{"id":326,"date":"2008-09-26T15:32:52","date_gmt":"2008-09-26T15:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/09\/religulous-bill-maher-and-disb.html"},"modified":"2008-09-26T15:32:52","modified_gmt":"2008-09-26T15:32:52","slug":"religulous-bill-maher-and-disb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/09\/religulous-bill-maher-and-disb.html","title":{"rendered":"Religulous, Bill Maher and (Dis)beliefnet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"disbeliefnet2.GIF\"<\/a><\/span>
\nJust saw a screening of Religulous. I’ll write more in a separate post but in general it was funny, offensive, slippery, and more challenging than I expected.
\nBy the way, I’m proud to say that Beliefnet itself is a direct butt of Maher’s humor, in the form of a website called disbeliefnet.com.<\/a> Isn’t caustic parody the greatest form of flattery? (Or was that imitation?)
\nI’ve been asked why Beliefnet is running ads for an anti-religion movie. First, we run ads for all sorts of things we don’t endorse, though this may be the first time we’ve run ads for a movie that’s mocked us.<\/em>
\nMore important, we have great confidence in the power of faith and the sincerity of believers. In the movie he casts believers as being a) against free speech b) humorless and c) idiots.
\nLet’s show him that he’s wrong on all counts. If you see the movie, please come here, Movie Mom<\/a>, Idol Chatter<\/a>, or to our forums – a hot discussion is already going on here<\/a> — not only discuss it but also to speak about what faith or spirituality means in your life. Tell us how faith, or your spiritual practice, has made you a better person or your world a better place. If you hate the movie (as many of you will), prove Maher wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just saw a screening of Religulous. I’ll write more in a separate post but in general it was funny, offensive, slippery, and more challenging than I expected. By the way, I’m proud to say that Beliefnet itself is a direct butt of Maher’s humor, in the form of a website called disbeliefnet.com. Isn’t caustic parody…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nReligulous, Bill Maher and (Dis)beliefnet - Steven Waldman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/09\/religulous-bill-maher-and-disb.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religulous, Bill Maher and (Dis)beliefnet - Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just saw a screening of Religulous. I’ll write more in a separate post but in general it was funny, offensive, slippery, and more challenging than I expected. By the way, I’m proud to say that Beliefnet itself is a direct butt of Maher’s humor, in the form of a website called disbeliefnet.com. Isn’t caustic parody…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/09\/religulous-bill-maher-and-disb.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-09-26T15:32:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/files\/import\/imgs\/disbeliefnet2-thumb-329x103.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"swaldman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Religulous, Bill Maher and (Dis)beliefnet - Steven Waldman","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/09\/religulous-bill-maher-and-disb.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Religulous, Bill Maher and (Dis)beliefnet - Steven Waldman","og_description":"Just saw a screening of Religulous. 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