Religulous...

I went to a Sunday matinee at the lovely Sundance 608 to watch Bill Maher's Religulous. Maher pulls few punches when attacking religion via "asking questions," though he doesn't make as many counter assertions as many of the "New Atheists" cohort. Maher's basic conclusion is that the human race must outgrow religion and dogma before it kills us. It is an entertaining movie, though each time I engage this topic I get saddened, because I don't know which is worse... A. People really do question the ridiculous beliefs the hold, but are scared to say them, or B. they really actually believe them.

Perhaps even more frustrating from the film, was the continuous stream of "it's politics" statements by religious figures when discussing issues between religions. I'll be a Crickian here, and defend politics from this lunacy. The major area where these statements came up were with regard to issues in Netherlands between Muslims and other Dutch citizens. Politics is not ever murdering a film maker in the street, or issuing a death sentence against a novelist. Ever. Period.

Trailer (not as good as the movie):