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Religion See other Religion Articles Title: In ‘Religulous,’ Bill Maher skewers faith Sunday, Sep 14, 2008 In ‘Religulous,’ Bill Maher skewers faith By ROBERT W. BUTLER The Kansas City Star Bill Maher is not a fan of religion. Except, of course, as a rich source of laughs. “For a comedian there’s no broader target than religion,” Maher explained in a recent telephone conversation. “When you’ve got people who believe in talking snakes, raining frogs and a man living in a whale, you’ve hit the comedy jackpot.” Maher’s audience is familiar with his arguments against faith, a recurring topic in his comedy. But in his new feature film “Religulous” (opening Oct. 3) Maher hits the road to discuss religion with a U.S. senator, several famous evangelists, truckers who hold services in the back of a semi and an actor who plays Jesus Christ at a religious theme park. In a fall movie season that leans toward the bland, the satiric “Religulous” is guaranteed to offend some, perhaps many, folks. Folks like the burly trucker who stormed out of a meeting between the comic and some over-the-road brethren. Maher had dared to compare religion to selling an invisible product. “That guy could have killed me. Definitely,” Maher recalled. “We had a number of situations similar to that. This is just a topic that gets people going.” “Religulous” was directed by Larry Charles of “Borat” fame, who specializes in creating scenarios in which unsuspecting people become the butt of cinematic ridicule. “Making this movie was nothing but guile,” Maher said. “In that sense it was a dirty trick. Otherwise nobody would have talked to me. “The working title was ‘A Spiritual Journey.’ We didn’t tell anybody, especially in America, that I was in the movie. “Larry and the crew would arrange interviews, set up the lights and camera, warm up the subject with a pre-interview. Once it was all lit and they were ready, I’d come in.” Maher rejects the adage that you should never discuss religion or politics with strangers. Quite the opposite — he thinks we should be challenging our faith (which he describes as belief without proof) at every opportunity. “Look, I’m not trying to mandate that people think anything in particular. I’m just suggesting there’s a different way to think. That’s just free speech. But when it comes to religion, free speech has been off-limits for many years. “Now the Bush administration has done all it could to make religion a part of government. You can’t let that happen. You could say that George W. Bush allowed this movie to be made.” At one point in “Religulous” Maher examines the religious beliefs — perhaps “doubts” is a better word — of people like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. “If anything is clear about our beginnings as a country it’s that the Founding Fathers wanted to separate religion from government. Some were Christians, but most were deists — they used generic terms like ‘the Creator.’ And they never mention Jesus Christ in any of their founding documents.” Some audience members at early screenings of “Religulous” have protested that the film focuses on irrational believers. “That’s not true,” Maher said. “Everybody we talked to was reasonable. They’re normally functioning people. “But if you’re religious, it means you believe in some crazy stuff. And at that point you don’t look reasonable. People think we sought out crazy people and ignored this mythical rational religious person. “My point is that if you believe this stuff you are crazy, at least in one area of your life.” Maher points to his interview with Francis S. Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute and a believer. “Collins is a brilliant man,” Maher said, “who told me that the Gospels were based on eyewitness accounts. And when I argued that the earliest account of Jesus’ life was written down decades after his death, Collins said, well, it was 30 or 40 years. That’s almost eyewitness.” Maher doesn’t just pick on Christians. In the film he flies to Jerusalem, to England, the Vatican and even Amsterdam to examine the beliefs and practices of the locals. “Larry wanted us to go to Saudi Arabia. I said, ‘Larry, we can’t go because they don’t let Jews into Saudi Arabia.’ So he suggested going in disguised as women. “Can you imagine what kind of trouble we’d be in if they found it was a couple of Jewish guys in those beekeeper suits? It’s one thing being thrown out of the Vatican, which we were, but it’s another to be beheaded.” Born to a Catholic father and a Jewish mother, Maher was raised a Catholic until his father left the church. Only later did he learn his mother was Jewish. A religious education didn’t make him a believer, but it did give him ideas about the nature of faith. “It may be hard for people to believe, but I’m not anti-Jesus,” Maher said. “Thomas Jefferson had this great idea … he rewrote the Gospels, throwing out the miracles and theology and just leaving Jesus’ philosophy. “Jesus was one of the great role models and a true revolutionary. His idea that the powerless and meek had real dignity … that was radical. It still is today.” Maher said it has taken 50 years for him to find a religious/philosophical stance he’s comfortable with … and he still works on it. “I didn’t go overnight from a child to a rational person. I was still dealing with this stuff when I was 40. Even as an adult when I got in trouble it was, ‘God, if you get me out of this one I’ll never mess up again…’ “Now I say that I don’t know. I’m not proclaiming anything for sure. “Well, I take that back. What I do know for sure is that people who think they know for sure are full of it.”
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