That is, the documented worst Christian ruler, Charles IX of France, had 10,000 Huguenots murdered. Atheistic regimes murders range from 20,000 in 1946-49 Greece, to 76,702,000 in 1923-2007 China. Charles’ murders were roundly condemned by his peers. From the atheists… complete silence. I guess that without the threat of eternal hellfire the only way atheists can get compliance in to kill people by the score. It’s a good thing there haven’t been more of them. Most of us might not be here.

http://www.popeater.com/article/maher-vs-god-religulous-flays-organized/194453

Well, let’s see, they’re responsible for most of the wars we’ve ever had. The Crusades, the oppression of women, the oppression of minorities, exorcisms, killing witches, honor killings, suicide bombings, having sex with children, keeping women in the beekeeper suits, you know … where does it end?”

Perhaps with some truth. According to the Encyclopedia of Wars (Phillips and Axelrod) religion played a motivating factor in only 123 of the 1763 wars recorded therein. The Crusades were a war in response to 400 years of Muslim aggression. In the ancient world women were regarded as second class and the only texts we have that suggest some level of equality were from St Paul. The inventors of suicide bombing were the Tamil Tigers, a secular group. And on the subject of sex with children I didn’t know NAMBLA were a Christian organization.

Meanwhile the 52 atheist rulers have murdered about 150 million in the last century. We should be glad there haven’t been more of them.

I am a Christian, and unapologetically so. But I make it a point never to defend religion. Religion binds, harms, and causes its adherents to follow suit. Religion is man-made, and therefore broken. In this film, Maher is simply observing and underscoring what we’ve known for thousands of years: that left to our own devices, humans have always taken the teachings and actions of Jesus and changed and added to them to suit our own selfish desires, leading to some of the worst atrocities history has ever seen.

Yes, Maher also mocks blind belief in a God we cannot prove. But at the end of the day, my assessment is that like many other agnostics/skeptics/atheists, Maher’s main problem isn’t so much with belief or Jesus, but with fallen believers and the hypocrisy of their actions. He’s also on the offense against absolute certainty among the faithful without doubts or questions … you know, the ones who lean on supposed proven empirical data, the Bible as science text book, and warmed over clichés as their foundations.

These things simply won’t fly for Maher, whose questions stump nearly everyone with whom he speaks. Like you, I would have liked to have seen an interview with Wright or McLaren or Wallis or Witherington, but this, of course, would have blown up the main point of the movie, which was to create a “scripted comedy” to cast doubt on all religious belief.

To wrap up, I don’t see Maher’s film as a threat, but a gift. He’s asking many of the questions that folks out there ask … ones that are genuine barriers to belief. While we may frown on Maher’s medium and method (biting, sarcastic comedy), we needn’t frown on Maher’s questions (message). If you can muster up some thick skin for earthy language and potentially disturbing images, go see this movie … and take a friend. Could start a conversation that may not have happened.