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 you belonged to a political party or a social club that was tied to as much bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, violence, and sheer ignorance as religion is, you'd resign in protest.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote criticizes the harmful aspects associated with organized religion, equating it to other problematic groups.
Bill Maher argues that if any social or political organization exhibited similar traits of bigotry, misogyny, and violence as he perceives religion to do, one would naturally choose to withdraw from it. This statement highlights the conflicts and negative consequences that can arise from blind allegiance to ideologies that promote discrimination and ignorance.
Themes
BigotryMisogynyHomophobiaReligionIgnoranceProtest
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the impact of religion on society, this quote can be used to spark discussion about the role of organized belief systems.
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All quotes →If conservatives get to call universal healthcare 'socialized medicine,' I get to call private, for-profit healthcare 'soulless, vampire bastards making money off human pain.'
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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.
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When I hear from people that religion doesn't hurt anything, I say really? Well besides wars, the crusades, the inquisitions, 9-11, ethnic cleansing, the suppression of women, the suppression of homosexuals, fatwas, honor killings, suicide bombings, arranged marriages to minors, human sacrifice, burning witches, and systematic sex with children, I have a few little quibbles. And I forgot blowing up girl schools in Afghanistan.
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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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