(CP) Actor and filmmaker Mel Gibson went on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, where he discussed his faith, the challenges of making Christian-oriented movies in Hollywood and why he believes Darwinian evolution is a flawed theory.
Best known for the Oscar-winning “Braveheart” and “The Passion of the Christ,” Gibson, 69, discussed the challenges he faced in making 2004’s “Passion,” which became the highest-grossing R-rated film in U.S. history, raking in $370.8 million against its $30 million budget.
“There was quite a lot of opposition to it,” said Gibson on the episode, which debuted Thursday. “I believe if you happen to ever hit on that subject material, you are going to get people going because, in fact, it’s an enormous subject material.
“The idea was that we’re all accountable for this, that His sacrifice was for all mankind, and that for all our ills and all of the things in our fallen nature,” he added. “It was a redemption, so you realize, and I feel that.”
Rogan, a self-described agnostic who was raised Catholic, agreed with Gibson, saying he believes that Christianity, unlike other religions, is usually subject to criticism, especially in secular Hollywood.
“Christianity is the one religion that you simply’re allowed to disparage,” he said, adding that while Hollywood is stuffed with “progressive, open-minded leftist people” who might embrace various religions, Christianity, “for whatever reason that represents like white, male, colonialism, whatever it represents, it’s negative.”
Gibson, who at one point was named the “strongest Christian in Hollywood,” said despite facing such resistance, it was “an honour” to get the film made in the primary place.
“I used to be born right into a Catholic family. I’m very Christian in my beliefs,” he said. “I do actually imagine these items to the complete.”
When the subject of the veracity of the resurrection of Christ got here up, Gibson said he considers the Gospels to be “verifiable history,” pointing to extra-biblical historical accounts that confirm the existence of Jesus of Nazareth.
He also identified that each one the apostles who spread the message of Christianity were willing to sacrifice their lives to spread the Gospel.
“Every single one among those guys died slightly than deny their belief,” said Gibson, adding that “no person dies for a lie.” The resurrection, nevertheless, stays essentially the most difficult a part of the story for a lot of to just accept, because it “requires essentially the most faith and essentially the most belief.”
But, added Gibson, “Who gets back up three days later after he gets murdered in public? … Buddha didn’t do this.”
When Rogan asked him about his views on evolution, Gibson was skeptical.
“I do not really go for it,” he said. “Ice Age dinosaurs … what did they turn into?”
While Gibson said he believes he “was created,” he said he stays open to some type of natural micro-evolutionary processes like “gain of function,” but throughout the framework of a bigger “creation.”
He also said he believes that the world has order and that “anything left to itself without some sort of intelligence behind it would devolve into chaos,” implying a necessity for a “big intelligence” orchestrating all the pieces.
Gibson said he sees humans as distinct from other creatures. “I believe we’ve a soul,” he said. “We’re created with a soul.”
After recording the episode of Rogan’s podcast, Gibson said Thursday he learned his girlfriend and young son were evacuating their home to flee the raging Palisades Fire as he sat in Rogan’s famous studio.
He made reference to the multiple wildfires burning through Southern California in the course of the podcast.
“I believe all our tax dollars probably went for [Gov. Gavin Newsom’s] hair gel,” Gibson told Rogan. “It’s sad. The place is just on fire.”
Gibson later said in a phone interview with News Nation that he was “ailing comfy” in the course of the podcast, adding, “I knew my neighborhood was on fire, so I assumed, ‘I’m wondering if my place continues to be there.'”
