On Religulous

Oct 20, 2008
Categories: religion, movies

Ahh, it was a lovely, lovely weekend. Saturday night Nathan and i got all dressed up and he brought me roses and took me out for a nice dinner before Grant & Renee’s semi-formal cocktail party. I’m still waiting on photos, but hopefully i’ll have something to show from that event before too many weeks pass. It was fun–i got pretty tipsy and said some silly things, but it wasn’t the first time.

Seeing each other every-other day just isn’t cutting it for us anymore, so Nathan and i went out again last night. We went to see Religulous, which was nothing if not entertaining.

Commedian Bill Maher says it’s time for we who doubt to speak up about it, so i suppose i’ll go ahead and voice my opinion on the film.

First of all, I’m pretty certain this film isn’t going to change anyone’s mind about what they believe. Religion is deep-seated, and I haven’t come across any particular creative work yet that i think could single-handedly change a person’s entire outlook on life. Atheists and Agnostics generally seem to think that the way they see things is so obviously correct that they fail to open anyone’s eyes by really exploring and working out the questions. Secular works tend instead to tout a certain point of view as fact the same way religion does.

This particular documentary, being conducted by a commedian, is certainly entertaining for those of us who already understand where he’s coming from, but i think the way the questions were asked was moreso poking fun at people than really trying to understand what they believe and why. He interviewed people who seem to take their religion to the extreme–Televangelists, the self-proclaimed reincarnation of Christ, a man who helps homosexuals become heterosexual (and although he was himself gay once does not believe that anyone is inherently gay), a man who portrays Jesus at a theme park in Israel, etc. I’d be interested in hearing more from the theologians and the average people on the street.

I’d love to see this movie turned into a television series, because i think that Maher made a good point in the end–that religion is really the cause of most of the death and destruction in the world–but didn’t illustrate that point thoroughly enough. It was a fun film that came to a sobering conclusion, and it seemed slightly disjointed. I see the connection, but it wasn’t really shown to me. The idea that people must be skeptical of religious ideas because of the tragedy that we really create or allow to be created in the name of God reminded me of Sam Harris’s book The End of Faith, of which i’ve only read a couple chapters. It’s a heavy topic, but horribly important.

Interesting points raised by the movie:

Personally, i’ve seen and heard plenty that paints religion in general as being pretty much ridiculous. I agree with it, and apparently about 16% of people now agree with it. But i still feel like part of a very small minority that thinks that the idea of God or a great spirit or a higher power of any sort is probably also ridiculous. I want to hear people talk about the root of this thing, which is God. Is it really only fear that drives people to believe?

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