Who Do We Blame? (Religion? Government? Bill Maher?)

Should we all not just look for the same "them" and there will be no "who".

Earl, I'm sorry, I tried and tried and still failed to still the obnoxious beast within that screams 'WHOM' not "WHO'!!!!! Some of us are marked for life by good early English teachers.

Otherwise, a fun article.

Bill Maher wouldn't know what relgion was if it jumped up and bit him on his lips. By redefining what words mean if,you can make any body including elephant boy Bill into anything you want.; except in thias case, Maher has taken care of that himself....A neo-philosper with an intellect of Richard "out of touch" Dawkins

Pure religion is to visit and take care of the infirmed, widows and the orphans

Actually, there are Christians that are tolerant of other religions, but will fight others that attack them just because of their religion.

Mahler is correct in comparing communism to religion, in that both reflect an extremist way of thinking. I don't oppose people engaging in religious beliefs, but I do oppose them imposing such beliefs Into policy decisions that affect all of us. Any system of thought based on absolutism is dangerous to human well being, and religion is one of the worst offenders of this.

thanks for the article. beautiful insight to see publicly available. Us against them has always been the issue. Duality is not reality even though our minds convince us that it is real. In the religious context of this article the concept is clearly shown in the Adam and Eve story. Told "do not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That good and evil part is key and is most often left out. The knowledge of good and evil implying that before this there was no good and evil, no concept of duality. Only when we suddenly had some idea that some of creation was wrong and other parts were right did we lose that state of consciousness we can call Eden. Now we fight for good against evil when there, in reality, is neither. And as long as we do the garden will be lost to us.

Wherefore art thou "them?"
Territory is important to large primates like humans. Also important -- imposing order onto randomness. We do that in dualistic terms. Day/night, good/evil, us and them. We create idealistc forms in our "higher" consciousness

Art, music, religion are all institutions of the ape. Would an ape given a typewriter and enough time create "War and Peace?" The answer, of course, is that one already did. But he was one of "them."

Maher is essentially right as organized religion is a governance body with all the amenities of most governmental processes. Fees for services, whether being gifts, tithing, donations, fees or taxes. They inflict penalties for not following their ways including imprisonment and death. The way the officials get in power varies a bit but in many cases are jobs for life without much input from the people that pay their way. In the end, both may be a necessity but also a curse

bill..who"