“The topic of religion is so inherently funny”

Too bad Bill Maher is such an altie and antivaccination crank. Extreme kookiness in two different areas (well, three if you count his support of animal rights cranks in PETA) always makes me wonder about his capacity for critical thinking.

Still, I'm hoping he keeps his kook side under control; the movie could be funny.

You missed the best part: They're releasing on Easter.

"I'd like it out right around the time people are celebrating the space man flying up to heaven."

"They didn't contact me through a proxy and interview me for a movie with a different name."

...or did they?

Bill Maher knows exactly how these things are done. Just read Ken Ham's account of Maher's "interview" with him for this film. The guys from "Expelled" could learn a thing or two from him:

http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/aroundtheworld/2007/02/07/hbos-bill-m…

Brilliant! I can't wait. I've always thought that ridicule was the best weapon against the religious brand of idiocy.

I'll be first in line, and oh man, do I hope there are protesters. :)

Anyone who claims there is a "missing link" between man and ape has never seen a picture of Ken Ham! (click DAC's link in #3 above).

Yeah. Was just thinking something like this would be funny to see, but what prompted that thought was an advertisement on one of the online comic sites I read. The ad was for this site:

http://www.rifftrax.com/

Its Mystery Science 3000 for the internet, and targeted at DVD releases. And I had an epiphany, what we **need** is a Mystery Science 3000 for sermons. Any sermon any one ever posts on the net or over TV gets chewed up by the same kind of comedic styling. lol

Well, not sure how well that would work actually, but it would be damn funny to see.

Mmmmm... sacrelicious!

A guest writer for Glenn Greenwald at Salon has a piece on a serious documentary about how religion is used to justify prejudice, called For the Bible Tells Me So.

Why won't Larry King just roll over and die? Charlie Rose too. I have never seen either contribute positively to the art of the interview.

Ridicule probably is the best weapon against religious stupidity. The works of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and the Monty Python films probably influenced my atheism more than anything else.

Fox News is going to go bezerk on that one. Already that moronic father Jonathan was calling new atheism a "fad" (check this funny clip on youtube : http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=WYIYv6BsrQ4

"Ah the miracle of the birth of a child...."

And Billo hates Maher, this promises to be funny.

HBO's Bill Maher and the plot to deceive AiG
Considering how hard AiG works to deceive themselves, and then to pass on the anti-knowledge, I don't know why they would be so upset.

The plot to deceive AiG?

Hmm, they must mean that Bill Maher is the infamous fossil-salter who plants fake fossils in order to a) turn all the innocent children away from God and/or b) test their faith.

Sorry negentropyeater, but watching a collared priest in Rome talk about atheists "pushing their beliefs on others" snapped something in my head I thought had long ago broken.

Apparently there are still a few things that set off my hypocrit-o-stat.

In regards to #7 I know these people mean well and I agree with them on many levels but I really haven't seen a convincing case that the bible isn't anti-homosexual.

I think this is wishful thinking on the supporters part myself.

I'm excited.

When I first saw the title, I thought it might be from "religious" and "credulous" - which works, too.

But I have to admit, I do like "religious" and "ridiculous" better.

I want! I want! I want!

In 2008, the festival of the Goddess of the Dawn comes on March 23.

Bill is giving George Carlin competition. Is good!

This post is going to sound like a bunch of Maher-loving drivel, but...

Bill is self-effacing when he passes King's compliment about Moore. Bill may be no Moore, but Bill's a genius in his own right. Of all the political commentators I've taken to over the last several years, Maher has always been my favorite. I love his show, even his old PI, and he doesn't mince words on anything.

I don't know that he's a raving anti-vaccination crazy so much as he is against the pill popping mentality to cure ailments as insignificant as that momentary itch one gets on the end of their nose. By the standards used in this thread to judge him on his vaccination critique, he's a regular Jack Lalane for railing against fast food and the rampant eating of crap inherent in our culture. He does seem to be a fairly vociferous PETA member, but I don't see him jumping off the same cliffs PETA members routinely throw themselves off of.

The only counts I have against him are his shameless prop pieces and the horrible segues into them on Real Time. The props are still funny and clever, but his execution is very unpolished and very Tonight Show. Also, his stand-up acts (the ones I've seen anyhow) have just been regurgitations of his TV show topics...he says funny stuff, but not in a terribly comedic way. I support his right to rant in the public space, but again it's the execution that's problematic.

Regardless, can't wait to see the movie.

JimC:

You are asking a group of (mostly) atheists and skeptics to explain "why the bible isn't anti-homosexual," so don't be surprised if most of us don't really care what the bible is or isn't "against." We don't accept its authority.

But here's a question for you.

The passage in the bible that you are most likely thinking about is in Leviticus, which lists many rules that humans are supposed to follow. We're not supposed to eat shellfish, or wear blended fabrics, or engage in "usury," to pick a few examples.

Do you follow all those rules? Have you ever eaten shrimp or lobster? Is that shirt you're wearing a cotton/poly blend? Do you have a bank account?

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, then with all due respect, you need to shut up.

I think what he is saying in the video is very good :

"Look, I can't know, my main proposition is I DON'T KNOW. And therefore, if some other human being tells me, or anybody else, what happens when you die, my answer to them is, I don't know what happens when you die, so how do you know ? The answer is you don't know. So to present yourself as someone who can tell in such great detail, and the detail is amazing, isn't it about what happens when you die...."

That's my man. Doubt is stronger than certainty.

Re: link @ #9:

When I attended the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, N.C. a few months ago, I saw "For the Bible Tells Me So," Daniel Karslake's documentary on how religion has been misused to justify prejudice.

Misused? And here I thought that was its purpose all along.

I'm a big fan of Bill, and I mostly agree with his views on diet and drugs in this country. I'm as disgusted with the fattening of America, and our obsession with drugs, as he is. I understand his distrust of the drug companies, it's a view I share. Their goal isn't to make us well, it's to keep us semi-sick; alive and customers. (I'm talking about average, what should be healthy people, not hospital patients and those with real problems.) Overall, we seem to be as dumb about health, nutrition and exercise as we are about science.

However, although I've never had a flu shot, his stance concerning them is a bit wingnuttery for me. It smacks of the paranoia and excessive distrust that I've seen in many "health nuts" who take things too far and stop appreciating legitimate science. You can sometimes see it bleed over into his views about space exploration.

But I still like him; he's a force for good. Wish I still got Showtime. : - /

I don't know that he's a raving anti-vaccination crazy so much as he is against the pill popping mentality to cure ailments as insignificant as that momentary itch one gets on the end of their nose. By the standards used in this thread to judge him on his vaccination critique, he's a regular Jack Lalane for railing against fast food and the rampant eating of crap inherent in our culture. He does seem to be a fairly vociferous PETA member, but I don't see him jumping off the same cliffs PETA members routinely throw themselves off of.

Geez, What does it take? Maher spouts crap about mercury in vaccines and claims that unnamed "toxins" are the cause of disease, even going so far as to repeat a myth of a deathbed conversion by Pasteur. His other views on pharmaceuticals notwithstanding, the guy's a freakin' antivaccination loon who has no idea what is and is not good medical science. There's a reasonable distrust of big pharma, but Maher's taken it to wingnut territory.

I realize that it's possible to be totally grounded in many areas and toutally screwed up in others. Whatever areas he's grounded in, Maher is screwed up bigtime when it comes to his views on vaccination, the germ theory of disease, and animal rights wingnuttery.

The passage in the bible that you are most likely thinking about is in Leviticus, which lists many rules that humans are supposed to follow. We're not supposed to eat shellfish, or wear blended fabrics, or engage in "usury," to pick a few examples.

Do you follow all those rules? Have you ever eaten shrimp or lobster? Is that shirt you're wearing a cotton/poly blend? Do you have a bank account?

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, then with all due respect, you need to shut up.

Oh Nurse from above. I simply said I don't think the bible can be made pro-gay. It has nothing to do with the argument you are attempting to make. Just like I don't think the bible can be made anti-slavery. It is what it is, a product of it's time. Likewise I think those that wantto pretend it's pro-gay are simply kidding themselves.

Wish I still got Showtime. : - /

Wait, he's HBO. ... : - )

He does seem to be a fairly vociferous PETA member,

He's on PETA's board of directors, in fact, which is one of the reasons I like him.

Whatever areas he's grounded in, Maher is screwed up bigtime when it comes to his views on vaccination, the germ theory of disease, and animal rights wingnuttery.

Yeah, I read about that mercury thing of his (think it was actually on Orac's blog), that polio vaccine thing of his. And yet, weirdly enough, Maher also happily mocked the FRC's opposition to the HPV vaccine. 'Course, that bit was more focused on the sheer lunacy of opposing the vaccine on the notion of that would 'encourage promiscuity'. But there was nary a word in the segment I saw about vaccines not working...

Guy might be a bit of a compulsive contrarian, methinks. Whatever the guy he's sitting across from thinks is common sense, he'll come up with a reason to oppose him. Guy happens to be of the misbegotten opinion, say, that the polio vaccine actually worked, odd objections will follow...

It doesn't really bug me too viscerally, I guess, now, just because I've begun to put him in that 'pure entertainment, not to be taken particularly seriously' box. But I get that yeah, stuff he's said on King show hasn't been good for the public understanding of the science of vaccination in particular. Which, sure, isn't good.

It's probably been asked before, but has anyone asked him about this lately? Emailed him to point out what crankery abounds around MMR and mercury? I'd like to think he might just turn out to have the brains and cojones after all to turn around on that one, at least, were someone to sit down, explain a bit of the history, here.

uh, Jason, not like we haven't gone over this ground before, but Orac said it best just above:

Whatever areas he's grounded in, Maher is screwed up bigtime when it comes to his views on vaccination, the germ theory of disease, and animal rights wingnuttery.

just to head you off at the pass, so to speak.

Ichthy

" ... Maher is ... correct about the appalling treatment of animals in our society."

Fixed that for you.

Oh. Well, in that case, I'm not entirely sure what your point is. The fact that different people do in fact cherry-pick from the bible and come to opposite conclusions on various issues, just proves that it has no worth as an absolute moral authority. Sorry if I jumped unfairly to the conclusion that you were making an anti-gay statement, but it sure sounded like it.

Good grief nurse. The fella in post #9 linked to a movie or clip that was about a group of religous folks saying others misunderstand the bible as anti-gay, I was simply saying it's a nice sentiment but I haven't seen a convincing argument to make it so.

Orac: "Geez, What does it take?..."

Ummm, watching him on TV regularly? I admit I haven't read his books, but I just do not get that he's a superfreak over anything but trying to stop the country from going down the tubes. Maybe it's that he's checked when he's in front of other guest who tend to be intelligent themselves (in some cases anyways), but I have never gotten that he was a fanboi about anything. Sorry, but...that's my impression of Bill. Frankly I'd love to have a drink with the guy.

Fixed that for you.

lie, you mean.

I looks straight-to-DVD, but I'll definitely check it out.

OK, JimC, we seem to have a miscommunication going on that is most likely my fault -- I must have drastically mis-read your original comment. My sincerest apologies.

To get back on topic: Maher infuriates me in much the same way that Hitchens does. I love Maher's rant on religion that PZ posted here recently, and Hitchens' "The Missionary Position" absolutely changed my life. But Maher is off his rocker on vaccines and germ theory (and breast feeding -- what the hell was that about??). As for Hitchens, his Vanity Fair piece on why women have no sense of humor was just pathetic (and don't get me started on the war). I agree with AJ Milne that they are "compulsive contrarians" (nice term) who get off on baiting people. It's just hard to dismiss them entirely, because they are both capable of being entertaining, informative, and even inspiring on the topic of atheism.

The PETA people have more than one screw loose. Here are a couple of extracts from their site.

"What about all the customs, traditions, and jobs that depend on using animals?"

The invention of the automobile, the abolition of slavery, and the end of World War II also necessitated restructuring and job retraining. Making changes to customs, traditions, and jobs is part of social progress--not a reason to deter it."

Get that, they compare animal "rights" to the abolition of slavery!

There is more,

""How can you justify the millions of dollars of property damage caused by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF)?"

Throughout history, some people have felt the need to break the law to fight injustice. The Underground Railroad and the French Resistance are examples of movements in which people broke the law in order to answer to a higher morality."

They compare animal "rights" to freeing slaves and the fight against the Nazis! More PETA quackery,

""What's wrong with factory farms or fur farms? Aren't animals worse off in the wild, where they die of starvation, disease, or predation? At least the animals on factory farms and fur farms are fed and protected."

A similar argument was used to support the claim that black people were better off as slaves on plantations than as free men and women. The same could also be said of people in prison, yet prison is considered to be one of society's harshest punishments."

There are more loony toons at their site.

Extreme kookiness in two different areas (well, three if you count his support of animal rights cranks in PETA)

Four if you count his rabid misogyny.

He is funny, though, and I'll probably see the movie.

"Too bad Bill Maher is such an altie and antivaccination crank. Extreme kookiness in two different areas (well, three if you count his support of animal rights cranks in PETA) always makes me wonder about his capacity for critical thinking."

Better that than being one of the so-called atheists believing humans are holy beings (no religion in there I tell you), totally different from other animals. Pre-Darwinists so to say (Creationists? Flying Spaghetti Monsterists?).

But Maher is off his rocker on vaccines and germ theory (and breast feeding -- what the hell was that about??).

Yeah, I forgot about that one. What was that about? It would have been okay if she had been smoking instead?

I realize he's going for laughs when he compares breast feeding to masturbation, but...still.

I wish I knew how to tackback, but I don't. I just posted on Bill Maher's new movie. I watched it the other night, so I plan on posting my thoughts about it over the next week.