Religulous

Whoever has seen this "documentary," I'd like to hear from you.

For those that haven't seen it yet, basically, this film is based on Bill Maher's stance on religion in general. His stance against it also brings about the idea of Doubt. Anyway, here's my opinion...

The film SUCKS as a documentary. Okay, his film is about doubt and skepticism. It's an attempt to debunk religious ideology. None the less, the quality as a documentary is supremely skewed and subjective to the issue of the proposition. I'll admit though, that I'm presenting a bias since I am a believer, however, his viewpoints have no ground and are backed by weak arguments.

Issue #1: Interviewees
The people he interviewed were people who have not had formal training or education in the area of apologetics or theology. Bill apparently goes to random people and asks them questions about their faith and evidence to believe in such matter. My issue with this is that congregations of certain faiths generally don't put the time and energy into researching their beliefs, they simply just have faith.

Mr. Maher could have easily gone to someone from a school of study to find "answers" to his questions. Instead, he goes to small church's, amusement parks, and random train stations to get his "answers". Come on Bill, if you're going to produce a film for the public in hopes of debunking religion, why are you going to regular people rather than going to experts?

Issue #2: The "Gay" Gene
This topic is very sensitive because there are thousands of people in the world who proclaim themselves as "gay". Bill interviews a pastor who used to be gay and tries to discredit his belief and sexual orientation.

The issue arises when the pastor explains that he participated in homosexuality rather than being outright homosexual. He believes that "gays" in general participate in homosexuality but are not homosexual by nature. Afterall, there IS a reason for a differentiation in genetalia right?

Well, not to Bill Maher, because he introduces the idea of a "gay gene" which some scientist has "found". My issue with this is that, the idea isn't thoroughly explained. I would have LOVED to hear about this said gene and the means to it's discovery. There are 23 chromosomes in the body, and a piece of one of the 23 has a code that says a person is gay.

My qualm with this idea is that, genetic DNA is exhaustively complex and complicated. If Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, said that the cell is more complex than any supercomputer known to man, how much more complicated do you think DNA and the genetic code might be?

Issue #3: False Experts
This is in relation to my first issue, but a little different. Not only does Bill Maher interview people who have not had formal education in theology, but he interviews people who CLAIM to be experts! He even makes fun of them in their faces for not knowing scripture.

I can understand that these people are doing wrong in obtaining profit from their actions as said "evangelists", however this has no bearing to his cause in debunking religion. Again, the social impact of religion has nothing to do with the cause of the proposition of whether or not God exists.

My Verdict
I stick to my guns in saying this documentary sucks. Although there are other issues I have with the film, my main objections are that he interviews people with no formal training, makes claims to ideas without showing evidence, and interviews false experts. Way to go Bill, you've shown the world that atheists are too scared to face the truth.

My Faith's Armory

What does being armed mean? Someone generally can say being armed means to have weapons. For instance, sometimes you'll hear on the radio or TV that police have suspects at gunpoint who are armed and dangerous.

Let's take that concept, being armed and dangerous, and apply that to Christian Faith. It's important for all Christians to have faith, but equally important, is for them to arm themselves. The scripture refers to this as the "Armor of God". Better explanations of the armor can be found here at www.realarmorofgod.com.

Christians will typically take up the armor, but tend to falter against a new enemy. Nowadays, Christians are faced with new challenges in life, but I'm not talking about regular life problems that everyone faces. I'm talking about ideas that stick to your head, threatening what I and other Christians believe in. Some call these ideas evolution, atheism, and even agnosticism. If you fall in any of these categories, I hope to excite you and invite you to spar with me as we take up this journey of challenging faiths. We will then be able to see who is better armed in their truths.

I implore everyone to follow along and keep an open mind. You may not agree with what I have to say and I may not agree with you. However, if we all keep an open mind, everyone can benefit as we might be able to learn from each other.