Ohh....Also.....

Under or Over.......will "W" (open next week) out draw this movie ?

"Why attack One religion, and not another....

I mean, to be honest....isnt Radical Islam a Religion that Bill Maher can attack ?

Or is he affraid of JIHAD, and his head being lopped off ??"

Haven't seen the movie yet, it looked from the previews that it look at Islam a little, but previews are often deceiving.

As for why:

Say you have a choice of having a publicly broadcast debate with someone.  Are you going to choose to debate A) Something the general public is at least somewhat familliar with or B) Something the general public only has a vague understanding of.  Also are you A) Going to choose to debate something YOU are familliar with or B) Something you know almost nothing about.

Furthermore the Abrahamic religions are similar enough, from an outside perspective, that they don't really require specification.

ohh i have to defend balckwing here..
he is quoting new york post here.. the rag paper was new york times

ahhh...TY Schniep..... I was going to Ask Canadian if he is able to concentrate more than 2 lines of a post.

Canadian sure went to the trouble to copy/paste another thread....hehe....dope.

@ Schniep......  Dude, why do we butt heads ??  I saw you actually like McCain over Obama ??  why ??

@ Gladiator.
tsk tsk....dont assume.   Where did I say I was ". . . mad that he didnt "attack" Islam,. . . ?"

I asked a valid question.....the main assualt, and not a 2 min. touch on one religion or the other....the main assualt was on the Judeo/Christian faith.
You guys know that...so lets not make semantics here.

Why Religion at all ?

Doesnt the Agnostic/Atheist crowd know they are in the super minority, protected by the freedoms of a Religious value based system of Western Democracy ??

85% of the world believes in the existance of a higher being....

Yet the Hollywood elite wishes to make a tank of a movie .... that was labled "Smart" and "Witty".....

2.5 million.    Im almost worth more than this silly movie grossed on its opening w/e...... Pathetic.

LOL

BW, i don't agree with bill maher, but he has every right to make that movie
he's just asking tough questions
and actually i want him to, cuz this makes my faith stronger cuz i know i can answer those tough questions
but a lot of people can't, and they are not representing their respective religions correctly, this will be a good lesson for them to actually know their religion before they decide to represent it
most of us were just born into our religion i think, those who converted, converted after researching their religion
people who were born into a religion, before actually calling themselves a christain, or a muslim or a jew
they should actually look into their religion and know what they would be representing

this is a good movie to build your faith even stronger and for those who haven't looked into their religions before, this is a good time for them to do so..

BW i haven't watched the movie so i can't say who he "attacked" more
but have you watched it? i'll probably wait for the dvd...

offcourse it's to mock it, he's afterall supposedly a comedian

but if you're of faith, you gotta basically laugh at it and build your own faith

and you bother cuz you can squeeze some money out of it, and i'm crazy enough to believe that maher actually believes in what he's saying...
it's a good idea in the sense that people are looking for laughs,

i havent watched the movie but if he only mocked one religion, then that does make some sense to me, if you mock em all, you alienate them all, thus no business
however i guess choosing christianity in that sense wouldn't have been the smartest choice, which leads me to believe that this is actually something he believes in? and i appreciate him for that, cuz what he's doing is right
he should ask the tough questions
now this can be taken into three meanings, either you're athiest and you agree
or you're of strong faith and your faith gets stronger
or you're of faith but you've never took the time to know what that actually means, and this is a good time for you to actually look at yourself..

I have not watched the movie. Actually, you are the first one I hear about this movie from. And I'd probably not bother watching it.

Invil, you are too militant, lol.

But I would like to answer to BW about attacking religions. When I wrote it I realized I talked about mocking religions in general, since I had no clue about this movie. And I'm not too sure about which religion he was mocking, lol.

People do it for different reasons. Some people were just raised in a so strict religious environment that they 'rebel' against it afterwards. They did not put themselves in it, this environment was hurting them. So, this is one thing I have seen - people would go against the environment.

One note - when I say 'go against,' well, that is not really true. Those people might go against it just as long as it is there. There's a church they will avoid, but if left in the desert they will start their own church. So, I am not sure if all of the anti-religiousness is really what it stands for. Including that of Invil

But that is only one possible case. Another case that I think of is simply where does the power go to. The religious establishment - built on the religiousness of people - has power that goes with it. And the people use this power. This is the part that gets me uncomfortable to talk about it, since it entails much more than just gospels.

Ok, here is one case in point. When my dad studied at grad school he was approached by a Scientology members. He filled out a questionary about religion which he basically said: "Oh, that is good way to make money." This made him so interested in him that they were still sending him letters 10 years afterwards... I mean, come on, is this what religion is supposed to be? This example is not about Christian church, but, well, some people still consider it as a religion.

I do have friend that became hardcore atheist. When we left high school, none of my classmates really cared about religiousness. This specific person ended up being for a year in housing run by religious christian sect (outside the US, I don't want to include names.) The priests were so hardcore - just imagine all kind of dogmas that they can invent - that they turned away my friend from religion forever.

So, Black Wing, I agree with the figure that 85% of the people are religious. But hey, sometimes they can turn away people.

I've never been particularly impressed by Bill Maher's intelligence. Or integrity for that matter. I'm a libertarian. And he's cracked some good ones that've given me a good laugh from time to time. But I don't think he's that funny. His jokes are usually politically expedient and sometimes he just manages it in a funny way. But his aim is the political, not the humor. He's not that bright, he's not that honest, and he's not that concerned with the truth. As often as he calls out people on behavior that needs calling out on he calls out people on good behavior that libertarians embrace. He's got strange nanny-state preferences for a libertarian.

I saw a minute or two of his interview with that daily show guy I can't stand much of anymore today. I respect the point he made about the role of myths thousands of years ago. There are reasons they were made up. There were reasons people believed in them. And there are reasons we don't believe virtually any of them now. I say virtually because a FEW of those myths gained so many believers and were such holistic myths that they were whole philosophical guides to life (so comprehensive they include life AFTER life!!) that people believe them today. People today view religion as a dimension of life. They just accept it. They shut off the part of the brain/intellect that asks "where did this all come from?" and evaluates the answers to this question.

I'm an avid fan of the individual. I respect whatever you want to believe in. But I think intelligence is healthy to actively engage and we'd all do well to honestly evaluate the things we were told to believe. Because a lot of people have been told a lot of things. And whether or not any of them are right, they aren't all!

ahhh..schniep...now that makes sence.

@ Invil.  Im not a Neo-Con.   Im a Old-Con.
Jackass ?? yes......and worse.

DPS,

Most people lack the capability to reason, and if we removed religion they would become impulsive savages. If you can't reason to anticipate an outcome and adapt accordingly, then you need a method to stick to.

The problem is when religion is used for political advantage. It was politics that caused the Spanish Inquisition and Crusades, not religion.