by Howard Cohen
McClatchy Newspapers
January 21, 2007
"George W. Bush has been good for Bill Maher. His administration's image problems have fueled every season of HBO's 'Real Time with Bill Maher' and, before that, Maher's ABC "Politically Incorrect" chat fest.
"Sample jab: 'Republicans must get honest about why they oppose stem cell research. It's not because a frozen speck on a microscope slide constitutes life, it's because stem cell research shows promise of restoring spinal cord tissue--and that could help Democrats.'"
VIDEOS ~ Bill Maher on Religion
CNN Transcript from "Larry King Live" CALLER: Hi, thank you for taking my call. Here's my question. Other than who we vote for and keeping respect for everyone's beliefs, Bill, I'm wondering how you think we can work to restore a separation of church and state?* Note "that Maher is classified as Category:Ambiguous because he has said (earlier, paraphrased) that while he disdains organized religion he nevertheless doesn't reject the possibility of a god. It's not clear if this position of his is still in effect" [as of June, 2006].MAHER: Restore it, that's a good point. I hate to sound like a broken record. It has to take place at the top. When you have a president who is this openly religious and this openly contemptible, in contempt, rather, of the separation of church and state, I don't think anything is going to change until that changes.
This is a man who proudly says that Jesus picked him to be president. You said something about you have to respect people's beliefs. I know that's what we always hear, we have to respect. I'm sorry, I don't. I don't respect religion. I don't respect superstitious thinking, which is what religion is. I don't respect childish thinking, which is what religion is.
We talked about this before, this whole gay issue wouldn't even be an issue except it says it in the Bible. The Bible, that book that has people lived to be 900 years old and says the world is 6,000 years old, and that there are people who lived in a whale. That infallible work of genius and slavery is OK. You should stone a guy to death if he works on Sunday. That's the book that says, sorry no queers.
So I'm sorry, I don't respect people who believe in religion. I was religious when I was a kid. We all had dumb stuff drilled into our head. It doesn't mean when you get to be an adult you can't drill it out. I tell you something else they drilled into my head when I was a kid, mercury in my cavities. We found out later mercury is so bad we shouldn't even eat it when there is a trace of it in fish. But it was drilled into my teeth. So when I got older, I had it drilled out. You can do the same thing with religion. To talk about this terrorism situation without talking about religion is like talking about AIDS in America without talking about homosexuality. You can do it, it will get you applause on Oprah but it's not true.
Video: Maher on Bush &
Hurricane Katrina
Previous METAXY Entry ~ Bill Maher
Wikipedia
Bill Maher's Website
No comments:
Post a Comment