RELIGULOUS--Bill Maher

Ah I see now.

Sorry mate, missed the point you were getting at in the begining.

I recently watched RELIGULOUS. I am in a Philosophy of religion class and one of my classmates finds away to talk about this movie every class. Curiosity won and I rented this past weekend, now that I have watched it I see my classmates ideas are based solely on this movie

Now onto my thoughts on the movie:

The Good: It was funny I must admit there were some really funny parts of this documentary, I also feel that he had some good points. It sparked my curiosity I have studied a few religions, but never looked into Mormonism after watching this I was sure to do some research. Also I agree with him on the separation of our government and religion.


The not so good: One of my major issues with this movie was the intolerance I felt he had, I struggle with this issue in class as well. I am the first to admit I do not have the answers and I have deep reservations with organized religion and as far as my faith I am still on my quest seeking and questioning. However I do not feel anything is accomplished with intolerance an example of this is his interview with people of the Islamic faith, yes there are extremist in every religion there are extremist, but to focus on all the bad is in my opinion very western. I admit I know very little of this faith but I do not see how focusing in all the negative is any better then the extremists that want us all dead. To put all of this faith in one category is like saying all democrats will cheat on their wives because Bill Clinton cheated on his wife.

The movie was very funny when I first watched it. The fact that I'm a certified atheist probably made it even funnier. I don't think that he is intolerant. He has religious people on his show and he doesn't belittle them based on that fact alone. The movie was mainly comedic because religious beliefs, especially the metaphysical aspects, are very funny when you think about them. I do, however, hear what you're saying in terms of criticism of religion. Like anything, religion deserves to be criticized in an intelligent way, and like anything, it may be worthy of ridicule depending on the specific beliefs . . . but we need to keep things in context. We can't judge all religions the same way because different beliefs have different consequences. We also can't blame religion for all of the problems that humanity has.

I saw this film a couple of weeks ago. Bill Maher, I thought, was a poor tour guide through the inadvertent comedy of religion. I hate to say, because I struggle to like the man, but I thought Michael Moore would have perfectly suited to this subject for one sole reason: he knows when to shut up and let the interviewee dig his own hole, and he knows when to speak up to help them do it. Most of the best stuff in Religulous is watching stupid people confuse themselves, the source of most of Moore's comedy. The kid whose counter-argument to the lack of originality in the Christ story involves Star Wars Episode I was sheer comic class, not on the same level, but in the same ballpark, as the kid in Bowling for Columbine who 'got a reputation' for making bombs.

Maher was too aggressive, too closed-minded. If he was beat in an argument, he just pulled a 'Oh, come on' face to make his opponent feel small rather than giving a counter-argument. I'm not American and have never really seen Maher, but he struck me as not at all bright. The stand-up clips of his they show in the documentary also struck me as not at all funny. And some of his information about earlier gods or sons-of-gods simply wasn't true, and yet a little bit of honesty and research would have given him the correct and desired argument. I suppose when you're talking to people who don't know any better to make a film for people who don't know any better there must be a strong temptation to let little dishonesties slip through. Another, negative, Moore comparison is in the editing which screamed of dishonesty. If you can't film the point, edit it together.

But... watching stupid people dig their own graves is always funny, and on that level Religulous ticked all the boxes for me. Ultimately the film isn't a documentary. It doesn't even cut the mustard as propaganda, a la F 9-11. It's a comedy. I can see why people would get upset about it though. If you want to do that kind of comedy with a theme, you're going to end up unfairly representing people.

As for the ethics, I don't know. Earlier someone complained that it widened the gap between Christians and atheists. I don't know if this is a bad thing all the time. There are certain political problems that come with a religious country. As the film pointed out, American government is a lot more religious than it was, and rational people, even religious ones, should worry about any undermining of the separation of church and state. People like Dawkins and Hitchens are very militant in their anti-religious views because they see religion as a grave threat that needs to be fought. As in any such fight, the playing isn't always fair and honest. I generally find myself sympathising both with the intelligent and upstanding religious who are essentially finding themselves under attack for no good reason and the anti-religious militants who feel that it would be better if religion had no effect on the rest of the world's people.