According to aging pop star George Michael, one has “gotta have faith.” But to Bill Maher, star of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” blind faith in a religion is just plain ridiculous. Hence the title of his new film, “Religulous.” Religion + Ridiculous = “Religulous.”

In the film, Maher cites that 16 percent of the American population are nonbelievers. For the other 84 percent, this film might not be your cup of tea. But, believe it or not, Maher didn’t just mock religion or the people who believe in it. Of course he made jokes and poked fun at others, but he’d do that with any other subject matter.

“Religulous” is directed by Larry Charles, who also directed “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” The film, like “Borat,” is funny, especially when Maher interviews people of different faiths. Maher doesn’t need to make the people look stupid — they do it themselves with what comes out of their mouth.

One such person is Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, a priest who says that he is the second coming of Christ and has over 100,000 followers.

Maher even tried to delve into his own experiences with religion. He interviews his mother about her motivation in sending him to church and why they stopped going to church. His mother replied it is because the church frowned on birth control.

Maher focused on three religions in the film: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. He managed to interview leaders, priests, truckers and followers from different religions. He tried to have an honest, open conversation with many of them, and some took immediate offense with him for questioning their religion. At a truckers’ chapel, Maher was threatened by patrons for criticizing their religion. Other times, Maher got thrown out of mosques.

But there were also times when Maher interviewed people who were comfortable in their own faith and didn’t feel the need to attack Maher for challenging their religion. In a scene outside the Vatican, Maher interviewed a Roman Catholic priest and cited conflicting parts in the Bible. The priest laughed and said some of the Bible is nonsense and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

The priest answered his questions with a sense of humor, and that’s what most people need to have in order to watch this film. A lot of this film is shocking and tough to take in, but having a sense of humor in one’s own religion might make it easier to watch.