Religulous

Firstly, no it's not a spelling mistake. It's a pun. Not my favourite pun. And one I'm happy to not take the credit for. The pun, combining religious and ridiculous, is the title of a documentary film depicting Bill Maher running all over the world debating with religious people. I was intrigued to meet some of these religious 'nuts' and find out their points of view, and as a fan of Bill Maher and of the soundtrack (The Who, Bob Dylan and 'I think we're alone now' by Tiffany all feature), it was a fairly well spent two hours of my life and left me once again pondering my beliefs, firstly in God, and then in regards to religion.

Of course, Maher is an atheist trying to show the ridiculous side of religion, which he does extremely well when meeting the likes of a man who claims to be 'a Jew, not a Zionist' who also denies the holocaust and a man in Amsterdam who claims smoking marijuana allows you to connect with God. However he also claims to be promoting 'doubt', an idea I can relate to immensely. For me, 'doubt' is surely the only way anyone can feel about God, because there isn't hard evidence for his existence or not. However, Maher doesn't seem remotely doubtful. He is absolutely sure there is no God. Don't get me wrong, I agree with Maher's main argument that religion creates fanatics who believe in and do stupid things. But it also does the opposite. Some of the best people to walk the Earth have been religious: Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Malcolm X, Cat Stevens...

Personally, I like to call myself agnostic, however it's more likely I'm an atheist. Perhaps I'm hoping there is a God more than anything, but atheism gives a firm answer to, at the minute, a near unanswerable question. I think I also like to distance myself from the atheists because the majority don't have open minds on the subject. Most are adamant that there isn't a God and hence must argue with any nearby religious people. For me, what you believe in regards to solely the existence of God isn't important. What matters is how you act upon your beliefs. I agree with Stephen Fry when he said on QI once 'If they want to believe it, that's fine, but they mustn't push it down our throats'. He was referring to religious people, but surely this has to apply to atheists as well. The only difference between a religious preacher and Bill Maher (other than of course fundamental beliefs), is that Maher is funny. Both take things out of context. Both are forcing their beliefs down our throats.

This has been a hard article to write as I found it hard to place myself on the religious scale. Being overweight, I've never liked scales, but at least the ones confirming my obesity have the ability to place people at any point of the scale. This isn't the case in religion, or indeed politics. Weight scales also don't have people on either end willing to denounce you to the other end of the scale for disagreeing with them on one of a number of relevant points. Apparently you can't pick and choose from religious books, or two parties' manifestos, if so, you are an outcast to both ends of the scale, both thinking you belong at the opposite end. The same if you have no particularly strong opinion on an issue they do. This very much reminds me how I, being from the Midlands, have been considered by other people from more northern or southern regions of England. I'm a southerner to a Yorkshireman, and a northerner to a Londoner. However I'm neither, am I? I'm from the Midlands. A Midlandser if you want. Likewise to religious people I'll always be an atheist and to atheists I'll be dumb for acknowledging the possibility of God.

The film itself is entertaining and I think Maher's ideas are correct. My interpretation of his ideas are that he believes religion causes extremism, terrorism and could ultimate create a war that will destroy the Earth and by attempting to convert people he can help stop this. This I can understand and I also disagree, as I suppose most people do, with these religious ideas. I am also with him as he disagrees with religious attitudes to homosexuality. However he uses that general disapproval to manipulate people into condemning any kind of religion. Whether religion and God are right or wrong, people believing it on a low level, going to church on Sundays doesn't conjure evil or a nuclear apocalypse. If anything it creates good people. Most charities were started on a religious basis. What threatens the world is the religious argument, augmented by outspoken believers and preachers. So, a bit of advice that should be written in everything ever written, we should all listen to Stephen Fry.