All right, not actually, but let’s get real here: you wouldn’t have clicked on the link to read this if I had named it, “A Critique of ‘Religulous’: the Motion Picture” or “What Religulous Did For Me”…and plus, those titles are feeble.
For those of you who might not know, those of you who have been holding up on an intergalactic space platform, or for those who may have been a troglodyte's roommate, here is the thing: I am an Atheist.
I realize that this news might come as a shock to a few of you. After all, I am a "right wing, nutjob conservative"…thus, it stands to reason that I ought to join the rank and file brothers and sisters on the right, right? Of course it does. As a matter of fact, it makes about as much intellectual sense as most other modern-day cock-and-bull stories.
Yet, I never said it had to make sense.It isn't your story. You don't get to tell it.
Before you bring up your paws in lamentation of my private decisions, or commence yet another prayer group on my behalf, listen.
I am not an Atheist because of my ignorance of religious belief. I am an Atheist because of my cognition of faiths…many of them. I have read the Holy Scripture cover to cover, on many occasions. In point of fact, I could go toe to toe with the best of them when it comes to verse and scripture. And it isn’t just the Bible I’ve read. I’ve scoured textbooks from an assortment of distinguishable faiths, and I found that they all had one thing in common: they just were not for me.
Granted, I’m not among “those” Atheists who frolics about, telling you that you can’t worship whatever divinity, God, Goddess, fig tree or fast-flying spaghetti monstrosity you prefer. That’s just wrong. I’m not the type to conjure all kinds of perdition about prayer in school or your right to ask God to assist Junior in winning his 3-year-old T-ball tournament. If you believe God is epic enough to address world war, famine and poverty while lending a hand to Junior, so be it. Even so, I’m fed up with being in the closet -Tom Cruise is in here, and he is not gracious.
Why now? Why come out? What inspired me to leave my Gollum-like dwelling? One word, er, movie: Religulous
If you ask me, Atheists, non-Atheists, Christians, Jews, Mormons…heck, even Buddhists should watch this film. And I am not alleging 'Religulous' is on the same level with greats like Schindler’s List, but the film does contain a lion’s share of thought provoking moments. It got me thinking, and that is saying something.
And, I don’t want to hear, “I don’t like Bill Maher,” as your over-used justification for quashing this film like the Black Death, because I don’t like Bill Maher either. In fact, I have such a potent antipathy for the man that it took me four years to come round and watch this docudrama -it came out in 2008. Nevertheless, just because I don’t like the bozo, doesn’t mean everything he has to allege is everlasting bile -say what you will, but the man is far from block headed. (Misogynistic pig...probably).
The bottom line is that watching the flick won’t make you an Atheist -I swear to…sushi-but it will make you think and it could make you understand that Atheists like me, aren’t Beelzebub idolizing, leech-like vampires who creep around in the nighttime, ready and waiting to prey on the faithful. We are good, upstanding members of the community, we donate to charity, we feed the hungry, we do good things…, and we do all this just because we want to.
If nothing else, this small donation of time might help you learn something about the Atheist next door, or the other one down the street. And really, when was learning something new ever an atrocious idea?
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