Religulous

I went to see Religulous last night. Very fun movie. I was cracking up the whole time (except the last ~10 minutes - I'll get to that later).

It wasn't a good documentary. Things were edited to make most of the interviewees look as bad as possible. Comments were often followed with film clips of cartoons, famous movies, or low budget passion movies. He went for the cheap laugh too much for the film to have any journalistic integrity.

I did find it educational though. I learned some things, for example, about the myths predating Jesus from which the gospels borrowed (especially Horus).

It was more personal than I had anticipated. Bill Maher spoke of his upbringing - he was raised Catholic, but his mother was Jewish. They quit going to church when he was in Jr. high. There was a section where he interviewed his mother and sister - his mother was pretty funny. He also spoke of how he's addressed religion through comedy over the years.

Maher's skilled at calling bullshit on people while still engaging in civil conversation. Most of the film was focused on Christianity, but he also covered Judaism and Islam (no eastern religions). His general M.O. was to approach religious folk and ask them questions about their faith, then point out what he saw as inconsistency or just plain silliness. It was a good style, as he generally gave people enough rope to hang themselves.

The last 10 minutes or so got very heavy handed, focusing on the dangers of religious belief in a time of nuclear proliferation. It wasn't a bad message, but the radical switch in tone was awkward.

The main point he drove home at the end is that doubt is good. It's a much healthier state of mind than certainty in fairy tales. I could not agree more.

I don't expect the film to convert anyone. But I hope it at least spawns some meaningful debate. 

But mostly, it was just damned funny.