Bill Maher Takes Down GOP Over Paris Response, Teases Colbert for Believing Religion's 'Myths from the Bronze Age'

Bill Maher went on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and was as Bill Maher as ever. That means he did a great job of refuting the ridiculous rhetoric coming from the GOP in response to the Paris attacks, then got it all wrong by accusing a good portion of the Muslim world of being extremists, then took a few good-natured jabs at Colbert over religion.

Maher began by taking on conservatives like Ted Cruz — whom Maher referred to as “a chickenhawk with a law degree" — who claim that we should essentially bomb the Middle East back to the Stone Age to take ISIS out.

“That’s crazy. And, I mean, just the idea that you can wipe them out, this is the old Vietnam model. Body counts. Remember Vietnam? ... You can’t wipe people out, off the map. That’s not gonna happen. What you have to do is wipe out the idea.”

So far so good, right? But then Maher veered into well-trodden Islamaphobia territory.

“It would be one thing if the terrorists did not share ideas with lots of mainstream people who follow the Islamic religion ... If only ISIS believed that anyone who leaves the religion should be killed, well, maybe then we can finally kill all of ISIS. But what if that’s twenty, thirty, forty percent of all Muslim people in the world? You’re not going to kill all of them, are you?”

Maher added, “We have to change those ideas. Women as second-class citizens. Gay people don’t deserve to be alive. These are mainstream ideas, unfortunately. And liberals have to say, No quarter. No quarter for those kind of ideas."

You know that time Reza Aslan went on CNN to refute a bunch of other anti-Muslim stuff Bill Maher said? This seems like a good time to reference that segment.

Later in the interview, Maher told Colbert they are “very opposite” because Colbert is married and a practicing Catholic.

“I am — doesn’t mean I’m good at it,” Colbert said to audience laughter. “I’m not, honest to god. I suck! I suck as a Catholic.”

Colbert then invited Maher, who was raised Catholic, to “come on back into the fold,” telling him all he needed to do is “admit there are things in the universe greater than you that you do not understand,” among a couple other things. Maher took the opportunity to air his opinion on religion’s failings overall.  

“I do admit there are things in the universe I don’t understand. But my response to that is not to make up silly stories. Or to believe, intellectually, embarrassing myths from the Bronze Age. But you believe whatever you want.”

Check out the segment below: