As a fan of Bill Maher’s cynical commentary, I looked forward with glee to his documentary Religulous, an examination through interviews of the varieties of religious experience.  It will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Maher that the film is very critical of religion, and at its heart is a rallying cry for atheists, agnostics, humanists, infidels and other non-belivers–the “great untapped minority” as Maher calls them–to stand up against the unreason and irrationality of religion and the dangers it poses.  He seeks to link religion to potential nuclear holocaust or other end-of-the-world scenarios, with enough success that I left the film scared.

For any atheist who’s ever debated the topic of religion with people, the film’s interviews will be familiar.  They follow a typical course of ridiculousness, where Maher tries to question believers about the more far-fetched aspects of their religion, only to get some incomprehensibly frustrating answer in return.  I was impressed by the variety of people Maher interviewed, from rabbis to priests to Jews for Jesus to ex-Mormons to Muslims to the guy who plays Jesus at the Holy Land themepark in Orlando Florida, to a pothead in Amsterdam whose religion revolves solely around smoking marijuana.  He travels from Megiddo to a trucker’s chapel to Holland to Jerusalem.

The film is at times hilariously funny and always awkward, as you can feel the interviewees’ reluctance to talk on the topic.  Reactions range from anger to being dumbfounded, or, perhaps the funniest and strangest reaction, getting one’s head caught on fire (unsurprisingly, the addict in Amsterdam catches his hair on fire by candles).  At times you even feel afraid for Maher, and can tell that he’s uncomfortable himself, as when he decides to question a Muslim scholar no further when they look upon the rock of the Dome of the Rock, or when people within the mosque eye him angrily.

The audience for this movie is, unfortunately, very small, and is not likely to make a difference.  As Maher’s subjects ignore him, so will any religious person ignore this movie.  The interviews also reinforced a growing feeling within myself that I am on one side of a battle line, feeling very lonely, while the other side is populated with people whose unfounded views can very likely lead to the end of my world.