Actor Alan Ritchson recently joined Bill Maher on his “Club Random” podcast for a wide-ranging conversation. Throughout the interview, the two explored themes of faith.
Ritchson, who is known for his roles on the hit show “Reacher” and in Angel Studios film “Ordinary Angels,” has often been vocal about his Christian faith. On the other hand, Maher, a comedian and political commentator, has long been vocal about his religious skepticism.
The conversation quickly turned toward faith after Maher and Ritchson both shared their appreciation for Lionsgate, which backed “Ordinary Angels,” as well as Maher’s 2008 documentary “Religulous.”
Discussing his documentary, which took a critical look at religious faith, Maher said that it “wasn’t mean-spirited.”
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“It was not looking down on Christians,” Maher said. “One of the first places we went was a truck stop church outside of Raleigh, North Carolina.”
Maher continued, “I spoke to them there, and one guy walked out right away…But the other ones stayed and we had a really good dialogue. We wound up hugging it out.”
Ritchson asked if Maher felt like he “learned anything from that audience.” Maher responded by saying that he loves to learn new things but “usually, it’s the other way around, quite frankly, because people—they’re religious [but] they don’t know anything about their own religion.”
“Most Christians,” Maher continued, “would tell you that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were disciples of Jesus—the people who wrote the gospels. And they were absolutely not.” Maher went on to argue that the Gospel of Mark, which was the first of the gospel accounts to be written, was authored in A.D. 70—something with which most biblical scholars would disagree.
“It’s not an insult; that’s just a fact,” Maher said. “They don’t know their own religion.”
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Ritchson replied, “The problem I have with most Christians today—and I talk about this openly, a lot—is that that misses the point.”
