onegoodmove

Norm: Thanks for transcoding all of these videos so they aren't just on GooTube (work filters, pain in my ass).

Maher explains all the reasons why we should be so vocal about religion and why it should be marginalized.

P.S. Anyone hear about the Utah legislator who is filing bills banning "SATAN"? Just wondering.

This is pretty damn funny/scary.

http://origin.sltrib.com/news/ci_5756635

Bill Maher is more of an anti-theist than anything, although he compartmentalizes different sects of bullshit. Mainstream religions won't get by, but whatever woo Deepak Chopra is selling he's buying.

I'll watch his documentary when it comes out, mainly because of the director and subject it tackles.

Actually, it would be great if you cross posted this clips on YouTube to facilitate sharing them in a flash player format rather than a link only.

Maher is a welcome voice on this issue but I sometimes fear he may be in over his head. To me, when Joe tried to isolate the Islamic conflict from the Christians, Bill would have done well to point out some of Christianities atrocities and it's freakish behaviors today in America.

I've always figured Bill Maher is the left's equivalent of Bill O'Reilly: he's a contrarian who always leaps on the next bandwagon (e.g. Maher was once a vegetarian, then he wasn't). I suspect this is heavily inspired by the success of Dawkins' own documentary on the subject. I suspect Bill - with an eye to the audience - will not be as balanced as he could be, and will spend most of his time down-south with the evangelical weirdos instead of staying up North with the Episcopalians, Catholics and Muslims that actually represent the majority of religion in the world.

@Bryan: I was vegi once too, what's your point? People can't change lifestyles? I was christian once.

I don't know a lot about bill's background, but don't criticize a man for his diet. Since when is weighing the benifits and changing your mind a bad thing?

Joe Scarborough is one Republican who I have a lot of respect for. He doesn't always follow the party line and he is always polite to his guests.

"You don't see Christians going around shooting each other..."

Northern Ireland, anybody?

"To me, when Joe tried to isolate the Islamic conflict from the Christians, Bill would have done well to point out some of Christianities atrocities and it's freakish behaviors today in America."

Exactly, and as saturnalia pointed out, and it's an easy point to make which is why Joe is full of it in asking such a question, you want violence between Christians look no further than Ireland. Look to the Reformation. Look to why the Puritans left for America in the first place.

Christianity is no different than any religion: any change not brought about by them (and they strictly do not change as much as possible, if ever)is treated with death threats and violence.

Yeah, callindor, and the annihilation of Maya writings, Greek Olympics (including the games), much of Pagan, European culture in general (thank Nature and Man for Vesuvius/Pompeii, Herculaneum, Arab translations of Hellenist texts).

Few of us even know the stories of our own tribes. Long before Orwell's "1984" they were replaced with genealogies and myths that are of no real cultural relavence to those of us who are non-Jews, whatever their merits as Literature. It was and continues to be a cultural crime of the same species as the burning of the Alexandropov Library, or Rumsfeld's liberation of the Iraqi (e.g., Baghdad) Musea.

Nevermind the Crusades, 100, and 3O-yrs. stuff, Sp. inquisition, New Guinea Preacher-scam, etc., etc.

Of course Maher can't say it all in one breath, but I can say:

Maher is a heck of a Macher (the kind of cat who makes things happen, the opposite of Brownie). How do I like it? How do I like it? More, more, more. How do I like it? How do I like it? More, more, more. How do I like it? How do I like it? More, more, more.

You get the idea.

"Bill Maher is more of an anti-theist than anything, although he compartmentalizes different sects of bullshit. Mainstream religions won't get by, but whatever woo Deepak Chopra is selling he's buying."

I call bullshit. From all of his rants about science and critical thinking I highly doubt that he subscribes to any new age nonsense. Do you have any evidence for that assertion?

He may be the left's O'Reilly but at least when he speaks he does so with a shred of factual accuracy. I'll take Bill Maher, Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan voicing their concerns over reality any day over O'Reilly, Hannity and Coultier ranting about the demons in their own heads.

Nobody is perfect, and that includes Maher. For some odd reason he opposes vaccination.

CNN's Dr. Gupta caught him on a while back. When Maher says stupid things like that, he ruins his credibility. He promotes complete nonsense as a response to preventing and treating disease.

http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2005/11/mahergetssmac.html

He will also be challenged to produce a better film than "A Rough History of Disbelief" by the BBC and a real scientific person, Jonathan Miller.

You can find the film on Youtube and various other sites.

bernarda, I agree with you. I tend to like Maher's passion and probably agree with him on a lot of things. Still, he sometimes is over his head on certain subjects.

The same way that Atheist don't like to be generalized and called immoral, Christians (I'm a Catholic) don't like to be generalized and called morons for believing in "fantasies." Look, I agree with many of the issues that are discussed here such a separation of church and state. My views are very liberal but my beliefs are my beliefs. I don't go out and yell that science causes more harm because of it we now have bombs nor do I try to defend God because I don't think he/she/it needs any defending.

Religion in Iraq and many other places is used by those in power for their own selfish reasons. The same way that some use the power of force to get their way. Actually, right now the USA is using both.

I stand corrected - thanks for the link. It's a shame that he's one of those crazy anti-vaxers.

I don't go out and yell that science causes more harm because of it we now have bombs

Could this be because it is a really, really weak argument? Humans have been a tool-using species for time immemorial, and for the most part those tools have had an immense benefit to human life.

Furthermore, without the medicine, heat, shelter, electricity, natal care, and so on, you would likely not be alive right now to argue, nor would you have an Internet to argue on.

How could you host your own show called "Scarborough Country" and keep a straight face?

At least Scarborough is no O'Reilly, nor no Limbaugh, nor no Imus, nor no Coulter, nor no Hannity.

I don't agree with most of his politics, but I appreciate his civility.

The Title, "Scarborough Country", is a bit goofy, yeah, but it's better than "Hardball" (roll eyes)

With all of the ultra right-wing suffocating authoritative views out there, I appreciate a little give and take once in awhile. Diplomacy is what gets results. Shock and awe, fuck-you type of aggression never works too well.

But this is America... guns and shit... sigh..

I've always figured Bill Maher is the left's equivalent of Bill O'Reilly: he's a contrarian who always leaps on the next bandwagon (e.g. Maher was once a vegetarian, then he wasn't). I suspect this is heavily inspired by the success of Dawkins' own documentary on the subject. I suspect Bill - with an eye to the audience - will not be as balanced as he could be, and will spend most of his time down-south with the evangelical weirdos instead of staying up North with the Episcopalians, Catholics and Muslims that actually represent the majority of religion in the world.

You obviously never watched Maher's show. Unlike O'reily, he affords his guests sufficient time to get their points across. He also often scolds his liberal audience for not giving his conservative guests the proper respect.

He has always been hard on religion for as long as I've been following him (which was long before Dawkins' documentary). He often makes the same points as Dawkins, but he does it in a more blunt and offensive way. It happens to be very entertaining if you agree with him. His anti-religios views may not have come across when he was on network TV, but it was very clear in his HBO stand-up specials, and regularly on his show Real Time.

A lot of people dont like him, but he is nothing like O'reily.

Space God? Where does he get this stuff?

"You don't see christians going around shooting each other, do you?" (Joe Scarborough)

Actually we do. Can you say death penalty, NRA, abortion, AIDS and sex educational policy, or stem cell research? These are all biblically inspired. And they are killing people. By the thousands. All the things Pat Robertson says, that's America's car bomb. And it's just as deadly.

I mean: George W. Bush's position on abortion, AIDS, sex education and stem cell research, of course.. You get the point.

Christians manipulate scripture to assign a kinder nature to their God, hiding the violent, jealous, murdering, cannibalistic reality.

•2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is inspired by God ...”

The Christian agenda controls our country's media. When one voice rises above the din, as with Bill Maher, you jump on him. Is it any wonder we are worried about the "believers" of the world, you kill all the time with biblical justification:

Leviticus 24:10-16 Death for Blasphemy; Deuteronomy 13:1-5 Kill False Prophets; Numbers 16:27 God buries alive Korah and his family; Leviticus 20:9-10 Death for cursing out ones parents and death for adultery; Romans 16:17 Shun those who disagree with your religious views; 1 John 5:19 Christians are “of God;” everyone else is wicked; Psalms 137:9 God commands that infants should be “dashed upon the rocks”;

Faith isn't fact, fact is fact. You find it so easy to believe in the outlandish tales of the bible, yet you reject modern “miracles” and realities?? Millions world wide have reported UFOs; hundreds of crop circles have appeared; the agenda of a take over of the planet by the New World Order can be clearly traced for centuries; Chemtrails in our skies are poisoning humanity, and these things go unaddressed by organized religions world wide.

As to Bill's "childhood myths" comment...There is absolutely no historical evidence that Jesus, Joseph, Mary, and others of the Christian myth EVER existed, that ANY of the "Jesus" biblical events really happened. None. Go find it, become rich and famous.

Faith isn't fact, fact is fact. The Jesus myth was created in the third century at the Council of Nicea based on a thousand year old story format (Krishna, Horus, Orpheus, Osiris, Apollo, etc.) prior to the time of "Jesus." King Constantine ordered various religious sects to come together and create a single religion for Rome. It was then that the name Jesus Christ was chosen.

It is your right to believe in any myth you desire, but it is our right to not have our lives so totally dominated by your fear-based, murdering, punishing belief system made up by men. Bill's voice is not alone in this world. Millions of us are sick and tired of the religious madness.

Another example of christians shooting each other, the Branch Davidians at Wako.

Within a hundred years of the death of the Jesus guy, Christian sects were settling their differences with armed conflict. The early dualists were almost entirely wiped out by what became the mainstream. They became the mainstream by killing their opposition.

Thousands died during the reformation. Christian Constantinople was sacked by one of the Christian crusades, killing many many people. Basically for money and it was closer to home than the middle east.

Historically, theological and other disputes between Christian sects within the same chruch have ended in violence. Christians have killed each other off since the beginning of the thing.

Not to mention the millions of America's original inhabitants erhnicly cleansed, in the name of that perverse god made up and brought to the new world, starting in S. America.

The S. American natives that converted were used as slave labour by the priests and kept in a no position status by the church 'fathers' apparently because Jesus loves the little children of the world.