Movie-Religulous

I must admit, as I am getting older, I am becoming more liberal and more suspecting of the institutions of the world that seem to be keeping all of us from having peace and prosperity. Chief among the intuitions on my skeptical list are all organized religions.

So when I saw the movie Religulous (2008), it spoke to me. I mean, it was side-splitting funny, as Bill Maher takes on religion, and even the concept of god. But it also meant more than that...here is someone who has the platform to say..."This is Bullshit!" and does it.

Look, and this is not the movie but my own thoughts for sec...I was raised very Catholic...an altar boy and everything. But I learned that the "church" is not about god...it is about sustaining the church. Whether that means hating others, collaborating with the Nazis, hiding priests who have molested children or ordering assassinations as many popes have..."Well," they say, "we are protecting the church."

I don't remember that being OK in Jesus' words, do you?

Bill Maher says this a lot...because he has read the bible, and he calls people out on what they believe that is not ...well...actually in the bible. And he does it brilliantly. And absolutely hilariously!!!!

He takes on the Catholic church, evangelists, Mormons, and many other believers, using what is actually in the bible to question their beliefs. He calls them on their hypocrisy, and their un-Jesus like thoughts. And he does this interspersed with video that left me gasping for air I was laughing so hard.

But his message is a serious one...his question really. Are we not worse off as species, because we believe so strongly that our religion is right, and others wrong? And more basically, how can we believe a lot of the utter CRAP uttered by leaders of religions? How can we believe in the infallibility of popes, when they have proven to be so fallible? How can we believe that Jesus, as one evangelist says, wore the best linen and was rich? Must have missed that passage in the New Testament. I thought he said it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven---Oh there I go..actually paying attention to what Jesus was saying, rather than to the preacher. Silly me!

A fantastic movie!