Julia Sweeney's Discussion Forum

has anyone seen religulous yet?
i don't usually watch maher on television..but this was a great documentary, maher at his best!

I just saw it this week. REALLY liked it at first but am getting annoyed that, from my limited internet investigation, Bill's fact-checking was pretty weak concerning his bold claims about Horus. I'd love for someone more knowledgeable to tell me that his facts are correct, but I can't seem to find ANYTHING that backs them up.

The movie was very funny and made some great points. I just wish he hadn't overstated his case. I think it weakens the credibility of his good arguments.

From eskeptic

scroll down there is somestuff about horus...

Haven't seen the movie though so I don't know if this is what you are looking for...

now that you brought it up....i noticed he claimed krishna was born of a virgin birth, was baptized, and was a carpenter like jesus.
I know what maher is trying to relate...that god myths have a lot in common, and jesus and krishna do
have a lot in common, as far as the type of morality they are presenting in their stories...but as far as I know, and from the hindu scriptures I've read, krishna was a mischeivious
thief and cowherd, but never a carpenter. he was born of devaki and vesudev, and there is no mention anywhere of him
being baptized. I'm going to ask a hindu friend about this just to be sure.
But hey...the documentary was funny, and that's all maher is in the end...entertainment. i loved the stuff with that
wacked out guy in south america who claims he's jesus.

I watched Religulous online, which makes me wonder why anyone would pay for it, except that the quality may be better on the DVD.

When he speaks about religion, he sounds like a talk-show host, not like someone with a major in comparative religions.

I'm not sure what allowed the film to be labeled "documentary," other than that it has some very funny "man -on-the-street " interviews...
At least I assume they were with real people..real DELUDED people.
Other than that it is a personal film by Bill Maher, expressing his personal opinions about the validity of religion generally.... not necessarily the last word... but at least it is a foray into really dangerous (for us in our present religious environment) territory, tossing aside the generally admired as desirable view that the religious are to be accorded "respect" for their religious views, as if they really do respect the views of skeptics, or even those who ask skeptical questions.
Incidentally, I did hear Bill Maher say, in the course of his own HBO program, that he is not an atheist... he modestly admits, "I just don't KNOW."

NMB

I haven't seen the movie yet and I am in no hurry to do so. My taste in anti-theist documentaries runs in the direction of "The God Who Wasn't There" or Jonathan Miller's "A Brief History of Disbelief." And of course, for a combination of humor, depth, and incisiveness, Julia's LGOG can't be beat.

I don't subscribe to whatever premium cable channel Maher's show is on, so I only see his stuff at all when some clip rises to prominence via YouTube and is linked on some other site.

I thought it was interesting that P. Z. Myers criticized Religulous for being a bit too easy -- Maher sandbagged all his interview subjects. Myers thought the movie would have been better (well, maybe not better, but more honest and interesting) if Maher's closing monologue had appeared first in the film and if Maher had sent or given a summary to each of his victims / subjects in advance, thereby tipping his hand to stimulate some real conversation.

I'm with Jeff on this one. The God Who Wasn't There is my fave atheist doc.

Maher pisses me off sometimes, he is one of those atheists without balls, too afraid or too pompous to adopt the word. I think it's probably the later, I think he knows what the word means (and that it applies to him and he's not afraid to offend people) but he thinks he's too good to be an atheist. We don't really need him.

CB.

Well it seems there is more to this eskeptic thingee..
archays
responds

Thanks for the link. Any truth to the assertions that this author is "way out there"? I've read criticisms that her work is on the fringe of the mainstream scholarship.

Don't really know..published a few books but not sure if she/he is taken seriously by scholars...

I read one of Acharya S.'s books - "The Christ Conspiracy," and yes, she's way out there. But it's easy to jump on her bandwagon. She gives cites for her information and I suppose it's up to the reader whether they wish to consider the information valid.

It's worth reading simply for the wealth of claims against Christianity. Certainly, the world 2,000 years ago was probably a lot different than we might imagine, and whatever the events involved in the creation of the Christ myth were, chances are we'll never know. But there is a lot of scholarship, no matter how it may seem to be on the fringe of knowledge.