Posted on 02/18/2005 2:58:40 AM PST by ViLaLuz
Television personality Bill Maher, host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," says Christians and others who are religious suffer from a neurological disorder that "stops people from thinking."
"We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that. I think that religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies. I think flying planes into a building was a faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder. If you look at it logically, it's something that was drilled into your head when you were a small child. It certainly was drilled into mine at that age. And you really can't be responsible when you are a kid for what adults put into your head."
The former host of "Politically Incorrect" said the lack of enlightenment of so many Americans means the nation actually has more in common with its enemies than one might think.
Said Maher: "When you look at beliefs in such things as, do you go to heaven, is there a devil, we have more in common with Turkey and Iran and Syria than we do with European nations and Canada and nations that, yes, I would consider more enlightened than us."
Maher explained that he was not singling out evangelicals, but was targeting all "religious" people.
"I think the vote in Missouri [rejecting same-sex marriage] and a lot of other states is because people are religious," Maher said. "They don't have to be evangelical, but they're religious. They believe in religion, which as – I think it was Jesse Ventura who had that quote about religion is a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers."
The television host told Scarborough he was convinced evangelicals' influence will wane.
Said Maher: "When people say to me, 'You hate America,' I don't hate America. I love America. I am just embarrassed that it has been taken over by people like evangelicals, by people who do not believe in science and rationality. It is the 21st century. And I will tell you, my friend. The future does not belong to the evangelicals. The future does not belong to religion."
Later in the interview, Maher returned to the childhood-religion theme, comparing fairy tales to Bible stories:
"When you were a kid and they were telling you whatever you believe in religion, do you think if they had switched the fairy tales that the read to you in bed with the Bible, you would know the difference?
"Do you think if it was the fairy tale about a man who lived inside of a whale and it was religion that Jack built a beanstalk today, you would know the difference? Why do you believe in one fairy tale and not the other? Just because adults told you it was true and they scared you into believing it, at pain of death, at pain of burning in hell."
Karl Marx said it much better with "Religion ...is the Opium of the people". An honest Marxist would at least attribute the source of his argument. Bill Maher, intellectual Giant./s
Bingo! That time of year again.
I've tried several times to watch his HBO show. After a very few minutes I switch channels. How he cons any reputable guest to appear in that mess is a bewildering curiosity.
Watching Maher leaves me with this once familiar feeling, like he's the wiseass guy from High School I always wanted to punch out, but never did. And now, I'm too old and civilized.
November 5, 2001
Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect Girlfriend
It would appear that Bill Maher's girlfriends can be as pushy and annoying in person as Maher is on the air. A source told us that a woman who identified herself as the talk-show host's girlfriend called the Acqua Beauty Bar on East 14th Street a few weeks ago and asked to use a gift certificate that had been made out to him after he appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? After the reservationist explained that all prizes are non-transferable, she threatened that Maher "would say very bad things about the salon" if they refused her. When asked if she was a family member, she shot back, "Well, I'm sleeping with him, is that okay?" The staff member relented and set up the young lady's appointment. During her massage and facial, the source said that the woman was very rude and demanding, and kept asking staff members if they realized who they were dealing with. Afterward she seemed about to walk off without tipping: "But when her aesthetician made eye contact with her at the counter as she was leaving, she finally dumped out ten dollars."
But then it fell out of the other holes in his head.
He has been pass by and is irrelevant.
Bill Mahar cannot stand not being noticed. he wil do and say the most orageous things rathe rthan slumo into total obvilion. This is his way of trying to get attention.
He probabvly pulled the same stuff when IMUS and Charles McCord used to babysit him (so they say).
He just never grew up. Childish then childish now.
This is just another "see me, hear me" moment for him.
Hey Bill what's the going rate for babysitting you now???
He was a second-rate act his whole career (still is) But when he started P.I. and spent every show goofing on conservatives all of a sudden he's f***ing Voltaire appearing on King, Imus and on and on.
I never thought he would stay on tv this long
Well, if he's correct in his analysis, he'll have to include leftism in his notion of what constitutes a religion. It's an emotive-based worldview that blinds people to reality and causes them to engage in excesses based on faith in an abstraction whose validity has been thoroughly discredited, over the corpses of about a hundred million innocent victims.
Sure that ain't RuPaul?
Said Maher: Look at me! Look at me! Look guys! See what I'm saying?? I'm over here, look at me!
Not a religious person myself, I have noticed that western morality is all too often denegrated. I have noticed that fundamentalist Christians are NOT usually found flying jumbo jets on suicide missions into the icons of Islam. But that can't be said about the Islamic fundamentalist.
Maybe Bill Maher needs to focus on WHICH fundamentalist religious group are the evil, destructive ones, and which ones are beneficial to maintaining the nations good moral fiber.
Boy, isn't that the truth?
These "enlightened" nations have negative birth rates. They are dying. That bodes ill for the resurgence of atheism, in real terms. To the extent there is any growth at all in these nations it is due to immigration, predominately Muslim. If Maher believes Christianity is threat to his comfort and well-being, he should spend a week living under the "beneficent" rule of Dar al-Islam.
As for Christianity, Maher prattles on in profound ignorance of history and in defiance of its lessons. Like the ancient Roman authorities before them, Soviet authorities used every weapon at their command to eradicate the troublesome cult of "superstitious" Christians. The end was the same in each instance, they were broken by the stone they sought to crush.
Yes, we have!!
God never meant for Christians to be door mats but that is what is happening when we carry the 'turning the other cheek' too far by not standing up for our beliefs.
I'd be interested in seeing his list of "more enlightened" nations.
Ru Paul is better looking.
On the one hand, Maher advocates science and rationality, but says that America has been taken over by people like evangelicals without any rational examination or scientific basis for that statement.
Evangelicals have most certainly not taken over America. Even of religious people, those who Maher would consider "Evangelical" Christians are the minority. Sure they have a political voice, just as any other group has a political voice, but they have not "taken over".
To say they Evangelical have taken over is an irrational and unscientific statement without basis in fact. It is an emotional statement that requires that the speaker accept the premise on faith without any evidence whatsoever.
Pot, meet kettle...
Why does this guy still have a job? Shouldn't he be working kids' parties and bar mitzvahs as Schmozl the Clown?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.