Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by chiz on February 4, 2009 at 8:27pm

This movie really disappointed me. I hoped it would be a catchy and informative documentary about how absurd theism is... but it wasn't. It was funny, yes; but IMHO, it completely failed at being what I think he wanted it to be. At least according to what he said in his interviews leading up to the release.

It would have been better if Maher wasn't a complete douchebag to everyone who didn't agree with him.

He's too aggressive and, b/c he is a famous atheist, makes us all look like stuck up assholes who are full of ourselves.

He makes some great points in the film, but all of them will go completely unnoticed b/c of how he delivers them. The only one's that will listen to what he has to say are those who agree with him and that makes his work worthless.

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Permalink Reply by Aric on February 4, 2009 at 11:22pm

I agree with Chiz that it won't be changing any theists minds about religion. However, I thought that some of the things the people he interviewed said were hilarious. If you look at the film as a comedy then you will enjoy it, but if you expect it to be a deep, in-depth documentary detailing all of the problems of religion then you will be let down.

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Permalink Reply by Frink on February 4, 2009 at 11:52pm

I wasn't impressed.

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Permalink Reply by Leland on February 14, 2009 at 7:46pm

Way more of a comedy than a documentary. I enjoyed it but I don't think it was really informative. I enjoyed the ending.

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Permalink Reply by Nelson on February 15, 2009 at 12:46am

i found the movie funny but i think Maher's a bad representative for Freethinkers. first of all, he goes around saying that he's not an atheist because he disagrees with the atheist stance as much as he disagrees with the theist stance. that tells me and anyone that's informed, anyone that understands the definition of atheism, that Maher doesn't know what he's talking about. an atheist doesn't claim to know that which we can not. theists do that.

on this issue Maher's an idiot. i've never met or spoken to an atheist who is willing to say anything more than, "i know there's no god to the same degree and to the same extent that i know there's no Invisible Pink Unicorn." since there's no evidence for either you can't and should not believe that either exists. that doesn't mean that we think it's an impossibility that some god or another exists. we just acknowledge the obvious fact that, since there's no evidence at all, a god's existence is so infinitesimally small- just like the IPU- that believing it exists is delusional.

in fact, i would take issue with an atheist who claimed to have ultimate knowledge of the universe that was sufficient to rule out the possibility of a god just like i take issue with theists who claim to have knowledge they can't possibly have.

is the movie funny? yeah, it is. but i wish Maher would shut up about religion. he does no one any favors.

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Permalink Reply by RxKristin on February 18, 2009 at 6:32pm

I absolutely adored it. Thought it was hilarious and found myself wanting to applaud during some parts of it.. I do wish Maher would have gone a little deeper, just for the sake of any religious people that may have been watching the movie, so they wouldn't have to complain about what an ass Maher was etc. etc... but overall, I really enjoyed this movie.

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Permalink Reply by AtypicalAtheist on February 26, 2009 at 12:13pm

NOT impressed. Maher had a great opportunity to take a big strike at Theism, but he totally failed at this. The documentary was badly organized and a lot of the time it just showed him riding around in the car or setting up scenes for the documentary. It looked like it was made by a highschool student.

Maher has never been very effective at debating with theists or organizing an effective argument against theism, and this movie was no different. Some parts were funny and interesting, but most aspects of the movie were anti-climactic.

When he was talking with the people in the Truck-stop church, it was especially unimpressive. He could have more effectively learned about their beliefs and brought up contradictions in them or questioned them better, but instead he just stood on the pulpit preaching the "doctrine of 'i don't know'". This was quite dull.

The time spent in Israel could have been much more productive.

He seemed to have done a lot of research for the movie but most of it was left out of the movie it seems, like his interview with Dean Hammer discoverer of the "gay gene" and the "God Gene". He didn't even mention the "God Gene".


Overall rating: Boring, Anti-climatic, Disappointing.



The truth is that I've never really seen any good documentaries against theism done. Even Dawkins' documentary was fairly boring and he seemed awkward and looked like he was ready to kill Ted Haggard when he questioned Evolution.

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Permalink Reply by Frink on February 26, 2009 at 1:23pm

I think it was more Haggard's self-worshiping arrogance and make-believe knowledge that pissed off Dawkins. It would have been nice to seem him get all "natural selection" on his ass, though. :P

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Permalink Reply by Rev. James Thomas Hicks, D.D. on February 26, 2009 at 12:47pm

Pretty good for some laughs, but everyone has said, it lacked any real debate or methods to get people thinkin'.

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Permalink Reply by Beau on March 3, 2009 at 9:52pm

I liked his quote about getting into heaven being like the lotto. " You can't win if you don't play!" Ditto on how the movie was.

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Permalink Reply by James on March 3, 2009 at 10:22pm

I liked it. It was a funny film, but as a serious, hitting documentary it came up short.

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Permalink Reply by edward pendyke on March 14, 2009 at 11:25pm

Just watched it. I thought the end was especially great. The call to action for each of us to "wake up" was right on target.

Religion MUST be marginalized. The true cost of blind faith MUST be tallied and the voices of reason MUST ring loudly.

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