Religulous

I am a huge Bill Maher fan. If you don't know who Bill Maher is, you may want to crawl out from under that rock you've been living under and check out his website. I don't agree with everything he says or stands for, but I do admire the guy, and appreciate his commitment to critical thinking. And who doesn't like an intelligent guy who says pretty much whatever is on his mind? Even though he is somewhat arrogant and downright mocking at times, he's not just some irrational spout of one-sided opinions that seems to overload our current political milieu in the media these days. Don't get me wrong, you know from the get go where Maher stands on issues, but he is not easily boxed into one category, and he doesn't seem to turn away from well informed differences of opinion. -That is why I like him. Needless to say, when I heard he was coming out with a comedic documentary about religion I literally counted down the days until its release.

I finally got to see it this Saturday, and let me tell you, it met and exceeded my expectations. Not only did I find a kindred spirit in Bill Maher (a doubting cynic) I was able to see on a grand scale that much of my spiritual wrestlings are not only valid, but thanks to Maher, they are well articulated, and now shared on the silver screen!

Throughout the movie Maher sets out on a pilgrimage of sorts to find out why people believe what they believe, and more importantly he seeks questions their alleged "certainty" regarding those beliefs. Including various small towns, Christian churches, and bookstores in America, he visits the Mormon's Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, Utah, The Vatican in Rome, The (actual) Holy Land, and the commercialized version, "The Holy Land Experience" in Orlando Florida. He visits Muslim temples, speaks to Catholic priests, Rabbis, Ex-gay ministers, tourists at the "the Holy Land Experience" and of course has a conversation with Jesus...well two Jesuses actually.

From the very beginning of the movie, despite Maher's contempt for "organized" religion, I got the impression that his aim in making this movie was not just to mock people of faith (although he is a comedian, so do expect that) his aim was to ask questions of people who "believe" without being informed and to basically ask the age old epistemological question, "how do you know?"

Maher asks various people of various faiths how they reconcile exceeding ambiguities and contradictions in their particular traditions only to be faced with denial, ignorance, or defensiveness across the board. It is alarming how many people's religious beliefs are based on assumptions which are somehow substituted or misconstrued as faith.

Woven throughout the movie are quotes that remind viewers of atrocities committed in the name of religion, as well as factoids regarding the un-uniqueness of the Genesis account in the Bible. It made me wonder, if Christians stopped denying, and really started understanding how many prototypical "Creation stories" came before the one that appears in Genesis, how would they respond? Why don't people have a general awareness that the Christian story of Creation is pretty likely a "shared" (and by shared I mean plagiarized) story found in other ancient texts that pre-date the Bible? It seems as though we are completely okay with just ignoring those facts. I, like Bill Maher, am not okay with that kind of denial, especially considering that Christians base their entire theologies around the Genesis account of creation, humanity, sin, and the need for redemption, as if it is an historical document. The fact that about 4 or 5 strikingly similar stories came before the Creation Story in Genesis tells me that it (brace yourself) MAY BE a myth. Not a myth without meaning, but still a myth.

It's funny how people who have raised such questions throughout history have been called heretics, cynics, or lunatics. I mean, let's be real, Maher may be one of the more accessible, humorous and popular cynics at the moment, but he certainly isn't the first, and he certainly is not asking any new questions or raising any new criticism that hasn't been raised for centuries. What he is successfully doing in this film though is expressing the same old questions of a cynic within our current context. To me, the irony is that in the midst of criticizing blind faith and ignorant spirituality, he becomes a prophetic voice, albeit crass and lewd, but prophetic nonetheless.

It's funny, but not funny haha, more like funny sad to see that in the midst of hearing painful truths, we are so afraid to confront what might not add up, that we instead choose to accept a cheap and constructed fantasy rather than the purpose, value and meaning of the story.

One of the things I loathe about Bill Maher is that he is very into the whole Playboy Bunny Ranch scene, which to me is the antithesis of intelligentsia. But after I saw the movie and realized that much of what religious folk believe can be seen as fantasy, I realized that going to church on Sunday for some, serves the same purpose as going to the bunny ranch for Maher. We are more content with creating and participating in a fantasy in order to feel better, look better etc, have our egos (among other things) stroked that we don't care to ask the deep penetrating questions that may shatter our created worlds our erroneous perceptions of our faith texts, and reveal our own participation in hypocrisy, fallacy, misogyny, injustice, etc.

None of this means that I discredit faith, hope, or belief in God. On the contrary, I do believe that there is something more fascinating and mysterious about this existence than I can comprehend. I am okay with calling that something a God. But like Maher, I am not okay with making certain assertions that we know why we are here, or what happens to us when we die, what God looks like, what his name is, or who he wants us to vote for. I am not comfortable laying out a "plan" that defines an imperfect condition of humanity that requires me to jump through a bunch of dogmatic hoops for the rest of my life just so I can be "saved."

The fact of the matter is that we don't know. The fact of the matter is that a people of faith (if they are informed-and by informed I mean educated in their tradition in a way that includes a broader historical context) can gain the respect of critical thinkers if they acknowledge the truth about their beliefs, how they are informed, how their faith texts have been formed, and the reality of how those beliefs have played out in history.

I have come to define myself as an agnostic theist with Christian tendencies. That means I believe there is an undeniable mystery and power called God, that there is a profound significance to the biblical narrative, and I do believe there is a timelessness and continuity to the Christian message of hope, restoration, journey, rebirth, and community that parallels life narratives of all people. I can't say I "know" these things, but I can say that based on reasonable observation and study of Scripture in the original languages (yes I'm bragging dammit), intuitive responses to the ebb and flow of life, and a wealth of historical information that my beliefs are in fact informed. I mean can you prove love? Can you quantify beauty? Can you measure the pain that inflicts the broken hearted? These are things that we rely on art, music, and literature to communicate and reveal or express. To me, faith in the supernatural is similar. It's when we look at our sources of information (say the Bible) and read it in a way it is not meant to be read, apply it to a constructed theology, and then hold people to it, by any means necessary that create the problems seen in Maher's movie.

Further, if we take Maher's word for it, faithful=irrational, ignorant, and violent, and non-religiously affiliated are more likely the educated elite. That distinction is so yesterday Bill!

I will say that Maher fairly reveals that it ain't the smart, thoughtful, selfless, wise, and humble Christians that hold the oppressive power in this country!

In Hebrew culture, story was significant. It carried the power to preserve tradition, it transformed, it brought hope, it healed. One man in the film who is really stuck on prescriptives is building a creationist museum that depicts a world that was created 5-6000 years ago where humans and dinosaurs coexisted together. Why? because the Genesis "story" has to be historical and literal to him for any of the rest of it to have any meaning. He is unable to see the power of story as a valid entity in and of itself.

Does such a view point nullify the importance or significance of the Bible or some of the specifics that some Christians think should be "non-negotiables"? I don't think so. I am an artist, and I have a profound respect for the power of "story." There is something significant about human being's need for story to explain life, and I think we desperately, emphatically need it. The story of the Bible brings hope and strength to continue in this oft cruel world. Does it matter if the stories are historical? I don't know. I think a better question to ask is "Do I understand the genre and cultural context of the particular text I am reading and how or does it apply to my context today?" I do wonder if the stories are simply meant to inspire, bring hope, and belief that the old can become new. Many folks in Maher's film (and even Maher himself) are stuck in the prescriptive world. They want the scientific methods of modernism to apply to the power of narrative, and they simply don't, never did, never will.

What is touching about this film (besides the conversation with Maher's adorable mother) is that Maher admits candidly that he is not an atheist. He admits that he just doesn't know. I think it takes profound strength and honesty to admit such a thing.

There are many people, I am sure who will judge this movie before giving it a chance, which I think is very unfortunate, because it is invaluable on many levels. One, it challenges believers of the major faiths to consider the full historical and political contexts of their own traditions, and it two, it enables them to understand what their beliefs look like to an outsider.

It's good stuff. Go see it.