Atheists Like Richard Dawkins And Bill Maher Are The Westboro Baptist Church Of Atheism, Says Patton Oswalt

Comedian Patton Oswalt may believe in atheism himself, but when it comes to aggressive atheists like Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins, he’s pulling none of his punches. Oswalt compares the two well-known atheist leaders to the Westboro Baptist Church, implying that he’s embarrassed by the way the two other atheists attack people over differences of religion.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, Patton Oswalt claims comedians have known about Bill Cosby’s cheating “for a long f***ing time.” One atheist claims he sells virtual Bibles for a living, and makes a ton of money in the process.

The comments about Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher came up during an interview with Salon editor David Daley. Patton Oswalt has clashed with Salon in the past over political correctness and jokes that have supposedly gone too far, but this time Oswalt was asked to criticize members of his own belief system. Daley only asked about how Oswalt felt about Maher’s aggressiveness, but the comedian decided to throw Dawkins and the Westboro Baptist Church into the mix.

“I feel, as an atheist, about people like Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher the way that Christians must feel about Fred Phelps,” Oswalt explained. “Look, being an atheist means you don’t give a f*** about what anyone believes in. I don’t think any of it’s real, but you can go ahead and do it. I’m not trying to destroy religion. I just don’t care about it.”

Oswalt did not stop with making comparison to the dead former leader of the Westboro Baptist Church. He also does not like it when fellow atheists try to lump everyone together when people use religion to justify their actions.

“I live by experience, failure, learning, that kind of stuff. Everyone that goes, ‘But all the war is because of religion, blah blah blah,’ well then you’re no different than the housewife that’s like, ‘My son killed himself because of a Judas Priest record.’ ” Oswalt said. “No, your son killed himself because he was an unstable idiot. Those people started wars because they were unstable idiots. They stumbled across this religion thing, but if they hadn’t found that book, they would have found something else. There’s always going to be Christians, always going to be Jews, Hindus, Muslims, so let’s find a way to make all that progress. Because that’s always been the solution of frightened people, if we could just get rid of this chunk, everything would work.”

In addition to venting his frustration over Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher at Salon, Patton Oswalt laments that “everyone now has this litmus test, where if you do not agree on every single point, then we can’t talk to you or that guy’s got to lose his job.” Noting that it’s impossible to agree with everyone on everything, Oswalt says that he simply feels bad for anyone who either hates another group or feels they must shame them into agreeing with the status quo.

Do you agree that the behavior of Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher makes them like the Westboro Baptist Church of atheism?

[Image via the Times]