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I finally got around to watching this “mock-umentary” a few weeks ago, and while there were a handful of amusing moments, on the whole, I found its tone, posture, and premise to be much more ridiculous than the “religious simpletons” that Bill Maher makes into easy targets.

The fundamental mistake that Maher makes is genre.  He mixes equal parts satire, documentary, and ardent agnosticism into this film, and what comes out of this haphazard concoction is an aimless, preachy attempt at social commentary that in the end shows Bill to be the ass that he is.

Now don’t get me wrong- abrasive, irreverent comedy in a documentary style (e.g. Borat) can be effective and even hilarious, but Religulous is neither.  Instead, Maher comes across as smug and condescending, and after a while I just wanted to crush his pea-brained arguments with my own brand of religious comedy- one which shows how vacuous and culturally bankrupt his alleged agnosticism really is.

Maher and his ilk are of the evangelistic agnostic variety, one which embraces the uncertainty of religion with a false humility.  Maher claims that “not knowing” is in fact the only certitude we have, but in fact his blatant antagonism towards the slightest hint of a religious propositional construction of reality shows his true colors.

Let’s be honest, Bill: you’re a wannabe-neo-atheist in the ranks of Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris, but in actuality you’re just a comedian and a hack who has taken his pathetic talk-show platform to new lows by badgering and editorializing simple folks with your distorted view of rational intelligence.  It must make you feel good to shoot fish in a barrel, especially since rather than appearing intellectually superior, you actually demonstrate what a propagandized simpleton you are, and maybe that’s okay since you clearly have some ego issues to work out.

Anyone can round up some crazies (of any religious or atheist variety) and mock them for their irrationality; the challenge is to do it as poorly as you have.  But thanks for the chuckles; I enjoyed them primarily at your expense.  Oh, and did I mention I downloaded a torrent of your movie illegally?  Oops.  Surely you can see the humor in that.