Bill Maher's Cinematic Endeavor

Thus states Larry Charles about his new documentary starring Bill Maher.

Let us face the facts, now is the time for any and all atheists who are so inclined to join the ranks of the Neo sect of atheism and let it all hang out. This sect is rude, crude, belligerent, belittling and let us not forget illogically fallacious, historically ignorant, committed to the "science" de jour and as good old fashioned wrong as ever. Seriously, if you are an atheist of this sect and you have not made at least a few million denarius ranting against "religion" then you are doing something wrong.

If you are an atheist who is not an adherent of this sect then I am sorry to break it to you but another very, very poor example of "atheism" is on its way.

DISCLAIMER: I have not viewed the documentary that I am about to mention. Thus, I will only be commenting on the actual contents in as much as they have been revealed by the director and star.

Bill Maher is the star of a new documentary entitled "Religulous," which was due to be released on Easter for maximum controversy. Bill Maher and Mr. Charles have teamed up in order to travel the world and answer questions such as:

"What do you believe, why do you believe it, and why do you need to believe it? Can we be good without God? Is religion a calling or a mental illness? Were Jesus, Moses and Mohammed prophets and visionaries, or crackpot nut cases who today would be put away? Is religion an obsessive-compulsive disorder?"1

"_a raunchy, rude, irreverent, outrageous, and shocking nonfiction film about the greatest fiction ever told. Set to the rhythms of 'Sympathy for the Devil'_"2

The New York Post referred to Religulous as "_the most sacrilegious movie ever made."3 And one which "_is poised to void on every faith. Any faith."4 Of course, one can only wonder, although a good guess may suffice, if Bill Maher will tackle his own religion, atheism. This would have been most interesting when you consider that, for instance, the documentary intends on besmirching the concept of a virgin birth. I freely admit to taking some license here since I do not know Bill Maher's particular views on the origins of life and so I will attribute to him a view that is likely to be accurate of a generic atheist view. Picture this if you will: Bill Maher will belittle the concept of a virgin birth while, at the same time, believing that all life on earth was uncaused by spontaneous abiogenesis. How is the concept of a virgin birth any more preposterous than the concept of life coming from a swamp being struck by lightning? At least with a virgin birth you have a woman, an egg and a womb involved, this is half of the equation. Bill Maher could choose any of the utterly failed materialistic theories regarding life's origins and the conclusion is the same (see here for a variety of examples). On the one hand you have the claim of a divine miracle and on the other, the claim of a materialistic miracle, which Prof. Richard Dawkins prefers to term "luck."
Prof. Dawkins has written:

"Chance, luck, coincidence, miracle_events that we commonly call miracles are not supernatural, but are part of a spectrum of more-or-less improbable natural events. A miracle, in other words, if it occurs at all, is a tremendous stoke of luck."5

And what of his view of origins?:

"It is as though, in our theory of how we came to exist, we are allowed to postulate a certain ration of luck."6

See my essay The Gap Filler where I provide examples of how atheist, scientists and atheist scientists fill the gaps in our knowledge with time, chance, matter and even imagination, luck and yes, even faith.

Well, there is something to be said about pandering to the tastes and intellectual capacity of your audience. I wonder if he is aware that Mick Jagger, of the Rolling Stones who wrote the song "Sympathy for the Devil," has stated that whenever they play that song something odd always happens. Such was the case when the Rolling Stones hired the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang to do security for their Altamont Speedway concert in 1969 where a Hell's Angels stabbed a young African American to death. In fact, while the original song was being recorded a lamp in the studio caught fire.

But this is a mere aside. Mr. Charles refers to the God of the Bible as living "in space" and "in the sky" and states that after Jesus dies, "_he rises from the dead and flies into space to be with his father (who is also him.)"7 Of course, such stunning ignorance of the very subject about which he will be releasing a documentary may not be at all surprising. The neo-atheist sect is not concerned with accuracy but with detonation of emotionally charged grenades. After all what is one to expect from "raunchy, rude, irreverent, outrageous, and shocking"? Absolutely nothing but millions of dollars for him, laughs from the neos and retorts from the "religious."

I was not at all surprised that Mr. Charles directed the documentary since he is most recently known for the movie "Borat." "Religulous" is really Borat part II since Borat was a movie about a man pretending to be interested in learning new things about other cultures (the USA in this case) but was really only interested in pure mockery.

Bill Maher has stated:

"Since starting on Politically Incorrect in 1993, it has been my pleasure over the last decade and a half to make organized religion one of my favorite targets. I often explained to people, 'I don't need to make fun of religion, it makes fun of itself.' And, then I go ahead and make fun of it too, just for laughs."8

Bill Maher refers to himself as an apatheist in that he is apathetic about God's existence. Although how apathetic can he be? He devotes comedy routines, portions of his show, interviews and a documentary about God and religion. Perhaps God is only important enough to mock. Well Bill Maher, it's been done, done to death in fact, to death.

It is interesting to note that he commits an utterly typical fallacy. For example, he states that he does not know what happens after we die and then extrapolates from himself to everyone of the 8 billion people on earth. He fallaciously reasons thusly: I do not know and since I do not know no one knows and anyone who claims to know is somehow in error.

This will certainly be an interesting project. The difficulty will be to take this documentary seriously. I realize that it is meant to be "funny" and that is precisely what is so neo-atheist about it. They want to score points against religion while being funny. Therefore, on the one hand they can claim to have scored point yet, on the other hand they can get away with fallacies by stating that they set out to be funny. This reminds me of Dan Brown who claimed that "The Da Vinci Code" was historically accurate but then decided to leave it to the scholars when people came out of the woodworks proving him inaccurate in every conceivable way. Hit and run_all the way to the bank.

I could also see people committing the ad hominen based on the fact that even if we grant that religious faith is fallacious, if the alternative is to be like Bill Maher then, "No thanks."
Let us imagine that it is proved beyond doubt that any and all belief in God and the supernatural is nothing but a consoling delusion. If the alternative is to take of the worldview that characterizes the neo-atheists then I think that I would choose the consoling delusion. Why would I give up my perfectly good morals and love for my neighbor to become a belligerent, belittling and arrogant bully who makes a living by besmirching people?

Let us face it, he is certainly not the best, or even mediocre, example of anything that could even be imagined to be decent. He thinks that incestuous pedophilia is hilarious (see here), he rejoices when people such as Jerry Falwell die (as did Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens), he likens public breast feeing to public masturbation, etc., etc., etc.
My heart truly does go out to Bill Maher because he is obviously a very, very troubled man. He is an example of a person who is so twisted and perverse that everything that he sees, hears or thinks about becomes mangled. The reality of what he is seeing, hearing or thinking about becomes distorted when it is filtered through the darkness of his worldview. This is evidenced by the fact that when he considers fathers who are so concerned about their own little daughter's purity, mental and physical wellbeing that they take them to purity balls, father daughter dances, etc. he perverts it and claims that "then dad has sex with her in the car" (this is followed by roaring laughter and applause from his audience). He sees a woman nourishing her beautiful little baby and he thinks about people manipulating their very own genitalia public-wise. How sad it must be to be so blinded and consumed by such darkness.

There are three interesting videos that I would recommend you watch in the order that I place them here:

Maher Making New Documentary Movie, "Religulous"

Bill Maher - APATHEIST - on Scarborough Country - 1 of 2

Bill Maher - APATHEIST - on Scarborough Country - 2 of 2

The reason that I recommend this order is that it makes a point, it shows Bill Maher going from a confident and witty man who knows what he it talking about to a child who falls apart upon being asked the most basic question. The first link is an interview with Larry King where Bill Maher has his say, a virtual monologue. However, when being interviewed by Joe Scarborough Bill Maher is asked questions which stop him dead in his tracks and causes him to spout out clearly fallacious statements which only go to demonstrate his ignorance of Christian theology and the contents and purpose of the New Testament.

I must say that I was reminded of watching Ben Stein's "Expelled-No Intelligence Allowed" (which I reviewed here) because various interviewees are seen expounding their materialistic-Darwinian theories very confidently and authoritatively only to stop dead in their tracks when simply asked how they actually know that what they are saying is accurate. Likewise, Bill Maher comes across as pretty bright and sharp when he is on script in front of an audience that is there to adore him. Yet, when simply asked, "How do you know?" he falls apart and grasps at straws and only succeeds in discrediting himself further.

Maher has two difficult mountains to climb:
He is a clown trying to make a serious, yet funny point, while wearing his big nose and floppy shoes. Everything that he states could be perfectly accurate but you are just thinking, "I just know that at any moment water is going to come squirting out of that plastic flower on his lapel." Thus, Bill Maher does a disservice by not giving himself an opportunity for a substantive contribution. Although, this is my take while Bill Maher's take is to be abusive, laugh and bank on it "just for laughs."
Secondly, he is sadly of very, very poor character even while trying to belittle others.

What is one to do about such outpourings of raunch, rudeness, etc. the same as ever: give it a fair hearing/viewing and make informed decisions at that time and criticize the content if need be.

ANNOUCEMENT: To our atheist readership,

I am calling upon you to assist me in getting the scoop on this Bill Maher's endeavor.

I want to know who is funding the documentary.
I want to know who is funding the advertising.
I want to know what music they used and whether they violated copyright laws.
I want to know under what pretenses people were interviewed.
I want to know if any of the interviewees have complained about being mislead.
I want to know if the documentary was creatively edited.
I want to know everything that can possibly be known, dirt and all.

Thank you so very much for your cooperation.

1. 1. Bill Maher's Religulous, The Nonfiction Film About the Greatest Fiction Ever Told
   
2. 2. Bill Maher's Religulous, The Nonfiction Film About the Greatest Fiction Ever Told
   
3. 3. New York Post, He of No Faith Makes Most Ungodly Movie (April 9, 2007)
   
4. 4. New York Post, He of No Faith Makes Most Ungodly Movie (April 9, 2007)
   
5. 5. Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker-Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1986), p. 139
   
6. 6. Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker-Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1986), p. 145
   
7. 7. Bill Maher's Religulous, The Nonfiction Film About the Greatest Fiction Ever Told
   
8. 8. Bill Maher's Religulous, The Nonfiction Film About the Greatest Fiction Ever Told