Thursday, October 9, 2008

Brashly Beautiful-- or Beautifully Brash, RELIGILOUS was a Smash !!

Religilous is a stupendous achievement, traveling light through centuries of religious sites, up to the present, with flash-ins of iconic moments in cinematic religious experience.

Mountains of thanks to Bill Maher because truly, folks, he's been brash enough to go ahead and do it. He asked the damn questions. To the believers. And responded calmly but honestly, with all due respect, accent on the due.

Because in between reasonable discussions, and very calm yet horrifying tidbits, Bill Maher would slam some of the religious lore of the various faiths. On equal footing, they all sound odd. But there he went, into Hyde Park was it? In some London park, where folks stand on soap boxes to make their declarations, he went to recite the very peculiar tenets of Scientology.

But he also took us to Mormon territory, showing us key locations and exploring the lore through clips of old documentaries and interviews and such.

Lots of OH, SNAP ! moments-- Bill just laying it on the line. So there was some crude stuff in there. But it highlighted the vulgarity of religious fervor still being used in the 21st century to incite violence.

Plus, Thank you thank you and I need the flash card set of the Founding Fathers' statements you tossed in there like a slide show. That's what has always galled me -- separation of church and state was a cornerstone of the freedom we sought in the New World. To be free to believe and pray however we wished, in our homes, temples and other private gatherings.

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