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Maher: 'I'm spreading the anti-gospel'
Chicago Suntimes.com ^ | October 24, 2004 | CATHLEEN FALSANI

Posted on 10/25/2004 5:37:38 AM PDT by jaydubya2

In person, Bill Maher the man is just like Bill Maher the TV character. Just as snarky, just as opinionated, just as curmudgeonly. Perpetually perturbed.

Few things, though, seem to get his dander up like religious folks.

"One of the many things that annoys me about religion is that it's arrogance masquerading as humility," he says. It's a sentiment he'll repeat on his HBO show a few weeks later. "How arrogant to think you know what happens to you after you die? You don't. That's your guess.

"It's arrogant to think that, if there is a force in the universe, this force, whom most people refer to as 'Him,' has the time and inclination to listen to your stupid, petty laundry list of what you want in this life. Prayer. That's another, silly Santa Claus notion. Pray to Santa, and he'll give you what you want. It's so silly. It's so childish. And so much of the world is getting over this," he says, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Maher pauses and produces a stack of those blue TV note cards, like the kind Dave Letterman reads his top 10 list off of each night. Maher's blue cards contain factoids and statistics about religious beliefs and practices. He's searching for one particular statistic and, after a few moments of shuffling and flipping, he finds it.

In 1990, about 7 percent of the American population said they had "no religion," and in 2000, that number had doubled to 14 percent, he says.

"So, in 10 years, we've doubled the amount of people who say they don't have a religion," he says. "I find that incredibly encouraging."

The world would be much more "sane" without religion, Maher argues.

"So many of these born-agains, these evangelicals, when you hear them speaking, no matter what the question is, they can't leave Jesus out of it for two seconds," he says, his voice rising. "It's OK when you're a child. Children have an imaginary friend. When you get to be an adult, no more imaginary friends. But Jesus is their imaginary friend. Everywhere they go, everything they do, Jesus is along. Oh, Christ."


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: angry; insecure; maher
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1 posted on 10/25/2004 5:37:38 AM PDT by jaydubya2
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To: jaydubya2

Tolerance rules.


2 posted on 10/25/2004 5:39:19 AM PDT by Restorer (Europe is heavily armed, but only with envy.)
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To: jaydubya2
Wow. That straw man sure takes a beating from the cremepuff pundit, doesn't he?
3 posted on 10/25/2004 5:39:37 AM PDT by atomicpossum (If there are two Americas, John Edwards isn't qualified to lead either of them.)
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To: jaydubya2

Principal feature of the Left: Rejection of God. All other features of the Left are secondary to this one. It's been that way since the French Revolution.


4 posted on 10/25/2004 5:39:41 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (The fourth estate is a fifth column.)
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To: jaydubya2

My wife has been saying for years that she thinks Bill Maher is possessed. When he comes on the TV, she begins to pray. I'm starting to think I should join her...


5 posted on 10/25/2004 5:40:06 AM PDT by old and tired
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To: jaydubya2

The best way to counter cretins like this is to simply yawn.


6 posted on 10/25/2004 5:40:30 AM PDT by Humbug (whew i finally thought up a really clever tagline..how do you like it?)
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To: jaydubya2

What a hateful little man!


7 posted on 10/25/2004 5:40:37 AM PDT by beaversmom (Michael Medved has the Greatest radio show on GOD's Green Earth)
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To: old and tired

He looks possessed.


8 posted on 10/25/2004 5:41:45 AM PDT by cyborg (http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Maher's hatred of Christianity is central to his show. Anything that conflicts with his shallow, hedonistic life is bad.


9 posted on 10/25/2004 5:43:13 AM PDT by Callahan
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To: cyborg

Bereft of talent, Maher's only draw is controversy. Figuratively and literally, he has bought his fame from the devil.


10 posted on 10/25/2004 5:43:28 AM PDT by Petronski (On the land in the air on the sea, let's swing out to Victory. --Fats Waller)
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To: old and tired
When he comes on the TV, she begins to pray.

It would be a short prayer in my house. (He's never on the TV for more than a split second if I happen to be channel-surfing.)

11 posted on 10/25/2004 5:43:33 AM PDT by PBRSTREETGANG
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To: ClearCase_guy
Let's see, Maher doesn't beleive in a God, but Einstein did.
Einstein, Maher
Maher, Einstein
That's a tough one.
12 posted on 10/25/2004 5:43:41 AM PDT by ProudVet77 (Flush John 'Fonda' Kerry)
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To: jaydubya2
Sometimes I wonder why Jesus Christ is attacked with such viciousness. I don't know the answer. Maybe it is because they know deep inside there maybe something right about it but would rather attack it than think about it or change. Maybe it is because becoming a Christian is so against everything we now believe in our culture (being cool, materialism, it is all about me, PC politics, etc.). Maybe it is because some live their entire lives in a set of beliefs and near the end of it look back and see it all mattered for nothing and are pissed.

Salvation does not come from good works. It does not come from leading your life according to what you think are "the rules." It is not about a vain God. God loves all people. The question is - do you love him back? He wants what is in your heart, not what kind of food you eat on certain days or if you go into a pretty building one day a week and listen for an hour what the guy in robes or say "Good Morning" to the postman or don't cheat on your income taxes.

Sometimes the concept of hell gets people worked up. The argument on "How can a good God cast people into hell when they have lived a pretty good life" is false logic. Hell is a place where God is absent. This is exactly what the people who rejected God all their lives wanted. The "pit" of hell maybe a very comfortable place where everyone who rejected God their entire lives must now reside knowing they had lived their lives in a lie. That they had wasted it all. That actually may be worse than a guy with pitchfork.

God has given us all the "free will" to chose. God has sent his only son to die for us, to suffer for our sins and to show us the way. God could have easily made a bunch of robots that would do everything he said but instead loved us enough for us to make our own decisions.

Ans this is Bill Maher decision...
13 posted on 10/25/2004 5:43:43 AM PDT by 2banana (They want to die for Islam and we want to kill them)
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To: cyborg

I always thought he looked like a half-formed human larvae.


14 posted on 10/25/2004 5:43:52 AM PDT by Callahan
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To: jaydubya2

I pray for his Salvation.


15 posted on 10/25/2004 5:45:05 AM PDT by texsean
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To: PBRSTREETGANG
It would be a short prayer in my house.

Rest assured, he's not on the screen long in our house either - usually just long enough for my wife to say, "See look at his eyes - I'm telling you HE'S POSSESSED!"

16 posted on 10/25/2004 5:45:11 AM PDT by old and tired
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To: jaydubya2

He thinks he is smarter than 86% of the people!


17 posted on 10/25/2004 5:45:34 AM PDT by Tai_Chung
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To: atomicpossum

In the Strunk's Manual of Analogy and Metaphor on my desk, it says that mixing straw men and creampuffs is upon frowned.


18 posted on 10/25/2004 5:45:41 AM PDT by bvw
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To: ProudVet77

Evangelical secularists like Maher fail to realize that atheism is also a religion with disasterous results. (See Stalin, Hitler)


19 posted on 10/25/2004 5:45:57 AM PDT by Callahan
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To: Callahan

Yet, you hear so little from him about Islam. I suppose it isn't "politically correct" to slam those who murder us in the name of Allah.


20 posted on 10/25/2004 5:45:59 AM PDT by Virginia
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