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| GorgoSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA5311 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/20/2005 :  13:55:40     
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           	| Bill Maher: Religion neurological disorder 
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 (http://eunacom.net/Ed_Com_Op.htm (bottom of page)
 
 'Television personality Bill Maher, host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" says Christians and others who are religious suffer from a neurological disorder that "stops people from thinking."'
 
 Note from Gorgo: He believes in God, so why doesn't he include himself?
 
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| I know the rent is in arrears
 The dog has not been fed in years
 It's even worse than it appears
 But it's alright-
 Jerry Garcia
 Robert Hunter
 
 
 
 
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| Edited by - Gorgo on 03/20/2005  13:56:22
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| DudeSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA6891 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/20/2005 :  19:12:36   [Permalink]     
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| quote:Note from Gorgo: He believes in God, so why doesn't he include himself?
 
 
 
 I watched the show where he said this, and he didn't exclude himself.
 
 And I was under the impression he was atheist or agnostic anyway.
 
 
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| Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
 -- Thomas Jefferson
 
 "god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
 
 
 | Hope, n. The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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| Dr. MabuseSeptic Fiend
 
  
Sweden9698 Posts
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| beskeptigalSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA3834 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/20/2005 :  20:06:33   [Permalink]     
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| Not to change the subject from religion, but Bill is a very warped thinker in his own right. We have a thread over at JREF discussing Maher's misconceptions about how the immune system works. He thinks we don't need vaccines and all our health problems are due to corporate polluters. 
 I was quite shocked to learn he was that dumb. I thought he was intelligent enough to have some political insights but after reading transcripts of his medical beliefs, I have reevaluated my opinion. Maybe this explains why he thinks Miss Righty Dighty, Ann Coulter, is admirable.
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| GorgoSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA5311 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/21/2005 :  03:36:28   [Permalink]     
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| I haven't watched his show much.  He had Ward Churchill on to talk about the professor's essay about 9/11.  Maher did all the talking.  I don't know why he bothered having Churchill sit next to him. 
 I saw him talk about vaccines, too.  I wasn't all that impressed with him.  I have yet to watch an entire hour of his show.
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| I know the rent is in arrears
 The dog has not been fed in years
 It's even worse than it appears
 But it's alright-
 Jerry Garcia
 Robert Hunter
 
 
 
 
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| GorgoSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA5311 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/21/2005 :  03:38:39   [Permalink]     
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| 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. 
 
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| I know the rent is in arrears
 The dog has not been fed in years
 It's even worse than it appears
 But it's alright-
 Jerry Garcia
 Robert Hunter
 
 
 
 
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| DudeSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA6891 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/21/2005 :  03:47:39   [Permalink]     
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| quote:I was quite shocked to learn he was that dumb. I thought he was intelligent enough to have some political insights but after reading transcripts of his medical beliefs, I have reevaluated my opinion. Maybe this explains why he thinks Miss Righty Dighty, Ann Coulter, is admirable.
 
 
 Yeah.  Bill should stick to political comedy.  He rightly blames obecity for many of our health problems, but then he has this whacked out conspiracy theory in which he blames the "pharmacutical industry", the "food industry", and government regulation of the other two for the problem with obecity.
 
 His babbling nonsense about how vaccinations are harmfull was put to a pretty spectacular stop one evening when one of his guests, in response to Bill's blather about vaccines, said something like "They did a pretty good job with polio and smallpox though Bill."  Cut scene to an abrupt subject change as Bill can't respond.
 
 Bill Maher is pretty far from being a skeptic on all subjects, but he manages fairly well when it comes to politics.  And he's very funny.
 
 
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| Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
 -- Thomas Jefferson
 
 "god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
 
 
 | Hope, n. The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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| GorgoSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA5311 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/21/2005 :  03:57:52   [Permalink]     
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| What is religion, anyway?  My dictionary says that it is the way that you organize your beliefs about god.  Believing in any kind of god means that you have a religion, doesn't it? |  
| I know the rent is in arrears
 The dog has not been fed in years
 It's even worse than it appears
 But it's alright-
 Jerry Garcia
 Robert Hunter
 
 
 
 
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| StarmanSFN Regular
 
  
Sweden1613 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/21/2005 :  04:38:29   [Permalink]     
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| In my personal view, religion is when people tell other people what to believe. If you just sit at home fantasizing about gods and miracles that is not religion. 
 
 
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| "Any religion that makes a form of torture into an icon that they worship seems to me a pretty sick sort of religion quite honestly"
 -- Terry Jones
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| GorgoSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA5311 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/21/2005 :  04:50:52   [Permalink]     
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| There seems to be a difference between what we call "organized religion" and "religion."
 
 
 religion
 NOUN: 1a. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe. b. A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship. 2. The life or condition of a person in a religious order. 3. A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader. 4. A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.
 
 http://www.bartleby.com/61/6/R0140600.html
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| I know the rent is in arrears
 The dog has not been fed in years
 It's even worse than it appears
 But it's alright-
 Jerry Garcia
 Robert Hunter
 
 
 
 
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| DudeSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA6891 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/21/2005 :  05:58:00   [Permalink]     
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| But I do tend to agree with his assessment of religion, in that it stops people from thinking.  He's right. 
 
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| Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
 -- Thomas Jefferson
 
 "god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
 
 
 | Hope, n. The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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| GorgoSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA5311 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/21/2005 :  06:17:38   [Permalink]     
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| Here's a more direct link to that article that I posted, which claims that Maher is a Deist. 
 http://eunacom.net/Maher_ChistianNeurDisorder.htm
 
 Which, to me, is no less of a mental disorder.
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| I know the rent is in arrears
 The dog has not been fed in years
 It's even worse than it appears
 But it's alright-
 Jerry Garcia
 Robert Hunter
 
 
 
 
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| Edited by - Gorgo on 03/21/2005  06:19:04 |  
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| BazaNew Member
 
  
United Kingdom47 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/21/2005 :  13:31:21   [Permalink]     
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| Religion doesn't stop people thinking. it allows people not to think. |  
| Baza
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| DudeSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA6891 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/21/2005 :  16:16:54   [Permalink]     
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| quote:Religion doesn't stop people thinking. it allows people not to think.
 
 
 Same end result.
 
 
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| Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
 -- Thomas Jefferson
 
 "god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
 
 
 | Hope, n. The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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| Valiant DancerForum Goalie
 
  
USA4826 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/22/2005 :  08:10:59   [Permalink]       
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| quote:Originally posted by Dude
 
 But I do tend to agree with his assessment of religion, in that it stops people from thinking.  He's right.
 
 
 
 
 
 Organized religion can. Just being religious doesn't. It keeps the sheep people from spooking.
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| Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
 
 Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion
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| Paulos23Skeptic Friend
 
  
USA446 Posts
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|  Posted - 03/22/2005 :  09:22:04   [Permalink]       
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| quote:Originally posted by Valiant Dancer
 
 Organized religion can. Just being religious doesn't. It keeps the sheep people from spooking.
 
 
 True, but you can become the same if you keep looking for your answers to lifes problems in a religish text instead of thinking it out yourself, organized religion or not.
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| You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by being too trusting. -- Robert A. Heinlein
 
 Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. -- Aldous Huxley
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