Truly Dreadful Film

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Let me prove it: Google the pagan stories he claims Christianity is 'based on'. Read about how Horus was not born of a virgin, but of Isis and Osiris, and how he was not crucified, or resurrected, and so on. Then realize that every single one of the other mythical stories he brings up has exactly the same problem. Let me spell it out:The film itself was made under false pretenses. Maher openly admits he lied constantly to people while making this film - why should you believe he is telling YOU the truth? Seriously.Maher uses comedy to smooth over his own contradictions. He preaches bigotry and intolerance while attacking Christians for being bigoted and intolerant. He does not understand the Bible. Not even close. He thinks that there is no mention of Original Sin in the book that created the bloody concept.What?Really. 'What?' is the best response to this entire film: From Maher preaching about how 'humble' and 'non judgemental' he is to him contradicting himself in literally the same sentence. Anyone who spent ten minutes fact-checking any random thing said in this film will realize that he does not know what he is talking about and quite happy to lie when he does. If you doubt this, ask yourself: how many actual Biblical experts did he interview? Zero. What qualifications in Biblical studies or history does he have? Zero. What merit does the ambush interview\hatchet job have? Zero.Every single thing in this entire film is a dupe made to dupe the viewer. Downvote me if you like, you are only proving your separation from actual rational thought.

I'm yet another person who agrees with Maher's message but who doesn't really have that much respect for the vehicle in which he delivers it. The decision to make this a comedy (presumably to get people to see it) is just one of its many flaws. Maher takes on the obvious phonies and extreme cases (which he justifies in the commentary track because many of these folks do have large numbers of followers), and does tangentially make the case that undocumented belief is undocumented belief, regardless of whether it is wacky or mainstream. But this kind of easy cheap shot isn't going to change the minds of the fundamentalist followers and it allows more mainstream religionists to discount his arguments. He may have had trouble getting mainstream representatives of religion to engage with him, but if he had it wouldn't have been particularly funny and wouldn't have fit into the film Maher and Charles wanted to make.One exception is a straightforward interview with Father George Coyne, a Vatican scientist, who describes the "fundamentalist approach to religious belief (as) kind of a plague." It's a plague worth fighting, one that many people of faith would join, and it's really the target of much of the film even though Maher says he is taking on all belief.There are certainly some interesting and fun moments here, the highlight being the interview with impish Vatican Latin scholar Father Reginald Foster. Another is the interview with "ex-gay" minister John Wescott, who holds his own against Maher while maintaining strong rapport and good cheer, a really interesting character. The scenes in the Truckers Chapel are especially good. Maher doesn't mock these believers but treats them seriously and with respect. The rapport that Maher seems to have developed with these men suggests that their discussion may have been much longer than what wound up in the film. At the end of the scene, Maher accepts their prayers for him in a generous spirit and says, "Thank you for being Christ-like and not just Christian." This sequence, coming at the beginning, gave me high hopes for the film, hopes largely not met.What I found reprehensible--and it happens several times--is the phony editing, where, after Maher makes his point there's a cut to the other person apparently chagrined or speechless. These isolated cuts obviously come from some other point in the conversation--really dishonest and cheap manipulation of film. All the interviews show evidence of being heavily edited, sometimes, one suspects, to somewhat change actual content. Maher has also been rightly taken to task in other IMDb comments for making some casual absolute statements of fact that are either incorrect or deserve more nuanced comment. One is the statement that there's a "gay gene," which is still under discussion in the scientific community (see "No, Scientists Have Not Found the 'Gay Gene'," dated October 10, 2015 on The Atlantic magazine website).At the end of the day, the problem isn't really religion, it's people. Religion can serve as a vessel for codes of moral and ethical behavior and empathy with one's fellow man. But, human nature being what it is, religion is also a vessel for all sorts of intolerant and evil behavior. Things can be just as bad, or even worse, without religious belief. I think Maher copped out when he said that, well, Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, they were religions of a sort.

Don't worry about spoilers, don't bother. Maher speaks like a petulant, fearful child wanting attention. It's clear in everything Maher does that he's afraid he won't be liked, he seems terrified. Just don't give Bill Maher any notice. Maher is just a barking pit, frothing at no one. His conclusions are all unfounded and ridiculous. Maher's attitude reflects a consuming fear, it stinks up all his work. He's on the verge of a breakdown with every breath. He probably needs serious counseling. Bill Maher's conscience must be working overtime for Maher to work SO HARD to quell it with this dumb movie. Don't support Maher, just pray for his soul. Religulous is only for the self-loathing. All others can pass on by Religulous with a sigh of relief they dodged a real waste of time.

For Christ's sake! Reading through some reviews here, it seems some people just don't get that even though the subject is serious, Bill Maher is a COMEDIAN. So, this is not intended to be a serious documentary, but a comedy that looks like a documentary. People who don't like this movie for its humor (because it supposedly makes fun of religious people) confirm exactly what Maher tries to say about religions and how they manipulate the minds. We shouldn't laugh about religion, because God has no humor, right? (Read the Bible and you'll know what I'm talking about.)A serious documentary, though, would come to the same conclusion as Maher, since it just can't be denied that religious people believe in FANTASY. It's grotesque, for example, that Christians ridicule the doctrines of "religions" like Scientology for being absurd, while they themselves believe in absurd things like a talking serpent or a God that has a son who is himself! Exactly this is what Maher, with humor, is trying to say: all religions teach NONSENSE.Who can deny that?How can people from one religion look at other people, from different religions, with disdain, if all religious people, no matter from which religion, equally believe in fantasy? Religions combat each other, because, as we all know, only one religion can be the true one. And here lies the biggest problem with religions, which Maher very well exposes: they are dangerous because they separate people from each other and make them hate and FIGHT, even though they think they preach "love".This is pure madness!And then there are those Christians who criticize Maher for showing Christians they say are no good examples of good Christians (literate, compassionate, etc.), which means THEY see themselves as better representatives of good Christianity. Really? They think they represent Christianity better, but nevertheless and equally believe that homosexuality is sin, the woman was made out of a rib, in devil, hell, end of the world, etc., etc., etc. So, where is the difference? Their "intelligence" doesn't seem to make them different from the illiterate Christians.Comedy or serious documentary, at the end the message would have been the same. That's why this movie is very important and everybody should see it, despite being a comedy, which was the reason I liked it so much.Note: if you want to understand, but really on the highest possible level, why religions are nonsense, read "Ethics" by Baruch Spinoza and FREE yourself forever from all religious nonsense!