Religulous: The Joy of Being With Friends

Like all good Athiests, I had to see Bill Maher's commentary on religion. All I can say is: Brilliant! Well done!

But what really made me happy was not the movie, but the audience reaction. It was like a huge, communal exhalation, a massive sigh of relief, a place where sensible, rational people could all simultaneously feel free to finally laugh out loud, to express their true feelings about what's going on in the world today.

This experience made me realize that, even though I think of myself as an out-of-the-closet Atheist, there is still discrimination all around. I'm surrounded by Christians who think of me as peculiar and misguided at best, and evil at the worst. I can't really be myself most of the time. Normally I just live with this repression, and I didn't even realize I was doing it. It wasn't until I was suddenly among friends, free to really express myself, that it was clear just how much we Atheists have to suppress our true opinions.

My wife is Jewish, and I always wondered why the Jews stick together so much. Now I have a better idea – it's not because they don't like their Christian friends and neighbors. It's because when they're together, that's the only time they can truly relax and feel free. We Athiests are ten times their numbers, yet we're still an oppressed minority. It took Religulous, and being among friends, to bring that message home, to make me realize just how much I feel the repression on a daily basis.

Tags: atheism atheist maher christian christianity discrimination jewish judaism religulous tolerance

Two Videos: Bill Maher, and SEXPOSED

First, the good news – Bill Maher is coming out with an antidote to Ben Stein's idiotic movie Expelled. I was so happy to see the trailer! What a pleasant way to end my Friday afternoon! Here is the trailer for Religulous – it's a hoot. Enjoy!


And on the opposite end of the spectrum, here's a deeply offensive video. Thanks to God Is Pretend for finding this.

This seems so glib, so easy, to compare a woman who has had premarital sex to a sloppy, disgusting, half-eaten meal. But what's the real message here? If a couple has sex, and the woman is left a disgusting mess that nobody would want afterwards, the man must be unclean and disgusting. (And let's not pretend that this ad isn't sexually biased – they never say, "this meal represents the fallen woman," but we all know that the half-eaten meal represents the woman, not the man.)

Christianity's concept of original sin, and villification of sex, is one of the oddest events in the history of humanity. The ironic thing is that the most important philosophical work on this guilt meme was done by Saint Augustine, whose lover (and true love) bore him a son out of wedlock. Some say that it was the agony of being forced to abandon his true love, and enter into a society marriage, that drove him to write his perverse and self-loathing ideas about sex.

So, almost two thousand years ago, a lost love, and a sad man's lament, became entrenched in Christianity, and resulted in this video, which is just one more example of Christianity villifying normal, healthy human sexuality.