Hm. That's not been my experience, though I could be wrong. Or maybe the problem is that while moderates may wish that the Pat Robertsons and Bill Donohues of the world would STFU, they don't do much beyond wishing. And when they do speak out, they don't seem to be very good at getting the message out: just as a data point, I once searched the top 10 best-selling books on Amazon that metioned the Jesus Seminar, and almost all of them had a negative view of it.

But one problem is that people give religion entirely too much deference: people can get away with saying the most ludicrous things as long as they preface it with “I have faith that…”: a statement like “tax cuts for the wealthy will bring prosperity to the poor” can be criticized at length, but “wafers can turn into the body of a god” can't, because it's religious.

The point of Maher's movie, as I see it, is to say that religion is a topic like any other, and doesn't deserve any special privileges. Perhaps the tagline should have been “Oh, come on! You don't really believe that, do you?”

Hm. That's not been my experience, though I could be wrong. Or maybe the problem is that while moderates may wish that the Pat Robertsons and Bill Donohues of the world would STFU, they don't do much beyond wishing. And when they do speak out, they don't seem to be very good at getting the message out: just as a data point, I once searched the top 10 best-selling books on Amazon that metioned the Jesus Seminar, and almost all of them had a negative view of it.

But one problem is that people give religion entirely too much deference: people can get away with saying the most ludicrous things as long as they preface it with “I have faith that…”: a statement like “tax cuts for the wealthy will bring prosperity to the poor” can be criticized at length, but “wafers can turn into the body of a god” can't, because it's religious.

The point of Maher's movie, as I see it, is to say that religion is a topic like any other, and doesn't deserve any special privileges. Perhaps the tagline should have been “Oh, come on! You don't really believe that, do you?”

Hm. That's not been my experience, though I could be wrong. Or maybe the problem is that while moderates may wish that the Pat Robertsons and Bill Donohues of the world would STFU, they don't do much beyond wishing. And when they do speak out, they don't seem to be very good at getting the message out: just as a data point, I once searched the top 10 best-selling books on Amazon that metioned the Jesus Seminar, and almost all of them had a negative view of it.

But one problem is that people give religion entirely too much deference: people can get away with saying the most ludicrous things as long as they preface it with “I have faith that…”: a statement like “tax cuts for the wealthy will bring prosperity to the poor” can be criticized at length, but “wafers can turn into the body of a god” can't, because it's religious.

The point of Maher's movie, as I see it, is to say that religion is a topic like any other, and doesn't deserve any special privileges. Perhaps the tagline should have been “Oh, come on! You don't really believe that, do you?”

All that said (and for what?), I'll probably go and check out the film.

Until Maher can show that his atheism is kinder and gentler than most Christians, I think he'll find few converts, or un-converts as the case may be. Level-headed believers are just as aware of religious extremes as Maher, and maybe we even ridicule a bit from time to time. But it isn't an effective persuasion tactic.

I won't berate Maher. He is what he is. I think what he's doing in this film — judged by your description — is pretty transparent: picking on the easy targets. Let him go to the third world countries and show devoted Christian missionaries delivering relief to the oppressed tribes in Burma or Africa. Let's see how many yucks or snide insinuations he can make out of that.

Granted, those folks who are living their religion to the utmost are fewer in number than ought to be. That may be part of the decline of the nation, even in the financial sphere. So I'll accept my share of the blame. If I and my fellows were more of a “living sacrifice” for Jesus, to serve our brothers, films like Religulous might not even get financed. I believe in contending for the truth of Christian doctrine, but without love, we become (as the apostle said) as nothing.

I personally thought Borat was wildly overrated, so I'm not sure how well I'd take the anti-religion version of it. I agree with you on most of the problems with religion that you cite here. But thankfully not everyone plays that way.