Religulous (2008) - Review

Let me start with a couple of things:  Yes, this movie is biased.  Yes, this movie gets a few facts wrong (mostly during the montage of comparing other messiah myths to Jesus Christ), and if you don’t like Bill Maher then this film will probably not win you over.  Maher is incredibly brazen, brash, and occasionally downright rude to some of the people that he interviews.  While this might not be the best approach in real life when trying to get someone to reconsider their whole system of belief, it works pretty damn well as a documentary, exposing a lot of the silliness of religion (particularly Christianity, though all of the Abrahamic religions are at least touched upon).

Religion is one of those extremely touchy topics that I pretty much reserve solely for the Internet.  I almost never bring it up in everyday conversation, mostly because I live in the Bible Belt, and differing opinions are rarely welcome, and certainly not understood.  Quite simply, it would be pointless and antagonistic to go around shouting about my atheism impotently.  But in the context of a documentary, this works tremendously for Maher, not only to expose the closed-minded nature of many religious people throughout the film, but also to (hopefully) cause those very people to think critically about their beliefs.

Pictured: Bill Maher, and Christ

While yes, Maher is a very outspoken atheist, this movie doesn’t “preach” atheism, as if such a thing could be done.  Maher says himself in the documentary that “doubt” is his product.  He’s selling a healthy amount of doubt, thought, and (consider the source) humility, even.  He just wants people to think for even a moment about the, quite frankly, insane beliefs that they hold, many of which without a single shred of skepticism.

When you let something like that consume you so completely, as some great examples are shown to be in the movie, it shows that you not only have poor decision-making skills and critical thought processes, but also that you’re incredibly gullible.  Just stop for a minute and think: “Does what I believe make sense?  Am I believing it simply because someone told me to?” and then come to your own conclusion.

Oh crap, I’ve ranted the whole time and not said anything about the movie... um... it’s really funny!

I recommend everybody see this documentary, even if you’re religious.  No, especially if you’re religious.