Religulous

Saw Religulous, Bill Maher's anti-religious documentary. Bill lays out what I take to be his basic thesis in the very beginning of the film: that religion is a generally dangerous force which is allowing us to ignore current problems and thus prolongs these current problems. Okay, interesting idea. Let's see how he defends it. First we are treated t some early Maher stand up, then Maher talks his mother for a while, then we head to the Trucker's Ministry where Bill shouts at a bunch of truckers that they believe a bunch of nonsense. It slowly becomes clear that Bill is not looking to convince or convert anyone to his point of view, but is trying to give words and arguments and images to people who already agree with him.

The film is entertaining however. Bill is a funny guy and has a vast collection of hokey old bible story cartoons to draw from. He interviews fascinating weirdos and gets a few priests and scientists to talk to (although, admittedly, it's sometimes Bill that does the majority of the talking.) He also engages in some fourth-wall breaking jokes. At one point an Imam interrupts an interview to respond to a text. On-screen cations tell us his response is "Kill Maher lol :)" Clearly it's not, but now can I trust any of his captions? Soon after this, a pair of guys speaking another language insult Bill as a comedian or so the captions tell us. If imdb is to be trusted, they are actually filmed saying small snippets of conversation ("our boss gave us five minutes" for instance.) The interviews are also heavily edited, flipping to a new angle sometimes as the interviewee just responds "yes" or "no." I don't know of course that any creative editing took place, but it looks bad Bill and your hilarious caption-games don't help your credibility.

He also sometimes picks on some pretty pathetic worshipers. He goes to a biblical-themed park and asks theological questions of the guy who plays Jesus in the passion play, expecting some religious actor to be able to instantly defend his own beliefs. After this he hangs around the gift shop posing theological paradoxes to the park patrons. Earlier in the film he asks some soft-spoken guy to defend his belief in miracles. The guy gives an example of a neat coincidence which he thinks of as a miracle and Bill just roars with laughter, doubling up and stomping his feet. This is kind of shitty behavior. I'm sure Bill believes that the multiplication rules that he was taught work correctly, but can he explain to me why they work correctly? He might be able to puzzle it out on his feet or he could just look it up, of course, but so could actor-Jesus or the park patrons look up the official answers to his theological problems.

The film is entertaining. It's very preachy and aggressive however and is not actually interested in the answers to the questions it puts forth so much as it is interested in arguing for or against various political agendas. Some of the targets I have some sympathy for but others are televangelists and ex-gay ministers and other gross people. It's a fun film and its stances I generally agree with (religious institutions are mostly corrupt. Religious extremism is of course an evil) but I get the feeling that I'm not learning anything as I watch it. It's just sort of bias-confirming.