I went to see Religulous last night. I like it when people poke fun at religion or at any other kind of Dogma. When you live in Canada, you develop a deep appreciation for political satire. Let's face it; it was two little comedians from Canada's little France that delivered the final shot to the miserably losing campaign of Sarah Palin who thought she was being congratulated by France's Sarkozy.
Now, returning to Religulous. What particularly pissed me off was the vulgar, self-righteous, and almost "religious" attitude of Bill Maher. Without offering any solid scientific evidence of his own, he poked fun at the pseudoscientoreligious illusions of others--whom he flatly called "crazies".
What was of particular interest to me was how like a fanatic IDIOT, he walked out on the Rabbi who was disputing the media-blown mistranslation of Ahmadinejad's "Israel Wiping". He did not even allow the orthodox rabbi finish his explanation of what the meaning of "wipe Israel off the map" was ... Bill Maher just got up in anger, saying "that's enough, I am out of here" walked off ... Interestingly, NONE of the 'religious' figures he interviewed behaved in such an utterly intolerant manner ... NONE of them walked off the set, DESPITE being cut off in mid sentence, being called "crazy" by Maher!
Well Mr Maher; you yourself seem to be subscribing to some zealot ideology!
You made fun of Jews, Muslims and Christians. I laughed occasionally.
You edited scenes of explosions and Palestinians chantings to make a case about how religion is the cause of destruction on earth. But, your documentary is SERIOUSLY ill-informed. You did not let the British Arabs or the Israeli Jews explain to you the difference between "political protest" and religious Disney theme show!
The fact that you treated the Jesus of Columbia (who fills his pockets) and the Peace-bearing Rabbi (who thinks Zionism is WRONG) as the same kind of lunatics, that you treated the innovations of the Jews who were trying to invent their ways around sabbat with the same disdain that you treated the Floridan Dancing Jesus company (whatever that zoo was); that you reduced the Palestinian/Iraqi plight to Islamist fanaticism; that you did not even make an intelligent argument in defense of evolution, in defense of homosexuality, in defense of freedom of speech, in defense of culture, in defense of diversity, in defense of respect, in defense of peace, and instead resorted to vulgar arrogance of cutting people off and beating your own boring nonsensical drum, is just a minor reflection on your shallow Hollywoodian brain!
I think, if you have that individual who had looked at the patterns of religious-brain activations take a look at yours; he will find the SAME kind of neural activity in your head. I am sure all that sex and drug you kept bragging about has not spared your brain cells.
Wanna bet?
The fanaticism of the so-called liberals disgusts me even more than that of Rush Limbaugh!
12 comments:
wow. i hesitate to admit that i am strongly committed to taking on religious zealots of all stripe. it is strictly my opinion to believe that there is absolutely no higher power and that human beings are it. any blame or any achievements that better the world- all come from human beings. and in my opinion, belief in god is naive at best and actually kind of desperate. people who believe in 'god' per se- are working tirelessly to force their beliefs on everyone- through legislation here in america- and war elsewhere. it is again, my opinion, that their belief isn't strong enough (contrary to what they would have the rest of us think) to withstand a world where everything and everyone doesn't promote a unified image and belief set.
i don't believe in the 'live and let live' mind set anymore- i certainly don't advocate intolerance against people who do believe- and i am aggressive against people who attempt to force their religious beliefs on me and my country. the bill of rights here in america protects americans in their ability to worship freely and with their own religious groups. what most folks don't talk about is the fact that it also frees us FROM state religion- which is currently what hard right evangelicals, catholics and mormons are trying to force on the general populace.
so, i agree with your premise- i have not seen religulous but i know maher is not only opinionated but pretty rude about his beliefs from religion to republicans- that the left can be just as hard core as the right. the difference as i have seen it in the past- the left usually doesn't get hard nosed unless pushed really hard by the right. perhaps it's just my perspective.
Wow! You're in Canada! :-)
I HATE Bill Maher Naj. It's funny, I didn't even go see the movie, EXACTLY b/c I was sure it would entail everything you said it did ...
And I wasn't wrong!
He's an extremely pompous bigot who is occasionally funny too.
The sad part? He is often referred to as a "liberal" ... It's a sad day for all American liberals when the likes of him are associated with their group.
Betmo, I agree with you on most things other than one: it is strictly my opinion to believe that there is absolutely no higher power and that human beings
I do not believe in a god; or many gods, or any supreme powers of any sort. But; I do not believe "We" as humans are "it" either. To kill a god and replace it with out selves is precisely the source of our perilous history!
We can look around us: Nature is stronger than us; is mightier than us; when the ice cap melts; nature survives; but we won't.
We, humans, are nothing but cosmic noise!
However, we need to be completely AWARE and honest about "where" and "why" religions have come from. It is important to realize that we are NOT the first brand of human atheists on earth. I am sure the notion of God has been challenged by many before us. Let's see ... take Abraham, who challenged the god of fire (Mithraists perhaps?); Mohammad who challenged the god of Date ;) ... there is ALWAYS one brand of humans who is fighting against he tyrannical superstition of another.
You say: "i don't believe in the 'live and let live' mind set anymore and that i am strongly committed to taking on religious zealots of all stripe" and although you "certainly don't advocate intolerance against people who do believe" but you are still aggressive against people who attempt to force their religious beliefs on me and my country.
I share almost all of those sentiments with you. and THAT makes you and I the members of the SAME legion ... at some point we will all form/force a "new" religion ...
And then with time, some of us; the more opportunistic ones, will start using this as an instrument to their benefits. I am sure you and I won't join the ranks and file; but there will be people who will abduct our ideals ... and what can we do? raise arms? Well if we do, then we are real "crusaders" or Freedom-Jihadist, oh Bushi called that "freedom-fighters" because God told him that he wanted people Freeeeeeeeeeeee
:)
Pedestrian:
I just went to see what is the fuss about this guy since he's ALWAYS on some TV show being interviewed as a great politician of sorts! And also because the teasers were really funny. Anyways, this could have been made into SUCH a cool movie if they had Canadians running it!
yeah- i don't know what it is about humans needing religion- but we could look to some of the more peaceful religions as an example if we must have one. i don't disagree with you about nature being stronger than humans- take global climate change- the earth will be fine after we extinct ourselves because the atmosphere will clear and new life will form. us- not so lucky. and i am ok with that.
my issue is with the religions- predominately christianity here in america- that attempts to convert and force belief in their moral set. co-existing peacefully doesn't seem to be a human trait- or a religious one. i guess that's what the judeo-christian (and perhaps muslim) god means by 'i am a jealous god' :) i know that most of the issue isn't with religion per se- it's with people. and you are correct when you say that people use the religions as vehicles for their own agendas. i simply get frustrated with the stupes who fall for the leaders' bullcrap hook, line, and sinker- as evidenced by our recent unpleasantness (aka the bush years and the mccain campaign). i certainly don't let liberals off of the hook. i dropped any party affiliation this year in protest of the idiocy of the democratic party. i prefer no party over hypocrisy of any stripe.
and i agree with bill maher. he used to be a great comdedian- and then he started to take himself seriously.
Yeah that "Jealous God" was new to me. Ad far as I know the Muslim's god (which according to muslims is the SAME as Moses' god, Abraham's God, Jesus' God, Noah's god, and 124,000 other prophet's god) can be angry and cranky at times, but is by and large "rahman and Rahim"
In fact if you listen to muslims they often start by:
Besme'llahe 'rahmane' rrahim
Which means in the name of god, the kind and the forgiving.
What is LOST to Christians of the American brand, is that Islam is derived from Judaism and Christianity. It is less pragmatic than Judaism; and less superstiious than christianity.
What is disturbing is that for muslims, Mohammad's "miracle" was to WRITE a BOOK. In our Islamic schools they endoctrinated us to believe that Mohammad was teh LAST prophet because he appeared in an elevated state of humanity that WORDS were as miraculous as walking in fire and raising the dead. The fact that Mohammad's miracle was a book was interpreted as the great value Islam put on learning, on knowledge.
It saddens me that all these subtleties are reduced to political violence of a group of exasperated individuals who are uniting under a religious flag; only in order to remain united in fighting the unjust OIL-tyranny that has plagued their societies.
I am not a religious person, but it has been religion taht has saved Iran, throughout its history, from colonization. So I can understand the value of religion from a political ideological point of view.
I can also understand it from a scientific point of view. I know for a fact that religious people suffer less mental ailments such as anxiety; stress-related disorders like heart disease and etc. Of course, these statistics parallel those that show people who drink a glass of wine per day have lower risk of hear attack ... WHY? Because both alcohol and religion do similar things on the brain. modulate the same kinds of peptid signalings in our bodies.
To make fun of a religious man is the same as making fun of a drunk man. Except that the drunk man really messes up the homeostasis of his body chemicals; and a religious man just redistributes the topography of his biochemicals! A religious man, in my view, has the brain of an artist; but lacks creativity; he maps his creativity onto imagining gods and goblins ...
But; what I think out civilization will have to learn is to turn back into stoicism; to turn away from this current trend of sensationalism that we are 'suffering' now. Why are we trusting Obama? Because he is NOT a sensationalist. His election signals to me that we are sick of our hormonal behaviors; and that we are beginning to re-see the merits of being a 'private', 'cold' citizen.
Once we learn to not talk about our orgasms, our depression drugs, our psychosis episodes, our religious ecstasy, our stones euphoria, we will be able to put the religion gene back in the bottle. Well that's all my theory ... maybe I should apply for the American Enterprise Institution! ;)
I think, if we CURE (physiologically) our civilization of religion, then we will also have stripped it from art ...
Prophets are poets ...
Didn't Oabam win on Socrates' poetic premis?
Am at work today, Naj, but this is a great discussion. By sheer chance, I've been thinking parallel--my last couple of posts were "All Extremists Should Be Shot (irony intended)" and "In Defense of Religion."
I will steal some of the insights on this thread, with your permission. And there was no danger of me, none at all, going to see Religulous.
This man has little regard for others and probably even less for himself, if truth be known.
This film is an obvious attempt to press others' buttons and I plan to make a habit of not seeing it.
Marclord, 'steal' away anything you wish. You are my favorite blogger!
Goatman, I think i formed my opinion about this dude after religulous. So that was a good 5$ spent on educating myself about this persona!
I suspect the problems are not religious ones at all, but simply problems of arrogance and bigotry. Thus, they dwell on both sides of the religious-nonreligious railroad tracks.
Both atheists and Christians, for instance, have championed mass-murder and been humanitarian heroes. And I've had some startling conversations with a not uncommon sub-group: atheists who argue like fundamentalists.
Maybe it's less about who's right and who's wrong; less about who's smart and who's "naive at best" and more about learning respect and humility.
Maher makes a common mistake: he takes on the very characteristics he despises in others. Thinking himself correct and "them" stupid (probably their view, too, in reverse), he need not question his own boorishness.
Bill Maher is a satirist and an entertainer.
Obviously you weren't entertained.
Feh.
Oh, I came over to see if you might be interested in this book. PBS Now interviewed the author here.
Had he stuck to being a funny man, I would have kept laughing! But the poor soul began vexing philosophical with clear lack of knowledge, depth and intellectual authority; and that's what pissed me off!
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