Review of Religulous (2008) by Hanin K — 06 Nov 2011

Religulous starts with an agenda, seeks to prove its agenda the entire time, and concludes that its agenda was proven right by what it demonstrated. If the point was to prove that all religions have fundamentalistis and extremists, and that there are many of those same people that are not aware of what they believe or why they believe it, then the point was made.

But Maher's point is much less nuanced: he sets out to prove that religions have a negative effect on humanity, and that any rational person cannot have religious beliefs and still maintain a sense of intellectual integrity.

To be sure, he has chosen some ridiculous set pieces and examples of religious piety from all three major monotheistic religions, as well as other westernized recent religions such as Mormonism and Scientology, but it is interesting to note that he does not make much commentary on Eastern religions.

What could have served as an entertaining examination from Maher's perspective - despite his agenda - ends up seeming like little more than his own version of indoctrination, and the entire experience is cheapened due to his hasty and overbearing conclusions.

This could have been so much more, and instead Maher goes for the easy jokes and takes his cues from the Michael Moore school of "documentary" making.