Reflections on Playboy: Phony libertarian Bill Maher hates religion

ANNUIT
COEPTIS

Brian Sorgatz
(rhymes with “cats”)
Arcata, California, United States

What sort of man blogs about Playboy? I flatter myself to think that Kendra Wilkinson might call this blog intellectual pimping.

View my complete profile.

“Composer Artisan” ISFP. Socially and economically libertarian for reasons having nothing to do with Ayn Rand. Current fields of study: Playboy, A Course in Miracles, building a new life in Humboldt County.

Hollywood, California, is my spiritual hometown. I actually grew up in three other communities in California, but it hardly seems to matter which three. How could my heart take root anywhere under the tyranny of American public schooling?

I don’t have to work for a living. After my father died in December 1997, my family and I won a legal settlement.

RSS.XML Feed

Do you like Snap Shots? If not, select “Disable” from the CIRCULAR GEAR ICON of any Snap Shots pop-up window. To re-enable, follow this link to their site.

The Playboy Blog (official).
The Playboy Blogger by DigiHef.
Playboy Critic’s Corner.
The Blog About Nothing: Sudheer of Hyderabad, India, is a big fan of Playboy and an even bigger fan of Seinfeld. In this blog, he composes humorous dialogues for the show’s characters.
Confessions of a Female Misogynist: A Feminist Critique of My Personal Hypocrisy.
Eros Philia Agape: TerraPraeta seeks “the true nature of people, society and the world.”
Ethan Lee Vita: Philosopher and Writer. Ethan is a fellow libertarian.
Finding Salihah: the journal of a Muslim woman in Minneapolis.
The Gnooze: The G is silent. Marta Costello does a Jon Stewart–Stephen Colbert type of thing on the news of the day—and she’s prettier than either of those guys to boot. Watch her mention Reflections on Playboy in gratitude for my positive review.
Hit & Run: the official blog of my other favorite magazine, Reason: Free Minds and Free Markets; winner of the 2005 Weblog Award for Best Group Blog; “the best libertarian blog” according to the October 2005 issue of Playboy.
Islam vs. Liberty? On Islam and on Liberty.
Jamie Malanowski: by day, managing editor of Playboy; by night, a talented, intelligent novelist.
Jetting Through Life: “Jet” is loads of fun and she lives in Ohio.
Playboy model Terri Lynn Farrow at MySpace: in my opinion, a worthy candidate for Playmate.
Queen of Spain Blog: “tabloid mommy blogging at its best” according to the author.
Real-World Spirituality by Shantra: along with her husband, this blogger is a real-world friend as well as an Internet friend.
Scoobie Davis Online: a self-described “filmmaker, surfer, and party crasher” in southern California. He’s also a Playboy fan, a left-leaning political gadfly, and a connoisseur of Jack T. Chick religious tracts.
The Search for Health in Decadence: poetry and philosophical writings of Will, who has engaged me in lengthy, good-natured debate through comments on my blog.
South Side Of The 5: Robert Paulson is another Playboy aficionado.

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker. With stylistic flair, a Harvard cognitive scientist refutes myths about human nature underlying a multitude of political beliefs—including many of those that would either favor or oppose the sexual revolution.
Trash Culture: Popular Culture and the Great Tradition by Richard Keller Simon. Professor Simon makes an impressive case for the essential similarity of “high” and “low” culture. The chapter on Playboy is thoughtful and valuable.
The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness by Virginia Postrel. There is nothing inherently shallow or frivolous about spending time and money on beauty in one’s environment, possessions, or body.
God in Popular Culture by Andrew M. Greeley. A liberal Catholic priest sees quasi-Christian messages of grace abounding in the allegedly soulless realm of commercial pop culture. For all I know, Greeley is not necessarily a Playboy fan. But his interpretation of Madonna’s song “Like a Virgin” has influenced my impression of Playboy. (In case anyone wonders, my religious heritage is Lutheran on my father’s side and secularist on my mother’s.)
We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy—And the World’s Getting Worse by James Hillman and Michael Ventura. I reject the left-wing gloom that inspired the title—I think the world is generally getting better—but this book is a gold mine of exciting new ideas about whatever it is we call mental health.
The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education by Grace Llewellyn. She trusts Jean-Jacques Rousseau more than she should, but she has the right idea about America’s tyrannical public schools.
The Soul of Sex: Cultivating Life as an Act of Love by Thomas Moore. With his remarkably nuanced and unprejudiced mind, Moore ponders human sexuality as an expression of soul.

June 20, 2008

Phony libertarian Bill Maher hates religion

ANNE FRANK HOUSE, Amsterdam: When you stand in front of it—a nondescript house on a busy street—you really feel how true the phrase “banality of evil” is. One of the most common arguments in defense of religion is that Hitler wasn’t religious and neither were Stalin and Mao, and they were bad, so religion must be good [emphasis added]. But like religion itself, this argument relies on one’s not thinking too deeply.

—Bill Maher, “Religion 101,” Playboy, July 2008

It’s a goddamn shame, no pun intended. Up until that paragraph and the ones that follow it, the article is funny and insightful. Maher misrepresents the sophisticated libertarian argument for the dignity of religious freedom. Religion per se is not good or bad but neutral in terms of good libertarian civics.

In other words, Thomas Paine had the cause-and-effect relationship between religion and behavior exactly wrong when he said, “Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.” Men who were cruel to begin with pick cruel Gods to worship. In a sobering irony for Playboy’s legacy, the scapegoating of religion for cruelty looks like the scapegoating of pornography for rape.

You stink, Bill Maher!

Labels: ArtPic, Lib, RS

Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 7:40 AM

Luke left this comment at June 25, 2008 10:30 AM
You're a dumbass.

Brian Sorgatz left this comment at June 25, 2008 4:00 PM
Way to represent your side of the debate, Luke. Is that the best you guys can do?

« Home

<$BlogBacklinkTitle$>: <$BlogBacklinkSnippet$>
posted by <$BlogBacklinkAuthor$> @ <$BlogBacklinkDateTime$>