Atheism, again! (Religulous (DVD))

Member Name: sottovoce1982

Product:	Religulous (DVD)
Date:	21/04/09 (95 review reads)
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Religulous [DVD]


I used to appreciate what atheists stand for because I saw them as thinkers who were born in a family that believes in a certain religion and then decided to go against everything they were brought up to believe in. It is definitely not an easy step, I thought, you must be one of those who question things to end up being an atheist. But things changed. Those atheists who used to be peaceful thinkers started to demand that everybody else should leave their religion since it is harmful to believe in an illusion as they claim.

Now, I am a Christian who thinks that discussing religion is a very healthy thing and I do like to watch or read what non-believers think of my religion even if the criticism is really harsh, but when people begin telling me what I should believe in although it is none of their business, I begin to have a big problem. I said I accept criticism, and this is why I watch this documentary, and I will write my review from the point of view of an open-minded Christian, as I believe I am, because many of the reviews I read on Amazon for instance were written by atheists and they attacked the other "believers" ferociously.

Once I watched on Youtube a video by a very popular atheist who claimed he would make an offensive sandwich. Thus he added to it what is forbidden for Jews and Muslims, and finally, because nothing is forbidden for Christians, he wrote f*** Jesus on it. So, basically the person who made this video thinks that Judaism and Islam are stupid because certain kinds of food are forbidden in them, yet he had to include Christianity and came up with the "hilarious" idea of cursing Jesus. In other words, Christianity is not offensive to anybody yet they just want to offend its followers. I noticed the same thing when I watched a scene in Religulous in which Bill Maher thanks some people for being Christ-like and not just Christians. I even watched an interview with him about Religulous and he affirmed what he said, for he likes people to be Christ-like. Then why not reform the practices of certain Christians instead of attacking Christianity?

Bill Maher criticized certain things like building churches that look like castles saying that Jesus would not have lived there. I have to say I totally agree with that for every time I saw the armour-plated car of the Pope the image of my lord Jesus Christ riding a donkey comes to my mind and makes me happy. Probably it is harsh to ask those religious leaders to be minimalists with this capitalist system we are ruled by, but we all know Jesus was different. Still, this documentary could not change my opinion that atheists don't have a substantial problem with Christianity, yet they want to impose their belief on the rest of us for some reason. As Bill Maher puts it, belief is certainty, but only doubts makes us move forward. And I say, this could be true if those atheists make use of every single second of their day to achieve something that helps the humanity, but we all know that this is not true, for no matter how busy human beings are, they always have some time for illusion or imagination, and if this "illusion" is harmless like Christianity, why shouldn't they be left alone? After all, only destructive thought should be attacked, right?

Well, according to Bill Maher, the trinity, crucifixion, and even the belief that Jesus Christ existed without having historical evidence is hilarious. Even in his interviews you can see that he despises those believers and he can't wait to end the conversation with them to let out the loud laugh that he stifled for a long time. The interviews themselves are heavily edited just to make fun of those believers who have no answers. All these things contributed to making this documentary extremely funny at times, and I mean it in a good way for it is made to be comic and mock religion, but the truth remains that most of the people Maher met are not knowledgeable and the interviews with the few educated ones were really short and meaningless. But this is understandable, for if Maher interviewed someone who has a PhD in apologetics, say, things would be downright dull. However, the Christian Senator Maher interviewed was so dumb that things stopped being funny and started being pathetic because the man is obviously retarded.

Let's discuss some of the points that Maher mentioned. Unfortunately, he mentioned the clichéd similarities between Christianity and different other earlier religions. He says that Krishna was born from a virgin (yes, a virgin who had only seven kids before him) and Horus was the same (aha, except his father's name was Orisis, and he had a man's body and a falcon's head). Some people came up with a story about a person born from a virgin and then decided to spread it and die in order to defend it. Yes, that makes sense! Of course, I am not saying that all the points Maher discussed were wrong, but probably the problem was that he never interviewed a good thinker preventing us thereby from knowing the two sides of the matter.

For instance, when he interviews a Christian ex-homosexual man who decided to leave homosexuality and have a family, and then help others do the same, the man claimed that there is no gay gene. At this point, Maher showed a scene in which he asked someone aren't you the discoverer of the gay gene? The man says yes. And that was it. No discussion of any kind. I wished he took it a step further and discussed the topic, but unfortunately he did not.

Maher also mentions Mormonism and what is based on showing that the Mormons believe that Jesus is actually the real son of God. The disturbing thing is that he shows a scene in which a man licks a women's breasts as he says that. I give you that, Bill Maher, this scene freaked me out. With Islam, Maher focuses on the terroristic verses and hadiths and, after interviewing some Muslims, he comes up with the conclusion that they know about the terror and killing in their culture, yet they don't reveal that to the outsiders.

I don't wish to comment on the other religions, but I noticed that Maher went too far when he interviewed a rabbi who rejects Zionism, and he shows that this same rabbi met the current president of Iran. I think many of the viewers who support Israel will like this scene, but, for me, religion is complicated enough without mixing it with politics.

Why do I give this documentary four stars? Because I appreciate everything that makes me think. Now atheists will say, then why do you believe in a religion that makes you stop doubting and questioning. I say, Christianity does make me think for every sentence Jesus Christ says is food for thought and best of all is when he said about not imposing belief on those who don't like it. Hope my title did not offend the open-minded atheists, as for the rest I say: I'm free to believe in whatever I believe in as long as I don't kill or offend anybody; we are not in the Middle Ages.

Product details

* Actors: Bill Maher
* Directors: Larry Charles
* Format: PAL
* Region: Region 2 ( DVD formats.)
* Classification: To be announced
* DVD Features:
* ASIN: B001I8ZUDK

Summary: Religulous