Religulous (2008)

March 18, 2009

DVD, Seattle, WA

** ½ / ****

By Scott Muoio

Religulous is streamlined provocation with the sole intent of showing how ridiculous it is to believe in the tenants of organized religion. Bill Maher is the host and travels around the world interviewing swaths of the righteous on their own turf, a bold move that takes him to Jerusalem, The Netherlands, Salt Lake City, an Arkansas senator’s office, a couple of religious theme parks, and a curious shop where a Jewish man invents devices to sidestep Sabbath regulations. Occasionally respectful, mostly determined to insight, and loaded with slanderous jokes and witty edits, Maher’s arguments against the logic of religion are plain, simple, and effective. Maher’s main strategy is quoting passages from his targets’ favorite holy books, which not surprisingly, is enough to topple the logic of most if not all major religions’ theological straw men. Yet somehow, someway, Maher’s urging the righteous to embrace doubt rather than blind faith falls on deaf ears, and the believers continue to, well, blindly believe.

But why? Why in the face of logic, common sense, and a camera in their face do senators, ordinary citizens, entrepreneurs, and supposed holy men cling to stories that are cribbed from the past, logically impossible, and which defy everything we know about common sense? Unfortunately, if you expect any lip service for that particular question Religulous will leave you sadly disappointed.

One of my biggest gripes with intentionally aggressive movies like Religulous is that they rarely if ever give a fair and useful rebuttal from “the other side.” Sure, Maher is effective at making us laugh at the oddity of holy ghosts, virgin births, self-proclaimed saviors, the excessive wealth of holy men, and on and on, but where he falters is in failing to create a dialogue between the believers and the doubters. It is obvious that the fables propping up religious doctrine are self-evidently ludicrous, and really there is no need to defend them. Even two Vatican employees agree with Maher that the historical relevance of The Bible is questionable if not very inaccurate, but that isn’t the point. Rather, a discussion of faith instead of belief is of the utmost importance, and on that front Maher fails to engage his interviewees even for a moment.

The other big problem with the film is that Maher eventually climaxes with a five-minute destruction and terror montage that “proves” religion is literally destroying our world and its people. It is hard to defend the notion that religion isn’t part of that problem; after all, religious flags are often literally and figuratively flown at the scene of many catastrophes. Maher’s error is that he misses the human lust for power, money, and control that is the true root of most evil and the main problem with religion in general. Religion may be part of the problem, but the true cause of our society’s downfalls are human instincts left untethered to create organized religion in the first place.

In my opinion, religion is merely the smoke and mirrors confusing us as to the real evil in our world. It is also a security blanket for the insecure, an answer for our questions that seem to have none, and a way for us to be satisfied for our lot in life when hopelessness is at its strongest. And often that isn’t such a bad thing.

Self-interest, greed, and the abundance of governments that promote the lust for power, money, and control while preserving the power elite, these are the true destroyers of our world and its people. And unfortunately, Religulous is so bent on slandering religion it misses the bigger picture.

For those unwilling to question their own beliefs Religulous will most assuredly be roundly offensive. But that is the problem of the viewer, not the movie’s subject matter. For everyone else, Religulous is a fun anti-religion romp that fills in a few gaps in our comparative religion studies without ever venturing beyond the cursory. As a film about religion, however it brings little insight, new ideas, or balance to the proceedings. Therefore, for the curious, the righteous, and the skeptics I can’t quite recommend the film. For Maher aficionados like me it is good enough yet still not representative of Maher at his best, only his most aggressive. I know Bill is better than that.

Director: Larry Charles

Producer: Bill Maher, Johan Smith, Palmer West

Starring: Bill Maher