Religulous

Now I'm a fan of Bill Maher's HBO show which I find to be one of the best, most honest commentaries on these crazy times, but watching Religulous, I kept wishing that he would stop talking and let his interview subjects get a word in edgewise. He goes after most of them like an attack dog, spouting his opinions and accusatory questions with only brief pauses for fumbling answers. He even has additional screen titles (pointing out when the interviewees are particularly wrong) to help him further belittle his subjects while they struggle to speak. As a result, I mainly came out of the film feeling sorry for his subjects.

Which is no mean feat for him to pull off since I personally completely agree with Maher in principle. In my opinion, his point is sound, namely that religions are founded on stories of questionable accuracy which at one time helped people explain the world around them but which are now unnecessary in the age of modern science and now simply fuel greed, hate and intolerance. And his subjects would have proven this point for him just by trying to explain themselves in an uninterrupted manner. For instance, I was very eager to hear the minister who used to engage in homosexual behaviors (but he was never gay), explain how he thinks a person can be coerced into a heterosexual lifestyle but Bill Maher kept shouting at the man and never really let him speak. It would have also been interesting to hear more from the minister in Florida who believes he is the second coming of Christ but again, he could only squeeze in short answers amidst all the sneering questions. Indeed, with the exception of the actor playing Jesus at the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, who momentarily quieted Maher with his trinity as water analogy, all of the subjects struggled for time to explain their literal, religious beliefs. Had Maher allowed them more time to struggle with the answers instead, the movie and its message would have been much enhanced. In the future Bill, stick to the show.