The matter remains that you essentially said that Maher isn’t an atheist because he couldn’t arrive at a conclusion via thinking critically. You basically oust him because he doesn’t think as you do.

My view is that “Religulous” is deserving of an award for promoting an overtly critical view of religious claims, assertions and practices and, as such, is compartmentalized enough to deserve the attention and appreciation.

Maher, by the way, is not “working against *everything* Dawkins built his reputation” supporting. That’s just flawed hyperbole.

Maher has some other political opinions I disagree with, he is extremely biased against police and authority (other than liberal/democratic figures he likes), for instance, (which is not necessarily a bad thing, unless it is the default position regardless of dynamics and situational facts).

I still like the guy and think his public outreach regarding the issue of religious rote, ritual and dogma is spot on.

Steve Schlicht
Biloxi MS

Then, he got widely known for being an atheist, and ran with it. Now, it seems, he is willing to support Maher simply for agreeing with him on the non-existence of god, despite the fact that Maher is consistently working against everything Dawkins built his reputation for supporting.

Okay, so guess what? Are you guessing? Good. The good thing about atheists is that there is no society that we belong to. Do you also belong to societies for not collecting stamps? I didn’t think so. That means I’m free to sit here and criticize anyone in this not believing in god society for whatever I like. It’s not like the Atheist Pope is going to float down and smite me with a bronze bust of Darwin. So, no. There is no dogma that we all have to adhere to in order to be atheists. That’s kind of the point. I don’t have to agree with everything Dawkins does just because he’s kind of the figurehead of this, our non-religion. I’ll leave that to his sycophants. They’re way better at it.

Bill is a bit backwards about western medicine, that I will grant you, but your approach is a little disingenuous. Every human being has something they feel strongly about, especially in this country. Be it abortion, circumcision, the role of government, football, or which style of pizza is the best, you, me, we all are passionate about something that others would consider an odd way to think or just flat out wrong. And that’s perfectly fine. Just because a fellow atheist doesn’t agree with you on something, it doesn’t make them less of an atheist.

Let’s leave the petty nitpicking about everyone not fitting into our perceived mold of what another member of our society to the fundies. They’re way better at it.