Religulous: a play by play...

Alright, so I'm watching Religulous. Being that my tv screen is my computer screen, I won't see what I type as I watch this movie... Unless it sucks, then we'll resort to the picture in picture dealy. Yey technology!

Ok, here we go.

FYI, lotsa spoilers. I go through the whole movie as I watched it. Ok? Ok.

And DISCLAIMER: the opinions expressed in this here blog are mine and only mine. If anybody should have a problem with the quotes and or content in this blog post from a copyright/legal standpoint, feel free to let me know. I have no ads on my blog and I have, like, three readers, so this isn't being massively distributed or anything. It's just for fun. I've tried to get the quotes right wherever there are quotes and where there aren't quotes, assume paraphrasing. No animals were harmed in the typing of this blog post.

*presses play*

Is it wrong that I'm already looking at all these producers and sponsors and wondering if I should ever support them again? Yeah, unbiased, my ass. Sorry already.

He starts out about self-fulfilling prophesy and the end of the world as described by religion. And you know the first thing to come to mind is always nuclear weapons, but they won't destroy the world. They'll destroy the cities and human infrastructures, maybe. They might kill the animals and destroy life on earth. But we humans don't yet have the ability to actually destroy the world itself. Just sayin'.

He says religion is too easy because it tells you what happens when you die, which would otherwise be something we'd absolutely freak out about. I've already blogged about that. Being agnostic for 28 years, I never was worried about death or where I'd go when I died. Even now, I don't worry about death itself. So my seeking God had nothing to do with that, really, and if anything, believing in heaven and hell is a lot scarier than believing it just ends.

He set out to make this "documentary" to "understand" why people who are otherwise rational can believe on Sunday that they're drinking the blood of a 2000 year old God. (The quotes are mine, not his. I'm not sure he set out to understand, nor set out to make an attempt at an unbiased documentary... if that's at all possible. If he did set out to do both, at some point in the "documentary" he would have explained that the blood was symbolic. It's not real blood. Nobody's that moronic. We all know what blood tastes like...)

I used to really like Bill Maher when he had his political late night show back in the 90s. I thought he was smart, really good at arguing and had a lot of knowledge. Somewhere between there and now, he decided that his knowledge was God. Of course, that's my opinion and it is probably wrong. But like Tim Keller says, sometimes, when people are successful in one endeavor of their life, they let that sort of arrogance of accomplishment permeate throughout the rest of their life, making them feel successful and all-knowing in all aspects, not just the one. Bill Maher, having mastered the art of negotiation and rationalization, seems to believe he can rationalize away God. But you know, from the perspective of somebody who had done that as far back as I can remember, rationalizing something away doesn't make it stop existing, nor does it actually constitute exploration of it. To go into learning when you already know all the answers sets you up for failure in learning and success in maintaining your current point of view.

But I digress...

He gives us a little history. He grew up in a churchy family, but his mom didn't go to church (she was Jewish, dad was Catholic).
Religion wasn't relevant to his life.
Superman was and baseball was. (Gives you an idea of the gospel message vs religious message effect...)
Quit church at 13.
Mom says it was because of the church's opinion on birth control.

Maher: What do we believe?
his mom: I don't know the answer.
Maher: That's my answer.

So he's agnostic.

Virgin birth story came only from two gospels and the bible was written by men. That's a reason to doubt its truth. The way I've learned it, the gospels do differ, they were written at different times by different points of view and they don't cover identical aspects of Jesus' life. The fact that they are flawed because they were written by men though clashes with the idea that God guided the men in their writing. In a way, I believe God did guide them because the writing is way too complex (imo) to have been written by people of their education level. Then again, they might have had ghost writers- who knows? Either way, the fact that some details aren't in one gospel or another, to me, is not a reason the entire gospel is debunked.

"Why is faith good?" he asks. It's not about it being good. We all do have faith in something. We do. It's undeniable simply because we don't have the answers to everything and not only that, but the things to which we feel we do know the answers to rely on faith a lot too. We trust the information that is given to us is true. We have faith that gravity will be the same tomorrow as it is today. Why would it be? Because it's a constant? Why is it a constant? Because it relies on other constants? Everything is just so and our survival depends on it staying that way. We wake up every morning with faith that the sun will not burn out, with faith that we have enough knowledge about the consistency of the sun that we can predict when it will burn out. Right? We do have faith. In a lot of things. We just don't realize it apart from religion.

"If you're being good just to save your ass..." he says to the room full of churchy men. If that's the only reason they're doing it, you're right- that's religion, not the gospel.

He says he's promoting doubt. The other guys are promoting certainty. He's a proponent of agnosticism. A preacher of agnosticism, if you will...

But does doubt include doubting your doubts? Or is it just limited by the first level of doubt?

Being without faith is a luxury, he says. How can smart people believe? If we were in trouble, we'd have to rely on faith, but because he in particular is not, he has the luxury of being faithless. Luxury. Interesting phrasing.

"Thank you for being Christ-like and not just Christian," he says to the church folk in that tiny church. What he means, I'll infer, is "thank you for being gospel-centered and Jesus-centered rather than religious." Instead, he says something like, "thank you for being like Christ and not a follower of his teachings." It just goes to show how tarnished the "Christian" title is. So, so tarnished. And yet, Jesus... isn't.

Corruption in the church- obviously, there is disgusting corruption in multiple disgusting ways. All I have to say about that is when you create an environment of trust, somebody will always be in line to take advantage. Always.

"What does it say about religion when you can be a minister at ten [years old]?"
In theory, the Bible says little kids can be saved, and being that they can know the gospel, they probably could share it. But kids are not leaders. They need leadership. They need fierce guidance. What does it say about religion? Honestly, whoever ordained that kid needs a headcheck. That really is religion in the worst sense of the word, imo.

"I think I could find more morality in the Rick James Bible."
Yes, the Bible's got some bad people in it and some pretty gory and twisted stories. But Mr Bill Maher (you're not a doctor either, are you? Just checkin'. I don't want to be disrespectful...), Christianity is following Jesus. Try that first. Live by the "red letters" and see how that goes for you. Just for fun. And then once you nail those, explore the rest.

And now we're onto the gay thing.

No, the Bible doesn't say there's no gay gene. *shakes head*

"reformed" gay guy: They're people who are really not complete in who they are as men or women.
Bill Maher: That's quite a judgment as a Christian.
rgg: It's not a judgment.

Well, yes, it is, and it's not a judgment just as a Christian, but as a busted up, broken human being. Black kettles and pots and such.

Ch 4:
What the hey are they laughing about? I dunno. Inside joke? On both sides? Dunno.

Ch 5:
When he got broken up with as a teenager or something, he sought out some sort of "imaginary" friend out of desperation. He considers that seeking God, I guess.

One old guy tells lame-ass stories about his version of miracles (it rained?) that were answers his prayers-- the thing is, God shows you Himself in a way where you will see Him if you ask to see Him. If I tell you my stories of how I saw God or what I saw God through, you'd find them lame also. They are lame. But they touched me, just like how my favorite movies touched me and are ridiculous to other people. Like the movie "17 Again". I consider myself smart, and I can in no way rationalize why I adore that movie the way I do. It's a ridiculous and predictable movie, but somehow, the feeling it gives me changes me and brings back a childish idealism into my life right now. Other people who've watched it get a twinge of something nearly insignificant, but it moves me. It makes no sense, but then that's what emotions are- they're provoked, they're evoked, they're spontaneous reactions. Relationship with God is a personal thing. Nobody can tell you how to do it, what to expect from it or how God will show up in your life. It's something you have to explore on your own and if God decides to open your heart, you'll probably find Him through something lame and cheesy that nobody else understands but that moves you tremendously and profoundly. It's just how it goes.

But yeah, that old guy was a bit of a doof. I'll give Bill Maher that. Even though he probably wouldn't have made it into the documentary had he not been a doof.

If after death, we go to a better place, why don't we just kill ourselves? he asks.
Aside from the fact that that's kind of "playing God" and that it is totally not Christian because it brings suffering to those we love meaninglessly, because it goes against Jesus' message of preaching the gospel to the world and because it's a completely selfish act... Um... What was the question?

Now, we're onto God and state.
Personally, I am of the opinion that when Jesus said give to Caesar what is his, he separated church and state. He didn't come in to radically change the government as everybody had expected. He came to radically change hearts and those hearts in turn change the world. Not with hate, but with love. So chances are, I'll probably agree with Bill Maher on this section of the movie...

"That is not a message I can ever see that Jesus in the Bible, even when he was in a bad mood, would say."
Exactly, Bill Maher! What Jesus says and intends and what "Christians" do are not the same message. They should be, but they aren't. By looking to Christians to decide whether Jesus is worthwhile, you're looking at a busted up review of an image of Jesus through their warped eyes and twisted perspective. Not a good way to learn something important, I'd say.

16% of the population has no religious affiliation and compared to other minority groups which are smaller in size, get nothing.
What are they supposed to get? As an agnostic, I never expected anything. I didn't care. Call it Christmas, call it Hanukkah, whatever you want to call it, go for it. Part of my responsibility in maintaining my own religious freedom is to grant others theirs.

How about we take mother's day instead since that's a touchy subject for me? Every commercial on tv around mother's day implies that everybody has a mom who loves them dearly. It's a load of crap and it makes me want to throw things at my tv. *shrug* I get offended by the implication that everybody has a mom who loves them dearly. But so what? Some people have a mom, some people don't. It's just not my holiday. Same with single people on Valentine's day. In my case and in the Valentine's case, it draws attention to something we're lacking. When I was agnostic, I wasn't lacking anything. Maybe that's why I was ok with Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah and Passover. Forgive me if I don't know the words for holidays outside Christianity and Judaism. They're what I grew up with. "Festivus for the rest of us." hehe.

What about the ten commandments? First four are about God and his jealousy.
Don't include child abuse, torture, rape.
We're in a different culture.
[All that isn't in quotes because I'm not sure what the direct quotes were and I'm not going back again. :D]
So basically he's saying the Bible is outdated and the commandments don't cover the real baddies. Technically, I'd say a lot of it is covered by adultery, idolatry and um, murder, but the rest is covered in the NT pretty clearly by the love thy neighbor commandment and the whole "love one another as I have loved you" part... But yeah, point taken.

Then they argue that even without religion, we'd just know that killing is wrong. We don't need religion to tell us that. (I think that was with the senator?)
Actually, in Tim Keller's "The Reason For God", he argues just that- that our sense of justice stems from us being image bearers of God, that we are set apart from animals simply because we do have that innate quality that comes from such a close tie to God, who is just. That idea, as I've blogged about before, goes against the whole survival of the fittest idea of evolution because in protecting the weakest and helping them to survive while potentially putting us at risk is not beneficial to our own survival and yet, we do it because we have this yearning for justice.

He goes on to talk about how the US is the most religious of the industrialized modern nations. (Ch 6 on this DVD.)
"A recent study found that among 32 countries more people in this country doubted evolution than any other country on that list, except I think it was Turkey."
How come Canada wasn't on that list? I paused it twice and couldn't find it. And not to beat a dead horse, but believing in evolution is having faith in evolution and faith that the scientists behind the evidence were truthful and didn't hide anything or alter anything. It's believing in something you didn't and probably can't prove for yourself. Most of us don't have explicit proof of evolution from beginning to end in our own hands. Evolution is still considered a theory. It feels right, yes, and the evidence points to it being right but in the end, it feels right nonetheless.

Anyhoo...

Random Bible-thumpy museum guy basically says the scientists that are saying that evolution happened are sinners going against God's word or whatever and Bill Maher answers, "All these scientists are sinners?" and the guy shrugs and is out of answers. So lame. Probably trick editing, but even if it wasn't, yes, they're sinners. This museum dude is a sinner. You're a sinner. I'm a sinner. The point is we're all sinners. But that's not why the scientists believe in evolution. Facts are facts, right? :D

Ok, so then he has Father George Coyne, PhD from the Vatican Observatory in a full priesty wardrobe talking about how the Bible and modern science occurred in two different eras of history. The Bible contains no science, he says. It's probably the smartest thing so far. He just forgot to say that that doesn't imply the two can't coexist. And that little timeline they put at the bottom of the screen is off a little too. Aristotle, Plato and a few other BC scientists and philosophers did sort through some scientific things in Biblical times. And in my opinion, the Bible does have more science in it than we give it credit for. It's not a science manual, but within texts, there are some things that are scientifically true, information they may or may not have access to at the time of those writings (I haven't researched enough to know specifically other than the bone marrow issue I had with Job a while back).

But of course, he has to intertwine the logical explanations of Father Coyne with the completely illogical ramblings of that guy with the museum where displays mix the humans with dinosaurs. Obviously.

"That's really the Vatican," he says, standing in front of it. "I ought to know. I just got thrown out of it. [..] Apparently, I've been on the Catholic shitlist for a while."
Aren't we all? hehehehe.

hehe...

"Does that look anything like anything Jesus Christ had in mind?" (still about the Vatican)
He talks to Father Reginald Foster, Senior Vatican Priest, and he agrees that the Vatican doesn't match Jesus' message at all. He's obviously not a religious priest, pointing out how Italians were surveyed about who they pray to when they have problems and Jesus was number six on the list. "Talk about your cafeteria Catholics," he says. Who knows what he really believes, but he did engage Bill Maher, which is more than any other representative so far (aside from Father Coyne, I guess).

Eek! Ben Folds! Oh, bad memory music. Why, Bill, why?! Yeah, so it's fitting, but still! Bad memories. Kind of funny that the Ben Folds song Jesusland reminds me of a time when I got trampled by a nominal, evil "Christian". Go figure.

Time for the Jesus funland part or whatever that theme park is. I don't know how people can dress up as Jesus and be ok with that. I'd be so afraid of my every move.

Why doesn't God obliterate the Devil and evil? Maher asks the fake Jesus.
Good question. Christians like to make up a lot of answers for that one. I haven't really liked any of them enough to stick with me so far (the answers, I mean, not the Christians who make them up).

Bill: What was the Holocaust? Why was that good?
Jesus actor: God has a plan for that. Maybe it's to-
Bill: I wonder if you'd feel that way if you were one of the people being pushed into an oven.
JA: It's like explaining to an ant how a tv works. God's ways are so much higher than ours.

If God is good and the Holocaust was obviously inexplicably, disgustingly evil, why would we assume that that's God's work? What if we do have responsibility for ourselves and our actions in this world? What if our evil, our selfishness, our greed and so on and so on are not Godly? What if our wars that we wage against ourselves, whether we claim them to be in God's name or not, are our wars and only our wars? What if, like a kid who has to learn things the hard way, we learn things the hard way on a proportionately massive scale of brutality? Evil done in the name of God is still evil and if God is not evil, it (evil) is not God, it's not about God and it's not for God.

Maher totally makes fun of the Jesus actor guy for relating the Trinity to water, as in water can have three forms- water, ice and steam. I think that bit got to him a little. You can see it in his face as the pretend Jesus is explaining it. It's kinda funny. He's so awkward and obviously blown away by the explanation. So of course, he has to totally bash it in the car afterward. :D He did say it was brilliant though right before bashing it, you know, to keep himself seemingly humble. It was fun to see the actor Jesus say something so worthwhile that didn't get edited out though. I wonder why it didn't.

We're then presented with the story of Horus from the Book of the Dead written in 1280BC, whose life is identical to Jesus', right down to the resurrection on the third day. Of course, I didn't know that story (hey, newbie... I'm still learning here...) so I looked it up and found this bright yellow thingy. Dunno if it's accurate or not, but it does have a link at the bottom to the Book of the Dead. But I'll read it more later. This movie is taking way longer to watch than I intended. :D

Yeah, so the tourist people taking pics of the bloody Jesus is a little weird.

Cut to crazy folks, including dressed up scientologist, Bill Maher. :D

Now onto Mormons. Um... No comment on that. Hoooo.

Gotta get me some of them protective undies... Um.

Neurotheologist guy Dr Newberg says when we pray, meditate or speak in tongues (wtf), there are specific changes that occur in the brain. And then they show a crazy lady and that farting preacher (youtube) guy (who, I'm sorry, needs a fierce beating).

Rabbi guy who is anti-Zion totally takes over the conversation. Very pushy. Maher leaves. I wonder if he'll interview a real, normal Jew later [not really].

Rabbi Strauss explains Sabbath.
Bill: It does seem that you are, to a degree, trying to outsmart God.
Rabbi: If the lawmaker never makes a mistake and still there's a loophole there, why is that loophole there? To be used in a situation of need.
subtitle: Because the people who wrote the Bible fucked up?
hehe, that's so not Christian as far as I know. :D Not the swearing, I mean how squeezing through loopholes is a heart issue if I ever heard one. :D

Back to the neurotheologist to say anybody who has heard the voice of God is crazy- if people who hear voices are crazy.

Oh, no, bring on the crazy evangelists... I hope Matt Chandler doesn't watch this part. Chapter 12 on the DVD. Don't watch it, Chandler!

The guy says he's Jesus. And doesn't believe in hell or sin. Oh, dear. That guy's gonna get some wrath... Look out!

Maher asks why God, all-powerful God, chooses one person to convey His message rather than just telling everybody. Dunno. Good question. Probably because of the whole seeking thing. Kinda like how when a good-looking person adores you suddenly, you question their sanity. We like the hunt. We like to believe we're in control and act independently.

He goes on to say he wasn't born skeptical and that he used to make deals with God all the time and was glad he had "God" in his life. (His finger quotes not mine.) Um. Is that belief in God? Or is that wishful thinking? "If you give me this, I'll believe in you." It's our way of controlling God and surprisingly, it doesn't work. Go figure.

Reverend Ferre van Beveren of the cannibis ministry says his ministry is not based on weed but uses weed to open up the spirit or something?

Onto a filmmaker who was assassinated for making a film which was considered offensive by Muslims. And a rapper-type guy who seems to be a bit of a know-it-all which clashes, obviously, with know-it-all Bill Maher...

Then Geert Wilders, Dutch parliament member, discusses Muslims... Um. Scary dude. You know those guys who think they're right, but are really bigots? That.

And then onto the two gay Muslim guys, who Bill makes awkward and uncomfortable in about thirty seconds (he brings up anal, like, right away).

Back to the weed guy for a joke...

Not sure what the fast jumping around is about. I guess his beef is more with Christianity and free speech than Islam? He can't seem to focus in this slicey part of the movie.

Now he's wearing a white hat in a mosque in Amsterdam, asking about the violence in Islam.

Back to the weed guy for more laughs.

And then onto the mosque built on top of Solomon's temple (I think?) where Jews are forbidden entry. That part was actually interesting. A little history and culture clashing that I didn't know about.

He makes an analogy relating religion to how the English maintain a sort of crop circle of a naked dude on a hill even though they don't know what it means and then jumps back to Christians talking about the end of the world. He believes that religion's prophesies about the end of the world might ultimately cause the end of the world.

His ending thoughts:

"Religion must die in order for people to live."

"Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It's nothing to brag about. And those who preach faith and enable and elevate it are our intellectual slaveholders keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction. Religion is dangerous because it allows humans who don't have all the answers to think that they do.
[...]
The only appropriate attitude for man to have about the big questions is not the arrogant certitude that is the hallmark of religion but doubt. Doubt is humble and that's what man needs to be considering that human history is a litany of getting shit dead wrong.
[...]
This is why rationalist people, anti-religionists, must end their timidity and come out of the closet and assert themselves."


Ok. First, Bill Maher has to read Tim Keller's writings on faith, because imo, he's asking us to have faith in doubt instead of religion. Faith is faith. Faith answers our questions about the unknown, he says, which is what makes it easy. But saying, "I'm ok with not knowing the answers," is an equally faith-based assertion that also is a conclusion about the unknown. It may not seem that way, but as an agnostic, I felt far, far more certain about the world than I do now as a Christian. Things were more certain because I made them so. I was far more in control of my life, my destiny and everything else could be explained away by nature's chaos, by life being unfair, or by life itself.

When you're agnostic, people get cancer because that's just how life is. Our DNA messes up somehow, either because of our lifestyle, chemical exposure, radiation exposure, etc, and we grow tumors instead of "natural" human flesh. As an agnostic, I did not believe that we grew tumors to show us something about ourselves, about the world, about faith and about love. Tumors were just glitches in biological processes. Nothing more.

As an agnostic, the world was here for my viewing pleasure. Mountains towering above me, the ocean crashing at my feet, the stars flickering all around me- all of it was just kind of accidental and beautiful. It was nature. It was part of this chaotic universe we live in. Chaotic in spite of its necessary constants all lining up to allow life to form. It wasn't meant to stir up a feeling of eternity in my soul. It wasn't meant to ignite a passion and deep desire for the eternal and infinite. It wasn't meant to point out the place deep inside me where the innate sense of purpose and meaning lay trapped in a shroud of cynicism and independence.

Agnosticism, as I've said before in the blog, was far, far easier than Christianity.

And I think Bill Maher's little eternal place deep in his soul knows that. While he mocked the virgin birth, how His teen years weren't recorded and maybe a little of the walking on water, he didn't mock Jesus' teachings. If anything, he mocked religions abuse and lack of Christianity. He put down Christianity often for not following Jesus, but he never, as far as I saw, took a jab at Jesus Himself. It makes me wonder what would happen if Bill Maher sat down with a gospel-centered, anti-religion Christian, like, say, Matt Chandler or Tim Keller or Tyler Jones. It makes me wonder if he, like me, was exposed to the "Just Jesus" type of faith, what would happen?

Jesus has a radical way of moving through people's lives no matter how atheist or agnostic they are. As Tyler Jones used to say, Jesus is other. He's different in ways you can't even describe. And somehow, I really think that deep down, Bill Maher knows that, but isn't brave enough to explore it. Imagine if he found Jesus at this point?

He'd be, like, the next Paul. It'd totally ruin his life...

(For the better...)