Lorber returns

And oh, how I've missed her. I haven't seen Religulous yet (which I hate myself for), but I do appreciate Amanda's moderate and logical point of view (the ultimate rebuttal to fundamentalism, if ever there were). Also, she looks hot.

Comments

[Emily]

yay! she's awesome. Glad you post about her.

[Pastor Fashion]

I haven't seen Religulous yet, either (not sure if it's showing in Slovakia ...) but as a moderate Christian I empathize with Amanda's moderate agnostic reaction to Bill Maher: the hope that we won't all be judged by our loudest/most fanatic public figures.
"Take it with a grain of salt." Amen.
What a neat young woman. Thanks for sharing this!

[Steven]

"...I'm gonna go with wrong."

"...which is what I would have done...if...I were making a film, which I am not because I am 18 years old... ... ...but I could."

I LOVE her!

[Gretchen]

Good perspective, Amanda! You're right; that was a carefully considered opinion-- and I happen agree with it. ;-) Actually haven't seen the film, myself, for precisely the reasons she's talking about. Had a hard time watching Richard Dawkins interrogate people about their religious beliefs in "The Root of All Evil?" and "Religulous" sounds like that, only worse.

[lolsam]

I subscribe to her on YouTube, and I was so excited last night when I saw that she had posted a new video because she hasn't done that... ever! Generally I think I would agree with everything she said about the movie, but I was more concerned with her hair. Which is hot. And I couldn't figure out which NYU dorm she lives in based on the background. The Lorber Hunt continues!

[Julie]

Thanks!! I have missed Amanda and it is fun to see her again. She looks amazing! I wish they would do another show with her in it.

[add mmm]

So all in all 'Religulous' is "...wrong". But if I do see it then I should "enjoy" it?

Does not fempute!

[matt]

I haven't seen it yet either, Rich, but seriously, what did she expect from the director of "Borat" ? Also, I feel less sorry for spiritually confused people than I do for women, disabled people, racial minorities, homosexuals, adolescents, animals and all other beings going through hell because of the Sarah Palins of the world.

[Gretchen Weiners]

Love her! She's so much smarter than I am and she's, like, 10 years younger. I'm going to go stalk around NYU for her so we can hang out.

[s2couto]

I say people on Gawker sort of lampooning Bill Maher for his appearance on The View, saying he was "mean" and insensitive to these poor, simple, fundamentalist folk. The word tolerance was bandied about in defence. Now, I think this is bullshit. As a Canadian, I see the U.S. as a theocracy - religious people, especially of Christian extraction, are the majority. It's the bizarre, reverse racism-like namby pamby crap I personally have NO tolerance for. These people are in charge of your politics, they impose their beliefs into law, and they impact Maher's life as an American citizen. No one will talk about religion, they simply tiptoe around it, and so Maher, being the only publically known agnostic/athiest/rationalist I know of in the celebrity world, making his point in a loud, aggressive way is simply the American way isn't it? And I don't think he would do so if religious zealots weren't the majority and if he wasn't all alone out there.

So basically I respect this person's opinion, even though I don't know who she is, but crying insensitivty when you are speaking about something as potentially harmful, oppressive, and powerful as religion is utter bullshit. If the consequences of religious jingoism weren't so sobering I would agree with her, but these people HATE and they HURT and they offend my intelligence and my rights and I don't find anything wrong with Maher exposing them to the world and to themselves.

[Chandra]

I am okay with him tearing down these people's beliefs because they are ridiculous. Maybe we need more people being aggressive with them so we don't have a potential VP walking around thinking humans and dinosaurs co-existed. I have yet to met a strict christian who doesn't have a problem with saying other religions are wrong - why should Maher feel bad about doing the same? We coddle people too much sometimes.

[s2couto]

Amen, Chandra (no pun intended). I attended a Catholic school for many years and I remember one class in particular where we had to fill out a sheet that had the names of other religions on it and write down exactly why each religion was unacceptable. Tolerance, is that what it is?

[delphine]

I can't even explain how angry this comment thread makes me. You all think that you are soooo superior and cool because you don't believe in a religion. Get off your fucking high horse and try to see things through other people's eyes. I'm so tired of myself and other christians like myself being looked down on solely because we are christian.

[jackie]

sorry, this is not about the post, it's about the header - best ever! I screamed a little bit when it loaded!

[Michael]

However you want to delude yourself, go right ahead. It's only when you try to foist your delusions on me that I have a problem.

I think we tiptoe around religions entirely too much, affording them a hands-off respect wildly beyond what is warranted. (Curiously, this same honor is not afforded to Scientology, which is no less crazy than the rest.) I think Maher's tone in this movie is entirely appropriate, considering that people treat these beliefs as FACT, entirely without proof. They hold the Bible to be the word of their God, entirely without proof. And the rest of us are expected to do the same (including those of us sentenced to death in said text).

And to delphine, I don't feel superior to you in any way. I do some things YOU might find illogical, too. Any decisions you've come to about your life and how you live it and how the world works based on FAITH alone are yours to make. Only it doesn't end there, does it? You'll cry that it's not ALL Christians who try to impose their morality on the rest of us, but let's be honest, it's MANY of you. Look no further than DADT or DOMA.

[delphine]

okay, I've had time to breathe now. I just get really frustrated and angry whenever I see people being hateful or disparaging towards others, regardless of where it's coming from.

But the fundamentalist christians are the ones that make the most noise and thus get the most attention. Most of the christians that I have come across have more moderate views and have no desire to foist their religion upon others.

Though, I guess I have had a rather charmed religious life. My parents took me to church and all but never pressured me to do or believe anything other than to always be caring and loving toward everybody. Now in college I'm part of a non-denominational christian group so there is a huge range of viewpoints that are all respected within the group.

So my point is that I have been far more pressured by environmental, political,etc groups to believe certain things than I have been by religious groups. But I guess forget that many people have a very different experience than that.

[Miss Lisa]

Here's a list of famous atheists, freethinkers, diests and agnostics:
http://www.wonderfulatheistsofcfl.org/Quotes.htm

And a celebrity atheist list, including agnostics and skeptics:
http://www.celebatheists.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

If you're leaning towards atheism, you're not alone.

[Katherine Kelley]

my friends are in her dorm at NYU and the first three times they met her they pretended like they didn't remember her name because they didn't want to admit they'd watched the paper religiously.

[Ketty]

I saw Religulous this weekend here in Salt Lake City with my husband, and there was a line snaking through the theater and out the front doors, so desperate are the locals for non-believer comraderie. I enjoyed the movie and I did not think that it was "wrong" or too extreme. I think that Bill Maher was blunt. He was direct. He didn't tip toe around the beliefs of the religious like most of us do, and I applaud him for it.

He also knew when to tone in down, as he did when he was welcomed into the Dome of the Rock. His host led him on a tour and Bill made a few subtle jokes but was respectful. In contrast, he was pretty merciless with the ex-Mormons that he spoke to, after the LDS-Popo kicked his film crew off of the property across the street from the Mormon Temple.

The message that I took from Bill's actions and words in this movie is that we need to be far less tolerant of the religious myths and the followers of those myths and that we need to stop mincing around their fictional beliefs. It is one thing to tolerate a fan of Harry Potter, but if that fan were to attempt to create laws and take away freedoms based solely on the Books of Potter, we wouldn't tolerate it. And nor should we tolerate those that want to take away our freedoms based on the myths of the Bible. I say live and let live when it comes to religion, just as soon as religion starts letting me live and let live.

[i of the storm]

"So my point is that I have been far more pressured by environmental, political,etc groups to believe certain things than I have been by religious groups." But there is usually some science or factual basis behind the beliefs of environmental and (reputable) political groups, and some bad consequence if people ignore the science or rationality behind what these groups represent. If you drive your car around everywhere, you WILL contribute to global warming, whether you believe in it or not. The same cannot be PROVED about hell, or being personally saved by Jesus/Mohammad/whomever.

That said, I'm religious. (Not christian.) I have faith in a higher power because it helps me sleep at night and deal with death. I don't feel threatened by Bill Maher because I don't feel like faith has to have a rational basis.

Neither faith nor science should be a reason to justify making another human being suffer, however. Making Christians suffer because you're rational is just as bad as making atheists/queers/jews/whomever-you-don't-like-because-the-bible-says-so suffer because you're Christian.

[Michael]

Questioning someone's beliefs is not the same as restricting their civil rights.

[b]

She's in Hayden on one of the low-rise levels. I had no idea who she was until my roommate started freaking out about being in her LSP advisory group.

[Jess]

I just realized today that Amanda Lorber also goes to NYU when I saw her name as a writer in our campus newspaper! I was like, aw no! I remember her from Rich's site! And then, seriously, same day, here she shows up again. Amazing. Today is apparently Lorber awareness day.

[Ky-L]

Unsuspecting pious people has a pretty nice ring to it, but she looks like a puffin and I just can't trust an agnostic thinking puffin!

[Sarah]

Did she get a nose job? (Just curious)