Jon Peters Reviews: “Religulous”

Religion is perhaps the only subject one cannot talk bad about or joke about, unless he or she wants the wrath of a believer up their ass. Bill Maher on the other hand doesn’t care. It’s true that he is an out-spoken opponent of organized religion. Is the film biased towards that view? Sure, but at least it isn’t a preachy film. He has a clear agenda, a thesis he develops throughout the film and it works on that level. Can one subjective review a film like this? I think mot won’t but as a critic you should try to divorce your personal views on the politics of a film, but we’re human.

So with that, let me say I was born Catholic, much like Maher, but am I a practicing Christian? No, I got lazy but I can accept Maher views rationally. He desperately wants you to believe that he is right and seriously, I don’t think the film will change a believer over the course of its running time. My mom has told me stories about her Catholic school days on how she was punished or slapped for questioning the nuns. Maher takes it a step further than questioning ideas in religion; he down right says that religion is a bogus establishment used to make people orderly.

It is true if you can separate whatever believes you have. One believes in something that has no scientific facts or truth and they don’t question it. Maher has clearly stated he is not an atheist that he believes in a God or sorts, but not the God of religions. The film is directed by Larry Charles (‘Borat’) and it follows Maher as he interviews random people to top people in religion sections. Not only do the Catholics get most of the examination, so do the Mormons, Judaism, and related sects.

Sprinkled throughout the jokes and laughs, are some interesting revelations about the Mormons, gays and Creationism. Maher says if you were part of a club or political party that supported putting women down, against gays, racist, and corrupt you would resign. Who would be apart of that? Apparently, all of the people in religious groups. He has a good point. You we are quick to laugh at anything related to the wackiness of Scientology but we don’t laugh at some of the absurd aspects of Christianity.

Despite the heaviness of the subject of the film, Maher has created a truly hilarious film too. Sometimes as he interviews people, he’ll cut to a scene taken from some religious film like ‘Ben-Hur’, ‘The Robe’ and inserts them with something funny like Jesus bitch-slapping someone. That doesn’t sound funny but trust me it is. The funniest thing is he has made a serious film about looking at religion and why we follow one and made it one of the funniest films this year.

I know a lot of people are in an uproar about the film. Good. Even if you have strict points-of-view, one should not be guilty of questioning. Maher brings up some great ideas and questions and this film should create conversation either way. While there are some questions he should have asked himself it is his film and he had a clear agenda even if you don’t like the idea of what ‘Religulous’ (this is a portmanteau of religion and ridiculous) is asking. Look, he has a good thesis and raises some interesting questions worth looking into, no matter what side of the God coin you believe in.

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