Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
He actually claims to be proof of God's existence in his new book:
Next time you meet an atheist, tell him or her that you know a bold, fresh guy, a barbarian who was raised in a working-class home and retains the lessons he learned there.Then mention to that atheist that this guy is now watched and listened to, on a daily basis, by millions of people all over the world and, to boot, sells millions of books.
Then, while the non-believer is digesting all that, ask him or her if they still don't believe there's a God!
There appear to be no limit to how ridiculous this blowhard can be.
Politics
Comments
Any chance Bill-O was joking? (Does he ever?) Just trying to apply the Rule of Charity....
Posted by: Eamon Knight | October 5, 2008 9:38 AM
Is OReilly suggesting that the only way he cold have gained a following/audience is through an act of god?
Posted by: Mike G | October 5, 2008 9:40 AM
It could be construed as evidence for a god--especially Loki.
Posted by: J. J. Ramsey | October 5, 2008 10:04 AM
It's just proof that people are idiots!
Posted by: Daniel Kim | October 5, 2008 10:06 AM
Check out Jesus and Mo on that very quote.
Posted by: The Ridger | October 5, 2008 10:10 AM
Wait... if ridiculosity is a measurable phenomenon, then at some point its energy must correspond to light speed. That would be the ultimate limit. But when he approaches Rc, his absurdity mass will approach infinite and collapse in on itself as a singularity, and the body politic will be sucked in.
Egads... it must already be happening!
Posted by: decrepitoldfool | October 5, 2008 10:42 AM
More to the point, the fact that this pundit has managed to package and sell his BS to millions of the gullible, and that he's prospered by doing so, could be taken by many as evidence for the absence of God.
Posted by: nunyer | October 5, 2008 10:51 AM
Uh... millions of Americans are ignorant and easy to manipulate ... thus GOD IS REAL?
What will this nut uphold as proof of god next? Digger wasps? Famine? Teen pregnancy?
Posted by: llewelly | October 5, 2008 10:57 AM
I suspect that he was just bloviating out loud.
You know- "I can say idiotic, outrageously wrong things on the radio and these idiots will listen. I get paid for this! There is a God!"
A few years ago a student told me very earnestly that prayer works. His evidence is that he prayed to have sex with some girl who was way out of his league, and succeeded. Maybe he's the next O'Really.
Posted by: BaldApe | October 5, 2008 11:24 AM
Err, he's got it backwards-- Bill O'Reilly is evidence against the existence of God. Unless, of course, he got where he is today by the MC Hammer route-- giving blowjobs to Satan.
(Rest in peace, Bill Hicks)
Posted by: Gretchen | October 5, 2008 11:24 AM
Maybe this is a marketing strategy. Uncompresses to "By buying my stuff you're showing those nasty athiests how wrong they are. The more you buy the wronger they are."
Posted by: foolfodder | October 5, 2008 11:34 AM
Note that the above really does have the same logical form as the original.
Posted by: Matt Heath | October 5, 2008 11:46 AM
What I particularly love about this is how O'Reilly assumes that the atheist in this scenario has the IQ of an eggplant: "You mean somebody born to modest circumstances grew up and got famous? Hmm....Hmmmm! That's a puzzler! Never thought about that before...I just don't understand it! There must be a god-- that's the only possible explanation!"
Posted by: Gretchen | October 5, 2008 11:53 AM
Except that most people who grow up in working class homes don't make it big. I'd be fascinated to hear Bill O'Reilly explain why he's more deserving of God's attention than all the others with his upbringing.
Posted by: Romeo Vitelli | October 5, 2008 12:10 PM
About a billion Hindus have believed in their gods for thousands of years. So ask your average Hindu if he doesn't believe in Ganesh.
Posted by: Brent | October 5, 2008 12:30 PM
Nothing like good ol' red state values such as humility, huh?
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | October 5, 2008 12:59 PM
Bill-o = pathetic. What more needs to be said. -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | October 5, 2008 1:01 PM
Bill-o = pathetic. What more needs to be said. -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | October 5, 2008 1:05 PM
seems to me that's evidence AGAINST theism, not for it...
Posted by: CanadianChick | October 5, 2008 1:12 PM
Ayatollah Khomeini had millions of followers and probably made more money than Bill-O. This is proof of Allah.
Posted by: AL | October 5, 2008 1:20 PM
BaldApe -
I actually was convinced that god must exist for very similar reasons. I really wanted to get stoned and look, god sent friends who had weed my way. Or I really wanted to get laid and god sent not one, but two lovely ladies for me to play with.
I decided that not only does god exist, but that god really fucking rocks!
It just didn't occur to me at the time that (at that point in my life) a, most of my friends were hardcore stoners and b, that I was a really pretty boy with a reputation for being a good lay.
Posted by: DuWayne | October 5, 2008 3:09 PM
Bill O'Reilly is infamous for not even being honest about his upbringing. He has always played this theme of growing up poor and tough, and claimed for a while that he grew up in Levitown.
In fact, he grew up in Westbury, NY on Long Island, where the 2008 median home sale price was $505K. He was the son of an accountant, who, he claimed, at one point made only $35K a year. The 2008 equivalent - that's $100K per year.
That is not "working-class" as he says, it is solid middle to upper middle-class.
In this country, it doesn't take a miracle for an ambitious liar to get ahead.
Posted by: Gingerbaker | October 5, 2008 3:26 PM
"Then mention to that atheist that this guy is now watched and listened to, on a daily basis, by millions of people all over the world and, to boot, sells millions of books."
Adolf Hitler?
Posted by: Paul A. | October 5, 2008 4:47 PM
Surely the fact Bill O'Reilly is 'now watched and listened to, on a daily basis, by millions of people all over the world and, to boot, sells millions of books' is the final, incontrovertible proof there definitely ISN'T a God?
Posted by: Smidgy | October 5, 2008 5:16 PM
The only thing O'Reilly is proof of is that H L Mencken was right, no one ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
Posted by: Ian H Spedding FCD | October 5, 2008 5:33 PM
re. Grettchen's comment. My first reaction was similar. The first thing I thought was that O'Reilly is making an argument for the existence of Satan.
Posted by: Dr X | October 5, 2008 5:55 PM
I'm trying to decide if Stephen Colbert has an easy job or a hard one.
Easy, because this stuff writes itself; hard, because how do you write something that BillO wouldn't actually say? It's Poe's Law in action.
Posted by: chancelikely | October 5, 2008 6:47 PM
Oh, you just know that that's going to be on Worst Person's tomorrow!
Posted by: J. A. Baker | October 5, 2008 6:51 PM
So what part of that is not evidence that there's a god, again? ;)
Posted by: nicole | October 5, 2008 7:19 PM
nicole -
Thanks a lot, now I have even more rethinking to do....
Posted by: DuWayne | October 5, 2008 7:52 PM
Let's see...I just spent a few days at one of our state parks admiring sunrises and sunsets, hiking in beautiful ravines, and enjoying some great wine and beer...yet Bill-O wants me to believe that he is proof of God? Dang that's ALMOST enough to make me atheist.
Posted by: Rev. AJB | October 5, 2008 8:59 PM
The Antichrist is supposed to be wildly popular too, isn't he?
Coincidence? Haha, I think not.
Posted by: lurker_above | October 5, 2008 11:15 PM
I dont believe for a minute that Bill O'Reilly is sincerely religious. He is completely full of it.
Posted by: Cheddar | October 5, 2008 11:55 PM
Rev let your anger fuel your power, come and join us on the dark side [cue spoooky music]- :D DJ
PS Bill-o IS YOUR FATHER! Bwahahahaha
Posted by: DingoJack | October 6, 2008 1:33 AM
Hey, don't blame Me for Bill O'Reilly. I meant for him to be a used-carpet salesman whose media exposure was limited to cheesy late-night ads on local TV. I don't know what the hell happened there.
Posted by: God | October 6, 2008 6:58 AM
how do you write something that BillO wouldn't actually say?
That's easy. If it has an ounce of humility (real, not faked) or tolerance, BillO wouldn't say it.
Posted by: nunyer | October 6, 2008 7:14 AM
I seem to recall that Aquinas made this same argument in the Summa: That Billo was proof of the existence of Hell. There are several corollaries to the prof involving Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin.
Posted by: kehrsam | October 6, 2008 9:14 AM
I agree, its clear that when we look around and dont see god we know god doesnt exist. It is impossible to know god exists since we dont know what to look for, therefore anything we do that we think shows god is nonsense, it only shows something we dont know the nature of. We know ourselves and know we didnt come from god, since we know this, we know we came from our parents. It amazing, we can see someone and know they arent anything above being a person, its clear, there is no way they can do anything I cant, so, they cannot be god.
Posted by: Martin Short | October 6, 2008 2:16 PM
So Bill-O is using David Suzuki as evidence of God?
Truly that loony Palin is right--we are in the End Times.
Posted by: Metro | October 6, 2008 6:56 PM
Doesn't Colbert say the same thing about himself in his book? Now O'Rielly is taking credit!
Posted by: Jaime A. Headden | October 7, 2008 1:20 AM
To whom it may concern.
Unfortunately Satan is really busy right now, what with terrorist attacks, global warming, plagues, the Republican Campaign and so on, however he has authorised me to release the following statement:
"I, Satan, Prince of Darkness, Father of Lies, Lord of the Flies... claim responsibility for the promotion of Bill O'Reilly and all his works."
Thank you
AD
Posted by: Advocātus_Diabolī | October 7, 2008 2:46 AM