Bill Maher's "Religulous"

Left: After seeing "Religulous" I saw this bumper sticker, and I thought "Coexistence demands mutual respect, and that is in short supply!"


I went to the Varsity Theater Sunday afternoon with Sally and saw Bill Maher's new movie, "Religulous" :

'Religulous' is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Larry Charles and starring political comedian Bill Maher. According to Maher, the title of the film is a portmanteau derived from the words "religion" and "ridiculous," implying the satirical nature of the documentary that is meant to mock the concept of religion and the problems it brings about.

Maher's mom was Jewish and the rest of his family was Catholic, the legacy of which has made Maher an agnostic skeptic and the kind of person who simply cannot keep from picking at the scab of wounded religious sensibilities. As might be expected from a standup comic, Maher's analysis of religions worldwide is both puerile and sophomoric. There are a few laughs, that is true, but they come at the expense of the usual suspects: megachurch fundamentalist preachers, Muslim suicide bombers, Mormons and Scientologists. (The funniest part is a supposed translation from Arabic of several Muslims saying that Bill Maher's TV show sucked.)

Maher concludes that a religious sensibility, in a world that possesses nuclear weapons, is little better than a mental disorder. Now, as a confirmed agnostic myself, I should be a natural ally of this view, but Maher's acidic analysis leaves me cold.

Once, I explained to a Muslim that I really had no religion to speak of. For a second, I caught his unvarnished emotional reaction - utter pity! Not much respect there! Respect works both ways. Why should religious people extend respect to Maher and his work when Maher won't extend elementary courtesy to them? Religious people rely on faith. Maher may find faith absurd but it doesn't follow that religious people are absurd.

Coexistence is a cold word. Religions coexist in Bosnia. They coexist in Iraq. Those places aren't a religious Eden! Tolerance is a bit warmer, but Muslims say all the time they tolerate Jews because maybe they don't kill them on sight. I like mutual respect. Enough with the jokes. Like Rodney King once said:

People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids?...It’s just not right. It’s not right. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything. We’ll, we’ll get our justice....Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out.