Maybe every other American movie shouldn't be based on a comic book. Other countries will think Americans live in an infantile fantasy land where reality is whatever we say it is and every problem can be solved with violence.
Bill MaherRead
If we go back to the beginning, we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them and that custom, respect and tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve their own interests. If the ignorance of nature gave birth to gods, the knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that gods and religious beliefs stem from human ignorance and fear, and that knowledge can challenge or dismantle these constructs.
Bill Maher's quote reflects on the origins of religious beliefs, attributing them to human traits such as ignorance and fear. He argues that as people grow in knowledge, especially about nature, they are equipped to question and potentially destroy the very beliefs that were formed out of fear and lack of understanding. In this way, he emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and understanding the world around us as a means to confront and challenge longstanding traditions and beliefs.
Themes
IgnoranceFearGodsKnowledgeNatureBeliefsPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a debate about the role of religion in modern society.
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When it comes to religion, 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.
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I do think the patriotic thing to do is to critique my country. How else do you make a country better but by pointing out its flaws?
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I want to just take a moment to thank the Teabaggers. Thank you so much for helping us pass health care, for resurrecting the Obama presidency. I know they're saying, 'Why are you thanking me? I was so against it, I marched on Washington with tea bags hanging off my Founding Fathers costume, with a gun on my hip and a picture of Obama dressed as Hitler, screaming about his birth certificate.' And America saw that and said, 'I think I'll go with the calm black man.'
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