Bill Maher’s Religulous recently came out on DVD, I rushed to get it as soon as it came out just in case one of our freedom loving local fundies decided to buy them all out so no one would be exposed to it’s deceptions (please read into this a ton of sarcasm). I wanted to see it in theaters but I couldn’t find a theater with the balls to show it within 100 miles and for some reason the Torrent sites were empty until just recently.
The film was good, I think my favorite part was when Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) stated (in response to a question about the talking snake in Eden) “You don’t have to pass an IQ test to be in the US Senate”. The look on Maher’s face, and the corresponding look on Pryor’s face was priceless…silence was the only necessary response. Probably the most honest thing any politician outside of Ron Paul has said in a very long time.
Another highlight for me was when Bill went to a truck stop chapel (literally a chapel inside an 18 wheeler trailer) and spoke to some of the attendees and asked questions. One of the guys just got upset and left a few minutes into the conversation because he didn’t like anyone “Disputing his god”. The rest of the truckers were respectful even when Maher wasn’t…at the end of their chat Bill allowed them to pray for him and told them “Thank you for being Christ-like and not just Christians.” I know quite a few people whom could benefit from pondering that one for a little while.
There are tons of different highlights to the film that I would like to expound on, but that would end up being a 25 paragraph blog post that probably won’t get read so I will go ahead and skip to what I consider to be my favorite part of the DVD: The Deleted scenes from Benjamin Creme and David Icke!
Very few people know who Benjamin Creme is, I have no clue how in the hell Bill Maher found out about him or why he left this interview out of the final cut. If you aren’t familiar with who Creme is I will give you a brief rundown; Creme is well studied in Helena Blavatsky and Alice Bailey’s Theosophical Society (An esoteric society much like Thelema and OTO), Creme claimed in the 60’s and 70’s to have a connection with the Master of Wisdom (Esoteric societies usually believe in multiple Masters of the Earth and Spiritual worlds, most of them use different titles for them but the gist is generally the same as Esoteric societies all borrow from one another) and that the Master of Wisdom was preparing him to announce the next incarnation of the Christ aka Maitreya, turns out Creme’s Maitreya is a fellow that has only made two appearances in public where he was photographed…long story…Creme is Maitreya’s version of John The Baptist—but some of his prophecies have failed pretty majorly.
In the Deleted scenes of Religulous Maher is interviewing Creme and he asks if Maitreya could speak through him now…all of a sudden Creme goes into a “trance” and Maitreya begins to speak through him. Bill barely holds it together. Many Christians with any affinity for the occult believe that Maitreya is the Antichrist, I was one of them, and it just really surprised me to see such a barely known figure on the film.
David Icke is another individual many people do not know about, but some of us conspiracy nuts know the name all too well. Icke is actually a cool guy, somehow while he was researching the Illuminati (something I actively do believe in and have provided enough evidence for myself to believe) he got it in his head that an alien race aka Reptilians had sexual relations with the daughters of men, and the bloodline that they came from now includes all of the 13 Illuminati Families and the Bush’s, the Queen of England and nearly every powerful person in the world…and he thinks they shape-shift into their lizard forms behind closed doors. For real…not joking. It is an interesting interview as well and I have a couple of Icke’s books…I was just surprised to see him on the film.
Now I do have a few gripes I would like to put out there as well..
For one, Bill was kind of a dick, especially toward Muslims…even if the Qu’ran is incredibly violent, I honestly don’t think it is any worse than the Bible yet Bill really hounds on peaceful Muslims when he could have easily done the same thing with Jews or Christians…it seems that there may be a bit of a bias against Islam. I am not saying that Islam is good or peaceful in any way, but the people can be peaceful just like not all Jews are bulldozing Palestinian homes and not all Christians are blowing up abortion clinics…one of those one bad apple deals.
Also, I would have liked seeing Bill present factual and scientific evidence in some sort of reasonable debate with a creationist. When you present evidence to someone that thinks the earth is 10,000 years old OR LESS the response that they provide can be absolutely breathtaking and I think it would have fit in with his stated purpose in the film which was just showing how ridiculous religion is.
Overall though, I encourage everyone to rent or buy the DVD, it is quite good, has a nice commentary track too.
Anyone seen it? Thoughts?
