- Self - Director, National Institutes of Health
- (as Dr. Francis Collins)
- Self
- (as Father George Coyne PhD)
- Self
- (as Father Reginald Foster)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (as Dr. Dean Hamer)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film used the fake working title "A Spiritual Journey" in order to obtain interviews with religious leaders. They were unaware that Bill Maher was involved in the film until he arrived for the interviews.
- GoofsBill Maher conflates al-Hajaru al-Aswad, "the Black Stone" with the Kaaba, which is the building in which it is housed. There are several devotional objects in the Kaaba and Muslim pilgrims face the building rather than the stone.
- Quotes
[last lines]
Bill Maher: The irony of religion is that because of its power to divert man to destructive courses, the world could actually come to an end. The plain fact is, religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge in having in key decisions made by religious people. By irrationalists, by those who would steer the ship of state not by a compass, but by the equivalent of reading the entrails of a chicken. George Bush prayed a lot about Iraq, but he didn't learn a lot about it. Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It's nothing to brag about. And those who preach faith, and enable and elevate it are intellectual slaveholders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction. Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who don't have all the answers to think that they do. Most people would think it's wonderful when someone says, "I'm willing, Lord! I'll do whatever you want me to do!" Except that since there are no gods actually talking to us, that void is filled in by people with their own corruptions and limitations and agendas. And anyone who tells you they know, they just know what happens when you die, I promise you, you don't. How can I be so sure? Because I don't know, and you do not possess mental powers that I do not. The only appropriate attitude for man to have about the big questions is not the arrogant certitude that is the hallmark of religion, but doubt. Doubt is humble, and that's what man needs to be, considering that human history is just a litany of getting shit dead wrong. This is why rational people, anti-religionists, must end their timidity and come out of the closet and assert themselves. And those who consider themselves only moderately religious really need to look in the mirror and realize that the solace and comfort that religion brings you actually comes at a terrible price. If you belonged to a political party or a social club that was tied to as much bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, violence, and sheer ignorance as religion is, you'd resign in protest. To do otherwise is to be an enabler, a mafia wife, for the true devils of extremism that draw their legitimacy from the billions of their fellow travelers. If the world does come to an end here, or wherever, or if it limps into the future, decimated by the effects of religion-inspired nuclear terrorism, let's remember what the real problem was that we learned how to precipitate mass death before we got past the neurological disorder of wishing for it. That's it. Grow up or die.
- Crazy creditsAfter the credits, there is one last clip of Bill Maher with his mother and sister. He tells them "I'll see you in heaven", and they laugh. His mother says "who knows," and there is a title card "In loving memory of Julie Maher, 1919-2007".
- ConnectionsFeatures Brigham Young (1940)
- SoundtracksCrazy
Written by Danger Mouse (as Brian Burton), CeeLo Green (as Ceelo Green) and Gianfranco Reverberi
Published by Chrysalis Music (ASCAP) / Warner -Tamerline Pub Corp. (BMI) o/b/o Wanrer/ Chappell Music Ltd PRS/ Killer Tracks (BMI)
Performed by Gnarls Barkley
Courtesy of Downtown Records and Atlantic Recording Corp. by arrangement with Warner Music GRoup Film & TV Licensing
The film with comedian Bill Maher giving the audience his background as being brought up in a mixed Cathoilc /Jewish background and any fears that RELIGULOUS was going to be more about Maher's rather than religion are soon dispelled as he arrives in a " Truckers Chapel " for his first set of victims who inform Maher and the audience that the Turin shroud was tested and was found to have female blood on it hence it proves a miracle has taken place . Hmmmm I can see why they're driving trucks for a living and not lecturing at Harvard on subjects like Astro-physics and logic . To be fair though this Chapel has a slightly more multi-ethnic flavour than you'd expect to see in a lot of mainstream churches in America
The first two thirds of the film play along in this irreverent style . Maher interviews someone and the interview is cut with clips from Hollywood movies . Everyone will their favourite LOL bits such asformer singer Dr Cummingsfailing to remember the passage from Matthew that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God , the Senator stating that you don't need to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate and my favourite moment Jose Miranda cheerfully telling the world that he is directly descended from Christ and is indeed the second coming . Cut to a clip from SCARFACE with Pacino saying " You know what I'm talking about you f--ckin' cockroach " . One thinks Dan Brown has the same opinion of Miranda and might find himself the subject of a court case . Miranda after all isn't short of money and his talent for spinning out unlikely stories is better than Brown's tall tales
Some people have a problem with the way the interviews are edited . You have to take onboard that this is the curse of all documentary film making - you've no idea what has been left out and what's taken out of context . This is irrelevant since it doesn't matter what's been said - the subjects have said it and it's nonsense no matter what context it's been said in . Where the documentary does fail is when Maher takes on the Muslims and the whole tone changes . He interviews a couple of gay Muslims in Holland who enjoy Maher's jovial style but Maher doesn't seem keen to rip in to Muslim interviewees with his style . I guess the subject of Salman Rushdie being brought up might have had something to do with this . Likewise Maher suggests Muslims aren't keen to criticise their religion to outsiders . Why didn't you say this to the Muslims you were interviewing instead of saying it to your film crew Bill ? Somewhat unforgivably Maher interviews an Iman in The Dome On The Rock and and some Muslims in the background start speaking to one another . As the trivia section of this page says what the men are really saying isn't being translated on screen correctly . So much for the moral superiority of secularism
Maher also lets himself down finishing with a montage of clips of war , carnage and all other types of apocalyptic imagery but both Maher and director Larry Charles should have picked these clips more carefully . We're shown clips that include both Yasser Arafat and Colonel Gadaffi both of whom were secular , leftist leaning leaders who unlike so many leaders in the Middle East at least didn't subjugate women simply because they were women . They murdered people and played the religion card when it suited them but even they don't deserve to be labelled as theocrats . Likewise is there a moral equivalence in showing clips featuring George W Bush and Mahmoud Ahmidinejad . Say what you like about America but at least it's a democracy unlike many countries in the Middle East
Finally Maher ruins much of what has gone before by finishing with the statement that no one knows what happens when we die and anyone who does shouldn't be listened to . . The problem with this argument is that from a totally logical point of view the both the religious and secular point of view are of equal grounding ie " ! believe in an afterlife " has the same evidential argument as someone stating " I don't believe in an afterlife " . It's an agnostic argument . An atheist argument would be " People have claimed through the ages there is a creator and an afterlife but have failed to produce a single shred of evidence for this . It's more logical to assume eternal oblivion awaits us after death and that's why there's no evidence offered for an afterlife "
- Theo Robertson
- Dec 21, 2012
Details
Box office
- 1 hour 41 minutes
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