Bill Maher On Charlie Hebdo: All Religions Are 'Stupid and Dangerous' [Video]

Inquisitr ^ | 1/8/2015 | Staff

[Laissez-faire capitalist]

Bill Maher stunned his liberal-friendly audience on Jimmy Kimmel Live Wednesday night with his most recent comments on the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack, demonizing religious extremists and religion in general, true to form for the outspoken and controversial comedian and host of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO.

Maher was on Jimmy Kimmel Live the night of the attacks in Paris that killed 12, and he had plenty to say about liberalism, freedom of speech, and religion, particularly the Muslim religion, which he has come out against in the past, drawing the ire of his fellow liberals and accusations of intolerance. ...

[Laissez-faire capitalist]

In my response to post #3, I was actually responding to the part about atheists being said to “dangerous.” I can't speak for American atheists, but Western European atheists aren't dangerous at all - they don't really care about anything.

[Gumdrop]

The Inquisition was not the last of serious persecution by Christians. Have you forgotten Oliver Cromwell? I can tell you that the Irish Catholics have not.

The French Revolution was a time of terror for more than just the nobility. Catholic clergy were hunted down and slaughtered.

And in the Second German Reich under Bismarck there was a period of time when the “May Laws” were enacted against the Catholics in the Rheinland, Westphalia, Baden and Bavaria. Lots of people who emigrated from Germany during the 1870-1880’s did so because of religious oppression. The laws were so egregious that they decided to nullify them.

The Spanish Civil War has been touted as somehow Generalisimo Franco, for no reason, went after the leftists and imprisoned them. But the rest of the story is that Spanish Communists were invading monasteries and killing priests and nuns. Our news media conveniently forgets that part of the story.

My only point is to remind people that the Inquisition is not the only time that persecution for religious ideology took place.

[bkopto]

So Mr Maher, I’m a Christian. Are you ready to take your beliefs to the next level, by imprisoning me or executing me?

[lurk]

Not all religions are dangerous; only the dangerous ones are dangerous. Most deadly is the religion of fundamentalist secularism.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Absolutely. You have to go to the Bible to find the real definition of religion:

James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

[beelzepug]

“...the adherents of other faiths can say the same...”

I really don’t care too much about what others say. I believe my Christian faith to be valid and I try (and often fail) to live my life that way. That’s all I can do and I have faith that my creator will forgive my short comings.

If some prefer to worship the moon or some multi-headed nightmare or a toadstool that is their choice. They need not worry that I will be coming after them with a sword. I have enough to do keeping myself on the right track.

[vpintheak]

Bill is an idiot. Pray for his soul, the fool.

[sparklite2]

Calling atheism a religion is
like calling not playing football a sport.

[DiogenesLamp]

Bill Maher On Charlie Hebdo: All Religions Are 'Stupid and Dangerous'

He Bill Maher! If you think religions are dangerous, you ought to see what secular societies are like. Atheist communists killed 60 million in Russia, and 80 million in China.

The body pile of atheism is far larger than the body pile of religions. (Excluding Islam, of course. It's murdered more people than any other organization.)

[DiogenesLamp]

I would disagree. Atheists in Western Europe tend to be a totally different breed than their American counterparts.

Which only means they haven't yet caught up with the program yet. Atheism by it's foundational assumptions can put no value on human life. Humans are just animals competing for dominance and survival, and survival ought to go to the fittest.

Modern Atheists have been polluted by Christian doctrine which surrounds them in all aspects of society, but eventually they will realize that "a habit" is no reason to continue respecting some ideas, such as equality and fairness.

Remove the Christian pollution from their ideas, and they will be bloodthirsty totalitarian socialists intent on dominance.

[DiogenesLamp]

The one caveat that I would apply to your statement is that India is also a Democracy/Representative Republic, and yet this country is predominantly Hindu.

It is my understanding that the current structure of the Indian Government is a consequence of their being ruled by the British. You know, CHRISTIANS.

What was it like before this? I'll let British General Sir Charles Napier explain.

Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.

.

I will further point out that Non-Christian China had a form of government that lasted several thousand years, yet advanced little in those thousands of years. Apparently what people think makes a difference in how their civilization organizes and advances, and as I will point out, the most technologically advanced parts of the world (until recently) were the Christian parts. These are the parts of the world where science got done.

[DiogenesLamp]

but I do believe that religion and church plays a very important role in the lives of young people as it relates to the moral foundation that a person needs. Society also needs people to have that moral foundation as evidenced by our crumbling society.

More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.

Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.

-Aleksander Solzhenitsyn-

[Laissez-faire capitalist]

So, we know that the definition for religion is what you have listed because the Bible says what it does in James 1:27. And because James 1:27 says what it does, we know that is the definition for religion...

Just because James lists what it does, doesn't mean that there aren't alternative definitions for religion, as the standard you lat out is grounded in circular reasoning.

[Laissez-faire capitalist]

BTW, I do agree with you - atheism isn’t a religion. There are atheists who possess somewhat of a zeal that borders on religious zeal, but that zeal still doesn’t mean that atheism is a religion or that this zeal can be transferred to it to give it religious status.

[Jim from C-Town]

Wrong! No one is more attuned to their religion than an extreme atheist. Ever see the maniacs on the Internet yelling about ‘your sky god’?

If it wasn't a religion, why would they care?

[Laissez-faire capitalist]

So Satan inspires all atheists to attack Christianity? Do you honestly believe this?

Was Satan the master of Catholics when they were launching the Inquisitions against fellow Christians and was Satan the master of Cromwell when he was launching his attacks against Catholics?

[Laissez-faire capitalist]

There are some Christians and atheists both that ascribe to a belief in economic Darwinism.

Ayn Rand was an atheist - would you ascribe to her everything that you list here?

[Laissez-faire capitalist]

In closing, Ayn Rand was an atheist, and yet there are some who (unlike me) actually agree with her view that selfishness is the highest virtue - and she was an advocate for economic Darwinism to boot.

[DiogenesLamp]

In my response to post #3, I was actually responding to the part about atheists being said to “dangerous.” I can't speak for American atheists, but Western European atheists aren't dangerous at all - they don't really care about anything.

And with Islam running rampant in Europe now, not really caring is about as dangerous as it gets.

The only force which ever threw the Muslims back is Christian fanaticism. If a bunch of religious nutjobs hadn't gathered together to fight them, Europe would have been Muslim centuries ago, and it would have remained as dark and backward as all Muslim countries are today.

Consider the Siege of Malta in 1565 Atheists would have lost Western Civilization. You should read this.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Sure, there are different definitions for religion. Anyone could cut and paste a few from Merriam-Webster if they want to, and sorting through definitions is usually a good step in any case. Welcome to the discussion. I selected the one from the Epistle of St. James because I was guessing --- going way-out-on-a-limb, perhaps --- that beelzepug is a Binble-believing sort of person. I thought it would be of interest to him.

I hope that makes my thinking clear.