“I believe religion is detrimental to society as a whole.”With those daring words, Bill Maher, stand-up comedian and talk-show host, opens his documentary “Religulous,” and sets out on a globe-trotting quest to prove it.  The film is playing in theaters nation-wide — just not, for some reason, in Baton Rouge.  Apparently our city theaters are afraid we can’t handle it, but I’ll give you a review anyway.The movie is, for the most part, extremely thought provoking. For a person of any faith whatsoever, it’s also extremely challenging. It is, until the very end, brutally funny. Director Larry Charles, “Borat,” skillfully juxtaposes Maher’s trademark condescension with on-screen captions and video comparisons — a well-dressed pastor and a pimp, to name one. When the movie isn’t taking itself too seriously, you can’t help but laugh even as it ridicules a faith you may believe in. The fundamental problem with the movie is it takes itself too seriously.The movie portrays Maher as an intellectual revolutionary out to save the world from a force of blatant ignorance, corruption and even outright evil. It’s a self image put forth in the movie’s promotions: from the ads to the posters to the arrogance-drenched prime time interviews he has given. It almost makes you forget he’s just a comic.The movie ends with a startlingly vehement manifesto on the real danger of religious thought. “Religion must die,” Maher intones, “in order for humanity to survive.” Maher’s closing diatribe implores his fellow non-believers to join in a sort of atheistic crusade to prevent the fundamentalist, irrational believers from destroying the world. The movie ends with a mushroom cloud fading to black over religious chanting.OK, funnyman. If you want to make a satire for laughs, I’ll watch it, and I’ll laugh. If you want to point out the inconsistencies and flaws in religion, that’s fine too. You’ll be doing us all a service. But now that you’re saying religion is going to destroy the world, the gloves are off.If you’re going to make a movie trying to prove that religion – all religion – is not just irrational and stupid, but is corrupt and evil to the point of destroying the world, your case better be airtight.  And it isn’t. Not even close.The flaws in Maher’s supposed intellectual treatise are way too many to cram into this 600-word column, even if I put them in bullet points.First, Maher’s interviewee pool couldn’t have been more biased if he had built each candidate from scratch. If Maher is going to seriously challenge not just a faith, but faith in general, he shouldn’t do it by interviewing these people: the founder of “cantheism” (Christianity through marijuana), a Christian Truckers Association group, a Muslim rapper, an Anti-Zionist Rabbi, the curator of the much-maligned Creationist Science Museum or a man who believes he is the second incarnation of Jesus. I am seriously not making any of these up.If he’s going to try to disprove religion, the comic has to find somebody a bit more mainstream — a bit more respected. Granted, he got thrown out of the Vatican, but what would you expect when you edit interviews the way the “Religulous” team did? Since the “documentary” was released, scores of those interviewed in the film have protested how their interviews were portrayed. They say that Charles intentionally left out their most cogent arguments and selectively edited the film to say things that they never intended. Some claim they had no idea what the interview concerned and weren’t aware Maher was involved until he sat down with them.For the most part, the film is decently humorous, and, for a person of faith, it is extremely thought-provoking. Yet Maher’s overwhelming arrogance and anti-religious zealotry, coupled with a heaping helping of blatant bias, make the humor and the thinking hard to stomach.—-Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]