I'm confident that Maher's documentary will be fantastic! And the fact that he wants it released during "easter" is indeed sensational! Glory halafreakinluya!
Rev. El
Pastor, WVCSR

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So if it's a documentary for atheists you can't release it on Easter. There is no Easter for atheists. Actually there isn't anything for atheists. Don't tell me about the pagan origins of Easter because that's not what these idiots are aiming for.

So sad to be so insecure about your belief system (or lack thereof) that you have to constantly attack other systems just to feel validated. Maher is an idiot.

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I would not defend organized religion as such, or even Christianity, if Christianity is just another organized institution, but I would defend Jesus Christ and the God I serve. I am a Christian because, first of all, because it is true, and secondly, because Christ has changed my life. But I also believe the case can be made that the world is more loving, more hopeful, more free, and more prosperous because of Christian faith. Have ridiculous claims been made by Christians? Of course. Have Christians not always lived up to what they claim to be? Of course. Have atrocities taken place because of misguided Christian zeal? Of course. But where I live--and I would argue in the larger world as well--the hungry are fed, the sick are healed, the discouraged are given hope, and marriages last because of faith. I see no noticeable compassion on the part of unbelievers here. There are no atheist food banks. The unbelievers I know are cynical, angry, arrogant, and self-centered. If one wants to see the effects of atheism go to Russia where, after 70 years of substituting secular scientific societal planning, people are so spiritually defeated they have little hope. Now the Russian government wants to pay couples to have children. We are, in the world today, witnessing the struggle between secularism and faith. The future is with (Christian) faith. Secularism is on the defensive.

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I'm tired of the faith thing in the WHite House but too, but insulting everybody about everything serves no purpose. Bill is right, he's not Michael Moore. Please go back to making us laugh. Thanks, ANNA

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I wish more non-believers in America would stand up and admit their skepticism. I am sure it would surprise the hell out of a lot of people just how many of us there are.

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And therein lies the problem with some of the "annoyed" posters above me. They always feel religion deserves a pass to be discussed on an intellectual basis.

Would you want someone to operate on you because he/she BELIEVES how to do it? I could give thousands more examples. Just take the Shrub as one more. It is ALWAYS about what he BELIEVES...not anything based on good judgment based on facts, logic, and/or intelligence. To do or run anything on just FAITH is inane.

One other point...I find the term "atheist" to dignify what it denies, and therefore silly, inappropriate, and not necessary.

We do not have a term for people that do not believe in ghosts. We do not have a term for people who do not believe in astrology...etc...etc.

By the way, for those that like to say they believe in Jesus but have little use for religion...there is little more EVIDENCE for His existence than Zeus or Oedipus.

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... what Mahar should be making fun of is fundamentalism.

Putting up an atheist slant is death to any program. People just... will... not... accept... it. 2000 years of indoctrination. After all, we are all religious. Ask your parents who raised ya that way. Bill too!

But fundamentalism is wrong. Even blasphemous.

Falwell, Haggert, Robertson, heck, Osama Bin Laden are all the same sort of "religious person". A nut who thinks the world is coming to an end and is willing to kill to make it happen. Jebsus save me... the head of a major American "mega" church somewhere declared the Minnesota bridge collapsed because Minnesotans are evil. Minnesota? Evil?

This is serious... when Katrina hit and you wanted to donate money it was difficult. Going to the US government website (cause that's where Bush said you could donate), at the time, the FIRST organization listed for donations... BEFORE the Red Cross and FIRST on the list... was the Christian Coalition. That's right... Pat Robertson's George W. Bush approved "aid". Now, do you think that money got to any black folk in New Orleans? Well... you'll never know.

This sort of thing plays into the idea the White House has created in order to split Americans into one of only two groups, Liberal and Conservative. Liberals are always "anti" everything good. Conservatives are brave defenders of the faith. I say... if you are gonna play by their rules... you will loose.

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Maher has a point when he ridicules peoples belief systems, their religions.

They are not based on facts.

It is all blind unsubstantiated faith.

And a person who has blind faith in their religion is more predisposed to having blind faith in their other views about life.

Blind faith without real physical proof is how Bush sold more than half the country into believing the war in Iraq was a good idea.

In the runup to the war he never showed one piece of actual real physical proof that Saddam was developing WMD yet so many people had blind faith in the threat Iraq supposidly posed to us.

Blind faith in Colin Powell as being a man of integrity and honor and honesty allowed even more people to be duped when he gave that speech at the U.N. about Iraq's WMD.

Religion, blind faith, are far more destructive than most people realize, it results in trusting people and taking them for their word rather than requiring proof.

Trust is ok however, Trust but Verify.

Religious beliefs cannot be verified and once people travel down the dark path of blind faith it will overshadow how they view everything else.

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I wasn't going to read Dawkins' The God Delusion but then someone gave me a copy. It makes interesting reading if for no other reason than it's the first place I've seen a catalog of arguments supporting the existence of "God". Such a catalog was necessary for Dawkins to systematically disprove every one of them which doesn't take all that much effort because most of them are so weak.

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Religious doubters are hardly a new phenomenon. Wherever and whenever you find thoughtful people free to openly question established dogma, you will find agnostics, who say they simply do not know whether or not God exists, or athiest who say they do know--and that all religions are nonsense.

Bill Maher is a very clever guy. He is not afraid to express his opinions on a variety of timely subjects and he and other outspoken athiests may be successful where serious critics of organized religions have failed. If their ranks continue to grow, they may even eventually succeed in ridiculing religions to death.

However, athiests are often bitten by the same bug that has infected those poor souls who accept religious myths as literal truths. Both believe they have the answers--the religious in the holy book and the athiests in modern mainstream science. I, quite frankly, have trouble with both views. Certainly neither speak for me.

There are also a growing number of people who work actively to become more personally spiritual by rejecting both the dogmas of 2000 years of religious indoctrination and the self-indulgent materialistic debunking of spiritual aspirations.

A closed mind, whether it is inhibited by religious prohibitions or by those who cannot see beyond the measurable material world, is still closed. I agree with those who believe that there is no religion higher than truth--and nobody has a monopoly on that.

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Bill is exactly who we need to tell this side.
If I was a religious Person, I would not let this film shake my belief. I would not let this film dictate My faith or THREATEN me.
We CAN talk about these concepts. The poll numbers for who believes and who does not must be skewed. It is not exactly
an acceptable Public discussion, to announce ones disbelief. I think it should be public and aceptable.

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Religion is a vital element in the decision making processes of leaders all over the world. It is used in many oppressive and many glorious ways. What is important is not to simply say attack fundamentalism because moderates are ok....we need to be very open and discuss the absurdities of faith and the notion that it should be a guiding principle in political decision making.

Religion must not cower behind these notions of its inherent unspeakable truth and the further notion that everyone who criticizes it is sinister and disrepectful of its patrons and their right ot religious peace and freedom (I mean the word patrons quite literally).

In the 60's and 70's god was dead in our public discourse. In Canada, he still is a goner. The political power of religion is immense and it can win elections on irrelevant issues like gay marriage (irrelevant to homophobes because they likely don't interact with queer folk too much). Without god, or by relegating god to the back of the bus, we can talk about real issues in our political discourse and open up so much more space for actual issues ot be central.

Look at the Taliban or the Repiglicans, they both mainuplate the publics religiosity to maintain power and control democratic or otherwise.

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I am very interesting in seeing this movie and I can't wait to see it.
I think it's funny though. Being an atheist, I feel no need or want to explain my position. I just don't believe in God or an afterlife because I don't know it to be true. How can anyone tell us of what happens after you die if their alive, right?
However, at the same time, I feel pushed to by unseen forces because I want to be seen as a full human being. Not because I doubt my beliefs, but because so little weight is given to the belief structure of atheists. There's so much disrespect, and it's ironic because atheists are the ones who choose not to believe in mystical things which require faith. People of faith should be the one's who should be on the defensive simply because their beliefs are more easily challenged because of their unbelievably.
Anyway, I'm excited to see this movie mainly because it will be nice to hear someone's point of view about atheism that's not trying to tear it apart. I guess I need comradery just like people who go to church every Sunday...

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Even the GOP candidates are abandoning the evangelicals. People are just gullible, including me. I didn't investigate transubstantiation until I was in my 30s.

When I'm engaged with a "believer," I just remember a couple things. I don't believe in magic (they call it miracles) and today's Christianity is NOWHERE near first century Christianity. And, if God is so loving and gives me free will, would he punish me for not believing in him? Would a parent treat their own child that way?

And I like Hitchens. He asked, "if Jesus could cure a blind man, why not cure blindness?" Or, "if Lazarus was brought back from the dead, where is he? Did he die again?"

"The day will come when the mystical generation of
Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb
of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the
generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson's Works, Vol. IV, p.
365, Randolph's ed.

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If religion is a problem (and it is), there is an easy way to quash it: tax church property. Why does an atheist has to subsidize some fools' heavenly delusions.

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While I think discussing this topic is important I don't believe people will ever give up religious beliefs totally, they just find new ways to interpret their religion through mental gymnastics. Creationism gave way to old earth creationism and theistic evolution or allegorization of religious texts to free them from the realm of objective scrutiny because people like to engage in cathartic fantasy of the afterlife where they wont be miserable like they were in real life.

The truth is reality is harsh and has been for most of human's existence, religion was an evolutionary compensatory mechanism for depression and hopelessness.

Just remember how long it took humanity to get the the stage of science, thats MILLIONS of years of millions of generations of human beings.

I think people really have to understand that each persons mind is a universe unto itself and you cannot force to develop you can really only do your best to educate them and stop the indoctrination of current religious people's children.

But you have to remember that humanity is still like a developing child as a whole, they are not out of their immature years as a race and civilization, in fact we're still at the stage of barbary as our modern market society proves over and over again and even the 'left' or 'progressive' really can't put their money where there mouth is (i.e. really showing what you believe and want for the world, rather then paying lip service from afar in afalse sense of concern for others).

The people on the left or wherever that have compassion for others aren't creative enough at getting the job done because their is no leadership.

The truth is if it wasn't for religion many of us would not have been born, nor had a somewhat stable family life. My mother is a religious fundamentalist but she benefits from the cathartic self deception or she probably would have killed herself from the stress getting tied down too early and giving birth to four kids without understanding that her kids might not turn out fine. The fact is my siblings still live at hoime with their parents and they are pushing mid to lat 20's.

Life's not a bowl of cherry's and many people do not want to analyze themselves or develop morally/ethically/spiritually because they are following the biobehavioural baggage and remnants of our feral evolutionary past.

Mankind is still in the process of civlizing itself which is going to be a hard and long road.

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Man you guys need to use a better flash player, one that has a full screen option. Even youtube and other entertainment sites have better flash players.

See Ve3d.com for instance (a gaming site with a good player).

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1. Knowledge is acquired only through thinking, reasoning, and questioning. Knowledge is based on facts.
a. Belief is now knowledge. Beliefs are opinions acted upon as if they were facts.
b. Opinions are not based on facts, knowledge, or reasoning.
c. Critical thinking is an active process based on applying analysis, the synthesis of data, and your ability to assess the information being received.

2. It is only from learning how to think that you learn what to think.
a. The unquestioning acceptance of what another says as fact is not learning nor is it part of the skill of thinking critically. It, in fact, inhibits any learning from taking place.
b. Learning how to think does not involve rote memorization.
c. To become educated you need to learn how to gather, analyze, synthesize, assess, and apply data for yourself.

3. Critical thinking is an organized and systematic process used to judge the effectiveness of an argument.
a. It is void of emotional contrictions and is, consequently, unbiased.
b. In order to be most effective as a critical thinker you must have data and facts available for a rebuttal of an argument.
c. Effective argumentation is based on empirical evidence.

From the book The Gospel Truth, The Heresy of History by Alexander S. Holub, PH.D.

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Hopefully, Maher is not on the fools errand to prove a void. Intolerance of monotheism we hope can be forgiven given the cooptation and perversion of Jesus and Mohammed these days, to say little of Judaism as well.

So when is a percieved human need not a need? And who is Maher to take on the cargo of intolerance in the name of iconoclasm; of anything appurtenant to human need of expression. So, if we 'peacemakers' intend to bridge the gap between the destructively polarized, we realize the added burden of lifting Maher's felicitous shades.

We can ask what would have happened had Karl Marx been more plain about organized religion vs. human spirituality and could not have been portrayed as being more anti-religious that Jefferson or Franklin.
PRESCRIPTION:
Bill, get off the pavement of your sterile workplace. Bill, read the Sermon on the Mount (Matt.5-8), the Book of Buddha that is found in every Hawaiian motel (along with a good spice of Thich Nhat Hanh), then read a bit of CG Jung. Keep in mind Albert Einstein's quote, "...there is a greater mind at work in the universe besides man's." Then find a wilderness guide to take you somewhere remote from artifice and take a good hit of natural mescaline. Then write a movie script.

Because if we did not believe in something greater than Geo. W. Bush in this life, we might all take up arms like the godless TVevangelists, what the Hell.

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A pitty, Mr. Maher, I am with you when you mention the ridiculessnes of most organized religions, but when you say that you (nor anyone else) do not know what happens after death, some of your arguments loose the validity I would like them to have had.
What happens to what?. The answer is so obvious that it does not require much wondering:
You cease to exist and the rest of the world continues to go on. Because that "you" is a production of your cerebral circuits, and when the resonance they make stops, "you" ceases.
THe fact that one poses that question, implies in a belief of something external from our physical body. From here, the need fot some type of religion becomes inevitable.

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Unfortunately Bill has missed the mark again. Through his self worshipping and pauses for undeserved applause he again convolutes at best the opportunity to present a cohesive message. But he's made a living of that, as all entertainers do. They work to the accolade and seldom if ever to a cause. They simply can't help it. It's their drug. Or in his case perhaps his other drug.
There is a most excellent video on Google Video called ZeitGeist that adds perspective to those who would revere imaginary friends. It ties nicely together every war, the Central Banks role in them, religions heavy handed slavery tactics and allows one to develop their critical thinking skills if not indeed hone them.
Sadly, Bill in an effort to be a funny man miisses all of this. But then again, he squandered the best opportunity he's possibly ever had by trying to be funny on HBO, and simply tilting to any adoration. Perhaps playing to a laugh will do that...But honestly...does it have to..
Okay the timing....
Easter.
Choosing Easter as a target release date?
Bill who is largely identified by his association with Dems (even if he is another personification entirely) chooses to alienate every Christian in an election year. Brilliant!!!! But not so much for anyone with any semblance of a progressive value. Was I expecting more? Absolutely not. The guy is challenged at best, a moron at worst. Thanks Bill.....Thanks a lot

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I'm an atheist because I don't believe there's someone in charge of all this. My view makes perfect sense to me and I have become much more tolerant because of it.

I'm looking forward to this movie movie because , I must confess, I get great pleasure in watching irritated religious types strut around and sweat. I used to want to strangle them.


"I like your Jesus. I do not like your Christians; they are so unlike your Jesus." -- Mohandas Gandhi

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TAKE TIME AWAY FROM ""THE AUTHORITATIVE
BILL MAHER"", STUDY THE SHROUD OF TURIN AND ANSWER THE QUESTION THAT SCIENTISTS SO FAR HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO ANSWER:::HOW DID THE IMAGE GET ON THE SHROUD? NO PHONY REMARKS HERE BECAUSE IT JUST WON'T WORK.

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This is an important documentary. I think I do know what happens to us after we die. We decompose and continue to participate in the carbon and nitrogen cycles as carbon dioxide and nitrogen gases. Jesus did not rise from the dead. This would be a violation of the second law of thermodynamics. There is no evidence to support life after death. But the laws of thermodynamics are as good as gold. Religion has been used to brainwash people and it destroys people's analytical thinking processes. Scientists work hard to establish the truth about living systems and our universe, but people would rather believe in religion because it is easier.

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The fundamentalists don't like having the light of humor shined on their sick, twisted thinking. I have heard of too many brilliant, enlightened people, cut down for doing things less heroic and threating to their maniulative ideologies than the film that Maher is presenting. Hollands film director Van Gough is a sad example of someone who tried to wake people up and he was put to sleep permanently.

Please be careful Bill, in this land of free speech you could pay the ultimate price for your courage. Maybe Alternet readers could volunteer protect his ass as he goes about saving ours!

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