Just days after the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk, comedian and atheist Bill Maher took aim at the Bible itself, calling it “full of nonsense and wickedness.” The timing of the remarks, coming amid a national outpouring of grief for a man who championed faith and virtue, didn’t go unnoticed.
Maher made the comments during a discussion with Ben Shapiro. When pressed on his sweeping condemnation of Scripture, Maher doubled down, claiming “the Bible’s for slavery.”
But Shapiro, in classic form, dismantled the argument—not with rage, but with reason.
“If that’s the case,” Shapiro asked, “then why do you and I agree on morality like 87.5 percent of the time? I’m a Jew; you’re an atheist.”
Maher had no clear answer.
Shapiro continued: “We grew up in a Western society that has several thousand years of Biblical history behind it. So you can think you hit that triple and you formed your own morality, but the reality is you were born morally on third base.”
Bill Maher: “[The Bible] is full of nonsense and wickedness and things that are everything but virtuous.”
— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) September 13, 2025
Ben Shapiro: “Why?”
Bill Maher: “Because the [Bible’s] for slavery.”
Ben Shapiro: “No, no, no, why do you and I agree on mortality like 87.5%? I’m a Jew; you’re an… pic.twitter.com/m1B1srghgj
The crowd erupted in applause, clearly siding with Shapiro's point.
And it’s a point that resonates even more now—after Kirk, a vocal advocate for the moral foundation of the West, was murdered in cold blood on a college campus while defending those very principles.
For years, the Left has mocked faith as outdated, oppressive, or irrelevant. But when morality unmoored from faith produces political violence, censorship, and moral confusion, even atheists like Maher end up relying on the very moral framework they claim to reject.
Charlie Kirk understood that Western civilization didn’t build itself—and it won’t defend itself if the next generation is taught that the Bible is “wicked.” That’s why he fought so hard to bring truth back to campuses.
And now, in a moment when his death should have prompted sober reflection, Maher chose instead to ridicule the very foundation that allowed him to sit comfortably in a free society, debating morality without fear. Shapiro’s response is a reminder: the freedoms we enjoy, the values we share, and even the moral instincts we take for granted—those didn’t come from nowhere. They came from somewhere. And they came at a cost.