Ridiculing Religion or Religion of Ridicule

... haven't seen the movie ... but must say that Bill Maher rocks. He is exceedingly humorous and perceptive (and I say this as a Muslim!).

Seems like an apology on behalf of all religions. I don't know what this movie says about religions in ‎1 hour and 41 min‎utes, but religions have so much stupidity that you can have fun for days/weeks/years.

Defending your own religion is acceptable to some extent because your own ego is being hurt, but defending religions in general as if they are "poor" creatures "being beaten by everybody" is absurd. These are powerful, idiotic creatures with lot of muscle-power, money, propaganda, lies and who say too many amazingly idiotic things on behalf of God and force them on people who do not even have time to think about God.
Making fun of them is least you can do to make them realize what the are. More such movies with more fun and sarcasm should be made on regular basis. That is the only way to make peolpe come out of the clutches of religion and seek proper meaning of God/Universe on their own.

Neither science nor Athiesm converts people forcibly. They don't stamp you with the stamp of "athiest" or "scientist". Nor do the fight for it. You don't even want to give them freedom to speak against evil creatures like religions; that is riliguous???

Bill Maher is very funny and brutally honest. I am not surprised, even without watching the movie, that many muslims would find him annoying. Muslims would do themselves and Islam a favor by taking seriously Maher's references to 9/11 and other current issues related to the muslim societies, rather than letting it slide as "anti-muslim propaganda".

Religion is an idea that has had the "free ride" under the 'pretence' of "respect" since time immemorial ... it governs every aspect of the life of the one afflicted yet we are not allowed to speak up against its very foundation ... in case we hurt some one's pathetic little insecurities!! ... and it doesn't just control the person but societies as a whole ... and that has a spill over affect on other similar 'societies' ... leads to inertia of one's independent thinking faculties and promotes a 'distinction' between groups.

btw ... I didn't read the article, nor do I intend to ... most articles here are mindless, think-out-loud drivel anyway!

Maher is a certified ignoramus and an illiterate a-hole. Little wonder tahmed finds him fascinating...

Have a nice day and take it easy,

TNI Masadi

Pinku writes "but religions have so much stupidity that you can have fun for days/weeks/years."

I don't think any religion can have as much "stupidity" as the house of cards capitalism has built and the idiot-ology that goes with that. On the one hand they want to pay the workers less and less and on the other hand they want to increase markets by selling more and more, and they keep on at it not understanding this contradiction as if nothing was wrong, sooner or later their chickens come home to roost...

#6 Posted by masadi on
masadi, capitalism is not stupid, it is greedy..., it is evil in many ways, but it is never plain stupid and good for almost nothing as religions are. They don't want to do what you said.... basic aim of capitalism top level greedy people, called investors, is to enjoy comforts without doing much. All this recession or even a recession 100 times worse than what it is now, just doesn't affect those greedy people much... They are not looting money, money keeps on flowing, they loot the efforts of poor people.

Now that is done at each level. A desi middle-class person employs a maid, pays Rs 500 or 1000 per month and loots lot of hardwork from her. Then this middle class employee is fooled by his manager to work more and more with not much salary and so on.

The idea is simple, the fruits of efforts are enjoyed by those who are more close to top than bottom. But again, this is their intention, it is not necessary that the results are like this. A simple minded engineer can have lot of fun in his life by doing just good enough work and not seeking the ladder of "status"/management. Only the poors or ultra poors like maids or laborers (or people who do not get even laborer's work) get affected most.

Religion are plain stupid, or grossly stupid, not just greedy. They are greedy of power plus their major product is idiocy.

The greed of capitalism or society will not go away soon and in a sense it is part of evolution. It will go away, there are more sophisticated ideas that will replace this common greed eventually. But it will take time.

The step in getting rid of this greed is to get rid of stupidities propagated and suported by religions. Unite people on truths and not on stupidities. Create unity of thoughts that is close to truths.

Specifically...
[[
On the one hand they want to pay the workers less and less and on the other hand they want to increase markets by selling more and more, and they keep on at it not understanding this contradiction as if nothing was wrong, sooner or later their chickens come home to roost...
]]

Those greedy people do not lose anything. 90% of millionares remain millionares after any type of recession, 10 percent get affected at the most(actually not even 10 percent). All they do is they re-circulate money to start looting "efforts" from lower level people again. The business is in getting "efforts" at low cost and nothing else.

Mr. Masadi: If there was no capitalism, who would make your computer? Hazrat Jibraeel?? Karl Marx? or Stalin??

Re: # 3

tahmed,

... you should go and see the movie - it might cure you of your silly superstitions and irrational fears ...... if that doesn't then you need to listen to carlin's case against god five times a day ........

.... joe bless you !

tahmed writes "Mr. Masadi: If there was no capitalism, who would make your computer? Hazrat Jibraeel?? Karl Marx? or Stalin??"

What a cheap comeback. Is that all you've got? Is private property necessary for computers to be built? I think not. Computers are the logical result of functional specialization and rationalization, which does not have to occur under capitalism alone. Infact the rationalization of non-capitalist systems is what the capitalists rail against when they talk of the SU.

It is a tendency of capitalism to claim everything "sacred" for itself and then deflect the profane towards its enemies. Capitalism has nothing to do with inventions. It has everything to do with converting everything into a profit making venture. Only morons like Hamid will learn "religion" from Maher.The guy is a first rate ignoramus whose views on Republicans btw are totally opposed to the hamidm slave of the white man.

Have a nice day and take it easy,
TNI Masadi

...bill maher is an interesting guy....i have been watching him for a long time.......quite funny.....

...he seems to have achieved a profitable market for his comedy, now.....his initial start was to be a liberatarian....then he went on against bush.....this got him fired from his original show, when he made a comment about terrorists.....

.....at that time, he believed in God, but not in any religion......he used to state this, again and again....now, he seems to have become a total athiest.....

.....the athiest crowd is, totally, unrepresented in the usa......according to maher, it is 16-17% of the usa population......

the most successful entertainers (and political commentators) are the ones that can develop a cult following.....athiesm is a good area to tap into....since there are already too many anti-bush and liberalatrians out there......

should do good business for maher......another person who is doing good business in this area is christopher hitchens....

i would place all these people in the bill o'reilly, rush limbaugh etc. category......it is unfortunate to see someone more intellectually inclined that the above two - maher - also follow this route......i always felt maher was more like a tariq ali....i.e. someone who is an athiest, but doesn't try to make his money through that.....instead he concentrates on his intellectually political ideas......

athiests haven't been able to establish themselves throughout history.....primarily because, while, they highlight all the shortcomings in religon, however, they are unable to provide any alternative......because there are so many questions for which they don't have an answer, either.....the generic answer of, "science will eventually figure it out" falls short in many areas......

.....the western world is moving away from religion (other than usa).....religion is out of public life in europe.....hardly anyone goes to church......a poll in uk found that some % (30%) thought beckham had more influence on their lives than God.......

however, i don't think people will move away from God in the west........they will move away from the religious burecracy, and just believe in a Creator called God.....but not become fully athiest.......

..........at least not until athiesm can provide a complete counter to religion and answer some of its most difficult question, i.e. what happens after death......what is the meaning of life and why were we created......science, at the moment, cannot answer that, and due to certain scientific laws, it will probably never be able to answer these questions......it is, even, finding it impossible to answer how we were created (in detail at the cellular levels), much less why.......

anyways, maher has hit on a goldmine and if he can milk it, he should make good bucks.......much like o'reilly, limbaugh, rushdie, harsi, manji etc.......

p.s. i keep telling my wife that she needs to write a book on how she is fed up with islam and that her husband (me) beats her all the time......if she can geta fatwa or two against it, it will be a definite best-seller......after which we can retire and move to the french riveira.....

correction: " poll in uk found that some % (30%) thought beckham had more influence on their lives than God.......

should read,

poll in uk, that i saw on dateline london, found that some % (30%?) thought beckham had more influence on their lives than God.......

//However, in the last quarter when Religulous focuses on Islam...//

How dare he! How dare he! Wait'll I find my MS Word fatwa template...

Mr. Masadi: The prophet himself married a capitalist and became one himself. And engaged not just in capitalism, but in unchecked capitalism!! That is, with no federal regulatory agency keeping an eye on the environmental impact of camels in the trade caravans polluting the desert !

Not that that means anything, but why would God pick a capitalist to do the job if he thought one of Hamidm's Dipty Sektry friends in Block L at the Islamabad Secretariat with whom he luxuriates in chai-and-samosa could do the job better?

Hamidm #9 I wanted to see it, but after being tricked into seeing Fahrenheit 9/11 and then "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World", the missus refuses to see yet another political-type movie. And I hate going alone to movies.
:-(

Re: # 15

tahmed mian,

9/11 was a piece of garbage - this one is great ..... much better than borat and animal house and, like i said before, it might cure you .....