10.13.08
Religulous - Bill Maher’s new “Rationalist” movie
Sorry I have not posted any articles here in a few weeks. Excuses include the fact that at first I was working mostly on my upcoming book. Then I could not access the blog for a few days while I was having it upgraded to a newer Wordpress version. Then my husband returned from spending a year in Alaska. Shortly thereafter, I had laser vision correction surgery (PRK versus LASIK - which takes a lot longer to heal) and I could not work on the computer for a week. Oh, and also the kids were home for fall break and to see my husband since it had been many months since we all were together. This meant I had to actually cook! All those goings on however did not mean I was not thinking about this blog. I have been formulating a few posts in my mind that will appear soon.
All the goings on also did not preclude my seeing Bill Maher’s new movie, “Religulous.” And as you might suspect, I have a few comments about that. “Religulous” is definitely a film for the Rational level person. (It might amuse a few Lawless people and will definitely offend most Faithful folks.) A review I read said it was aimed at the 16% of our population who is non-religious - this for the most part would be our Rationals . 16% is more people than many other minority groups. Maher called it the great untapped minority.
Obviously religious belief is a topic of great interest to me so on that score I was riveted to the screen the whole time. But the whole movie was about debunking religion - or in any case organized religion. I sort of felt bad because Maher was often openly disrespectful of religious people who were sincerely trying to share their views with him. And in many instances, he was cutting people off mid-sentence, just so he could fit in more irreverent questions. Somewhere I read that Maher had used devious means to obtain the interviews - not telling the person who the interviewer would be, using a fictitious name for the movie they were supposedly interviewing for. I really cannot condone employing dishonest means to attain any end - noble or otherwise. So for all the above reasons, I kind of feel bad that I actually enjoyed Religulous.
But there were a few clues that told me Maher was aiming this movie at a broader audience than just the non-religious 16% of our population. Surely he could not hope to convert any folks in the Faithful group away from their faith with his type of tactics! If you attack (debunk) what a person believes they are surely going to dig in their heels and reject you as a nut - not accept your logic just because you pointed it out!
But consider this: not at all popular with most non-religious folks is the concept of DOUBT. Over and over, Maher stated he was trying to promote the value of doubt. He tried very hard to show the evil side of certainty - religious certainty in particular. A direct quote from the movie: “Religion is dangerous because it allows people who don’t have the answers to think that they do.” Over and over he said “I just don’t know” ( …the answers about religion.) Well, folks, DOUBT is a concept usually valued by people at the Mystic level. Those in most other groups would consider doubt a sign of weakness.
Another minor theme of the movie was the idea of HUMILITY. Maher claimed it takes humility to admit to doubt. Yes, that is true Bill - and guess what group has most of the claim on humility? The Mystics again! Could Bill Maher be unsuspectingly on the cusp of becoming a Mystic??
On the whole, I think Bill Maher and I have somewhat similar aims - he with this movie and me with this blog and my book. Not that I want to debunk religion - just that I would like some perspective in society regarding the religious certainty put forth by some types of folks, encourage people to separate the concept of belief from the structure of organized religion - and allow more people to welcome and admit some level of doubt. I only hope I am going about it in a more respectful manner than Bill Maher did in Religulous.