Bill Maher: The irony of religion is that because of its power to
divert man to destructive courses, the world could actually come to
an end. The plain fact is, religion must die for mankind to live.
The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge having in key
decisions made by religious people. By irrationalists, by those who
would steer the ship of state not by a compass, but by the
equivalent of reading the entrails of a chicken. George Bush prayed
a lot about Iraq, but he didnt learn a lot about it. Faith means
making a virtue out of not thinking. Its nothing to brag about.
And those who preach faith, and enable and elevate it are
intellectual slaveholders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy
and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and
destruction. Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings
who dont have all the answers to think that they do. Most people
would think its wonderful when someone says, "Im willing, Lord!
Ill do whatever you want me to do!" Except that since there are no
gods actually talking to us, that void is filled in by people with
their own corruptions and limitations and agendas. And anyone who
tells you they know, they just know what happens when you die, I
promise you, you dont. How can I be so sure? Because I dont know,
and you do not possess mental powers that I do not. The only
appropriate attitude for man to have about the big questions is not
the arrogant certitude that is the hallmark of religion, but doubt.
Doubt is humble, and thats what man needs to be, considering that
human history is just a litany of getting **** dead wrong. This is
why rational people, anti-religionists, must end their timidity and
come out of the closet and assert themselves. And those who
consider themselves only moderately religious really need to look
in the mirror and realize that the solace and comfort that religion
brings you comes at a horrible price. If you belonged to a
political party or a social club that was tied to as much bigotry,
misogyny, homophobia, violence, and sheer ignorance as religion is,
youd resign in protest. To do otherwise is to be an enabler, a
mafia wife, for the true devils of extremism that draw their
legitimacy from the billions of their fellow travelers. If the
world does come to an end here, or wherever, or if it limps into
the future, decimated by the effects of religion-inspired nuclear
terrorism, lets remember what the real problem was. We learned how
to precipitate mass death before we got past the neurological
disorder of wishing for it. Thats it. Grow up or die.
