Maher, who has been picking on organized religion for years on his TV
shows “Politically Incorrect” and “Real Time,” zealously traveled the
world for “Religulous,” his documentary challenging the validity and
value of Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths.
Raised in a Roman Catholic household by a Catholic father and Jewish
mother, Maher decided at an early age that the trappings and mythology
of the world’s religions were preposterous, outdated and even
dangerous.
“Religulous,” directed by fellow doubter Larry Charles (“Borat:
Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of
Kazakhstan”), is intended to inspire similar skepticism in others
— and perhaps get nonbelievers to talk more openly about their
lack of faith.
“I’m not looking to form an anti-religion religion. That would defeat
the purpose,” Maher said in an interview at the Toronto International
Film Festival, where “Religulous” played in advance of its theatrical
release Friday. “It’s the nature of the people who are not believers
that they’re individuals, they’re individualistic. They don’t join and
all lock arms and say, ‘We all believe this and so it must be true
because we have strength in numbers.'”
The numbers Maher and Charles really hope to grab are general
audiences simply looking for a fun night at the movies.
Maher, 52, who started mocking religion back in his early standup
comedy days, has no misconceptions that “Religulous” will shake
people’s lifelong convictions to the core. He’s mainly looking for
laughs such as those the film elicited from the enthusiastic crowd at
its Toronto premiere.
“I was so gratified to finally go to a screening with people last
night and hear how big the laughs are,” Maher said. “Because we set
out to make a comedy. I always said, my primary motivation was I’m a
comedian, and this is comedy gold.
“When you’re talking about a man living to 900 years old, and drinking
the blood of a 2,000-year-old god, and that Creation Museum where they
put a saddle on the dinosaur because people rode dinosaurs. It’s just
a pile of comedy that was waiting for someone to exploit.”
Charles shot 400 to 500 hours of material around the world as Maher
visited a Christian chapel for truckers in North Carolina, a gay
Muslim bar in the Netherlands, the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake
City, and Christian, Muslim and Jewish holy places in Israel.
Maher meets with priests at the Vatican, chats with rabbis and Muslim
scholars in Jerusalem, encounters street preachers in London, and
hangs out with the performer who plays Christ in a crucifixion
enactment at the Holy Land Experience theme park in Florida.
They left Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism alone
largely for budgetary reasons, saying the extra travel and expanded
scope would have made the film too unwieldy.
They also figured that Christianity, Islam and Judaism were the
trinity of faiths at the heart of Western conflict.
Charles grew up Jewish and once considered becoming a rabbi but was
discouraged by his parents, who told him to “get bar-mitzvahed, get
the checks and then get the hell out,” he said. He said he now shares
Maher’s position: Heavy on doubt about the existence of a supreme
being, even heavier on certainty that organized religion is hazardous
to humanity’s health.
“If I believe that Jesus is God and you believe Mohammed is God, then
no matter how tolerant we are, we are never going to meet,” Charles
said. “All you have to do is push that one more step, then somebody’s
like, ‘You’re in the way of people believing in Jesus,’ and ‘You’re in
the way of people believing in Mohammed,’ and the only answer is to
kill you.
“Unfortunately, that sort of thing dominates the religious landscape,
not the Mother Teresas of the world. She becomes the aberration. …
The altruistic wing of religion has been minimized and this
militaristic, warmongering fundamentalism has become the dominant
presence.”
Charles said he assembled the 100-minute film from 14 hours of prime
material. He has suggested to distributor Lionsgate that the 14-hour
cut could be edited into half-hour segments and sold to television as
a series.
Never one to soft-pedal his own opinions, Maher openly scorns remarks
made by Christians, Jews and Muslims he interviews. He hopes audiences
will laugh with him, and that “Religulous” will stand as a testament
for people who share his scorn.
“It is a sobering thought to think that the U.S. Congress has 535
members and there’s not one who represents this point of view, and yet
there are tens of millions of Americans who feel this way,” Maher
said.
“Comedians have always made jokes about religion. It’s a rich topic. I
did when I was a young comedian, but they weren’t jokes that got right
to the essence of it, which is, this is dangerous and this is silly.”
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