Religulous, The Movie
I happily saw "Religulous" tonight, and it was not what I expected. I liked it; let's get that ironed out right up front. I'm not going to piss and moan about Maher's snarky style. That's his shtick, man. It's what he does, and he does it damn well.
I think I expected it to be more documentary in style, when really it was like a long, visual op-ed. Anyone who knows Bill Maher knows he is no fan of religion, not of any kind. After this movie, the christians can pipe down about how he vilifies them and makes them out to be the root of all evil -- in "Religulous," he gives all religions equal finger wagging. They all miss opportunities to properly answer probing questions.
One quote from the movie is from Kirk Cameron, who in some indoctrinational "how to" film of some kind says for believers to "go around the intellect" of nonbelievers. WTF? What? NO ONE is going around my intellect. Thanks, though. I hear hymns echoing in my head from decades of church mongering ... "trust and obey, trust and obey." I tried the trusting and obeying, and it didn't work for me. Why can't that be okay?
Another really unbelievable quote was from an "ex-gay" fellow who said, "Gays are incomplete in who they are as men/women." Homo say what? I think short of bearing the fruit of my womb by needlessly reproducing myself, I have done everything else expected of most women. And more importantly, isn't it JUDGMENTAL to make such a statement? Isn't JUDGING something christians ARE NOT supposed to do?
I just shake my head and thank my luck that I did NOT get sucked into such horrific human experiements like the "ex-gay" movement, etc. Such ignorant tripe denies the FACTS of nature -- that most mammalian species perform homosexual acts whenever procreation is not desired or urged! So if we are going to call something "not natural," it's homo sapiens calling sex a "sacred act" and hanging all kinds of frippery on it. There's a lot more wisdom in the statement: "Birds do it, bees do it ..."
Maher is pretty mocking in the movie, and this was objectionable to some of the other skeptics who saw it with me. I agreed at first; it seems we have plenty of finger-pointing and mud-slinging without additional ratcheting up of the blame game. However, then it occured to me -- religion, of any flavour or stripe, has been plenty damn confrontational in ITS time, and after centuries of accusing the masses of heresy and devil worshiping and blah blah blah, I think it's maybe well past time for religion to get some confrontation going right back at it.
I thought there was so much great material in the movie, I will definitely see it again. And when it's on DVD, I'll own it then. Fates bless Bill Maher. He keeps me in stitches and fights fire with fire. Forgive the tongue in cheek reference: it's about goddamned time.