Religulous (***)

Religion is “detrimental to the progress of humanity,” says comedian Bill Maher at the outset of this comic documentary. After a short look at his own religious history, including an interview with Mom and early standup clips, he spends about 90 minutes ridiculing its defenders. The movie is directed by Larry Charles, whose experience directing Borat must have come in handy. (In each case, Charles arranged interviews without explaining the viewpoint, or in this case identity, of the person doing the interview.)

There’s Protestants, Jews, Mormons, and Muslims, who get the roughest treatment. No Hindus or Quakers. There’s the actor playing Jesus at Orlando theme park, and creationist Arkansas senator Mark Pryor. There’s a rabbi displaying inventions that essentially employ technicalities to get around rules relating to Sabbath prohibitions. What can it mean that all of these people are so certain about beliefs that contradict each other? (Unfortunately, Maher doesn’t make this point.) Catholicism, perhaps, comes off best, thanks to Maher’s interview with a hilariously skeptical Vatican historian who dismisses many aspects of the faith as, essentially, opiates for the masses. But the movie doesn’t really engage with the ideas of those who are able to reconcile religion with the modern world, and science. The closest it comes is an interview with scientist Frances Collins of the Human Genome Project, who admittedly seems a little fuzzy explaining his beliefs.

Maher ranges from skeptical to disrespectful to smug, not unlike on his HBO show. Typical of the smug Maher is his explanation that he disbelieves the story of Jonah and the Whale because “I’m not ten.” His shorthand for a literal interpretation of Genesis is “a talking snake.” Humorously inserted among the interviews are on screen subtitles that contradict what the interviewees are saying, and cheesy film clips on which the producers obviously spent a bundle. (Apparently nothing was left to edit out all the visible boom microphones.) A Flintstones clip, for example, illustrates the idea that humans coexisted with dinosaurs.

Those looking for an amusing look at some of the unusual ways people express their spirituality and aren’t offended by Maher’s derisive views toward religion will find the movie funny. But if we take his argument seriously, as he means us to, there are flaws. For one thing, he spends way too much time with fundamentalists and biblical literalists. It’s overstating it to call this a straw-man argument, because such people are a significant part of the American religious scene. And from a humor standpoint, a dinosaur with a saddle, found in Kentucky’s Creation Museum, is more amusing than an anecdote about Gandhi. But if you’re making an argument that religion generally is a force for bad, and Maher does, then you need to come to grips those who take more nuanced views. If you show religious fanatics, like the Muslim rapper in this movie who seems to defend violence, then you need to argue their actions outweigh those of people who have been inspired to good by religion.

It’s an issue I’ve wrestled with myself; I have the same view as Maher, that it makes no sense to believe something on faith alone, but I can’t say for certain that the world would be a better place if everyone agreed. To use the obvious religious metaphor, Maher is preaching to the converted, who will have lots of fun. The movie’s too scattershot, and too disrespectful, to be seen as a serious attempt to convince believers that they’re wrong, but they won’t be watching anyway. What he does want is for the faithless to go public. Given polls showing that fewer Americans would vote for an atheist for president than even a Muslim, this makes sense and justifies the movie’s existence on some other ground besides comedy.

IMDB link

viewed 9/25/08 at Ritz Bourse (screening)