Bill Maher On "Religulous": Film Till They Throw You Out

In Bill Maher's new documentary, "Religulous," the film's protagonist--Maher himself--feels the same way about the film's subject matter at the beginning as at the end: In other words, he thinks religion is a big crock of spit. You know irreverence is the order of the day when Maher, reacting to a smooth-talking black preacher's boast that he got a great deal on his $2,000 suits, drolly observes, "I find it interesting that you're a Christian, you used to be a Muslim but you buy all your clothes like a Jew."

"Religulous" doesn't open until Oct. 3, but after seeing the movie I couldn't wait to grill Maher about how he managed to get so many deeply religious figures to actually talk to him, since it's obvious to anyone whose ever watched Maher's act (on "Politically Incorrect" or HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" or in a comedy club) that he wasn't much of a believer. In many ways, the film is a comic bookend to Sam Harris' "The End of Faith," a humorless best seller that views religion as a bastion of superstition and moral hypocrisy. Although Maher embraces Harris' belief that religion is a destructive force that has brought great pain and suffering into the world--at one point he calls it a neurological disorder--Maher is always searching for the humor in every situation. A longtime acolyte of George Carlin, when Maher confronts a religious zealot or hustler, he prefers mocking over scolding.

Rolling his eyes, often full of derision, Maher gets in his licks with everyone, from a guy playing Jesus at a Holy Land theme park in Orlando to Muslims at a gay bar in Amsterdam to a rabbi who advocates the dissolution of Israel (he wears a card with the slogan "A Jew Not a Zionist"). As everything from "The Gong Show" to "Borat" has proved, real people and situations are often undeniably funnier than anything scripted by the best comic minds. In Holland, Maher is in the midst of questioning a somber Muslim cleric when he's interrupted by the cleric's cellphone, whose ring tone is Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir."

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Comments

[jane47]

A crock of spit it is when we can have FREE ENERGY

RELIGION may prefer to look into why we are not able to have the privilege of free energy

I have included the website of a Utube video as shown on Sky news Australia. The inventors on this website are not the only people who have managed to realise Nikola Tesla's invention. If you are interested in the zero point energy I reccommend Thomas Reardon USA (often maligned in the internet- however in my opinion he has the intregrity of Paul Skinner as I have observed in the BBC interviews) to enlighten the relaity of this reality.

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/free-energy-home-generator-zero-point-energy-off-the-grid/

http://www.free-energy-info.co.uk/

Australian race car driver, Peter Brock, who died from a freak accident has developed a polarisor which enables a huge reduction in G force on vehicles cornering and stopping... information GMH has secured...

http://forums.thescene.com.au/forums/t/33313.aspx

I have also sent this information to Al Fayed and Mahindra Motors in India, Rio Tinto Chairman Paul Skinner and Prince Charles and if I could find Carlos Ghosn (Nissan Motors ) I would also send this to him

I am only hopeful that someone will be able to investigate why and how we are not able to be afforded this amazing energy source.

Warm regards and many thanks
Jane

[progressivelady]

That is why Iam Agnostic

[McPander]

Show me one thing that proves that Jesus existed and I will be believe. Like the message...but its an impossible religion to follow.

We tried Christian society.......its called the Dark Ages.

We have been fighting to get away from it for 600 years now.

[70sFez]

"I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world."

[PaxMundis]

I remember Maher from his original incarnation in the mid-80s as a sub-Seinfeld observational comic. I was slightly amused to see him reinvent himself as a "political" ranter in the vein of Bill Hicks or even Dennis Miller. Nowadays, I find him tiresome. I wonder, though... Maher is a strong supporter of PeTA, a group known for their often extreme beliefs and actions. How would Maher react if someone made a similar doc about the excesses of PeTa? My point is, unless you're an utter nihilist, something is sacred to everyone.

[whatsthatsound]

Amen!

[Eric8869]

Dennis Miller? You mean the comedian who got famous making jokes about ther right wing until he had no career left. Then SUDDENLY he's a far right winger making jokes about the left?

He's a joke

[PaxMundis]

eric8869: no doubt Miller has taken an ugly turn. But Maher is really not much better. He thinks he's the Carlin or even Lenny Bruce of the 21st century, but he's just a hack who goes for the easy targets.

[HeevenSteven]

What's wrong with Nihilsm? Dude your insulting my religion!

[armadillious2002]

What has happened is that modern day, right wing, conservative Christians have warped and perverted the teachings of the Bible into something that better fits their philosophy and lifestyle. All the evil, greed, and lust, are done in the name of Jesus and they have a televangelist to prove it.

[mamacat]

I am looking forward to the movie, but Bill, couldn't you have waited until after the election to make your film? This would be a good time to have you on TV. "MSM news" is becoming an oxymoron.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

To expand on my comment earlier, I hate Nietzsche.

[KillgoreTrout43]

Why?

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

God is Dead...Nietzsche...

Nietzsche is dead.....God.....

[realityczech4u]

This rubber-mask-faced little cockroach needs a good long blast from a can of Black Flag.

[wondering]

Last time I checked, Bill Maher was a Huffpo contributor.

How does this comment slip by the editors, when so many of my much less subversive comments get blocked? Odd.

[Americatortures]

He's right-it IS a crock of spit--fairy tales to mold one's behavior-oggabooga!! The Grimm Brothers are laughing at the bitter ,broke Americans who cling to their Churches in the hopes a fantasy will help them after the government screwed them ,again!!!

[PaxMundis]

americatortures: read Jung. Fairy tales may not be literally true, but they have truth in them.

[Betsy]

Big Bill Maher fan here....FYI...Real Time returns to HBO on August 22nd. I hope Bill shares the "Jesus on a Cheeto" clip that aired last week on Countdown.

Bill's show, "The Decider" was excellent. I bet his documentary on religion will be too.

[Sweetie4Obama]

For those who believe in labels, I guess I would be considered "agnostic". Anyway, it always makes me laugh when Bill Maher brings up "the talking snake" (for those who aren't familiar, he says this when someone brings up Adam & Eve in the garden and Satan supposedly appears to them in the form of a snake).

[daddydamon]

"The Talking Snake!" I love it!

[KillgoreTrout43]

Eventually it's the woman that always gets the blame for the great fall. I think the authors of the bible were misogynists.

[PDXTransplant]

I am an atheist and I just learned the other day that Adam had a 'first' wife named Lilith. How I had never heard or read that before was surprising to me. She left him and then god made Eve from his rib. I guess you learn something whether its true or not every day! I do not know how people believe these fairy tales as true.

[PaxMundis]

The Lilith story is an example of Midrash, a form of Biblical commentary done by rabbis. (Jews don't mistake revering the Bible with taking it literally). There were actually two creation stories, one in which man and woman were created equally ("Adam" is actually Turkish for "Man"), another with the Eve narrative. In order to reconcile these two, the rabbis came up with the idea of Lilith.

In other words, the choice between taking the Bible literally and rejecting it completely is an utterly false one.

[PaxMundis]

Only those who take everything in the Bible literally believe that this really happened. Most Jews (and many Christians) consider it nothing more than metaphor. Which doesn't mean that it doesn't have value. The basic story of the garden of Eden boils down to this: knowledge changes us, and not always for the better. Consciousness means that we know we will die. If you look beyond the literal meaning, it's actually quite a powerful story.

[Eric8869]

Hiss Hiss - bite of the apple.........absurd

[SeekerOne]

Reifies patriarchal dominance; ratifies guilt. Quite powerfully.

[rwe]

I am Christian , a Roman Catholic Christian.... Religion is what man (and mostly man) has used to basterdize their Faith for their own grandiosity... Judaism,Christianity, Islam have all fallen prey to these parasites.... The Catholic Church , Protestant evangelicals , Black liberation theology, Islamist cults (yes they are) and any that put such emphasis on their dogma are flawed.....Most of Mahers humor and political views are despicable, hateful, ignorance based and boring,,, similar to michael Moore,,, however I do think he may have stumbled onto something here and I intend to see it

[mingusman]

Maher "stumbled onto" the notion that organized religion is a major source of the world's ills? You've got to be kidding.

[boonjava]

I think rwe was talking about humor, not said notion.

[lippp]

Unfortunately, Maher's belief that Christians are hypocrites, for the most part, is true. Just the other day I was discussing the death penalty with some Christian people I regard as generally very will reasoned people who do not push their religion on me. Their position was that it was quite all right to kill another person even though the ten commandments clearly mandate "Thou shall not kill". When confronted with "turn the other cheek" and "forgive them Father for they know not what they do", these basic Christian teachings fell on deaf ears! So I found myself defending not killing another human being with Christians who believe revenge is more important than mercy! Not surprised but disheartened with another example of people so afraid of their mortality and the possibility nothing exists after death they are willing to suspend logic, belief and reason.

[sws3030]

What is worse, is I bet the same people oppose safe legal abortions. Murder is murder unless its for revenge.

[alsm9]

"Religion is what man (and mostly man) has used to basterdize their Faith for their own grandiosity."

rwe, your comment makes no sense. "Man" did not "basterdize" Roman Catholicism (or any other religion for that matter...). Roman Catholicism was CREATED by men, religion IS faith. Pick up a history book, you will see the Roman Catholic Church has ALWAYS been corrupt. Oh and fyi....ALL religions are cults.

From the dictionary:

Cult - 1. a religious sect. or a system of religious worship 2. a general strong enthusiasm for something.

[rwe]

No , Religion is the man made organization /beaurocracy... By definition Christianity and Judaism are NOT cults while Islam is.,,, You as an atheist are religious, and you need our prayers

[daddydamon]

hahahaha...I love how Christians say that Islam is a cult, but not Christianity, the biggest most obvious cult of them all!

[glesslib]

Well, as a Roman Catholic Christian, you should know that the Michael Moore that you despise so thoroughly goes to mass every morning. So, if you are equating any balloon-popping satire and commentary that he does with anti-Christian intentions, I would beg to differ. Religion isn't everyone's cup of tea. However, after seeing Michael Moore's doc on health care in this country, I would say that his commentary is very Christian, in the true sense of what Christ's messarge of caring was.

[research]

Hard to believe you are really christian. you don't seem to have taken the gospels to heart. Your comments show a lack of tolerance, compassion and charity.

Jesus is a Liberal.

[letsgetsmart]

One phrase that has always stuck out to me is "god helps those who help themselves" so if you don't solve your problem, you are not helping yourself and if you do manage to solve your problem why do you need help from elsewhere? So much of religions content requires you to act to move on and if you don't no one is there to pick up the slack. This is the case across the board so I have to ask why is it that you are not expected you act to set things right if you harm someone else but instead simply confess it to someone and ignore the injured person. There is a big difference between being a drunk and letting your family suffer in poverty and robbing or abusing someone such as a child.

[wadenelson1]

"god helps those who help themselves"

doesn't appear ANYWHERE in the bible.

[MalloMel]

I know. It's just something that some religionist made up and it caught on.

[AMonkey]

Ben Franklin