"Religion has caused more harm than any other idea since the beginning of time. There's nothing good I can say about it. People use it as a crutch"
About this Quote
Flynt isn’t aiming for nuance; he’s aiming for rupture. The blunt absolutism - “more harm than any other idea since the beginning of time” - is less a historical claim than a provocation designed to make polite society flinch. That’s classic Flynt: a man who made his career testing the boundary between private appetite and public morality, then daring the culture to admit what it already knows about power.
The intent is twofold. First, it reframes religion not as consolation but as an operating system for coercion, a tool that can sanctify shame, hierarchy, and censorship while calling it virtue. Second, it preemptively blocks the usual soft rebuttal (“but religion also does good”) with “There’s nothing good I can say about it.” That line is strategic; it refuses the compromise language that often defangs critiques of faith in mainstream discourse. He’s not arguing in a seminar. He’s declaring himself outside the bargain.
“People use it as a crutch” carries the real subtext: dependency. A crutch isn’t merely comfort; it’s something you lean on when you don’t trust your own legs. Flynt is indicting religion as a substitute for personal responsibility and adult uncertainty - and, implicitly, as a permission slip to outsource moral judgment to institutions. Coming from a publisher who spent decades in court fighting obscenity charges and moral campaigns, the context sharpens: his target isn’t private belief so much as organized religion as a cultural enforcer that polices sex, speech, and dissent while claiming divine authority.
The intent is twofold. First, it reframes religion not as consolation but as an operating system for coercion, a tool that can sanctify shame, hierarchy, and censorship while calling it virtue. Second, it preemptively blocks the usual soft rebuttal (“but religion also does good”) with “There’s nothing good I can say about it.” That line is strategic; it refuses the compromise language that often defangs critiques of faith in mainstream discourse. He’s not arguing in a seminar. He’s declaring himself outside the bargain.
“People use it as a crutch” carries the real subtext: dependency. A crutch isn’t merely comfort; it’s something you lean on when you don’t trust your own legs. Flynt is indicting religion as a substitute for personal responsibility and adult uncertainty - and, implicitly, as a permission slip to outsource moral judgment to institutions. Coming from a publisher who spent decades in court fighting obscenity charges and moral campaigns, the context sharpens: his target isn’t private belief so much as organized religion as a cultural enforcer that polices sex, speech, and dissent while claiming divine authority.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
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