Religulous [yet Sensational]
by certainepic
(I realize the English language places great emphasis on capitalizing proper nouns, but I prefer my name with small case lettering, just for the aesthetic value, the capitals somehow seem very overpowering as if I am trying to take over the world. It is intentional and not a grammatical error done in negligence.)
by certainepic
(I realize the English language places great emphasis on capitalizing proper nouns, but I prefer my name with small case lettering, just for the aesthetic value, the capitals somehow seem very overpowering as if I am trying to take over the world. It is intentional and not a grammatical error done in negligence.)
9:30am: We arrive at the Empire Theatre at Square One
9:45am: After purchasing around $10.00 worth of overpriced over-buttered artery choking popcorn, plus pop, we get ourselves comfortable in the premium (slightly broken and gum covered) seats of the theatre, which was lit enough to see the shadows of the seated audience but not enough to tell which one’s are your friends, thus I had to use an illuminated cell phone screen as a guide to reduce the risk of being seated beside someone I was not familiar with, or God forbid… a teacher. (Maybe my comical efforts are not as comical as I think)
The previews progressed interrupted only by Bowen sticking his finger in front of the projector light and then by the usual mundane warning inputted by the ‘theatre people’. No Cell Phones. Please get rid of your waste. Be Courteous by Being Quiet; each of which were, of course, leisurely ignored by most (all) of us.
10:00am: ‘Religulous’ begins.
3:20pm: Receiving my third driving lesson, I mentally formulated my fourth journal paper. Which I realized was definitely not a good idea as my driver instructor graciously informed me that confusing the break with the accelerator was a common mistake with beginners.
____________________________________________________________________
Having been told a little bit about Bill Maher by a friend, I new the movie was not going to be something to be looked at objectively, meaning I was aware of the fact that it was a sensationalized production and thus I was expecting great amounts of offensive blasphemy. Maybe that is the reason why my friends and I were able to enjoy the comical value of the piece a bit more than others. One thing that Bill Maher repeatedly pointed out was how people can be so rational and logical until religion is introduced in a picture. Even though I greatly enjoyed the documentary I do fundamentally disagree with most of what was presented to me, or at least the way it was presented. But whether you were incensed by the bias and extremely anti-theistic view portrayed in the video or you received the movie with a more filtered response, the one thing that I think was factually established was that people really do become inexplicably irrational when talking about their own religion, or, well, any religion for that matter. But perhaps what I mean by that is not what Bill Maher meant when he refuted the “outrageous” and “fairy-tale like” biblical stories of people living in big fishes or Jesus wearing expensive fine linen; my issue with people’s irrationality regarding religion comes with the way they present their faith, the way they judge the ‘hell bound infidels’ and especially the way they expose their insecurities about their religion by being extremely defensive whenever someone doubts their belief. It is the way people interpret religion that seems irrational to me.
It would be inconsiderate to mock the blind faith that people place on religion and the certainty they place on the belief that what they are doing is truly the right way…and everyone else is wrong. As I was saying it would be inconsiderate, and by no means is my intention to un-dignify the passion which people possess regarding religion especially because that would be hypocritical of me. But it seems so strange to me that millions of people around the world can claim to be following the true path of God and be so damn sure about it, but when they coincide with someone who is just as certain in their own righteousness they can never agree to disagree. My thoughts on religion are only somewhat conclusive, but my thoughts on the people of religion (including myself) have never been decipherable.
What scares me, not so much about Religulous, but more about other documentaries and books that so overtly disgrace religions and religious people with a clear malice, is that a lot of people are ignorant enough to fall for it. A lot of people are dim-witted enough to take these bashings of religion for face-value and never to see the other side. And being a person of faith myself that scares me because many people that I will encounter in my life, people who might be a significant factor in engineering my future will judge me based on my choice to believe in something that I can not prove to any one else, but that something that I have faith in. They might deem me as an illogical or irrational person because I chose to believe that a supernatural force was the cause of my being and will be the cause of my death. And the fact is there is not much I can do to actualize my belief. I cannot formulate God physically and thus the questions of doubt placed by non-believers can not be answered. And religion can not be established as rationale or logicality. So for the time being I suffice to say that I can continue to believe in something so “ludicrous” because it gives me something infallible to depend on, and plus nobody can prove that God doesn’t exist. And when half of our world is satisfied in believing that money will buy them contentment then why don’t I have the right to believe (without being judged) that bowing my head to the ground in submission will keep me protected?
disclaimer:The events of this post have been embellished for dramatic effect.
9:45am: After purchasing around $10.00 worth of overpriced over-buttered artery choking popcorn, plus pop, we get ourselves comfortable in the premium (slightly broken and gum covered) seats of the theatre, which was lit enough to see the shadows of the seated audience but not enough to tell which one’s are your friends, thus I had to use an illuminated cell phone screen as a guide to reduce the risk of being seated beside someone I was not familiar with, or God forbid… a teacher. (Maybe my comical efforts are not as comical as I think)
The previews progressed interrupted only by Bowen sticking his finger in front of the projector light and then by the usual mundane warning inputted by the ‘theatre people’. No Cell Phones. Please get rid of your waste. Be Courteous by Being Quiet; each of which were, of course, leisurely ignored by most (all) of us.
10:00am: ‘Religulous’ begins.
3:20pm: Receiving my third driving lesson, I mentally formulated my fourth journal paper. Which I realized was definitely not a good idea as my driver instructor graciously informed me that confusing the break with the accelerator was a common mistake with beginners.
____________________________________________________________________
Having been told a little bit about Bill Maher by a friend, I new the movie was not going to be something to be looked at objectively, meaning I was aware of the fact that it was a sensationalized production and thus I was expecting great amounts of offensive blasphemy. Maybe that is the reason why my friends and I were able to enjoy the comical value of the piece a bit more than others. One thing that Bill Maher repeatedly pointed out was how people can be so rational and logical until religion is introduced in a picture. Even though I greatly enjoyed the documentary I do fundamentally disagree with most of what was presented to me, or at least the way it was presented. But whether you were incensed by the bias and extremely anti-theistic view portrayed in the video or you received the movie with a more filtered response, the one thing that I think was factually established was that people really do become inexplicably irrational when talking about their own religion, or, well, any religion for that matter. But perhaps what I mean by that is not what Bill Maher meant when he refuted the “outrageous” and “fairy-tale like” biblical stories of people living in big fishes or Jesus wearing expensive fine linen; my issue with people’s irrationality regarding religion comes with the way they present their faith, the way they judge the ‘hell bound infidels’ and especially the way they expose their insecurities about their religion by being extremely defensive whenever someone doubts their belief. It is the way people interpret religion that seems irrational to me.
It would be inconsiderate to mock the blind faith that people place on religion and the certainty they place on the belief that what they are doing is truly the right way…and everyone else is wrong. As I was saying it would be inconsiderate, and by no means is my intention to un-dignify the passion which people possess regarding religion especially because that would be hypocritical of me. But it seems so strange to me that millions of people around the world can claim to be following the true path of God and be so damn sure about it, but when they coincide with someone who is just as certain in their own righteousness they can never agree to disagree. My thoughts on religion are only somewhat conclusive, but my thoughts on the people of religion (including myself) have never been decipherable.
What scares me, not so much about Religulous, but more about other documentaries and books that so overtly disgrace religions and religious people with a clear malice, is that a lot of people are ignorant enough to fall for it. A lot of people are dim-witted enough to take these bashings of religion for face-value and never to see the other side. And being a person of faith myself that scares me because many people that I will encounter in my life, people who might be a significant factor in engineering my future will judge me based on my choice to believe in something that I can not prove to any one else, but that something that I have faith in. They might deem me as an illogical or irrational person because I chose to believe that a supernatural force was the cause of my being and will be the cause of my death. And the fact is there is not much I can do to actualize my belief. I cannot formulate God physically and thus the questions of doubt placed by non-believers can not be answered. And religion can not be established as rationale or logicality. So for the time being I suffice to say that I can continue to believe in something so “ludicrous” because it gives me something infallible to depend on, and plus nobody can prove that God doesn’t exist. And when half of our world is satisfied in believing that money will buy them contentment then why don’t I have the right to believe (without being judged) that bowing my head to the ground in submission will keep me protected?
disclaimer:The events of this post have been embellished for dramatic effect.
4 comments:
I'm glad you posted this, I enjoyed reading it.
who is you?
A ghost.
This is an excerpt of a book by Scott Adams, called God's Debris. It is not funny in anyway:
"I needed reinforcements. “Look,” I said, “four billion people believe in some sort of God and free will. They can’t all be wrong.”
“Very few people believe in God,” he replied.
I didn’t see how he could deny the obvious. “Of course they do. Billions of people believe in God.”
The old man leaned toward me, resting a blanketed elbow on the arm of his rocker. “Four billion people say they believe in God, but few genuinely believe. If people believed in God, they would live every minute of their lives in support of that belief. Rich people would give their wealth to the needy. Everyone would be frantic to determine which religion was the true one. No one could be comfortable in the thought that they
might have picked the wrong religion and blundered into eternal damnation, or bad reincarnation, or some other unthinkable consequence. People would dedicate their lives to converting others to their religions.
“A belief in God would demand one hundred percent obsessive devotion, influencing every waking moment of
this brief life on earth. But your four billion so-called believers do not live their lives in that fashion, except for a few. The majority believe in the usefulness of their beliefs — an earthly and practical utility—but they do not believe in the underlying reality.” "
And then, later in the chapter of the same book:
"“The best any human can do is to pick a delusion that helps him get through the day. This is why people of different religions can generally live in peace. At some level, we all suspect that other people don’t believe their own religion any more than we believe ours.” "
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