life. I think it's amazing. It's probably one of the hardest things that a grown adult has to do, is recognize that the paradigm, this framework they've been living their life under is utter horseshit. It's like, I mean, the Mormon one is so crazy too. It's like the results are great. The people are so nice. They're the nicest cult members of all times. But then you go back and look at the actual framework of the religion itself. You're like, wait a minute, wait a minute. He was 14? Like, hold on. Joseph Smith was 14 in 1820 when he found golden tablets that contained the lost work of Jesus, and only he could read them, because he had a magic rock. But like, that's Judaism and Catholicism. It's all, they're all crazy mythological horseshit. But they know who the guy was. Like, I mean, he's so recent. Too recent. Well, that's the thing is that you know it's, it's like Scientology. It's like, well, we know it's a lie. Scientology's even crazy. Well, a science fiction writer literally was a failed, a failed science fiction writer. A terrible writer. A terrible, failed science fiction writer. That motherfucker never made a second draft in his life. And one day said, if you want to make real money, start a religion. That is his greatest quote. Yeah. And then did it. And then did it. God bless him. Can't knock his hustle. People want to buy into that. What's amazing then. How are your themes? In 2019, it's still rocking. In some way. God bless you. I mean, it is. Even after all those documentaries, even after the Leah Remini show, all these things just. They go out in the world, they tell everybody it's horseshit, and then a brand new Scientology center opens in Miami. I'm like, seriously? We know. We already know. A brand new one opened? We already know. Some people don't know. The people we don't know are never gonna know. That's what it is. It's like you're going, if you want to put in the money, some people have $100. Some people have $5. And this is intellectually. Some people have a lot of room to work with. Some people don't. They just, their brain doesn't work as good. Just like some people have poor genetics, when it comes to their ability to run fast, some people have really shitty brain development genetics. Let me ask you this, because obviously you would have sympathy for someone who is taken advantage of, or swindled, or the victim of a con person. How much sympathy do you have for the gleefully ignorant, or the willfully ignorant? Meaning like the information is there, it's available before I give Scientology my money. I could just, I don't know, I could just Google it. How much sympathy do you have for the willfully ignorant? People who sort of, it's like the fucking dude from my airplane. They bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say, let them crash. Well, I'm a big fan of Willie Dee from the ghetto boys, and he has a quote that I always like to use. You gotta let a ho be a ho. And I think in that sense, you gotta let dummies get fleeced. It's just part of, and part of it is there for us to see. Part of it is there for you to go, what? They gave away all their money? Ah, shit. Like there's something to that. It benefits us. Like I'm not a fan of these videos where kids try to skateboard off the side of a building, and they slip and fall and land on their head, and everybody's like, oh shit. But those videos serve a purpose. And that purpose is not everybody gets to do the handstand on the side of the building and survive. Some people fall and they land on their fucking head, and they're never the same again. And then they're left with like a third graders IQ for the rest of their life. That's real, man. So it's George Carlin's bit about, you know, the kid who swallows the most marbles doesn't get to grow up and have kids of his own. That's how it's supposed to work. Yeah, unfortunately. It sucks if it's your kid.