Religulous

My Review

I’ll break this review up into two parts: the quality of the movie and the subject matter in the movie.

Everyone should see this “documentary” if for no other reasons than it will make you think and it will make you laugh (really hard). Maher is a standup comedian and is pushing an agenda so it isn’t surprising that he introduces a good amount of humor into the film. I’ve read criticism of him for being too mean to people but I think this is rather unfair. After all, these people all knew who he was and what he was doing and in most cases hung themselves on their own words. It isn’t like he used the crappy (and dishonest) editing techniques that the Michael Moorers of the world use. Most of the best scenes ended with a comment by the interviewee, not Maher. It is amazing how many times the guests had a look on their face that said “oh my god, did I just say that?” when they realized the ridiculousness of their claims.

And then there is the subject matter. I think the most interesting part of the movies was seeing all of the major religions stacked up next to each other. When you think about it, where else have you ever seen a non-believer be able to have such a forum where he could speak openly and honestly about religion? All too often we see the media falling over themselves so as not to get the wrath of some wacko group.

One criticism that I’ve read is that Maher didn’t get enough intellectuals in his documentary. To the contrary, I think he did. The film started off in a southern truck stop church where you got a real flavor for what the average (southern) american thinks. One gentleman said that there was a ton of proof that bible was true. When pressed for an example, he offered up the Shroud of Turin because it had the vision of a man’s body with a female’s blood on it. Thus, a virgin birth. Of course, the shroud has been scientifically proven to come from around 1,000 AD and did not have blood on it. When Maher started asking for more questions the man said that he would not have his God questioned and stormed away.

Does Maher come off a little smarmy in certain parts of the film? Sure he does. Here is one example (speaking with a man from “ex-Jews for Jesus”):

Bill Maher: “If Santa Claus can hit every house in the world.”
Steve Berg: “No, we don’t believe in Santa Claus.”
Bill Maher: “Of course not, that’s one man flying all around the world and dropping presents down a chimney. One man hearing everybody murmer at him at the same time, that I get.”

or this one, with a guy playing Jesues at a Christian amusement park in Orlando (I’m not joking).

Bill Maher: “Why doesn’t he just obliterate the devil and therefor get rid of evil in the world.”
Fake Jesus: “He will.” Bill Maher: “He will?” Fake Jesus: “Yeah, it’s coming.”
Bill Maher: “What’s he waiting for?”

You know what? Good for Maher. Even though agnostics make up about 16% of this country (more than blacks, jews and gays) most people speak of the prominent religion in that country as a given and anyone that doesn’t follow that church as an oddball.

While the film did hit all of the major religions it did spend a good amount of time on Christianity. It highlighted the fact that almost all of the people featured in the bible never met Jesus and that there wasn’t a shred of evidence outside of the bible that Jesus even lived. Also, it showed that the Jesus story had been clearly copied from Egyptian and Roman lore (each group had a son of God that was born on December 25th to a virigin. This person healed the sick and even walked on water. He was crucified and then later resurrected. Sound familiar? You can read more here if you’d like).

While the first three quarters of the movie were rather light, Maher really brought it home at the end. Like most agnostics/atheists (including myself), Maher doesn’t care what you believe. What he does care about is the absolute religious fanaticism that seems to be happening in many parts of the world. Want proof? The United States ranks near the bottom of modernized countries in the percentage of the population that believes in evolution (reference here). Huh?

So why is this bad? Because some of these groups are extremists and many of them have weapson. Think about it: the vast majority of the warns and the terrorist acts committed on this planet have been done in the name of God. We’ve gotten through this so far because the weapons to end the world didn’t exist. Now they do and we should all be afraid. Maher thinks that the answer is not religious tolerance but the removal of religion from our world.

The famous interview with Senator Pryor (but he couldn’t get intellectuals, right?)

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