While watching Real Time with Bill Maher, a huge issue that was brought up during the course of the show, and an issue that seems to be coming up in general is the idea that the religious right is tired of being made fun of and dismissed.
There is a central mistake being made here. Liberals don’t think religious people are stupid in general. I would say the overwhelming majority of liberals are religious in one way or another. What makes liberals think that the Religious Right are stupid is their favoring of idealism over results, their push for bad science (creationism) to be taught alongside good science (evolution), and in general, their constant attempts to push the division of church and state.
There are many religious people out there, both liberal and conservative that can make intelligent decisions about policy divorced from arbitrary religious ideology. But there are far too many who simply can’t, and a great deal of those fall on the right side of the political line.
When people justify illogical or irrational behavior with religious motivation, it’s hard for people who justify their behavior with logic (right or wrong) to take them seriously. I don’t mean to say here that all religious behaviors are illogical, but when you oppose stem-cell research or evolution because of religion you’re going to be written off by 48% of us.
And don’t try to spin a bad-science rap on evolution. Google it. Read the Nation Geographic issue. In a scientific contest, evolution wins.