The founder of the U.K. group Discuss Jesus thinks that humanist weddings are actually “demonic rituals” and people who live a secular life are on a “first-class ticket to the sea of wantonness and debauchery.”

Appearing on The Big Questions, a British show dedicated to discussion topics related to religion and philosophy (why can’t we have shows like that here in the U.S.?), Christian pastor Taiwo Adewuyi praised a recent U.K. government ruling which refused to include humanist weddings among the legal forms of matrimony in the country. According to Raw Story, Scotland made humanist weddings legal in 2005 and the ceremonies have been immensely popular, even outnumbering Catholic weddings each year.

But in Adewuyi’s view, they are “entirely demonic.”

“It all goes back to the origins of humanism,” Adewuyi said. “Humanism is the cancer on thanks-giving. It is the Devil’s PR. It is a first-class ticket to the sea of wantonness and debauchery.”

Judging by the incredulous look on the face of Andrew Copson of the British Humanist Association, he couldn’t wait to politely chime in.

“Well, if you’re going to wantonness and debauchery, you might as well travel first class,” Copson quipped.

“Humanism,” he explained, “is a nonreligious world view that instead of looking to revelation or authority, we look to reason and evidence to understand the universe. Instead of looking to moral rules that come from outside human beings, we look to other human beings to generate values in the here and now and also to generate meaning in our life.”

“Instead of looking externally for some meaning to give value and sanction to the existence we’re having, the humanist view is that men and women in the course of our lives create the sustained meaning together,” Copson said.

Watch the exchange in the video below:

Featured image via screen grab. To follow Sky Palma on Facebook, click here.