Religulous – An Adventure In Talking Past One Another

Today I watched Religulous for the first time… I have to say I was very disappointed in it. It felt talking to a sixteen year-old.

At 43:43 he talks to a guy who helped me pinpoint what I didn’t like about the film. He said “you have to live with people and their stupid Ideas.”

Instead Bill Maher seems to focus on making fun of people.

He tends to ask some really good questions, but the editing seems to be focused on mocking people for having faith…

It makes perfect sense to me that he would doubt the Bible… The text is fantastical if approached from a purely empirical perspective.

It makes sense to criticize the ways that religion is used as an excuse to Kill people.

It makes sense to really have some problems with religion.

But instead of making a valuable comment on any of it he seems to spend the entire movie smirking and giggling at people who he disagrees with, and calling their beliefs Bull S#%T
I often agree with him, but what he does with the opportunities he has to talk to these folks bugs me.

He also seems to be trying to fit each person into a preconceived notion he has about them. I don’t think he really listens to anyone in the whole film…

That being said he had a couple good points about Jesus that many of us Christians could learn from.

1) Jesus spoke against the rich

2) The message of Jesus is incompatible with Nationalism

3) Jesus was not a man who existed in a vacuum

I also like his point that a life focused on an eschatological obsession can cause us to focus less on this life here…

Ultimately I guess I want to ask Bill: What exactly where you trying to prove? If you were looking for humor the movie fails. If you were trying to teach you need to learn to listen first…

The movie entrenches each side more in the smug self assurance that no one know what they’re talking about

Tell me what you think! You can Watch it for free below!