Bill Maher Takes On Religion, And It Doesn't Have A Chance

New York Times:

"Religulous," which comes out on Friday in New York and Oct. 3 in the rest of the country, shows Mr. Maher on a world tour of rapid-cut interviews in Israel, Denmark, Vatican City and Monsey, N.Y., the home of Orthodox Jews United Against Zionism, whose leaders participated in a convention of Holocaust deniers in Iran.

The movie is trying to tap the same spirit that has propelled books crusading against religion, like Richard Dawkins's "God Delusion," Sam Harris's "End of Faith" and Christopher Hitchens's "God Is Not Great," to the best-seller lists. Atheist groups now even have their own dating Web sites, glossy magazines, paid lobbyists and annual cruise outings.

Mr. Charles and Mr. Maher carry their evangelism to a broad swath of targets: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, Scientology, even Cantheism, a pot-centric belief system that is often overlooked in theological debate. Buddhism and Hinduism get a pass; interviews with Muslims are intercut with footage of warring jihadis. At the end of the movie Mr. Maher calls on "anti-religionists" to "come out of the closet and assert themselves" in the face of religious extremism. "Grow up or die," he says.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[baramos]

I could take Maher's arguments more seriously if he wasn't on the board of PETA, a group of delusionals if ever I saw one, working with zeal tantamount to any organized religion and with just as much faith in an unprovable idea (that somehow animals should not be used for human consumption and use, the reason being...what? None of them have ever come up with a scientific reason yet, most of it simply stemming from, "I don't want to hurt the cute little animals. Sure we can digest meat as well as vegetables, making us omnivorous,, and our ancestors probably lived on vast quantities of it when in a herding or nomadic culture, but uhh...").

Unfortunately, the response to this film would probably be to make a pro-religious documentary, when in fact if anyone really wanted to strike to Bill Maher's heart they'd make a documentary about the idiocy of PETA, the SPCA's radical, zealous, and idiotic cousin.

[RaisingAwareness]

I grew up in the inner-city and was raised Catholic and seen the good religion can do. I did know that at a young age that Catholicism wasn't for me but respect everyone's right to believe as they chose. I also know with total certainty that I'm a better man as a result of my religious upbringing. I believe it's given me a bigger heart and a more critical mind for what's right, fair, ethical and just. That's something that seems to lack in this world unfortunately. So according to Maher he considers my friends and family to be evil or victims of religion? I don't see it that way and neither do they. I like and admire Bill Maher. I think he's hillarious and quick-witted, but as most people have noticed he tends to over-identify, over-generalize and over-react. You look at history and you'll notice it's these traits which are dangerous not necessarily being religious as he claims.

If Bill Maher is so brilliant and correct, why hasn't he yet figured out that 9/11 had nothing to do with the Mulsim people but that demonizing them did? Over 1 million innocent Iraqi's are dead and 4.5 million have fled their home because of oil and politics. Maybe the next documentary he does can talk about the evils of a politically brainwashed public which somehow justifies the killing of innocent women and children for oil? I'd go see that one.

[wolfgangmo]

Where faith has taken hold, reason has fled the house.

[SlithyTove]

One of the most colorful freethinkers of the nineteenth century was a (gasp!) Republican named Robert Green Ingersoll. His expression is extraordinarily forceful, and his expression is actually quite compatible with Maher's...take a look at his work. I promise you will be hugely entertained:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Ingersoll
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/

A few examples:

"If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane."

“God so loved the world that he made up his mind to damn a large majority of the human race”

"I would not for my life destroy one star of human hope, but I want it so that when a poor woman rocks the cradle and sings a lullaby to the dimpled darling, she will not be compelled to believe that ninety-nine chances in a hundred she is raising kindling wood for hell."

"Blasphemy is an epithet bestowed by superstition upon common sense. Whoever investigates a religion as he would any department of science is called a blasphemer...To laugh at the pretensions of Mohammed in Constantinople is blasphemy. To say in St Peter's that Mohammed was a prophet of God is blasphemy. There was a time when to acknowledge the divinity of Christ in Jerusalem was blasphemy. To deny his divinity is now blasphemy in New York."

[Bitsko]

My favorite part of the linked Times article is: "21 percent of atheists and 55 percent of agnostics said they believed in God."

What a goofy old world we live in. By old, Gov. Palin, I mean three and a half billion years old.

[kappa08]

I'm all for taking on Religion. But as a tepid fan of Bill Mahr's humor. I wouldn't expect much. In fact I caught him on tour and he had the audacity to come out looking "tweeked" and reading his jokes off of a music stand. Not to mention if you heard his act onece whether it be on T.V. or live. You pretty much heard it all. He's really not that sharp and has NOTHING NEW.

[Bitsko]

I agree with you. His humor, like that of Michael Moore, wears thin very quickly.

[Swerinjer]

Michael Moore has a great sense of humor.

[Melissa]

I feel sorry for Bill. He seems like a very lonely man.

[MalloMel]

Well, don't listen to them.

[piotr]

do they go after Islam and its ways as well? or just after those religions (exception being the cult of Scientology) that do not bomb heathens

[Bitsko]

Read the article.

[baramos]

Went after everything but Buddhism and Hinduism, as they're probably too close to Bill's PETA philosophy. Or else he found Buddhism to be too existentialist to pick on or something.

[Ged2012]

Atheism is a form of extremism.

[Vr6]

So is being stupid and believing in Santa Claus etc... by your standard.

[RIPRNC]

Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color.

[PaxMundis]

"Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color."

Apparently atheists don't read too well. The Poster said extremism, not religion. It is by its very definition an extremist belief - it does not allow for a possibliity of God, which agnosticism does.

[Hirnlego]

Yes and abstinence is a form of sex

[PaxMundis]

"Yes and abstinence is a form of sex"

Weak analogy. The OP didn't write that atheism is a form of religion, they wrote that it is a form of extremism. And it is - agnosticism has been getting a bad rap, but it is really the most logically sound option. You cannot prove a negative, period.

[Eric8869]

Really? I don't see Atheists bombing places or killing people?

Christians do - Abortion clinics, abortion doctors, gay bars etc

[BCgeorge]

no it isn't. i am a life-long atheist and have no extremist tendencies. i just don't believe in puerile
religious nonsense and historical myths like the bible.

[ColeSkinner]

Hi QuietNetworker!
Thanks for the thoughtful reply - It's late and my reply may be only halfway sensible....I do believe the moral law must be grounded in a personality with an opinion, because it is the only "law" that compels us via the conscience to act outside our own self-interest, and nothing else we can point to in the natural world acts in this way.

This suggests an opinion about our behavior that socialization or self-preservation do not address. We instinctively blink because of sunlight, we instinctively dodge a car to avoid getting run over, maybe love could be considered an instinct to preserve the species, but the conscience tends to have an opinion that is sometimes in conflict with our instincts. It sometimes is inconvenient, sometimes at expense to ourselves and our herd. There is nothing about saving a stray cat I don't intend to keep tto that benefits me or mankind at all - but something tells me that I should do it. A Frenchman sending money to starving people half a world away only jeopardizes his own resources and potentially helps a rival nation to flower.

And you are correct, that God's morality can, in a manner of speaking, be considered "subjective" by our standards, but not by his own. A college professor may consider which of several possible aspects of a course he will focus on (subjective) but once they are in the curriculum they become the "objective" bullet points in the syllabus...

[Vr6]

Talking to your dog, is your right - but when your dog talks back to you - you are nuts.

[QuietNetworker]

(continued from my reply which follow,
it was too long to post and this has now
fully confused me :) )

...while other species do not and while
most humans also would at least consider
the behaviors to be immoral / unethical.
And once again, excluding some in some
cultural contexts (ie the bible g-d seemed
to be a fan of incest -- Abram marries his
sister; and the Anthenians practiced
pederastry)

That said, it's not hard to see how evolving
a conscious that says to us, "Don't rape"
would help with the survival of my herd
even while it would be at odds with my
otherwise direct biological directive to
"Spread my seed far and wide"

(( By the way I happen to be gay so that
biological directive isn't active in me in
percisely the same way anyway ))

It would help because the pair bond
would be stronger...rather than agressive.
The unraped mother would be more
inclined to keep and care for the child
(remember, this is way back before
Sarah Palin makes the law change of
no abortions even for rape babies)...

[QuietNetworker]

Cole,

Thank you for the kind words.

We have reached the point where we face off
on pure presuposition.

Specifically, I will say that any human or animal
behavior is a function of some, perhaps for now
unknown, and even... ...by the limits of dynamical
systems... unknowable evolutionary economy
and survival value.

For example, we evolved to have this subvocal
behavior called thought. That we might have two
thoughts which oppose (Let's call one the good
ang*l on my shoulder and the other we'll call the
bad ang*l on my shoulder)...

...might at first seem to be HIGHLY uneconomical,
and would seem to offer negative survival value
(It would be like if we didn't reflexively blink at a
puff of air to our eyes...of if we sat around and
"pondered" is this object racing at us going to stop
in time or should I "dodge"...Hmmm, "I just don't
know" and while thinking about it ...SPLAT.

Nonetheless, there isinherent survival value
in some forms of "oppositional" diversity.

For example, single sexed organism evolved
into sexed organisms. And some can even
switch roles when necessary... (See many
amphibians)...

...so perhaps there is some inherent survival
value in some people thinking that...oh say...

Canablism is "Immoral" and some thinking
...I like mine medium well, thank you.

Or perhaps, that some monkey's practice
"rape", "incest", and even "child love"...

(Continued on next reply)

[QuietNetworker]

test

[QuietNetworker]

(last part of post)

So, basically I assert as a presuposition,
taking care of a stray cat is either a hanger
on epiphenomina of some evolutionary
economy OR does itself provides some
herdwide, specieswide, or personal
survival advantage.

at the risk of being circular...if it didn't
you wouldn't do it :)

It's certainly not hard to think of how it might
aid your survival value. It can be the
same impulse that leads to the
domestication of animals. Or even, a way to
recognizing distress (which would help
you hunt for food)...etc.

Likewise, the giving of personal resources by
our "altruistic" Frenchman, may be the way
by which his seed spreads to a foreign wife.

Having enough extra to give some to
another country would suggest a strong pair
bond and child supporting environ making
the giver a more attractive mate...and thus
reinforce the behavior...

So while you would attribute all these to the
existence of not only a g-d ...but presumably
a good one...

...I do no more than attribute it to the equally
invisible powers of natural selection.

You offer, from my perspective little more than
the "g-d of the gap" ...you fill in the gap of what
I cannot yet fully explain with the supernatural.

While I didn't fully raise the issue of moral
ambiguity, I will end this post for now and will
return to see if you have more to say.

Cheers,

Paulie Sabol

[nsmavrik]

You know, I have been watching Bill Maher for many years. This is one subject that I completely disagree with him.

“........Mr. Maher continued: “Anyone who’s religious is extremist............"

Bill Maher thinks that just because he grew up in a household with two different religions and listens to several television programs on religion, that he understands what religion is.

He believes that EVERYONE who believes in religion is an extreamist and that is wrong.

The overwhelming majority of people with religious faith, have doubts in it. They don't believe that the Bible is THE literal word of God.

The Bible is a book of stories, people. It is not a history book.

Have you ever played the game "Pass it on"? You NEVER get the same phrase you started with. This is EXACTLY what the Bible has become. The original MESSAGE was lost. All we have is INTERPRETATION of what was the original story.

This is why NO ONE should take the Bible literally word for word.

Now, that being said. Religion and religious faith are two seperate things. Bill sees them as the same, and that is a shame.

There are very intelligent educated people who believe in both creationism and evolution. They take the stories of the Bible with a grain of salt. Bill should also take extreamism with a grain of salt. Smart, educated people with religious faith, hate religious extreamists.

Hate them, Bill, but for God's sake, DON'T lump us together.

[kamknauss]

That is the entire point....that a little suspension of reality leads to a LOT of suspension of reality. If there are parts that aren't to be taken seriously, why does ANY need to be taken seriously? If a little is wrong, how is the entire thing not wrong? Will you stone your family members to death for not believing?
You are believing that you are not able to make logical and wise decisions without guidance. It's not true. Morality is naturally occuring. Extremism will always be the logical next step of "INTERPRETATION". What else could it be if there is the possibility of eternity at stake? It should tell you something if organized religion must be continuously modified to fit the current times. It is not a lost message, it is simply proven implausible.

[PaxMundis]

"That is the entire point....that a little suspension of reality leads to a LOT of suspension of reality. If there are parts that aren't to be taken seriously, why does ANY need to be taken seriously? If a little is wrong, how is the entire thing not wrong? Will you stone your family members to death for not believing? "

The problem with that is that all our views of reality our subjective. An atheist cannot have any more claim on "what is reality" than the most conservative orthodox believer. As for "if a little is wrong, how is the entire thing not wrong," well, gee, I thought atheists were supposed to be flexible thinkers who would never consider throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Religion at its best is a delivery system for wisdom. If you don't get anything out of it, fine. But if you truly believe in free thought, don't tell other people what to believe.

[txgal44]

Andrew Sullivan was on his show a couple of weeks ago and really put Bill in his place. I was so pleased. Andrew had simply had enough of his s-h-i-t!! I do like Bill. I don't always agree with him but when he gets on his high horse about religion, I just want to knock his a-s-s-s off!!

[Mort]

In spite of the jokes and hoopla, bigotry is ugly.

[totalliberal]

I know. Such as portraying Jesus as a white man with blue eyes and fine blond hair.

[Hirnlego]

Religion should not receive a freeride. No one calls me bigot because I don't believe in conservative politics. But if I even mention religion...oh boy.

[Eric8869]

After all the death and destruction religion has caused all over the world for hundreds of years I'm not going to accept that a funny movie is ugly bigotry. give me a break

They could come out with a movie like this a day for the whole year and not scratch the surface of the damage religioun has done.

[Eric8869]

If you're worried about Ugly Bigotry - go to all those christian "family" organizations that do nothing but attack gay people and their families.

[txgal44]

True christians do not attack gays. Those are not christians you're talking about.

[liberalgirl31]

Some things to consider about Bill Maher:

a) He dated the hateful, unbalanced Ann Coulter and still is friends with her and defends her.

b) A few weeks after poor Steve Irwin died, he attended a Halloween party as Irwin, complete with a sting ray tale protruding from his chest (wow, how sensitive!)

c) He said it was too bad that Rush Limbaugh didn't die from a drug overdose. (I can't stand El Rushbo, but I don't want him dead, for God's sake!)

d) He is a misogynist (remember his nasty comments about breast feeding?)

So why would I look up to this man or want to see his movie?

[pinkyboo]

I wouldn't mind if Rush died!

[Vr6]

He also denies the truth of 911 - but he's still against the anti-christ bUsh - the rest is just TV. Sometimes you have to lie to get your point over - the bib;e does that thru' it's followers that continually read it as the word of dog - it's not - it's the word of man and nothing more. To think otherwise is a fault of humanity. Look at the deaths caused by religion - the work of dog????!!!!!!!!!
Hate is the realm of religion..... consider the Spanish Inquisition, for the love of dog.

[txgal44]

I noticed he usually dates black women. As a black woman myself, I wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole!!

[myangeldog1]

Oh my....is this going to be interesting.

[oliverchlothesofF]

Why doesnt Mr Maher realize that him pushing his atheism on us is no different than the bible thumperspushing their views. Very hypocritical.
If you cannot tolerate and respect the peoples views, you really deserve no respect from the people. Is Mr Maher so insecure in his beliefs he needs to demean others.
The story says that the Hindus and the Buddhists got a pass, but I would bet Islam was sugercoated and Christianity was his main target. I wouldnt not watch this drivel if I were paid $100.

[QuietNetworker]

It's very different.

For one, I assure you Mr. Maher doesn't suggest to you
that disagreeing with him has eternal consequences.

Second, you're confusing a free speech option to present
his truth with (a) a desire to see you 'converted" and/or
(b) some limit to your ability to continue in your unhealthy
and immaginary beliefs.

I trust Bill will totally defend your rights to ignorance as
protected in the Constitution...

Last, your final error is thinking he's seeking respect from
the closer threat, domestic christians...

...he doesn't seek their respect...

...he seeks to expose them and empower others to lose
respect for the mentally weak and undereducated.

Cheers,

Paulie Sabol

The problem is, that theism and credulity is treated as
if it's healthy and normal. When it fact is anyting but...

...this is more a case of

[pumpkin]

How is he pushing atheism on you? Is he forcing you to watch the movie? Is he making elementary school kids sing songs about atheism during their winter concert? Is he putting up a huge tribute to atheism in you city park during the holiday season?

If you don't want to see the movie, don't see the movie.

And I'll try to ignore the christmas carols that are EVERYWHERE (even pumped out of speakers on the streets of the city where I grew up) starting November 1st.

[whit4brains]

Great reply pumpkin!

In all my life I have never had an atheist try to convert me or influence me to believe what they do...can't say the same for Christians though.

[Sparty1]

Good point.

[SlithyTove]

Spot on!

[oliverchlothesofF]

Bill Maher is even less funnier than David Letterman and Jay Leno

[pinkyboo]

Matter of opinion.

[SlithyTove]

The hindus and buddhists probably got a pass because they have no history of forced proselytization and wars of conquest and conversion, and have generally been tolerant of other faiths.

[andyg]

Hindus you need to look at modern day India, there a ton of angry hindus there.

[pinkyboo]

Yeah expressing his opinion that God does not exist is "pushing" atheism on you.

Your choice is simple - don't see the movie and my choice is simple I won't read the bible!

[RRonin]

What do atheists say when they orgasm? "Oh nothing! Oh nothing! Oh nothing!"

[SlithyTove]

Actually, the most pithy definition of nirvana is 'nothingness'.

[Vr6]

I, like all other animals usually just let out a series of grunts when I orgasm, or just howl at the moon.

[Quaoar]

Why do some Christians call out "Oh God!" instead of their partner's name when they orgasm? Is calling out "Oh God!" a way to prevent accidentally calling out the wrong name?

[shearm]

When you use a line taken from Stephen Colbert, or anyone else for that matter, be sure to give them credit. Also, wouldn't screaming "Oh God" during an orgasm constitute using his name in vain, which is a no-no?