Religulous – review.

This is not so much of a movie review of Religulous as it is a few after-thoughts. The documentary (or more rightly, a mockumentary) Religulous is Bill Maher’s take on the state of world religion. Bill Maher is a well known standup comedian and atheist, so you know where the documentary is headed.

It makes for an engaging watch no doubt, and not because of cinematic excellence, but the extreme characters he chooses to stitch together. All the characters he meets are fundamentalist in their approach towards religion and end up saying all kinds of bizarre stuff that in the end, either you a) pity them and the religions they represent or b) disregard Bill Maher as someone who is out to ridicule your and everyone’s faith.

The documentary refers to Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, Scientology and Mormonism trying to showcase and ridicule the hypocrisy in them, or more specifically, in any organized religion.

And that is one of my problems with atheists. Most atheists tend to be fundamentalists. While fundamentalism in religion is dangerous, fundamentalism out of religion too is. Although to be fair, maybe not to the same extent. But fundamentalism turns any debate into a fight, which is against the whole idea of a debate.

While some atheists may argue that it is not a religion, it isn’t tough to see how it is one.

Personally speaking, any debate on religion (or lack thereof) makes absolutely no sense to me. Assuming atheism too is a religion, as long as any religion is inbound, there is no cause of concern. Sadly, for most people, religion is outbound.

On that note, check out an excellent movie called Anbe Sivam, which touches this topic in a wonderful way without stereotyping atheism. The movie is in Tamil but I am sure you will find English subtitles.