Religulous

[quade 4]

First, see THIS.

No matter what side of the issue you come down on, it should be interesting.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[bjjman 0]

That looks awesome! That's my type of movie. I don't go to movies anymore, but I might go to that one. Too bad it doesn't come out for four months.

I had trouble viewing the trailer from the link above, so for those who have iTunes, try this

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." -Albert Einstein

[quade 4]

Religulous

Bill Maher explores various religions, their history, beliefs and their effect on modern society. Various, not all, which is a major complaint of mine. Clearly Maher has an axe to grind with religion in general and I have no issue with that. What I do have an issue with is he shows an incomplete view, focussing mostly on the “hot” religions talked about in the US. However, he completely ignores several very important religions that compromise perhaps an additional 1/3 of the population of the planet. Further, Maher only really deals with religion in the last 4,000 years or so as opposed to asking the fundamental question of why religions exist to begin with.

My guess is that Larry Charles, director of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, has a lot to do with this. The film generally goes for the cheap laugh, rather than the insightful commentary, by frequently punctuating its points with brief shots from other films. Wanna make a point about how bad a person is? Let them say something questionable then cut to a two second shot of Hitler. Come on! You can certainly do better (and funnier) stuff than that.

All that aside, Maher and Charles do make a good point and the film is worth watching if you can have an open mind toward the subject. If not, you’re only going to love this film during the parts where he’s picking on somebody else’s ridiculous religion.

Not an extremely wide release (502 screens at its widest) so, depending on the part of the country you live in you may have to wait for it to become available on DVD to see it. Actually, that's just fine. There's nothing in the film that requires a quick response or benefits from being on a big screen anyway. No, it's not going to have any effect on the elections either.

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The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[normiss 897]

awesome.

[livendive 8]

Unfortunately we'll have to either drive to a theater 140 miles away or wait for the DVD. The trailer is hilarious.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[bjjman 0]

I wouldn't expect him to explore every religion as that's impossible. Also as a U.S. movie I would expect him to focus on religions that are popular here.

Too bad they go for the cheap laugh too often. I still look forward to seeing it though. Thanks for updating us.

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." -Albert Einstein

[quade 4]

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I wouldn't expect him to explore every religion as that's impossible. Also as a U.S. movie I would expect him to focus on religions that are popular here.

Not every, certainly not, but how can you not explore Hinduism, Buddism? Scientology has a mere 500,000 members, Mormons 13 million and Judaism only has 14 million world-wide. Compare that to the 900 million and nearly 400 million of the other two.

Like I said, it's just incomplete. Scientology, Mormons and Jews are "fun" to pick on though? Is that the reason to give them screen time? No. Doing so is just a cheap shot rather than thinking about things a bit more. All religions have fantastic tales that you have to "believe" in.

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Too bad they go for the cheap laugh too often. I still look forward to seeing it though. Thanks for updating us.

You're welcome. I really do think that even though it's incomplete people should see it if only to make them think about stuff.

Thinking is a good thing.

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The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[rhys 0]

But it is produced by whackjob conspiracy theorists, surely it is crap!



I can't wait to see that movie.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[masterblaster72 0]

While I think Bill Maher is intelligent and oftentimes funny, he goes out of his way to mock peoples' faith, which I find very distasteful.

A couple weeks ago I was at a friend's house watching his show and a guest mentioned that he achieved his fame by means of faith. Maher was quick to attack this fellow's faith and make a mockery of it. It's his show and all, but personal faith is something that many take seriously and to make light of someone else's faith for no apparent reason is disrespectful and rather uncouth, IMO.

After having watched that it's hard for me to give any credence to what he says anymore (and I am not a Christian nor an adherent to any religion for that matter).

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

[riddler 0]

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Not every, certainly not, but how can you not explore Hinduism, Buddism? Scientology has a mere 500,000 members, Mormons 13 million and Judaism only has 14 million world-wide. Compare that to the 900 million and nearly 400 million of the other two.

The film is pandering to western audiences who can't even begin to understand the intricacies of Eastern religions. With the exception of Scientology, all of the other religions explored are of a Judeo-Christian faith - monotheism, with Islam and Christianity "building" onto Judaism, and Mormoms "building" onto Christianity. Buddism and Hinduism aren't really even monotheistic, and I doubt that most westerners can relate emotionally to them.

The Scientology one is curious, but I think because of the western media exposure to it lately, audiences can relate to it on a comedic level.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD