This film follows Bill Maher around as he interviews some colorful religious leaders or people who are involved in some wacky aspect of religion (such as a guy who portrays Jesus in a Holy Land theme park in Florida, or a Latin American man who thinks he is the second coming of Jesus). And ultimately he just wants to have his questions answered about the nature of faith and religion. He wants to stir up doubt in the institution of religion, which is steeped in certitude. He asks the question: what is so great about faith, which is meant to be blind and unquestioning, over rationality and reasoning? But this is not all serious stuff. Maher breaks it up with some on-screen kidding, a playfulness that at times made me laugh out loud. It is hard to listen to some of the people in here without wondering how anyone takes them seriously--like the people in the Creationism Museum or the church that advocates pot-smoking--but many do. My favorite part was Maher dressing up and getting up in Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park and spouting off crazy stuff while onlookers smile and laugh
meanwhile the subtitles show that everything he is saying is a tenet of Scientology. He sums it up at the end in nice little monologue that comes out on the side of a little old-fashioned healthy doubt. Maybe I just liked this because he's preaching to the choir, but I would really like to know how some religious people I know might react to it.
Review of Religulous
