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‘Real Time’ Season Ends With Attack On Armageddon Believers

By Dieter Holger
Published on: 01:15 PST, Nov 21, 2015

Bill Maher stayed true to his colors by wrapping up this season of Real Time with a verbal attack on religious believers of end times. In America, two-fifths of people say they believe they’re currently living during the end times described in the bible, according to a poll conducted in 2013 by the research group Barna Group.

Maher began by lambasting Seventh-day Adventists, the religion of Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. The religion was founded in the 1800s by pastor William Miller who concluded, after studying the bible, that armageddon would come in 1843. Obviously, his prediction didn’t come to pass.

“Which you’d think make the followers go, ‘Well I guess that was a bunch of b******t!” Maher said. “It’s like believing in the Wizard of Oz after Toto pulls back the curtain.”

“Seventh-day Adventists are obsessed with the world ending,” Maher added, “and refer to the world not ending in 1844 as the ‘great disappointment.’ They’re disappointed that the world still exists.”

Maher said he could understand disagreeing with conservatives when it came to things like the Earned Income Tax Credit, paid sick leave and abortion, but the world ending was a “deal breaker.”

Maher complained that the media fails to ask presidential candidates whether they think the world is ending soon and if they consider that a bad thing.

“I’m the opposite of an end timer, I’m a spend timer,” Maher said. “I want to spend as much time as I can on this planet and I want some planet left for the children and grandchildren – who’re always kicking the back of my airplane seat.”

Maher proceeded to call out two highly religious Republican lawmakers who dismiss commonly accepted science, yet chair committees that oversee scientific matters.

Lamar Smith, the chair of the U.S. House Science Committee, is a Christian Scientist, a religion that advocates telling their followers to forego certain kinds of medical treatment and resort to prayer instead.

Smith is a major skeptic of global warming. Citing unnamed whistleblowers, Smith is investigating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) for rushing a report on global warming. Smith backed off from statements he made earlier this year in which he accused NOAA of falsifying information.

John Shimkus, who now chairs of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Environment and Economy, came under fire for invoking the story of the biblical character Noah during a 2009 committee hearing.

“I believe that is the infallible word of God, and that’s the way it is going to be for his creation,” Shimkus said. “The earth will end only when God declares its time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth. This earth will not be destroyed by a flood.”

Maher said it makes sense that “nothing gets done in this country” because there are people who believe the planet will soon be destroyed.

“Why fix the street lights if there’s just going to be a big fight with Satan?” Maher asked. “Why reform health care? Why where pants?”

Maher added that belief in god has been a factor in all violence, whether it be the wars described in the Old Testament or the recent attacks on Paris.

“Just in case I’m wrong about the apocalypse and the end does come while we’re off,” Maher said. “Let me make sure I say it now to all my fellow liberals – merry war on Christmas!”

Real Time with Bill Maher will return January 19.

Watch a clip of the show’s New Rules segment below, courtesy of HBO.

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

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