An Open Letter to Bill Maher About Faith

Dear, dear Bill,

I am one of your best fans. I so enjoy the insight and the controversy you purvey on Real Time. So I never thought I'd have to say this but I have to agree with this week's conservative, Catholic guest Andrew Sullivan--you've become a religious bigot.

My brain is wondering . . . . Bill? Bill Maher? That wonderful open-minded comedian whose trenchant observations about humanity are so on point? It can't be.

Bill, dear, I understand. I do. Comedy, your forte, works because of extreme (shall I write: xtreem?) positions. Witness the witness of Carlos Mencia, Equal Opportunity Offender. And yet, Bill, and yet, you've become juvenile in your insistence that there is no God.

I also know that your new film is about to debut, Religulous, and that you mean it to be funny. Truthfully, my friend, faith is a funny thing. Not funny ha-ha, funny odd.

I have to side with Andrew yet again. He tried, Friday night, to make a distinction amongst situations where faith applies and where it does not. I'd like him to go one better, and declare to you the Truth about faith. (Yes, I meant the Capital T!)

Faith in itself, dear one, is actually neutral. Another way to put this is: faith swings both ways. It works for the good and the bad equally. By this definition, sweet Bill, you are a man of faith! The reason is because you are consistent in placing your emotional and mental energy in what you fear. And that's a form of faith.

What you really object to is blind faith, faith that begs the logic of our minds, faith that asks us to believe in what is impossible. Me too, and I'm a minister. (I had a seminary professor who used to say, "If it begs the logic of your mind, it's not God.") You also object to blind faith traditions, inherited faith, if you will. Ever read the Hebrew Bible? God has no grandchildren. (Code: One cannot inherit faith itself, only a faith tradition.)

Anyway, I understand your fear about the intelligence of the American People, Bill. You've got proof that we're not always as smart as we're cracked up to be. Okay, I get that, but what I don't get is why you are insisting on keeping it in place? Do you really think that people can't change, learn, grow, heal, think for themselves? God, I hope not. That would make this world a devastating place to live in.

With all due respect, Man of Humongous Talent, may I make a gentle suggestion? Could you please consider allowing those of us who do like and use our faith a little space to like and use it? And could you allow the possibility that the good old U.S.of A. just might wake up, smell the coffee, then the roses, and grow up to vote for the change we need?

I promise to go see your new film.

Sending you richest blessings,

Rev. Dr. Susan Corso

Follow Dr. Susan Corso on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PeaceCorso

Comments

[MagisterLudi]

"Keep your stickers out of my science book; I don't paste junk in your bible."

[Zanti]

"Stop treating all members of my group as we think, act, and believe alike, and I'll give you some credit for intelligence."

[Zanti]

Oops.

"Stop treating all members of my group as IF we think, act, and believe alike, and I'll give you some credit for intelligence."

[MagisterLudi]

"I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong." - Richard Feynman

[CBS]

His basic premise is that people who profess a faith are intellectually inferior to Himself. This is what is objectionable and undermines any valid criticism of people of faith who take it to extremes and try to inject their personal views into politics, policy and government in general. And, sadly he seems more bitter than funny these days. Perhaps he is having his own personal spiritual crisis?

[jollyelle]

Isn't he focusing on the fact that it doesn't belong in our government and guiding our foreign policy?
Sure, people can believe what they want, no matter how fantastic it may seem, but don't let it bleed
on the lives of other people.......who's to say who is right or who is not? Isn't that the point of it?

[Tessie]

Maher is a fine comedian, intelligent, funny, very sharp. I thought it was completely unfair for ABC to cancel his show (Politically Incorrect ) simply because he exercised his right to free speech. His views against organized religion are certainly valid to put up for debate. I have no problem with that.

However I find myself at odds with his statement that "anyone who is religious is an extremist". He lumps all people of faith into one category, brainwashed, blind-following zealots who either cannot or refuse to think for themseves. Being religious does not make one stupid or foolish, or dangerous. Being radically religious is a very different thing.

He claims he preaches the "Gospel of Doubt". Religion is all about doubt. All religious people experience doubt every day. Faith is about having hope in the midst of those doubts, in spite of it.

Atheism is fast becoming a 'religious' cult of its own, gaining support, recruiting new members, becoming organized and financially profitable. It is as much a belief system now as any other organized group. There are atheistic groups who hold meetings, have fundraisers, and are extremely politically active. There are many of them who seek to gain power in the same way the Christian Right has. I find that equally dangerous.

[CBS]

Fist bump for that....I totally agree

http://www.sfbaysailingpix.com/pez2008p1.htm

[MagisterLudi]

"There are atheistic groups who are... extremely politically active."
REALLY???? can cite an example of openly atheist political candidate on state or federal level...
Both of the presidential nominees are fundamentalist Christians, so is the present President and most of the Senate and Congress.

[Zanti]

"Both of the presidential nominees are fundamentalist Christians, so is the present President and most of the Senate and Congress."

I come to these threads precisely for gems like that.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Oh, and while he wasn't a political candidate, Karl Rove was an atheist. His atheism was a wide-open secret. Didn't hurt his career in the least, did it?

[Vajara]

Susan, I understand how you feel when someone challenges your "Faith." Our faith is a belief system that is not based on any facts or evidence, rather establised or expressed with assumptions about our true nature or reality that it is. I am very grateful that we have such a remarkable human being who questions these evangelical christians who hold to 'blind' faith and deny the science that exists.

Anyway, it is very obvious that these religious zealots have created enormous problems for our society and for our global community. They need to begin taking responsibility and open up to other possibilities and especially their faith that is judgmental and has no substance or reality. This is my opinion and don't presume to know that what I say is fact.

[rpr]

Dear Dr. Corso,

I have to object to your central tenet.

Faith is not neutral. There are varying degrees of faith, from mild, benign to extremist and toxic.
Nobody has a problem with the former, it's the latter that gives believers a bad rap.
And the whole issue has a major effect on the political landscape in the US since the Republicans usurped the religious fundamentalists into their base.

Also don't forget that organized religions are major power and money machines.

If we didn't have these issues there would be no reason to make Religulous. Its purpose is (besides making a buck) to stem the tide of religious influence on politics (e.g. Palin) and everyday life (e.g. ID in schools.) That is a very noble purpose.

[Judyisacutie]

The thing that bothers me about Bill Maher is not that he's an atheist. I don't care about that. It's his choice. What bothers me is that he makes a point of ridiculing religion and/or religious people on every one of his shows. It's supposed to be about politics, but he goes out of his way to insult believers. On the flip side, there are plenty of religious people who have weekly news or comedy shows and they don't even discuss religion, let alone go out of their way to insult atheists every week.

Bill Maher constantly accuses believers of being juvenile and bigoted, but maybe one of them should give him a mirror for Christmas.

[allwrite]

So you don't think there are plenty of religious fundamentalists using the media to trash non-believers? . . . are there not fundamentalists issuing threats against certain groups? Has Maher threatened anyone?

Isn't Maher consistent in the level of ridicule he heaps upon all with whom he is in disagreement, regardless of topic?

It is supposed to be about politics you say. Don't know that he restricts his show to politics only, but assuming that is in his mission statement, then it is natural to seque from politics to religion. The Repubs have glued them together.

[Judyisacutie]

Are there fundamentalists who "trash" non-believers? Probably. The difference is that they're not doing a show about politics, bringing on atheist guests and ridiculing them to their faces. If Maher wants to be the anti-religion televangelist, then he should completely go that route and lose credibility with the rest of them. He can go ahead and be a bigot of a different stripe.

[Judyisacutie]

And no, I've never heard Maher ridicule other people who oppose organized religion, so he is inconsistent is his ridicule. And religion is a completely unnatural segway from politics. Those Republicans who "glued them together" are also wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right.

[Zanti]

"So you don't think there are plenty of religious fundamentalists using the media to trash non-believers?"

Examples?

[rpr]

He isn't an atheist. He just dislikes organized religions because he believes that nobody has privileged knowledge, i.e. everything that the religions say was written by people at some point.
I totally agree with him, and would append "for a reason, otherwise religions wouldn't be so successful." Religions have proven an evolutionary advantage, that's all there is to it. A method of social cohesion.

[Judyisacutie]

Whether he's technically an "atheist" or not misses the point. He makes a point of making every one of his episodes on his supposed "political" show an opportunity to not disagree with but ridicule religious people and their beliefs. Does any believing host of a political show do that? No.

You can disagree with someone's faith without ridiculing them as people, calling them stupid and their religious faiths ignorant or "mythology" as he likes to say in a political forum. Maher will call a Christian guest's beliefs ignorant to his face completely voluntarily. Whatever your beliefs or non-beliefs about organized religion, that's no reason to turn into a bigot and a bully against religious people because you think you're right. It's a matter of common decency.

[Mykeelk]

Quote "On the flip side, there are plenty of religious people who have weekly news or comedy shows and they don't even discuss religion, let alone go out of their way to insult atheists every week."

No, they try to legislate everyone else's life, deciding who can marry who, and what rights they DON'T get because they don't think the bible is some magical book! At least Bill stops at stating his opinion, without trying to legally force it on everyone else!

The religious groups decided to mix their personal beliefs with the country's politics... atheists didn't. How on earth can there be a political show without mentioning religion now days?

[Hodgepodge7]

Like Dr. Corso I admire and respect Bill Maher for so many reasons. And I understand, given that the fanatical, obesessive, judgemental Christians have taken over a large segment of America. However, faith and spirituality are not the same as religion. Religion has turned into something I don't think it was supposed to. It's turned into a club or cult. A group of rules that must be followed or you get judged and kicked out.
I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school for 8 years. I was never taught about judging others as a child. I was taught about love and self examination. Personal forgiveness and that as long as I believe my decisions are good, and just and inline with my relationship with God...it didn't matter what guidelines my religion had. I was lucky.
Not all spiritual people are created equal. I would never impose my spiritual beliefs on Bill Maher, or anyone. I sometimes wish Bill Maher wouldn't lump all people of faith into one category and presume that we put our trust in a magician. It goes much deeper than that. Bill understands multiple levels of intellect, there are also multiple levels of spirituality. A belief that something bigger than me, created me. You can believe that God created all of us and still believe in evolution. They are not mutually exclusive. You can believe that after we die, our souls move on to another level (heaven, reincarnation, etc.) and still be logical.

[Judyisacutie]

I absolutely agree with you. I think it's easier to stereotype people than to deal with the many levels of spirituality and understanding and perspective that you talked about. Lumping all believers together makes for an easier punch line. I have come to expect attacks from Maher based on stereotypes but I'm glad someone else called him out on them. The only examples we need of believers who break Maher's mold are Obama and Biden. Both of them are believers and their views are as different from McCain and Palin as they can be.

[Badger84]

Define "spirituality."

[Pacojam]

Bill isn't preventing you from doing anything, you're doing that because you believe in your "faith".

You sound threatened by Bill.

People believing the "faith traditions" are what keep this country in the stone ages. Bill is a minority voice that you are suggesting be silenced because you feel that he isn't "allowing you to use your faith". That is patently absurd.

Maybe the world will start to wake-up without people like Bill, but I don't want to wait another thousand years which is what could happen if people like you have their way like they have for the last several thousand.

You don't know Bill because he is not saying that he absolutely knows that there is no God. His mind is more open that that - he takes the inteligent position that he doesn't know. The faith traditions have the closed minds that say "I know that God is like this". When they don't know because they are just believing something that someone told them for which they have no evidence. The only evidence that the bible is god speaking is that the bible says it is. And people base their whole lives and lifestyles off of this.

Thank God there are people like Bill who are giving people the absolute truth (that we don't know if there is a god) instead of the lies most of us have been fed. So that people can be free of the prison of believing in religion, if they so choose.

[Zanti]

"Bill isn't preventing you from doing anything."

No one said he is. But he behaves as if he would like to. Why the hell else would he characterize a given demographic as cretinous and dangerous? Because he loves and respects that group's right to think and behave differently than he does?

Is that what we're doing when we slap negative labels on another group? Maybe, when I wasn't tuned in, the definition of tolerance was turned upside down. I'd better check an on-line dictionary.

[allwrite]

"And yet, Bill, and yet, you've become juvenile in your insistence that there is no God."

Dr. Corso,
Juvenile isn't the word I would have chosen, but I'll let you have some room provided you are willinjg to admit that there are plenty of juveniles on the other side of the fence insisting, without qualification, that there is a God.

[mainmonkey]

exactly! if it is juvenile to insist that there is no God (which Maher doesn't, btw), then why isn't it equally juvenile to insist that there is, as so many do?

[Badger84]

Bill is not at atheist. He is posing questions, asking you to support the proposition that there is a "god." Believers, for lack of a better word, appear to either deny that proof is necessary or cite almost anything and everything as proof. A tautology is not proof.

[Dave24]

I just saw Religulous and it was fantastic.

[mainmonkey]

I can't wait!!!!

[trollslayer]

Religious people don't get it. Believing in God has the same rationale as believing in the Great Pumpkin or witchcraft.

There's simply no facts to support any religion or belief in an omniscient being and throughout history religion has caused more harm than good.

Leave religion and superstition out of politics. The founding fathers knew what they were doing. When you support one religion in favor of another, you discriminate against non believers, agnostics and those of other faiths.

[robizio]

Really? You feel, what, persecuted?
--"Could you please consider allowing those of us who do like and use our faith a little space to like and use it?"

Um, let's see...creationism in science class, rampant subsidizing of religion with our tax dollars...(including tax EXEMPTION...how do I get THAT deal??), arguing over whether CHOICE is a good thing or a bad thing, making sure teens have unsafe sex through abstinence-only education, censoring satire and adult entertainment in the name of arbitrarily designated "decency" (which words are "bad", again? and why is that?), repression of healthy sexual identities--whether they be heterosexual or not; imposing an IRRATIONAL ideological litmus test for officials, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some things. Oh yeah, perpetuation of the us/them paradigm which is one of the most ruinous things in the world.

How about you think about the space you already have, and whether you deserve it or not. Logic and reason say NO.

[Zanti]

In other words, Dr. Corso is anti-choice, supports teaching Creationism in class, believes in abstinence-only education, is against gays, etc.?

Something tells me she's none of those things, robizio.

[wondering]

Dr. Corso's personal views matter not. It is her (and I might say, your) outrage over Bill Maher - and defense of religion - that are up for consideration. Funny, how thin-skinned you True Believers are - it reveals much about the nature of your belief. But if you are going to defend something (religion), you have to deal with it, warts and all.

Robizio was addressing the fact that religion is given a place of prominence in our society all out of proportion to other fantastical beliefs (The title "Christian" is supposed to give you cover from ridicule). Then when a handful of authors or commentators try to point out that the emperor has no clothes, you religionistas get all bent out of shape. But you know all this, don't you Zanti? You consistently muddy the waters with your sophistry and distraction. Thanks for contributing so positively.

Oh, and I just saw your response to my comments about the burden of proof. You are dismissive where you have no right to be. Go back and re-read the entire thread. It was YOU who churned that pot - then you feign ignorance or question my follow-ups to YOUR argument. Nice.

You have cornered the Republican tactic of obfuscation and topic-changing quite well. How nice for you.

[Johnz52]

Say you believe in a burning shrubery that speaks Hebrew to a Jewish shepherd and your considered just a regular guy. Say you believe in somebody called Dionysus and advocate drinking as much wine as possible, you'll be thought crazy by everyone except the California grape growers association. Go figure. One man's religion is another man's nut job, and frankly the human race currently has enough nuts to keep Planter's in business for another millenium.