I have never been a maher fan, but i applaud his motives. he doesn't hate religion, he is obviously fascinated by it as am i and many other non-believers.
i too do not like to proclaim my agnostic stance when discussing with loved ones or even with people i don't know. for different reasons.
with love ones, i don't want to take away their faith. they feel they may go to heaven when they die and i wouldn't want them to fear a death that includes no continued existence.
with people i don't know, this same result can come. but in addition, since it's very easy to question religion there being very little evidence to support it... from a polemics stand point a non-believer has a huge advantage... logic, where as the believer must resort to faith. this creates a disconnect in the believer's argument, compound this with the fear of no afterlife that the believer may harbor, and i've found these discussions will often lead to negativity. the religious person will often show little tolerance for my point of view which leads to a poor opinion of me in general, and i've grown weary of having these conversations due to these consequences.
i saw the film some months ago however, and it inspired me to stop cowering. I've since proclaimed my lack of belief several times in public settings, non-confrontationally and will continue to do so despite mixed responses.
many of us non believers tolerate religion because we believe it is responsible for more good than harm. this is because it helps to keep large quantities of people in line as they may fear god's wrath and so forth. the film declares that religion does more harm than good due largely to wars that have been and are being fought strongly due to religious belief. it is difficult to make an actual conclusion as to which is correct.
also, if religion does cause more harm than good, it's not the fault of religion, but the fault of those who find themselves in positions of religious power to influence the minds of many.
sadly i can't give any references, but i've read articles which postulate our belief in religion as an evolutionary advantage... something that's built into our genes. it makes sense as we are the only animals aware of our existence and subsequent lack of existence. we require justification for our inevitable cessation. otherwise we may lose our drive to survive and reproduce, which is all we're really here to do.
so unfortunately, as simple as bill maher makes it sound, a minority of non-believers preaching reason is not going to do away with religion and is not going to solve our world's religious based hatred and violence.
another solution that hasn't worked is our country's interference through out the world. we have a knack for making things much worse when we meddle. people like saddam and bin laden largely owe their success to our meddling. and ironically, we have historically tolerating/supported one of the most well known religious wars, with the israel-palestine situation.
i don't have any solutions.