As a Christian, I agree with Maher that sometimes Christians bring the ridicule upon ourselves, not for being Christ like, but for just being odd, cheesy, and unable to articulate what we believe and why we believe it without pat Sunday School answers and religious platitudes. I get it and I agree. Some of my Christian brothers and sisters embarrass me (as I may do to them). I compare them to an odd uncle in a family. I might be embarrassed by him and not want to be around him, but they are still family and I'm still called to care for him.
I left the movie, however, very hurt and frustrated. Part of my frustration is that Maher makes very big assertions and conclusions about religion, mostly about Christians, with no ability to debate. That's not brilliant, that's manipulative. He also interviews a number of fringe people within Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Mormanism instead of interviewing theologians, thinkers, and others. Brilliant? No. Sensational? Yes.
There is another side to the story. I was hurt by a some of the assertions and claims the movie makes. Below I will share the movie's assertion in bold italics, and then make a counter argument to it. I'm only asking you, as your read, to consider the other side of the argument:
- All religion is bad and therefore must be "killed." At the end of the movie Maher says, "All religion must die" because after all, it is the source of all the problems in the world. Is it? Is that a brilliant thing to say? For Maher to say that religion is the problem in the world is like saying El Nino is the cause for every weather phenomenon we face daily. Wow. Wars are caused by religion? What about all of the governments and irreligious leaders who have murdered their own citizens and surpressed religious expression? Mao in China, Stalin in Russia, and Hitler in Germany all exterminated a large, large number of innocent people...and they are not people of faith or religious. What are the origins of many hospitals, orphanages, homeless shelters, etc. around the world? Many began by people of faith who cared about the poor, the sick, the homeless, the orphan in their communities. Many hospitals today, started by people of faith, still serve their communities. And, what is the second largest social service agency in the United States? Lutheran Social Services of America. Catholic Services is close behind. Religion being the source of problems? Give me a break.
- People with faith are crazy. Maher at one point interviews very briefly a scientist who has done brain scans on people of faith...and they said that people of faith are crazy. There was not a in depth discussion of the scientist's findings, a picture of brain scans, nor any in depth discussion of this one scientist's findings. Nope...only the conclusion, with a chuckle, "they are crazy." Excuse me? Is that brilliant movie making? Making a broad assertion about a group of people with no basis except one scientist's opinion. Hmmm. The Nazis called the Jews rats and blamed the problems Germany faced on the Jewish people. Hitler and his bunch made the American people, through visual media and marketing, believe that Jews were less human than pure Germans...and thus must be eradicated.
- People of faith are childish. Faith in God is the same as belief in Santa Claus. At the end of the movie Maher proclaims, "Grow up..." to people of faith. Last time I checked Santa Claus is a fable, Jesus is historical and what I've experienced with my relationship with God is very real. Unexplainable at times? Yes. But I'm a grown, rational man who has investigated Christian claims historically, theologically, socially...and I find them quite verifiable.
- Christians are irrational. Rational people would never believe this. This is quite an old argument and one leveled at one of my professors from Miami University. I know a number of very intelligent, rational, and mature people who affirm faith in God, and in particular Jesus Christ.
- Jesus never lived. It's not historical. Maher speaks with one scientist who confesses to be a Christian about this assertion. Maher says that the gospels don't prove he existed. True. But, there are sources outside Christianity that name Jesus of Nazareth as an historical person, such as the 1st Century Jewish historian Josephus. Even if we only have one reference of Jesus of Nazareth outside the gospels, wouldn't that suffice? For example, I have no proof that my great, great, great grandfather Cook lived, except that he's named on a census. One instance, and yet I believe he existed. For Jesus, we have the testimony of many, many people who wrote the gospels. Certainly they don't all agree, but the reality that they are all there says something about the sigificance of Jesus. Why were they written in the first place? Politics? Justice? To get back at the Romans? The gospels were written by common people in the 1st century not to prove Jesus's existence, but to share his message and impact on their lives. The assumption underneath the gospels is that Jesus is an historical person.
- The Bible isn't reliable. Maher points out that Jonah couldn't have been swallowed by a big fish. Creation couldn't have happened they way it did, the virgin birth isn't there (it is in the Scriptures), and so on. Therefore, since there are fictional stories within the Bible, the entire Bible must be thrown out because it has no credibility. Today, on the news I heard that in Florida they found a ballot cast for the 2008 election for president under the name Mickey Mouse. Throw the entire election out! The entire lot of early ballots cast are invalid because one ballot is fictional! No. On the contrary. What Maher failed to point out is the reality that the Bible is a combination of various genres of writing: poetry, stories, songs, law, teachings, history, etc. It's diversity is important when considering its credibility and reliablity. There are historical, archeologically verified facts in the Bible.
Tolerance and open mindedness are two values that many Americans hold. And yet this movie is very intolerant to religious people and not open minded at all. To assert there is no God, that it is fiction not fact, is pretty much closing your mind of to at least the possibility that there is a god some where. At least Christians investigate Biblical claims (the ones I know who Maher wouldn't be interested in interviewing probably) and have their minds open to at least the possibility that God exists and Jesus lived.
If Maher truly wants to know and is a seeker, as he says at the beginning of the movie, and if you, the reader are in the same boat...truly do seek, investigate, converse, read all you can from all points of view...but please don't demonize people of faith or conclude we're crazy. One book to start that can be classified as smart and brilliant, check out Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton. It is a rational and philisophical look at the claims of Christianity by a man who became a Christian later in life and lived in England in the late 19th and early 20th century.
