Jason Whitlock out of his element--and league

Jason Whitlock should stick with sports.

Clearly he doesn't understand Bill Maher.

Or atheists or atheism.

Or, for that matter, religion and/or the history of religion.

In his column yesterday, he declared that Bill insults common sense, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Whitlock's mom.

Hogwash.

He also picked the easiest of targets because Bill Maher gets dismissed for two reasons: he's atheist and uses profanity, simultaneously, so people don't take him seriously, usually, especially if all they do is watch his show.

To compare Bill Maher to Glenn Beck is to compare someone who knows and understands history and cultures, to someone who is unaware of and unfamiliar with both but who still manages to be outspoken and opinionated.

Let's be clear here--Bill Maher isn't a "bigot" against religion. Bill Maher knows religion, what it is, what it's based on and what it's done in the past and what it's capable of and then comes to the conclusion that it's a crutch, at minimum, and a weapon, too frequently, at worst.

Whitlock asks "Will Maher use his enhanced platform"--tv--"to tell me (Whitlock) my mother is "delusional?"

Well, if Mr. Whitlock pressed, I'm sure he would. Is Bill going to rush up and tell her that? No. No, Jason, he's not, don't worry.

It may have been "faith" that gave your "mother the stength to work a full shift at a factory and a second job at night so that" his "brother and" he " could live in a safe neighborhood with a good school system."

Yes, or maybe she could have just felt that obligation and dedication for and to you, if she were more enlightened.

And maybe it was Mr. Whitlock's grandmother's "belief in Christ that allowed her to move emotionally and mentally beyond the racist atrocities her family endured living in the South."

Yes, or maybe she could have just been a tough, smart woman who knew what she had to do and did it.

The thing is, what too many people simply can't accept is that we're here without any magical, mystical, anthropomorphized "creator" figure and that we should treat each other well and right because it's the right thing to do, period, without that same magical, mystical judge and "great leveler."

As a nonbeliever, Mr. Maher doesn't just "focus solely on the negative aspects of organized faith," as was in the column, not at all.

He mentions those, time and again, because people have done horrific things to other human beings in the name of religion but he also points out how simply unnecessary and superstitious--and based on superstition--religion is.

Mr. Whitlock concludes by saying religion should be viewed as a tool we can use to get through life. A lot of us agree. Only we think more along the lines of a crutch than a fork, for that tool.

And faith is, actually, too frequently "the enemy of thought," in fact. It is the enemy of evaluative, critical thought. Instead of analyzing things, faith usually asks believers to memorize pre-concluded ideas and concepts and then regurgitate them to the end of our days.

Bill Maher is smart enough and honorable enough to make distinctions. He's made the distinction between analytical thought and superstitious, comfortable, comforting, tradional memorization and repetition.

The fact is, Jason Whitlock being insulted because of Bill Maher's strong opinions on religion, based on history, education and familiarity is only a problem for him, Jason, and others like him who still cling to religion.

If he, Mr. Whitlock, chooses to be insulted, that's not Mr. Maher's fault.

And that's another of Jason's mistakes.

If you choose to be insulted, Mr. Whitlock, that's your choice and problem, no one else's.

Least of all, Bill Maher's.