One Astronomer's Noise

Which, I may add, is pronounced with a soft “g.” I had been saying it wrongly.

Okay, so the fabulous and wonderful VAA trekked out to the Vinegar Hill Theatre in CVille to see Religulous on it’s opening night. This is the “guerrilla-style” documentary by Bill Maher and Larry Charles which aims to reveal the ridiculousness and danger of religion. Overall, I liked it. To be honest, sometimes I was a little uncomfortable while watching it. After all, I usually complain when a film uses biases to prove a point. I should just relax and realize that this and other movies like it is an opinion piece, not a statement of scientific, unbiased, rational, skeptical fact. I’ll have to ease up on the genre in general.

The film took a humorous romp through the fields of belief in the major three monotheistic religions. Humorous, at least, for those of us who find those beliefs generally laughable. Sometimes, you just let it go and smile at the credulity of the happy believers. Sometimes, you shake your head in disgust at the depth of ridiculousness, such as when Ken Ham was on screen. Other times, you feel a mixture of disgust and sympathy, such as when Arkansas senator Mark Pryor gets caught up in his own contradictions. My personal favorite was the senior Vatican priest (outside after the film crew had been kicked out) who bemusedly admitted that it was all just bunk, but hey, we live with it.

It’s debatable how much Bill Maher knows about the three religions that he attempts to expose. It is especially difficult for those of us in the West to culturally understand Islam, and yet the “religion of peace” take the worst hit in the film. No surprise, too, since Maher’s final message is that dogmatic belief in a divine power can lead to disastrous consequences, especially for a human race that has mastered species-destroying weaponry. The final scenes are meant to evoke the emotion of fear, and boy, do they do a good job. It’s like a bait-and-switch… most of the movie is hilarious, although you feel guilty laughing at the points where strange beliefs are tied to violence, and it ends with a very sobering message: Grow up or die.

Surely, most movie-goers are going to be those non-believers who already don’t mind poking at other people’s beliefs. So is this just “preaching to the choir”? Not so. Not all atheists are out-spoken, and I think this movie will have an effect on those to be more open about their atheism and help remove religious belief from it’s untouchable pedestal by society. (Such was confirmed by at least one in our crowd who still “coming out of the closet.”) It may even have an effect on believers, who will take responsibility for their religious beliefs and realize that radicals, fundamentalists, and overall no-gooders who supposedly subscribe to the same religion should be intellectually disowned by the moderates.

See it for yourself, and also check out more reviews and discussions here and here and here and here.

Oooo! And before I forget again, Larry at VCU has posted the Hitchen-Turek debate for all to see. Yay!