I’m surprised it has taken someone this long to do this. I’m pretty excited to see how this turns out!
Man On Wire
I commented during summer about how terrible our electric bill was during the blazing heat. Well as it turns out, not only can our house not cool off during the summer, but it cannot retain heat during the winter. It is so cold in my house that I often think of retreating to my car to start the engine up in order to warm myself up. Instead, I decide to put on two pairs of shirts and pants, with a pair of thick socks. But that is also not enough to keep warm, so I spend most of my evenings and night paralyzed underneath the covers of my bed. I often turn to my stacks of books that haven’t read yet, but tonight I turn to a very interesting documentary called “Man On Wire”. It is a fascinating story that I really enjoyed. I would highly recommended it for anyone trying to escape the cold.
Bill Maher’s Religilous
So today I decided to treat myself to a day off after I finished my Greek quiz this morning. I haven’t seen a movie in a while, and I wanted to see Bill Maher’s new film, “Religilous“. I love when movies comes around like this, because they are short concise presentations of the perception of Christianity in America today. Bill Maher is devoted atheist, though in the movie he seems to come across as gnostic. The movie is done in a “Super-Size Me” fashion, where Maher travels from place to place interviewing religious people about their faith. While in the movie, I typed in some of the main points on my phone as the movie went on and I’ll share those with you:
Here we go. There is about eight people here at the show with me, not a very diverse crowd. But what would you expect for a 2 p.m. showing…
It appears that Mahar was raised catholic, but his mother was Jewish. He spent quite a bit of time talking about how much he hated going to church, especially when neither of his parents were going to church. His mom suspects that the reason that his father stopped going to church was because of the Catholics church on birth control.
Mahar claims to be advocating a position of doubt, he doesn’t know.
Mahar finds it pretty absurd that Christians believe in the virgin birth. This is especially hard for him when the account is only given in two out of the four gospels. “What reporter would leave out the virgin birth?”
Money & Faith – Mahar’s take is that pastor’s are really out to be popular rock stars, who make dress really nice, have nice cars, and sell all kinds of religious items that we “need”. I really can’t blame him here. We’ve developed a Christian market for all the latest books, bibles, study bible, bible studies, dvd bible studies, etc. I can see how he would think religion is a money making enterprise.
Homosexuality. Converses with a man who struggled with homosexuality, has repented, and now seeks to help others overcome this. I could not sympathize more with Bill on this subject. I’m always surprised by the hurtful things that Christians say about homosexuals. I’m not talking about the guys carrying protest signs on street corners. I’m talking about friends whose car I’m in the back seat while their body convulses as we drive past a gay bar. Ironically, we don’t those same kind of reactions when our own sins show up, when we are arrogant, lustful, slanderous, egotistic, or hateful towards other people.
Side note: It appears that Bill lured some people into interviews without actually giving them a clear understanding of what the interview was about. Not cool Bill. Not cool.
Santa Claus, Jesus, Jonah – For Bill, believing in the story of Jonah, and the gospel is just a ridiculous as believing in Santa Claus. Bill was very disappointed as a child when he found out Santa did not exist. I was too.
God & County. Twelve Apostles & the Founding Fathers. – This is another point that I very much side with Bill. America is not a Christian nation, of the Ten Commandments only two are actually laws in America, and most of our founding fathers were not followers of Jesus. There’s a very interesting discussion here about how Jefferson (I think) took all the miracles out, and Jesus’ claims to divinity, and made his own bible. I’m not sure Jesus would be too happy with that sort of behavior. Plus there are tons of quotes supporting this notion that the founding fathers wanted absolutely no religion to be apart of the government.
The Holyland Experience in Orlando. The Jesus Business. You’ve just got to click here to read about this. It’s too bizarre for me to even try to explain in one paragraph.
Mahar spends the other half of the movie on religions like Scientology, Mormonism, Islam, and Judaism.
Religion must die for the world to be saved, how religion leads to abuse of the environment. – Again I sympathize with Mahar here, we need to spend some time actually thinking about how God would have us live on this planet. We have to become better stewards of God creation.
Closing idea that stuck out at the end: Religion allows people to believe they have all the answers, when they actually have none.
I would really encourage people to go see this movie. It really challenges you to examine your beliefs and why you believe in God, or Jesus. Is it just because you’ve been raised that way? Is it because you’ve lost you lucky rabbit foot, and need Jesus to provide you with some good luck during hard times?
On a more encouraging note. When I sat down to read my bible tonight, I turned over to Psalm 53…
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
there is none who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven
on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
3 They have all fallen away;
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
4 Have those who work evil no knowledge,
who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and do not call upon God?
5 There they are, in great terror,
where there is no terror!
For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you;
you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.
6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When God restores the fortunes of his people,
let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.
