Bill Maher Round Table Discusses The Dangers Of Religion

This week’s Real Time round table was a little less political than usual. Bill Maher had John Avlon, S.E. Cupp and Newark mayor Cory Booker on the show to talk about a variety of topics, but somehow Elena Kagan‘s nomination of the Supreme Court became a much more metaphysical topics as Maher challenged Cupp, who is openly atheist, to call all people of faith “delusional,” which she refused. Surprisingly, it was Mayor Booker who took the aggressive stance against Maher, who he called “dogmatic,” “intolerant,” and “arrogant.”

The center question of the conversation, with Maher defining it, was whether non-atheists were delusional– a topic that came up after Cupp admitted that she suspected President Barack Obama was an atheist, too. Maher argued that religion was the cause of “all wars,” in which he included communism, “a state religion.” Avlon offered that the term “religion” for what Maher was attacking was wrong– it was “absolutism, ideology, and extremism” that were behind the forces Maher was citing. Booker took it a step further, telling Maher “in your atheism, you are just as dogmatic and intolerant as any preacher.”

After an extensive back-and-forth in which Maher declared himself the only person on TV attacking religion and Cupp gave him several examples of liberal figures opposing religious practices, Maher kept it topical by asking everyone, “let’s move on to Stephen Baldwin.”

The full round table discussion below:

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!