Maher’s New Rule: Atheism And Religion Are ‘Not Two Sides Of The Same Coin’

[pokerfan]

“We’re not two sides of the same coin, and you don’t get to put your unreason up on the same shelf with my reason. Your stuff has to go over there, on the shelf with Zeus and Thor and the Kraken, with the stuff that is not evidence-based, stuff that religious people never change their mind about, no matter what happens.”

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bill-mahers-new-rule-atheism-and-religion-are-not-two-sides-of-the-same-coin/

[Ecumenist]

1. He's right. Religion just means force of habit. One can be religious about brushing

one's teeth a certain way.

[skepticscott]

3. Except that no one I know

tries to pass laws to force everyone else to brush their teeth in the same way.

[Ecumenist]

4. That was a simple example of force of habit.

Those people who are forcing their beliefs on others are demagogues. No TRUE believer, (and despite what some people think, these are NOT believers because they pick and choose and cherry pick as well as hypocritically twist other things-exactly what Christians were admonished against doing by Jesus), would EVER do the things these idiots are doing.

[skepticscott]

10. They believe in god and in Jesus as their savior

So how exactly are they not "True Believers"? Just because they cherry-pick different things than you do doesn't make your interpretation of god's wishes any more accurate or valid than theirs.

Next time, don't weary our ears with more NTS baloney. It's old, tired and discredited since before you were born.

[skepticscott]

13. Oh, then please give us

YOUR definition of a "True Believer" and explain why only certain types of believers are TRUE in your eyes, while the rest are false.

And where did I ever say that everyone who is a believer walks the same path? Nowhere. You just made that implication up in a frothing lather. YOU made the bogus accusation that some religious people are not "True" believers. I'm just waiting to see if you can overcome the need for childish insults and actually defend your position like a grown-up.

[skepticscott]

16. You know what?

I don't even care that you called me an idiot, and I certainly didn't alert on you, or ask anyone else to. In fact, I would have preferred your posts to stay up, just so that everyone could see right out in the open that insults are all you have..no facts and no rational arguments.

[skepticscott]

17. Hmmmmm...seems you have nothing to offer in the way of rational discourse

Only insults that an 8 year old could top...

Guess ecumenism ain't what it used to be...

[skepticscott]

19. STILL waiting for

YOUR definition of a "True Believer" and your explaination of why only certain types of believers are TRUE in your eyes, while the rest are false.

[ChadwickHenryWard]

8. Could you imagine as how crazy that person would be percieved?

That's something so personal, and so far removed from the public interest, that we would automatically recognize any individual who tried to legislate something like that as deeply disturbed and likely in need of professional psychiatric help. But if your name is Rick Santorum, and you want to ban birth control, you are an upstanding citizen and statesman.

That comparison adds some very interesting perspective.

[GliderGuider]

20. Perhaps that's more of a problem with the USA than with religion.

No other Western nation I know of has the kind of problem you guys do with religion. That points to it not being the fault of "religion" per se but something in your psychocultural makeup that makes you susceptible to authoritarian fantasies.

[napoleon_in_rags]

2. Sorry, but thing and not-thing will always be part of the same coin.

apolitical and political, amoral and moral, asymmetric and symmetric. Atheism will stop being associated with theism when it extracts "theism" from its name and focus, and defines itself based on what it affirms rather than what it denies.

[pokerfan]

6. Associated with religion

But not a religion per se.

[MarkCharles]

7. Since when is "OFF" the opposite of a TV channel ?? n/t

[napoleon_in_rags]

12. When you merge the concept of all TV channels into one word called "on".

As the concept of "theism" does for religions.

The simple fact is, atheism as a cultural movement right now gets associated with religiosity because its focused on it. If all the same energy were focused on promoting science and reason I believe that association would disappear overnight.

[MarkCharles]

15. I think you missed the analogy. Cable TV has what 9999 possible...

channels. Religion comes in how many thousand forms?

Off is not any single one of the 9999 channels. If it were, atheism would be an opposite of religion.

[edhopper]

14. Watch the video

He is talking about people who say atheism is just another religion. He refers to people who say creationism is equal to evolution. That Climate Change is just another political view.
You are using the phrase "same side..." differently than he is. Neither is incorrect, just used differently.
His point is valid.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

18. Atheism doesn't affirm anything, it's purely a privative.

People who are also atheists have other beliefs and views too, but those beliefs are nothing to do with atheism.

[ZombieHorde]

9. I think I know what he is trying to say, but I also think the coin is a poor metaphor for this.

It is too broad.