Bill Maher hates your (fill in the blank) religion
In Bill Maher's new documentary, "Religulous," the film's protagonist--Maher himself--feels the same way about the film's subject matter at the beginning as at the end: In other words, he thinks religion is a big crock of spit. You know irreverence is the order of the day when Maher, reacting to a smooth-talking black preacher's boast that he got a great deal on his $2,000 suits, drolly observes, "I find it interesting that you're a Christian, you used to be a Muslim but you buy all your clothes like a Jew."
"Religulous" doesn't open until Oct. 3, but after seeing the movie I couldn't wait to grill Maher about how he managed to get so many deeply religious figures to actually talk to him, since it's obvious to anyone whose ever watched Maher's act (on "Politically Incorrect" or HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" or in a comedy club) that he wasn't much of a believer. In many ways, the film is a comic bookend to Sam Harris' "The End of Faith," a humorless best seller that views religion as a bastion of superstition and moral hypocrisy. Although Maher embraces Harris' belief that religion is a destructive force that has brought great pain and suffering into the world--at one point he calls it a neurological disorder--Maher is always searching for the humor in every situation. A longtime acolyte of George Carlin, when Maher confronts a religious zealot or hustler, he prefers mocking over scolding.
Rolling his eyes, often full of derision, Maher gets in his licks with everyone, from a guy playing Jesus at a Holy Land theme park in Orlando to Muslims at a gay bar in Amsterdam to a rabbi who advocates the dissolution of Israel (he wears a card with the slogan "A Jew Not a Zionist"). As everything from "The Gong Show" to "Borat" has proved, real people and situations are often undeniably funnier than anything scripted by the best comic minds. In Holland, Maher is in the midst of questioning a somber Muslim cleric when he's interrupted by the cleric's cellphone, whose ring tone is Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir."
So how did Maher manage to get all these people to actually talk to him? Since "Religulous" was directed by Larry Charles, who also did "Borat," I suspected that subterfuge and trickery were involved. I was not far wrong. Here's how Maher pulled it off:
On how he got people to talk to him: "It was simple: We never, ever, used my name. We never told anybody it was me who was going to do the interviews. We even had a fake title for the film. We called it 'A Spiritual Journey.' It didn't work everywhere. We went to Salk Lake City, but no one would let us film there at all."
On the element of surprise: "Larry Charles' theory is--just keep going till they throw you out. I guess he learned that on 'Borat.' The crew would set up and at the last second, when the cameras were already rolling, I would show up. So either they'd be seen on camera leaving the interview and lose face or they'd have to talk to me. It was like--'And now here's ... Bill!' You could usually see the troubled looks on their faces. At the Holy Land theme park, the PR woman freaked out and finally told us to leave. She was definitely not a happy camper."
On his encounter with Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, who tells Maher he believes the biblical account that Earth was created 5,200 years ago: "He's not going to be happy with this movie. I suspect he's going to say that the editing is not favorable to him [laughs]. And he's not completely wrong about that. But we didn't make anything up. When I told him I was worried about people [with such literal interpretations of the Bible] running the country, he's the one who says, 'Well, you don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate.' "
Tomorrow: Bill Maher tells us what he really thinks about religion.
photo of Bill Maher and Larry Charles by Alexandra Lambrinidis/Lionsgate
Well, if we are going to at least try being somewhat objective, shouldn't we reject right from the start that any one person or group of people is completely right or wrong about anything and no one person or group of people is entirely good or bad? In fact all of these notions are completely inappropriate when talking about something as complex as religion, philosophy, human psychology/consciousness, etc. To reject all religion as meaningless, idiotic, and pathological is just as ignorant and confused as being a religious fanatic. Bill Maher does very well at being funny and satirizing certain things, but his whole "we non believers are holier than thou (believers) precisely because we don't believe in the concept of the holy" and his vitriolic attacks on everything that has to do with the religious, are quite misguided and not very meaningful in the long run. They are also illogical and irrational and extreme. Things are just not as simple as he would like to make them seem. This whole topic or rather a set of topics, which are fundamental to the human condition, require a much more serious treatment than Bill Maher gives it or is capable of giving it. He is out of his depth. At the end, he winds up exposing his own psychological problems (symptomatic of a large group of people), except that neither he nor most of the viewers are able to recognize it. I had much more respect for him before this movie because I had believed him to be intelligent, but Bill Maher is not intelligent. He is funny, he is witty, he is observant, he is even charming at times, but he is not intelligent or understanding or knowledgeable. He is exactly what somebody calls him in the movie - "a schmuck." Real thinking has long ago moved on from such simplistic explanations, treatments, approaches to these issues. This movie shows the abysmal stupidity and ignorance of the vast majority of the human race, with Bill trying to stake out the role of a leader/spiritual inspiration of one of the wings of this mob. Mostly it shows, that human beings, by and large, have not become capable of receiving and processing information at any sort of acceptable level to even begin conversing on these topics. We are monkeys, my friends, monkeys, and a monkey that says "I believe in nuttin', Lebovski)" is no less a monkey. And Bill, you are obviously a troubled man, you need to get married, you need to father some kids (if you are able); you need to grow emotionally - you are stuck in a world of a nerdy high-schooler with a large brain and little else that is large enough to be worth mentioning. Again, this is not to insult you, just to point to something that is obvious to everyone and to which this movie is a testament. You are the one who has the biggest and deepestissues with religion in this movie!
Posted by: Alejo | January 18, 2009 at 08:58 PM
Bill:
"This situation bears close watching because the king (of Saudi Arabia) is in his 80s and one never knows how long he'll last or what the next king might do in a country that has been experiencing a population explosion and has lots of restless and unemployed young people, especially men."
Me:
The Same Situation, can be said for any Country today. With our Population Explosion, the Planet has run out of jobs, and out of land to build housing.
Killer Humans, with a Planetary Runaway Sex for Pleasure Explosion, have resulted in 7 Billion Humans, from 1 Billion Humans in 1900.
Humans have build tall buildings. How much Higher up can we go Safely?
Our Home Planet is Polluted, from Overpopulation Waste Materials, that do not dissolve back to Elements.
The Shock of a Human High Tech Science and Population Explosion, has Killer Religious Humans building Nuclear Bombs.
Humans have an International Space Station, with a ring of pollution, around our Planet's Atmosphere.
The Lord God in Genesis, that put Life on Earth, supernaturally, and made the Human Species in their Human Image.
Scriptures and Myths, Prove High Tech Human Can Travel in Space, Colonize Planet, and Make Purebred Equal Male and Female Clones, in a High Tech Lab, a Caretaker Human Species.
Natural Born Humans, are made by Misbred Heterosexual Body Birth, and are an Unequal Killer Human Species.
We have High Tech Science Knowledge, but use it for Death, instead of for Eternal Life After Birth. Where will this High Tech Science Advancement End?
In the Death of our Home Planet Earth, and All the Physical Life on Earth, started on Earth 'in the beginning'.
What is Earth's Final Judgement Day? Peace High Tech Eternal Human Life, or Death?
Posted by: Dolores Lear | February 19, 2009 at 11:09 AM
It is simple: "For those who believe, no proof is required or necessary. For those who do not, no evidence is ever enough" Bill Maher should just keep his opinions to himself. He has the right to believe anything he wants, but he has no right to insult and denigrate anyone of any faith, let alone publicly. This is open and outrages discrimiation.
Posted by: Debbie | February 22, 2009 at 07:31 PM
Get a life! America is one of the few countires in the world you can express your opinions. WTF? Just because you don't agree, he can't say what he thinks?? Incredible!! Not only do you call yourselves Americans, but insist on calling yourselves religious all in the same breath.
Posted by: weezerkat | February 23, 2009 at 08:37 PM
Mr. Mayer,
I can't decide if you are a saint or a prophet. I just watched your movie on DVD last night, and it made me feel (I imagine) like a born again Christian. Finally, FINALLY, an intelligent, witty and very caring human being has cast religion in its true light, which is that it is all nothing but a mess of lies, created, as you say, "by people with penises", so they can manipulate and control others for the purposes of power, pleasure and/or money. I, like you, truly believe that belief in the supernatural is an insult to the intelligence and integrity of the human species, and that there will never be rreal peace on earth until all religions die.
Posted by: Steve Shanewise | March 03, 2009 at 01:27 PM
Wikipedia.
Pro-life is a term representing a variety of perspectives and activist movements in medical ethics. It is most commonly used, especially in the media and popular discourse, to refer to opposition to abortion. More generally, the term describes a political and ethical view which maintains that human fetuses and (some include embryos) are persons and therefore have a right to live. Less commonly, it can be used to indicate opposition to practices such as euthanasia, human cloning, and research involving human embryonic stem cells.
On the issue of abortion, pro-life campaigners are opposed by pro-choice campaigners who generally argue in terms of the reproductive rights of the woman, rather than fetal rights."
Me:
Now I am Pro-life for stopping All Human Killing, from Starving and Homeless Humans, to Killing Human and all types of Life, in War and Peace, and the Killing of our Home Planet Eco System.
Will Misbred Humans Ever Know why the Lord God's High Tech Purebred Reproduction of Male and Female Clone Helpmeets went Wrong, so that Humans took over Reproducing Misbred Humans by Body Birth?
Our Planet today, with Pollution, and Nuclear Bombs, are the Wages of the Original Sin of Reproducing Children, by Asexual Clone Male and Female Helpmeets, not Mates.
Genesis 2:21,22. "And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man."
Today we call this High Tech Cloning. So Why did the Perfect Male and Female Clones, start Committing the Original Sin, of Reproducing Imperfect Human Children, that Hate, Kill and Destroy and start Death on the LORD Gods Perfect Planet?
Posted by: Dolores Lear | March 14, 2009 at 06:56 AM
The earth being only 5,000 years old?! I got underwear older than that! :)
Posted by: Paul | March 18, 2009 at 01:08 AM
Faith Based Ministries Abound, in K.C. MO, and all over the Planet. Why?
Why not use our Human Energy to Share Equally, with All Life on Earth, instead of Praying and Killing? Is that Impossible?
Because of Who We Are, Where We Are Born, and Who our Parents Are?
Why are there are so many levels to Human Life, to be Born Into, with Government, Race, Creed, Have and Havenots?
Humans Judge Humans, as to Who They Are, Where They Were Born, and How Much Money They Have, and Which Religion They Belong to?
Does a Belief in God, make a difference, as to How Humans Live on their Home Planet?
Does a Belief in God, make Humans Share the Earth's Resources Equally, or is Greed, Inequality, Inhumanity, Killing and War, the Human Lifestyle of God's Children? Why?
How many more Faith Based Ministries will it Take, to make Humans Live Equally, like the Ministries teach?
Do as I Say, not as I Do, does not make Peace on Earth, Good Will to All.
Train up a Child as to the Way they will Live, and when they are Old they will not Depart from it.
What is the Living Style on Earth of Humans? Peace and Good Will to All Brothers/Sisters of Life, and Peace on Earth?
Where are the Caretakers of our Home Planet, and All the Life on it God started?
Who did God put in Charge? Humans? Or did Humans Evolve from Animals and Killing?
Are All Humans waiting for Peace After They Die, or waiting for God to come back to Earth and Change Humans from Killers to Caretakers? Why?
Who Brainwashed Humans to Kill Each Other, and their Home Planet? God? Satan? Or, Satan/Flesh Lust, that Overpopulated our Spaceship Earth?
Posted by: Dolores Lear | March 21, 2009 at 04:02 AM