Religulous?

In reading the NY Times as i am prone to do on a daily basis i ran into a review of Bill Maher's movie Religulous. This caught my eye because i have a good agnostic jewish friend with heavy leanings towards atheism. We are planning to watch this movie together. This could be interesting.

As a person of faith i sometimes, ok, often, find movies like this annoying.They all tend to focus exclusively on Christianity. Mainly in part because they don't have to worry about Christians issuing fatwas (instead we write angry diatribes and boycott the merchandise). I have yet to see a movie like this on Buddhism/Islam/Hinduism/Confucianism, e.g. non-western religious traditions. They also tend to be made/written by smart, angry, disenfranchised middle class white men with a narcissistic streak.

The arguments also tend to be more about shock value rather than deep engagement with the opposite side. "Lets ridicule people of faith and their scriptures, rather then engage them and see what they think about those funny/weird/possibly wrong areas in their scriptures of faith." They also say that those scriptures are outdated. I think this is a cheap shot, esp since as humans we all share in the birthing/eating/breathing/relating/sexuality/dying process. These experiences cut across all human boundaries. Scriptures of all kinds are still read today because it speaks to those common experiences. In a way its nice to know that existential angst existed waaaay back in the day. (see Ecclesiastes and Job)

Finally they are quick to point out the turmoil in the middle east, the crusades and Sarah Palin as proof that religion causes more harm than good. They dont bring up the wee fact millions of people were killed by atheistic regimes(Lenin/Mao/Pol Pot to name a few...). In fact some of the biggest human rights violators are atheistic dictators! (Kim Jong-il anyone? anyone?)

These people ignore that Mahatma Gandhi/Mother Teresa/Martin Luther Kind Jr/Dalai Lama/ to name a few... were all not only people of faith, but leaders in their faith communities. If there is one good thing that can be said about faith is that it forces one out of selfish naval gazing makes one admit the value and worth of those around them, human or not...

So yes I'll go watch the movie. It'll probably engender fierce heated discussion that will get me riled. But unlike my atheistic counterparts, at least i'm willing to take their questions seriously and not ridicule them for their lack of belief in something outside of themselves, be that God/nature/nirvana/Jesus/wood sprites/etc...