Site Meter Reflections on Playboy: Phony libertarian Bill Maher hates religion

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!

My review of Religulous:
God is for Bill Maher what sex was for Andrea Dworkin

Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 7:40 AM

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

  • Blogger 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?

  • Anonymous Anonymous left this comment at October 13, 2008 9:31 AM  
    Maher is NOT a libertarian....he dosent have a bone of conservatism in him.......hes a pure liberal. No libertarian would be supporting obama in any way shape or form

  • Blogger Brian Sorgatz left this comment at October 13, 2008 12:01 PM  
    Anonymous,
    What you say about Obama is not necessarily true. Obama is arguably more libertarian than McCain, who believes that government’s role is to inspire faith in government. That is so not libertarian!

  • Anonymous Anonymous left this comment at January 24, 2009 9:57 AM  
    Maher is a libertarian, he is a left leaning libertarian.

    You idiots forget libertarianism is as much about the end of the army, the end of the drug war as it is about owning a gun. get the hell back to texas.

    as for the article, screw you, religion causes problems, and the good it does could be achieved with out it.

  • Blogger Brian Sorgatz left this comment at January 24, 2009 10:53 AM  
    Anonymous,
    I applaud your courage in speaking your mind here—whatever your name is.

    If “libertarian” is to have a distinct political meaning, there can be no dichotomy between “left libertarian” and “right libertarian.” Libertarian means pro-choice on pretty much everything, end of story. Since you have decided unilaterally that religion is harmful to everyone, I wonder what libertarian method you would employ to take it away from everyone.

  • Anonymous Anonymous left this comment at June 6, 2009 8:09 PM  
    You don't have to advocate a forcible end to religion to dislike religion. Jeez. Bet most libertarians don't think crack is good for you either, I know I don't-- but still I am in favor of legalizing it.

    Libertarianism would be absurd if it weren't possible to criticize something without outlawing it.

  • Blogger Brian Sorgatz left this comment at June 6, 2009 9:19 PM  
    Maher does not merely dislike religion. His language is more inflammatory than that. He places so much blame for history’s evils on religion that he distorts the proper reasoning about behavioral cause and effect that underlies libertarianism. Maher lacks integrity as a libertarian.

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