"Laughter kills fear, and without fear there can be no faith. For without fear of the devil there is no need for God"
About this Quote
Connery’s line is a sly piece of theological sabotage dressed up as common sense. It turns laughter from a harmless release into a solvent: not just easing anxiety, but dissolving the very mechanism that keeps certain kinds of belief upright. The provocation is in the hinge he identifies: fear. If fear is the fuel, then faith, at least in its institutional form, starts looking less like a free choice and more like a risk-management strategy.
The subtext is about control. “The devil” functions here as a narrative device: a credible threat that makes authority feel necessary. Take the threat away - or worse, make it ridiculous - and the whole moral economy wobbles. Laughter doesn’t argue; it deflates. It refuses to grant seriousness to the monster under the bed, and in doing so it exposes how much of “need” is manufactured by dread. Connery’s phrasing is bluntly transactional: no fear, no demand; no demand, no product. God becomes less a mystery than a solution to a problem that has to be kept alive.
Coming from an actor, not a theologian, the line also reads as a performer’s insight into audience management. Horror and reverence are cousins; both require suspension of disbelief. Comedy breaks the spell. Connery isn’t merely advocating skepticism. He’s pointing to a social technology: institutions that lean on fear will always treat laughter as insurgent, because it turns their ultimate leverage into a punchline.
The subtext is about control. “The devil” functions here as a narrative device: a credible threat that makes authority feel necessary. Take the threat away - or worse, make it ridiculous - and the whole moral economy wobbles. Laughter doesn’t argue; it deflates. It refuses to grant seriousness to the monster under the bed, and in doing so it exposes how much of “need” is manufactured by dread. Connery’s phrasing is bluntly transactional: no fear, no demand; no demand, no product. God becomes less a mystery than a solution to a problem that has to be kept alive.
Coming from an actor, not a theologian, the line also reads as a performer’s insight into audience management. Horror and reverence are cousins; both require suspension of disbelief. Comedy breaks the spell. Connery isn’t merely advocating skepticism. He’s pointing to a social technology: institutions that lean on fear will always treat laughter as insurgent, because it turns their ultimate leverage into a punchline.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
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