Tl;dr Knowing it was Christian propaganda, I should have taken a pass.

We all want to see Religulous.  Bill Maher looks scathing and hilarious.

However, it seems Maher has more in common with Mathis then we might like to admit.

On how he got people to talk to him: “It was simple: We never, ever, used my name. We never told anybody it was me who was going to do the interviews. We even had a fake title for the film. We called it ‘A Spiritual Journey.’ It didn’t work everywhere. We went to Salk Lake City, but no one would let us film there at all.”

On the element of surprise: “Larry Charles’ theory is–just keep going till they throw you out. I guess he learned that on ‘Borat.’ The crew would set up and at the last second, when the cameras were already rolling, I would show up. So either they’d be seen on camera leaving the interview and lose face or they’d have to talk to me. It was like–‘And now here’s … Bill!’ You could usually see the troubled looks on their faces. At the Holy Land theme park, the PR woman freaked out and finally told us to leave. She was definitely not a happy camper.”

On his encounter with Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, who tells Maher he believes the biblical account that Earth was created 5,200 years ago: “He’s not going to be happy with this movie. I suspect he’s going to say that the editing is not favorable to him [laughs]. And he’s not completely wrong about that. But we didn’t make anything up. When I told him I was worried about people [with such literal interpretations of the Bible] running the country, he’s the one who says, ‘Well, you don’t have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate.’ “

One difference that remains is the extent to which interviews were cherry-picked in the two movies, and whether or not Maher expells any stars from the premieres (unlikely).

So The Friendly Atheist asks us:

So, does Religulous get a free pass from atheists because this movie is on our side? Are we condoning the methods used to make the film because they show religious belief at its kookiest?

Or will we come out and admit the tactics used to make this movie were no different from those of the despicable Ben Stein and his crew, lowering us to their level?

I think there are a couple a difference between Mathis and Maher’s movies.

First, Expelled was (supposed to be) a serious documentary, Maher is a comedian talking to the craziest people he can find to expose that (no surprise) they are crazy.

Second, if you are trying to get quotes from atheists that science is keeping religion out, then although it is easiest to get the quotes by misrepresenting yourself it’s dishones.  Whereas if you are making a comedy purely for the sake of making fun of people (which in itself may be questionably moral), then it seems more justifiable to use shock interviews.

Finally, did anyone (besides the college guys who looked like idiots) really criticize Borat for misrepresenting people?  It was a comedy and did what it aimed to do.  Religulous is more the same as Borat than it is Expelled.

So I will say I was disappointed that Maher stooped to this level to make his movie, I will go see it however (I would have seen Expelled if I hadn’t heard it was so boring) but purely for a laugh.

I’ll leave you with this bit from a follow-up in the LA Times.

I found it a little suspicious that Maher confronted all sorts of people in the film, but never lost an argument.  Wasn’t the deck stacked? “I’m not going to lie–the deck was stacked,” Maher said. “Let’s face it, when it comes to religion, there is no convincing argument. If you believe in the Bible in a way where you think you can live to be 900 years old and turn your wife into a pillar of salt, you’re going to lose any logical debate. Your story just falls apart.”

Body Worlds One: The best science lesson I’m likely to get all year that’s outside of my field.  You get to every bit of the insides of anonymous people (the focus is on the science, not the stories of individual body donors).  The process of plastination is explained in simple and complex detail (for all levels of experience), and their are various philosophical quotes and narrative explorations of how death has been viewed in society.  It’s quite interesting in how it explores the idea that death is only a taboo subject of late since our lifespans have reached new lengths in the past century.

My favourite quote from body worlds comes from the Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger:

Death is the release from all pain and complete cessation, beyond which our suffering will not extend. It will return us to that condition of tranquillity, which we had enjoyed before we were born. Should anyone mourn the deceased, then he must also mourn the unborn. Death is neither good nor evil, for good or evil can only be something that actually exists. However, whatever is of itself nothing and which transforms everything else into nothing will not all be able to put us at the mercy of Fate.

Although it sometimes goes a bit absurd, it’s generally sharp, funny, and a bit scary (in that all satire has just enough truth in it). The greatest image of the entire movie has to be that of tanks rolling through the streets of Emerald City, Turaqistan with billboards plastered all over them. Some of the great dialogue can be found when Cusack’s character (a hitman undercover as a trade show organizer) walks into the trade show and announces the stage must be at the East end of the tent, so that the Muslims won’t have to turn away from the stage five times a day. He then asks his coworkers to remember to be “culturally sensitive.”

All in all I though it was a great film, despite some of the lesser reviews (despite what they think, this is not a Dr. Strangelove-esque movie).

M. Night Shyamalan’s critically-panned flick The Happening is Hollywood’s first blockbuster to promote the anti-evolutionary theory of intelligent design. Maybe you thought Ben Stein’s ill-fated documentary Expelled was the only movie to argue in favor of the neo-Christian idea that an “intelligent designer” created the universe. Think again. With its references to “unexplained acts of nature” and a science teacher main character who calls evolution “just a theory,” The Happening is basically a giant propaganda machine for intelligent design. Maybe science journalists are jizzing all over its allegedly realistic plants-attack-humans plot, but we talked to Shyamalan and we know the truth.

Avowed Christian Shyamalan told us that The Happening is really about religious faith, and explained that he chose Mark Wahlberg to play science teacher Elliot Moore because of the actor’s intense belief in Jesus. [emphasis added]

Oddly enough, I came across this gem of a description from Uncommon Descent (I’m not going to link them).  They go on to describe how this is just the start of the “culture war” between evolution and fundie-creationism, I think that’s a hidden concession they failed to convince anyone that ID is science (since it isn’t).

If you think there’s any reason to see this shoddy attempt at “science”-fiction, read the rest of the review (spoilers) that’s at io9.

I would have to say it is one hell of a fun movie.

This looks like the start to a kickass summer of blockbusters. Here’s a look into what I still want to see by the end of the summer.

First, what I want to be good (and likely should be):

• The Dark Knight
• Iron Man
• War, Inc.
• WALL-E

And what I want to be good, but has potential to suck (I’ll hold out seeing these until the initial reviews give some glimpse):

• X-Files: I Want to Believe
• Sex and the City (guilty pleasure)
• The Incredible Hulk
• Get Smart
• Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Empire
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars (There’s another Star Wars movie followed by a TV series coming out and I haven’t heard about it yet? I’m not sure whether to be excited since the trailer looks like a video game, not like the kickass Teletoon Clone Wars shorts)

(Thanks to P.Z. for the link)

He finds that the IRS has no legal precedent to  force Americans to pay income tax, to seize their property, or to arrest them for tax evasion.

He finds that the majority of income tax simply goes to paying off the national debt which is mainly controlled by the Federal Reserve.

He finds that the Federal Reserve is in actuality a  private-owned bank, whose owners are unknown (likely the major banks of America).

Near the end he also goes into how acts like the Patriot Act,  and the coming of national ID cards (May 2008) will further evaporate American civil liberties and create a fascist police state.

Very enlightening, and it would be naive to think a lot of this isn’t happening here in Canada too.