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- [Jeremiah] Every group has a story

about their religious faith,

but some stories are undeniably unique.

♫ Traveling on

- [Preacher] Every time you get a chance,

spend some time in this book.

(congregation cheers)

Every time you get a chance,
show up for Bible study.

Show up for Sunday
school, and you need both.

- [Woman] Hi.

- Hi.

- [Woman] So I'm at
the club Saturday night

with my black friends,
dancing, having a good time,

and then the next day, Sunday morning,

they're always running to church.

Why is it Saturday nights,
they're always partying it up

and then running to church Sunday morning?

("Freedom From Religion" by Dan Barker

♫ The freedom of religion

♫ Some people say

♫ Is all the founding fathers meant

♫ But there can be no freedom

♫ No freedom at all

♫ Without the freedom to dissent

♫ Freedom from religion

♫ Is freedom from fear

♫ It's the liberty to
think just as I please

♫ I wouldn't trade it for anything

♫ Not for streets of gold for the praise

- Another one of the questions

that people ask me all the
time is how did you make it?

How did you make it?

- He can walk on water,
turn water into wine!

- It was nothing but the grace of God.

- Um, I have to thank God.

- Nothing but the grace of God.

- First, let me bless the
blesser, and that's God.

- I want to thank my God
for ordering my steps.

- First of all, I'd like to thank God,

you know what I'm sayin', once again.

- Thank you, God.

- Until I got a relationship with God.

- And first and foremost,
I just gotta thank God

for this opportunity.

- First of all, I wanna thank God.

- First, I'd like to thank God.

- Yeah.

- Importantly, I wanna
thank my lord and savior,

Jesus Christ, because without Him,

none of it would be possible.
(crowd cheers)

- First and always first in my life,

I'd like to thank my Heavenly Father,

my lord and savior Jesus
for blessing me so.

- God is good, God Is good.

- I just wanna say, thank God.

- Who said God is not good?

God is real good to me.

(crowd applauds and cheers)

(midtempo instrumental music)

- This is my hometown,
where it all started.

It's where I got my
first taste of religion.

This my old church right here.

Tri-Stone Baptist Church.

It's no longer called that anymore,

but it was called
Tri-Stone Baptist Church.

And of course, I was
baptized here in blood,

as they say, washed free of my sins.

If I didn't make it to church on Sunday,

it usually wasn't that big of a deal.

But that all changed when I moved

to what's called The Bible Belt.

People would ask me what church I attended

before they'd ask me my name.

It seemed like everyone I
met was trying to recruit me

to join their church, and like most cities

with a significant number of black people,

there were churches everywhere.

(midtempo organ music)

There are over 85,000
predominantly black churches

in the United States,

an astronomically high number

for people that represent
roughly 12% of the population.

- Now, certainly when you
look back to scholarship

by people like Benjamin
E. Mays in the 1930s, 40s,

Dr. Mays raised this issue.

Is the black community over churched?

Are there too many churches
in black communities?

And I think he was
looking at it particularly

with this kind of calculus in mind.

Are there more of these institutions

than we can afford to support

at the same time we
have such great poverty

in the African American community?

- Why are there so many churches,

and why are we doing so
badly as black people,

as a group, despite the
extreme number of churches,

and do you think there is a correlation

between our high praise
and our low productivity?

- Hm, Now let me see.

This is a very challenging question.

- [Jeremiah] The church has
been described as a hospital

for sick people, so what, then,

does an abundance of
churches actually indicate?

Are there so many churches
in black neighborhoods

because the people are sick,

or the people sick because
there are so many churches?

- Black people, while we've
had a lot of suffering,

and had a lot of heartache and trial,

we've had two institutions
that have really sustained us,

of course being the church,

and the institution, the college.

Think about it,

where would black folk
be without the church?

Where would black people be
without our faith in God?

- [Jeremiah] Good question.

But to answer that question,
we must first establish

where black people actually are.

- Black folk in America
are in a world of trouble.

Anybody tells you that black
folk are progressing in America

is lyin' to you.

You've been intentionally
misled and misdirected.

You've been sent down the wrong road.

We are exactly, exactly where we were

as black folk in this country,

we're exactly where we were in 1860

on the eve of the Civil War.

You have not moved, not
one iota, in 140 years.

What you're doing is enjoying the fruits

from the social illusion.

(crowd cheers)

On 1860, on the eve of the
Civil War, in this country,

you only had about 287,000
black people that were free

out of almost 4 1/2 million.

The other 4 1/2 million were
enslaved all over America.

Only 287,000 were free.

And yet, out of those
287,000 black people,

they had succeeded in acquiring
one half of one percent

of the nation's wealth.

Now here we are, 140 years later,

in the richest nation on Earth.

140 years later, you still own and control

one half of one percent
of this nation's wealth.

- Do you consider many churches
to be a gross misuse of time

because on Sunday is where
the masses of our people

are held at bay for hours.

We're being Petered and
Pauled, David and Danieled,

Josephed and Joshuaed,
every single Sunday.

And don't you think that is the platform

to teach how to own your own business,

how to support your communities,

how to practice group economics?

- Well, I certainly think that that is

a part of what the gospel
message should be about.

Certainly, that is what
my father believed,

but that was not what
all pastors believed.

I think you have many churches

who are fulfilling those missions today.

No where near enough.

- [Jeremiah] Why is it,

despite the excessive number of churches,

and the demonstrative love for God,

are the masses of black
people quickly becoming

a permanent undercaste?

Why are blacks the most
church-going group in America

and the least likely to
question their faith?

(rhythmic instrumental music)

Oh what are we praying about?

Are we praying that the group succeeds?

Group success?

Are we praying for individual stuff?

You know, I want my car, I want my house,

I want personal blessings.

What's going on with
that dynamic of prayer?

Why are we amongst the
most praising people,

but yet we seem to be on the bottom

of so many areas in society?

- That's a very good point that you make.

Are prayers being heard?

Is God hearing the prayers
of the black community,

praying for better health,

praying for better economic viability,

praying for our young
people to find their way.

This might sound absurd,

but if it comes down to the evidence

of the prayers being answered,

it appears that God speaks
Spanish in Los Angeles.

(midtempo piano music)

- Most of our churches are full of,

are largely women congregating.

I mean, they're probably five,
six women to every one man,

so part of the problem is

there's not enough male engagement.

- I think that these preachers

know who their target audience is,

they know that, especially
for example, for women

and for the elderly,
they're banking on them

being more caught into their emotions,

especially for black women

with them buying into the statistics

about how there are no good black men.

- All the single ladies I know
who are watching this program

have made a list of the perfect guy.

Now, Kim, have you made a list?

- I have made a list.

- Okay, all right.
- Yes, I have.

- So you're just like
everybody else, right?

- Yes.

- And what's on the list?

- Well, most importantly,
most importantly,

is he's gotta be man of God.

- Okay, of course.

- One who is in love with God,

one who's a prayer,
someone who prays a God

on a daily basis.

- [Interviewer] Right.

- One who puts God first in his life.

- Okay.

- You know, one who is in
ministry, working in the kingdom.

- Right.

- So basically, he's
gotta be a Christian man

all the way around.

- The church preys on women.

I mean, women are still, I mean,

sexism is still alive and
well, not only in this country

but throughout the world.

It's again, one of those subtle things

that we've kind of become accustomed to,

and I think it's almost accepted.

Like, well, I don't
have the best life now,

and instead of trying to do
things to make it better,

I'm just going to pray my
way into Heaven when I die

so that I have a better
life in my afterlife.

I think, my main thing is education.

I still think a lot of these things,

whether it be racism, sexism, religion,

it's based on ignorance.

A lot of, I mean, churches
are filled with women,

but it's also filled with a lot of women

that are ignorant to the Bible.

- Black women are the single
most religious demographic

in the United States.

Yet we are the bottom of the totem pole

on practically every
measure of quality of life

if you look at financial
health, physical health,

emotional health, all of these areas,

and of course, one of the
premises of Christianity

is that the believer will live
a prosperous, healthy life.

("Squared" by Greydon Square)

♫ Hey yo

♫ There was once a time

♫ When everybody believed in

♫ At least some form of God

♫ And religion ruled the world

♫ It was called the Dark Ages

♫ Look

- [Jeremiah] Despite
the misogyny, nepotism,

and irrational content within the Bible,

there is one thing that
most blacks are taught

at an early age.

- You can't question God.

God do things for a reason.

Okay, he do things for a reason.

- [Jeremiah] Traditionally,
in most black homes,

free thinking was limited,

especially regarding matters of religion.

Questioning the Bible or the existence

of an all-seeing, all-knowing God

could result in a blow to the head.

- You don't have the
opportunity to be skeptical

in a lot of households,

because it's just not open to it.

You know, you see God as the
big black woman with the belt.

That's what God is to most black people.

Is a woman with a belt.

- I'm gonna be a doctor.

And everybody around here
better understand that.

- Sure, she gonna be a
doctor honey, God willing.

God hasn't got a thing to do with it.

Lacey, it's all a matter of ideas,

and God is just one idea
that I don't accept.

(dark ominous music)

(slap smacks)

- What happens with us,
is we're young children,

when we're three and four years old

or even earlier, we're told about God,

we're told we have to believe,

we're told that if we don't believe,

we'll be ostracized from our families,

and so you really don't
have much of a choice.

Culturally, you are compelled to believe.

- Our culture is heavily
tied to our religion,

so questioning God, it's
questioning black culture,

I think, I think that's how it's seen,

or it's spitting on your ancestors

who had to go through various struggles

to get you to where you are now,

so nobody wants to question,

and a lot of blacks relied on faith,

or arguably, a lot of blacks
supposedly relied on faith

to overcome these struggles.

So I think a lot of black people

are still holding on to
this tradition of the church

being the center of the community,

and nobody wants to
say hey, wait a minute,

did we really need that
building to do what we're doing?

- This church can only be
used as a meeting place only.

This is the reason why you in church,

having these meetings,
to try to figure out

how to appease your oppressor,

how to get some type of freedom and relief

from this oppression,

and slavery from your oppressor.

I can only say that church
was a good place to meet.

- I think the Civil Rights
Movement found a home

in black churches because
it was a safe place,

maybe the only safe place to congregate.

- When many want to think and glorify

The Civil Rights Movement

as the movement of the black church,

the reality is, is that
most of the black churches

did not participate in
the movement as such

that Dr. King and the
Civil Rights Leadership

could only count on two hands, really,

the number of churches they
could absolutely count on.

- You cannot state unequivocally

that there's been anything
else in this world

that has helped black
people more than the church.

- [Man] And their faith in God.

- It cannot be.

Every known leader has come of
some type of house of prayer,

whether it's Elijah Mohammed,

whether it's all the many
preachers and pastors that we have

all come out of them.

Harriet Tubman, out of
church, all these people knew,

had a deep faith in
God, and went to church.

- We have to be able to separate
the church from religion.

You can do that.

The church was a building

where we were able to come together,

we were able to disseminate ideas,

we were able to, it was an area

where oftentimes we may be left alone.

It's an are where we were
kind of coming together

to combat a lot of social injustices.

You don't need the whole God part.

And to me, and when someone says that,

well, I mean, how incompetent
do you think blacks are,

that we wouldn't be able to say, you know,

I don't wanna be treated like subhuman.

I want to be treated equal
to those that are beating me,

not beat anyone, at least
be a member of society.

You do not need a god to be able to say

I don't want to be beat every day.

I won't want my wife being
killed or raped or whatever

in front of me.

You don't need religion for that,

you need humanity, maybe?

But you definitely don't
need a god for that.

And on the flip side,
for a god to allow that,

why would you still be accepting of a god?

- [Jeremiah] But rejecting
the notion of an almighty God

perceived to be the creator of all things

is unthinkable for most people.

Believers see god as an
inextricable presence in their lives

while others see things quite differently.

- Well God's an imaginary
friend for grown ups.

- God is love.

- This vehicle houses my
eternal in-dwelling spirit.

I am a god to 50 trillion
individual cells,

all of whom have come
together in a reason for being

because I, Keidi, infuse a spirit in them.

So I am god to 50 trillion cells.

- God as one person once
said is a magnified man.

When people create gods, they do so

by projecting their greatest
fears and their greatest wishes

onto a supreme being.

They can be whatever you want them to be.

For a conservative, God is one
who favors the death penalty.

For a progressive, God is someone

who is against the death penalty,

so I believe that people
come up with their own ideas

and try to project their own ideas

onto what this God supposedly wants.

- God is a man.

That's what God is.

If you don't believe that God is not man,

every time an individual uses
the term or say the word God,

they say he, he was a him.

If you go to the
dictionary and look up God,

it says, the first
definition, a male deity.

Second definition, a supreme being.

Look up God as female, it
says goddess, a female deity.

It never said supreme being.

So you have to first
realize that God is man.

- [Jeremiah] History has
shown that anyone in power

can create a god

with whatever attributes and
characteristics they so desire.

The problem is when we attempt
to make our created gods

more righteous and powerful
than the next created god.

We may differ in the detailed nature

of our gods or goddesses,
but a pattern has emerged

out of our beliefs.

God is most cherished and embraced

where there is more impoverishment,

depravation, and powerlessness.

God, therefore, has become a relative term

that means different
things to different people

depending on where one
lives and how one lives.

And despite the desperate prayers
of the weak and dependent,

it is believed that God has a
future plan, a divine reward,

that will ultimately
change their predicament.

- The more religious a society,

the less fluent they tend to be,

and I see that so often,
the more educated people

tend to be the less religious people,

and if you look at
scientists, for example,

in the United States,

the vast majority of our top scientists

in the United States are
either atheist or agnostic,

and that's like 93% of them.

Only 7% profess a belief in God.

- [Jeremiah] Evidence indicates

that religious faith is declining,

but not everywhere or with everyone.

- Certainly not with respect
to historically black churches.

Now you do see decline in
mainline protestant churches

in the US, where there
are African Americans

that are affiliated
with those institutions,

but I think with historically black

denominations in churches, Evangelical,

Pentecostal, charismatic
communions of churches,

we don't see a decline, we
probably see an increase,

in many instances.

You see an increase in Africa,

across the continent of Africa,

Christianity is growing
by leaps and bounds.

- [Jeremiah] But are Africans
converting to Christianity

in record numbers because
it's proven to be empowering,

or is there something
more sinister at work?

- It's a very Imperialistic idea

to say I'll feed you, but
here's this book on Jesus,

or, you know, come with us,

sometimes you don't have a choice,

is what happened to African Americans

and in the Philippines
and many of the places

where colonialism basically
took people and said,

you're now, you know, forget
about your animistic religions

or whatever faith you had before,

you'll either now be our faith

or you'll not survive.

- When the Europeans came to Africa,

they had the Bible, we had the land.

When the Europeans left, we had the Bible,

and they had the land.
- They had the land.

- In many ways, Christianity
has been used to enslave

other groups of people.

- Well, people are most
vulnerable through their religion.

More atrocities have been
created in the name of religion,

but still, that's where
our faith is tested.

- [Jeremiah] In Africa, as it is here

in many parts of the Philippines,

extreme poverty and extreme
religiousness go hand in hand.

In a country where over 80%
of the people are Catholic,

they rely on and trust heavily
in the words of the pope,

who is considered to be
God's closest representative.

The unrelenting faith in an external deity

just may be preventing the human help

that is so desperately needed.

- Filipinos love idolizing somebody,

and the head of the Roman
Catholic Church is the pope,

so for them, it's like,

for them it's really a
personification of God,

it's the Pontiff, so when you go there,

even if there's traffic,

and that it's really really bad weather,

they will still go and just to be there

and just to be okay, I've seen the pope,

it's like something for them,

but that's the problem with
religion in the Philippines,

they humanize themselves

and think that they're really subservient

and nothing.

Religion has poisoned the
minds of most Filipinos.

- [Jeremiah] The history
of the Philippines

being conquered and
converted to Christianity

has a familiar ring to it.

Blacks, too, were conquered, and in 1660,

Charles II Of England ordered

the Council of Foreign Plantations

to devise strategies for
converting all enslaved Africans

to Christianity.

Unlike other groups, blacks
were threatened to believe.

At one time, adopting
Christianity was the law,

and subscribing to anything but

could result in a severe beating

and was even punishable by death.

There was a clear distinction
in the treatment of a slave

and a Christian slave.

- The Bible so that we
could learn how to follow.

- But why would I want anything--

- Follow, just period, to give us that,

okay I had to follow my leader,

so it can put in the slave's mind,

okay the master is my leader,
so I need to follow him.

- [Jeremiah] What was once a tool

to help cope with
suffering is now a crutch

and permanent obsession.

Dependence on supernatural intervention

has become a way of life.

(rhythmic instrumental music)

- There was a newspaper article

a couple of years ago about
the prevalence of churches

on the west side of Chicago

in the midst of extreme poverty

on the west side of Chicago.

- If you live in a community

in a country that's
dysfunctional, that you're hungry,

things are not working, things are bad,

you don't have jobs, you
don't have health care,

their infant mortality is high,

and women are not respected
and are not equal.

When you live in countries like that,

well then it's the sames impulse

that makes you wanna buy a lottery ticket.

I want some escape, I need
to get out of this mess.

- [Jeremiah] Because of an American past

marred in struggle, blacks a have become

the segment of society mostly committed

to the idea of godly intervention

and are encouraged by their pastors

to accept and depend on miracles

to bring about changes in their lives.

But what are the
psychological consequences

of using one's belief as a crutch

and perceiving oneself as
powerless and helpless?

- [T.D.] We need you, Jesus.

We need you, Lord.

We can't breathe without you.

- Turn away from your
own self-sufficiency.

- [T.D] We can't take without you,

we can't move without you,

we can't make decisions without you,

Lord, we need you.

- Depend on him for everything.

That's what it's gotta be.

I gotta depend on Jesus for everything.

- I see people, I can
read it in their eyes,

they think that if they do certain things,

if they dot certain Is
and cross certain Ts

they believe that if
they think positively,

if they get better from day to day,

that somehow, miraculously
they'll be prepared

to go to heaven based
on what they have done.

Self-sufficiency will never work.

- The church continues to foster
and perpetuate dependency,

almost like arrested development,

so that I don't grow up
to become more autonomous

and self-thinking.

That's perhaps our greatest complaint

about the modern-day
institution of the church.

And not only is it fostering a dependency

upon supernatural forces
in a paternalistic manner

but also the same dependency

is also manifesting in other
aspects of people life.

Without the government, we
cannot function as a community.

Without these corporations,
we don't know what health is.

Without the medical,
pharmaceutical drug complex,

I don't know what to do
about my high blood sugar.

- Some people use
religion as a anesthesia,

to anesthetize their reality.

And when you begin to
use religion as a vehicle

to escape your pain, you're not interested

in the true authenticity
or the originality of it

because this is your drug of choice.

- [Jeremiah] If religion
is perceived by many

to be a drug, then where there are drugs,

there's addiction.

Where there's addiction,
there's dependence.

But what are the consequences
of an over reliance

about supernatural
remedies to solve problems?

- Our God is able to fix our race.

- The only way you can
really find real hope

is in Jesus Christ!

- Who if God if not had been by my side,

I would've lost my mind by now.

I'd have been crazy by now.

I'd have been institutionalized by now.

- The churches can help
mobilize and organize,

but it's not just the churches,

it really is gonna take
the entire communities.

It's gonna take our elected officials.

- We don't need the
Democrat Party or any party,

we need God.

God will take care of us.

- [Preacher] Raise your hands, uh.

For without you we can do nothing, uh.

- If had not been for the Lord,

you'd be strung out on drugs.

- No human on Earth came
out of their mother's womb

using drugs, they didn't
do that, that's unnatural.

It was created by man,
given to man to control man.

That's what it's about, control.

- [Jeremiah] What is that you smokin'?

- [Woman] Crack cocaine.

- [Jeremiah] Why you smokin' that?

- It's addicting.

- [Jeremiah] Let me ask you something.

Do you go to church?

- Yes I do.

- [Jeremiah] Do you love the lord?

- Yes I do.

You see how I'm smokin'.

I can't stop.

- [Jeremiah] Have you
prayed to stop smokin'?

- I asked God to take the
taste out of my mouth.

- [Jeremiah] Did he do it?

- It's common, 'cause I
be out here every day.

- [Jeremiah] If somebody told you

they'll take your addiction to crack away

if you would give up
Jesus, would you do it?

- Jesus come number one in my life.

- [Jeremiah] So you wouldn't
give up your smokin'

before Jesus.

- Jesus is the number one key in my life.

(organ music)

- Do you think that
you would still be good

without church, without the
Bible, without religion,

without your faith?

- No.

No, I don't think so.

- Where do our morals come from?

Can we be good without God?

- I don't think you can.

- It's really sad that people
think that you cannot live

without believing in God,

especially in the black community.

- Because no matter how great you are,

everything about you is miserable, right?

That's what the church teaches.

You can't survive without
God, you're an evil,

horrible, sinner person.

- Lucifer, let her go!

Lucifer, let her go!

- You're by no means up to God's standard.

- Well, morality first come from reason,

experience, and observation.

For example, we say rape is wrong,

we say murder is wrong,
we stay stealing is wrong,

we say lying is wrong,
but why are those wrong?

They're not wrong because
the Bible says so,

they're wrong because
they have negative effects

for individuals in society.

It doesn't matter whether
or not God exists,

if I stab you, that's wrong
because it's harmful to you

and I have no right to harm you.

Our morals come about because they work,

because they last.

There's a great free
thinker, Robert Ingersoll

of the 19th century, and he said,

there have always been
laws against murder,

and there always will be

as long as men object to being murdered.

It just makes perfectly good sense.

It's in your best interest
to have laws against murder,

against stealing, and all
of these other actions

which cause harm to human beings.

- Do you think you can
be good, a good person,

a good moral person
without attending church?

- I think I can be more
improved by attending church.

- [Jeremiah] Okay.

If you didn't go to church--

- There are plenty more
people goin' to hell.

- [Jeremiah] Right.

(woman laughs)

- Because they have accept
Jesus as their lord and savior.

- [Jeremiah] Okay.

- 'Cause people can be, like
have a really good personality.

- Right.
- They don't bother nobody,

they go to work, they go, you know,

they do good unto all men.
- Right.

- And they can be good,

but your goodness and your
righteousness is like filthy rags

in the eyesight of God.

We must be born again.

Born in the spirit.

- [Jeremiah] So just being good--

- It don't get you into heaven.

- [Jeremiah] It's not good enough.

- No, it's not good enough.

You have to be born again,
there is no other way.

- What about the amputees?

The people who've been
completely disfigured

due to war or crime or
whatever the case may be,

and then, you know, God gonna bless them?

He's gonna grown their limbs back?

All the belief in the world

is not gonna make God grow my limbs back.

God has never grown a limb back.

- [Jeremiah] But that's my transgression,

that's all from Adam's sin,

if Adam hadn't have done that, you know.

- Then this is a horribly run existence.

Then that god should be fired on the spot.

You had a horrible plan.

This is a terrible game.

You need to start over.

- He even told Adam not to eat the fruit,

but he already knew that
they were gonna do it,

so he already planned on
what was gonna happen next,

like everything after that,

it just don't make no sense.

- See, we assign these attributes to God,

and say that he's
all-knowing, all-powerful,

every experience, blah, blah, blah,

and then we sell him so short

into creating such a
flawed existence like this.

He would make me pay for some shit

that I had nothing to do with?

And you believe this?

Pat on the head, walk away.

That's all you can do!

- Well, morals certainly
do not come from the Bible.

The Bible is an amoral or immoral book.

There's some good teachings in it,

but on balance, it's
not a good moral guide.

Morals don't have to come from anywhere.

If you ask the question,
where do morals come from,

it's like you're waiting for
something outside of yourself

to bestow them upon you.

Oh, I need some ten commandments,

oh, I need a code, oh I need some pope,

or I need some religious
leader to tell me.

Morals are an inner thing.

A moral decision is a value
decision of a functioning mind.

(midtempo instrumental music)

- Of the many thousands of churches

concentrated in black neighborhoods,

it would be disingenuous to conclude

that there are no churches
feeding the hungry

or providing clothing or
shelter for the needy.

But does one need religion to do good?

The fact is, there are
more secular charities

in the United States than non-secular.

Perhaps one religious belief
can inspire them to do good,

but there are many who choose to do good

simply because it's the right thing to do.

I see that you all are
doing some good things,

you're feeding the community.

So how did that get started?

What are you actually
doing for the community?

- I'm a community worker.

- This is a small.
- Very small.

- Community church, obviously people

who don't have a lot of money,

and you take the time
out to help these people.

Say, for instance, that
you were not a pastor,

and that you were not a
believer in the Bible.

Would you still do this?

- I believe so, I would.

- Okay, so.
- I love my people,

I love the poor.

(midtempo jazz music)

- World renowned jazz
musician Lonnie Plaxico

has very practical take
on religion and morality.

- I don't use the word
higher power or creator,

none of that stuff.

- [Jeremiah] Describe
the place that you're in

in terms of your--

- The place I'm in, is
if you need some food,

and I have some food, I'm
gonna give you some food.

And the food come from nature,

so whatever responsible for the universe,

which I don't claim to know,
has provided that for us.

And to me, it's up to us to just share it.

That's where I come from.

(midtempo organ music)

- [Jeremiah] If goodness and morality

are perceived to be
brought on by one faith,

then prayer is the means
by which they come about.

Blacks have developed a mindset

that not only expects divine intervention,

but also relies on prayer
as a first line of defense.

- We're gonna be praying that
God does one of three things,

actually, the first is
stabilize the economy,

two, bring peace to the Middle East,

and three, bring down gas prices.

- [Jeremiah] Is prayer
the irrational assumption

that our pleas to an
invisible but listening God

is causing the results
of what we prayed for?

Or is prayer simply the act of
rolling the dice enough times

that our number must eventually fall?

Are those who believe that prayer works

guilty of confirmation bias,

where we give selective attention

only to those prayers we
believe have been answered

while simply ignoring the
countless other prayers

that go unanswered?

- If he has a plan in place,

and he already knows what's gonna happen,

then you can't say,
well then, prayer works.

It doesn't work,

because if he knows what
happens in the future,

by definition, he can't change it.

It's either he knows or he doesn't know.

- Well it's one of Atlanta's oldest

and most historic institutions,
Morris Brown College.

It once joined the ranks
of Spelman and Morehouse

as a highly-acclaimed,
historically black college,

but $13.1 million debt

and now the threat of foreclosure

threaten to shut down the school for good.

Now, the school's board of trustees

says they are not throwing up their hands,

they're not giving up yet.

They're calling for a day
of prayer this Saturday.

They're asking people to
meet at the school gym.

- God did not bring us
this far to leave us now.

- And with God,

we will make it.

- [Jeremiah] Do you pray?

- Absolutely.

- Are all your prayers answered?

- No, but that does not
mean there's not a God.

For a reason.

- And I think even moreso than that,

my prayers may not be answered

because they're not the right things

that need to be answered.

- [Jeremiah] Do ya'll go to church?

- I don't go to church.

- Nah, man.

There ain't even no point, man.

- [Jeremiah] You say
there's no point, why?

- Because, like, they're sayin' like,

it don't matter how much
you try to pray to God

and junk like that, niggas still
be in the same predicament.

Like, I could've prayed the other day.

We didn't have no food in the house,

but I ain't wake up there
wasn't nothin' in the house.

See, I'm sayin' there
ain't no point to it.

- Your power was given to you

when you came out of your mother's womb.

And what you do, is that you then,

indoctrinated in these various religions,

you give all that power away.

So these various religions,
there's the deified image

on the cross, to the Bible,

and anything that's
connected to a religion.

You give it away.

So therefore, we as an African people

living in the United States of America,

go out and sittin' up
in the pews of a church,

we are powerless people

because we gave all our power away.

- Have you noticed the postures
of prayer, for example.

What is prayer?

You're kneeled down, you're hunched over,

your head's bowed, your
hands are shackled.

This position is a shackling of the wrists

before the slave master.

Oh please, I beg of you,
please be good to me.

Get me something, don't hurt me, you know.

So all of this praise, really,

is a slave humility, is
what it is, to the lord.

And what is the god of the Bible?

He's the king, we are slaves,

even Paul said, I am a
doulos, a slave of Christ,

and slaves obey your master.

So there's a certain mentality

that if you're an oppressed person,

you need to humble yourself
before the great man

and say please be nice
to me, be good to me,

give me something to eat.

♫ Take a picture

♫ I want you to remember

♫ When I profess my love

♫ Press the button

♫ I hope that you're recording

♫ Every word I'm saying to you

- Anthony David.

- What up?

- Pleasure meetin' you, man.

- Pleasure to meet you to, man, finally.

- And congratulations,
man, to all your success.

- Thank you, appreciate it.

- What would be your biggest
problem with religion?

- Yeah.

- If you had, just your number
one issue with religion,

what would that be?

- First the idea to even
question one religion

came from another religion, you know.

Whether or not there is some
other intelligence or whatever,

they don't know what it is,

they're just makin' it up to be

politically against something else.

Just the idea of just sayin',

tryin' to pretend you know
something you can't know.

You can't be set up, walked down the path

of certain consequences,

then try to change the
game in the ninth inning

with your prayer, you know what I mean?

- Right.
- You know what I mean?

And use that, the only
thing that the actual belief

as the reason that anybody
would think well of you.

♫ Oh, shake the hand

♫ Of my imaginary friend

♫ See the trouble he gets in

♫ Can traced back to me

- [Woman] What is happening
between Somalia and Ethiopia

is not a mere war between
two African countries.

It as Islamic conflict
with a Christian country

representing the West.

♫ And when he gets angry

♫ He can make the lay man strike

♫ He can help me with the fight

♫ With his power

♫ Yes he speaks through me

♫ And it's always positive

♫ What God said

♫ You put the blame on me

♫ I'm doin' what God said

♫ What God said

♫ What God said, oh

- [Jeremiah] Proclamations
of what God said

or allegedly has said is standard
practice amongst believers

and, of course, preachers.

- So if God said it, that settled it.

- If God said it, that settles it.

♫ If God said it

♫ I believe it

♫ That settles it all for me

- [Jeremiah] But how can we be sure

of what any one of the millions of gods

worshiped around the world
today have actually said?

As far as preachers are concerned,

how can we be sure of
those who've boldly claimed

to have been called by God to preach,

especially when lacking witnesses?

Are preachers honestly called to preach?

Or is it the lucrative
potential of becoming a preacher

and the ease and simplicity
in the qualification process?

- I heard folks sayin' they
was sittin' at the bus stop

gettin' ready to eat a bologna sandwich,

sing if my bologna had a first name,

and you heard the voice of God.

I was smokin' a joint with
Big Daddy when he called me.

- One of the greatest
weaknesses of the church

has been the educational
level of the pastor.

- Our Old Testament professor,
his name is David Carr,

told us about four years ago

that everything in the Bible happened.

Some of it is true.

Did you hear what I said?

Everything in the Bible,
everything is true,

and some of it happened.

Everything is true, and
some of it happened.

- The biggest contradiction to me is

how could you have an Old
Testament and a New Testament?

Or what's so, or what'd you get wrong

in the Old Testament that
made you have to create

this New Testament, and then you say

not to go by the Old Testament.

- Why was it revised?

- [Man] Yeah, why is it revised?

- To take books out.

- Why would you revise something

that's supposed to be the word of God?

- If we're just repeating
the same rhetoric

that we have for the last,
you know, hundred years,

do you not consider that
a gross misuse of time?

- Weeping may endure for a night.

- Found him to be.
(audience cheer)

A doctor in the sickroom.

- You and I serve a God, amen,

that's been God from the beginning.

- There is nothing too hard for my God.

- Anyone interested in
becoming an ordained minister

can do so with just a
few clicks of the mouse.

Unlike many other professions

that require exams or academic
achievements for qualifying,

it seems the primary
credentials for preaching

is to have the ability to
produce emotional responses.

(midtempo electronic music)

There are numerous sites that
offer instant ordination.

One can go from proletariat
to pastor in a flash,

or on one particular
site, for a modest fee.

One can obtain a religious title,

a doctorate of divinity certificate

with an ordination package

that includes an impressive credential

for hanging on your wall, a clergy badge,

wallet card credential,
and a parking placard.

But should preaching requirements

be held to higher standards?

Should the bar on the
qualifications of ordainment

be raised, particularly
in light of recent surveys

that indicate that believers
are less knowledgeable

on the subject of religion
than non-believers?

- I definitely think that
the bar should be raised

because in order to be able
to rightly divine the word,

it's just like anything else in life,

you would not be able to
go in and open up a patient

as a physician, just because you say

I'm called to be a physician.

Because you can't share with someone else

what you don't know for yourself.

- And Americans are really
functionally illiterate

when it comes to religion,

they don't know much
about their own religions,

and they don't know much

about the religions of other people.

(midtempo jazz music)

- [Jeremiah] Is the lack of
knowledge amongst believers

a mere reflection of the
ignorance of their pastors?

- America is one of the most
religious countries on Earth,

but today's new poll shows that many of us

struggle to answer basic
questions about faith.

- [Jeremiah] Where was
the first Christian church

in the world?

- The Greeks came first.

- Yes, the Greeks first.

- Then the Romans, then the Christians.

- Jesus came first before
them, so, okay, all right.

- Who started the Baptist denomination?

- Uh, who started the Baptists?

Is that a, I mean?

- How you gonna say
you're part of something

if you don't even know
what it started from?

- [Jeremiah] Did you learn anything

from the service today?

- Oh, I did, I did.

I learned about uh.

You know, just keepin'
the faith, and you know,

prayin' to God, and you know, in order,

and struggle's gonna be over.

- What I learned is that um,

no matter what you do,
Jesus still loves you.

- [Jeremiah] What did you learn today?

- [Woman] Oh my goodness. (laughs)

I'm gonna break it down.

- [Jeremiah] What did you learn today?

- What'd I learn today?
- Uh-huh.

- Just sit and wait on the lord,

and God is gonna provide.

My whole message, everything I need

is already taken care of.

- God doesn't require work on your part.

All you gotta do is sit on your ass

and be like, yes, Jesus, I believe!

- [Jeremiah] But faith without works,

still gotta work, right?

- And do what, convert other
people to do the same thing?

What does that work actually consist of?

Telling people that if they don't believe

in your particular sky daddy,

they're not gonna get free
ice cream for eternity?

- [Jeremiah] He's gonna
bless you in this life.

- Yeah, tell people in Liberia that.

Tell people in certain
parts of Nigeria, in Lagos.

You know, tell people

in certain parts of South America that.

- [Jeremiah] Are preachers teachers, too?

People expect their
pastors to be knowledgeable

on matters pertaining to history,
science, or world affairs.

If pastors had deeper levels of knowledge

other than the Bible, would
believers achieve more

in the way students achieve
more with better teachers?

- Some people have, in my opinion,

some people have a higher
level of intellectual vigilance

than others do.

Some people don't like thinking.

- The Bible doesn't allow us to think.

It's like what you're told you believe

and you run with that.

I think we need to practice thinking.

- [Jeremiah] But thinking was
never a requirement for faith.

Early black religious gatherings

were under the strict
supervision of whites.

Black preachers were ordered

to preach a particular doctrine

which would maintain a
system of mental enslavement.

Blacks were forced to preach
primarily three things,

the doctrine of hard work,

to see their enslaved position
as something ordained by God,

the doctrine of the master
and slave relationship,

and to see themselves as a
slave doing the will of God,

and the doctrine of pie in the sky,

that their blessings would
come only in the next life.

(gentle piano music)

One armed with official-looking documents,

preachers use at least six techniques

to set the stage for a
lifetime of entertainment.

(bell rings)

- First we have the hooker.

The hook, like in a song, is
the catchy, repetitive thing

that is emphasized throughout the sermon.

Hooks allow preachers
to sell their sermons

more effectively by
reinforcing the message

over and over and over.

- Get up, you've been sleeping too long.

Get up.
(audience applauds)

You've been in bondage too long.

Get up, you've been strugglin'

with the same bad habit too long.

- Servin' for joy, some servin' for peace,

some servin' for strength.

- They who stumbled over their own feet,

they who are double-tongued
and double mind,

they who ran up your credit card bill.

- Next, we have the storm chaser.

Preachers, usually at the
beginning of their sermons,

deliberately point out all the bad stuff

that's going on in our lives.

They calculatingly place
people in storm clouds

because it gives them the opportunity

to act as the sunshine
and come to their rescue

towards the end of their sermons.

- You're worried about your bills,

you're worried about your son,

you're worried about your house,

you're worried about your health.

- To those of you who are
going through some big stuff.

(thunder booms)

I ain't talkin' to those of
you goin' through little stuff.

- That on the darkest day of your life,

when your back is against the wall,

and it looks like there is no way

for you to go any further.

- When you thought you were gonna die,

and you thought you
couldn't take any more,

and you thought you were
gonna lose your mind.

♫ So much trouble in my way

♫ I held the cross sometime

- They are trained, they are deliberate,

and they go to school
to learn how to do it.

They attend seminars, when
they have national conferences,

part of their instruction
might be on whoopin',

or how to create the hook.

It is intentional, it is
planned, it is thought out,

it is practiced.

- Next, there's the assigner.

Assigners give their
congregations assignments to do.

One must constantly turn
to, slap, hug, high-five,

or say something to the
person sitting next to them,

usually called their neighbor.

Assignments provide interaction
between the preacher

and the people.

Assignments also keep the people busy

and provide an element of entertainment

while igniting the most boring of sermons.

- You can't fall asleep in a black church.

You got stuff to do, you got assignments.

(audience laughs)

You gotta turn to your neighbor.

- Tell your neighbor, say neighbor!

- Give somebody a high-five!

- Touch your neighbor!

- Go 'round about five people,

tell 'em I'm leavin'
outta here with a miracle.

- Look at somebody and
say, please be real.

- Look at your neighbor and say,

God didn't do it, but he knew it.

- Look at your neighbor and say,

you don't have to get out of trouble.

- Come on, tell your neighbor.

- [Man] Keep hope alive, keep hope alive!

- Next, we have the hope dealer.

Hope dealers promise that today, tomorrow,

or sometime in the near future

that everything will be just fine.

Preachers understand
the importance of hope

and how it once served
blacks on the plantation.

Administering large doses of hope

is one of the most effective tools

available to preachers.

- The kingdom is coming!

The kingdom is coming!

- Don't worry about it.

God's already fixed it.

- This year, God's
gettin' ready to take me

to a whole 'nother level!

- Tell your neighbor, make
room for your blessin'.

- But I here come to tell you tonight

that God is gettin' ready to
thrust the mantle onto you.

- [Jeremiah] There are
over seven billion people

in the world today,

and over a million known other species.

What is it that would make

one mere individual human being believe

that a god is bestowing personal favors

specifically upon them

in light of all the other
human beings that are suffering

around the world?

1/3 of the world's people are at war.

There are approximately 30 million slaves

and 30,000 children dying every day

from starvation and disease.

Are our assumptions regarding divine favor

really just an inconspicuous
form of arrogance and ego

disguised as humility?

- I just grabbed everybody hands

and we just said no weapon.

As team formed against this impossible.

No weapon!

Man can't control what
God has already built

and blessed and destined, man.

- Well, how's it predestined

if you had the choice all along?

You didn't have to play football.

You didn't have to do anything.

You didn't have to put
yourself in that position,

it wasn't given to you.

If it was that easy, then
everyone that aspires to be

a professional athlete
- Would just pray.

- Would be a professional athlete, yeah.

- [Woman In White] Just pray about it.

- But the money is comin' now!

It's gonna be released to God's people.

- I'm lookin' for unexpected income!

Tonight, my bills are bein' paid!

Tonight, my money is comin' to me!

Tonight, I deny bein' poor!

I'll never be broke another day!

You gonna receive your money
tonight, in Jesus name!

- Then we have the messenger.

Messengers are the self-appointed profits.

They make bold claims about
how God has given them

specific messages to share
with their congregation.

Messengers distinguish themselves

as chosen representatives of God.

This instantly establishes reverence,

respect, and authority.

- If God simply told me
to let you know tonight.

- And the lord told me to tell ya.

Today is your last cryin' paining time.

- See, God told me to tell you.

- So God is tellin' me
right now to tell you.

- You know what the lord told me?

He said Bethany, I'm gettin'
ready to turn some wigs around.

- But I am God's messenger.

- Lastly, we have the terrorist.

A terrorist's goal

is literally to frighten
the hell out of people.

Playing the devil card is a clever tool

to ensure that people will be afraid

not to attend to church.

(dark ominous music)

- I know the lord sure came up on my side,

gives you the ability to
keep the devil at bay.

- That's the devil tellin' you that!

- Satan wants a different gospel.

- Devil wants your mind!

- When you use the fear factor

to cause a person to produce
the results that you want,

that is a criminal act.

Well, actually the reason
why you can't prosecute them

is simply because of the
psycho-manipulation process

that they use.

They speak in such a way

and use what has come to be
respected as the word of God

to cause a person to volunteer
it, voluntarily respond

to what they're saying.

So the person is actually saying,

I'm choosing to do this of
my own free will and accord,

when in reality, they're not doing it

of their own free will and accord,

they've been manipulated.

- Creflo Dollar used an urban legend

to frighten his parishioners
by telling them about

an unconfirmed team of Russians in Siberia

who drilled nine miles into the earth

with a heat-tolerant microphone

claiming to detect sounds
of tormented souls in hell.

It was later proven to be a hoax,

a remix of sounds from the
1972 movie Baron Blood.

- Thousands and perhaps
millions of tormented souls.

This is what they heard, play it.

(group shrieking)

- [Jeremiah] Do you believe
there is a real devil

in our lives deliberately
trying to destroy us?

- Oh yeah.

- The devil is ruling this world.

- We've given, through the
theology that we've been taught,

we've given a great deal
of authority and respect

to the idea called the devil,

and it's extremely hard to break.

(group shrieking)

- There are a lot of
things to be afraid of.

That ain't it.

And then there's this idea

that if you don't believe what we believe,

you're gonna suffer for it.

And this idea that if you
don't believe what we believe,

that's okay, your time's gonna come,

and you're gonna bow before God.

And then when you do bow before God,

he's gonna punish you
because you didn't believe.

Not because of what you did,

not because of what you actually did,

but because you didn't
think a certain way.

That's the ultimate type of slavery.

The dominance of thought.

To dominate how you
think and what you feel

and how you love something.

No.

- [Jeremiah] Whether it's
hooking, storm chasing,

assigning, hope dealing,
messaging, or terrorizing,

if we are aware, there are some preachers

that incorporate all six
techniques in every Sunday sermon.

- I'm in a faith fight.

I'm in a faith fight,
baby, I'm in a faith fight.

I'm in a faith fight,
I'm in a faith fight.

Before you go in the storm,

and you didn't even know if
you was gonna make it this far.

This ain't the first time
you've had a little hell

hit your life.

The doctor gave up on you!

Before you go in your storm.

Ya'll shake your neighbor's hands.

And ya'll look over your left shoulder.

Turn around in your section and say, baby.

Ya'll touch your neighbor.

Nothin' but goodness and
blessin's are fallin'.

Goodness and mercy is
gettin' ready to follow you.

Now you can get ready for some blessings

coming your direction.

God told me to tell ya'll.

God told me to tell somebody.

And God told me, tell some folk up here.

But God told me to tell you.

Here's the first time the
devil has messed with you.

It ain't the first time

the devil has tried to
rob you of relationships.

This year, the devil wanted
to rob you of some stuff.

It's that no matter what hell

the devil throws your direction,

the doors of the church are open.

The invitation's extended.

The opportunity is yours.

Glory to God.

- [Jeremiah] God, known by many names,

and thought of as a
singular and supreme being,

described as all-powerful and all-knowing.

God's infinite wisdom is
said to know the answers

to everything.

The number of grains of sand
on all the world's beaches,

the number of hairs on every human's head,

and even the number of
stars in the universe.

Many believers claim to have dialogue

with this being of infinite wisdom.

If this claim is true,

then shouldn't believers be more wise,

intelligent, and knowledgeable?

Where are the great minds
to behold and admire,

and what kind of information,
knowledge, or wisdom

has God been sharing with
believers during their lives?

Now, does God talk to you all?

- Yes, absolutely.

- [Jeremiah] And you talk to God?

- Yes.

- [Jeremiah] And what kind of messages

do you get from God?

- It comes at different times.

There was a time in prison when
I was anticipating something

and I was sitting on the bed,
and I was about to get up,

and I felt something.

No one was around me,

I just felt something
place their hand on my leg

and a word just came out, wait.

- [Mario] The person
who feels a need for God

does not want, I think, a
God that created the universe

however many years ago

and then left this universe
to its own devices.

A person, I think, who has a need for God

needs a god that is there for him or her

every day, every minute, every second.

Science has nothing to
say about a god like this.

- [Jeremiah] You talk to God?

- I sure do, baby.

- [Jeremiah] Out loud?

- I talk to him out
loud, I talk to him low,

I talk to God, I talk to God.

- [Jeremiah] Does he talk back to you?

- He talks back to me. (laughs)

♫ Lutherans have liturgies

♫ Calvinists have creeds

♫ Muslims have their minarets

♫ Catholics have their beads

♫ Methodists have methods

♫ Holy truth to ascertain

♫ But poor little me

♫ I only have a brain

- [Jeremiah] Does belief, trust, faith,

and dependence in a supernatural being

affect our intelligence?

Does religion, which claims
to know the answers to life

promote closed-mindedness

in matters pertaining
to the origins of life

where new scientific discoveries

are clashing with biblical doctrine?

- Clearly now, you may have those

who are arguing against evolution,

and based on their
reading of the scripture,

they say those things are
incompatible and inconsistent

and therefore that may translate

into certain kinds of
suspicions of science.

- But if you don't believe in God,

I mean, really, you gotta
have an explanation for this.

You just can't tell me this
spun out of a gasterous ball.

- Every atom in our bodies
came from stars that exploded.

The atoms in my left hand

may have come from a different
star than my right hand.

We are literally stardust

because all the elements that make us up,

the heavy elements, carbon,
nitrogen, oxygen, iron,

all of those things were
created in the big bang.

The only place they're
created is the fiery cores

and furnaces at the cores of stars.

And the only way they
can get into our body

is if those stars were
kind enough to explode.

And about 200 million stars
have exploded in our galaxy

before our sun formed,
and we're the stardust,

we're literally star children,

and I find that so remarkable.

It's so much more interesting as it is.

The reality of, the poetry of reality

is so much more interesting than the myths

created by Bronze Age or Iron Age peasants

who didn't even know the
Earth orbited the sun.

These facts are so
amazing that it saddens me

that so many people are afraid of them

because they figure it'll
confront their faith

that they'd rather not either learn them

or have their children learn them

or celebrate these remarkable facts.

The fact that every atom in your body

has experienced the most violent explosion

that happens in the universe.

When a whole star collapses
in second, and just amazing.

- And then all of a sudden,

then we were evolved from
monkeys, why we still got monkeys?

There's too much open
here, I just believe.

- If we're descended from chimpanzees,

how come there are still chimpanzees?

Well, we're not descended
from chimpanzees,

we're both descended
from a common ancestor

who lived there, about
six million years ago.

That common ancestor then
produced two branches,

one of which went to us humans,

and one of which went to chimpanzees,

branching further to produce
bonobos and common chimpanzees.

We are all cousins.

We are not descended from chimpanzees.

(midtempo jazz music)

- [Jeremiah] You say you minister.

- Yes, I'm a minister.

- [Jeremiah] Now, how were
you called to minister?

- Well, I was called by God

a still, small, wonderful voice.

I did not go to school
to get this calling.

It came from above,

and I wouldn't trade it for
all the school in the world.

- [Jeremiah] Why do you think
that in the black community

we have so many churches
but yet so many problems?

- [Minister] You wanna know why?

You really wanna know why?

- [Jeremiah] Yes.

- Because the church,
there's so many church

when people are called by God

and want to do things in the old way,

here come these new educated people.

- [Jeremiah] Have blacks
become so despaired,

that luck, liquor, and the lord

seem to be the only solution?

All black communities have
liquor stores and churches.

- Yeah.

- [Jeremiah] Why do you think so?

- Why do I think so?

- [Jeremiah] Yeah.

- Because it's the poorest area.

You know, churches try to
get you to come in, (laughs)

liquor store tryin' to get
you to come in too, right?

This is the poorest area, man.

That's where most of 'em at,
in the poorest area, right?

- [Jeremiah] Right.

- Yep.
- In the poorest areas.

- Yep.

- [Jeremiah] Now you got
a lottery in your hair.

Now they also, we play a lot of lottery.

(man laughs)

And we prayin' too, right?

- [Man] Yep.

- [Jeremiah] Is that all we
have is Jesus and the lottery?

- It's most of what you got.

You ain't got much to look forward to, so,

you know what I mean?

- [Jeremiah] What'd you say?

- You don't have too
much to look forward to,

so what you gonna do?

Gamble, drink, go to church.

(midtempo piano music)

- [Jeremiah] Beginning in 1667,

the Virginia legislature wrote into law

the principle that God himself

had rendered the slaves inferior

because God was on the side of the master.

The American colonies codified into law

the notions of black inferiority.

Blacks were considered
savages and heathens,

and Christianity was the civilizing agent

that was intended to cure them

from the unfortunate disease of blackness.

♫ Southerns hear your country call ye

♫ Up lest worse than death befall you

♫ To arms, to arms

- Even like me comin' out of the church,

'cause that's where I was raised at

because I had to be

because my grandma
picked me up every Sunday

I mean, people don't ever wanna question

why they even goin' to church.

They just do it 'cause they have to.

And then when you tell somebody

that you don't go to church,

or when you tell somebody that
you don't pray every night,

or when you start eatin' a meal

and you don't pray over your meal first,

people look at you like you're crazy.

- Well, basically my mom used to like

force me to go to church,

it wasn't like a, oh, do
you wanna believe in God,

or, anything, like do
you believe he's there?

Like my mom forced it on me, it's like,

there is a God, Christianity
is your religion,

like this is what you are,

and really, I feel like
that's still wrong, too

because even, I feel, like if
I don't know anything about it

how are you gonna make me
devote my life and soul

into something, and it's
something I don't even know about,

but you claim that you know it, you know?

- [Jeremiah] But because
there is no empirical evidence

indicating that believers
are faring better

than non believers, believers are inclined

to view their faith as a kind
of after life insurance policy

motivated by fear.

- I don't know that you wanna be wrong

about the existence of God.

I don't know that you'd
wanna be living your life

as though God does not exist
or God does not matter,

only to discover that you were
very, very wrong about that.

- [Jeremiah] Is that Pascal's wager?

- Well, call it what you like, you know.

- I don't like being
scared into something.

I feel like if I'm supposed
to believe in something

that is so powerful, I don't
wanna be scared into it,

I don't wanna say, I
don't want you to tell me

do this, or I'm goin' to hell.

- Thousands of people that I try to reach,

that's the first thing they say.

Well, what about your soul?

You know, what's gonna happen
to your soul when you die?

That's the thing in their head, man.

So they have this fear factor,

so if I dare question or challenge

or try to analyze,
okay, this belief system

because the Bible has, you know,

they're brainwashed to that degree.

- I personally think that
it's just a afterlife thing.

Where I'm gonna go when I pass.

I don't think that it's something

that's for now.

- [Woman In White] Are you afraid to die?

- I don't wanna go to
hell, I don't wanna burn.

I know that's what the
Bible say, I'm gonna burn.

- I still wanna go to heaven, you know.

I wanna be conscious, but
I still wanna go to heaven.

- My brothers.

You're my big brother now, okay.

You're a believer, and I'm not.

You go to heaven, I don't.

Are you happy?

How do you feel, we're brothers.

Did I get what I deserved?

How do you reconcile that
while being in heaven?

Has God changed the way you feel about it,

so now you're not even you?

That doesn't work.

- Now how do I deal with that?

Okay, I'm conscious,
I know all this stuff,

I know the Council of Nicea,

I know all this stuff about religion

and how it got started and all this stuff,

but I still keep the God in me.

I still wanna keep the God in me,

even though I know

a lot of this religious stuff is man made.

So how do I, how do I do it?

- The current age of information

is undoubtedly beginning
to shake the foundations

of long-established beliefs.

Many are faced with a decision
of whether to continue

or discontinue believing
in the primitive stories

within the Bible.

(gentle jazz music)

When reading the Bible,

I've always wondered why
people of African descent

were reading the books called Romans

and books named after Greeks,

such as Corinthians or Galatians.

Why weren't blacks reading
books called Malians,

Ghanaians or Ethopians?

Blacks were trained to abandon the ways

of their ancestors

and to forsake their
own beliefs and culture,

and religion was used as
the most effective tool

to divert attention away
from a collective agenda

to individual goals focused
on individual salvation

which has created a
peculiar sense of loyalty.

Which one do you think is more important,

the blood that our ancestors shed

for us to have a better life,

or the blood that Jesus shed
for us to have a better life?

- The blood of Jesus.

- Of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.

It was a process for them to
go through, our ancestors,

but the blood of Jesus
says that I can have a life

and have it more abundantly,

and that submission, Jesus
first, I mean, you know.

- I think I heard you
once say, I read somewhere

where you said that actually
it was the stars and not Jesus

who gave up their lives.

- Well, it was a joke in some sense,

but we're here because of the stars.

I mean, that, you know,
you can claim Jesus,

we're here because of Jesus in some way,

but all that is is a claim.

- [Jeremiah] Some people
look at Martin Luther King

as our savior.

He did give his life for
us, he did die for us,

he did sacrifice.

- He did not wash away my sins. (chuckles)

His blood could not wash away my sins.

I do thank him, he was a great man,

and he's made great strides in America,

but the blood of Jesus was the only blood

that could wash away my sins and save me.

- You know that this don't make no sense.

You know it don't make no sense.

You know good and well
nobody walked on water.

You know that.

Everything in your being
tells you that did not happen.

Everything in your being tells you

no one took two fish
and five loaves of bread

and fed 5,000 men, not
counting women and children.

Everything in your intellect tells you

that doesn't even make sense.

- Definitely the blood of
Jesus, that he shed for us

is better and best for our life.

- [Jeremiah] All right.

- The one that can get you into heaven.

- [All] The blood of Jesus.

- [Jeremiah] The blood of Jesus.

- Amen.
- Oh yes.

- [Jeremiah] All right.

- Oh, definitely the blood of Jesus,

and I'll tell you why.

Because the blood of
ancestors, that's great,

they fought for us and things like that,

but Jesus redeemed us.

My ancestors could've
brought cancer to me, too.

They could've brought tumors to me, too.

They could've brought me a whole
lot of generational crises,

too, but that blood of Jesus redeems,

washes, and takes away.

- I mean, you know, any of you should know

that the blood of Jesus

is the most important thing spiritually.

- [Jeremiah] Now how do you
know that Jesus is real?

- I know he's real
because I'm alive today.

Last year, this time, I was
addicted to drugs and alcohol.

- You're giving credit to a specter

for something you did yourself.

Maybe your idealistic notion of a person

or a god named Jesus called to you,

meant something to you, that
gave you some aspiration

to pick yourself up and
start anew, but I would say

that you should be giving
that credit to yourself,

not to a deity, but it
can't be proven to exist.

There is no such person as Jesus.

Maybe some Mexicans named Jesus.

- Even the doctors that you
thank God that they saved you,

you don't even thank the doctor,

you just go ahead and thank
God, but he just cured you.

- [Woman In White] He
went through 10 years

of medical school, sleepless nights.

- He did all of that,

and you didn't give him any credit for it.

You just thank God automatically.

That's just so selfish to me.

- And it's been, April
will be a year for me.

And my faith has gotten stronger

since I've not been using.

- There's also people that
have just gone through so much,

like, traumatic experiences in their life,

and all types of stuff,

so they really do start seein' stuff,

but the mind is like the
strongest thing we have,

like your mind can play
all kinds of tricks on you

if you let it.

- [Jeremiah] Do you think
that you could've overcome

your addiction without Jesus?
- No.

- [Jeremiah] Just on your
own volition, your own will.

- No, I've tried that, it never worked.

I've been in and out of
addiction for 15 years.

So no, my way does not work.

His way does.

- If you're the kind of person

that can't fight your
alcoholism by any other means

than belief in God, then by all means,

do what you have to do to be sober,

even if you have to trick yourself

and believe in this higher power.

We'd rather have you sober than not,

and if that's what you need, fine.

But there's a lot of people
who find secular alternatives

to sobriety as well.

- I'm not going to deny your senses,

I'm going to deny your
attribution to those senses

because you don't know any better,

you see what I'm saying?

In other words, if you're taught

this is your cognitive reality,

that everything that's happening
to you is Jesus at work.

It's much like the little child

who attributes the gifts
under the Christmas tree

to Santa Claus because
they don't know any better.

They don't know that their mommy and daddy

put those gifts there.

- The so-called religious experience,

the spiritual experience
that believers talk about

that makes their life sublime,

that gives them these
feelings of nobility or peace

or all that, they have no corner on that,

that's a human experience.

And for me, it's music.

I play jazz piano, I play in
jazz combos, in big bands,

in jazz solo, and I write music.

(uptempo jazz music)

- A lot of people say we're
living in the last days.

Are these the end times?

- According to the Bible, it is, yes.

- We truly believe that.

We see everything around us,

the evidence is all manifesting itself.

Each generation is getting more
corrupt than the one before,

and it's just spiraling all the way down.

And we know it had a beginning,

and it's gonna have an end.

- Now, you said that each generation,

the end times are comin' because
of the signs of the time.

Now, let me ask you this, what about,

and this is the argument
that some would have,

what about when we were enslaved,

when black people were enslaved,

and shackles around our neck
and shackles around our feet

and bein' whipped.

Wouldn't that be a worse time
than what we are in right now?

- I guess it would depend
on you individually,

what your circumstances
was during the time.

Because if you're actually
a slave and being beaten

and a host of other ills,

then it would be terrible for you.

But if you were a slave that
was favored for some reason

because maybe you had some
talents that they find enviable

and that they could utilize,

then perhaps you were treated well.

(dark ominous music)

- Once you come to grips with the reality,

that the root of the tree never existed,

then that immediately causes
the branches and the leaves

to disappear.

- [Jeremiah] If Christianity promised

personal redemption and freedom,

Africans realized very quickly

that it was in their best
interest to kneel down,

bow their heads and kiss the cross.

They may not have heard God's voice

while plowing the masters'
fields or see heaven's light

while being whipped at the whipping post,

but if that's what it took
to free them from pain,

then they would make sure that
they convinced their masters

that they had heard their
voice and seen the light.

A. Leon Higginbotham, shades of freedom.

It was the the law that stated

that blacks were made inferior by God.

Therefore, to convert
them into Christianity

was to help them understand
their condition, not change it.

The Bible was not only used

to justify the enslavement of blacks,

but paradoxically, Jesus
was the collaborator

of black physical enslavement

yet the liberator of their souls.

On the other hand, the story
of Jesus was a necessary one.

Having hope in something
or someone to rescue them

from the anguish and torment
from their enslavement

was required for their
psychological well-being.

Black struggle worldwide
may not only be attributed

to once having been conquered
and enslaved and subjugated,

but it can also be the
result of a belief system

which robs them of time, money,

and the intellectual
capacity to adapt to change

in an age of information.

Many will continue to accept the Bible

as the infallible word of God,

but there are those who are choosing

to have a personal
relationship with reality.

(uptempo jazz music)

There is a rise in non-belief
amongst African Americans.

Not from people who are immoral

or because of an evil force at work,

but because everyday people
are beginning to question

the nonsensical aspects of their faith,

realizing that prayer and
belief cannot bring about

real change, respectability,
or competitiveness,

individual salvation
battles are losing out

to collective wars as there
is no empirical evidence

in the long-term benefits of blind belief.

Religious faith is rapidly eroding,

and those who continue to live

by depending on the supernatural

will ultimately perish from
depending on the supernatural.

- The great thing about science is,

you know, if there's any
faith that's shakeable,

that's the great thing about science.

We like to be proved
wrong, unlike religions,

which assume the answer
before they ask the question,

claim to know the truth
before they even ask

what the universe is like,
and never want to change.

- Osmosis means to absorb a
concept or a belief or an idea

from your surroundings, not
because you know it to be fact,

but because you heard other people say it.

You've heard it said in testimony,

you've witnessed other people's things,

so therefore it became
your cognitive reality.

- It would be a true miracle

if there were nothing useful in the Bible.

It was put together by human beings

who had different ideas,

and there are some good
teachings in the Bible.

I compare it to a garden.

If you had a garden that
had a beautiful rose in it,

there's a beautiful flower over here,

but it's all overrun with weeds,

there's gopher holes, there's trash,

there's disease, there's dead branches,

but you say ignore all that stuff, look,

look at that pretty flower!

Don't I have a beautiful garden?

And you can say well,
you have an ugly garden,

but that is a beautiful flower, yeah,

so the Bible's kind of like that.

- Religion has been used
effectively for some good causes

as well as some bad causes.

One has to be honest about that.

It's not because of an
inherent property of religion,

it's the inherent ability
of religion to unify people,

and Martin Luther King, for example,

used it very effectively, I think.

- Belief does not give you knowledge,

he don't give you no
knowledge 'cause you believe.

Faith does not give you knowledge.

- I did my own research, I read a lot,

I did my own practical research.

- I believe all people
have irrational belief.

It's the inability to change
these irrational beliefs

upon, you know, coming
into new information

that is an issue.

- If people are in trouble,
they go to the churches.

If you don't have that trouble,

you don't need the churches.

- Religion is the divider
between us as a people,

between families.

- I would like to see more
educators who are skeptics,

who are able to communicate this message

of being skeptical of
the world around you,

so you can improve on the
flaws of previous generations.

- You have to base your
actions on reality.

If you don't, you'll only
ever make stupid actions.

And that's the problem

with living a life based on illusion.

- Religion feeds off of low self-esteem,

insecurity, as well as making you feel bad

about urges and feelings
that are totally natural.

- You know, there have
been many, many gods,

and they've all eventually died.

- We were all afraid, I was afraid

because it was the fear of God

that they have put into me
when I was five years old.

- I think rise of non-belief
is simply the rise of science,

the rise of the evidence of the fact

as people understand more
about the physical world.

- Putting your faith,
especially blind faith,

in an idea that hasn't been
working for the community

for a long time.

- I think if we turn to a deity

to do the things that need to
be done, they won't get done.

We're putting our humanity down,

we should be getting off our
knees and getting to work.

- You gotta question

something about what you
believe in sometimes.

- It's about researching, it's
about developing as a people,

so I feel like if we've been into religion

for so many years, and
we're still at the bottom,

it's time to change.

("Squared" by Greydon Square
and The Compton Effect)

♫ One two

♫ My lyrics describe the physics

♫ Of the next time, yo

♫ The collisions are even measured

♫ In electron vaults

♫ See, you're tryin' to convince me

♫ To find some Jehovah

♫ Me, I'm tryin' to find
the same god as Spinoza

♫ Most of the universe,
hydrogen and helium

♫ Galaxies in the billions

♫ Traces of beryllium

♫ Inhospitable to to most
life that we experience

♫ That's why we use loose the terms

♫ Eternity and infinite

♫ But really everything
experienced is finite

♫ I got the jaws of life

♫ Ready to pry open your mind like

♫ Start in tiny large numbers

♫ I come to show you

♫ Another zero you can stack at the end

♫ Each one represents another factor of 10

♫ Grow it

♫ Factors is where the mathematics begin

♫ Have to explain in dimensions

♫ Below the one that you're in and show it

♫ This is grossness,
fecal matter overdosage

♫ Soak it, every emcee is a poet

♫ But not every rapper
emcees and you know it

♫ I'll believe in miracles

♫ when I see a main stream
rapper perform a lyrical

♫ Without lookin' pitiful

♫ I spit it uber-stupid

♫ With less viscosity than super-fluids

♫ Zero friction between me and the music

♫ People say the words you
use are too long for us

♫ Scientists say the words
I use aren't long enough