The likelihood of someone reaching the final days of the Book of Revelation and facing an eternity in a place beyond the earth is a question only God can answer. The mockumentary Religuulous, starring Bill Maher, attempts to tackle theological questions beyond Maher's understanding, while trying to strengthen his comedic ethos in the process. The thesis of this film directly reflects Maher's atheistic beliefs, that if civilization continues to accept religion without question it should also be prepared to accept all of that religion's prophecies, including the end times. Maher suggests that “humanity abandon religion before people destroy the world in its name.” In this film he attempts to instill doubt in the minds of religious leaders, followers and the average citizen by refuting the word of God. Bill Maher presents a weak argument in the film due to his overly inflated ethics, lack of decency, little use convincing of logical fallacies and bad inductive logic. To begin with, in this film Maher's ethical appeal is profoundly affected by the inflation of his ethics. His views on religion take up almost the entire film and it's distracting. Whenever he interviews someone and is about to make a really interesting point, the interview ends directly with Maher's commentary. For example, in Maher's interview with the actor Jesus in “Holy Land,” the actor's scene was edited just as “Jesus” begins to answer questions and replaced with Maher looking into the camera skeptically in an attempt to be funny. Constantly seeing interviews like this cut out of a movie is annoying even if replaced with humor. It's almost like watching Wile E Coyote chase the Road Runner, then, just as Coyote is about to catch him, the anvil is found... in the center of the card... medical aid, this is hard to fathom watching, though he was just an actor, it didn't seem morally right to take part in such humor. Ultimately, it takes more than a macho attitude to refute the word of God or to successfully take on the world of religion and destroy its existence. Bill Maher's overly inflated ethics, lack of decorum, unconvincing use of logical fallacies, and bad inductive logic are some of the main reasons why this film presented a weak argument. Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where is it going to go? Tom Stoppard said. Only God knows when and where everything will end, neither certainty nor doubt will be able to change the situation.Works CitedReligious .Dir. Larry Carlo. Lionsgate Dist. DVD. September 6, 2008 Stoppard, Tom “Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where is this going to go?” Citation. Web www.quotationspage.com/quote/147.html April 1, 2014
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