Jewish political commentator Ben Shapiro turned the tables on atheist Bill Maher during a heated exchange about religion and morality during Friday’s appearance on the comedian’s show.
Shapiro appeared on the HBO “Real Time with Bill Maher: Overtime” show to discuss his new book “Lions and Scavengers,” which divides society into two personality types: lions who build and scavengers who destroy. But the conversation quickly shifted when Maher launched into familiar territory—attacking religious faith.
“If God wrote the book, how could there be ‘things we don’t agree with?’ It’s got to be perfect because it’s written by you-know-who, or it’s just not perfect because it was written by people, obviously, and it’s full of nonsense and wickedness,” Maher said to audience laughter.
Maher, who starred in the anti-religion documentary “Religulous,” asked whether Shapiro felt comfortable being compared to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose work criticized Christianity. Shapiro pushed back against Nietzsche’s view that Judeo-Christian religion promotes weakness over strength.
Shapiro quoted from the Torah verse of “choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19), calling it foundational to Judaism. When he told Maher he wouldn’t try forcing him to believe in the Torah, the host responded with another anti-religion critique.
That’s when Shapiro delivered his knockout punch.
“Bill, you and I agree on morality I’d say at least 87 percent—” Shapiro began.
“Morality… but not from the Bible,” Maher interrupted.
“Why do you and I agree on morality like 87.5 percent? I’m a religious Jew, you’re an atheist — why do we agree on those things?” Shapiro asked. “We probably grew up a few miles from each other in Western society that has several thousand years of Biblical history behind it. So you can think that you hit that triple and formed your own morality, but the reality is you were born morally on third base.”
Maher’s audience—typically hostile to conservative religious arguments—burst into laughter and applause.
Trying to save face, Maher countered that Western morality stemmed from the Enlightenment, which he called anti-religious. He argued America’s Founding Fathers weren’t “particularly Christian,” but Shapiro sharply countered that Thomas Jefferson compiled his own version of the Bible focused on morality with miracles removed.
When Maher asked why people should believe in the Bible today, Shapiro offered a final metaphor: “Cut flowers die,” explaining that societies severing themselves from their moral roots cannot sustain their values indefinitely.
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