Bill Maher: America 'Extremely Religious Because We're Young and Dumb'

America is "dumb" because it remains the most religious country in the western world. This according to Bill Maher, who made such a statement on the September 30 edition of "The View." Appearing to promote his new documentary "Religulous," Maher continued his soapbox rants against organized religion. Elisabeth Hasselbeck set up Maher noting his comparison of President Bush to Osama Bin Laden, and noted that many presidents such as John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, spoke publicly of a higher power. Maher likewise replied "of course, it’s, it’s a religious country, unlike every other civilized western democracy in the world, this country is still extremely religious because we’re young and dumb."

After denying judgement in his film, Bill Maher chastised those of faith for lacking "critical thinking." Hasselbeck followed up wondering if he believes those of faith are lacking intelligence. Maher denied he subscribes to such a sentiment, but added intelligent people of faith have a "neurological disorder" who "walled off part of [their] mind."

At the end of the segment Sherri Shepherd wondered if the comedian " ever just talked to God and asked God what does He think." Maher answered Sherri with the question "did he answer you?" When Shepherd answered in the affirmative, Bill Maher suggested she suffers from a mental disorder.

Before quickly moving to religion, Maher weighed in on the presidential campaign. On the subject of Sarah Palin, the comedian made an unintentionally funny line: "If Joe Biden made some of the comments she made to Katie Couric, we would think he had brain damage." Actually, the opposite holds true as, as NewsBusters has documented, the networks have been much quicker to jump on Sarah Palin’s gaffes than they have Joe Biden’s. Sherri Shepherd was quick to note Biden’s comment that FDR appeared on television when the stock market crashed.

Maher also, in his rant against Sarah Palin, labeled the Alaska governor a "bimbo," but very quickly added a bimbo can be a man or a woman. In an attempt to recover more, Maher also called Dan Quayle a "bimbo."

Thursday, September 25, 2008
Irreligulouse
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8580258&postID=3277867847579662305

“Apparently, Bill Maher’s absecular new film, Religulous, mainly features him doing man-on-the-street interviews with stupid people, asking them about religion. This is done with the intent to demonstrate how stupid religion is, when it actually demonstrates how foolish and shallow Bill Maher is.

For example, what if he had conducted the identical exercise with regard to the U.S. Constitution, or the Theory of Relativity, or art ,or literature, or economics? Would the answers he elicited be a useful reflection on the value of these subjects? No, of course not.

But Bill Maher is not a serious man. Well, perhaps seriously bitter. Which is another point. Maher does not have the insight or depth of character to delve into the roots of his own bitterness and anger, which pose insurmountable obstacles to any understanding of the Subject of the subject he pretends to explore in Religulous. Thus, the whole exercise is one of triumphant self-justification and narcissistic exultation. Obviously, if he were truly curious about God, he could have dialogued with serious intellectuals possessing valid gnosis. But if he were to do that, he would look like the unlearned rube that he is. ...

...In the case of Maher, it doesn’t take a psychologist to see that he isn’t actually curious about religion. He has no desire to actually understand the Divine, much less to humbly take the steps necessary to develop an open relationship with That which transcends him. Rather, he is bound by a kind of childishly arrogant, intrusive, and presumptuous curiosity that imagines it can know All without any work or preparation, much less humility and surrender.

This is not at all like proper curiosity, which is much more analogous to patient openness to the Real, embodied in faith... Thus, Maher does not — and cannot — reach any useful conclusions about God, only foreordained ones that are implicit in his original arrogance and omnipotence. As such, the film will be a memorial to his own cosmic stupidity, nothing more. No wonder he’s so bitter, because the bitterness is merely the residue of some kind of deep disappointment. Bitterness is a “presence” that always conceals a “present absence.” So, what is absent in Maher?

It would be uncharitable to go down that route. We’ll just leave it alone for now. Rat faced homunculus. ...

....Often, when someone is speaking about a subject, the more important communication is the emotional tone of the communicant, not the supposed subject matter. Or, you could say that the subject matter is just a superficial excuse for the person to evacuate a primitive emotion. For example, we vividly see this in the left’s unhinged reaction to Sarah Palin. What is most noteworthy to the discerning listener is the primitive emotionality that she provokes — very similar to the primitive emotionality that women provoke in the Islamic world.

In the case of the latter, no men in the Islamic world seem to have the insight or maturity to turn inward and wonder at the source of the violence and contempt in their attitudes toward women. Likewise, with the left vis-a-vis Sarah Palin. There are actually some noteworthy exceptions who are alarmed and appalled at the primitive display, but for most of the left, their reaction is all about their own narcissistic trinity of envy, contempt, and triumph.

Imagine the envy Sarah Palin must provoke in desiccated old feminist hags such as Maureen Dowd, Erica Jong, or Gloria Steinem. The envy is intolerable, so it is quickly transformed into contempt and then triumph. But again, it is the triumph of a sick part of the mind, so it is obviously a pyrrhic victory; if you win, you lose. ....

.....Maher represents it as the bitter transformation of Paradise Lost to Paradise Doesn’t Exist and I Didn’t Want it Anyway; or, to put it another way, I’m Back in a Triumphant and Contemptuous Narcissistic Paradise of My Own Making. Plus, Hugh Hefner Invites Me to His Parties, So I Can Pretend That Those Airheaded Bimbos and Porn Stars Would Ever Be Attracted to a Rat Faced Homunculus Like Me if I Didn’t Have All This Money. ...” ~ Gagdad Bob bttt

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