Bill Maher and Mike Huckabee Discuss Religion

It’s a shame so many people don’t think Bill Maher’s view of atheists is that big of a problem, otherwise I’d have written a letter a while ago. It really is bad enough with all the bad (and wrong) press we get from the religious. We don’t need Bill Maher against us as well. I’m fine with him if he wants to refer to himself as an “agnostic” (even though it says nothing about his actual beliefs), but he shouldn’t talk about something he evidently hasn’t even read the definition of.

Huckabee stumbles upon pretty much every standard argument for god and fails at each one.

Good video. Huckabee highlights several problems with believer’s logic. That some good deeds could wipe out a history full of religious violence and strife, for example. Or that someone who claims that everyday instances are an invisible deities method of speaking to him should somehow not be classified as delusional or mentally imbalanced.

“True” religion, “blind” faith, it’s “doubt” that drives us to faith, “real” faith always “questions”. Lots of contradictions, nonsense that gets parroted from theologians but doesn’t withstand a moments reflection. No one questions their own faith, it’s impossible. Huckabee realises this half way through, when he considers whether he could question his faith in Jesus, then decides to redefine questioning faith as people questioning others faith. Sorry, belief doesn’t work like that.

He also changes positions throughout, several times taking the position of “belief in belief”, ignoring that religions make mutually exclusive claims, and defining “true” religion not by the claims, but whether they commit violence. Basically it’s OK to believe whatever you like as long as you don’t act immorally. What’s immoral? Well, you see, morals come from God, and God said… Don’t get caught by this facade of relativism, like almost all “relativists” they’re only adopting it at times when it is conveniant.

Bill Maher knows full well that most self defined atheists don’t claim to know the non-existance of any deity. Maybe he’s just using language his audience, many religious, will understand. Alternatively, he’s a dick.

I think Maher might be overstating the atheism in Western Europe. Also, while they may not believe in Gods some places, that doesn’t stop them believing in elves and trolls (Nordic), energies and auras (hippies), and witchcraft (pagan/wiccan).

Fun fact: Cannabis isn’t legal in Amsterdam, it’s decriminalized (unpunishable) in licensed coffee shops.

That was indeed entertaining. Always liked Bill Maher. Thanks for video.

You wrote

Maher still wrongly defines atheist as someone who categorically denies God’s existence (in other words, saying “There is no God” instead of “I don’t believe in God”).

In fact, Maher doesn’t define atheism that way in the clip. Around 04:25 he says

[This movie] is not saying I know what the truth is and that there is no God. That’s not what I’m saying because I feel that would mirror the kind of certainty that I think is so wrong about religion. What I say is ‘I don’t know, and you don’t know either.’

That’s very different from the view attributed to him.

The answer in this clip that bothered me the most, especially since Maher didn’t hammer it with a follow-up question, is Huckabee’s answer to “Have god ever spoken to you”. Huckabee then gives the pat answer of “god speaks to me in this way”, etc. First, this is a logical problem: when Maher said “speak”, we know the context he used it in, but Huckabee (and many religious folks) change the context to worm their way out of the question by using “speak” in a different sense, such as I might use it in saying “That movie was great. It really spoke to me.”

Back in my Christian days, this troubled me as well. I would read the Bible, and though it happened in strange, miraculous contexts, god still spoke to people in the conventional sense. Moses saw a burning bush, but still, quite literally, heard god speak. Jesus had the dove, but god still said, apparently in a loud, booming voice, “this my begotten son with whom I am well pleased” (paraphrased). I would read these pasages and still believe that “god spoke to my heart”, yet wonder why god had given us the silent treatment for 2,000 years.

Despite Huckabee’s troubling answers and Maher’s flawed perspective of what it means to be an atheist, I’ll agree that it is refreshing to see the civility and kudos to the Governor for having a level of respect that wouldn’t have been found with many of his FOX news counterparts.