Review of Religulous (2008) by Wesley R — 27 Jul 2010

What is the point of this documentary? Bill Maher doesn't even seem to know or didn't care about deceiving anyone into thinking he really did. The beginning of this documentary has Maher stating that he is taking the stance of not an atheist or believer but someone who just "doesn't know" and wants to ask questions to get answers.

This is--obviously--just a facade that Maher uses to get people to talk to him. Some of his questions are spot-on and worth addressing like how can some become financially profitable and living a lifestyle that is clearly not favored by their own religion.

Other questions are really just him taking stuff out-of-context or just baiting people to make them look stupid about being religious. In the end, though, we find that *SPOILER!!!* Maher really lied about remaining in the "I don't know" category regarding religion, doesn't believe in it, and uses the documentary as a call-to-arms against all religious based thought since it causes bad stuff to happen in the world (please disregard the sad fact that practically any and everything can contribute to bad stuff happening in the world).

Wait...what?! I thought this was a documentary where Bill Maher just asks a bunch of questions to poke fun at religion and to get some answers to questions about it? Why the forced exclusion about anything positive about religion? Documentaries are often criticized for the possible exploitation of others, but this one clearly deserves its criticism.

How many of the people who took their time to talk to Maher in good faith (pardon the pun) would have done so if they knew his true intent? This obvious misleading of everyone about the purpose of this documentary for Maher to discredit religion for more than the sake of comedy just makes this a sloppy and aimless documentary.

Ironically I think Maher would feel the same if someone (here's looking at you Fox News...) created a similar documentary about something he believed in.