Bill Maher on Larry King last night

Mulan

Did anyone see this? It was so good. I took this from the online transcript to share. Bill hates organized religion so these comments were pretty good.

KING: Austin, Texas. Hello.

CALLER: Yes, I'm inquiring about George Bush. Why he continues to bring up religion when we're supposed to have a separation of religion and government.

MAHER: Especially as pertains to the gay situation. Because you'd think these people would notice that Jesus Christ never said one word about homosexuality. He speaks out against divorce. I notice they're not against that because so many Republicans are divorced. But he never said anything about homosexuality. If it was so important, it doesn't even make the top ten of the commandments. They have to go to the book of Leviticus, and if you go to the book of Leviticus, it is also a law that you can have slaves. It's also a law that people who work on Sunday would be stoned to death. So they're kind of inconsistent about what laws they choose to follow and make headlines out of.

KING: Do you think, Bill, that religion did more harm than good? Is that your thought? That organized religion is worse than good?

MAHER: Absolutely. I think organized religion has done horrible things. You can just see how awful the bureaucracy that is religion becomes because after all we do have in Jesus Christ the best role model you could ever have a for a God. I really couldn't say that about the Islamic religion. I mean, Muhammad is a warrior god. I know they don't like to have that brought up but it's true.

Whereas this truly is Jesus Christ the prince of peace. I can't think of a greater role model. Everything he preaches is what I would like to preach to young people today because his words get twisted. Because the role of religious leader on earth is inherently corrupt. And that's why, as I say, I don't have trouble believing that the Jewish priests in the first century would collaborate on putting him to death.

CALLER: Hi, Bill. You seem to know quite a bit about the Bible and I was just wondering if you could reconsider your faith. Thank you.

MAHER: I do have faith. I believe there is a god. I just don't believe he's a god who needs all the bells and whistles that religious people think he seems to need to get attention. And I do have faith. I have faith in the very good -- I have faith in the very good brain that whatever god there is gave me.

And that brain, unfortunately, is unable, like any human's brain, to ascertain the answers to certain cosmic questions, like how we got here and what happens when we die. I admit those questions are scary, but the answer is to not make up stories about it.

The entire transcript is here. http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0403/03/lkl.00.html

seeitallclearlynow

Thanks, Mulan, that was helpful to me. Appreciate it!

Sara Annie

Right on. I agree with every thing he said--that's exactly how I feel about religion and God and the nature of faith.

Bill Maher is a smart man whom I happen to disagree with occasionally politically. I like him.

Sirius Dogma

Thank you for posting the transcript Mulan. I really wanted to watch it last night and then missed it entirely.

Bill speaks for me on this one:

MAHER: I will not vote for Ralph. I told it to Ralph's face when I had him on last week. And I felt, in looking back at what's gone on and how much we thought, boy, the two candidates are so much alike, well, you know what? The two candidates are never that much alike. The thing about the lesser of the 2 evils, it's not as bad as the greater of two evils. I learned that the hard way. I won't be.

Hehe... and what is with all the "KING: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) "

Larry... how many years have you had a show, stop mumbling.

Mulan

Bill Maher is a smart man whom I happen to disagree with occasionally politically.

He just cracks me up. It's like he says things no one else will say, but they are definitely thinking it. He is really smart..................agreed.

Here are his comments on gay marriages. He is so "right on".

KING: Do you favor their right to do it?

MAHER: Of course! Again, we've talked about this, but it wouldn't even be an issue without the religious part of it. And I also think it's silly to try to stop it. You know, the way it started in Boston and -- Massachusetts, rather, and went to San Francisco, then the mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley, said he'd be OK with it, New Mexico -- it kind of reminds me of when the Berlin Wall fell, when communism was falling. Remember, it started in Czechoslovakia and then it went it Hungary and then the Berlin Wall fell, and then finally, it got to the Baltic states, and then Russia. It seems like it's happening again that way.

And if the right wing would relent a little and understand that they're not threatened by gay marriage -- I don't understand what the threat is. Somebody has to tell me why their values -- what values are threatened by gay people getting married? What values? Freedom? Honesty? Integrity? Loyalty? Generosity? Kindness? All these things, to me, would be served by letting two consenting adults live happily ever after. I don't see where the threat to values comes in. I just don't.

Gopher

Bill Maher speaks his mind, plainly. Sometimes that's too much for establishment (including the ABC television network) to handle.

Bill is a Minnesota boy -- home of a very progressive liberal tradition.

Hmmm... I wonder who'll get HIS vote for president in November? J.K.

Mulan

Hmmm... I wonder who'll get HIS vote for president in November? J.K.

I think he has said he will vote for Kerry. He wants Bush out, and believes Kerry can beat him. So, whoever has the chance of beating Bush will get his vote. He said almost that last night, that the voters aren't so much FOR KERRY as they are AGAINST BUSH.

MAHER: To me, it's a nonentity because all of the love that Democrats have for John Kerry is really hate for George Bush. I hate to put it that way, but it's true. I mean, Kerry love is Bush hate. I don't think the American public is terribly quick, but I will give them credit for this. It took them about three years to catch up to George Bush, but they finally did. About half of this country really has caught on that this is not a president who really should be defined by honor and integrity. I'm not saying he's a lot worse than other people we've had. But honor and integrity? I don't think so. Honesty? I don't think so. I think he's an extremely selfish president who's using every bit of the treasury to get reelected.

I laugh when people say he's got a $200 million war chest. Are you kidding? He's got a $2 trillion war chest. He's using every penny in the treasury to get elected, to hand out money to farm subsidies, to buy off votes with any kind of pork he can think of, the Medicare entitlement bill. That's selfish. People are kind of onto that, and I think they think he's way too bought off by corporations. And I think they realize that he tells a bigger lie than Bill Clinton did about things that were important. Iraq -- perfect example. I'm not really against the whole idea, as we have discussed, but if he had just been honest about Iraq, if he had just said, Look, it's a Texas thing.

Sentinel

I just love Bill Maher. He has such a way with words. His points well taken. Larry King gets an A+ for having him visit his show.

Thanks Marilyn. I didn't get to see that one. Bill cracks me up too. He's got gutspah!!

/<

patio34

Thanks Marilyn,

It's great! Here's the link (I just emailed it to some friends):

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0403/03/lkl.00.html

Pat

FirstInLine

The funniest thing I ever saw Bill Maher do was his HBO show "Real Time" just after the latest State of the Union.

He was doing this coutry music parody and basically quoting the president's words for lyrics.

the chorus was something like 'many weapons of mass destruction program related activities and significant amounts of equipment! program related activities...' it was one of those moments of genius where it all comes together.

Bill is wrong about Jesus though, he did mention homosexuality.

Bill Maher on Larry King last night

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