What did everybody (who saw it) think of Bill Maher's "Religulous"?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

My wife and I recently watched Bill Maher's "Religulous" documentary and we both ended up enjoying it. Most of it was pretty much as I had expected it- with Maher trying to engage fundies from all of the major religions in his typical snarky but amusing manner and questioning their beliefs. I didn't really expect him to really make any inroads with any of them- most seemed pretty offended that he was questioning their sacred beliefs- but it was amusing to hear him ask questions and probe for REAL answers.

However, the end scared me a bit when he was talking about how we don't need God to destroy because we now have the capacity for creating our own apocalypse and extinction and that those of us whom are not religious ("doubters") need to start speaking out more and challenging religious beliefs, particularly as they are often used as a basis for governance. This discussion was punctuated by real life images of death and destruction wrought in the name of religion and really got me thinking just how scary the thought of having so many leaders in the world whose beliefs DO influence their governance really is but it also left me wondering how do the rest of us begin challenging that as Maher prescribes, particularly when it seems like religious belief of some kind- Christianity especially- seems to practically be a requirement for elected officials (Kay Hagan excluded) here in the US? How do people in the ME challenge their leaders when most of their countries are theocratic? Thoughts? Ideas? :shrug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I did, and have watched it a couple times

bought it for the IPOD as well.

I fully agree with his conclusion, why this wall between the faith of the major religions, as well as a few others, have to be kept away from government. I also concluded that this kind of belief is pathological, but I expect to be told just how wrong I am...

[InvisibleTouch]

2. I liked it a lot.

Some people have called it mean-spirited, but I didn't get that at all. It seemed like he was genuinely trying to understand how people come to and hold the beliefs they do, and then gently trying to nudge them into a more rational and openminded mode. He wasn't insulting to people's beliefs, he was just pointing out where it didn't make sense and asking about that.

The part that sticks most in my mind (totally off-topic of the film's message) is where he's interviewing the fundie senator ... and the senator quite inadvertently admits something about his own intellectual capacity. :)

I do agree that the mindset of organized religion, especially if it's rigid and authoritarian, has done untold damage to the world. People believe they can kill and exploit and pollute because their religion tells them they're justified. There's no respect for other people, other beliefs, other countries, let alone other species.

By contrast a religious or spiritual belief that emphasizes connection with all life, would go a long way toward healing the damage, and I would have no quarrel with that. And it's certainly not necessary to have a religious/spiritual belief to have respect for all living things.

[sutz12]

3. It's been a while...

I remember enjoying it, but IIRC Bill got a little preachy with his atheism at the end. For most of the movie, he was quite respectful of the people he interviewed, as least as I remmeber it.

[PSzymeczek]

4. I haven't seen it yet,

but want to.

[uberllama42]

5. I saw it with some mildly Catholic friends of mine

We all thought it was funny, but thought the end segment was pretty much unrelated to the rest of the film. He seemed to get ADD at the end and veer off into Sam-Harris-style hard-line territory.

I agree that the time is always right to push back against the forces of belief, but we need someone other than Bill Maher as the public face of our movement, such as it is. I'd prefer someone like Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

[rrneck]

6. It's a riot. I enjoyed it.

He was picking low hanging fruit, but that's fine. Gotta start somewhere.

[Rainngirl]

7. Loooved it!

Way better than I expected.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Mean spirited, preachy, not very funny, lame.

It missed the mark for me.

I am no movie critic.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. I had the exact same reaction -

I hold no brief for organized religion, but the way Maher mocked those people was troubling.

Any movie that leaves me feeling sorry for sheep is a bad, bad movie......................

[ZombieHorde]

9. My wife bought his DVD, it has large holes in the plastic case, so less plastic was used.

less packaging.

We both enjoyed it.

[Maru Kitteh]

10. Smarmy, smug, Preaching to the choir.

[Joe the Liberal]

12. I thought it was good....

We need more films like it out there.

[Onceuponalife]

13. outstanding movie

Hilarious. I love the guy who stormed out when Bill was just asking some earnest questions. "You can't mess with MY religion! I'm outta here!!" Like his belief can't stand the force of a single question. Pathetic.

[Oregone]

14. incoherent and a bit low-brow

Seemed like Maher memorized a bunch of good one-liners and unleashed them on people he knew who couldn't answer them (like Trucker church-goers, and man-actor playing Jesus).

His conclusive end statement was great, but, totally out of character with his movie. I thought the production blew. I was expecting way more.

[paulsby]

15. well, not exactly

i agree with majer on a lot of stuff and enjoy his riffing on fundies, but...

"This discussion was punctuated by real life images of death and destruction wrought in the name of religion "

metric assloads of death and destruction last century was done by men with no religion whatsoever (unless you count political ideology a religion), which made it abudantly clear to anybody not bigoted against religion, that it's not a problem WITH religion. it's a people thang.

the soviet union, mao's china, pol pot, etc. did not need religion to reap death and destruction.

the idea that religion is the REAL cause of violence and problems in this world is thus not supported by evidence. the evidence of the 20th century, the first century with big-ass atheist regimes.

[Democracyinkind]

16. I like Maher, but the movie was too much.

And actually, I found him to be partly dishonest and condescending. As an Agnostic who has full faith and some knowledge concerning science, I can't stand it when people misstate science/ or the scientific method to make a point against religious fundamentalists.

I mean the way how he snipped in the "gay gene" thing just made me walk out of the movie. It was freaking' ridiculous. They cut the clip the way to make it seems as if science had 100% agreed on the fact that homosexuality was determined to a 100% by genes. No serious scientist, not in the age of epigenetics, would make such a claim. And when I looked up the guy who said that in the film, I noticed that they probably had to cut out a pretty large part of the rest of the sentence in order to get that "yes. homosexuality is genetic. we found the gay gene" ,.,, So ridiculous.

Point is. This "gay gene" thing shows exactly that Maher is no different from the very people he wants to mock - all the difference is that Maher blindly believes other authorities. But it's just ridiculous. That scene totally blew the movie.

Just because our adversaries, the fundamentalists, are 100000% certain and absolute about their fictional beliefs, doesn't mean that we shouldm peddle science and liberalism as an "absolute truth" in the very same way that the fundamentalists do.

The difference between me, Maher and the Fundamentalists is that I live in a world of scientific probabilities, not fictional certainties.
And I won't take the "I know it all" bullshit even from Einstein or Jeebus. Fundamentalism, even its liberal form, is always bad.

THE DIFFERENCE IS EXACTLY THAT WE DO NOT CLAIM TO HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS (MAHER SEEMS TO THINK HE DOES) AND THAT IT IS OK.

Maher and the fundies seem to disagree with that view. Sometimes just seems like he's got more in common with the people he mocks than he likes.

[armyowalgreens]

17. Pretty damn good. However, it got a little too "hey look at these morons" by the end...