August 21, 2008

Bill Maher says his ultimate message is ignorance……

Evidently comedian Bill Maher is proclaiming himself the standard bearer and evangelist for ignorance. Maher appeared on the August 19 Larry King Live show to promote his new movie, Religulous, due out in October. In a stunning display of absurdity Maher stated his “ultimate message,”

“And, you know, that is my ultimate message. Unless a god told you personally what happens when you die, it all came from another person with no more mental powers than you have, and you don't know. So just man up and say, ‘I don't know.’”

For Maher to proudly advance a message of ignorance while being notorious for calling religious people stupid is breathtakingly irrational and leads me to wonder if he thinks at all before he speaks. Furthermore, it seems to me that an agnostic should be more of a spectator than an evangelist, but I digress.

Amidst his crusade of advancing ignorance, Maher has come to this conclusion:

“if the universe begins at a certain point, what was before the universe? Nothing…..we can't contemplate that, because nothing is something. See, there may be answers. I'm not saying that there isn't something out there. I'm not strictly an atheist. An atheist is certain there's no god.” (emphasis added)

This is rich. An evangelistic agnostic says, “nothing is something.” Wouldn’t the implication of this convoluted idea be that something is nothing? Again I digress! I’ll get back on point now. Seriously, with statements like this it is hard to believe that Maher has given any serious thought to the issues he so routinely and viciously attacks. If Maher is the left’s agent for intellectually assaulting Christianity then Christianity is clearly not in any danger.

Maher further displayed absurdity with this one,

“It's just the ultimate hustle. It's just ‘pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.’ You know, why can't they, I always ask -- I asked Jesus at Holy Land, ‘Why can't God just defeat the devil and get rid of evil?’ You know, and it's the same reason the comic-book character can't get rid of his nemesis. Then there's no story. If God gets rid of the devil -- and he could, he's all powerful -- well, then there's no fear. There's no reason to come to church. There's no reason to pass the plate. We're all out of a job. You know, it's got to go on.”

If he thinks religion is a “hustle” why is he on Larry King Live promoting his movie about religion? If it weren’t for religion Maher would be out of a very lucrative job. So who’s really hustling who?

Maher went on to make this statement that I was glad to see,

“I was impressed with how hard it is to make a movie, and it altered my thinking about ever wanting to make another one.”

Hopefully, Maher will forever remain true to his altered thinking.

If you would like to see the interview or read the transcript:

CNN Video

CNN Transcript

August 2, 2008

EXCLUSIVE: Tim LaHaye clarifies his Washington Times quote on Mitt Romney

On July 29 the Washington Times ran a piece on the Evangelical response to Mitt Romney possibly becoming John McCain’s running mate. One Evangelical leader quoted in the piece was Dr. Tim LaHaye, co-author of the famous Left Behind novels. The paper attributed this quote to LaHaye,

“We [Evangelicals] aren't against Mormonism, but Romney is not a thoroughgoing evangelical and his flip-flopping on issues is understandable in a liberal state like Massachusetts, but our people won't understand that."

Read the full article here: Evanglicals warn against Romney on ticket

Concerned that the quote could be misconstrued –specifically with regard to whether or not Romney is Evangelical– LaHaye thought it best to clarify his position. In a phone interview with Watchman Fellowship on August 1, he succinctly clarified his position with this statement,

“I think Romney’s strong family values are commendable, but in my view, if he were the Vice Presidential nominee he would not inspire the enthusiastic support of Evangelicals behind McCain. And it is on that basis that I do not recommend Romney as a running mate for John McCain. That said I do not oppose Romney because of his religion, but because of his inability to light the enthusiasm of thousands of Evangelical Pastors to urge their members to become registered, informed, and out to vote on Election Day, the way he could if he were an Evangelical.”

Clearly, Dr. LaHaye does not believe nor did he intend to convey the notion that either Mitt Romney or Mormonism is Evangelical.