Bill Maher and George Carlin on Religion

With all this talk in this country about the anti anti semitism in the Mel Gibson movie, you know, I read all that. Well, the the Jews had big noses. Well, you know what, the Jews do have big noses I look at mine, I’m only half Jewish. If you’re going to make a movie about, you know, the Jews in that time place of Arabs had big noses to Semitic people do. Okay, last week on the on there. But I mean to be worried about anti semitism there last week on the website of Saudi Arabia, it says very explicitly, no Jews can apply for a visa to Saudi Arabia. Okay, there’s your anti semitism. That’s what we call it.

Yeah, I want to have a horse. Yeah. Well, once again, I step back from this opera. My, I found a position for myself some time ago. That gives me some detachment and that is, when you’re born in this world, you’re given a ticket to the freak show, and an American get it in America, you get a front row seat. I It is my opinion that at the base of most of the evil in the world is religion of any kind that is has the floor of everything that has grown out of that and the hatred among and between religions is an example the number of people who have died in the name of God far exceeds any other purpose such as political or national interest that you can name and generally they’re mixed anywhere the religion is thrown into the national interest sorry George I’m ball game here on my Thank God

it’s live.

I don’t think it’s necessarily speaks for I don’t think we have a job to teach or tell or do or direct or, or help or helping is good. If there’s no strings attached. We’ve never done that. We’ve never done that. I frankly, do not care about most of these things. Because if you step back and look at This from long historical perspective, it’s a very interesting drama to watch. But I cannot get concerned about something this year next year, 10 years from now, when 1000 years from now they’ll say wasn’t an interesting look what happened. It’s out of our hands. And I personally don’t care. So So and I like that position. I like that position because it frees me to be a commentator, if that’s what I do some of the time about these things, to have an emotionally detached distance from them and say, Look at what they’re doing, look at what you’re doing to yourselves. I mean, the people blame politicians, it’s the voters. It’s when they say, well, where are these policies come from American homes. They come from American churches and schools. It’s just the best we have. It’s all we can do here. So watch it and enjoy it sit back. I don’t vote yes.

This person could say something as a foreigner because I think that this concern you raise Can Can you have democracy with Islam and people are very worried about this religious fundamentalism. And yet, as a Canadian, looking at the United States, I look at it and I live here. And it’s a wonderful country. And I’m deeply grateful for America’s hospitality. But the salience of religion and public life here is much greater than it is in other mature democracies. You know, I don’t think in Canada, you could be prime minister, if you were ever quoted as saying that you thought God wanted you to run. And you thought the jury was still out on evolution, right?

When I was a little girl, there was no God, everything was closed on Sunday, was very hard to get a divorce, homosexual acts were legal. I mean, all of those things have changed. But they all came from religious views. So I think the real key is, do you have any countervailing force to religious views and you have individually about the issue of degree because there are wonderful things about all religions, but we’re not only talking about the fact that Islam is important, but that there are varieties of Islam and they are powerful and often predominant ones, where, for example, over half of the population Women are in a position that I don’t think any of us here could countenance. So yes, it’s true that religion plays a greater role, particularly in red America, you might say, then we often talk about, but what does religion do in different places? And I think that’s something we need to think about. Well, I think it’s really

yeah, I think it was a really good point. I don’t argue with you. And I think you know, the extent to which Islam will be a what kind of Islam would be reflected in their laws is interesting. I mean, there are also people who think that women should be in a secondary position in society, and they quote St. Paul, you know, why does be subservient to your husband’s? I mean, I’m with George on the religion thing. I think that it gets in the way of, of morality, and it’s always always on. What it really plays on is fear. Yeah. And that’s, that’s what I think it has in common with politics. They both play on fear. I think it’s interesting that george bush, for his entire time since 911, has been telling us you know, if we let our lives be run by fear, then they win. But now that the campaign is started, I noticed it’s all about fear.