HBO's Bill Maher Says Christians Have Neurological Disorder, Are Crazy

Courtesy of the American Family Association.

http://www.afa.net/hbobillmaher.asp

Bill Maher, host of HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher , says that all Christians are crazy and are unenlightened because of their faith. Maher made the comments on MSNBC's Scarborough Country.

Maher said: "We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion…I think that religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies. I think that flying planes in a building was a faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder. If you look at it logically, it's something that was drilled into your head when you were a small child."

"When you look at belief in such things--as do you go to heaven, is there a devil--we have more in common with (Muslin countries) Turkey and Iran and Syria than we do with European nations and Canada and nations that, yes, I would consider more enlightened that us."

Maher said he wasn't speaking only of evangelicals, but included all religious people. He said he agreed with Jesse Ventura "who had that quote about religion is a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers."

Because of their neurological disorder, he said Christians "do not believe in science and rationality." He went on to say the future does not belong to religion. One recalls the famous quote from the Beatles in the 60's that they "were more popular than Jesus."

According to Maher, the Bible is a book of fairy tales, calling the account of Jonah a fairy tale the same as Jack in the Beanstalk.

Had Maher said such things about homosexuals, he would have been immediately fired. But because he was speaking of Christians, his bigotry was acceptable to HBO, owned by Time Warner Inc.

TAKE ACTION

Send Mr. Maher an email saying you regret he has such a low view of Christians, and will pray that he be "enlightened" as to the true nature of Christianity. Explain to him that Christians appreciate the good science does and most Christians are rational individuals.

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This is Maher's HBO e-mail address if you care to drop him a note, he'll certainly be getting loads of nasty e-mails from the other side.

bill.maher@hbo.com

The total transcript from the show is here:

http://tinyurl.com/3zsyh

The relevant section is this:

SCARBOROUGH: Well, let`s talk about -- I always love a guy that can laugh at his own jokes.

(LAUGHTER)

SCARBOROUGH: So, anyway, let`s talk about something that Gary Wills wrote. And I think Maureen Dowd echoed with sentiment.

After the election when we found out that 22 percent of Americans, based on some exit polls, said morality was their top issue, Gary Wills said that any country with evangelicals that voted for George Bush who believe in the virgin birth more than they believe in evolution can`t be an enlightened nation.

And Gary Wills basically compared America to al Qaeda. That`s a little harsh, isn`t it?

MAHER: That is too harsh.

SCARBOROUGH: People of faith can step forward, get involved in the process, believe in Jesus, and still vote for George Bush without being an ignorant peasant, can`t they?

MAHER: Well, I think comparing them to al Qaeda is too harsh, but that`s because al Qaeda is a terrorist organization.

But do we have more in common -- and I am not the first one to say this. I have read this many times. We have more in common with the people, some of the nations who we are aligned against, when you look at beliefs in such things as, do you go to heaven, is there a devil, we have more in common with Turkey and Iran and Syria than we do with European nations and Canada and nations that, yes, I would consider more enlightened than us.

Yes, we are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that. I think that religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies. I think flying planes into a building was a faith- based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder. If you look at it logically, it`s something that was drilled into your head when you were a small child. It certainly was drilled into mine at that age. And you really can`t be responsible when you are a kid for what adults put into your head.

But when you become an adult, you can then have it drilled out. And you should.

SCARBOROUGH: So, you are saying that the millions and millions of Americans who go to church every week or go to synagogue...

(CROSSTALK)

MAHER: Have a neurological disorder, yes.

SCARBOROUGH: Have a neurological disorder. So I -- so, so...

MAHER: It`s something that happened to them when they were a child. They were told...

SCARBOROUGH: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: So, I believe in Jesus. I believe in heaven. I believe in hell. I believe in good.

MAHER: Right.

SCARBOROUGH: I believe in evil.

Tell me how that neurological -- and I am talking about myself. How does that neurological disorder impact me day in and day out? Because some people would argue it actually makes me healthier, makes me a better member of society, makes sure that I respect other people`s opinions.

MAHER: Are you kidding? Respect other people`s opinions?

SCARBOROUGH: Yes.

MAHER: Would we be having this debate about whether gay people can lead their lives just like any other people if it wasn`t for religion? Religion makes people not respect other people`s lives.

SCARBOROUGH: I mean, come on. I mean, you look at all of these states. You can look at Missouri. Like, they had a vote on a referendum on gay marriage. My gosh, what, 70 -- I think 70, 75 percent of the people in Missouri voted against gay marriage. That wasn`t because 75 percent of the people in Missouri are evangelicals.

What about the people that beat Matthew Shepherd to death in Wyoming? You think they were worshipping Jesus before they went out and beat him to death?

MAHER: Well, no, but why are you conflating those two things? It`s one thing to beat someone to death. That`s just a crime.

SCARBOROUGH: Because they`re gay. No, no, it was hatred of him because he was guy.

(CROSSTALK)

MAHER: I understand that.

But, first of all, I think the vote in Missouri and a lot of other states is because people are religious. They don`t have to be evangelical, but they`re religious. They believe in religion, which as -- I think it was Jesse Ventura who had that quote about religion is a crutch for weak- minded people who need strength in numbers.

SCARBOROUGH: Yes. I think Hitler also said that.

MAHER: No, not -- well, Jesse...

SCARBOROUGH: No. Hitler said something -- I remember when I heard Jesse Ventura saying that, I said, God, that sounds an awful lot like Adolf Hitler, doesn`t it?

MAHER: Well, you know, even a broken watch is right twice a day right.

SCARBOROUGH: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: So Hitler was right.

(LAUGHTER)

MAHER: The point is, well, even Ted Kaczynski was right about a couple of things. It doesn`t mean I agree that he should be blowing things up. Tim McVeigh had some good points. It doesn`t mean I agree with his method of putting those points across.

But when people say to me, you hate America, I don`t hate America. I love America. I am just embarrassed that it has been taken over by people like evangelicals, by people who do not believe in science and rationality. It is the 21st century. And I will tell you, my friend. The future does not belong to the evangelicals. The future does not belong to religion. And I know that...

SCARBOROUGH: I would actually -- I would argue actually just the opposite.

MAHER: No.

SCARBOROUGH: If you look at historical trends, you look what`s happened since the 1960s to right now, actually, America has become more evangelical.

MAHER: Yes, but it`s..

SCARBOROUGH: I mean, gosh, when you look at the Grammy Awards, and this guy gets out and he sings rap -- he raps to "Jesus Walks," the whole place goes crazy. A guy picks up three yards in a football game, he kneels. I would say evangelicals are on the ascendancy.

(CROSSTALK)

MAHER: That`s another religion why religion disgusts me, because it is arrogance parading as humility.

There is nothing humble about somebody getting up there and saying, thank you, God, for this award. What they are really saying is, thank you, God, for making me so wonderful and so talented. But, that aside, when you were a kid and they were telling you whatever you believe in religion, do you think if they had switched the fairy tales that the read to you in bed with the Bible, you would know the difference?

Do you think if it was the fairy tale about a man who lived inside of a whale and it was religion that Jack built a beanstalk today, you would know the difference? Why do you believe in one fairy tale and not the other? Just because adults told you it was true and they scared you into believing it, at pain of death, at pain of burning into hell.

(CROSSTALK)

MAHER: But if you ever were able to clear your...

SCARBOROUGH: I don`t believe in Jesus -- no, I don`t believe in Jesus because I think I am going to live with angels and harps. If you really think about it for a long time, actually, the concept of eternal life is more frightening than the concept of eternal death. I can`t even comprehend eternal life.

But I believe what I believe because of 41 years here on this Earth. And, again, I respect you not believing in God.

MAHER: But, Joe...

SCARBOROUGH: I don`t think that`s a neurological defect on your part.

MAHER: First of all, I never said I didn`t -- I never said I didn`t believe in God. I said I don`t believe in religion.

SCARBOROUGH: OK.

MAHER: Religion is...

SCARBOROUGH: Let`s say Jesus Christ.

(CROSSTALK)

MAHER: Excuse me. Religion is a bureaucracy between man and God. There`s a very big difference.

SCARBOROUGH: I can agree with you -- I agree with you about that. But I`m talking about...

MAHER: But, Joe, if you were born in Pakistan, you wouldn`t have been -- you wouldn`t be believing in Jesus Christ right now. You would be believing in Muhammad. So it`s completely and terribly arbitrary, isn`t it?

SCARBOROUGH: I wasn`t born in Pakistan, so I don`t know if that`s the case or not.

MAHER: But, if you had been, you wouldn`t be believing in Jesus Christ. You would have been told another fairy tale when you were a child and you would believe that.

SCARBOROUGH: Well, Bill, that`s your opinion.

Stick around. We will be right back with much more. I disagree.

You are watching SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY, where Jesus freaks like me hang out. We`ll be right back.

That is priceless. I bet the evangelicals are foaming at the mouth. BWHAHAHA

This really doesn't do us (or him) much good. Neurological disorders result from malfunctions of the brain. I assure you religious belief, deeply held religious belief, is entirely normal within a well functioning brain.

The problem is that our brains are susceptible to such aggressive mindsets. Its not a neurological disorder. If anything it may be a social disorder. But it is the result of a perfectly normally functioning brain.

The very last part of that exchange is the most telling, IMHO.

MAHER: But, Joe, if you were born in Pakistan, you wouldn`t have been -- you wouldn`t be believing in Jesus Christ right now. You would be believing in Muhammad. So it`s completely and terribly arbitrary, isn`t it?

Notice how uncomfortable Scarborough is even thinking about this. It's something that makes mosts believers cringe and cover their ears, to think that this deeply held belief system they have about the fundamental nature of the universe could be subject to something as trivial as the location of your birth. But it's true. Scarborough would likely be one of the thugs going around and harassing men who didn't grow their beards correctly, or burning women for not covering up properly, if he had been born in Afghanistan.

The "We all worship the same god" escape clause usually comes in.

I don't think Maher should have singled out Xians, though as an American, it's certainly tempting. Theists have some internal need for superstition and magic. I'm not sure that they're crazy, but I would say that they do have an intellectual weakness.

How do you distinguish me from other objects around you? Why do you not converse with waste paper baskets or chairs?

We are not born knowing the difference between a door knob and a person. We are not even aware of the limits of our own bodies when we are born. It takes time to learn where we end and the universe begins.

Once we get that figured out the next step is cateloging the things around us. Some of the things move. Some don't. Some of the moving things seem to be similar to us (now that we have an image of what we are). Perhaps they experience this same sort of sense of existance we do. But we can't sense their experience. It seems to be uniquily theirs. Beyond our experience. But we can theorise that they have experiences similar to ours.

Thus we begin to project identity onto other things. In time things turn to people in our mind. We continue this process of projecting identity onto other things if they present properties which we can recognise until we learn otherwise.

A blankey, a tree, fire, all these things we project identity onto. Eventually we come to learn that they aren't quite the same as the identities we project onto people and we begin to discard the persona's we have given them.

But not all things are as easily dismissed. As our understanding of the universe has expanded it has become easier to dismiss entities that we believed to be close at hand. Spirits in water or earth. The weather being the will of capricious spirits. But still there remains room for speculation about identities far removed from our grasp and understanding. Thus gods continue to exist within the gaps our understanding leaves them.

My sense of you is palpable. That is I know there is a person there. It is part and parcel with how I see the world. For believers their sense of god is just as palpable. There is no question there is an identity out there for them.

Its simply a left over aspect of how we evolved to relate to one another. As as it doesn't directly interfere with our survival it persisted. In fact it may even have lent us some survival advantages. Factors that tie a community together tightly create strong foundations for a society to propser. Thus a shared delusion can form the basis of a single minded community. And as long as the delusion does not interfere with the prosperity of the community it will not be selected against by natural selection.

Have you ever read The Politics of Experience by R.D. Laing? It's pretty old, but judging from your post, I would think you might have read it, or if not, you'd really dig it. Basically, it's a treatise on the nature of experience, as in how we experience ourselves, others, and the world around us. It's very deep.

Here are a couple passages that I really like from the book:

In order to rationalize our industrial-military complex, we have to destroy our capacity to see clearly any more what is in front of, and to imagine what is beyond, our noses. Long before a thermonuclear war can come about, we have had to lay waste our own sanity. We begin with the children. It is imperative to catch them in time. Without the most thorough and rapid brainwashing their dirty minds would see through our dirty tricks. Children are not yet fools, but we shall turn them into imbeciles like ourselves, with high I.Q.'s if possible...

We all live under constant threat of our total annihilation. We seem to seek death and destruction as much as life and happiness. We are as driven to kill and be killed as we are to let live and live. Only by the most outrageous violation of ourselves have we achieved our capacity to live in relative adjustment to a civilization apparently driven to its own destruction. Perhaps to a limited extent we can undo what has been done to us and what we have done to ourselves. Perhaps men and women were born to love one another, simply and genuinely, rather than to this travesty that we call love. If we can stop destroying ourselves we may stop destroying others. We have to begin by admitting and even accepting our violence, rather than blindly destroying ourselves with it, and therewith we have to realize that we are as deeply afraid to live and to love as we are to die...

(From a recent email to my semi-fundy sister):

"...therefore any one mentally ill enough to believe in something as prespoterous as Christianity might as well make up any other rules they choose to live by."

And yes, it's terribly sad that I copied and pasted that for future use, but I'm no writer and I was very pleased with that sentence. :D

I'd say the stories were more like fables.

I have to agree with the statement that people have their belief drilled into their heads from birth - it isn't easy to over come it either. I can't even begin to count the number of fights I had over going to catechism and church once a week. Thank goodness it was just my mother, what kid stands a chance when they get double teamed by both parents. It's easier to substitute one religion for another then to go cold turkey from all the nonsense.

My mother has since come over to the dark-side with me.

We should send him a e-mail of appreciation! The guy is gonna receive 23 zillions of insults and death-threats.

Bill's going to love getting hate mail and death threats from the fundies. I know I would! It'll just prove his point about irrational behavior.

Had Maher said such things about homosexuals, he would have been immediately fired. But because he was speaking of Christians, his bigotry was acceptable to HBO, owned by Time Warner Inc.

Well, there's a difference. We all agree it's wrong to criticize someone's inborn traits, like race or orientation. But it's okay to criticize the bad decisions people make, like adopting a particular extremist brand of religion.

most people who admit to hearing voices get put in mental institutions or on medication. You'd think that the fact that Bush acts violently and dangerously on the voices he claims to hear would be reason enough to lock him in a padded room before he hurts any more people. I say round his whole administration and all the terrorists up and subject them to the unwarranted forcible mind fuck aka mental health/psychiatric treatment.