Maher religion holy in religulous bill maher

TORONTO — “Just call us the Woodward and Bernstein of religion.”
That’s how Bill Maher sums his quest with “Borat” director Larry
Charles in “Religulous,” a pithy, smart, and usually profane poke at
religion.

From the Holy Land to the Holy Land Experience theme park in Florida,
Maher travels the globe searching out believers and engages them on
their turf about what they believe and why.

That confrontation between the faithful and Maher’s logic makes this
documentary a little like Prince Judah going after the Roman heathen
Messala in “Ben-Hur” — without the showy chariot race.

“All I can say is religion won’t go the way of the button shoe,” Maher
joked with reporters at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“Oh I still found myself bargaining with this guy in my head at times
when I was trouble,” he laughs. “But no, I’m not for this disease that
religion has turned out to be.”

Confronting the faithful as Bill does is funny stuff. With his logic
in hand, Maher goes forth and finds a Jesus impersonater who explains
the Holy Trinity to Maher by comparing it to the three states of
water.

He unearths tourists in the gift shop at The Holy Land Experience who
nosh back and forth with him about the place of the Jews in heaven.
Add to that the everyday American Christians Maher takes on who
“believe in believing” because “what if you died without faith and
found out you were wrong?”

It all sounds like flimsy crap to Maher, especially when he’s talking
to self-styled religious leaders, Catholic higher-ups dressed in un-
Godly expensive suits and bible-thumping fundamentalists like Arkansas
Senator Mark Pryor.

Maher’s approach is fair. He listens to what everyone has to say and
thoughtfully considers every word. Then Maher goes for the jugular.

“How can you believe in a talking snake?” he asks. How can a man live
in the belly of a whale or come back from the dead? And what about
those Mormons? How can they believe that God is some real super-dude
happily residing on another planet?”

From the stormy religious opinions he finds in Jerusalem to the
radical Muslim problem in Amsterdam, Maher’s quest for “truth”
presents a force behind faith that he and Charles would unquestionably
call frightening.

“My country is dumber than your is,” Maher quipped before the Canadian
press. “Only in America will you find politicians in a presidential
campaign trying to out-love Jesus.”

Some may vehemently disagree with such commentary from a man sporting
a ZZ Top beard and a pair of lavender Crocs dangling from his feet.
But so what? Taking a little heat is worth it to these two anti-heaven
crusaders.

“Religulous” won’t appeal to people who loved “The Passion of the
Christ,” the 2004 movie that made devout Catholic director Mel Gibson
richer than God. As Maher says, “We’re giving those who value science
and reason above myth another alternative at the movies.”

Whether “Religulous” changes peoples’ minds as America gears up for a
presidential election has yet to be seen.

“I don’t know how much this film will sway voters. But I’ll tell you.
When Sarah Palin got onto the Republican ticket with John McCain I was
swayed to write a big check to Obama,” Maher jokes.

“I watched a lot of documentaries before I got Larry to sign on. It
was all so depressing to watch,” Maher laughs.

Religulous movie’s maher think religion

Director Larry Charles, of “Seinfeld” and “Borat” fame, and Bill Maher
during production on “Religulous,” shot guerrilla-style.

TORONTO – Bill Maher had to face down protests when he showed up at
the premiere of Religulous at the Toronto International Film Festival
a couple of weeks ago.

The heckling clutch of Christian conservatives hadn’t seen the comic’s
documentary denouncing humankind’s systems of belief – Catholicism,
Judaism, the Mormons, Islam, Scientology even. But that didn’t stop
them from circling the entrance to the big hall, holding candles, and
asking God to forgive the wise-guy contrarian of HBO’s Real Time With
Bill Maher for his blasphemy.

Still, this being Canada – a civilized nation if ever there was one –
Maher didn’t exactly feel threatened by the demonstration.

“When the Canadians do civil disobedience, it’s very obedient,” Maher
deadpans the next morning, breakfasting in a hotel restaurant.

“As I was going in a couple of the protesters asked for my autograph,
so how seriously can you take that?” he adds. “You know: ‘Bill Maher
is going to hell, pray for Bill Maher, but could you sign?’ ”

Maher, 52, shot Religulous guerrilla-style last year with Borat
director and Seinfeld co-creator Larry Charles. As the title suggests
– it’s a conflation of religionand ridiculous – the political humorist
does not tread lightly over sacred terrain. Hopping from Jerusalem to
Vatican City to a truckers’ chapel in North Carolina, Maher, an
agnostic, questions the faithful’s basic tenets and puts the blame for
the world’s troubles squarely on the doorsteps, and doctrines, of
religious institutions.

Talking to fundamentalist preachers, a God-fearing U.S. senator (Mark
Pryor, Democrat from Arkansas), a pair of self-described gay Muslim
activists, theologians, scientists, Mormon outcasts, Orthodox Jews, a
Vatican scholar, and even Maher’s own mother (Jewish, but the family
was raised Catholic in Park Ridge, N.J.), the comedian probes and
provokes, laments and lampoons. The results are blistering, and
sometimes brilliant. Ultimately, Maher challenges humanity’s need to
find solace, and security, in the idea of an all-powerful spiritual
being.

“We were certainly never under the illusion that it wasn’t a
controversial film,” says Maher, with considerable understatement. “It
is the ultimate taboo and the last taboo, really, when you think about
it. So, I just hope it sparks a debate – I think it will at least do
that.”

Set to open a week from tomorrow in area theaters, Religulous couldn’t
be more timely. With John McCain’s choice of the evangelical Sarah
Palin as his running mate, God has once again become a talking point
in the political debate. Maher, who has called both Osama bin Laden
and George Bush religious fanatics – and who brings his satiric social
observations and stand-up to the Tower Theater in Upper Darby on
Saturday night – couldn’t be happier.

“Yes, I couldn’t help but notice that Ms. Palin was probably going to
be pretty good for my movie,” he says, flashing that trademark – and
just a tad smug – Maher grin.

“It’s scary that a country that just went through eight years of an
anti-intellectual, anti-science, Jesus-freak president, and saw him
drive the country into a ditch, still can’t connect the dots.”

[OK, reader, here’s where you can insert your opposing viewpoints. . .
. . . . . . . Finished? . . . . . . . . . Now? Let’s resume.]

“But I don’t know if that’s ever going to change,” Maher continues,
“because when you look at polls and surveys, something like 60 percent
of people say religion will solve our problems. High numbers believe
in the devil, in heaven, in prayer. . . . When you compare this
country to other countries in the world, we have the views of places
like Iran or Turkey, more than we have the views of places like France
or Denmark.”

Maher says our politics are “retrogressing.” In Religulous, he says
religion is “detrimental to the progress of humanity.” He notes that
the founding fathers – Adams, Franklin, Jefferson – were seriously
opposed to mixing God and governance.

“It’s a travesty, I think, that the Republican Party especially has
been able to convince the American public – and in part pander to the
American public – with the idea that the real America is the
heartlands,” Maher grumbles. “Somehow Kansas is where the real America
is. And Massachusetts, ‘Taxachusetts,’ you know, the East Coast elite
– that’s not the real America. And that’s exactly backwards.

“America was invented in Boston and Philadelphia and northern New
Jersey by men who were creatures of the Enlightenment. They were
European intellectuals who clearly wanted a separation of church and
state.

“As America moved westward, it got dumber and it got further away from
the ideals of the founding fathers. And now we find ourselves with two
candidates on the Republican ticket from Arizona and Alaska. They’re
moving as far West as they can, they keep getting to dumber and
dumber, hickier and hickier places, and we’ve finally reached the
edge. We’ve gone all the way to friggin’ Alaska and gotten like the
ultimate redneck.”

It should be noted here that Maher supported McCain’s candidacy in the
2000 presidential run. The comedian and commentator is not your
standard-issue Hollywood liberal, as fans of the debunking,
occasionally obnoxious and eyeball-rolling Maher well know.

“I even said on my show the other night that there is a possibility
that John McCain could get into office and really be a maverick. He
absolutely could go, ‘You know what? I’m 72 years old, I’ve had
cancer, I’ve been tortured. . . . I don’t really [care] what any of
you think, Republicans or Democrats. I’m going to do what I want.’ And
he can go back to the McCain we liked, instead of the one who sold
himself out for the last eight years to get to this point. . . .

“I can see him even going on TV and saying, ‘Yeah, I lied right to
your face and that’s what you have to do to get elected president. But
I’m going back to my original position on the Bush tax cuts, which was
against them.’ . . .

“He’s that kind of a riverboat gambler, that kind of a gut player. So,
that’s my hope if he gets elected. But I’d rather – I’m just hoping
that that doesn’t happen. But who knows? It’s a fight.”

I really don’t like Bill Mahr but really a difference in someone
saying it is “Gods plan” and someone saying it “Allah’s will” If
McCain/Palin get into office we will be no different then an Islamic
country.

Mark55: Everyone you know who has a religion is fanatical? What world
do you live in? It’s the same liberal logical all the time. Think what
you want, as long as you think like us. The hell with freedom.

I think of Mahar as more of an anthiest than as an agnostic. His
interview in Playboy last summer was one of the best reads in a
magazine this year.

How about: Why is this story the headline? If you want to stay away
from the economy or the presidential race, how about Wilson Goode?

People like Maher really miss the point of religion in many ways. The
literal belief in a specific theology is only part of religious
belief, and only for some believers at that. Religion is also a
framework for community, tradition, and a common framework gor
understanding of one’s place in the world. With or without religion,
people will always find ways to separate into groups and kill each
other.

Uh, doorspj24 — “Think what you want, as long as you think like us”
is the mantra of the Bush-led religious right. I assume you’re not
smart enough to be ironic. Hey, I have an idea. Why not pass a
constitutional amendment banning all criticism of religion and other
institutions? That’s the Republican way, and if you oppose it, my
question to you is: “why do you hate America?”

It’s sad that Maher purposely avoids interviewing intelligent
Christians. Belief in God has played an instrumental role in the
development of our country, and in the development of almost every
major civilization in human history. To say religion is the cause of
everything that’s wrong is being just as narrow minded as the
fundamentalists he’s speaking against. I wish he’d interview
thoughtful Christians and not simply get the material he needs to
advance his own agenda by focusing on who illustrates his points.

I don’t understand why people get so uptight. Everyone is entitled to
their opinions. If a Christian is offended and feels the need to
protest, it tells me their faith is fragile. Don’t forget, its faith
not fact.

I hate bill maher. He is the most unfunny person on HBO. He has the
most boring people on his show. He doesn’t talk, he
whines……typical.

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Phillies Zone: Pat Burrell left the Phillies’ workout today with
discomfort in his lower back. He’ll be re-evaluated tomorrow.

In a ritual that has become altogether too familiar, Philadelphia
police yesterday laid to rest their murdered colleague Patrick
McDonald, the fourth officer to die in the line of duty in a year.

WASHINGTON – Prodded by a wave of angry calls from constituents,
congressional leaders dialed back partisan bickering over the $700
billion Wall Street rescue plan yesterday and advanced modest changes
to the legislation in an effort to win over House Republican holdouts.

WITH HEART, GRIT and sweat, Officer Patrick McDonald prepared for
battle. Every day about 6 a.m., the Highway Patrol officer walked
downstairs to the elaborate gym that he’d built in the basement of his
Northeast Philadelphia home and cranked up Survivor’s “Eye of the
Tiger.”