During last Friday’s Real Time, professional atheist Bill Maher focused his last words on a headache that’s somehow throbbing louder again in America — the Christian right. More specifically, the equal parts desperate and translucent “religious freedom” movement.
“Ever since Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed his Religious Freedom Restoration Act, he and likeminded conservatives have been trying to have it both ways: They hate discrimination, but they love the Bible — a book that commands you to discriminate,” he preaches to his choir.
“If you believe that God wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah for being too gay, then yeah, he must be itching to hit West Hollywood.”
Bill points to personalities like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Bob Jones III as examples of how some use the Bible as a weapon against gay people.
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The advantage he sees America having over some other countries around the world? “We don’t let fundamentalists rule our shit.”
Watch below:
jwtraveler
“professional atheist Bill Maher” WTF!
Is Bill O’Reilly a professional Christian?
Is Jon Stewart a professional Jew?
Is Reza Aslan a professional Muslim? (He’s an Iranian-American religious scholar, for those of you who don’t know him.)
onthemark
@jwtraveler: He made a movie about atheism, and it made money, so technically he’s a “professional atheist”?
onthemark
@jwtraveler: And of course, he used to be an amateur atheist when he was competing in the Atheist Olympics!
AlliterationAddict
The problem with that mindset is that it leaves no room for the pro-gay Christians.
Xzamilio
@onthemark: And Bill O’Reilly wrote a bestseller about Jesus and made it into a series for the Discovery channel… I don’t hear anyone saying he’s a “professional Christian.” But I will say that Reza Aslan is a professional Muslim apologist…
DistingueTraces
The Bible is not “a” book that “commands” anything at all.
It’s an anthology of texts written over many hundreds of years that expresses many, many different perspectives.
Treating it as a single code of laws with a consistent point of view requires a willful misreading.
That willful misreading has been the basis of one of our cultures dominant ideologies for a long time, so it’s not surprising that people fall victim to it.
But it’s depressing to see someone supposedly in opposition to rleigious bigotry repeating the same mistake that is the basis for religious bigotry.
Billy Budd
The bible is SHIT.
Fang
Bill Maher is fascist in his mode of thinking. The atheism he claims to pioneer leaves no room for pluralism and seeks not to foster understanding between anyone, but rather discredit anyone whose beliefs are different than his own. Sounds. Fucking. Familiar. Just because I am in agreement with some of his politics does not mean I appreciate his arching philosophy, which is totalitarian and bigoted.
Xzamilio
You’ll be hard pressed to find a pro-gay Christian who doesn’t do the same cherry picking and spinning of biblical text that anti-gay ones do. Be honest… Christians cherry pick the fuck out of that book, and if you’re going to go to that much trouble to find tidbits that validate your point and ignore the others that don’t, why bother with the fucking book at all? Bill Maher is brass as hell, but he treats religions all equally as nonsensical ideologies that serve no purpose in a modern world. I happen to like his stances on most issues as they leave little wiggle room for apologists who spit out empty sentiments about “opening dialogue” when they know full well a religious reformation will likely come from a secular push.
I happen to like pluralism, and I happen to have no problem with people worshiping whatever unproven deity they wish… but it doesn’t mean I have to respect the beliefs, nor does it mean that belief is off limits from criticism and ridicule, especially when one presents it in a public manner or as an argument.
polarisfashion
@Xzamilio: I have yet to meet a Christian that hasn’t done at least one of the following:
1: Work on the Sabbath Day.
2: Ate a pork product.
3: Ate shellfish.
4: Ate a dish containing both meat and dairy products.
5: Got a divorce.
6: Cut their hair.
7: Wore jewelry.
8: Wore clothing made with blended threads.
9: Got a tattoo.
10: Prayed out loud.
11: Ate a coney, yes that’s in there but I doubt it means the one you have at a BBQ. Then again, even if it’s all beef, it still has cheese on it!
12: Picked their nose in public! Okay this is a joke and I realize not all of the things I listed carried a death penalty crimes. The point is the Bible lists all these things and Christians are hypocrites because many of them have and continue to do these things.
Giancarlo85
@DistingueTraces: That is so wrong. It’s a book of codes that merely stole off prior religious texts from pagan societies, like the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The bible is bullshit… but, it isn’t even original bullshit.
tricky ricky
@jwtraveler: billo is a professional catholic who evidently has absolution to lie and do whatever he damn well pleases.
Giancarlo85
@onthemark: So how is the aspergers going? Have you seen a psychologist for that yet? It’s so funny you called me mentally ill in the other thread… usually when someone calls another person mentally ill, they are talking about themselves.
Merv
@Fang:
“Bill Maher is fascist in his mode of thinking. The atheism he claims to pioneer leaves no room for pluralism”
BS. This is classic blaming the victim. Christianity is an evangelical religion. They are constantly attacking the beliefs of non-Christians, trying to convert them to their religion. And they are not above using the reins of government to do it. For most of the 20th century, and up until the last few years, it was impossible for atheists to effectively combat Christian hegemony because Christians controlled the media, government, and business and brooked no open opposition. Christians got so used to this state of affairs, that they assumed it was the natural condition of things. Of course it wasn’t. It was maintained artificially by implicit threats of adverse consequences to family, career, and social status, not dissimilar to what gay people face.
Christians in the US have never been in the mood to relinquish their privilege to atheists (or anyone else) who are meek and deferential. The frank talk (and it is only talk) that Bill Maher and other atheists are engaging in to reset the balance are an absolute necessity, or else no change will be effected.
onthemark
@Giancarlo85: ha – not Asperger’s but mild autism. I’ve done pretty well considering that. Thanks for asking; autism is nothing to be ashamed of and can always use more awareness.
But typical of you to mock a disability and remind everyone what a hateful, vicious, nasty weasel you are.
also – flagged as off topic. Have you ever even read the comment policy?
onthemark
@Merv: “(and it is only talk)”
Totally agree. Bill Maher provides some necessary balance, and he’s pretty damn funny doing it, and he’s not ordering anyone around (as so many of the religious folk most definitely do!), he is just talking.
jwtraveler
@onthemark: He didn’t make a movie about atheism. He made a movie about the dangers of religious fanaticism.
jwtraveler
@DistingueTraces: Do the 10 Commandments command anything?
Goforit
@Fang: Pointing out facts does not make one a fascist.
jwtraveler
Ridicule is the best antidote to religious extremism. I love Bill Maher. He’s right, of course; what these Christian fundamentalists want is a theocracy like Saudi Arabia or Iran. As much as they profess hatred of Islam, they embrace many of the same ideals as the most extreme Islamic countries.
Giancarlo85
@onthemark: Oh that is funny. Just under the other article, you showed how much of a nasty hypocrite you are. You insulted me numerous times and claimed I am mentally ill. You are the biggest nastiest hypocrite on here. And don’t come after me for calling you out on your bullshit… Keep living in fantasies, bigot.
onthemark
@jwtraveler: Potato, potahto – but yes you’re right.
onthemark
@Giancarlo85: It’s hardly limited to just me since you’re insulting and abusive to almost literally everyone here, even when they agree with you.
DistingueTraces
@jwtraveler asks, “Do the 10 commandments command anything?”
Well, lets look. Here they are in Exodus 20:
And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the LORD thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt [etc]”
So yes, it is very clear that within the narrative of Exodus, the ten commandments are commands from God to the Israelites.
They have since been universalized as existing outside that narrative as commands from God to all people everywhere. Which is fine — it’s hard to argue with “Don’t Steal”. But there is nothing in the book of Exodus that transfers the character God’s command to the Israelites into a command from God to me.
That is something that’s been done to the book of Exodus in the centuries since it was written.
And Exodus is one of many books in the Bible, written by different people at different times. You might think that “Don’t steal” is a simple enough rule that it could be generalized pretty easily across those many books. Not so. There are many examples of people stealing and cheating in the Bible with the full support of God — the example that pops to mind is Jacob’s swiping of Esau’s birthright, a theft ordered by God.
I love the Bible. It’s the body of writing that gave rise to my own religious tradition. But we read it falsely when we read it as speaking with a single voice.
ren1234
@merv
since when has Bill Maher been “meek and deferential” about anything!
Giancarlo85
@onthemark: You’re a nasty bigot indeed. And you are mentally unbalanced. Continue with the histrionics. Nobody is listening to you.
@DistingueTraces: The bible is a rip off of other texts. And it has no relevance to the real world.
DistingueTraces
@Giancarlo85:
So … the Bible has no relevance to the real world … in that it’s had a determining influence on hundreds of years of political history and moral thought, and maintains that influence to this day?
The “real world” you’re imagining seems to exclude a very large number of real people. And real events. And real ideas.
(of course, it makes no sense to describe ancient texts as “rip offs” when their authorship is unknown and many variant texts sprang from the same common tradition.)
DistingueTraces
@Giancarlo85 writes that the Bible is “a book of codes”.
Really?
What code of laws is expressed in:
“While the king was on his couch,
my nard gave forth its fragrance.
My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh
that lies between my breasts.
My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
in the vineyards of Engedi.”
What code of laws is expressed in:
“Do not call me Naomi [sweetness]; call me Mary [bitterness], for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.”
What code of laws is expressed in:
“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?‘ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, ‘This man is calling Elijah.’ And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.’ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.”
Giancarlo85
@DistingueTraces: You live in absolute fantasy land. The bible is losing any relevance in today’s world. I am not talking about the Middle Ages. I’m not talking about the 19th century, or even the 1950s.
The bible is a book of lies and myths that isn’t even original and isn’t relevant to modern thought and scientific discovery.
Distingue, you selectively quote the bible, and forget all the rules it puts out. You don’t pay attention to anything even in that book. I don’t care for fanatics like yourself.
DistingueTraces
@Giancarlo85: lol ok
But I don’t think you’re reading as critically as you think you are.
For example you talk about “the rules [the Bible] puts out” — there are a lot of unexamined assumptions in that phrase, assumptions you accept as a given because the dominant Christian discourse of our country has determined how you are able to approach the book.
Why do you think the Bible “puts out rules”? Who told you that? Why did you believe them?
You’re also making a lot of assumptions about me. Which is no skin off my ass, of course — but it’s sad for you that religious ideology is controlling how you interact with another human being.
Curty
The bible is for the mentally weak and for those who want to be controlled by passages, thoughts from thousands of years ago. The hypocrisy of religion and the harshness of women in particularly oft putting…
Gordon S. Hale
Too funny!
DistingueTraces
“the harshness of women”
???
I have no idea what this means, but I kind of dig it. It sounds like the title of a pulp novel.
Giancarlo85
@DistingueTraces: You focus a lot of your life on the bible. That says enough for me.
And I have read it critically… Coming from a Catholic family after all. I found very little actual content and many of the stories were plagiarized, such as the Epic Of Gilgamesh for example.
You are twisting and cherry picking the bible yourself to make it sound nicer than it is.
onthemark
@jwtraveler: “Do the 10 Commandments command anything?”
If it helps you, the Unitarians changed them to the Ten Suggestions!