Religulous
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 6:31PM Religulous: The Continuing Struggle to Convert the Dim
In my humble travels as a human on this earth I have realized two absolute truths.
1.) There is no god.
2.) Bill Maher wears more makeup than a pre-op tranny hooker.
What I was surprised to learn from Maher’s pseudo-documentary Religulous, was exactly how tactful and composed he could be while talking to people that would have caused me to seizure and hack them with a machete.
Maher, as social commentator/comedian and talking head, set out to prove (in under two hours) the ridiculousness of organized religion and the belief in god or gods.
By god, I think he did it.
Well, not entirely. I don’t think he convinced anyone who was not already in the atheist camp. But it was entertaining to watch. And absolutely funny, a new sensation for me from the misogynistic Maher and his usually obvious humor.
He was much more restrained than I’d thought he’d be. As one who has argued with believers in all sorts of places and states of mind, I was impressed with his tact. He’s a true non-believer. And more articulate and focused than I could have been under similar circumstances.
He was strangely respectful (he tempered his incredulity well) allowing the idiots to gain comfort with him and show their true colors. He fell into glibness and condescension at times during the interviews (and always during his monologues) but maintained a general sense of decorum throughout. Given the subject matter and the people he had to deal with, he ought to be canonized.
Most revealing was his stops at the Creation Museum in Kentucky and the Truckers Chapel in North Carolina where American’s own brand of ignorance, despite the educational opportunities to know better, are on full display. This could be seen as well in Maher’s interview with a homosexual conversion counselor who married a lesbian and now has three kids with her. That is one confused household.
Maher is confrontational but surprisingly cordial. In the way he talks to a converted Jew for Jesus whose recalled “miracle” was that it rained when a guy said it would. He speaks to Muslims (in clothing stores, mosques and Palestine) who deny their religion subjugates females and promotes violence. Maher comes to the conclusion (as most of us have) that many Muslims speak one way in front of the infidels (and media) and quite another in private. He chats with a Hispanic man who claims he is of Christ’s bloodline and therefore the living messiah on earth. The guy actually has a large following. One crazy in the Vatican city (a former English journalist) claimed many of our recent political leaders are from a secret race of lizard shape-shifters. An African-American preacher was filleted by Maher for believing his accumulation of wealth from church donations is in line with Christ’s teachings. Maher asks him if Jesus wore $2000 suits. The self-proclaimed “Doctor” admits he did not, but that he did wear the “finest linens“.
Then Maher went after the real nut jobs.
The Mormons just rode him off the land. No questions, no answers, just a few policemen around the temple shooing him away. A couple of shunned hipsters made it on camera to denounce their former affiliation and speak to the drooling nonsense. The rest of that insular lunatic asylum remains in control of one of our fifty states. I’m not so sure the general populous of the U. S. knows how crazy the Mormons are. Sure, all religion is insane, but these people have their own special blend of madness with their slavish devotion to materialism and “my underwear just spoke to me” reality wherein we need to baptize the dead spirit of Charles Lindbergh through a living being. And let’s not forget that church’s offshoot with the multiple child brides and the really poor fashion sense.
Their founding father (Joseph Smith) was a used car salesman before there were cars.
Well, at least he wasn’t a science fiction writer. That would be stone crazy.
The Catholics, since Bill was ½ of one, got more deferential treatment. Two priests (one an astronomer) were heard from who essentially laughed at the church’s historical teachings. I was unaware that this is common practice among ranking members of the Catholic church. I think he got lucky with these two.
Bill’s interaction with a strict (I mean embracing Ahmadinejad strict) orthodox Jew lent itself to some Fox News behavior on the part of the interviewee. He simply spouted nonsense and shouted Maher down continuously before Bill could get a question in.
But Maher had the convenience of selective editing. And he often chose to make troublesome people look like asses. A great perk when making your own film.
He did a fine job deconstructing the idiots.
Whether you like the film or not is entirely up to your worldview (otherworldview?). Director Larry Charles (Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm) has followed another misogynistic, masochistic nutcase into the viper’s den and “documented” it well.
Maher ultimately ends up facing the same childish questioning that every freethinker or skeptic encounters when dealing with the pious.
An argument tantamount to that of a five-year-old who insists on parrying truth with the absolute gainsaying of “No it isn’t”. With the religious it regresses to the “you must have faith” mantra. Void of fact, reason, logic and, if honest, anecdotal evidence.
The believers also like to bring up the absolute of “What if you’re wrong?”
I’ll burn in hell for all eternity I guess. That sounds like a fair response to skepticism.
I must be pretty confident to call it all bullshit.
The transposition of that question to the believers (and the hedge bettors) is much more frightening for them.
It means their entire understanding of life, philosophy, purpose, self-awareness and one’s very existence has been based on a cheap lie. A man-made sucker’s bet for gullible chumps who haven’t the courage to admit they’ve been had and lack the intellect to even see religion as the grandest ruse of all.
Reader Comments (5)
Perfect review. Been waiting for you to do this one for awhile. I found the Islamist Hip-hop artist particularly chilling. 'Zayn', if I may say so.
I had to go to the urban dictionary for "Zayn" you hip S.O.B.!
"Propa-Gandhi" was his name. Way too cool a moniker for a clueless ass hat like that.
Thanks for the comment Gorilla. Have you finally joined the godless bandwagon?
Darkness, thy name is Moores and I, your humble servant. We shall meet ere again in 'Satan's Alley'. So mote it be.
My dear C.A. here your genuine talent lounges upon a divan of utter predictability. Applying your scourge's critical eye for la Noir to Maher would allow you to see him as the same sort of cheap hucksters you so rationally skewer. It is the Maher M.O. to badly tilt the field, setting up those views he disdains with tilted panels, odd examples, and entreaties to the usual audience drones, the latter the type of easily impressionable schlubs that you would quickly zap were they in pews instead of a studio. In fact the biggest critique here is that you ignore that Maher is himself a TV preacher albeit for a less established religion, one that sells silliness and worships the contrary as the greatest god. A great many people of faith are non-condescending and rational, and were Maher even a good satirist he would throw in one of these two buttress his credibility. Maybe he did and you ran out of space, but the argument convinces only that you agree with this narcissist's secular piety. Of course if the mindless believers proclaimed things that can be empirically proven false e.g. the minimum wage, drowning polar bears, class warfare, or compassionate statism, then you would doubtless declare them thoughtful and forgive them their lesser faiths.
Ooooh! A christian troll!
Awww shit, it's Fitzy again.
Shouldn’t you be out warping the impressionable minds of unsuspecting, secular children with your philosophical fear-mongering instead of trolling the blogs of disbelievers?
Fitzy, your credibility does end here.
You emphatically question Maher's objectivity (you little Laura Ingraham you) to divert attention from the matter at hand. Even after I called the film a "pseudo-documentary", found Maher to be a man prone to "obvious humor", misogyny, being preferential to Catholics and a selective editor.
You then equate show business with religious belief (I do see the analogy) but forget that show business promotes something real. It's called entertainment. You can view it and hear it as it comes. There's documentation it has occurred. The lies are a knowing part of the admission.
Faith sells a more nefarious ether.
Fitz wrote:
"if the mindless believers proclaimed things that can be empirically proven false e.g. the minimum wage, drowning polar bears, class warfare, or compassionate statism, then you would doubtless declare them thoughtful and forgive them their lesser faiths."
Lesser faiths indeed. Many of them do believe those things. It doesn't forgive them their stance on religion or god. They are still metaphysically damaged.
Religion necessarily invented childhood indoctrination and brainwashing. Why shouldn't other ideologies follow the proven model.
Your statement also makes you out to be a sensationalist and a liar.
Strangely, all the things you mention in that sentence are tangible, proven entities.
The minimum wage exists, agree with it or not, it is enacted law. Polar bears are drowning due to climate change (man made or not), there is footage. Class warfare has always existed (What planet do you live on?). Robbery is class warfare. And I believe the last time the term "compassionate" was used for political purposes was from "you know who" in 2000. The one whose name conservatives and republicans cannot speak of on pain of death.
Fitzy, your belief in god is the question here. I don't need to know "why" you do it. That's fucking obvious. I need to know "how" you do it.
If you came here by accident, just to trash Bill Maher, you can chase that thread three blogs over and to the right at http://www.lauraingraham.com/blog.
Enjoy ass hat.