Bill O’Reilly is apparently still smarting from the election and the loss of traditional America. Although he told guest David Silverman, president of American Atheists, that he wanted to understand atheists' position on Christmas displays, within minutes he was shouting at Silverman and calling him a fascist. Along the way, O’Reilly insisted Christianity is not a religion and that Christmas is not affiliated with any religion. Fortunately for us, Silverman was a terrific guest and did not take any of the attacks lying down. Grab the popcorn!
I believe O’Reilly meant well. But the road to you-know-where is paved with good intentions. “I’m really trying to get your point of view here,” O’Reilly said at the start. “I don’t look down on you. I don’t think you’re a pinhead,” he said amicably. That was before he called Silverman a fascist, of course.
Oh, what a difference a few minutes can make. Silverman told O’Reilly he’s not “messing around” with Christmas, he just wants to stop the government “from preferring one religion over another.”
That annoyed O’Reilly to the point where he said brusquely, “You listen to me and you answer my questions.” Then, in a condescending tone, he “asked,” “What religion is involved with Christmas?”
As Silverman said, “Christianity,” O’Reilly interrupted to say, “That’s not a religion, that’s a philosophy.”
Silverman was not snowed by this gotcha tactic. He said, “It’s not cool for you to cloud this issue,” with that argument.
Things devolved from there.
O’Reilly said he’d have no problem with Silverman putting a sign saying, “Happy Winter Solstice” on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office door. Silverman disagreed, saying that O’Reilly would.
That really set off O’Reilly. His finger jabbing the air, he snapped, “Don’t tell me what I think. When I said I didn’t have a problem, I don’t have a problem. Got it?”
But Silverman stuck to his guns and that really aggravated O'Reilly. He said, “This is so unreasonable. You are so unreasonable, it is frightening… Your view is insane… You and your merry band of fascists…”
Silverman did not take that lying down. “You call me a fascist? I am a patriot, Sir, who is taking the craziest notion that everybody in this country is equal and that the government has to treat everybody fairly. That’s fascism?”
It's possible O’Reilly wouldn’t mind a "Happy Winter Solstice" sign on Democratic Cuomo’s door. But he’d almost surely yell the loudest and longest if such a sign was on the lawn of the State Capitol. Even longer and louder if it was anything Islamic. Just think how he squawked about the Ground Zero Mosque – and that was on private property.
By the way, Bill, have you gone down there with your saw and hammer yet? I’ll bet not.
http://www.billoreilly.com/blog?action=viewBlog&blogID=-873203205386344998
Remember when BOR attacked the Gov. of Washington because the Capitol building there allowed an “anti-religious” plaque to be put up among the other Christmas/seasonal decorations? BOR called for his viewers to contact the Gov’s office about their displeasure for her allowing “the anti-religious plaque displayed in the Capitol Building”.
http://www.billoreilly.com/blog?action=viewBlog&blogID=-873203205386344998
BOR: âWhat religion is involved with Christmas?â Huh? Are you freakin’ kidding me?! Wow, what a wake-up call that must be for most of BOR’s Christian viewers as I’m quite certain they associate Christmas with the Christian religion. I daresay that they would not buy into BOR’s idea that Christianity is a mere philosphy. But then, BOR has often referred to Jesus as a philospher and teacher instead of the Christian Savior so I suppose we shouldn’t be suprised at his latest denial. It might just be enough to make folks wonder about BOR’s depth of faith when it comes to his self-professed Christian faith, no? LOL!
Kinda funny (pitiful) how BOR took issue with the WA Capitol Christmas season plaque for being “anti-religious” but now he is denying that Christmas has anything to do with “religion”. Bwaaah!
His claim about Christianity not being a religion is an attempt to indoctrinate and establish it as the way of life for all Americans, a very Unconstitutional Attitude!
He is dangerous, rude, and very contemptible. I wish the video was there. I will have to find it elsewhere.
As noted, philosophy CAN be used by religion; indeed, a number of major religious thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas and Soren Kierkegaard are highly regarded philosophers who’ve used philosophy to defend religion. However, many other philosophers have largely ignored religion in their studies. People like Plato, Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau have used philosophy to explain ethics and political theory while Pythagoras and Rene Descartes have used their backgrounds in mathematics to influence their views of reality. It would be the height of utter stupidity (something with which O’Reilly is very well familiar) to presume that any philosophers worship their writings (again, Thomas Aquinas would likely be the last person to acknowledge “worshipping” any of his own writings).
I do understand O’Reilly’s confusion—to a degree. There are several major religions—primarily Taoism—which began as philosophies but over the millennia, have adopted a number of formal practices that enshrine the philosophical aspects into ceremonies of worship, although there’s no central deity or series of deities in these religions. Buddhism, likewise, has no real focus of worship in the sense of any “higher power” (the ultimate belief in Buddhism is “becoming one with the universe” or, in a rather pessimistic view, the complete annihilation of the soul or spirit). Confucianism, which many consider a religion, is more accurately described as a philosophy which both absorbs and influences other religious and philosophical teachings (the main reason people think of Confucianism as a religion is the way many Chinese folk religions adopted Confucian philosophy—in much the same way that Haitian voodoo adopted aspects of Roman Catholicism so that practitioners have shrines to both the voodoo loa as well as Catholic saints and the Virgin Mary in their homes; pure Confucianists, however, don’t worship anyone—reverance for ancestors exists, but it’s not real “worship”).
O’Reilly’s threatening to make my head spin like Linda Blair’s in “The Exorcist.”
