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Maddie Stacy, Katelyn Coley October 7, 2013 English 1103 Dr. Peter Blair Fallacies in Religulous While watching the mockumentray entitled Religulous, Bill Maher is guilty of multiple fallacies while trying to prove his atheistic opinion. Though he does prove a few solid points in this movie, they become moot once he begins using the well-known writing fallacies mockery, ad hominum, and guilt by association. (Wood: Begging the Question) These three fallacies are found in the first thirty minutes of the movie alone. It would be difficult to imagine all the angering techniques used by Bill Maher throughout the full 102 minutes of the movies runtime. Throughout the film, Maher continuously states that, [Religion] is like the lotto. You can't get saved if you don't play." (Repeated line in Religulous) This is considered mockery due to the condescending tone in his voice. He is taking a very important piece of many Americans lifestyles and comparing it to the lottery, a random drawing. The lottery is stereotyped as something for the unintelligent to waste their money away on likely to never win much of anything while Christianity is so much more than that. Bill Maher tries his hardest to make Christians sound stupid and unimportant. There is also a point in the movie where Maher mocks Muslims. No person of religion is safe in this movie. He says, Gay Muslim activists. That is a very rare job description. You guys have big ones. (Religulous Quotes, IMDb.com, Religulous) The filmmaker has little to no respect for people of religion, mocking them constantly and questioning their beliefs. And though Bill Maher feels as if he is better than or smarter than religious folks, his use of mockery defies any good point he may have had.

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Merriam-Webster defines ad hominem (Wood: Begging the Question) as appealing to feelings or prejudices rather than intellect. (Religulous Quotes, IMDb.com, Religulous) This is a fallacy that Bill Maher makes his good friend within this short filming period. In the movie, it is often that Maher will judge someone based solely on the god that they pray to every night. At one point in the movie he states, Rational people, anti-religionists, must end their timidity and come out of the closet and assert themselves. (Religulous Quotes, IMDb.com, Religulous) By stating this, he is stating that if you believe in any sort of god that you are an irrational person. This is a ridiculous assumption due to the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of doctors and pilots and lawyers and businessmen that believe in some sort of god but are still very intelligent people. Last but not least, guilt by association. (Wood: Begging the Question) There is a point in the film where Maher implies that all Christians hate homosexuals and he then condemns Christians for their closed-minded hatred. This is such a rash assumption. Not all Christians are the same person and by saying this it makes them, in the most literal sense, guilty by association. One person cannot help the way that others choose to practice their beliefs and to be held accountable for somebody elses actions is unfair. Bill Mahers argument is filled with fallacious arguments and, in this film, he is incredibly unfair towards religions. He makes a few good points in his mockumentary but they are all unimportant due to the way that he exposed his views and opinions. In using mockery, ad hominem, and guilt by association, Maher shows viewers exactly not how to go about proving their view point. He chooses to link together all types of Christianity into one big fallacious catastrophe and in doing this his point becomes unimportant.

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Bibliography
Unknown. "Quotes." IMDb. IMDb.com, 2008. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. Grouptw00. "Grouptw00." Web log post. Grouptw00. N.p., 12 Nov. 2012. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.