Because Making a Living in the Media isn't Absurd

I just checked out the trailer for Bill Maher's upcoming nonsense: Religulous.
He's trying to do a funny...but yet also somehow serious...lampoon of religion as a whole by interviewing strange and silly people, and then reaching the conclusion that anything supernatural must be wrong...period.
It's one of those problematic pieces, because I probably agree with his skepticism regarding religious fanaticism (and he makes sure to show lots of clips of religious fanaticism). I obviously don't agree with his overall assessment of religion, though. You don't, for instance, see him sitting down to have a sincere conversation with someone who actually knows what they are talking about...unless that person is providing a skeptical view of religion.
It also seems oddly intolerant for someone who is professing to be a liberal. You would think an open-minded, liberal person would be more accepting of other people's culture...and, if religion isn't real, isn't it at least a cultural phenomenon?
There's one point in the trailer where he tries to make an overweight southerner look like a raging buffoon for saying, "You start disputin' my god, and we got a problem." I don't think this is a reaction that would be exclusive to religion. Maher is going out egging people on, looking for a fight, and mocking people's way of life. If he showed up at someone's house and started ridiculing the furniture, or the food, or the clothes, he could get the same reaction.

Comments

[John]

Except "liberal" nowadays doesn't mean "open-minded" and "free-thinking" but merely "close-minded to many but different issues" than the "conservative" counterpart.