Religulous

[WilyWestbrook0]

I do like that he obtained interviews with a wide variety of sources, including people from a gay Muslim bar, Christian Jews, a former Satanist, and others who don't fit "the norm" of most religious beliefs and practices with which we are familiar. However, it would have been more impressive for him to find boring, nice people who have a quiet spirituality not based on strict literal interpretations or outright sensationalism - but of course, that wouldn't have been very funny, easy to ridicule, or profit-making. The squeaky wheel always gets heard, but the wheel which does its job by moving along while keeping the foundation in balance is taken for granted.

[OnePimpTiger]

I do like that he obtained interviews with a wide variety of sources, including people from a gay Muslim bar, Christian Jews, a former Satanist, and others who don't fit "the norm" of most religious beliefs and practices with which we are familiar. However, it would have been more impressive for him to find boring, nice people who have a quiet spirituality not based on strict literal interpretations or outright sensationalism - but of course, that wouldn't have been very funny, easy to ridicule, or profit-making. The squeaky wheel always gets heard, but the wheel which does its job by moving along while keeping the foundation in balance is taken for granted.

As I said, I haven't seen the movie, but I assumed that was the kind of thing that was in it. When ridiculing religion, people never look at the vast majority of religious people who aren't outrageous and polarizing...that wouldn't be entertaining.

[WilyWestbrook0]

I rarely see movies in their entirety of any kind - maybe two a year - but I did see some clips from this one.

Yes, much is always made of conflict as that gets attention, but rarely do we see examples of people with differing opinions getting along. I regularly serve as a buffer between religious and nonreligious people, and I know several other people of varying religious beliefs and lack thereof who do the same, but I know we won't be getting a movie deal anytime soon.

It's the same with news and media of any other kind, really - think back to when you last saw news of a great, admirable, charitable thing done by a person or group, and then think back to the countless examples of bad news we read, hear, and/or see in the media every day, regardless of whether it's political, religious, sports, etc. I know the mentality is that if we focus more on the bad, we might think more of how solutions could be offered. That is fine, and problems won't go away if we metaphorically sweep them under the rug - but I think we could all use a dose of good stuff more often. Lessons and solutions can come from them as well.

[Bonds_25]

So religion is comparable to the belief that all children should be murdered?

Not what I am saying at all. I'm saying in Maher's mind the two aren't that far off from each other in the ridiculousness sense of things.

[Star_Cards]

I will say that while he does joke around at people's expense from time to time, some of the comedy is set up solely from the interviewees lack of knowledge or hypocrisy. He certainly did his research when he was doing this movie. The guy is very knowledgeable about the many different religions he discusses. Even if you don't like him and are very religious I'd say see it for yourself. I'd love to get thoughts from people on the other side since I agree with most of Mahrs' views on religion in the movie.

[OnePimpTiger]

Not what I am saying at all. I'm saying in Maher's mind the two aren't that far off from each other in the ridiculousness sense of things.

But murdering babies is something that 99.9% of people would think is ridiculous (if not more)...religion is a widely held belief.

[themanishere]

I don't like Maher at all, but maybe I'll check it out at some point.

in Maher's mind

^^^^ That's the operative phrase.

But murdering babies is something that 99.9% of people would think is ridiculous (if not more)...religion is a widely held belief.