When Bill Maher's documentary Religulous came out last year, some people I know asked me if I was planning on seeing it. I said no, and I was usually asked if it was because it would offend me.
Well, no, not really. I read about who Maher interviewed for his movie and I didn't see a single person on the list who had any kind of scholarly background at all. As I understand it, he mostly talked with people who had some, shall we say, colorful ideas about religion, but nobody who'd studied Biblical languages or church history. Maher, for all his inability to distinguish between acerbic wit and bitter sniping, isn't completely stupid and had done a little bit of homework. So he was far better equipped, information-wise, than those with whom he spoke. But as I said, he didn't ever interview someone who might have been able to talk with him about what people who've made careers out of studying Biblical languages, archaeology, history and the like think about these things.
And after watching George Will make Maher look like a fool on Sunday morning, I can see why he didn't. A man's got to know his limitations.
(My apologies for the Newsbusters link; I usually try to find their original sources to link to instead because I think they get a quite a bit too shrill sometimes.)
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