On the other hand, atheist David Gorski points out:
Bill Maher, comedian and host of the HBO show Real Time With Bill Maher. Thanks to an anti-religion movie (Religulous) and his frequent stance as a "skeptic," many of my fellow skeptics consider him one of our own, even to the point of giving him an award named after Richard Dawkins. Yet, when it comes to medicine, nothing could be further from the truth. Maher's own words show that he has anti-vaccine views, flirts with germ theory denialism and HIV/AIDS denialism, buys into extreme conspiracy theories about big pharma, and promotes animal rights pseudoscience. That's not a skeptic or a supporter of science-based medicine.More, shall we say, "scientifically incorrect" thoughts from Maher here and here.
BTW, I don't necessarily agree with everything over on SBM. But I cite it to illustrate Maher's own credulous, uninformed, and dogmatic views contra mainstream medical science. Whether or not mainstream medical science is correct, he's not even open to hearing the other side.
Self-proclaimed skeptics aren't actually skeptics. They are like Roman Catholics: the magisterium consists of credentialed experts and Church Teaching is the conventional wisdom of the day. They are a cult that venerates those whom Djilas called the New Class.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, they consider Maher i) a heretic opposing the True Faith and ii) a traitor to his class of managerial elites.
(Be careful, skeptic reader, for today's accepted truth may become tomorrow's psuedoscience.)
I'd more or less agree with your evaluation here. Hence my "BTW..." bit.
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