Anyone else a Bill Maher fan?

I get a kick out of the guy

My favorite Bill Mahar monologue - YouTube

Absolutely. I watch Real Time every weekend. The first time I remember seeing him was in some B movies on the USA channel during their Up All Night series hosted by Gilbert Gottfried and Rhonda Shear. Maher was hilarious even back then.

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Originally Posted by RGA

I get a kick out of the guy

My favorite Bill Mahar monologue - YouTube

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I kinda like him. But then you've got to ask yourself, really! how hard is it to lampoon religious people and Republicans? (Just too damned easy.)

This is only meant as a joke and is not an attack on religious people in any way - but not worth a new thread.

Colbert and Carrell Why Atheists laugh at christians and muslims - YouTube

And this one from Rowan Atkinson I've always loved. Please don't be offended Atheists

Rowan Atkinson Live - The devil Toby welcomes you to hell - YouTube

I generally find bill amusing, though I do find he focuses on attacking religion far too much. He's basically the Jehovah's witness of atheism - always knocking on the door seeking converts.

Also, despite his claims that atheism is all about science, it is not. Being certain that there is no god is faith. Science shows that there is no proof of either the existence or non-existence of god. Therefore the only scientific stance is that we have no fraking idea whether there is a god.

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Originally Posted by Ajani

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Also, despite his claims that atheism is all about science, it is not. Being certain that there is no god is faith. Science shows that there is no proof of either the existence or non-existence of god. Therefore the only scientific stance is that we have no fraking idea whether there is a god.

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Yes, atheism isn't a matter of science; science doesn't really address the existence of god(s) since he/she/it/they aren't amenable to quantification.

I refer to myself as an atheist, but I agreed from an epistemological perspective that the existence of god(s) cannot be disproved. But there have never been any compelling proofs of the existence of god(s) either, nor any objective evidence, so I, (like Richard Dawkins for example), consider the non-existence of god(s) to be far more probable.

And all that is even without considering the real discord & harm that religion causes.

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Originally Posted by Ajani

I generally find bill amusing, though I do find he focuses on attacking religion far too much. He's basically the Jehovah's witness of atheism - always knocking on the door seeking converts.

Also, despite his claims that atheism is all about science, it is not. Being certain that there is no god is faith. Science shows that there is no proof of either the existence or non-existence of god. Therefore the only scientific stance is that we have no fraking idea whether there is a god.

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I like Maher in the same way...I reconcile my appreciation of his ironic comedic bent with the fact that very little of his material, atheistic or not, is based on facts.

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Originally Posted by RGA

This is only meant as a joke and is not an attack on religious people in any way - but not worth a new thread.

Colbert and Carrell Why Atheists laugh at christians and muslims - YouTube

And this one from Rowan Atkinson I've always loved. Please don't be offended Atheists

Rowan Atkinson Live - The devil Toby welcomes you to hell - YouTube

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I don't have a problem ridiculing religious people; (some might have noticed). They are, after all, people snared by superstition and irrationality in at least part of their lives: this can good for society or contribute to solving the world's problems. Then again some atheists can be quite irrational at times too

This one is just wow - wow. :sosp: Bill Maher New Rule From Elites to Jesus - YouTube

He just had a great standup special on Yahoo - you can still catch it on there.

I've had a good time watching Maher squirm during this latest Rush limbaugh scandal. Kind of difficult to call Rush's mysogeny to task after having called Sarah Palin a c*** and a t***. It must be killing him... :D

The difference is "Sarah Palin a c*** and a t***"

Truth is Bill's defense.:devil:

As I am not in the States - is Rush's show a cable show - (ie - you pay for his show?)

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Originally Posted by RGA

The difference is "Sarah Palin a c*** and a t***"

Truth is Bill's defense.:devil:

As I am not in the States - is Rush's show a cable show - (ie - you pay for his show?)

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I have no idea what Rush's dealio is like...you couldn't pay me enough, y'know. It's been a bit of sticky wicket down here though because of the perceived hypocrisy.

People tend to forget that Maher is a comedian. Jon Stewart and Dennis Miller have also fallen victim to this as folks tend to stray from concepts like hyperbole and shock value.

Maher's problem is that he was non-specific. Had he included words like "fascist" or "lying" or a phrase like "hates poor/brown people" everyone would have just shrugged and moved on about their day. Limbaugh's major malfunction lies in that he had a meltdown on a defenseless target

(Handing out Ouzo, bread and olive oil) Great discussion here, folks....Dang, I fergot my friggin' toga again!

Bill was on about Palin fore the day one - so why only now with Rush are they mentioning Maher? LOL

Bill Maher Rips Palin On Hardball! - YouTube

Bill Maher Thanks Teabaggers and Sarah Palin(TOO FUNNY) - 3/26/10 - YouTube

Maybe I should just pretend to be religious - much safer

Soldier Allegedly Murdered For Being An Atheist | Addicting Info

That's an interesting, if not hyperbolic, article RGA. I was more interested in this piece which while correctly identifying a fallacious argument still managed to miss the point. Kind of amateurish, don't you think?

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Originally Posted by RGA

Maybe I should just pretend to be religious - much safer

Soldier Allegedly Murdered For Being An Atheist | Addicting Info

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I do have the feeling that most religious (in North America) would favour a person of any other religion over an atheist or agnostic.

People "of faith" that I speak to are unable to comprehend that I don't want to believe or seek spirituality. I observe that this makes them suspect that I some way I am a deficient or even dangerous person.

Feanor

This is a pretty good film about a guy who was brought up as an ultra Christian, and figured out it was total B.S. Notes the big historical problems with the religion. It's laughable.

The God Who Wasn't There on Vimeo

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Originally Posted by RGA

Feanor

This is a pretty good film about a guy who was brought up as an ultra Christian, and figured out it was total B.S. Notes the big historical problems with the religion. It's laughable.

The God Who Wasn't There on Vimeo

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Gee--I thought it was The Man Without a Faith...!

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Originally Posted by RGA

Feanor

This is a pretty good film about a guy who was brought up as an ultra Christian, and figured out it was total B.S. Notes the big historical problems with the religion. It's laughable.

The God Who Wasn't There on Vimeo

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Looks like there's a lot of been there, done that for me; (I'll finish watching later).

My mother was a devout Protestant Christian all her life, and in my childhood my most influential religious instructor. (My father was agnostic.) To her credit, she was never a science denier, nor was she ever a Bible literalist. Later in life she began to doubt e.g. virgin birth, be she never ceased to believe in God.

I guess I was always a natural skeptic. I don't thing my agnostic father was much of an influence because he seldom bothered to contradict my mother. But I tell this story. When I was very young I believed in God and Santa Claus. When I reached a certain age I realized that Santa Claus didn't really exist; (my mother admitted that the fat guy in the red suit wasn't really but that Santa Claus ought to be understood as the "spirit of giving").

It just a few years after that, (maybe I was 8 or so), I wondered if Santa Claus doesn't exist, maybe God doesn't exist!?! That was in as much as there was not tangible evidence of God any more that Santa. When I talked my mother about it, she assured me that Santa and God were quite different and, of course, God existed. Despite her assurance, that's when serious doubt began for me.

Feanor

I have no problems with people believing in something nebulous like God - it's the religions that scare me. If people wish to believe in some sort of Soul that lives on in some fashion after death - no big deal to me.

The film is an hour but it is when he gets to the point where he says "I was this guy I believed all those things I used to be a fundamentalist... is for me the "hope" that others will dump religion in its face. It's been so horrendously wrong for so long and they deny evidence - irrefutable evidence on a number of things that scares me. The people chosen to run the world have to believe in sheer and utter nonsense. And this is a little more important than whether someone believes they can hear the difference between SS amps or interconnect cables. Get that wrong who cares - but killing people cause my God can beat up your God is nuts.

Bill Maher - The mass delusion - YouTube

Not Maher but George Carlin did it so well George Carlin on Religion and God - YouTube