I love this movie because it will piss off so many people. The tone is set early, when Bill Maher gathers around a bunch of Christians and starts asking them questions about what and why they believe. One guy gets up, and in a hostile and uncomfortable tone states that he doesn’t know what the documentary is about, but he doesn’t like the direction of the discussion and leaves the room.
That’s what I call open-mindedness. But I suppose it’s the same way with politics or anything else: people have their opinions and God (?) help that you should dare to question them.
Maher’s agenda is very clear: he believes that peoples’ unquestioning beliefs in irrational things are not harmless but do a lot of damage to humanity and the world. He basically tries to get people to examine why and what they believe, and to see if they can’t take another view of it. Unfortunately I can’t say that anyone who is really a dyed-in-the-wool believer is going to change their mind an iota from his questioning. All they want to do is pray for him that he gets the revelation he needs so he can be as full of faith (i.e., as unquestioning and uninquisitive) as they are.
People say that most of the evil of history is done by despots who are not religious, but when you think about it; how different are Kim Jong-Il, A. Hitler, Saddam Hussein or Stalin from gods in their own lands? Their words were law, there were statues and palaces on every street corner dedicated to them, public holidays and festivals dedicated to them, etc. If that isn’t worship, what is?
linda fetch 