• Andrew@piefed.social
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      2 months ago

      You can see the video that was originally quoted here: https://xcancel.com/billmaher/status/1844938477512675654#m

      Bill Maher seems aggressively unfunny to me, but the gist of the video is that it’s a open letter to Chappell Roan (who is pro-Palestine), saying that Israelis aren’t colonisers, because the Bible mentions that they built a temple in that area before others in Middle-East settled there. It seems like a questionable claim to me, and there are plenty of replies to the video disagreeing with him.

      • JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        I mean, the Bible also mentions exactly how they drove out and murdered the Canaanites that were living there before them. Sounds like a coloniser to me - not that they were special for doing that, in their day.

        • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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          2 months ago

          And we know that that is, historically, bullshit, because Hebrews and Canaanites were related tribes and Judaism is even an outgrowth of the Canaanite pantheon.

      • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        The bible also says that you’re supposed to murder noncombatants during war. I think we should discount the old testament as a guide of any kind

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      2 months ago

      The New Atheist movement led by figures such as Richard Dawkins have recently changed their mind from “all religions bad” to “Islam bad”.

      Richard Dawkins: I’m a Cultural Christian

      This affirm previous suspicions that the most hardcore atheists were simply Islamophobes. Coincidentally they are also the staunchest deniers of the genocide in Gaza.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      They’re saying Israel is a US Colony and that Athiests are frauds, particularly Bill Maher for quoting the bible.

      Personally, I think OP and this Medhi Hasan guy can fuck right off, Religion is literally the cause of all of this and thousands of years of conflict in that region on top of that.

      • voracitude@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Not “atheists”. “The New Atheists”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Atheism

        And he’s not saying that Israel is a US colony, at all. He’s saying Zionism as an ideology is centred around colonialism in the classic British sense of the word, e.g. “take other people’s shit by force”.

        Frankly, Mehdi isn’t wrong here. Using a religious text as a source for historical information to excuse the genocide in Gaza is antithetical to what Maher says he stands for and makes a hypocrite of him.

      • School_Lunch@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Yes and he only cited the Bible to show that jews lived there thousands of years ago. He wasn’t citing the Bible to make any kind of religious claim, so this guy’s comment is completely missing the point.