Religulous – I’m giving Bill Maher’s Movie an F

Kristin loaded the DVD, which arrived from Netflix after much anxious anticipation… An intelligent and satirical look at fundamentalist religion… A focus on the politics of religion… What could be better?

Since this is MY blog – and I reserve the right to say whatever I want – I’ll tell you, briefly, what my own feelings are.

1. I’m an Agnostic.

2. The God that many teach about, the one that picks sides in battles, the one that brings floods, famines, and disease… is mythology.

3. As far as a supernatural omnipotent power goes, or a heavenly father (or mother if you prefer) of some kind – I’m not ready to say I *know* anything one way or another. I especially affirm that I do not *know* enough about any such being or power to preach for it, kill or torture for it. I’ve said before – we are born of stardust. The physical bits inside all of us came from a common place. Science will not argue with that statement, and neither will religion. We are related. It seems highly unlikely to me that there is anything or anyone intervening in our daily lives – giving blessings to some and cursing others. But the fact is, I don’t *know*. And frankly, I’m pretty certain nobody else knows either.

4. I believe in reason. I believe in tolerance. I believe in the ability of human beings to treat each other fairly, and kindly – without fear of a fiery hell or supernatural judgment.

Back to Bill Maher. The themes of his movie were interesting to me: superstition, church and state, fear, and the political danger of self-fulfilling prophecy like Armageddon. This is all scary stuff.

Back to me. I came to my agnostic viewpoint by way of great personal searching. I was “born again” in a Pentecostal church. I went to Sunday school and attended the Congregational Church as a child. I was baptized as an infant; and again by my own choosing in Long Island Sound as an adult. I read the Bible cover to cover. I could simply not reconcile my own experience, education, and reasoning with what the dogma that my religious friends held dearly. So, not being able to make sense out of the need to be, “washed in the blood”, I quit going to church. I continued to search. Ultimately, I came to the place I am now.

I feel quite at peace right now in terms of my beliefs and disbeliefs. What hurts me now is what I see on the world stage. I see the manipulation of people through religion. I see religion as an excuse for genocide. I see divisive and tragic consequences. I think human kind would be better off without any religion at all.

Back to Bill Maher… I think there were two things that offended me the most. The first, was where Bill Maher visited a truck stop. The truck stop had a chapel that was set up inside the back of a large semi trailer. There was a preacher and several men in the chapel. There were hands in the air, and Hallelujahs, and plenty of “Praise God”’s… Bill Maher came in with his camera and crew and tried to make these guys look like idiots. I’ve got a whole lot of not so nice things to say about the “moral majority” and the attitudes and policies of right wing Christian *groups* as a *whole* – but leave these guys alone.

The second thing that offended me quite deeply was when Mr. Maher interviewed Rabbi Yisroel Weiss from Neturei Karta International, an anti-Zionist grouping of Haredi Jews. Rabbi Weiss tried to explain his position quite calmly and rationally to Mr. Maher, yet Mr. Maher refused to let him speak. Next, we are shown footage of the Rabbi meeting and embracing Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad’s now infamous comment on Israel’s existence (the one quoted by John McCain last year with little effect) was brought up to the Rabbi – who neither defended nor rebuked it. Next, we were shown Mr. Maher in an East Jerusalem Mosque, speaking to the Imam. Many seconds of the footage are devoted to a woman praying in the corner as the religion dictates – to illustrate the “misogyny” of the religion and culture. A man from the Mosque walks by and asks, with great disgust, “What is that Jew doing here… I’ve seen his show… It sucks… He isn’t even funny…”. We are told the Muslim’s built this Mosque on a Jewish holy site and won’t let the Jews come in. We are told a statistic of Muslims to Jews that outnumbers Jews a thousand to one. I *think* Mr. Maher’s implication is that Israel is the underdog. It wasn’t quite clear. Mr. Maher conveniently slips between his Catholic Father and Catholic education and his Mother’s Judaism to identify himself. Yet he was not raised in a Jewish home, nor did he receive Jewish education, nor does he keep Jewish laws and traditions. Any Rabbi will tell you that means he is *not* Jewish. So it isn’t clear exactly what Mr. Maher is trying to say at times. At this point, the whole raison d’etre of the film is suspect. It degenerates into a rather poorly edited set of compiled sequences of Mr. Maher trying to make fun of people.

I’ve already stated how I feel about the Israeli – Palestine political situation. Just read my post on Palestine. Regardless of world populations of Muslims and Jews, Israel has Palestine in a death grip. East Jerusalem is an important holy city to *both* sides and a major issue in all negotiations that have taken place between both sides. The streets are still ruled by Israeli soldiers carrying machine guns. The check points still exist. Palestinians voting in East Jerusalem are still intimidated by armed Israeli police and soldiers when they go to vote. None of these things were mentioned at all. It should also be said that many Palestinians can not even GO to East Jerusalem, because to do so would require crossing borders inside Israel that Palestinians are not allowed to cross.

Thanks for your objectivity Mr. Maher. You are no better than the religious zealots you so love to poke fun at. (and your movie sucks)