Graeme Burk
"Religulous" Fervour
Posted on: 10/23/2008 12:06
Back in the day before he became the great defender of free speech, Bill Maher was the grumpy, contrarian and somewhat libertarian host of a discussion show called Politically Incorrect. I used to watch that show with a mixture of interest, amusement and frustration. Interest by the points of view brought by Maher and his guests; amusement from Maher’s quick wit and frustration because inevitably there was a guest saying something insightful that Maher would shut down for no good reason than he disagreed with him.
I was reminded of that tendency with Bill Maher while watching Religulous, his filmed polemic against religion. Early in the film, Maher talks to Francis Collins, a scientist in the Human Genome Project who happens to be a believer in Christianity. Collins is attempting to answer Maher’s rapid-fire questions about the textual accuracy of the Gospels and every time he tries to answer, Maher cuts him down again.
Last year, Time printed a debate between Collins and noted scientist and atheist Richard Dawkins. It was a respectful exchange of ideas—both disagreed but I found both Dawkins and Collins had many thoughtful things to say.
But there’s no place for ‘thoughtful’ in Religulous. Bill Maher doesn’t want your time if you’re reflective, nuanced or don’t fit his own idea of a religious person.
Basically, Bill Maher wants to talk with stupid people.
Since most of the film is set in the underbelly of American evangelical Christian culture, Maher has got plenty of stupid people to talk to: truckers at their Sunday truck stop chapel who refuse to see the irrationality of their arguments; creationists who are setting up a museum featuring exhibits where man and dinosaurs are together; a man who leads an ‘ex gay’ ministry; a congressman whose devout beliefs in creationism are almost as scary as his mangling of the English language. The centrepiece of the film is a visit to the Holy Land Experience, an amusement park in Florida that features a recreated Israel from Bible times where Jesus is crucified daily while someone sings “La Via De La Rosa” from a Sandi Patti accompaniment tape.
Oh yes indeedy there are a lot of stupid people in Religulous. Really blinkered, idiotic, narrow-minded, never-looked-outside-of-their-own-orifice, super-sized dumb people. But…haven’t we seen this type of film before? That’s the M.O. of Borat (also directed by Religulous’ director, Larry Charles): point the camera at stupid or unknowing people and get them to easily incriminate themselves. Rick Mercer was doing this ten years ago in his “Talking To America” sketches. The main difference here is these were pure comedies. Religulous it’s an extended warm-up act leading to a closing sermon that religion is harmful and dangerous.
In the interests of full disclosure, I consider myself to be a religious person, albeit one of the moderate types Maher castigates at the end of the film for ‘enabling’ religion to exist. But here’s the thing. In my life I’ve known a lot of really smart people who are religious. Brilliant people. Inspiring people. I don’t see them here except for a couple. There’s the aforementioned Francis Collins, who is never interviewed about where his faith fits in with his actual work with the human genome and his view that evolution is fact (it’s easier, I suppose, to interview creationist nutbars). Maher also interviews a priest from the Vatican Observatory, but only to debunk another stupid right-wing nutter.
Where’s Desmond Tutu, a religious leader who helped bring down Apartheid in South Africa? Or the people like Collins and the late Madeleine L’Engle who talk about science in all its modern complexity as a way to bring us close to the mystery of faith? Where are the Quakers who have been jailed for protesting nuclear arms facilities because of their religious convictions? What about the scores of liberation and postmodern or just plain liberal theologians who see the Bible as more than just the literal Word of God? Why bother talking with people about textual criticism when you can just talk to stupid people instead?
Religulous’ methods are even more apparent when it comes to how Jews are used in the film. While Maher takes a few shots at the Hebrew scriptures, two out of the three on-camera interviews we see with religious Jews are with a holocaust denier who went to Iran and an ultra-orthodox follower who has come up with a lot of silly inventions to circumvent the Sabbath. Stupid people in other words. Personally I think Maher knows the average reformed Rabbi would cut him to ribbons verbally. Buddhism doesn’t get a mention, because why talk about a religious practice centred on the connectedness of creation? Hey, look, we’ve got ex-Mormons and a self-professed son of Jesus.
Maher doesn’t even give history a fair shot. He’s happy to say that religion leads to crusades and terrorism but he doesn’t mention that two of the icons of the Civil Rights Movement in the US in the sixties were a Christian minister and a Muslim convert. I don’t see him making the point that they also brought art and culture as well. Again. Better to stick with the talking points: Religion = stupid people.
I say all this not because I want to win the argument—as if one actually could. In fact, I agree with Maher that we need greater separation of powers and that non-religious people need a greater voice to keep religious extremism from taking hold in the West. I agree about the abuses of religion—particularly with patriotism and imperialism—are dangerous. But I find what Bill Maher is doing to be arrogant and irresponsible.
When I have done magazine editing, I often have had to edit people writing about things I often disagree with. I usually ask them address my own disagreements in their article. Not to make my views visible, but to make their argument stronger by showing they’ve actually considered other points of view.
Bill Maher doesn’t do that. And that’s what ultimately angers me about Religulous. Maher is not interested in considering other points of view or, frankly in challenging himself or his audience. He’d rather hold up a mirror to his belief that religious people are stupid and find what he sees in the mirror. If Bill Maher turned his scepticism toward his own way of thinking he’d accuse himself of being as blinkered, narrow-minded and inflexible as the subjects he interviews.
Your thoughts?
Comments
Faerenach
I had wanted to see this
Posted on: 10/23/2008 14:11
I had wanted to see this movie for the reasons discussed in the topic started in Religion & Faith - to know what 'the other side' was saying. You have confirmed what I thought the movie would be like - shallow arguments masking provocation of, well, stupid people.
Why couldn't they make a smart movie? Well, for one thing, the grey area is boring. The extremists are where the action is. Try finding conflict in open-minded, thoughtful discussion. Real conflict, that is. Not misworded posts on a discussion forum. ;)
But maybe... just maybe, smart people will watch the movie and see more than stupid people. They'll see stupid questions. And maybe they'll go out and try to find smart questions instead. And then maybe they'll actually think a little bit...
...or is that wishful thinking?
The_Omnissiah
Chalk one up for ignorant
Posted on: 10/24/2008 01:06
Chalk one up for ignorant assholes!! lol Bill Maher ftl. Unfortunately people like him (that seem to represent the face of religion haters) don't take the time to have thought out discussions with people who could own them. Shame really.
Assalaam Alaiykum
-Omni
Daviticus
I hate extremists (of any
Posted on: 10/24/2008 14:35
I hate extremists (of any kind), and the sheeple who look up to them. The gray area would be more interesting, but it probably wouldn't put bums in seats. Real debate is being abandoned because extremism is more "fun". No good can come of this.
Athena
WARNING - Opposing viewSaw
Posted on: 10/28/2008 00:28
WARNING - Opposing view
Saw the movie last night myself...and want to state that some of your issues with the film I share. However, I think that the reason the focus was on the negitive aspects of religion, should not have been a suprise (given the title).
While I agree that it was less than balanced (you could add Stephen Hawkings to your list of noted intellectuals of faith - (Quote - "Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.")
I suggest to you that given the amount of "air" time religious folks get (both directly and indirectly), I think it was past time for an alternative view to be put forth.
In addition, I think the greater (most prevalent) theme of the film is that you can't "know".
And yet even though no one can "know", in the way that any other claim would need to be defended, religious "beliefs" are set apart as being above reproach, above questioning.
I think the film can best be described as one that advocates doubt, and people who have faith, generally do not warm to that idea.
Daviticus
Reality check,
Posted on: 10/28/2008 17:18
Reality check, girlfriend...neither does Bill Maher. He wants everyone to agree with him or just shut up. And if you think religious beliefs are "above reproach", you need to get out more.
Priscilla
I have not seen the film, nor
Posted on: 10/31/2008 10:40
I have not seen the film, nor do I intend to, but I have read the comments that have been posted so far and I find the discussion compelling. Perhaps a film that does such an injustice to deeper undertandings of religion is doing just what Athena has suggested, getting at people's doubt, or provoking a response. Occasionally, I find myself in an educative environment within religion where I am the teacher. In these situations, when I ask those present what religion is or means, I often get creedal answers, that tell me nothing about religion and a great deal about the person's personal appraoch to their faith. I challenge these types of responses and get people to think beneath what they have been taught. There is a lot of religion out there that does not invite people to think for themselves, to ask questions. For some reason, when it comes to religion people feel like they need to have the answer rather than a really good question. At the very least, by the sound of the comments in this discussion so far, the film has provoked good questioning. Let it continue...
Daviticus
You make some good points,
Posted on: 10/31/2008 14:35
You make some good points, Priscilla. It appears the film has inspired some constructive debate...on this forum, at least. Somehow, though, I doubt that was Maher's intent. My concern is that most people who see the film will simply accept what he says as fact and flock unthinkingly to the banner of radical atheism, thereby becoming guilty of the same hypocrisy as the religions they despise. To me, that's scarier than anything Halloween-related!
Oh, well...have a Happy one! Ha, see what I did there!?;)
Anekanta
I hope to see Religulous
Posted on: 11/02/2008 02:11
I hope to see Religulous soon. Your critique of the video was well done. At the same time, as a Christian, I am fed-up with what seems to be an epidemic of studpidity professing to be Christian in nature. I am tired of the phoney healers who can never be proven true, the endless professing prophets, or those who will break out in the middle of a prayer in babbling nonsense. Then there are the nut-jobs on television, claiming God is giving them impartation. They can see someone, somewhere, out in TV land, with a back ache who is being healed right now. This stuff is out of control in this little city of North Bay, Ontario. There's numerous healing stories but there is always the conspiracy theory to keep it hidden from the public. People can tell all the stories and make all the arguments they want but that isn't proving them to be true. When put to the test, they always end up failing. There are a lot of people who need to be challenged, held accountable, and stopped in their tracks.
Trinitymike
I thought it was supposed to
Posted on: 11/07/2008 11:43
I thought it was supposed to be a responce to "Expelled" the crappy film from the OTHER side of the divide.
jojolam
After scanning through the
Posted on: 11/22/2008 17:44
After scanning through the above posts, I would like to join the discussion here. It's definitely compelling.
If religion is not what Bill Maher presented in his movie, then at least it is some parts of it. He was pulling out the fundamentalists and not the open-minded groups, yet if you would remember in the film, there was a Vatican priest whom Maher spoke to outside of the Vatican (he got kicked out for filming in there) who really was a very open-minded Catholic priest in my opinion. Though he was portrayed to be a little nutty, I really enjoyed Bill Maher's movie.
He made me realize that when I say I'm a Christian, people conjure up images of THESE fanatics and people who are waiting for a "white horse and chariot" to carry them to heaven; they are people who actually go visit "Holy Land Amusement park" every summer; they are people who put together a museum to promote creationism and completely ignore evolution. It is shameful that we are grouped together who make us look ridiculous but that's besides the point. This type of thinking has started witch hunts, crusades, and all sorts of violent acts against people of other faith traditions. We cannot sit back to just comment how ridiculous they are but rather...how do we promote open dialogue?
That's why I do appreciate Maher's movie because in his conclusion, he said that there needs to be doubt. If someone claims that they have the answer, they most likely don't. The more sure we are that we are right, we truly have to self-reflect to see where we are coming from.
I don't find that it's my choice to stay in the gray area because there are issues that we must stand against: violence against women, racism in our social structures, the ethical approach to ecology, poverty...and many many more! There are no grey areas in those issues and as Christians we need to stand against injustices and be the prophet.
Sorry, I must apologize if I offended anyone here. I'm a bit passionate about this. But yeah, thanks for having this discussion.
Kappa
I just saw the film last
Posted on: 12/03/2008 11:14
I just saw the film last night. The Catholic priests were the most respectable people of faith that made it to tape, in terms of their religious authority, relative open-mindedness and education. I thought their comments were great. I went to see the film mostly for the laughs, because I wasn't expecting much from Bill Maher. And he met my expectations.
He's didn't even do a good job of being a militant atheist, like Dawkins. And the ending of the film was just as extreme as all the examples of religion is trying to refute.
As for his conversation with the neurologist in Grand Central Station, they could have given that more air time. The fact that your brain "does something measureable" in a PET or fMRI scanner (sounded like a PET from the description) when you are involved in religion does not make it a "neurological disorder" or "delusion": come ON, Bill! If you want anyone to listen to you, read a <deleted expletive> BOOK! Your brain will "light up" in a PET scanner while you are reading it! Maybe that makes literacy a delusion!
The one respectable point I think he made (and of course, it's been made before) was his comment on how some of the most supremely evil deeds in human history have taken place in the name of religion. It gives one pause. But I think we should strive to see how we can mature in the religious teachings our prophets have given us to bring about the type of ethical and moral civilization that will prevent these things from happening again.
bluesheild
Everyone has their own degree
Posted on: 05/30/2009 23:55
Everyone has their own degree of faith, i myself am not a religous person whatsoever but do beleive that religion is an escape for some people who need to survive in a harsh world. We see death everyday, we lose friends, family, jobs and in the end we die. If it takes a little story either true or fabricated by people who have long been deceased, even if it based upon partial facts, to make themselves enjoy a happier existence and ease the pain of losing close family members then so be it. I enjoy life and have accepted the good with the bad and hold some hope that when i die there is something else but i am not going to go out of my way to try to please a god or creator that may or may not exist. We can debate this until we are old and wrinkled but in the end nobody knows for sure what happened in the distant past or what will be the outcome of the future. Have a beer, sit outside and enjoy the sunset for as long as you have it and let things like religion be some one elses problem.