Religulous

joe.shearer

October 01, 2008 by joe.shearer

0 votes

Well, if there's one thing you can take from Bill Maher's new film "Religulous," it's that he's not trying to pander to the Moral Majority.

As you can ascertain from the title, "Religulous" is Maher's attempt at debunking, defaming and generally defeating religion of all sorts, creeds, colors and kinds.

No faith is spared, from Christianity to Judaism (Maher's father was Catholic; his mother was Jewish) to Islam to Scientology to even an Amsterdam-based faith based on smoking pot.

His central thesis is simple: Organized religion is a pox on all of humanity, and the very notion of an invisible God who talks to a select few people (and asks you to give money to those people) is inherently ridiculous.

To his credit, Maher doesn't lob bombs from an ivory tower. He goes straight into the fire, speaking with members of religious organizations of all kinds, beginning with a truck-stop ministry. Oddly enough, the parishioners hear him out and rationally discuss the subject.

Some of the film's best moments come during Maher's visit to the Vatican, where he discusses Catholicism first with a priest at Vatican Observatory (who maintains that the Bible cannot, nor is it trying to, teach science), then a rather kooky but level-headed senior priest who calls much of modern Christian belief "nonsense."

Maher doesn't try to offer answers as to what comes after this life: "I'm preaching the gospel of 'I Don't Know,'" he says. "The other guys are selling certainty."

Does Maher poke fun at several of his subjects? Yes. Does he present a one-sided view of religion, painting it as the cause of many of the world's problems? Certainly.

You get the sense Maher is preaching to the choir, but takes a proactive view in a sort of call to arms he makes, especially to "moderately religious" Americans who he says don't have the courage to take a stand.

Forum: Movies

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Christianity, Maher, religulous

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Joey Fingers
Joey Fingers, October 6
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Sold out theater at Keystone Arts on Friday night. Teenagers, 70 year old's (some drinking Vodka), and people of all makes and models jammed into one of the bigger theaters. It's been quite a while since a movie theater employee has had to come out and force people to sit directly next to others in order to free up EVERY last seat.

Bill is definitely selling "Doubt". This was a movie worth seeing because Bill makes this subject funny. The Zeitgeist video online covers even more information than Bill does here but in a much more gloomy fashion. I'm not saying either way is right. A great conversation piece.

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