Great point, Kevin. I can't help but wonder if they're always that much "fun" to be around. Sigmund Freud was known for his acerbic bitterness and it was written of him that, in the last years of his life, his body began to emit a foul odor so strong that his own dog couldn't stand to be in the room with him.

Philip, in conversations with a young fan of Bill Maher, I've made a similar point about how bitter and mean the new atheists are. An example I used was that I don't remember ever seeing Christopher Hitchens smile. I'm not talking about the snide smirk he often exhibited. I mean a warm, genuine smile.

I share a little of Maher's ideology and used to watch his show. Then he started getting more and more insulting toward people of faith, to the point where the humor was disappearing behind the mean spiritedness. That holds no appeal to me whatsoever.

I wonder how many non-Christians truly find Maher appealing; humorous in a shocking way, perhaps, but desirable? Hardly. If I wasn't a Christian, I would possibly embrace paganism. But if the only other option to faith was the shrunken, bitter ideology of Mayer and those of his ilk, then I think that I would throw myself under the bus. And, if that didn't work, then I would drag myself to the nearest train tracks to finish the job.

Lee, I'd certainly wear that if I had one! ;-)

Gina, this just gives me more ammunition for my racing-downhill opinon of B. Maher. If the man isn't mentally retarded, then he's being devious by pretending not to know that all schools/colleges/universities were, initially, founded by religious folk both Catholic and Protestant. Religion was as much a part of their everyday lives as breathing! Maher is a poorer man for denigrating their example.

All those colleges and universities the Founding Fathers attended, as rattled off by yonder misogynist and village atheist - how many of them had requirements for chapel attendance like Liberty does, hmmm?

Are you wearing your "I am the grammarian your mother warned you about" t-shirt today, G? :-)