I finally caught “Religulous,” Bill Maher’s documentary criticizing religion, a couple nights ago. I was a big fan of Maher back in the days of “Politically Incorrect” but there’s no doubt that over the past decade he’s become something of an unrepentant asshole. As a result, an idea that could have been pretty interesting — a reasoned, critical look at the world’s religions — is dumbed down to Maher mocking various religious kooks. Occasionally he gets some good laughs — when a theme park Jesus tells Bill he has a God shaped hole in his heart that can’t be filled with women or drugs, Maher asks, “can I try?” — but overall, the project falls flat.

About 70% of the film is Maher taking aim at Christianity. Towards the end he sets his sights on Islam. A small portion of the film has him mocking Scientology. Personally, I think he should have done more with the Hubbard-ites; he’s a Hollywood man and it would’ve would have been good to take on his hometown religion.

Where the film really lost me was the ending. Maher walks along a pathway in Israel Israel while arguing that humanity must give up religion or we will destroy ourselves via nuclear destruction and global warming. Scary music plays and the shots are framed to make Bill look like the religious prophets he’s just spent an hour and a half denouncing. (I can’t imagine that the irony is lost on Maher, but it seems poorly delivered.) Frankly, the argument doesn’t make much sense. A) If we’re doomed unless humanity forsakes religion, then we’re doomed. And, B) I don’t think religion has a whole lot to do with global warming, and while the case could be made that it is one cause of warfare, it’s not the only cause.