Saturday, January 26, 2008

Maher Is Ignorant and a Coward

Last evening, I fell asleep on the couch. It was way to early! Must have been around 8:30 p.m. because when I awoke, it was around 11:30 p.m.! Darn! Missed Monk again!

While surfing through the upper channels, I ran across Bill Maher's show. Now, I don't usually make a habit of watching it but the few times that I have paused to listen to him, he is ALWAYS bashing President Bush and usually has terrible things to say about Christians. Well, last night was certainly a doozie! Maher made some really bizarre statements.

Near the very end of the show, just after Maher forced his guests to agree with him that "Bush is the worst president we have ever had," he then proceeded to go on a crazy rant about God and Christian sacred beliefs.

The discussion was about the UFO's that were recently spotted and filmed. The video made all the news shows. Maher and his guests were discussing what the various explanations could be. The conversation included the idea that it may be a new, secret technology that was being tested all the way to the usual "it's aliens" claim.

When confronted with the alien idea, Maher went into a rant about God.

This is a paraphrased portion of that rant:

Maher:
I find that more believable (re: aliens) than what religious people believe about the God of the universe, coming down, having sex with a Palestinian girl, and having a Son.

One guest added, "Yeah...and she was 16...underaged."

Hmmm...I think that Maher should re-name his show "Real IGNORANCE" with Bill Maher!

Since I don't regularly watch his show, I do not know whether or not he has ever been brave enough to be critical and mocking of Islam the way he is obviously critical, and mocking, of Christianity. Bashing Islam would take some real courage!

But Christianity? That's an easy target. No fear there (at least not in this world).

According to Wikipedia, Maher's beliefs include:

He is also not shy about his apatheist beliefs and frequently asserts his belief that all forms of religious belief are detrimental to society.


One day, Maher will face that Judge of the Universe and if he never repents, what a terrible day it will be for him!

Rev 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.


Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God,[fn3] and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.


Rev 20:13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.


Rev 20:14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.[fn4]


Rev 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.


20:12 NU-Text and M-Text read the throne.
20:14 NU-Text and M-Text add the lake of fire.


Whew! Wouldn't want to be Maher!

So...Maher gets away...unscathed (at least in this world) for his anti-God beliefs. So be it. It's easy. It makes his show a hit. It makes him money.

Contrast this with what a true political critic of another religion...namely...Islam, goes through. I saw a portion of the interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of the book "Infidel," on The O'Reilly Factor last evening.

Excerpts of one review at above link:

The break began when she slipped away from her family on her way to a forced marriage in Canada and talked her way into political asylum in Holland, using a story she herself calls "an invention." Soon after arriving, she removed her head scarf to see if God would strike her dead. He did not. Nor were there divine consequences when, defying her ancestors, she donned blue jeans, rode a bicycle, enrolled in university, became a Dutch citizen, began to speak publicly about the mistreatment of Muslim women in Holland and won election to the Dutch parliament.

But tragedy followed fame. In 2004, Hirsi Ali helped a Dutch director, Theo van Gogh, make a controversial film, "Submission," about Muslim women suffering from forced marriages and wife beating. Van Gogh was murdered by an angry Muslim radical in response, and Hirsi Ali went into hiding. The press began to explore her past, discovering the "inventions" that she had used to get her refugee status. The Dutch threatened to revoke her citizenship; the American Enterprise Institute offered her a job in Washington. And thus she came to be among us.

She also describes how horrified she felt as an adult after Sept. 11, 2001, reaching for the Koran to find out whether some of Osama bin Laden's more blood-curdling statements -- "when you meet the unbelievers, strike them in the neck" -- were direct quotations. "I hated to do it," she wrote, "because I knew that I would find bin Laden's quotations in there." And there were consequences: "The little shutter at the back of my mind, where I pushed all my dissonant thoughts, snapped open after the 9/11 attacks, and it refused to close again. I found myself thinking that the Quran is not a holy document. It is a historical record, written by humans. . . . And it is a very tribal and Arab version of events. It spreads a culture that is brutal, bigoted, fixated on controlling women, and harsh in war."

That moment led Hirsi Ali to her most profound conclusion: that the mistreatment of women is not an incidental problem in the Muslim world, a side issue that can be dealt with once the more important political problems are out of the way. Rather, she believes that the enslavement of women lies at the heart of all of the most fanatical interpretations of Islam, creating "a culture that generates more backwardness with every generation."


Bill Maher is such a coward!! There he sits, night after night spewing hateful rhetoric about a religion he knows nothing about. He is safe. He is comfortable. He is protected...precisely because the administration of George W. Bush - the guy he loves to hate - has put in place protections that allow Maher the safety, security, and free speech rights to blaspheme the God of the Bible in front of millions via his T.V. show.

The soldiers fighting in the wars against Islamofascist terrorism are giving their lives so that Maher can be free, safe, comfortable, wealthy, vocal, visible on T.V. and given the opportunity for freedom of speech to a wide audience.

Yet, this woman who has stood up so bravely and courageously has the need for body guards protecting her due to death threats leveled at her because of the truth that she is revealing about Radical Islam.

Go to the link and read all of the details. Here's one more excerpt:

Ultimately, it led to her most controversial conclusion too: that Islam is in a period of transition, that the religion as it is currently practiced is often incompatible with modernity and democracy and must radically transform itself in order to become so. "We in the West," she writes, "would be wrong to prolong the pain of that transition unnecessarily, by elevating cultures full of bigotry and hatred toward women to the stature of respectable alternative ways of life." That sentiment, when first expressed in Holland, infuriated not only Hirsi Ali's compatriots but also Dutch intellectuals uneasy about criticizing the immigrants in their midst, particularly because both Hirsi Ali and Theo van Gogh went further than the usual criticism of radical, political Islam: Both believed that even "ordinary" forms of Islam, such as those practiced in Hirsi Ali's Somalia, contain elements of discrimination against women that should not be tolerated in the West. Thanks to this belief in female equality, Hirsi Ali now requires permanent bodyguards.

4 comments:

Matt W. said...

What a wonderful religion of Peace and love.

When are people going to wake up and see the truth? The radicals are not radical, they are the ones that are practicing Islam the way it was meant to be. As she said, this is what it is at it's heart.

As for Bill Maher, I'd like to say such a statement is surprising, however, it's not. As disgusting as it is, as angry as it makes you to read something like that (and I imagine to hear it even more so) we still don't advocate violence because of it.

Neil said...

Yes, Maher does seem to turn the subject to God a lot. His comments are rather childish, and as you noted he seems to focus mostly on Christianity. I've noticed that most atheists do that. They try to rationalize that is because they know it best, etc., but it takes a lot of ignorance to say that Christianianity is more dangerous than Islam.

Christinewjc said...

Yes Matt. The "moderates" in Islam are often lumped right in with the "infidels" (meaning...all the rest of us) for not believing in Radical Islam!!

Because moderate Muslims are not held up to scrutiny in America like they are elsewhere, they can live in peace. Imagine that! Moderate Muslims can live more peacefully in our Christian nation than in their own Muslim nations!!

I have been told that Muslims do not like that label of being called "moderate."

If you go to this post and read a comment there by Umm Yasmin, she writes:

"I tend to avoid using the word 'moderate' because it implies lukewarm. I.e. I wouldn't want to be called a moderate intellect, or moderately good looking ;)"

She went on to state that the term "modernist" is more palatable.

So...what does that mean...precisely? I can't really claim to know.

As far as Bill Maher is concerned, I think I would faint if he ever uttered a positive word about Christians! Most unlikely.

Christinewjc said...

Hi Neil,

You wrote:

"...it takes a lot of ignorance to say that Christianianity is more dangerous than Islam."

No comparison.

What did Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount? Love your enemies...do good to those that hate you.

Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Luk 6:27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,


What does the Koran say?

Kill the infidels. (Below is only 2 on a huge list)

KORAN commands to kill infidels:

Allah is an enemy to unbelievers. - Sura 2:98

On unbelievers is the curse of Allah. - Sura 2:161

Slay them wherever ye find them and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. - 2:191