Religulous
Early on in Religulous, Bill Maher throws up a bar chart illustrating the number of people in America who are non-religious. That number is 16%, more than blacks, more than Jews, more than numerous other minority groups who seem to have no problem making themselves heard and getting Congress to do their bidding. Maher wonders aloud why non-religious people are so underground, and why they aren’t having an impact on the national discussion. His film is aimed squarely at that 16% of the country, and almost no one else. His goal, and he clearly has one, is to give those people the motivation they need to come out of the closet and do something… before it’s too late.
Religulous begins with Bill Maher, standing alone in Israel at a place called Meggido; a worthless pile of rubble where many of the planet’s religions believe the end of the world will begin. From there, Maher pushes us into an intense, honest, and brutally funny discussion of blind belief, presenting the possibility that maybe we should all consider doubt instead. We follow him around the world, as he travels from place to place talking to religious people of different faiths on different continents. The surprising thing here is that even though Maher definitely has an agenda, his movie never skews into the realm of propaganda.
It’s not propaganda, because Maher isn’t running out and finding weirdos to use in smear tactics against the devout. Typically anyone trying to make a case against God goes right to the pedophile priests and the suicide bombers, but Maher makes it a point to focus on normal, reasonably sane religious people. He’s not stacking the deck in his favor, because he doesn’t need to. He talks to truckers in a roadside chapel, he chats with random, middle-class tourists at a Christian-themed amusement park.
He talks to religious shop owners, small town preachers, televangelists, Jews for Jesus, fundamentalist U.S. Senators, Vatican priests, religious scientists, secular Muslims, gay Muslims, people in America, Utah (come on, we all know it’s not really America), Europe, and even in Jerusalem. Though those fumbling for an excuse to discredit him may claim otherwise, these aren’t extremists or lunatics. These are for the most part sane, rational, even intelligent people who believe something which Maher believes is insane.
I'm an agnostic atheist. I have read the Bible and studied religion academically because I find it fascinating. I don't believe for a minute that you need the Bible to tell you how to be a good person.
I don't proselytize about atheism and I find it distasteful when religious people proselytize to me.
I believe that everyone has a right to believe whatever they want. I don't know if there is a god or gods because no hard, irrefutable evidence has been provided to me, even though I have researched it, interviewed religious people from many faiths and studied it academically.
Maybe one day a god will give me irrefutable proof but until then I will choose to believe in the cold, hard facts in front of me.
Good luck with whatever you decide to believe in, whether it's atheism, or one of the many gods that are documented.
documenting the horrors of the religious psychopaths .. thanx!
Couldn't agree with Bill Maher more!
Complete waste of my 1hr40mins. I found this doc highly judgemental and biased. For starters he didn't ask the right questions from any of the people/scholars. Instead I found him targeting innocent people, mocking them and their faith. Throughout the film I found him calling other judgemental, as a matter of fact he had judgemental remarks/images/clips showing up on the screen constantly judging others and their faiths, demonstrating his arrogance and shallowness. He interviewed a Rabbi who was showing his support for Palestine and Bill completely portrayed him as a sold-out to Iranians. Does Bill know how many Muslims are killed in Palestine on daily basis by Zionists and their agenda to wipe Palestine of the world's map? He said muslim are highly defensive to outsider...what???.. Next, he targets gay muslims guys and that stupid muslim rapper.....?? in pursuit of finding out Islam....That was jokes mate. Moreover, he touched upon topics that are very misunderstood by the masses i.e. killing of Infidels and islam taking over the world? Bill, where does it says in Quran that Muslims should go round killing others and subsiquently take over the world? I bet he has never even opened Quran, never mind reading it. I guess it takes devotion to find out the depths of any subject or religion, which Bill completely lacks.
Well for one, you completely prove Bill's point to how religion is also ridiculous. Zionists killing Muslims over scripture is completely ridiculous like you said and that is exactly what this documentary is trying to show. That killing and control over ANY religion, is ridiculous. And for two, this is a comedy the part about the gay Muslims was just to rub in the faces of the anti-gays the balls of these gay Muslims (when Islam formally takes the story of Sodom and Gomorrah literally)
Dear Stewart, Zionism is a
political movement not a religious one! You may argue that I'm wrong...if so
then I want you to think that why the United states government and its politics
favours and supporting the establishment of Israel when Jews, Christians and
Muslims have been living in complete harmony for centuries in that very piece
of land. I share the same believes that NO human being should ever be killed in
the name of any organized group or (religion) over any scriptures. It is indeed
the politics that victimizes and kill; not religion! My friend.
I hope you can see
that....Also, look into the establishment of the NEW WORLD ORDER (NWO) and
their agendas. The news/media fabricate everything around us to justify and
facilitate NWO plans through people like Bill Maher and his fellow peers (Piers
Morgan, Bill O'Reilly and Rachel Maddow like characters). Do you really think
that Bill Maher gives a s*it about world poverty, hunger, religion etc.?? These
people are mere rich puppets whose job is to promote false flag operations and
warmonger, that what they get paid for! They understand that the most efficient
way to control the world is through “Mind Control”!!
Stewart, you will NEVER
find them promoting anything that bring us the people together, that point out
our similarities rather than our differences! You will find our mainstream news
media and politicians are always talking about things that set us apart from
each other, our differences! That’s the way the ruling class operates in any
society, they try to divide the people, they keep the lower and middle class
fighting with each other over topics such as religion, ethnicity, race, jobs
income, education, social status, sexuality.... anything etc. So, they the rich
can run off with all the freaking money, it’s a fairly simple mechanism!
Stewart what difference
does it make that you and the rest doesn't believe in GOD? I'm 100% sure it
doesn't make ANY difference to GOD. The reality is that the upper class keeps
all the money and pays none of the taxes, the middle class pays all the taxes
and does all the work and the poor class merely exists just to scare the s*it
out of the middle class!
Do you know why I believe
in God?? Because of all this evil I see in this world screams out to me the
existence of God. There is no denying that evil doesn't exist! If evil exist
then GOD must also exist!! (Cause and effect).
We spend endless hours
studying science and literature but we never study ourselves. We run off to
churches, worship temples, mosques but we never study the depths of our own.
Everyday we try to fight evil but have we never try fighting ourselves? I
say lets destroy all the religions of the world and all the worship centers
(mosques, churches, temples) but should never destroy/hurt another fellow human
being's heart, their feeling and aspirations because God lives in that very
heart!!!
There is currently no
experimental study have been proposed that proves the existence of god and most
likely there might never will be!
We don't have to look for god
in any religion or any scripture because god exists in all of us. I feel god
when I'm the most hurt, when I'm alone, when I'm rejected
when I look around god’s nature, its elegance and its beauty fascinate me. I
dance to its beauty in joy and I celebrate it.
I wish Love, peace &
respect to everyone!!
I just watched this whole video and found it amazing.It was worth every minute of the time spent!! It only confirms my own beliefs on the topic through 15 years-plus of research on religion, Christianity in particular, and my own experiences. It pointed out some things I didn't even consider.
If you are trying to justify how wrong any of this is, you are doing just what the video states you will do when you cannot face facts. I justified for years and years while a Christian, against my own thinking and doubts. I did the same when I left the church I was in trying to find the right one....the "true" one. There are none.
In over 41,000 different denominations of Christianity, how do you find the right "one"? And that is just in Christianity! In those Christian faiths all claiming to be right, they also condemn all the other ones to death if they do not join their church! Add to that the other religions of the world saying they are all right and all others deserve death!!
I have never, ever, been happier to have left religion behind after 50 years of it. the last 15 have been so much better, happier and content. I am now more "Christian" in Christ-like qualities than I ever was and more so than the vast majority of Christians out there!!!
Have you ever noticed how scientists always say, "We're uncertain...", and that religous people always have the answers, but it's the scientists who are seen as arrogant. Hmmm...
All have sinned and? greatly offended the Holy God of the bible.? The just punishment is death then Hell. That's not God's will. He loved you so much that He became a man in the person of Jesus Christ and suffered and died on the cross paying for the law you broke in His life's blood. Now He can legally dismiss your case. You must repent turn from your sin and trust alone in the finished work of Jesus Christ for your eternal salvation.
@Steven Hamilton:
Do not utter veiled threats about your psychotic gods and your holy books of terrors, any more such nonsense will be deleted, fair warning 1#
can I contact the maker of the on-line version to ask to be sent it personally - because I can't access it here , on-line because of copyright controls - the profit factor. Some of the corp-s that contributed to making it have stopped it being seen - in MY country (the country I live in) ...
countries just being those boundaried lands telling the oligarchs who their slaves are - where their slaves live, and where their ownership of pieces of Earth by which to make profit are.
OWNED THAT SENATOR. :D
I need the see the whole thing now.
Just sad that you said you're "somewhat Libertarian" and bash a little on Paul while saluting him and then vote Obama. -_- HOW.DOES.THAT.WORK.?????!!
What I know for a fact, is truth, or reality.(which is very little). The truth is I don't know if the bible is the truth or god's word, if I teach it to children or present it to a confused person as the truth that makes me evil or insane or lacking in integrity. I agree with Sabrina, we can all discover this truth which I see as self-evident. What your looking for , your looking with.
I watched an interview with Maher who said this is not a documentary; he said it is comedy, but of course w/comedy one can point out foibles. I haven't been able to watch the video yet, and am especially interested in the last part which I'm told moves from Christianity to Islam.
this is so true .. finally someone has documented the horrors of the religious m*rons .. thank you
I saw this documentary in the history channel. many people took video of everything. it was sad.
ANyways, so do you think New york is safe from now on OR can someone somehow destroy one of those tall buidings again without anyone catching them in time
I Loved this Documentary .... from start till the end.... the facts and question we awesome .... and the answers given by theists :P were horrible
I really can't believe in this modern world people still do everything in their life according to what there religion sayssss :O
Bill Maher is a hateful attention-grabber. I doubt he even means what he says, he's just doing it for ratings. If religion gives hope and some solace to people in their life, good for them. How does he know the truth? Has he been around for 16 billion years?
"The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we CAN imagine"...Issac Asimov. So this schmuck knows the answers? Rabbinicle scholars have wrestled with these questions for thousands of years. He's only a year younger than I am, for Christ's sake! And he started out as a COMEDIAN. I cannot believe that any thinking person would give any relevance to this guy or to anything he says. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? In what book of the Bible did Moses have an argument with God and win? What is the difference between good intentions and sin? It would have been different if he knew his subject matter, but he was obviously fed his questions by his staff, who, not believing in God, didn't even know the proper questions to ask. This was just silly and proves nothing. I'd like to see him debate Rabbi Yona Weiss.
1. Atheism doesn't require knowledge of everything.
2. The Christian God is proven not to exist, as he pocesses way too many logical failures.
3. Neither atheists nor theists can quote the bible in a formar debate unless the theist manages to prove (through scientific means - and yes, it's not possible) the Bible is true. It's a very serious logical failure. If this guy did, then he shouldn't.
4. A wrong thing done for the good reasons is right. If you were in WWII and had a Jew on your attic and you lie to protect him, are you being bad?
5. Debates are stupid. People believe in different things. Some religions believe in 1 true, moral god, others believe in several gods or 1 imoral god. Even within the same religion, people believe different things. If a Christian says to me "My God exists. He's the God in the Bible", I can disprove that. If he says "My God exists. He's all-powerful and perfect", I can disprove that. But, of course, if he says "My God is mysterious and I can't understand him", WTF. There's no possible debate there.
If you want to debate, debate YOURSELF.
couldn't have said it better.
Bill Maher majored in history,I'm pretty sure he knows a thing or two about the bible.
For you to say, “How does he know the truth? Has he been around for 16 billion years?” is one of the most ignorant things I have ever heard. How long has the Bible been around, 16 Billion years? The Bible even claims the Earth is thousands of years old when we know for a fact it is 4.5 billion years old. The audacity of religious people to think that they know the answer to the universe is outrageous. Claim you know the answer from a book that is proven to be scientifically impossible… STFU!
I think you need to reexamine your statement that the Bible says the earth is only thousands of years old. The Bible simply states, "In the beginning" (wow, sounds a bit like the big bang theory) and speaks of "days" using God's perspective. It never literally names how long those days are, it does state that a day is like a thousand years to God, just like people say "back in the day." The Bible, written by men, inspired by God tries to conceptualize creation for mankind. No set time frame is mentioned, but a general conception of the order of creation is outlined. The Bible is primarily a document to help people understand the covenant we have with the creator and how to have a relationship with him through his son. It never claims to be a scientific document. I agree that some people try to make it so, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. The Bible does outline a set of laws and behaviors that benefit all of mankind and surprisingly, are the basis of the laws that govern many countries, including the United States. There are intelligent thoughtful Christians out there that deserve respect, and who respect other beliefs and hope and pray that we can all honor God with our lives and behavior.
Actually you should wiki 'young earth creationism' which explains where the dating comes from. It actually *is* in the original hebrew texts, and Archbishop Ussher's calculations were included in the KJV. (The wiki article is not the only place where this is explained, of course; however, as robertallen says, its a place to start).
While the bible is certainly one codification of basic moral precepts, those precepts are as old as human society and as farflung. Civilisations that never heard of it (either too early or too far away or both) came up with pretty much the same basic rules.
I respect anyone who is thoughtful and intelligent, and who doesn't insist that I share their belief in any or all deities. I trust we can depend on each other to behave well.
First, you don't know what god's perspective is on a day. Secondly, we define as the 24 ish hours it takes for the earth to complete one rotation of it's axis (nothing to do with the sun). That is the only possible definition for a day and therefore that is what WE meant when WE wrote the bible. Saying that god has uses different meanings/definitions than our own gives god zero credibility on anything he supposedly said. The ten commandments could mean exactly the opposite or an eternity in heaven could mean 10 minutes.
Days in god's perspective is a day. It says in the bible and the evening and the morning was the first day. So on. It is saying that god's day is as long as a human day. And we pick and choose from the bible so it's not morals made from the bible it's us.
Those who embrace love will find what they need in the Bible. Those who embrace deadly violence will find what they need in the Bible. That way, a maximum of people benefit from the autority of the Bible. That way, this unique book manipulates the maximum of people. People believe in God not because of an objective truth, but because they desire it. They desire to believe in God. They need it. The God hypothesis or the Evolution hypothesis? Follow your desire. Follow what you need. I chose the Evolution hypothesis. But yes it is just an hypothesis. It is not perfect. The search continues. Cheers! :)
Why get so defensive? He is a man with a view point that is different than yours, big deal. He never states once that he has any of the answers! He only points out the inconsistencies that many religions have. If the Bible or any doctrine was made by man and we know that all men are fallible then how is this such a shocker to any one with functioning cognition? Do you really not question any information given to you? I am certain God didn't give me my critical thinking ability with out the expectation of me actually utilizing it, especially when it comes to the one question that which NO man can truly know or comprehend fully. I have a great relationship with God always have and I never gained it from being told by another (fallible) human how, what, why, or when I can have it. I may be way off but at least I am intentionally seeking truth to the best of my ability and not just mindlessly following others possibly wrong ways. Then again I do not try and tell others what works for them either so therefore I have no reason to be threatened when they have a different viewpoint from my own. Which is inevitable because we humans all have a unique perspective on any given topic.
aha, say what you want about maher but one thing you can't say is that he's doing this for the ratings. are you mental? he lost his show for this, it obviously wasn't popular, a lot of it just really had to be said. i respect that, religion can be dangerous. that being said i totally believe that religious people have their reasons, i respect that, but when it starts to get dangerous it's a problem. this film was perfect, he sympathizes with those who need religion, yet still proves the dangers & i think that's honorable. i think it's totally ridiculous that anybody could EVER say that he was doing this for the ratings.. he did it cause somebody to had to and you've gotta believe what you're saying quite a bit if you're willing to endure what comes with making a movie about something so controversial.
we need more people like bill maher
After watching Maher in this moving last night, I was struck at how cowardly he approached this film. First, he lies about the purpose of the documentary when interviewing individuals. Second, he is well prepped with his initial questions and follow-up questions which relate to theological issues that most people don't think about nor talk about on a daily basis - to be fair, these people should have been given some prep time to help formulate their answers to such deep questions. Lastly, he uses editing to make sure only the most ignorant and fringe individuals are shown while proceding to use the examples in his blanketing views of various religions. This approach is like a professional debator disguising himself as a child in a junior high debate along with making sure the questions are all ones he has had a chance to choose and study for. Maher, if you really want to understand something as what you claim to be doing, why don't you be a man and ask questions to people who have a chance to prepare themselves in the same way you did and to be a part of a non-edited dialogue? Why don't you take on people that likely have the same amount of dedication as you do to their faith such as apologists?
if bill maher approaches you asking you questions about religion, what do you honestly think his show is going to be about? his views are common knowledge, i don't see how any of those interviewed were misled, just because they gave answers that made them look dumb, doesn't make the questions unfair (although granted, in some cases of particularly dumb people, bill actively enjoyed pointing out their stupidity, it was crass and not very classy, but not dishonest)
secondly, he has thought about his questions, and his answers to those questions, as anybody who is so vociferous about their religion should have done. to say they should have time to prep for these questions is a moot point, for them to have committed so much of their lives to their religion, they should have spent years answering these questions to themselves already, otherwise it is just blind faith, which is illogical. this is the exact point maher is making. so to say they needed time to prep an answer is a joke, their inability to answer coherently simply backs up the point that questioning their religion is something they have not done, which is wrong.
religion is such an important part of the world (sadly), that everyone who embraces it should have already answered the questions maher asks. but they haven't asked them, they have simply believed what their infant minds were taught (which is natural, its actually part of natural selection that the young mind believes unquestioningly what it is taught), and never questioned it, which is the worst thing about religion.
Humans are what they are now because of the insatiable desire to find answers to whatever is happening around them. so for the scientifically not so developed humans religion was the answer, though the answer was not perfect in today's scientific era but still was an answer, so they hung on to it.
the first scientists were all called evil and against god but we have with time accepted science and more so the comfort it gave us. but now is the time logically to ask the right questions as the fundamentals of the thing called religion which made us civilized and cultured is itself going against that logic and causing the unnecessary pain as a society.
its time to think, with the capabilities of our brain that has made us the numero uno species on this planet and not wast all that our civilized societies have achieved.
biologically we are animals but the power to think and more importantly to think with logic is what makes us human beings....
Please use 'Caps' where required.
This is not a text message.. You are writing a serious opinion.. which I respect.But, you lose credibility by using our language so poorly.
Are you serious? Do you really equate use of language with capitalization or you just have nothing else to do with your time? I was going to suggest a hobby but it appears that this is it. Bless you for a fuller life!
Lol at the guy calling atheism a "religion" hahahahah. Publics education wrks fo meeeeee!
Let Me Just Say that I'm a Grown Man and Never Once Have I Understood Christianity or any other Religion Mainly Because I Have Enough Common Sense to Know How Un-Holy it is to Burn Innocent People Alive for Not Believing What You Think They Should. Til This Day I Am Criticized and Judged by My Parents For Not Wanting to Be Christian!.. Til This Day They
are Still Hypocrites For Instead of Embracing Me and Accepting Me as the Person I Am Knowing That I'm a Good Hearted Human Being Without Having the Same Faith as Them is Unacceptable to Them. Point is I Don't Believe in Religion of any Sort, I Don't Need Church to Have True Faith in Myself. I am Naturally a Drug Free Happy Hard Working Citizen that only Wants the best for My Children. That's It...Bill Maher Thank You!!.. Hopefully People of all Religions Will Wake Up and Realize God is In You So Stop Investing & Bringing Your Problems to Church Just Handle Them and let the God in You Work Through YOU!
gotta love bill maher
y is it backwards =(
science = atom bomb and M.A.D ... fact
Science is, by definition, knowledge. Yes, it has brought bombs but not M.A.D. (yet?) so there is no fact in that part of your statement. Religion, by definition, is belief in unproven ideas and has brought false hope to many (not a bad thing in some eyes) and a reason to use those bombs on people who don't agree with those unproven beliefs.
Religion = War Fact
and money and land and sex and food...
let's get rid of those as well
"Petros Petrosyan"
You have no idea what you are talking about, so please save yourself the embarrassment and shut up
lol "here I am!"
Atheism is just another religion, trying to persuade others that its right and others are wrong. Claiming that those who dont accept it are blind to the truth. Science is measurements and data, it cant bring people together or instill a system of morality or ethics. Let people believe in what they want, who are u to say religion is wrong, its never hurt you, so stop crying like little bitches. Atheists dont want to answer to anyone, dont want to hear about punishment, dont want to be held accountable for their actions, and reject authority; sounds like children to me.
You are clearly blinded by your religion. An atheist doesn't need religion to live a moral life. Morals can bring people together, more often than not religion has been the at the root of war. So your statement that religion has never done anyone any harm couldn't be further from the truth you are evidently blind to.
Atheists do answer to someone...themselves, when you live a moral life you have only yourself to answer to for your actions, and if he or she has a conscience, they can address any issues in the here and now.
Whereas the so called religious person hides behind the belief that he or she will be held accountable for their actions at a later date and just racks up the wrongs to be settled after their demise.
I understand that it's written that he without sin should cast the first stone, so put down your stones Petros. Should someone so pious be calling others 'little bitches', take a step back and look at how you have behaved and ask yourself whether your god would be pleased with you.
atheism is not a fking religion, are you fking stupid??????
Nice to see admins are still in poor control of troll rage
But, that Petros guy deserved it!
He is scary.
im glad to see that someone finally just says "i dont know." I don't know why we tend to feel like we need to know all the answers. Frankly anyone who claims to know anything for absolute certainty is lying to themselves.
definitely worth a look, it's time rational people start questioning irrational behaviors
Believing in Santa Claus or fairies or in some of the religious stories cited in this documentary may be comparable to the belief in economic growth and financial gain. Given a large slice of luck, when/if humans find themselves centuries in the future, we will be sharing EVERYTHING.
Bill Maher very funny, I found pretty interesting.
grow up, he says. Unfortunately, this won't be for centuries. Centuries, folks. There's going to be allot of hurt before there is healing. Science is the only way out. It's the only method that constantly seeks to prove itself wrong. There's no religions doing that. We're on the way. It's just going to take some time.
I love this flick I dont call myself an atheist but what the heck
Just learn astrology and everything will make sense about who we are... from star dust to star dust.
Don't forget anal fluff.
The worst part about these comments, is that people post here and think that is enough. Stop posting on a comment board, and do something about it.
My problem with religion is most of them (the religious people), only abide by the laws or rules they want too. Sex out of wedlock, fine. Abortion, no. Steal from a individual, wrong. Steal from the government, fine. Its all optional to suit their selfish desires.
Jesus of the amusement park was pretty good!
Our Philosophy teacher gave this to as our midterm assignment to write a four page paper about! I absolutely loved this documentation and will most likely buy it on DVD (if available). Many of you guys made more good points on religion. The power behind religion is scary and if it really ever comes to the end of our time on earth, it might even be because of it.
Bill is right in so many ways, almost everyone in religion doesn't even completely understand what they believe in. All they know is what has been told to them, they don't think for themselves or ask the big questions as I have searched for answers for years in many churches. The best answers I've ever gotten were either insanely complex and often contradicted other answers that they have given me, or they give an answer that basically sums up to, "I have no clue." For as much hate as Bill gets, you can't deny that he is right about so much at the very least surrounding the culture of religion, although I myself have come to the belief that our founding fathers have in that religion is a plague that would best be purged.
well, doubt is humble then...
From the review listed above: "These for the most part are sane, rational intelligent people who believe something that Maher thinks is insane."
NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These people interviewed in the movie are reality deniers.
When I was in high school I learned that the virgin mother was a wrong translation, it actually meant the one without sin ... I'm not a believer and found this an amazing documentary (okay, sometimes I was shocked about the ignorance of a lot of people)
If one man has an imaginary friend you call him crazy. If? more than one person has the same imaginary friend its called religion.
Great documentary.
Great documentary. Bill Maher should do more of these.
religion is whack google this .....unified field of consciousness
Loved it! Really shows the dumb side of religion.
I get the people here who think he doesn't give religion a fair chance by interviewing normal people (although he did interview a few experts too). But at the same time, religion doesn't give any outsider a fair chance, they even claim to posses the one and only Truth!
Furthermore, these people are the normal people who make up the vast majority of religious movements. Asking only experts wouldn't be fair as well, because they are a minority. If you want to know what religion is about, you have to ask people on the streets.
You say this like religion has a good side :) I just love that the religious answer to anything they can not explain essentially boils down to 'its magic'. My 4 year old has more imagination and common sense then that. This would be really funny if it were not so scary what these amoral hypocrites are capable of inflicting on the world. An army of idiots is a scary proposition indeed.
Personally religion is a dangerous thing. Its in the name of god that we blow people up? What in the world? I hate people for forcing me to conform to their rules and beliefs when I have thoughts. I don't smoke, drink, do drugs, or other behavior that is unsavory. So why should I burn in hell, because I choose to live my life, when some child rapist gets into heaven just because he excepted god into his life.
@Christa Kelly,
Bad people will behave badly.
Good people will behave well.
However, it takes religion to make otherwise good people behave badly.
________________________________________________________
"Man is a Religious Animal.
"He is the only Religious Animal.
"He is the only animal that has the True Religion—several of them.
"He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t 'straight'."
~ Mark Twain
Even a dog in the presence of men long enough will learn to bend the rules with intention.
az
This is a common misconception about atheists. Many atheists, especially ones who used to be religious are now atheists precisely because they searched for answers and did research about their religion.
So How would an Atheist go about finding out about religion? Because That seems like what he is trying to do. He is searching for answers. Rather than get any he is shown the door. Besides he wasn't always atheist, he was raised in the Church. Jewish dad, Catholic mom. I think he had some experience with religion. And third, who the hell needs to be given authority to speak their mind on something? And just who do you suggest he go to to get this Bullshit authority?
This was a reply to prestodo. Somehow it didn't work.
Maybe we all are god, if we choose.
No may be here. You are the only GOD you can count in. Once we all get that, then all the other GODs will be realized to be what they are, just inspiration.
az
Religion and Science use different methods, but they have the same origin: our desire to make sense of it all. For example, the precursors of modern religions explained the movements of the stars in terms of movements of gods -- a metaphorical explanation and how much easier is it for us to understand Zeus throwing arrows of lightning instead of electrical discharges, or Apollo/Helios pulling the sun across the firmament than the nature of planet orbits and their roations in a vast nothingness.
However, Physics and Astronomy provide for a more accurate description and turn out to be vital if you let's say want to put a satellite into orbit or predict an eclipse and other notable events in the heavens (which has been regarded the seat of gods until recently, when upon mankind venturing into space churches were forced to admit the sky is actually made up of cold air and change the dogma to 'God is everywhere' ). That's why all religions have used the science of their time as a basis for their calendars and usually held scholars in high regard, sometimes even declaring them saints!
In other words, there is an evolution of religions, just as there is of everything else... Unlike Science, Religion often allows for an easily accessible way of understanding things like social interactions. In my opinion the two complement and to do without either one would be a loss for mankind -- If only Religions wouldn't attract those fanatics and be able to co-exist more peacefully.
I agree in that God being of superior intellect would not cause persons to act so irrationally. I was watching the view and watched Sherri speaking in tongues which was just babbling. In the scriptures speaking in tongues was not unintelligent speech but gave persons the ability to speak in foreign languages about Christ and his kingdom. It was extremely embarrassing to watch and made me ashamed for people to think Christians act this way.
Just because he interviews normal people, it doesn't mean those normal people are prepared to answer difficult questions about their faith on a dime. That`s why in the justice system we have lawyers: experts in legal questions prepared to defend the sincerely held and reasonable beliefs of people who are not trained to defend them. If Maher is really interested in giving us an honest documentary, he should interview a few experts.
he did
If you devote your entire life to a belief system, you should be able to answer any question about it. Also, experts were interviewed.
Your right they should be able to. I would say that the senator that he interviews is probably a Christian because it is good for his career and not because he has ever REALLY thought about god. Those of us who think about God tend to come up with too many paradoxes that no longer let us be lost in faith. Personally I'm a bit jealous of people who are. If only I could dumb myself down that much.
lol That was more than half the documentary. Did you even watch it?
"thanks for being Christ-like, and not just christians", that's a fair observation.
Here is a thought......In the beginning....when ever that was.... whether you believe in God or the Evolution, something must have always existed, some kind of Matter or Energy or God. If not, that means that out of absolute nothing, appeared something. This is like saying abara ka dabra and poof a teddybear appears on your bed out of thin air... impossible! This is like saying that a man lived in the belly of a fish for three days... impossible! So what we are left with is that something has always always always been, throughout the eons of time for ever and ever without origin. That is impossible! The very fact that you are here reading these words is impossible, yet you are. Maybe we should be trying to debunk the belief that we are alive, for there is no scientifically sound explanation for the origination of our very existence!
I submit another thought. That our minds are finite, That our five senses do not sense all that is. Maybe we should take a deeper look at the Greatest Love Story to ever unfold, the story of Yeshua (Jesus)!
Like that post Tyler! God is the Greatest Force in the Universe. He has not beginning or end.
yeah because he is part of your imagination... he'll die the same day you will
What I like about religious people even though they may be a bit over the top, they don't need a scientist to find something through a microscope or telescope, or formulate a theory or equation to realize we mere mortals are not the only life that exists in this vast universe.
right. why find out things for yourself, mess around with instruments & investigations, when you can just go to your priest/preacher/rabbi/imam/shaman/witch-doctor and the old book(s) for all the old answers.
its way easier and, apparently, satisfying - for some.
Why is that a good thing? Doctors would usually prescribe that as a mental health issue to constantly be claiming something with no proof of existence exists
So what you're saying is: Somewhere in the New Testament, there should be a mention of how everything we know came to exist... But nobody ever noticed it, so we must look again, and look really good this time? Come on, that's like saying abara ka dabra and a new undiscovered Gospel appears in the Bible... Impossible!
And that thought that our minds are finite isn't really original is it? And of course our five senses do not sense all that is! That has been scientificaly proven for ages! And since when is the New Testament a love story? Are you high?
Religion is just lying to yourself and it only creates paradoxes and disagreements where there shouldn't have to be any.
So, Tyler, first you said that something (e.g., a god) must have always existed. Then you said that it's impossible that something (e.g., a god) has always always existed. So you believe God has always existed, but you also believe your own belief is incorrect. I don't see why a personal concern over your own intelligence and/or faith means we should take a deeper look at the story of the carpenter, Jesus, who claimed to be the son of a god. Please explain?
Why are some so consistent in typing long comments? I always like reading comments before I watch, but some of these people are just insanely annoying.
Some people like to read long, thoughtful comments. I do. Also i was surprised of the -- opposed to Youtube -- quality of the discussion here! Other people have shorter attention spans .. if u ask me, it's got to do with being intro- or extroverted.
Back on topic, however, ... actually i'll open a new comment for this.
i tink dath evry rlligeon is goood but as people ve juse it for aurs sellfish coses
I like the film a lot however, why did Bill not expose Judaism in the same light?? He only address Christianity and Islam but does not dare critique Judaism? This shows me he is not fair and balance in his critique of religion.
Did you miss the entire part where Jews show the machines they invented so they don't have to "work" on the Sabbath?
He talks to the anti-zionist rabbi
Obsly hes pro Israel
He also goes to the place where they invent electronics that can be used on the sabbath
they all stem from the same religion anyway .... can anyone tell me how the King James version of the bible was created?
Why are so many stories of ancient lore so familiar? Because their roots are the same. Men using fear to control weak minded men. As our minds get stronger, the stories must change and adapt as men do. Miss-placed faith .... when will we learn.
This was awesome! I think this was a very interesting documentary about religion and it's consequences. I love that he talked about the fact that crazy "Christians" keep saying that God hates "fags" when in the bible it says that he loves everyone. So basically they're just spreading hate across the world while slapping God's name on it. Just one of the reasons that I refuse any kind of religion.
Hi Jessica
In my opinion, to accept or reject something, it should be for the right reasons.
Either accept or reject religion but because of religion itself, not the idiots doing it wrong.
This film could have been briliant had it been tastefully done, but Bill Maher ruined it. He is rude, offensive for no reason, and very hard to watch. The premise of having a discussion on religion was great, but this host just went out of his way to be dogmatic. It was a waste of my time.
I thought he was very fair. just because he was firm in his conviction does not mean that he is rude. The religious people are, in general, some of the most close minded and dogmatic bigots on the planet. Atheists need to adopt the same aggressive stance as the religious do so that our freedom of belief is not infringed upon by your fairy tales. Religion is like a cancer - and should be treated as such.
Then you must enjoy wasting your time. Why even bother comment about a movie you thought was a waste? Aren't you just wasting more time? ... and BTW. Have you considered that he was just giving what he was getting? The prude way religious people stand on a pedastle and tell us how to live..... that's.... disrespectful in my book. Then when you ask them why its Fire and Brimstone for you...literally ... they burned people at the stake. control through fear.
lol i love the part when you see the politician say "you dont have to take an IQ test to be a senator" and realize he screwed up
that was pretty much the funniest part, maybe that's why sarah palin is in politics
that made me lol
Some criticisms... not enough focus on Jews or Muslims..
also, his portrayal of gay people was pretty homophobic... very few act that way...
my man and I don't act like those people and don't associate with gays that act that way...
I can't understand how anyone can believe the BS that religion preaches
I find it very interesting that a one Alex made a most intriguing comment as to the likelihood that the prophet Ezekiel would correctly predict the precise destruction and decay of the city Tyre, concluding that it was indeed a fantastic number, and yet no one seems to have commented on it. I find it difficult to believe that so many "rational" people here can find so many "reasonable" arguments against faith, yet have not responded to the notion that it is equally as absurd to suggest that one man, by his own power, would correctly predict the fall of one city down to the last detail. Yes, it seems outrageous to suggest that a virgin gave birth to a child, and that in the original earth there existed a talking snake, but does it not seem equally as absurd to suggest that against the estimated odds of 75,000,000 to 1, one lonesome man, Ezekiel, was able to predict the exact fashion in which a grand city of Tyre would fall, completely by his own power?
Perhaps I am a simpleton. Perhaps I am crazy. Perhaps I am a weak child clinging to the comfort of the familiar. But contrary to Bill Maher, the odds are, in fact, in my favor.
If anyone is interested in the faithful's point of view, I highly suggest Lee Strobel's documentaries, "The Case for Christ" and "The Case for Faith".
The prediction Ezekiel allegedly made is only referenced in the bible and was transcribed after the fact. This is hearsay. Without any external verification of Ezekiel actually having made that claim it holds no weight. Atheists are not addressing it because its not even worth the expenditure of effort I just put into destroying it. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - in this case, and almost every single case when the bible is involved, there is no evidence to be had. Hearsay and plagiarism is the best the bible gets.
Many of the comments here are a testament to the power of the need to believe. It's innate in the human which is why 'spiritual' ideas are so entrenched but it doesn't make them true. Similarly the capitalist system works because it appeals to something innate in the human and that's not proving to be a great success either!
Our consciousness and thought processes are an amazing accident of nature; an idea far more amazing and beautiful than believing that we were created by a god. I suspect that the human willingness to suspend belief has had its uses in helping us to survive thus far but in the modern world it is dangerously unhelpful at best.
Any believer reading this needs to ask why and how they come to believe; upbringing, bad times brought good by other believers. Be honest with yourself. Often it's the threat of social rejection that prevents people from even asking the question. You owe it to your children and the world to ask the question and release yourself from this tyranny. Why? because politics uses religion. You may not really believe but every person that sits in that church, mosque or other place of worship is numbered and gives political legitimacy to others who use it for their own ends.
And if you are fortunate to have the freedom of mind to see religion for what it is then have the courage to stand up and be counted.
One last thought... Religion has largely hijacked morality and as a result society often looks religion for moral guidance. Indeed I've often been asked from where I, as a non believer, get my morality! We need to establish the point that morality belongs to mankind and not religion. All the time the world delegates moral guidance to men that base their beliefs on myth we are all in serious danger.
@NIck
He sure does ask legitimate questions. But he asks his old cynical brainwashed mother, truckers, silly hypocritical fundamentalists, and priests who are rather ignorant of the very subject they preach.
Thats why he doesnt get legitimate answers, hes asking the wrong people. Its like asking what role sports play in society both psychologically and economically....by asking fantasy football players and guys who have every EA NBA game ever made.
Hes not trying to find real answers....he making a funny documentary by using dumb people to interview.
And I am not sure if hes trying to come off as "smarter" by picking on dumb people...if his ego is letting him do that, then hes just an insecure bully. He has the clout to get real theologans and scholars....he chose not to, hopefully hes self aware enough thats its just entertainment and hes not actually making any real point that holds much ground beyond poking fun of the silly side of faith.
If people are going to devote their entire life to a belief system they should be able to answer questions about it. That's one of the points of this documentary.... to show how silly blind faith is, and to show how many are willing to follow a religion blindly without knowing how to answer the hard questions. A person who is hired by a church as a pastor should be able to answer these questions. The fact that there are "dumb pastors" out there proves his point.
Actually, Oliarguello he is asking exactly the right people...because these people represent the vast majority of believers and they are the ones that can end up doing crazy things in the name of religion, not theologists or intelectuals.
Great documentary! Bill does a nice job simply asking logical questions and looks for logical answers, but doesn't get any.
Bill Maher is an Atheist. So, what gives him authority to speak on any religion? Absolutely nothing. This man has no authority. He is a windbag and a waste of life and talent.
If you were trying to find out about a religion from an atheist, you may as well try to learn cooking from a plumber, or go to law school to earn your science degree. The two things are as different as night is from day. Bill Maher exercises priestcraft over his audiences in the same way that he accuses religious professors of the same. How ironic.
Bill was just asking question from the folks claiming to be religious. He let them try and enlighten the viewer. Its shows just how absurd religion actually is. Those folks are the mainstream - which is even scarier. Atheists tend to be very well versed in religion though since many of us were religious at one point in time. I grew up christian, went to a christian school, went to church 3 times week, summer caps, and a christian college. Once I got to graduate school I began asking questions - and the answers led me to atheism. I did my undergraduate work in divinity studies at north central and my graduate in philosophy from northwestern. Aside from the major logical fallacy's your using to construct your arguments - you would appear to be of minimal intellect at best. You missed the point of the movie totally. Go back to your sad little existence you child.
And who are you, prestodo? I guess that means we should kick all the theists out of labs and research spaces. How dare a religious person think he has the authority to meddle with science?!!?! If you were trying to find out science from a theist, you might as well learn how to treat women from the bible, or get your sex advice from your church leader. Rationality and religion are as different as night and day. Bill Maher at least has public recognition and the ability to back up his claims with evidence. You just leave here with irrational anger and faith.
Enjoyed it alot!
fantastic!! made me laugh a lot. Takes the s@#$ out of the most f@#$%^ up religions of 21th century..he forgot to add Hindus though.
Jay is a Butthurt Christian
What an ace film.
The best doc I've watched on this site yet.
Brilliant.
Great film. It made me laugh and it made me think. I was impressed by how intelligent and logical the Catholic priests were. They clearly understood that the bible is not literal, and that science cannot be denied. It is sad though, the utter stupidity of so many people right here in America.
@Damon
I know what you mean bro. I'm currently living in Utah as well. Though, I live in downtown Salt Lake City. So i don't encounter as many mormons (or morons) here as you would in other cities that i don't care to name. Thank Joseph Smith that my ass is moving back home to Venice, CA next month!! I have had enough of Utah and its crazy religious laws. The only state with one of the most blatant violations of Separation of Church and State i have ever seen!
What a great and accurate film. I live in that "country" called UTAH and the Mormons minds are so polluted with lies and deceit here, hell that's what their TRUE history is all about! I know, i grew up a brainwashed devout Mormon, yes i was even one of those poor innocent young brainwashed missionaries going door to door trying to bring in more money to the "company". Now that i'm on the outside looking in, WOW it's crazy and messed up. And i still have high morals and standards! Wow imagine that! You don't have to be religious to have standards. Mormons think they're the only few with the highest standards and think if you leave the "cult" because you realize it's a fraud you're evil and a "sinner" oh and they are always told by their leaders that if somebody leaves the "cult", then they were offended somehow or read "anti" reading material on the cult...which is a total lie. I wasn't offended and i actually read LDS published books put out by the cult which opened my mind to it being a pure fraud. They don't ever say "Some people realized we are a fraud and don't want to be a part of something like that, so they leave." No, they just do what's best for the company. "Keep giving us your 10% every month or you can't go to the temple, and if you can't go to the temple, you can't go to a place called the "Celestial KIngdom" a.k.a. Heaven where this man named God lives on the planet Kolob. So pretty much, we need your 10% every month."
All organized religion is ridiculous! Today's religions will be tomorrows myths. That's how it's always been and will continue to be.
Bill Maher speaks the truth.
an amazing movie. cant stop watching
There is going to be a Nuclear Attack on NEW YORK! There is going to be a NUCLEAR WAR ON THE UNITED STATES! World War 3! Certain Mountain areas will be safest.
@xock
I think you are missing the point actually.
Maher is using the straw-man fallacy in this documentary mostly for entertainment purposes.
The people he chooses to interview are hardly scholarly representatives of theology who know the ins and out of the doctrines that they subscribe to.
Its equivalent of me asking high school drop outs about college level calculus or chemistry. They might know it involves numbers, graphs, and some chemicals, but that's about all the superficial knowledge they will be able to spew out.
Maher doesn't expose "the absurdity or religion". He just exposes that there are some absurd ignorant people in religion....jsut like anywhere other group setting, there are relative ignorant i@#$%& (work, gym, hobby clubs, etc.)
Maeher doesn't need a plotline to follow cause that isn't the point of this documentary. The point is to show how ridiculous religion is and he proves this by simply talking to religious followers who can't even answer basic questions about their religion, thereby revealing the absurdness of it.
Exactly.
Didn't like he interrupted the Rabi all the time and he has a strong bias against Muslims. Muslim are nuts but so are Christians and Jews. 991 was a inside job and the London subway bombings of 7/7 2005 too. 98% of all terrorism is state sponsored terrorism of which to 80% the US are responsible. Nor does Iran want to genocide the Jews but destroy the state of Israel. Palestinians and Jews should live in one state together called Palestine according to the president of Iran.
1,4 million Iraqis are dead since invasion and half million Iraqis flee their country every year. So who are here the bigger terrorists?
ok the word mentally challenged might now get bleeped so thats what the censored words were in my comment
The word ret@rded means to be held back, not fully matured or grown compared to universal standards, etc, and can be applied to physical or mental issues. anyone who is religious is, literally, mentally ret@rded.
If you have to ret@rd your thoughts to believe something it isn't true and can never be no matter how perfectly you convince or trick yourself. for any of the interviewees to not have the same answer to the same question asked by bill means their opinions differ, yet every one of them says they know exactly what will happen in certain events, example death or the end of the world.
If religion were true it would be something that you didn't have to dumb yourself down to believe. it is a business, money is made, that is how it is.
I saw this one twice now so I thought I'd come back and make a comment. He did pick goofs to interview but I think he did it for a reason. These people are the ones that are pulling in the followers so their explanations of their doctrine should be listened to since they make those suggestions to their followers. It's not the deep thinkers stuck in study that are ruling christians in the individual churches - it's the bible thumper, well, around here. Goodness knows that christians don't open the bible to read it, that would be heresy to question your preacher when he has done all that work for you and has an ear to your god's thoughts. No sir, it's better to let him pick and choose what you should be told this week in out of context snippets. He can then mold his surmon around them even using the english language as support for syntax when they weren't writted in english but translated.
I do like how he targets the more opportunistic people of the faith like that guy who was selling DVDs, I can relate to how that is hypocritical of the faith and I don't like that one bit either. That being said, I don't think he does give religion much of a fair chance, and to tell you the truth, the people he interviewed didn't have the greatest answers, he should have interviewed some much more qualified priests and pastors about the deeper issues.
Brilliant!
I love the comments here about "rational christians and muslims", as if there are any! Bill this is a masterpiece, it deserves an Academy Award, Palm d'Or, etc
After he met with Christopher Hitchens mister Maher decided to make this movie. I think he inspired him to do this. For any eloquent, educated argmuments or debates on this subject google Hitchens, he's brilliant. Still quite a positive step from Maher in taking the this theme out to the people and exposing the idiocy of it all.
More please :-)
The only thing Bill Mahr seems to succeed at here is finding and interviewing every theocratic i@#$% out there. I already know there's a s@#$load of nut jobs out there, maybe even more than non-nut jobs, but to make a more convincing argument I feel that he should have interviewed some more rational and intelligent Christians. I dunno....
I plainly did not like this documentary. not that I am defending the representives of the religions in the movie, but the guy obviously has almost no religious study background( he says moses came up with circumcision) and does not allow the people to argue. Its funny but obviously not academic. Someone else should take up the subject and delve into it deeper. Its not sufficient. Its like borat.
Come on! believe in me! I'm your Jesus and I will bring you to your $alvation, if you don't believe that I'm the real Jesus than God will smite you ;)
Funny movie but not so instructive as I was expecting it to be, but it's funny to see how insecurities play a big role in society and how even religious figures couldn't answer some questions(correcting of words with the same meaning=don't know what to say and try to stupidly outsmart the other guy).
Wow. As someone who was never raised with any religious affiliation (im serious, no god, no church, nothing. first time i heard about it was in 3rd grade when a kid asked me if i celebrate hanukah or christmas), i always wondered why my friends were so faithful to something that seemed like a story? I thought the film gave a good view of extreme cases, and how it has the potential to be dangerous, depending on the sort of mind it corrupts. I do think there are plenty of people that don't believe in the bible but just need something to tell them how to do good. They fill in the missing pieces in order to relate, it doesn't have to make sense, its just got to "feel" right for the individual. I say its fine by me as long as you leave those of us who think something else, alone.
i think a great movie would depict a world with tolerance to all religions. Keep your beliefs to yourself, and work to keep the government separate from religious beliefs in order to protect individual freedoms. that way we all win. butttt lets face it, too many crazys in the world... it's exhausting to think about.
To all the people who are accusing Bill of being biased towards certain faiths (in a fashion positive, or negative):
You clearly did not watch the whole film... He is an agnostic, this film is about the stupidity of religions of ALL kinds... Even the Jewish. That is: blindly believing.
If your damning this film for others reasons than that your a religious type, then your just an argumentative fool.
Those who argue with people they basically agree with on trivial subjects are more annoying than the i@#$%& that believe the world is 6,000-12,000 years old.
Religion. the greatest hoax ever perpetuated on mankind. Wake up people.
i guess it's because i'm atheist that i found religulous funny. true, he wasn't debating with religious scholars but i think his choices were appropriate. deluded and sanctemonious men and women, religous and secular who hide their ignorance with forced laughs and red herrings.
was he harsher with some of his interviewees than others? he was. did he mock and bully them? he did. his agenda was not to make friends but to ask direct but thoughtful questions about the absurdity of religion. it was clear that many of those he spoke to didn't have a clue, never mind answers to defend their flawed thinking.
peace
"disrepectful". A funny term. It implies that whatever is disrespected is deserving of some level of respect in the first place.
"Hey you over there! You are not showing proper respect to my BAMs! (Braonze Age Myths) You unmitigated religiophobe / bigot / racist / whatever other nasty thing can be said!"
at 39.00 minutes did that guy cut his thumb off in the saw blade. u can even see red on the saw blades shield.
This is a great video, I agree with a lot of what's said and have always been a frightened atheist but I think if people can find faith, some sort of comfort, in something then good luck to them..as long as it doesn't start another war.
My view: in life there is only 2 things you have to worry about: If your sick or if your healthy. if your healthy you have nothing to worry about, if your sick you only have two things to worry about: If your gunna live or your gunna die. If your gunna live you have nothing to worry about if your gunna die you have two things to worry about: if your goin to heaven or hell. If your going to heaven you got nothin to worry about, if your going to hell..... well youll be to busy catching up with old friends to worry.
@SimonTheSorcerer If only I was as funny as you.
@kyle couldn't agree more -irony-irony-irony
Hope you recieved my facebook greeting baby!
It was an okay film, I myself am religious, and it made me think a bit. I didn't like how disrespectful he was, but some parts made me laugh like the scarface clips=p
I didn't like Maher so much in this film. His constant mocking tone was very harsh and disrespectul. I understand he was trying to be funny, but he seemed insulting in my point view. I am a militant atheist, and while I agree to most things he says and I did laugh here and there... I prefer watching some in depth video with Sam Harris, Hitchens or Dawkins.
The statics that are given in this movie is never given any kind of source, he can make any static and say where ever he wants about it. An example he said 16% percent dont believe any thing but where is the source. Also he asked people who would not know all the answers to his questions, why does you not ask a catholic bishop or a theologian.
I believe that anyone who posts anything on this documentary is not 100% confident, and sure of their beliefs of what is to come after they die, including myself. I read a lot of conviction; both sides. There are other religions besides Christianity... even thousands. Christianity is most popular. Listen to Alan Watts, a religious comparitor... coined for bringing eastern religion to the western world. He died in 1973. His lectures seep out his less than favorable view of Christianity, but he is fair. There are spectrum in all things, including practicing organized religion. My impression of this film, is the emphasis on the extreme areas of the spectrum.
This is not a joke, Religion is a serious problem.
That was such a funny movie. For all of those that are bashing the movie and saying you have evidence of a "god" I laugh at you, why watch a movie if you know it's going to piss you off? lol
I love his way of just asking the questions and basically just stating the obvious!
Though i will not agree with the person who wrote the intro for the film above the screen. I think Bill Maher did choose the ones he interviewed by their funny and a bit "crazy" characters, but i don't think it's a bad thing, because non of them is made up, and sometimes you just have to talk in extremes to emphasize your point.
Great idea - this movie!
amazing!!!
Religion is various theological/philosophical constructs that can result in positive or negative effects based on the spirit in which text is understood. Human beings will always be subject to turning against "the other," due to many factors such as race, nationality, culture, habits, or any other factors that are entirely independent of religion. What Mr. Maher is observing as a compartmentalized problem in religion is actually a pre-historic tendency imbued upon the genetic memory of humanity. Many philosophies about the world all lead to the same violence and death when mankind views the world as totally seperate from self. Love thyself and everyone else by simply knowing thyself. Without knowledge of one's true nature, love for anyone or anything becomes just more absurdity upon the massive mountain of absurdity that is this eternally void cosmos. Believing in consciousness as something real through eternal union with base natures of reality is important for the development of civilization.
Bill Maher is a self hating Jew that was raised Catholic. While he slanders all monotheistic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam); I do agree he didnt really attack Judaism (so at least he stayed somewhat ok on this side). His rational and upbringing from child explain alot of his thought process. What is disturbing is that he feels he can apply his own childhood based confusion and apply it to the world.
does someone know if there is some spanish-subtitled version swimming on internet??
Why didn't Maher expose Judaism? Good question. The two segments about orthodox Judaism were quite inconsequential. Given the subject of his film, he could have had a field day with the Orthodox/Hasidism faction of Judaism. He is half-Jewish(raised Catholic) but I doubt that had anything to do with it. More likely he was wary of the predictably strong backlash by certain Jewish groups and even charges of anti-emitism despite his background. Also, he works in an industry with a large Jewish influence. Simply put, he and Larry Charles might have been playing it safe. But to be fair there is a line in the film where he says Orthodox Jews are as crazy as any other religous group. But, ultimately I also think he went a little easy on them.
This is the opposite of an awful film. The only way one would think this is awful is if they disagreed with what Maher is proposing, that there is no invisible man living in the sky. GEE, I wonder if Jay believes in this hokey bible stuff... I WONDER. Anyway, a great film, funny, informative, maybe a little biased, but he's not trying to hide that fact, and above all, entertaining.
"I do not think I ever laughed so much at such a serious matter."
lol I wouldn't call religion a serious matter
Bill Maher is my god now.
Forgive them Bill, for they know not what they do.
I do not think I ever laughed so much at such a serious matter.
This man is a genius of comedy and charisma. Way to go! I wish more people with social status like his own wake up the world before we see nuclear mushrooms in our backyards
Laughing at the idiocy of religion, always worth a laugh.
The jews are the ones who are limited to praying only at the wailing wall because the muslims wont let them into the temple...IN ISRAEL...if you ask me that is tolerance.
battles over resources are at least battles over real tangible things. dying because i dont believe the same ancient myth as someone else kind of pisses me off.
I think people dont like Hate_machines approach it may be too crass and rude, but I would tend to agree with him. when you start talking and using words that dont apply you end up sounding like Deepak Chopra.
@Epicurus
I think you hit the nail on the head when describing the "documentary".
***This doc was more entertaining than educational, but its like when people were giving Jon Stewart s*** for some of his content…you have to realize, Maher is a comedian first. this movie was mostly made for atheists and Maher fans who just want to have a good time and laugh at the loonies.***
Very very true.
@Hate Machine
**ahh exactly what “power” was gained by the Israeli military seizure of the wailing wall. There are thousands of examples of violence over nothing more then ideology.***
I think The Israelis got all the fertile land, tourist attractions, and the power to call the shots of what is allowed on holy lands "You are a Palestinian? oh you can pray here ...but not over there, there ,there and DEFINITELY not over there...You are Israeli? Pray Wherever and whenever you want) and barbed wire the Palestinians to undersireable areas/camps.
As for war in general..sure there are thousands of examples of violence for ideology, but that is not limited to theology. There jsut as many battles, outside of theology, such battles over resources, civil rights, eugenics/genocide, economic and trade disagreements, conquests, etc.
***So we agree that religion is a reason people do terrible things***
I think you know what he meant there ;) People are not bound to violence becasue of a religion.That people have the choice to do evil and can search for justification around them ( religious in the name of GOD, scientists in the name of progress, the dog told me to do it for the sake of humanity...see the sociopath trend here using deflection?).
@Epicurus
***could you show me where Hate_Machine told you to stop looking and that he has theanswers and they are just normal? could you please quote him on how you got the impression tha allowed you type out this paragraph.***
I believe Jack Green got that impression when he was describing the interactions of particles and their mathematical mechanisms in a poetic sense and Hate_Machine simply replied with "Bafoon" and "If you are going to make up a religion please refrain from using words that are popular in modern science." I agree with Jack Green that its this limited point of view that refrains from progress. Like he said....lets see just how far this rabbit hole goes instead off clinging to the branches you see on the walls of said rabbit hole.
@jack Green.
I was only refereeing to "Isnt that what Jesus did": in terms of using one's own wisdom even in the face of adversary to question the status quo. I think we agree that to seek the truth one msut need to update/refine the ideas of truth in theology, especially since the ancient understanding of how the universe worked was limited to symbols and metaphors.
If you take the reciprocal of that idea, imagine trying to describe something as complex and unique as the internet to an ancient man. The internet is real and far beyond their comprehension even at the most basic level. You would HAVE to use symbols and metaphors that they can understand. Now imagine if people remained with those ancient beliefs of what the internet is. A computer scientist in 1940 would call it all fairytale mumbo jumbo. He would say " Sure computers can theoretically "talk to each other" but people talking to each other on computers is nonesense, computer talk to each other in binary, and not by some magical cable connecting them and invisible remote data mass storage units that people can send pictures of themselves and talk to each other with words. LOL Computers speak to each other in BINARY how do these "internetees" not get that?. NONSESNE I tell you. You have to physically have a computer hole punch a card that you have to physically feed to another computer to "communicate" in BINARY. Not english, not japanese, not spanish, not avi videos, not jpeg pcitures...BINARY!!!
@Jack Green, well hello there. noticed a few things you were saying were completely shrouded in emotion and no logic, thought i would help. you said:
Fitting name. You’re clearly no scientist, but a pessimist. You have a worrying lack of fascination for the universe.
a scientist can be a pessimist. and there is nothing lacking in Hate_machines interest or understanding of the universe. actually what he posted couldnt possibly have given you that impression. If someone doesnt see the universe as a mystical magical place like you that doesnt make them less fascinated, it makes them more logical.
"Isn’t it most spectacular that the math dictates that if you throw a bunch of particles together under certain conditions, life will eventually appear?
You never once wondered where the math actually comes from? You never once wondered what triggered the universe into becoming this physical soup of plasma?"
isnt it most spectacular that when you put liquid water in very cold envirnoments that it turns into a slippery cold solid called ice?!? holy order batman...holy lack of entropy batman!! i wonder where the math came from....oh it came from this thing...well where did that thing come from...if your logic dictates all things need to be set up or made by some intelligent force where would this force come from? or are we just completely guessing about the existence and nature of this "force". and how do we get out of the ad infinitum prblem you have gotten us into? i know physicists will say energy is eternal and can neither be created nor destroyed thus not needing a creator and only needing to follow the rules of physics. (remember if physics needed an intelligent force to put it together, this thing that put it together would also need something outside of it creating it, unless you just want to decide to stop wherever you want....)
you said;
"You believe the universe is just there? Ever noticed that religious people say: God is just there? You won no battle. You stopped your mind from wondering and now you still believe in miracles. I don’t. I think the only logical understanding of the universe is to follow the turtles (the math) all the way down. I know I’ll die without finding it, just like everyone else. However, I can’t help being more fascinated every time we dig down deeper. So I’m not satisfied with the conjecture that it’s just there and we need to stop worrying about it. We need to dig."
could you show me where Hate_Machine told you to stop looking and that he has theanswers and they are just normal? could you please quote him on how you got the impression tha allowed you type out this paragraph.
when you understand how a rainbow is formed do you find it more amazing and awe inspiring or less? what makes you think that Hate_Machines view of the universe is less "wonderful" than yours?? I think the person who will admit when they dont know rather than make up magical explanations using words and languages they dont fully comprehend is the more logical mature person here. I have an amazing wonder for the universe but i dont believe for a second there is some intelligent plan in all of this.
I personally like your posts (anyone who uses Muhammad Ali in an example is a friend of mine), and yes of course Hate_machine is harsh and not here to be civil or make friends. but i think you are giving religion a free pass. religion has most certainly been the cause/excuse/tool for may many wars and atrocities. we can show how there is political influences but if you ask the people carrying it out...its for their god. we must not ignore the atrocities of religion just because we are taught to respect it blindly.
This doc was more entertaining than educational, but its like when people were giving jon stewart shit for some of his content...you have to realize, Maher is a comedian first. this movie was mostly made for atheists and Maher fans who just want to have a good time and laugh at the loonies.
So funny, but trute. Bill is not takingte view with arguments ofscietific nature, bu sows the social cnscequensces of not even qestioning one's belives. I tink it is much about the madness of quick solutions for difficult problems. Philosophy can make us more happyeven if no solutions given i an instant, or sciens evn if we can always expect to find new theory that might dimiss the oldone. But believin jut beause it feels better is dangerou when masses are invlved. One individual doesn't mean any treath but crowds can distroy.
@JAck
Exactly! I believe there is an accord between the divine/theology and science and a lot of the times theology and science are talking about the same thing but use different terms. Although science has a bit better footing in being able to explain things better, if for any reason is that science lends itself to refining ideas to get a better understanding. I think theology would have a better understanding of things if it allowed itself to refining and updating the ideas. Afterall isn't that what Jesus did, and if you understand his message, what he wants us to do?
I adhere to the Dualist Pantheism. Its sort of like in the science of the mind/brain relationship. When you talk about the brain you use terms from neuroscience, when you talk about the mind you use terms from psychology. Bu when when speak of cognitive science you have to use both sets of terms to talk about the relationship/duality between brain and mind.
If you talk about theology without logic or science you allow for so much incomplete knowledge, confusion, or outdated analogies ...which anyone outside of that field would call fairytales and nonsense. If you strictly see the world as science at work, then the world is jsut a cascade of processes with chemicals reacting to stimuli since the big bang.
Liek I said before. Since I know for a fact there are two truths ( I am not saying the divine is true based on faith...i have first hand experiences), they can not contradict each other. Instead there is that accord between the two I mentioned earlier. And the mechanisms that give way to that harmony between the two is were the truth is.
@Jack Green - Wars are fought over power.
ahh exactly what "power" was gained by the Israeli military seizure of the wailing wall. There are thousands of examples of violence over nothing more then ideology.
" People can be made to terrible things with or without religion. "
So we agree that religion is a reason people do terrible things.
"You should be debunking authority."
Exactly how do you debunk a power or right delegated or given; or authorization. I dont think you even understand the meaning of the word.
"Ask Michael Moore for help."
If i need to know how to get millions of people to pay to watch a video and then do nothing to help the cause i shameless invoked in the video, i will ask Michael Moore. As for an authority on modern society i would rather ask someone that isnt know for misquoting, misrepresenting and flat out lie to make a buck.
"If you claim that the universe/god is a magical and mysterious thing with all the atoms dancing around, mathematical order arising everywhere, creating beauty and complexity…. That’s the exact same thing the most sworn atheists believe."
You are a fool.
"atheists do not tend to believe in the limitation of the human mind"
You are a buffoon.
"All you really need to do is prove that infinite chaos can arise from nothing. Then somewhere in the chaos will be the structure that is our universe/god, which appears to us as this beautiful soup of seemingly unexplainable energy, force, space and time."
Obviously you have no concept of space, physics, the word infinite, the word chaos... but you were able to combine them in a way that also showed that your belief system is not based in science but in some weird magic universe you you just happen to use the same words that are used in science.
If you are going to make up a religion please refrain from using words that are popular in modern science.
Stick to things like rapture, scripture, gospel. People might confuse you with someone that is involved in science or academia.
Here let me help
All you really need to do is prove that the gospel can arise from nothing. Then somewhere in the rapture will be the structure that is our soul, which appears to us as this beautiful soup of seemingly unexplainable holy spirit.
There you go.
@ Bill Maher
Wars are not fought over religion. Wars are fought over power. People can be made to terrible things with or without religion. It seems like you're focusing on the wrong thing. You should be debunking authority. Ask Michael Moore for help.
Also, that Horus/Mithra/Krishna/Christ relationship rubbish from Zeitgeist needs to be thoroughly debunked. Google is littered with it by now, but it is more fabricated than the original stories.
@oliarguello
I think you're using the word God for what others tend to call the universe (or math). If you claim that the universe/god is a magical and mysterious thing with all the atoms dancing around, mathematical order arising everywhere, creating beauty and complexity.... That's the exact same thing the most sworn atheists believe. We just oppose to identify it with the ugly, mutilated, personified explanation that people call "God". Even if that's a more socially acceptable word. Well, in some social circuits anyway (not mine).
One slight difference may be that atheists do not tend to believe in the limitation of the human mind. It's a foolish belief, but slightly less foolish than the opposite. Believing you cannot understand the universe/god before you even tried is like Mohammed Ali going into the ring saying he's probably going to go down in the first round.
All you really need to do is prove that infinite chaos can arise from nothing. Then somewhere in the chaos will be the structure that is our universe/god, which appears to us as this beautiful soup of seemingly unexplainable energy, force, space and time.
For the end I will quote one of the most profound men who ever lived, Socrates: "I know that I know nothing.". And in the end it all comes to that.
Anyone notice how every reference to the book Revelation was called revelationS, both in dialogue and text? WOW...haha. For an expert on Mithra, Krishna, and Horus; our ancient religions guru Maher forgot to brush up on his bible book names.
@Jan
You are correct in that changing someones point of view is incredibly difficult, and it goes both ways.
I have seen both theists and atheists to be so incredibly ignorant of the opponents source material that they take things out of context or have no clue what they are talking about. In fact the less a particular person knows about the opponents material, the more stubbornly self confident they are in ridiculing the opponents view. And when they do indulge in the opponents view, they do it with a close mind continuing to ridicule or taking the stance of " well what you mean to say is.... or what that is meant to say is...." in a manner to reinforce their own belief system.
I was raised Catholic, went through an atheist phase, read other religions, have a scientific based college education, etc. All in the search for the truth. This path, with an open mind and skeptical foundation, has lead me to witness first hand miracles, prophesies become manifest, etc so that I know there are two truths, and when two things are true they can not contradict each other, instead there is a mechanism of harmony somehwhere.
Now dont get me wrong, many things in religious texts are incorrect ( jsut looking at the history of the bible you will see its not really a complete cannon and in fact not even truly the word of GOD) but the overall message is correct. Just like any scientific theory, its open to debate and its refined in the face of new empirical evidence. I think the idea of GOD should be too. Its rather arrogant that someone thinks they fully know what something as infinite and complex as GOD is, 2000 or 4000 years ago. Just as it is, or would be, arrogant for physicists to say they know the mechanisms of the universe completely.
A truly open minded, intelligent, and educated person knows just how many questions and mysteries remain in their given field of expertise, let alone what they superficially know about other fields.
@Christine: I know about that problem. I've stumbled across it too. But trying to make people change their beliefs is futile. Not a single narrow minded person that I have debated with on the question of religion did not change their view. So what I have done is I have stopped trying to convert people to doubt and I have concentrated on my own success without finding out what people believe in. If I accidentally find out their beliefs are stupid and narrow minded I just wave my arm to that and pity the poor fool.
My T-shirt says:
"Creationists are not a fully evolved species
God is science of the mind
And is one hell of a mathematical equation! "
George Carlin said it best.. "In the BullS#$% department a businessman can not hold a candle to a clergy man" .... Bill did a wonderful JOB on this film.
Excellent documentary. I guess I'll have to try to be braver and more outspoken with my rational world view, as Mr. Maher requests, but my religious friends are all so irrational concerning their religion that it really is hard to discuss it with them. You just can't fight irrational thought with logic. Too bad, because this world needs a strong dose of rationality and scientific thinking.
I personally do not believe in any religion and I am still debating on the question of the existence of a God. So far, I am most certain that God exits but I described that God already as a force which does not care about humans or anything else. My other view is deism, a rationalistic religion founded by Voltaire which says that God is indeed the first mind and the maker of the universe who after the creation of it has no more connections to it, thus assuming to be asleep. That too is an antropocentric view but if we cut out the part of him being asleep and the part of him where he is a "he", that view could be accepted. I actually do not know what is the truth (as the great Socrates claimed: I know that I know nothing) but I am closer to the Greek philosophy than to the christian one. Greek philosophy says that heaven can be achieved on Earth and Earth alone thus making humans to be active and undertaking things and have a scientific view of man, world and cognition while christian philosophy portraits the world as an ephemeral place full of evil, sin and corporeality and the most painless way of passing through a such a world is in renunciation and asceticism. I have to admit that I am not an optimist, far from that, but I do net believe in such a tragic view of life. Otherwise I would have killed myself long ago and stop the suffering.
But I have a strong faith, a faith that I have forgotten about, and that is the faith in people. Not in the whole human race of course but the good that lives in every human, all you have to do is give that someone a chance to let it out. I speek from my own experience because the last 7 months have really been a tough time for me. And instead of a faith in the omnipotent God, faith in human beings has returned to me.
“”Why is it so hard for people to understand that all that religious bull**** is common s***? For instance, that stupid man put a glass out of the window and prayed that it rained and it did. And he calls that a miracle. What's so miraculous about that? Bill has a very good point there. It would be miraculous if it rained frogs but rain?””
Here is the thing about that. I will take Christianity to make things simple. There are things in Christianity that make sense to people and don’t need proof…such as “ Do one to others as you would have them do unto you”. But Jesus claiming he is GOD incarnate, well that’s an extravagant claim that would demand equally extravagant proof, hence the miracles he performed. But as time went on and man corrupted religion and made more extravagant claims, they demanded extravagant proof. Therefore the little fat dude who was an atheist needed a miracle and it rained ( which was obviously a coincidence), being in proximity of holy relics to be cured of something, seeing images on toast etc. Jesus made proof of his existence and claims just to show what he said is true , and he taught that spirituality comes from within and is to be perfected within, and does not need external validation from others ( in fact is counterproductive). Its better to pray in a closet by yourself with the unseen father that to make a huge spectacle of your faith for other to see( as Jesus said).
“I mean, come on. That is an every day happening. Why is it so hard for that man to accept the fact that his praying and the happening of rain at the same time is just a coincidence. Life is full of that. How can so many people be so egocentric to think that their so called God out of trillions of other cases chose to examine their? And how can so many people believe in an anthropomorphic God, I mean a human-like God?”
I agree with you here completely. People pray to an external GOD they believe is sitting in the clouds in heaven somewhere. What they fail to comprehend is GOD is everywhere , sure, but your connection to GOD is within you since GOD resides within you as well. Its akin to a cell in your body sending out signals to you that it needs some protein. The cell is part of you and you are part of the cell, there are feedback mechanisms that will get protein to the cell. But if the cell is tired of being a lung cell and wants to be a liver cell…sorry buddy I need you in the lungs. So GOD hears your prayers but sometimes the answer is NO.
“Look around you, the space is infinite. How can so many people be locked in their own small worlds? Even if there is a God, I would portrait him as a force which has no understanding for people's hopes and wishes. It is just there doing its job respecting the laws of physics and that's it.”
I partly agree here. I do believe GOD is a force…well to be specific, he is all forces along with all matter, energy, etc. . He resides in all of us and is aware of our existence and its tribulations…he specifically became incarnate through Jesus so he can first hand experience all these tribulations of man. I know other sentient beings exist throughout the Universe and I believe GOD does this for every plant that has sentient beings. As for his consciousness…….you can claim that humans are just a bag of chemicals that respond to environmental stimuli. But I don’t believe in such a Nihilist view, although we are a bag of chemicals I believe we have a will and consciousness, just like Universe is a composition of chemicals and forces with a will and consciousness different from our own.
“Why would there be loving God? Even if we agree to go with the story about the humane-concentrated God, than I would say that it is a wicked God full of wrath. Why would God, if he is so displeased with his creations, even create us? Religion stories are full of holes and common sense can not accept that.”
Its part of the process. Certain processes have to happen for people to improve themselves. Afterall what is a hero that has no challenge or fear to overcome? That is just a scarecrow with no threat of destruction and no effort in his chore. That is why the poor and meak will come first ( the last will be the first and the first will be the last) and why it is much much harder for the really rich to go to heaven. Afterall who is revered more….the poor man who loves life in spite of crisis after crisis being thrown at him….or the silver spoon trust fund 40 year old who loves life in the form of decadence but never had to deal with any problems his whole life?
But what is the point? Well since I believe GOD is all forces, matter, energy, etc….this also means he is all dimensions including time. He is all knowing because he exists outside of time. I think he created sentient beings to understand every possible aspect of , not only life and its experiences ( hence the good/bad things happening to good people and the good/bad things happening to bad people), but also the physical properties of himself. The cummulation of this knowledge from all being in the universe go back to GOD.
Its like….you are omnipotent about spaghetti. You know how what goes in it, how to cook it, and what it will taste like. But didn’t spaghetti had to be made and tasted at some point to gain that knowledge?
Why is it so hard for people to understand that all that religious bull**** is common s***? For instance, that stupid man put a glass out of the window and prayed that it rained and it did. And he calls that a miracle. What's so miraculous about that? Bill has a very good point there. It would be miraculous if it rained frogs but rain?
I mean, come on. That is an every day happening. Why is it so hard for that man to accept the fact that his praying and the happening of rain at the same time is just a coincidence. Life is full of that. How can so many people be so egocentric to think that their so called God out of trillions of other cases chose to examine their? And how can so many people believe in an anthropomorphic God, I mean a human-like God?
Look around you, the space is infinite. How can so many people be locked in their own small worlds? Even if there is a God, I would portrait him as a force which has no understanding for people's hopes and wishes. It is just there doing its job respecting the laws of physics and that's it.
Why would there be loving God? Even if we agree to go with the story about the humane-concentrated God, than I would say that it is a wicked God full of wrath. Why would God, if he is so displeased with his creations, even create us? Religion stories are full of holes and common sense can not accept that.
Bill does have an annoying personality but his points are well taken -I don't think he favors one religon over another - he ridicules them all for what they are. Religon is simply a false belief in an invisible man that lives in the clouds - ( I say man because no woman would or could ever f--k things up the way he has). If there was a god then given the horrors that we see on a daily basis then someone should fire his ass out of there for doing a lousy job. The fact that 93% of scientists are non believers says it all.
The conclusion in the last few minutes was right on, but overall you can tell he is very biased against Muslims and pretty much gave the Jews a free ride. Just like he was on his old TV show, he is still rude and closed minded in many ways.
Just another jerk who got rich running his big mouth.
I saw this movie years ago. I dont remember all the details but I do remember it was heavily biased. He didnt interview any real theologians who actually know the history of their religion. If his point was to mock only the ones that have stubborn blind faith ...then ok he makes a good point, but that wasn't evident in his film.
True...most people are jsut sheep that follow the leader...but that doesnt mean you can dismiss a subject simply because the majority of the people utilizing the subject dont fully understand it. We all use computers, do we all have to know how the hardware and software function at a technical level equal to that of the engineers who created it? The computer will run despite the users level of technical expertise, but the technical details still exist.
You know whats interesting. If you took this documentary and only replaced the subject matter with anything else.....say.....American Education..... the results would be the same. Interview the truck drivers and insult their grammar.....interview a quack who claims to be a PhD but has zero credentials ( Dr. Phil for instance).....go to a former school teacher and he will berate how dumb and apathetic his students were...etc. yet America is still on the forefront of creative, technical, and scientific discoveries/creations ( you may argue foreign employees in American firms, but that's a minority and really a distraction to the point because those are exceptions). I guess this goes to show you just how biased and poorly executed this documentary is. Sure it raised some questions, but he is not really seeking the answers, he seeking "data" to support his bias.
Amen to that
First off let me qualify my comments by saying that I have done something that I would say 90% of christians havnt done. I have read the bible several times, cover to cover.
This film is THE BEST documentary on religion I have ever seen.
Religious people are delusional.
I really wish that they would keep their superstitions to themselves.
Bill absolutely skewers religion.
Talk about the weird stuff people believe.
I would love to see a study where people showed up at the emergency room with a special revelation from god. I wonder how quick they would be shuttled off to the psychiatric ward.
GOOOD DOCUMENTARY!!!!
@ Noxxie: hahaha. Yes, UBER Virgin at a Christian Theme Park. Go Figure. I feel sorry for them. They don't know the joys of worldly pleasures.
"Sorry to bring that up, but in Star Wars The phantom mena..."
Nerds + Jesus = Uber Virgin
true believers don't ask questions jj if god wanted them to know about these things he would tell them himself. I've brought up some of these topics with an alliance church pastor(my neighbor across the ally) and he was getting very irate with me then when I asked him how old the earth was and he said about 5000 years old I told him he was f****** retarded, and that ended our conversation, he hasn't invited us to mass or even waved at us since. ha ha ha
PSS Can anyone enlighten me? If the Bible is indeed the words of god and true accounts of the Man claiming to be the sun of god is real, what about the dead sea scrolls? What about the books of the Bible that were taken out of the Bible? What about the Apocrypha? What about the writtings found in Egypt called the Naghamadi Library? Just questions that I'd like you "believers" to answer. Oh, and if the Apostles could perform miracles back then, why can't modern day christians do it?
ps The Catholic faith was the first established "Religion" at the time. Others branched off of this sect of Christians and kept the belief in God. A lot of Christian belief derives from Catholicism. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the divinity of Jesus debated over in the Council of Nicaea? Yeah, if you have to debate your "god's divinity" it tends to cause some serious eye brow raising.
@ Rod: You know what, you can tell me all that about the Bible till your face turns blue and I still won't believe it. I was a Southern Baptist for 15 years-only because I was raised that way. It wasn't until I joined the Marines in 2005 and went to Iraq did I see that there was no god or allah.
All I saw were men driven to madness over their faith- men dying for a belief. When I began to see many of my friends get hurt and dying was when I stopped praying. My prayers were never answered when I BEGGED for safety.
God is a mythical creature in a book cataloged next too Big Foot and Unicorn. Rod, my dear bible believing, lower cased god fearing friend, you need to get your head out of your a**. That goes for the rest of you bible thumpers. Oh yeah add this to your "persecution."
Wow, this movie contradicts everything I believe about the SUPREME Being. He's an Alien from a far galaxy on the planet Gorkon-6. His name is Fred. HAHAHA
I enjoyed this movie. It's just hilarious. In my opinion I thought he did a good job. I feel the same way.
@Fredd - Good point... I would hate to get sued for copyright infringement. lets just call mine "The Real Word of God"
yea, sounds good
PSSS: Why does the deluded population of bible thumpers say: Damn that Bill Maher...I hate his movie... I had to watch it over and over again at least 16-times... and missed out going to Mass.... AGAIN! Gotta run...I need to feed the backyard volcano a fresh virgin
PSS: For many years I thought the messiah was Irish? When my Father would hit his thumb with a hammer on Sundays and cry out: Christ Jasus Murphy!
I wish I could say that this film converted me to Atheism but I luckily escaped religious dogma many years earlier.
If we all believed in ourselves and were more equal, then perhaps we wouldn't need religion and a belief system.
Now getting back to the imaginary real world out there... PS: I thought BIBLE-number 5 was Vogue magazine's Spring Issue?
@terry, sorry man the jews had bible one, then the christians made bible 2, then the muslims made bible 3, then the mormons made bible 4....you get bible 5 lol
Oh hey guys and girls, I wrote a book - "the bible 2!"
It says that I'm the new messiah! and it even says that god told me to write it! wow! it must be true. now all of you bow down and do whatever I say, because my book (that god told me to write) says so!
my first commandment? hmmmm how about - gay people are okay and christians are going to hell. Remember folks, tho shalt not worship false idols
(crucifix=false idol, bible=false idol, preacher man=false idol)
this guy doesn't prove there isn't a god i have proof whats in the bible to be correct take a look on youtube for a video on a guy called Ron whyett all the Proof you will need that the bible and everything god said is correct.
Once the mind is trained to accept "facts" without evidence it will continue this pattern of behavior regardless of the source of these "facts".
They can then be manipulated at will by any person with the charisma to use this behavior for their own benefit, to the detriment of the believer.
Show me a religious order that turns down donations past a certain threshold. Show me an evangelical christian without a book or DVD to sell. Show me a Muslim that preaches tolerance, or a Scientologist that will give you El-Ron's books for free.
Show me a republican political figure that claims to be a christian and I'll show you a man that fights for his right to hoard money. That talks about walking with Jesus out of one side of his mouth, and tells the poor to go die with the other.
Religion is about using fear to control people for the benefit of those that preach but do not believe, to the detriment of the sheep they lead. That's all. Period.
Belief in compassion must live. Charity and equality between human beings must live. The philosophy's of community and responsibility to our fellow man must live. Spirituality must live.
Religion must die.
Doing good cannot be a religion. How would we measure our goodness? When will it be enough?
If we are to be measured against the most notorious criminal we are indeed better that him but if we are to be measured against Mother Theresa? Well what's the score?
Only God is the worthy 'yardstick'. And we all fall short of His goodness.
And who needs religion? Even Jesus did not say we need it. We only need Jesus.
Excellent documentary.....
Alex you are a joke.... With all due respect that is...
Is really quoting the Bible equal in measure to quoting facts...??? I have read the jargons of the Bible, Quran and Gita... Yes they all say really good things on how an individual and society should function BUT when religion starts to act as a medium of answers rather than a vessel of spirituality I have a BIG problem... Why...?? Because in 5000 years of recorded history NOT ONCE has God come down (or up) to deliver us from evil or danger... NOT ONCE... I hope if you are going to reply to this then at least you will come back with something remotely substantial instead of trying to find the next passage from your Bible to blabber and confuse the masses with...
By the way which God are you with...??? There are like 1000 (at least) different variations of Christianity... I hear that only a Born Again gets to go through the beautiful cloud covered gates...
This is one doc I've watched at least four times now.
This is the 2nd time I've seen this film and bottom line- It's FUNNY. Maher is the perfect foil for the variety of religious types he encounters on this sort of "road movie". While some despise his condescending smugness, I think it works perfectly here.
Maher's intention is not to make some sort of "Fair & Balanced" documentary on the history of religion. Its premise is to say, "Gee I can't understand why so many people who are otherwise so rational in their daily lives still cleave to a belief in an invisible man. Why can't we just get over ourselves already??". So for those who complain the film is biased...well, DUH!
Quite simply if you're watching this film and you're not laughing, then its likely you're the punch line. Like they say in poker- If you're looking around the table and you can't tell who the sucker is...
Although I am relatively neutral on matters of religion (i.e. not a fundamentalist, and not advocating the complete annihilation of organized religion), the fact that this film is produced by Bill Maher is enough to nauseate me before I even turn it on. The host of this documentary would be one of the worst, most autocratic, murderous dictators in history if he were to lead a country. It is tragic that many people listen to him spouting his agenda and can't see it for what it is, a call to eradicate freedom and embrace a new scientifically efficient dictatorship. If it were up to Bill Maher, the less than perfect infants would be killed off, citizens would have medical choices made for them by some government bureaucrat, and when you are too old to work, you could expect to die with the one consolation that you assisted in the growth of your bloated, tyrannical, Neo-Progressive government.
It is true that every organized religion has some adherents that are willing to commit violent acts based on faith. But, the solution isn't to just follow this fanatic instead.
In a televised interview I heard Bill Maher state in reference to people who did not believe the way that he does, that the government should just, "Drag them to it." This man is the same as some medieval crusading knight, except he doesn't do his acts of terror in the name of "God", he simply curries support for himself and his own equally twisted ideology.
For myself, I DON'T choose religion, Maher, progressive, Republican, Democrat, Beck, Huffington, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, God, liberals, conservatives, dictators, environmentalists, etc.
For me it will be simply FREEDOM to do whatever I wish except commit crimes that are wrong by definition.
And alex from august 30th 09.
1. If the city was attacked 4 years after the prophesy was written doesn't that lead you to believe that there were previous problems between the two cities before he wrote the prophecy.
2. Why would Nebuchadnezzar waste his time destroying an abandoned city you said it yourself the whole place was empty when he got there.
3. It was probably flat with no ruins cuz it wasn't taken by force.
4. If its by fresh water and the sea why the hell wouldnt it be used as a fishing port.
5. If the stone and timber were dumped into the sea wouldnt that explain number 2 of your argument.
6. You don't say what cities opened their gates for him so who's to say they weren't allies?
7. What the hell do you mean it was never rebuilt I'm pretty sure you said it became a fishing port didn't you? and where the hell are these 1 in 500 odds coming from seriously. so why don't you think about that for a minute.
And all you religious people who are bitching about why he didn't interview scholars why the hell would he their the "mental slaveholders" as he brilliantly puts it hes doing this cuz it has more of an affect on normal people who are the ones giving these whacked fanatics all the power and the money in the first place hes not tryin to win them over hes tryin to win the people over feel free to comment :)
@jen
I think he was refering to the gospels.
Check out Who wrote the bible" in the religious section.
p.s. all those who are cryin about how bill didnt dispute the jews they were right there gettin it just as bad as the rest of them
ok i loved this movie i used to be a christian went to church growing up took confirmation the whole 9 yards but 5 years ago in high school i denounced any affiliation with any religion. i thought this movie hit some key points but the one thing that bothered me was the part about Horus. almost everything he said about the horus story was wrong. if you study horus even a little youll find his mother isis was never said to be a virgin she was rather impregnated by an eternal flame. horus was not baptised. he didnt raise asar from the dead cuz asar was really his father osirus. he didnt have 12 disciples he wasnt crusified and he wasnt resurrected he never came back in human form rather he was said to have conquered death and was the judge of the dead. he was never tempted in the desert by seth they had fought seth lost a testicle and osirus lost an eye which his mother restored and they egyptians believed that horus' good eye was the sun and his damaged eye was the moon which was why the moon was darker. just wanted everyone to know that not every arguement bill had was legit but i still agree 120% that we need to end this religious disorder and just worry about bettering the world were in. if any info i have givin is incorrect feel free to contradict me and please give make it a legit source of information. post it if you find anything to disprove me cuz i was honestly hoping that whole part was true when i saw it
all i know is that a world without religion, would be a much safer place and that i only follow one rule...don't blame god for the bad things in your life but don't give him credit for the good things either..
Bill Mayer provides evidence in part, and leaves out other parts that could show the other side of the coin.
I think this doc was hilarious, and really well done. The whole slapping edit of Jesus Christ could be taken as quite offensive to those who are religious. I do not agree with that.
The Fat Trucker in the Red i think was funny, because he gave the response most religious people give.
What i thought was really cool is how the rest of those guys in the Trucker Church were praying for Bill; even Bill was amazed by them.
There are a lot of people on here who make comments on the Bible based on their internet studies. Now with the internet based literary and historical degrees go on to lecture people their opinions as facts based on non-credible sources; makes your argument as weak as these religulous fanatics on here.
Oh and by the way all the docs here are good sources ;)
Bill said that those who wrote about Jesus never met him. This is a false statement for John, Peter, among others, wrote about him and met him in person. Understand that this documentary is bias and that Bill has some reliable sources.
To tell u the truth Thank god all the stupid pp, believe in religion...i mean wat would the world be with all these dimwits running around and nothing to tell them that LYING, KILLING, STEALING, etc are bad....scary!!! :P
great film comedy on those people who follow religion blindly and ignore real facts....the bible is not factual.
@ Bill, absolutely, the problem is promoting views thousands of years old, or based on pure fiction, with no plan whatsoever to revise them when they are obviously flawed, sometimes even intentionally (or not) harmful to others or yourself.
Bill Maher is a courageous and intelligent man. His talent for comedy has made it easier for me to consider this very difficult topic. I am grateful for all the hard work that went into this intriguing production.
I have also found many of the previous comments to be insightful as well. This is a discussion well worth having.
While I agree wholeheartedly with the Mr. Maher's premise I wish to say that while it is easy to make a religious person to sound silly, that the fundamental effort to come to terms with life in a meaningful way should not be sneered at.
The philosopher Kierkegaard points out that the human condition requires a life of faith. When we wake up in the morning we can never have enough information to make all the decisions necessary to get through the day. As a result we must come up with a world view that incorporates our values and recognizes our limitations as best we can.
Not believing anything is simply not an option. When we try to put this world view into words it will probably sound silly at some point in our ramblings. It will probably be inconsistent and, upon further reflection, something that includes contradictions, unpleasant ramifications, and things that have not obviously been thought out enough. So tomorrow we refine our thinking. This process continues until the day we die -- it is intrinsic to the very act of living. I have no doubt that Mr. Maher would agree with this observation as well.
Religions are the poison of the universe, completely retrograde. Maher I'm with you thanks.
shame the presenter is abit of a tit...
Superb Doc . Very funny and fairly comprehensive - and I`m with Eric on this the bias against the relevant religions was fairly well spread out by their populations.
Going to have to watch this at least one more time, and as funny and truthful as it is some of the above comments from people like "the bible is totally true" etc really need to watch this video again and this time try to understand it.
I watched ‘Religulous’ last night.
It’s utterly, laugh-out-loud hilarious! Bill Maher travels around the world (though mostly the US) interviewing evangelical Christian ministers, Muslim Imams, Jewish Rabbis and various other religious nutjobs. Cue lots of lightening-fast witty ripostes, speechless bafflement (on both sides), and moments when he subjects his victims to such buttock-clenching, red-faced embarrassment at their own stupidity that you almost feel sorry for them. Almost…
There are so many classic scenes. In one, he visits a Christian theme park in Florida and interviews Jesus Christ himself – okay, an actor dressed up to play Jesus Christ. ‘Jesus’ subjects Maher to the usual smug, delusional drivel, which Maher scoffs at, expressing his disbelief, and then the actor asks ‘What if you’re wrong?’, to which Maher responds, ‘But what if YOU’RE wrong?’. This stops the actor dead in his tracks, face frozen in panic, as if he had never considered the possibility before!
In another interview, he is interviewing an ‘ex-gay’ Christian who runs a gay-to-straight conversion programme. At one point the guy blithely asserts that gay men are gay because they suffer from insecurity. Quick as a flash, Maher comes back, ‘I don’t know – it takes a lot of security to leave the house wearing a pair of ass-less leather chaps…’
In another, he talks with the Republican Senator for Arkansas, another evangelical nutjob. Maher starts asking the guy how he, as a politician with a lot of power and responsibility, can actually believe a lot of the stuff he apparently does believe about the age of the Earth, Adam & Eve, and so on. Eager to appear affable and self-deprecating, but with his mouth running in a higher gear than his brain, the Senator jocularly quips, ‘Well, you don’t have to pass an IQ test to be a Senator!’, and then his grin freezes, and slowly transforms into a mask of mortified horror as he realizes what he’s just said. Classic!
Many of the interviews are overlaid with a silent commentary of text captions (which you have to be quick to catch) , which say the things the interviewees really *want* to say but are unwilling to, or which flatly contradict their words, as in the case of a black evangelical TV preacher who, when asked by Maher how he would like to be addressed, replies ‘Just call me ‘Doctor’’, and a caption flashes up seomthing like ‘He does not have a Doctorate or a PhD. Of any kind. At all.’ The scenes are also interspersed with rapid – almost subliminal – excerpts from TV and film, showing ranting preachers, dramatized scenes from the life of Jesus, and so, which offer a humorous counterpoint to the po-faced seriousness of the interviewees, and highlight the absurdities of their utterances.
Absolute brilliant film. Superbly entertaining. Do watch it. (Though set aside some time for it, because it’s quite long - but worth every minute.)
I agree completely with this movie and it is incredibly saddening. It is very ironic that Iceland, Denmark, and Sweden, and Norway, the four countries with the highest number of atheists (according to Maher's list) ARE BY FAR AND I MEAN BY FAR the most peaceful, egalitarian, democratic, tolerant, progressive, and forward thinking nations in the world! You who believe in religion have been raised, conditioned and brainwashed into a system that does not make you happy, makes you greedy, makes you isolationist and fearful, makes you homophobic, racist, misogynistic, conceited, and above all CONTROLLED.
Religion exists to make its leaders wealthy and all-powerful. Your priests, and imams and gurus, and rabbis and bishops that you pay and listen to are the Gods of the religion. I especially appreciate that Maher's crafted his central theme around the idea that its not one vilified religion (Islam) that is violent and persecutes and causes world suffering, IT IS ALL OF THEM.
Judaism and Christianity cause equally as much suffering as Islam. Hinduism, with the caste system and the war against Islamic Pakistan, causes great suffering to the billion living in the Indian sub-continent. Shintoism and Confucianism in past Japan and China respectively made the people subservient to the Emperor. IT IS ALL A MEANS OF MIND CONTROL AND WE WILL ALL DIE (including those in power) IF RELIGION CONTINUES IN SOCIETIES AROUND THE WORLD.
Several of you ask why Maher does not equally attack Judaism, but you seem to have missed the point in the film where he mentions that there are only 14 Millions Jews left in the whole world, compared to the 2.1 Billion Christians and the 1.5 Billions Muslims. SImply put, while a great and ancient faith, and the third of the monotheistic and Abrahamic faiths, Judaism is hardly one of the bullies on the block, any more than Buddhism (376 Million followers , Sikhism (23 Million followers) etc.
Jafaar, you say 'Its the same as judging what people wore in the 1600’s by today’s fashion standards they’ll all be crazy lol'
That statement was about Mohammed but it's a great metaphor for religion in general. The difference between faith and philosophy is one is a point of view and one is a strict unquestioning adherence. So yes, everyone who claims faith - not in god, which is unknowable, but in word's allegedly written ages and ages ago - is sheer lunacy.
Remarkably, if you look at Taoism - not Buddhism which is philosophy turned into religion, with all it's fanaticism -
it's a viewpoint that still works.
I don't know much about the Koran and Judaism, other than the old testament - which is satanic. To believe that book, God killed millions and made up all kinds of insane laws. he was the most insecure and hateful 'father' there has ever been.
Progressive Christian and Jewish groups may not adhere to that stuff, but then why waste time trying to 'reinterpret' it? Why keep any ties to something written 1000s of years ago? Madness.
I would assume there are some modern Muslim sects as well? The only one I'm aware of - and not so modern, is Sufism. Beautiful. Has nothing to do with that ancient barbaric crap,
and the Mevlani's followers killed his right hand man in disobedience to their master - just because people are so damn petty they have to create icons to mindlessly worship - even when those icons themselves say 'do not worship me, but consider what I say'.
Maher is an insufferable half-wit, and he did heavily target muslims and christians, while the worst he could find in judaism is a 'self-hating rabbi'.
But his overall point is sound. Religion is madness, it's killed more people than greed. Well, it's been the banner under which the greedy and selfish have conquered, massacred, and exploited others forever.
getting back to your quote - I don't know if you were knowingly paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson, but you can read in the Jefferson monument these forever ignored words:
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
Of course, he was of the enlightenment, and foolishly thought society might progress to become more civil. But most of the world choose to voluntarily deck themselves in ancient straight-jackets.
I think Muslim and Judaism and christian,catholic are the same religion. They believe in one god and fight under one god. how sad. Muslim knows about Jesus and abraham and so on.
They have very similar characteristic even way they think of each other is so alike how funny
if you get the chance to watch the dvd, the deleted scenes are funny!!!
*i should clarify, by 'fair game' i mean, "declaring that having sex with kids is always wrong, is a perfectly justified and justifiable argument regardless of culture". i don't mean, "go Mo get 'em young". please no-one confuse the two....
a couple of things i'd like to throw in...
Muhammad's relations with Aisha are fair game regardless of culture, for the same reason that such relations are considered wrong today, ie the harm that it causes. Slavery was the norm for a long while, doesn't mean it didn't cause harm in those cultures. It just means it took a long time for anything to be done about it.
Tolerance is a wonderful thing, but tolerating harmful belief systems is a questionable thing. That is why there are anti-religious people popping up here there and everywhere. People are too afraid of questioning when they're threatened with ETERNAL hellfire, so they cycles of abuse continue. People are so willing to debate politics, sports teams, whatever, but mention religion and it's the end of the world. Oh no, don't make me think! Because if your god threatens to cast you into hell, wouldn't you be afraid to even approach the notion that maybe he's not really there? I know i was. Like the fat trucker getting up and leaving, he couldn't bear to hear what bill maher had to say. You only stand to gain if you see there is no god!
Talking to 'the people' ie average followers gives relatability and a snapshot of what it's like for the majority, after all there are more of them than religious leaders.
The focus on christianity is logical. His intended audience lives in a very christian country and that is the dominant religion there.
anyway i thoroughly enjoyed the doco.
@joseph its probably because there isn't any intelligent answers to any of those questions,the gospels meanings have been constantly changed over century's to suit the churchs then line of thinking.
Its crazy to think that in this day and age people still can't see this religion for what it really is mythology that has been manipulated for finacial gain.
Interesting that Bill doesn't bother to interview anyone who might be able to provide an intelligent answer to his questions about the gospels. Where are William Lane Craig, Craig Blomberg, Gary Habermas etc etc? Why does he (like Dawkins) only interview simple people or experts in something else (Collins) or known dissidents (that priest)? Typical atheist "argumentation". Very impressive. Well adios, I'm going to pick a fight with a 3 year old girl to prove that I'm the toughest.
lol, this is so funny, this guy is really cunning and hes just picking christianity apart piecemeal, he twists everything and takes everything out of context. I still believe in a creater, life is a miracle and there is no disputing that, study the probability of life in an infinite universe, we have to have faith cause we cant explain everything, i believe that the creator is way beyond anything our minds can comprehend.
I would love to see a full, uncut interview between Bill and a knowledgeable, pious muslim scholar. As you can see, Bill seemed to interview people who were perhaps not the most intellectual and he also seems to have cut and manipulated footage to support his own anti-religious world view.
His attack against Islam seemed to only be that it was a violent religion, without having any knowledgeable muslim scholar explain to him the significance of deciphering the miraculous Qur'an nor the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.
Years ago after 9/11 I fell victim to the false portrayal of Islam and rejected it as a true religion. However, after later studying the Qur'an in depth, traveling to Mecca, and sitting with muslim sheikhs and scholars, I was shown that Islam has been completely manipulated and falsely portrayed in the media, and this film only seemed to further that act. Islam is the fastest growing religion for a reason and if anyone wants to know the Truth about it, please research for yourself with true dedication and a sincere heart. Peace.
it is seriously hard to comprehend how so many people from all religions can be so blind not to see that these finacial corporations ie. religious institutions for what they really are.
check out this weeks findings from the dublin report into clerical abuse and see what these so called men of god did to children for years and how the pope hasn't had a comment to make.
these men of god are criminals lead by the pope who you could argue is complicite by ordering his understudy's to move these criminals around the world,which would make the pope a criminal correct me if i'm wrong.
PEOPLE WAKE UP AND EDUCATE YOURSELF DONT BE EDUCATED BY CRIMINALS the mafia have better morals than these guys at least the bump off the guys that step out of line
The only role religion plays in my life is when I take the character's names in vain.
Mazzy, your hot!!!!!!!!!
I DON'T BELIEVE THAT A "WHITE" HIPPIE IS THE SAVIOR, OR THAT THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS IS A MAN
Sunny1: I doubt that Mazzy really wants to shoot the editor of this video; she's just spicy, not violent, per se! LOL :-)
I do so despise Bill Mahar. Can't stand him; I refuse to watch him blaspheme that which is holy.
Mazzy what would be inside you to wish the editor of this film such horrible violence?, so you don't care for it but to wish such ugliness on another person puts you in the same category as some of the institutions in this film....
Sonny I like your religion to do Good.
Josh, I like the fact that you'd like some discussion and ideas, me too. So here's what I think sums most religious tensions: Joseph Campbell said religions are fighting over metaphors since when you remove all the coverings they all have the same core to connect with the divine. I recommend his books and Bill Moyers interviews with him for starters. I believe in a higher universal consciousness but not in literal sense of the Bible, it too is a metaphor from an ancient society, and an obscure language which we need to understand to get the messages-it has much to offer us in the way of spiritual growth. I don't think the bible was meant to be literal, it's all an inside job, we all got to work on ourselves and help our neighbors. I don't think it matters if you have a literal Jesus, his message is what is really important.
I agree that we don't have belong to a religion to be a spiritual seeker.
I'm glad Bill Mahar pointed out some of the ridiculousness of religions. Some think the Jews didn't get picked on enough, banging your head on a wall seemed to say alot. And I have just read that archeologists believe they have found the real site of the old temple. Has anyone checked under that meteor in The Dome of the Rock to see if Elijahs (or whomever went to heaven from there) bones are there? Religious beliefs can be terribly destructive, I recommend The Doomsday Code (on this site) for more absurdity and moral apathy.Well done by Robin Cook.Current day religion became political institutions from their beginnings and then were used for power and control so as far as I can see this has rendered religion dangerous. Unquestioning belief is not faith and I wonder how many people are just going along with it for all kinds of reasons. They think they believe but do they really?
If I lived in areas when women wear Burka's I would too not out religiousnes because I think it's original purpose was to protect them from the hot sun and harsh sandstorms...then some guy who couldn't stop ogling women decided then it must be gods word for them to wear them for religious reasons all because he couldn't control himself...talk about lack of accountability for all of the men who believe this.
Many laws people take as gods holy truth are just practical such as Jews not mixing meat dishes with milk dishes. If you have dairy with meat the calicium in the milk prevents your body from absorbing iron.
I agree that attitude (Christian especially) took about having dominion over the earth led to exploitation of natural resources, people, and extiction of animals.
Good that comes out of churches happens mainly because the people are good not because the church is good. Most churches are huge conglomerates.
Good on Bill for this Doc even it had its flaw.
Happy seeking...
funny comedy ...wow the comments on this one are pretty long...guess im not the only one forced into a religion at a young age due to my culture and geological place on earth
peace b w u all
This documentary was quite terrible. Bill twisted the words of all his poor interviewees and attacked them unfairly. I think its important to remeber that you can be very religious but not be an extremetist. He only interviewed extremeists who take the Bible literally! I think he made some horrible stereotypes (most notibly on muslims) and jsut spent the whole time bashing religion. Religion is not the source of all horror and terror. It sets us apart from other animal species.
This documentary supports the stereotype that atheists are religion haters. Not true!
Bill Maher, is just trying to make some bucks and pay the rent. What happned to tolerance and respecting other people's views? His approach is the worst i have ever seen!
Bill Maher is a douchebag. I agree with what he's saying but not the way he's going about it. You can disagree with people without being an a--hole about it.
Christianity is a messed up world view, as are all religions, but you dont need to attack people with sarcasm in order to prove that point.
Attempting to destroy peoples beliefs because you don't share them, and believe you are right, is wrong on any level. Whether you be religious trying to convert people, or you are atheist trying to get people to revert, you are wrong.
This movie only served one purpose: to promote hatred of people who share different beliefs. You know who else promoted hatred of a Religious people.....?
i agree with praneeth. awesome documentary!
Excellent documentary. I like the way Bill combines humor with genuine probing questions. Most of them do not even have a clue that he is mocking them and it was obvious they do not have answers to rational questions.
I hope humanity will be the only religion in 22nd century.
Peace!
I really love this
hey josh, is your question really what is religion? What is interpretation, and isn't it clear that interpretation implies translation into our own terms?
Very funny! This film makes cheesy fun at religion & religious people... which is exactly what they deserve.
@ Mazzy ...
That sums it all up. 'Fictional Material'.
Nothing more needs to be said.
Thank You.
My bible (a gift from a former neighbor) sits on my bookshelf, in between Edgar Allen Poe and Alice In Wonderland. It sits among the fictional material, where I feel it belongs.
I watched this film and i must say i loved it overall.
I am a christian however i feel like jesus and god are true but i feel that man has "tainted" and otherwise true belief. For instance all christians say the bible is the word of god however the entire bible is not written by god it is written by man who the christian faith deems as "flawed" which is why according to christians adam ate from the tree etc.
The point is so why should I look at the bible and tell myself everything within it is literal truth? Considering the fact that man wrote the bible based on stories and interpretations of others isn't there a chance that not everything written in the bible is not 100% truth as god would want to see it? I feel this film can hopefully enlighten even people of faith and hopefully make them re-examine everything in there religion they define as truth without doubt.
Anyone who reads this please give me a response on what you think. Im open to discussions.
Very funny.
Not that it would make any difference, but every religious nut on earth should be required to watch this documentary.
It's too bad Bill spent so much time lambasting Christianity because Christians don't hold a monopoly on ignorance.
In my opinion, Muslims are even crazier than orthodox Jews. But, that's another story.
LOL! You don´t have to pass an IQ-test to be in the US senate. That scene was so hilarious:))
Who ever did the editing job on this documentary needs to be shot...with a high powered rifle...in the face.
Good one. :D You made my day mazzy.
But just to put a R.I.P. on top of this... bad "prophetic religions" that "pollute", see the following prophecy from Christianity that came true in detail hence pointing to the reality of its Inspirer... God.... The God of The Bible.
“TYRE
Ezekiel 26:3-5, 7, 12, 14, 16 (written 590 B.C.) reads:
Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets … For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar King of Babylon… and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water… And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God … Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling.
This prophecy predicts the destruction of Tyre and states seven definite things which shall take place:
1. Nebuchadnezzar shall take the city of Tyre.
2. Other nations are to participate in the fulfillment of the prophecy. (Fig 7)
3. The city is to be made flat like the top of a rock.
4. It is to become a place for spreading of nets.
5. Its stones and timber are to be laid in the sea.
6. Other cities are to fear greatly at the fall of Tyre.
7. The old city of Tyre shall never be rebuilt.
Tyre was a city on the northern coast of Palestine inhabited b the Phoenicians, a strong maritime people, greatly feared by their enemies. (The king of Tyre supplied timbers of Solomon in the building of the temple.) In 586 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, laid siege to the city of Tyre. The siege lasted for thirteen years; and when Nebuchadnezzar took the city in 573 B.C., he found that the Phoenicians had moved everything of value to an island about one-half mile off the coast. Though the city was taken, Nebuchadnezzar profited nothing, and the Phoenicians were not conquered. Nebuchadnezzar could not pursue them to their island position, so he returned to Babylon. Thus the first item of the prophecy was fulfilled: (1) Nebuchadnezzar shall take the city of Tyre.
For 241 years the mainland city of Tyre remained very much as Nebuchadnezzar left it. Later, Alexander city Great started his great conquest. His field of campaign lay to the east, but he feared that the fleet of Tyre might be used against his homeland, so he moved south to take the city of Tyre. In 332 B.C., Alexander reached Tyre, but he was unable to take the city at once. So he captured other coastal cities and took over their fleets, but with these combined fleets he was still unable to take Tyre. Alexander finally built a causeway from the mainland to the island. In building the causeway he used all the building materials of old Tyre, and that was not enough. He scraped up all of the soil in and around the old city and with it completed the causeway. After seven months, by a combined attack of land forces marching in over the causeway, and the fleets of conquered cities, he took Tyre. Thus items 2,3, and 5 of the prophecy were fulfilled: (2) Other nations are to participate in the fulfillment of the prophecy. (3) The city is to be made flat like the top of a rock. (5) Its stones and timber are to be laid in the sea.
(There was a picture here) Fig. 6. Phoenician fortifications and ancient causeway. Tyre, Lebanon. Courtesy of Moody Institute of Science
Other neighboring cities were so frightened by the conquest of Tyre that they opened their gates to Alexander without opposition and fulfilled another item: (6) Other cities are to fear greatly at the fall of Tyre.
Today visitors at the old city of Tyre find it is a very popular place for fisherman; they are spreading their nets on this very spot. Thus prediction 4 has been completely fulfilled: (4) It is to become a place for spreading of nets.
The great freshwater springs of Raselain are at the site of the mainland city of Tyre, and no doubt supplied the city with an abundance of fresh water. These springs are still there and still flow, but their water runs into the sea. The flow of these springs was measured by an engineer, and found to be about 10,000,000 gallons daily. It is still an excellent site for a city and would have free water enough for a large modern city, yet it has never been rebuilt. Thus item 7 of the prophecy has stood true for more than 2,500 years: (7)
The old city of Tyre shall never be rebuilt.
This prophecy by Ezekiel has been fulfilled to the last item. Let us try to evaluate the evidence of inspiration as supplied by the fulfillment of this prophecy.
History shows that while many of the cities in the vicinity of Tyre were often captured and recaptured by various forces, Tyre usually withstood these attacks and remained a free city. Tyre and Babylon represented two very different military powers–Tyre, naval, and Babylon, a land force. Each had left the other strictly alone. My groups of college students were asked to imagine that Ezekiel was writing from his own human knowledge, and then to give an estimate of the following:
1. Ezekiel had one chance in how many of knowing, or being able to predict, that Nebuchadnezzar would take the city of Tyre? Since Nebuchadnezzar was conquering many cities, and since Tyre was besieged four years after the prophecy was made, it must have been a reasonable thing to predict.
Nebuchadnezzar might have tried to take Tyre and failed, or he might have succeeded, or he might have never tried. An estimate of one in three was chosen.
2. What chance did Ezekiel have of knowing that Nebuchadnezzar would, in his conquering of Tyre, not completely fulfill the prophecy of destruction, but other nations would later come in and complete the fulfillment? The indications in the time of Ezekiel certainly were that when Nebuchadnezzar took a city he was quite capable of completing the destruction himself, so the estimate was placed at one in five.
3. What chance did Ezekiel have of knowing that Tyre would be made flat like the top of a rock, after it was conquered? How many cities have been made flat like the top of a rock after being conquered? The sites of nearly all ancient cities are marked by mounds of accumulated debris. I do not know of any other city where the ruins have been so completely cleared away, so the estimate of one in five hundred was chosen.
4. What chance did Ezekiel have of knowing that after the city had been completely cleared away it would become a popular place for fishermen? There is really no basis on which to make an estimate. However, taking this site merely as a little stretch of coast, and considering all sections of coasts that size, an estimate of one in ten was chosen.
5. What chance did Ezekiel have of knowing that when Tyre was made flat its building material, and even its dust, was was to be laid in the sea? Since the site was to be cleared, the debris had to be disposed of, but it would have been far more likely to have used this material in constructing the buildings of nearby cities, so the estimate was given as one in ten.
6. What chance was there of other cities opening their gates to the conqueror of Tyre without resistance? The estimate was given as one in five.
7. What was the chance that Tyre, after being made flat, should never be rebuilt? Nearly all old cities which had great natural advantages were at some time rebuilt. Tyre is in an excellent location and has an abundant supply of fresh water, so valuable in this land. The estimate chosen for this part of the prophecy was one in twenty.
Having been given these estimates by my students for the probability of the fulfillment of each part of the prophecy, we shall get an estimate of the probability of the fulfillment of the whole prophecy by multiplying all of the estimates together. The chance then of Ezekiel writing this prophecy from his own knowledge, and having it all come true, is 1 in 3 x 5 x 500 x 10 x 10 x 5 x 20. This is 1 in 75,000,000. This can be abbreviated as 1 in 7.5 x 107. The exponent 7 indicates the number of ciphers (digits – or zeros) that are to follow the 7.5.
If Ezekiel had looked at Tyre in his day and had made these seven predictions in human wisddom, these estimates mean that there would have been only one chance in 75,000,000 of their all coming true. They all came true in the minutest detail.”
These are the things people should learn about, not foolish comments made by ignorant Mahers.
So no, you cannot put Christianity as a prophetic religion in the same sack with all the rest.... that -as a belief- is just religulous!
God bless!!
I hated this documentary. If it was meant to be entertaining it fell short. When you ask one of the most profound life long questions ever, I don't appreciate Bill mocking people's intelligence over something so undefineable or unexplainable as the human faith. I agree with whoever said we are a little crazy by default. But i find it unacceptable that Bill would shape even a small part of anyone's religous ideals around this clown interviewing the most fanatic memebers of the faith.
I thought Bill was a comedian.
Wasn't this suppose to entertain us and not be critically debate upon? Looks like Bill is the one who gets the last laugh.
Yes, this is not a well thought out documentary and maybe it doesn't deserve to be called such. But Bill wanted to be called a documentary. He can call it whatever he wants to call it as long as it makes him more credible, raise show rating, and make more money. Because he is what he is - a hollywood comedian/actor.
Maher--who's a bit of a wiseass, of course--says that mankind would be better off without religion, because religion makes people crazy. Humans are crazy with or without religion, and atheists are just as dangerous, given enough political power, as fundamentalists can be (the Khmer Rouge? The Nazis? Bolsheviks? Etc.) So Maher's implication that without religion humanity would be like the Vulcans from "Star Trek" is just idiotic. Besides, religion has been the cause of many good things as well as bad things.
There's an old Jewish saying, "Worries go down better with soup than without." I guess religion is, well, soup.
noticing all the nuts posting their word play/religious propaganda. Sorry to burst your bubble but language is not going to help folks or hide the fact that people have delusions. Ponder the obvious fact for a moment - someone has got to be wrong/open your mind to the possibility that someones belief system can be completely wrong and false. Its impossible that everyone is right. If you don't agree then stop reading now. People who dont subscribe to the madness are observing only and a film as this is perfectly ok. As bill says, whats wrong with saying 'I dont know'. Dont criticize people that dont have faith. Religion brings a whole lot of bad to the world, and continues to be one of the leading causes of death and news.
Love it, love it, love it!!! Especially the bit in Amsterdam...
Please people, you all take this way too seriously. Bill is firstly and foremostly an in your face comedian. So really...
nonsense..
to yeahok
i don't care what was normal at any point in history, having relations with a nine year old is wrong. are you suggesting its ok for a man today of bedouin decent to have sex with a child because its tradition? there are many reported cases of pedophilic activity in the catholic church. how many will it take before it fits your standard of 'normal for the times' thus making it ok?
I have it on good authority that The Bible is The Truth; that The Truth IS The Truth, and that's the truth. The same person said "and you can take thet to the bank."
I'm glad nobody waged Holy Gihad on Bill Maher's ass. I actually had an IT engineer of short stature in a previous job wage Holy Gihad On My ___. That was entirely the WRONG company for me to be in -- I was practically the only non-Gihadi employed there.
I love Bill Maher, but I think he could have done a way better job with this film. I would have liked to see some major theme/flow to the plot.
Anyone who has ever talked to a religious person knows that it is relatively easy to get them to spout stupid, senseless arguements that are laughable. It didn't impress me. What he needed to do was have it fit together more, compare religion today with moronic religion passed, ("the world is flat" and "the earth is the centre of the universe"), or have some ongoing theme...
Also, I would have liked him to point out that not believing in organized religion does not mean you don't have to be devoid of spiritual beliefs. That's I think where religious people falter, they get this sense that they either have to believe these ridiculous, non-sensical stories, or believe in darkness. Absolutely not. Just think about it - yourself. Look at existance, and life, and reality, and the universe. There's more to it then black and white, life and death... but whatever it is, it's not anything that any organized religion has covered.
Octopussy, while I agree with you a little, remember this is more of a tragic comedy than a documenting of facts so he is supposed to be a bit of a dick and supposed to be trying to make them trip over their own logic. As well I'm glad he did put on the mantel of intellectual snobbery, since the vast majority of fanatical believes wear it, as well I think being Fanatically Religious is FAR more offensive then intellectual snobbery. Would you like to tally which one has killed more people?
His message of doubt I still think is very important.
bill Maher, although raising a few good points ,is a smug, insufferable dick. his points are not intelligently made hes just poking fun at the religiously deluded. religion is not in my opinion as offensive as intellectual snobbery.
I am a Muslim and just watched this movie a while back, i was kinda disappointed that it was mostly Christianity he talked about in the film and Islam was not a major part of the film, but that was to be expected. I agree with Sally on the American Film point and the image of muslims throughout, see the documentary "Reel Bad Arab" by Jack Shaheen, its on this site.
I agree with docviewer's comments that "People who are not religious will get a kick out of the movie but those who are, are unlikely to be persuaded."
To Yeahok, I have tried to verify the age of Ayesha (R.A) MANY times but still havnt found any credible source. Some put her age to be 6 while others 13 while others 19 etc etc. So one cant be sure it WAS 6, yet it WAS the norm of that time so judging it on todays standards is idiotic. Its the same as judging what people wore in the 1600's by today's fashion standards they'll all be crazy lol.
Sonny, GOOD POINT!.
Loved it. Bill for president!?
Thanks Ana, good things really happen... take a look around, appreciate and live a life of Goodness. I am not against any religion but we should break this wall that surrounds the earth and human thoughts which created that boundaries among countries and people. When can we realize that hey.. we are standing on the same ground?! If we have belief, we keep it and move on, not a point to argue with. I think this film only reminds us that we are all humans and humans are basically good. And that is our goal in life.
We need more people who can say and follow through with "my religion is to do GOOD, that’s it". I am completely on the same page with a previous speaker.
Vlatko, good job with these little colorful figures. Looks cute ;)))
my religion is to do GOOD, that's it.
1/5
this is not a documentary, this is a tragic comedy.
maher turns out to be an old lame who is off the leash and single-handedly rambles (1 pt.) against everything except judaism.
having outed himself as a biased and tame there are not many people left for us-american television to prove it's potential as an intellectual forum.
as in medieval times people seem to be afraid to trash religion on a large scale, especially in the usa?!
they are simply terrified of loosing power, whether if it's viewers (maher), or if it's votes ('nonsecular' countries such as the usa)?!
next time i expect a systematical deconstruction of all religious believes, even if this documentary takes 20 hours.
do it or leave it!
Ok. I'm not muslim but I just have something to say about people that go around criticizing Muhammad. Maybe he was crazy...who knows? Or maybe Jesus, Moses, Paul, and others were crazy too...again...who knows? But, I hate how people go around claiming that Muhammad was a pedophile. I really don't think he was. Yes, he married a six year old and had intercourse with her when she was nine. But, I'm sure that you will also note that he was NOT living in 2009! Back in his day...this was NORMAL! So he WAS NOT a pedophile. He was just following a social norm.
Bill Maher brought up an interesting point that I find interesting regarding that one lady that killed her children because she heard god telling her to do so in her head is deemed "crazy" because we all know that god didn't tell her (or did he?). However, so many of us blindly follow western relgions that preach that GOD TOLD these men individually his word. Can't they be deemed "crazy" too? I mean really...they heard "VOICES" in their heads. VOICES. The voice of god. The same VOICE that this woman that killed her children could have possibly heard too.
Weird.
im with mcmuffin up there the previous one above me :D thats all i gotta say..maybe all the religions in the world should sit down next to one another and form a single religion from each and everyothers best features. you know like they have in futurama.. you know with the space pope who is a lizard of some sort.. i
I wish this had of been done by someone smarter than Bill Maher or that he didn't try to Henny Youngman everything or something. I think this had the potential to be very good but due to a lack of execution ended up being just Ok
The nature of what we know about the beginnings of the universe make me inclined to the notion that there may be some sort of prime mover but I find modern organized religions are still far too rooted in superstition and intolerence and there seems to be something inherently counter-productive in one group of people thinking their way is better. We will never all agree on anything! ( Although I do have a theory on this) Heck me and my friends can't decide what movie to go to, how are we all going to agree on the same religion.
I've studied religions for awhile now and while by no means an expert I believe there are great teachings to be found in all of them if you can get past the stuff that was put in due to a particular historical context that no longer applies or what certain power elites have added to maintain their power base. People just need to let people be people.
Overall I thought it was a good documentary. A few criticisms:
- Maher implied that a 'gay gene' has been discovered (when he cut to that interview with Dr. Dean Hamer). As of now, there is no scientific consensus, that I am aware of, that a gay gene exists. Dr. Hamer did publish results in the 1990's that suggested that a genetic commonality exists amongst gays and that gay individuals are more likely to have gay maternal relatives. But others have failed to replicate these findings.
- I think in order to persuade those who are currently religious, Maher would have to adopt a less flippant attitude during his interviews. I would prefer it if he systematically countered each argument as opposed to laughing incessantly and patronizing his guests. People who are not religious will get a kick out of the movie but those who are, are unlikely to be persuaded.
To those of you who have made your minds that the Bible is a fairy tale, I say this; I used to believe the same thing. Unfortunately you have decided that it just feels right not to believe. Others have decided that it just feels right to...believe. To those in the first camp it is unfortunate that the amount of research required to change your mind is something few have the energy to do. To those in second camp, congratulations, you found out the easy way. To those in the first camp again, we are here after all. Start there....
Peace
Amazing Documentary. Yes, it is biased but it was a show to express an opinion, of course it was biased. He was a bit crass at times but, his basic point that we should doubt and not be fanatically disillusioned by a book or books, is intensely relevant to the world today. Seriously, if these prophetic religions stopped saying "these are the words of god do it or burn in hell" and started saying these are some good stories that you can learn a lot from, we would live in a much better world. Of course that would destroy the very basis of prophetic religion, which is to have the ability to inspire and sway the thoughts of a people, originally for a good reason, pretty much never a good reason after.
Oddly, prophetic religion is in a basic sense the cause of over pollution, since the followers of these sects killed off most of the natural religions followers (today the only surviving one with any significant size is Hinduism [Buddhism is simply Hinduism in another form]), thus the few people that actually cared about the earth even in a spiritual sense were wiped out. As well the vast majority of people who push prophetic religions (not all of course) have placed financial gain above people, and future generations. (the RC church, evangelists etc) With this in mind, people were never bothered to think of how they are affecting the world around them. "God gave us dominion over the world", so we can do whatever we want to it.
War, lol, is there ANY war in the world today that is not rooted in religion, and even if it is not "rooted" in religion. isn't religion used to push the issue and thus continue the war? ..so .. no need to continue that angle.
And Wow... III ... hehe I wish I could be that blunt.
Just a side note, no need to mention which religion or point fingers but think on this. In a modern society, if a girl is born and she is taught from birth that she is inferior to men, if she must "realize" that she cannot support herself because she is too mentally and physically weak, that if she makes a step outside of the will of whatever male is the dominant one in her life, she will be beaten and possibly killed, with the man feeling no recourse from the law.(and probably seeing this happen) If she can learn all she likes but only as much as her dominant male allows her. If she cannot wear what she likes because SHE would be responsible for inflaming a mans libido (by extension if she is raped wearing revealing clothes, that show her ankles, it is HER fault). If she is taught that no matter what she does in society she will never rise above a mans position no matter how stupid that man may be, and many more things.(and I speak only of the traditional part of it not the religious, which gets worse) Would that not be considered abuse, or even considered repression and to a point a type of slavery.
YET, simply because people say ... my religion says so, it is considered acceptable to the point where, if you are a woman outside of this realm of thought, entering an area where this type of thought prevails you MUST conform to this slavery or else being killed would be your fault ...
How is this acceptable?
Can someone create a pseudo "religion" while leading a country and say my type of people are better than all other types of people, thus it is right and godly for me to kill of all who do not agree with me and all who are not like me. Then have the world say, ok, no problem, he said his god said so, so he can do it. (I wonder how things are in eastern Europe these days)
Anyway just a thought and a comparison, I distinctly don't think the solutions are the same. But I hope that my point is understood.
Again I am simply drawing attention to something I think is wrong and comparing it to another situation in history, I am not in any way saying they are the exact same thing and definitely NOT saying that the solution to the previous is one that should work here ..
and btw. just because not all muslims are wearing bomb vests doesn't mean their religion is credible.
lets ignore all subsequent violence and go to the source muhammad.
muhammad married into a financially secure family and began throwing his opinions around. after plagarizing the old testament and claiming the earth is flat (Sura 18:83-89) he then married Aisha bint Abu Bakra a six year old child. in muhammads defense he waited until she was nine to consummate.
it was during this time that the majority of the koran was written.
so fine not all muslims are crazy but they do all wish peace upon the name of a pedophile.
not saying the judeo christian bible is in any way moral or credible just tossing out some history for you.
btw my references were all muslim sites.
to orchid:
i am only responding to 2 of your statements.
the first is that the documentary is biased. it is but it was made knowing that it would probably only reach bill maher fans. bill maher is an entertainer whose niche is observational humor.
the second is the portrayal of jewish beliefs. he ridicules them alongside christianity constantly.
while I think he is on to something, I feel like the documentary was biased, and the overall goal Maher has adopted, of hailing Atheists as these rational intelligent individuals and urging more people to turn their backs to religion, blaming pollution and war on religion, is skewed. If there was no religion, people would still find an excuse to fight. greed is one. I was very very shocked by his portrayal of Christians and Muslims versus his portrayal of Jews. I mean, if you are going to criticize ALL religions, don't just demonize one and hail another. You are buying into the very same hypocrisy you are railing against. I don't know. I think he should spend less time criticizing individuals and spend more time keeping religion out of governments and encourage those who do good in the world.He is definitely on to something.
I completely agree with Sally, Mr. Maher is another tool for false propaganda against muslims, by the way i am not muslim.
I liked the film but why did Bill Maher not exposed judaism?
I found this to be a very interesting film, purely by the thought it provokes in you. Even though Maher is obviously against religion, he doesn't go one-sided by interviewing a bunch of anti-religious people - he exposes the corruption of religion by allowing its followers to speak for themselves. I'm agnostic, but the man dressed as Jesus in Holy Land made me think just as hard as Maher's commentary. Very good film, and it's true - if we don't settle the differences or just get rid of religion altogether, we're only accelerating our trip to doom.
This movie is hilarious!!! It is so true that most of the believers can't even answer the question of why they believe in Bible and Christ.. Come, on!! Just give me a good argument and I will believe. All they can say: because it is. I mean, even 5 year old kid can argue better than that.
Well, the difference between where you go after you die is Heaven or hell. Thats in the bible. The bible is the final and distinct and uncompromising truth.
the best is when they went into the dome of the rock and all the muslims went mad. They also said they did not allow Jews in or non muslims. The entire film crew was Jewish, they deny the temple mount, but showed it to Bill, lol.
Jay is CRAZY
I think this FILM was real funny, Maher gave exposure to very important topics, but its really no trouble to tell he's been influenced by not only the American Film industry but also American propaganda in general about the realities of Middle Eastern faith.
Whoa...attack of the killer run-on!
religion in the 21st century what a joke makes me puke when I see them banging their head to the wall,believing that killing others give them special status ,that a woman was created from some adam rib whoa IDIOTS CRIMINALS getting rich preaching from books that are just tall tales bible ,koran .......
LOL, Jay, you sound like some of those folks that Maher interviewed...get your head out of the sand buddy.
Terrible jokes mixed with false information that takes people's words and twists them around with out allowing them a response to the text presented makes this movie a waste of time. Banging your face against the computer screen is a better use of your time than watching this hour and 50 minutes of stupidity presented by Bill Maher.
Awful film...
tubular movie.