Promoting Doubt: Bill Maher on the DVD Release of Religulous
There's nothing like a Bill Maher sneer to puncture the pieties and moral certainty of the deeply religious. In his documentary Religulous, which came out in October and will be released on DVD this week, Maher deploys the sneer in a series of interviews with a gamut of religious believers to convey the following message: You don't know what you say you know, and deep down, you know it.
"I'm here promoting doubt -- that's my product," Maher says near the beginning of the movie. "The other guys are selling certainty. Not me. I'm on the corner with doubt."
The film was the seventh highest grossing documentary of all time, a tribute to the way it utilizes Maher's ability to think on his feet and produce comic rejoinders and cut-downs. Maher has been cultivating this talent since he found his niche with Politically Incorrect in 1993, and continues to do so with Real Time with Bill Maher, the new season of which premieres tonight.
His religious interview subjects on his world-tour range from the brilliant (Dr. Francis Collins, a scientist on the human genome project and an evangelical Christian), the bizarre (the actor who plays Jesus at The Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando), the quackish (Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, who claims to be a reincarnation of Christ), and the downright frightening (Aki Nawaz, aka Propa-Gandhi, a Muslim British rapper who glorifies suicide bombing).
Most of the time, they come out on the butt-end of a Maher quip, their religious certainly no match for Maher's wit. With their certainty momentarily punctured, the film moves on and the viewer is left to revel in yet another victory for Maher, agnosticism, and comedy.
Maher is funny, but as always, he borders on contemptuous and dismissive, qualities that have long turned some people off to him. Needless to say, those who don't like Maher will not like this movie.
Critics say Maher's anger-tinged condescension undermines the ostensibly earnest purpose of his interviews: to find out why people believe. They also point out that, with a few exceptions, Maher's interview subjects are easy targets -- many of them are outlandish characters, and many of them just aren't as smart as he.
In an interview with me for HuffPost, Maher called this "a bogus criticism. We don't pick on the mentally infirm. There are a bunch of fringe characters who are very funny, but the majority of the movie is mainstream religious people."
He added: "What these [critics] fail to understand is that no matter who you are, no matter how quote-unquote intelligent you are, when you are defending religion, you sound like an idiot. That's the point: Anybody who defends the nonsense in religion is going to sound like a fool."
He was not finished: "If you believe in the core beliefs of the religion, that means you are tethered to the bible. You get your beliefs out of a book that condones slavery and says a man lived inside of a whale for 300 years. The religion comes from the book, and the book is full of nonsense and fucked-up ethics."
But Maher's contempt for religion is more than about making people look stupid. At the very end of the movie, the comedy gives way to a scathing monologue about religion and a call to political action. Maher cites a recent poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life saying that 16 percent of Americans classified themselves as unaffiliated with a major religion. This represents a greater percentage of Americans than blacks, Jews, homosexuals, or NRA members. Why, then, Maher wonders, has religious faith become a prerequisite for political life in America?
"Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking," he says, concluding the movie.
"It's nothing to brag about, and those who preach faith, and enable it and elevate it are our intellectual slaveholders, keeping mankind in bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction."
Editor's Note: The first 10 HuffPosters to email their name and address to contest@huffingtonpost.com will receive a copy of the Religulous DVD signed by Bill Maher.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
(cont. from previous post...)
Ah, but I've digressed. Point is, why do many many Christians believe in the Bible literally and behave as "Sunday Christians," but during the other 6 days they do jack sh*t for the homeless living in their cities? It's more important that they condemn those who are not Christian, saying you'll be going to hell when you die -- if you don't become Christian. This is NOT what the Bible stands for. Most who believe the Bible literally are hypocrites, and that is precisely one of the points Maher's film is making. Bravo.
It's about time that someone made a movie such as "Religulous." The fact that it's Bill Maher should not take away from the content & questioning of the film itself... for those that have issues with him.
Unfortunately, the people who need to see this movie most, such as the fanatical Christian right -- who take everything the Bible says literally -- won't see it. A major political party in this country was hijacked by the Christian Right in the '90s, and what's more important to them is Noah and Jonas and Adam & Eve, NOT the homeless family living in the park. Even now, EVEN NOW, you've got nearly every Republican condemning Obama and the Democrats for the stimulus bill, condemning it as "tax and spend" (which it isn't), yet they did nothing but sit on their hands for 8 years while their "leader" Georgie Boy did the "tax cut and spend" game. And what happened in these 8 years? The middle class shrank, the federal deficit more than doubled to over $10 Trillion, the economy became and remained anemic for 8 long years, finally turning into a major recession.
(cont. in next post...)
I will purchase this dvd, just as I paid to see the movie in the theater. I believe it is important to funnel money to people that inspire us to live beyond our traditions and hippocrasies. God is still what it always has been: that which defines the unknown. At least to those who put faith in that kind of thing. Personally, I believe in life. I find that the miracle of evolution and the fact that history's cascade of random mutation that brought us here down through the tumult of geologic time is something that should be held in reverence. The difference in the present as opposed to the "golden ages of religion" seems to be that we know a lot more about the universe, even down to electron shells etc...Praise the diversity of life and the diversity of conditions that made us who we are. We are lucky. For life we should be thankful and treat it as a gift. That may be Bill's point. Thomas Jefferson stated that "life is for the living" and those of us enjoying life should make the rules, not ancient dogma, tradition, & prejudice.
To me Bill is just another atheist with the same stock arguments of always. I am an agnostic and sometimes hope life is more than just the result of some random big bang in the night. Bill may be right and there is no God but faith as Bill describes it has been around for thousands of years may still be when Bill is long forgotten by time and men.
If you saw the movie you might have noticed it dealt with the "Abrahamic" religions which were started by a man who pawned his younger wife off as his sister to the Egyptian Pharaoh and then richly collected after the adultery came to light. Later he came within a hair's breath of killing his son to prove his "belief" in God.
All three religions have stories that are pretty hard to swallow yet are taken by believers as a matter of faith to be the truth. I think the problem was best explained in the film by the director of the "Creation Museum". When asked by Maher how he could believe in the literal translation of Genesis he said simply that if that part was wrong then who knows what other parts are wrong as well. So whether it's splitting the Red Sea or splitting the moon, these events along with "talking snakes" are going to remain with us for a very long time.
And yes, Bill Maher does appear condescending at times with his humor. But that's the nature of his comedy. He does, however, make a valid point in the movie in showing the consequences of religion. There are too many people who are lost out there to risk having someone who is just as lost telling us what to do. Doubting the stories or the storyteller doesn't necessarily equate to rejecting God.
I have followed Bill Maher's career from his apperance on the Comedy Channel, especially his interview with Dick Gregory, to his stand-up routines on HBO. I understand he is even better in his live performances.
As impressed as I am with Bill, there are some issues I am not sure he gets:
1) Every one who raises questions about the Media's coverage and perhaps co-operation with the events of 9/11 may not need a medication more effective than Prosaic;
2) The STORY of Adam and Eve is just that, a story that attempts to explain human nature. Not only do we have to look at the possibilities in our lives that we have betrayed by rebellious (the Hebrew biblical term for SIN) behavior, but at broader, collective behavior, such as displacing and eradicating indigenous peoples from their land, and the importation of 20 million West Africans to be morphed into a system of slavery new to historic norms, as well as legitimizing the system with the institutions considered most sacred in the creation of a New World in America--Religion. Nuclear Energy could have turned deserts into habitable space instead of making deserts of habitated cities;
3) In REGILOUS, it appears that European Judaism receives less scrutiny than the other Religions he examines.
Having said all of this, Bill has been courageous in critiqueing literalist believers who have no idea of what the book which serves as their Ultimate Authority is and is not.
RE: point 2.
It bears noting that the STORY of Adam and Eve was in fact taken literally for most of the time that it's been around and by a majority of the people. It's only recently that SOME of the religious have retreated from this mindset. The fall back position is, it's 'allogorical'. You often see this sort of twisting and turning in religion as it fights to fit into the zeitgiest of the times.
And what was this sin of Adam and Eve? The pursuit of knowledge!
Organiized religion and 'spirituality' are completely different. One can be 'spiritual' in essence without having a thing to do with 'organized' religion . . .or organized anything. I said SPIRITUALITY . . but am aware many 'hear' that as SPIRITUALISM . . .which is a goofy assumption. There's a difference which is not to judge spiritualism. I don't judge because it's not necessary. PRAYER, btw, DOES, IN FACT elevate levels of consciousness. How? We don't yet know. (check out quantum theory; quantum mechanics . . . .or Dr. Larry Dossey's materiality . . .or any number of others who now have researched NONLOCALITY)
To the religous it may be "prayer", to the enlighted it's meditation. And yes, it's been proven to positively affect both mental and physical health.
link?
We 'show up' here -- for what appears to be a series of lessons for the evolution of our souls = that which animates each Being--{and if you've ever watched a person die you can feel / often 'see' the animation moving out of that body: Journey's over. We move to whqt I call it another level of CONSCIOUSNESS. We appear to "take a 'birth' -- get equipped with a 'personality' -- ego-- which it appears we are supposed to transcend-- . . .we get a mind -- operating much like a radio receiver -- and we 'get' a body to traverse this journey . . . 'talk amongst ourselves"; i.e. interact :-) . . . Relationships appear to be mirrors ! Having had two profound 'near death' experiences which are completely transformative thought I'd share my 'experience'. "Near death' is a goofy term because there's nothing 'near' about no EKG, EEG, etc.for extended periods of time. THAT death. . .but folks like labels. There definitely is a 'place' where our 'soul / spirits/consciousness actually 'go'. WE ARE AWARE THEN THAT WE ARE NOT OUR BODIES, MINDS NOR PERSONALITIES BUT THAT THE AFOREMENTIONED OPERATE LIKE 'VEHICLES'. That which we ARE is witnessing everything: Sound woo-woo? That's ok. LOL There is heightened awareness /.consciousness . . .and complete transformation. Purpose is clarified and compassion replaces negativity. (look up 'ndes' or go to iands.org.) Reality is completely recontextualize "Knowing' replaces 'believing. Debating 'beliefs' now is silly.
Amazing. I believe you described much of buddhist philosphy in your post. What you said makes absolute sense to me; but most religous dogma does not. And I consider the bible and other religous texts (Koran, Talmud, Book of Mormon, whatever) to be story books. Some of the stories make you take stock of who you are, what you're doing and where you're headed, and some are just plain ridiculous. What's amazing is that modern educated people buy into them hook, line and sinker.
We must have watched two different versions of the documentary. I missed the "sneering" and "contemptuousness" per your claim.
I saw the film and was actually quite impressed by the manner in which Maher treated the interviewees and their views with respect and dignity.
the religous right subscribe to an anthropomorphic diety with a chronological thought process and behaviorisms identical to our own.in other words a human-like god.a god who thinks and feels,has plans,makes decisions,gets angry,takes revenge.to them Our Heavenly Father is just dad the control freak who goes psycho and starts blaming people when things don't turn out the way he wants them to.Jesus said "God is a spirit therefore you must worship God in spirit and in truth."I don't think the religous right can grasp such a concept.in the end they're alot closer to the cave than they are to the cross.
I wonder why films like this (truth) scare so many chris_tians?
No sense of humor.
Why is it always the same old cast of characters engaged in this debate? The same old arguments are trundled out by the literalists and countered by the same old arguments from the materialist debunkers. We know what a debate is going to look like between Christopher Hitchens and a televangelist pastor. We don't even have to be there. Anyone defending mythology and metaphor as historical fact is always going to look like an idiot. Talk about a soft target. The thing is, is that there is more than one face to the human religious instinct. Yet in the public forum we are always exposed to either self detonating jihadists or jingoistic and simple minded Christian fundamentalists. I want to see a debate, or rather a discussion, between the likes of a Tom Harpur or John Shelby Spong, true scholars of Christian history, and the usual band of debunkers. I want to see cosmologists and physicists like John Wheeler or Paul Davies among others, bringing their insights to the table. There is subtlety and nuance here that is being ignored because it has no flash bang content. But it is heat and not light that we need here. Absolutists need not apply.
Write on the blackboard 100 times:
The thing is that.......
The thing is that.........
or maybe:
the thing is is is that.....
Dear god,
Thank you for making me an Atheist.
Amen
I dont serve gods, thier hard to catch and they taste like chicken
The decline in American pride, patriotism, and piety can be directly attributed to the extensive reading of so-called "science fiction" by our young people, a poisonous rot about creatures not of God's making, societies of aliens without a good Christian among them, and raw sex between unhuman beings with three heads.
Yep, that's why America's going downhill. Kids these days read way too much.
Have you ever read any?
I thought God made everything (of course I don't believe that, but don't you?)
Is sci-fi outside of God's magisterium?
Gotta go, I'm reading the Man-Kzin Wars #12 which just came out
I'm sorry but how does science-fiction relate to patriotism or pride? And since when has reading ever been bad for anyone? Even "bad" literature. And bad is in the eye of the beholder.
As a 40-something mother of four, who watches a lot of sci-fi, The History Channel, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet., I consider myself VERY patriotic. I'm also well read, a working professional, and I voted for Obama. Who, by-the-way I do not agree with on religious philosphy. I spent much of my life as a "church member", and am now somwhere between agnostic and buddhist.
I must have missed the movie featuring "raw sex between unhuman beings with three heads". Can you tell me where to find it? And, just out of curiosity how do YOU know about it???
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
