Religulous (2008)

[baumer]

Discuss

[baumer]

I used to believe in a higher power. I used to think that religion was something that would help get me through the day. And then something funny happened. I read the Bible. I read stories about Abraham being told to sacrifice his son for God's pleasure. I read stories of Sodom and Ghamora. I read stories about turning people to stone for disobeying. I read stories about God being jealous and vengeful and angry. Shockingly, this is not the God I was told about in Sunday school.

When I questioned why God, who loved us so much, would let all this stuff happen in the world, I was told that God had a plan for us. And as Maher so cleverly pointed out, I wonder what the plan was for all those Jewish people who were being shoved into ovens. What was God's plan for them? Religulous is perhaps the most daring film/documentary i have ever seen. Religious zealots will preach peace and good will on one hand but if you dare say a bad word against their religion, some of them will physically confront you. Wars are predicated on religion. Bill Maher has made a film that will anger a lot of people. One, because a lot of what he has to say will leave religious people shaking their head when they see how absurd he makes them look, and two, because many religious loonies do not like you saying a bad word against their beliefs. This film pulls no punches and it makes fun of or questions all kinds of religions. Christianity, Catholicism, Mormonism, Islam and so on. It treats all of them equally when it comes to his disdain towards them. 

He meets a rabbi and asks him why he attended a Holocaust denial meeting with the president of Iran. He meets a Puerta Rican who says he is the second coming of Chirst. He has 100,000 followers. He goes to a truck stop chapel and debates with them about the absurdity of Christianity. It looks like they are going to take a swing at him, but instead they pray for his enlightenment. He goes to a Scientology get together and impersonates a Scientology's at the Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park, and says Scientology teaches that there was a race of Thetans several trillion years old, which is interesting because the Earth is only about 13 billion years old, and that we are born with Thetans inside of us, like the mitichlorians of Star Wars fame. These Thetans can be detected by getting an E meter, which can be purchased at a Scientology store. It is not free. Once you get it, you can audit yourself.

He also has meaningful debates with opponents of homosexuality. He gets into the merits or lack thereof of the ten commandments. He goes onto to tell us that the commandments are mostly about worshiping God. 

I wish I could meet Bill Maher in person to thank him for having the courage to make a film like this, but seeing as that won't happen, I hope he reads comments like this one. You may not do a lot to change people's minds about their religion, they are too brainwashed, but you at least did a very commendable job in showing how silly religion is and how much of a charlatan the organizations of religion really are.

9/10