Bill Maher Says His ‘Morality’ Isn’t Bible-Based. Ben Shapiro Sets Him Straight.

Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher, a professed atheist, tried to claim that his sense of morality was not in any way based on the Bible — but Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro had other ideas.

Maher sparred with The Daily Wire co-founder and author during a recent broadcast of his show, where the comedian kicked off the conversation by claiming that because the Bible contained “nonsense and wickedness,” it must have been written by men rather than written or inspired by God as Jews and Christians believe.

WATCH:

.@billmaher: The Bible is full of nonsense and wickedness.@benshapiro: But you and I agree a lot on morality, right? Because we were born in a society built by the Bible. You can think you formed your own morality, but you were born morally on third base.

*audience erupts* pic.twitter.com/vyQc3vCYkz

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) September 13, 2025

“It’s always such a silly argument, because if God wrote the book, how could there be ‘things we don’t agree with’?” Maher asked in mocking tones. “It’s either got to be perfect because it’s written by ‘you know who,’ or it’s just not perfect and it’s written by people, which it was, obviously, and it’s full of nonsense and wickedness and things that are everything but virtuous.”

“So, Bill, you and I agree on morality, I’d say like 87%,” Shapiro said in response.

“Morality, but not from the Bible,” Maher protested.

“I have a question: Why?” Shapiro challenged Maher.

“Because it’s for slavery!” Maher exclaimed, claiming the Bible advocated slavery. “Because it’s okay with slavery —”

“No, no, no, no, why do you and I agree on morality like 87.5%?” Shapiro clarified the question. “I’m a religious Jew, you’re an atheist. Why do we agree on these things?”

Maher appeared to be still processing the question when Shapiro offered to give his answer to the question, and Maher invited him to go ahead.

“We probably grew up a few miles from each other in a western society that has several thousand years of Biblical history behind it,” Shapiro explained. “And so you can think that you hit that triple and you formed your own morality, but the reality is you were born, morally, on third base.”

“No, we —” Maher attempted to push back, but stalled out as the audience laughed.

Shapiro gave a longer explanation of the origins of morality during a debate with Sam Harris several years earlier, which can be viewed below: